An Evaluation of the 2020 Change to the Saudi Emergency Residency Program Assessment

Background Several changes have been made to the assessment component of Saudi residency training programs. Among those is the implementation of three examinations over the course of the year. Aim We aimed to explore the emergency residents’ perspective on the change in the number of examinations, and the impact of such changes in terms of time management, knowledge gain, and social life. Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out from September to October 2022, using an electronic survey targeting emergency board trainees. Results One hundred and nine emergency residents enrolled, of whom 64.2% were male. The majority, 45%, were from the central province. Junior-level residents (R1) represented 26.6% of the sample, while R2 (second year) comprised 18.3%, R3 (third year) comprised 38.5%, and 16.5% were senior (R4) level. More than half of the participants, 56 % (n=61), did not support the change from one to three examinations and believed that it had a negative influence on knowledge gain and clinical skills. The influence of the change on time management stands out as a negative impact, in addition to its impact on social life and annual leave arrangements. Conclusions The support for three examinations throughout the year was low; a contributing factor to this may be the sudden changes effected by those tests on training and time management. A re-evaluation of testing culture and involving residents in decision-making might generate acceptance.

The Roal of Conflicting Logics in Shaping Individual Identities: A Case of Microfinance

While institutional theory has a long history in the domain of organizational behavior, institutional logics are now widely used in addressing issues of interest in the organizational behavior area. Institutional logics dictate the decisions regarding the adaptation of competing means and ends in double bottom line businesses like microfinance. However, the impact of institutional logics remains under-theorized especially with regards to the influence of conflicting institutional logics on managerial identity creation processes. This thesis traces the process of identity creation as a result of the sensemaking process of employees in the presence of conflicting logics. The identities enacted in this manner in turn affect organizational citizenship behavior in certain ways. The thesis also links logics, sense-making processes, and managerial identities in a manner that individual responses to conflicting logics can be studied. It also explains variations in managerial identities by considering the contingent effects of intrinsic and extrinsic goals of an individual to the sense-making process. Results show that conflicting logics in the microfinance industry do result in separate practices. These practices are interpreted differently by employees depending on their personal goals. Moreover, the type of interpretation affects the utilitarian or normative identity creation of the employee. Finally, the study finds that utilitarian employees are low on civic virtue as compared to normative employees. The study empirically contributes to the literature by offering evidence of the causal chain of events which links the macro level institutional logics to the micro level employee civic virtue behavior.