Cyprus Journal of Social Sciences

From the editor

Zanete Garanti — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

From the editor

The Future Role of Destination Management Organizations: Theories and Methodological Tools

Iordanis Katemliadis — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The aim of this paper is to review the existing literature regarding Destination Management Organizations (DMO) and the
various stakeholders that the destination consists of. The paper covers the preliminary stage of the whole research which will
cover existing theories such as business ecosystem and stakeholder theories and it will also suggest for future research a
systemic approach towards destinations in order to improve their effectiveness and efficiency. Finally, it will examine the
various methodological tools such as benchmarking and EFQM that exist and can be used in order to research the topic. The
aim is to identify the need for future research to develop an optimal model of effective DMO.

Emerging influencers promoting travel: the case of local tourism in Latvia

Galina Berjozkina, Zanete Garanti — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The presence of social networks has given a chance for social media influencers to emerge. Social media influencers creating
and sharing content, endorsed or not, has become a growing marketing trend used by companies, as well as destinations. This
article focuses on travel influencers who, with a help of social networks, particularly Instagram, are promoting local travel in
Latvia. In this study, four emerging travel influencers and their posts were retrieved and analysed. The study results show that
emerging travel influencers are trying to attract their followers by mostly sharing posts with landscapes and nature, art
objects/statues, and nature activities/facilities. However, traditional artwork/objects, religious buildings/objects, and traditional
or historic buildings are the pictures achieving the highest engagement rates. Finally, the study also relieved that influencers
with a lower number of followers have a higher level of engagement. It is concluded that authenticity and individuality of
account, as well as its organic, rather than paid growth, are the key aspects in creating a travel account that followers would
engage (like, share and comment on the content). The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Effects of Authoritarian and Ethical Leadership on Employee Performance: Mediating Role of Employee Competencies and Performance Management Practices in Zimbabwean Banks

Stewart Musarapasi, Zanete Garanti — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose and objective of this paper is to identify the effects from key selected independent variables namely Authoritarian
Leadership (AL), Ethical Leadership (EL), towards a chosen dependent variable Employee Performance (EP). It also studies the
mediating roles of two independents that is Employee Competencies (EC), and Performance Management Practices (PMP) when
introduced to the model. The main aim of the study is also to explore the impact of each employee performance, which ultimately
effects on overall organizational performance guided by the independent variables and mediating roles as highlighted. Structured
study on the possible effects of both the independent variables and mediating variables were, explored to ascertain the
relationship towards the dependent variable. A survey questionnaire for data gathering was used and issued to respondents that
were bank employees on selected commercial banks located in Harare capital City of Zimbabwe in relationship with their
responses if the variables have an effect on the performance of work. A total number of 400 questionnaires were physically
distributed and 390 had full answered with valid responses. SPSS version 24 was, used to analyze the collected data on each
variable through demographic, reliability tests, regression analysis, correlation and factor analysis during the validation process
of the gathered data. The data analysis outcome showed that all the identified variables were predictors and influential to
employee performance, when analyzed as individual variables. The variable that had major effect and impact was employee
competencies as independently having the highest correlation of 0.86 (86%) on employee performance. Ethical Leadership
became not significant with a negative standard coefficient beta of -.031 from -.028, which was way above .05, signifying the
effect of mediating role inclusion. Special focus is required on variables with the highest correlation effect with employee
competencies and authoritarian leadership as they had significant influence towards employee performance in the Banking Sector
of Zimbabwe. The relationship of the two variables shown significant effect on performance of employees. Management of
companies are required to focus on mixing both the leadership element and the competency as a prerequisite practices and action
towards achieving higher performance. The study is unique in respect of the comprehensive model that included three types of
variables that is, independent, mediating and dependent variable. The model was developed and validated successfully through
questionnaire data gathering and analysis. The title, objectives and findings were all relevant to the aims of the study towards
employee performance.