This study examines the evolving role of leadership in digital work environments, focusing on the paradigm shift from supervisory control to trust-based empowerment. As organisations increasingly adopt digital collaboration tools and flexible work structures, traditional command-and-control models are challenged by the need for employee autonomy, motivation, and virtual accountability. The research explores how transformational leadership practices can foster digital autonomy and innovation, especially within distributed teams. Drawing on recent literature in digital leadership, organisational behaviour, and workplace psychology, the study positions digital empowerment as a key factor in sustaining performance, engagement, and adaptive capability in remote and hybrid settings. An embedded case study methodology was employed, comparing two departments within a large professional services firm that implemented contrasting leadership models during a digital transformation initiative. Department A adopted a transformational leadership approach characterised by trust, open communication, and outcome-based management, while Department B retained hierarchical supervision and task-monitoring practices. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with managers and team members (n=24), supplemented by internal performance reports and pulse surveys over a six-month period. Thematic analysis was applied to qualitative data, and patterns were triangulated with performance indicators. Three key findings emerged. First, teams led through empowerment demonstrated higher digital engagement and psychological ownership over workflows. Second, leaders who prioritised trust and feedback fostered stronger team cohesion and adaptability under virtual pressures. Third, departments with rigid digital oversight experienced reduced creativity and increased disengagement. Based on these findings, the study recommends leadership development programmes that embed digital trust-building and autonomy facilitation as core competencies. It also proposes a strategic model for transitioning from supervision to empowerment in digitally mediated workplaces. This research contributes to the growing field of digital leadership studies by evidencing how leadership style directly shapes team performance and innovation in virtual contexts.

: This study developed a self-report scale to assess AI-assisted learning competence among ethnic minority university students in Yunnan, China. Self-regulated learning and sociocultural theories guided item development within a predefined six-dimensional framework. Interviews with 16 students informed a pilot survey of 120 students, followed by confirmatory factor analysis in a main sample of 344 students. The final 18-item scale assesses learning motivation, autonomous learning, information evaluation, critical thinking, AI tool use strategies, and reflection and transfer. Subscale alpha coefficients in the pilot sample ranged from 0.771 to 0.849. The six-factor model fit well (CFI = 0.971; RMSEA = 0.053), with average variance extracted ranging from 0.552 to 0.624. Although it outperformed the single-factor model, both models showed good fit. Multigroup analyses offered preliminary support for measurement invariance, despite weaker configural fit. A review of the original interviews supported the relevance of the retained items. The scale provides a brief measure for group-level research on learning with AI, although further evidence is needed to establish the distinctness of its dimensions.

Humanitarian organisations operate regularly in diverse volatile environments marked by complex and protracted armed conflicts, political, economic and social volatility, terrorism, high crime rates and deliberate obstruction of humanitarian access. Contemporary examples include, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine, Sahel region (Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso], northern Nigeria, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Gaza, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan, and northern Mozambique among many others. In many of these settings, shrinking humanitarian access is driven by structural, security and organizational factors such as, restrictive laws and policies, bureaucratic impediments, targeted and collateral attacks, movement restrictions, humanitarian assistance manipulation and interference, and the rise of fragmented armed groups with diverse agendas. The pressures are further intensified by rising hybrid warfare, digital surveillance, and misinformation that erode community trust and heighten operational risk. As a result, humanitarian access is increasingly constrained, with humanitarian organisations facing complex and fluid political dynamics and unpredictable security threats that can halt operations abruptly. These conditions have become defining features of the 21st century humanitarian landscape, and they undermine the environment required to uphold humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence. This study examines the structural and security preconditions that enable humanitarian organisations to operate safely in armed conflict and volatile political contexts. The purpose is to identify the baseline structural and security conditions necessary for viable and sustainable humanitarian presence. The findings aim to strengthen operational resilience, reinforce duty of care, and inform strategic decision making in volatile environments.

The purpose of this study was to establish the relationship between the Level of ICT adoption in administrative operations and the speed in administrative service delivery in Public Universities in Uganda: a case study of Kabale University. The study was guided by the pragmatic research philosophy in which a descriptive cross sectional survey research design was adopted. A mixed research approach was pivotal in guiding this study and this too embedded the deductive and inductive research strategies. The study was hinged upon a sample of 173 respondents which was drawn from a population of 189 by scientifically using Krejcie and Morgan table for sample size determination (1970). As such, stratified and purposive sampling techniques were used. The findings from correlation analysis revealed that the Pearson correlation value was 0.809**. The P-value that was associated with this correlation was 0.000. The P-value of 0.000, was less than 0.01 which depicted that the observed correlation was statistically significant at 0.01 level. This correlation analysis depicted that there was a strong, positive statistically significant relationship between Level of ICT Adoption in Administrative operations and the speed in Administrative service delivery. The study thus concluded that there was, a strong positive statistically significant relationship between Level of ICT adoption in administrative operations and the speed in administrative service delivery and thus recommended the need for continuous investment in ICT hardware and software together with continuous training and retraining of staff.