Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Leader–Member Conversational Qualityscale Development And Validation Through Three Studies, Guowei Jian, Xiaowei Shi, Francis Dalisay

Guowei Jian

The continuing development of leadership research calls for measurement instruments that can tap into the communication process between leaders and members. The purpose of this present research is to develop and validate a Leader–Member Conversational Quality (LMCQ) scale—an instrument that measures the quality of conversations between leaders and members in the workplace. A series of three studies were conducted. Study I involved item generation and content validity assessment. Study II undertook the task of scale construction and reliability assessment. Study III tested the convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity of the scale. These studies resulted in a nine-item instrument with sufficient …

Unpacking Unintended Consequences In Planned Organizationalchanges: A Process Model, Guowei Jian

Guowei Jian

The author develops a process model of the unintended consequences in planned organizational change that draws on the structuration, organizational change, and organizational tension literatures. The model depicts the communicative actions of both senior management and employees and reveals the dynamic through which unintended consequences unfold. The model extends theoretical understandings of planned organizational change and discusses how future research can build a dialectic and dialogic model of planned change focused on employee participation. The author illustrates the model with a case study of organizational change and its unintended consequences. The article concludes with insights on change management for practitioners …

Talk Matters At Work: The Effects Of Leader Member Conversational Quality And Communication Frequency On Work Role Stressors, Guowei Jian, Francis Dalisay

Guowei Jian

Although it is clear that leadership plays a significant role in followers’ psychological health, the specific mechanisms by which leadership effects may take place await further theorizing and investigation. We argue that communication practices may constitute such specific mechanisms. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine how leader-member conversational quality (LMCQ) and communication frequency are associated with members’ perception of work role stressors. Through an online survey, the study found that LMCQ has a significant predictive effect on work role ambiguity and role overload. However, LMCQ interacts with communication frequency in their effects on role conflict. These findings …

Where Do I Stand? The Interaction Of Leader–Member Exchange And Performance Ratings, Hassan Baker, Guowei Jian, Gail Fairhurst

Guowei Jian

The congruence model of leader–member exchange (LMX) quality predicts that agreement between leader and members regarding relationship quality is associated with follower performance. However, questions remain over how cultural relational norms influence congruence. This study, based on a government-linked international joint venture in Malaysia, investigates cultural relational norms in relation to leader–member agreement on relational quality and leader evaluation of member performance. Our findings revealed that LMX quality agreement was related to in-role and extra-role performance among dyadic relationships conforming to Malaysian cultural norms. This study contributes to understanding how cultural relational norms provide conditions to the congruence model of …

Voicing Complaints In The Public Arena, Leo Jeffres, Guowei Jian, David Atkin

Guowei Jian

This study draws on several literatures--the Tichenor et al. (1980) pluralism model stressing community constraints, the spiral of silence literature stressing the importance of the climate of communication, and the currently popular emphasis on democratic discussion in the "public sphere." In the Tichenor et al. (1980) model, media stress consensus and avoid conflict in more homogeneous communities. Here we extend the issue to question whether community characteristics affect perceptions of the climate of communication and one's comfort in voicing complaints in public. The results present some support for existing theory as well as some contradictions.

Viewing The Public Sphere With Influentials And Citizens, Leo Jeffres, Guowei Jian, Jae-Won Lee, C. Connally, Josie Seikali

Guowei Jian

The currently popular emphasis on democratic discussion in the “public sphere” often is critically viewed by observers commenting on issues of participation, empowerment, and efficacy without input from influentials, whose voices often are the content of public debates. Habermas was critical of the quality of democratic discourse, arguing for an “ideal speech situation” where participants are free to question all proposals; introduce proposals; and express their attitudes, wishes, and needs. This article examines perceptions of the climate of communication in the public sphere by influentials and the general public of a major urban area.

New Media And The Circuit Of Cyber-Culture: Conceptualizing Napster, Bryan Taylor, Christof Demont-Heinrich, Kirsten Broadfoot, Jefferson Dodge, Guowei Jian

Guowei Jian

Media studies scholars have employed the "cultural circuit" model to analyze media in the context of capitalist political economy. This model identifies interrelated "moments' in which the meanings of cultural products are determined, negotiated, and subverted in interaction between producers and audiences. The turbulent evolution of new media, however, requires continuous reflection on the adequacy of conceptual tools. Analysis of recent controversy surrounding the Internet music-exchange service Napster indicates that the cultural circuit model must be modified to accommodate the emerging media of cyber-culture.

Joining The Table: Advancing Digital Discussions At Gvsu, Matt Schultz, Kyle Felker

Matt Schultz

America Without Violence By Michael Nagler, Philip Novak

Philip Novak

"Everyone one of us, by deciding and willing to do something within our own personal spheres, can begin to rid America, and the planet, of violence. Nagler's whole book is a gentle, yet uncompromising, prod to awaken us to this fact. Arguing against the social forces, collective illusions and individual myopia that blind us to the real possibility of zero violence, he argues for certain points of view, attitudes and even our effectiveness. He is convincing throughout; hopeful, but never unrealistically so." ~ from the article

America Without Violence By Michael Nagler, Philip Novak

Philip Novak

"Everyone one of us, by deciding and willing to do something within our own personal spheres, can begin to rid America, and the planet, of violence. Nagler's whole book is a gentle, yet uncompromising, prod to awaken us to this fact. Arguing against the social forces, collective illusions and individual myopia that blind us to the real possibility of zero violence, he argues for certain points of view, attitudes and even our effectiveness. He is convincing throughout; hopeful, but never unrealistically so." ~ from the article

Benefits And Challenges Of Multidisciplinary Project Teams: "Lessons Learned" For Researchers And Practitioners, Haydee M. Cuevas, Cheryl A. Bolstad, Robert Oberbreckling, Noelle Lavoie, Diane Kuhl Mitchell, James Fielder, Peter W. Foltz

Haydee M. Cuevas

Adopting a multidisciplinary research approach would enable test and evaluation professionals to more effective!y investigate the complex human performance problems faced in today's technologically advanced operational domains. To illustrate the utility of this approach, we present "lessons learned" based on our experiences as a multi-agency, multidisciplinary team collaborating on an Army research project involving a dynamic military command and control simulation. Our goal with these lessons learned is to provide guidance to researchers and practitioners alike concerning the benefits and challenges of such collaboration. Our project team's diverse members, drawn from both industry and government organizations, offer their multiple p …

Integrating Situation Awareness Assessment Into Test And Evaluation, Cheryl A. Bolstad, Haydee Maria Cuevas

Haydee M. Cuevas

To guarantee the success if network- centric operations, warfighters need the ability to extract and share critical task-relevant information to develop and maintain the situation awareness that is so critical far effective team performance. As such, the design of emerging technologies and systems must adopt a "user-centric" approach, with consideration for human information processing capabilities and limitations. In turn, to ensure that these technologies and systems are meeting their design objectives, test and evaluation must similarly be expanded to include metrics that assess how well system features and functions are supporting critical human cognitive processes such as situation awareness and …

Aggression In Mixed Martial Arts: An Analysis Of The Likelihood Of Winning A Decision, Trevor Collier, Andrew Johnson, John Ruggiero

Trevor Collier

Within the last decade, mixed martial arts has become one of the most popular sports worldwide. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the largest and most successful organization within the industry. In the USA, however, the sport is not sanctioned in all states because some politicians view the sport as too violent. The sport consists of many fighting forms and, unlike boxing, winning a decision requires judging in multiple facets including wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, and jiu-jitsu. In this study, we estimate the likelihood of winning a decision in the UFC. Using data on individual fights, we estimate the probability of …

Measuring Technical Efficiency In Sports, Trevor Collier, Andrew Johnson, John Ruggiero

Trevor Collier

Standard economic production theory is the basis for measuring technical efficiency in sports. Using programming or regression models, efficiency is defined as the distance of a given team observation from the technology. In this article, the authors show that the standard measures of efficiency using deterministic models are biased downward due to serial correlation with respect to the efficiency measure. In particular, if the number of observed wins for a given team is affected by the team’s inefficiency, it is necessarily true that another team is able to produce outside of the technology. As a result, the observed frontier is …

The Impact Of Institutional Arrangements On Educational Efficiency, Trevor Collier

Trevor Collier

Per-pupil expenditures on education in the United States have grown immensely in recent decades, yet student achievement has been stagnant. An abundance of research has sought to solve this enigma, much of it centered on the incentive structure facing administrators. Some recent papers use TIMSS data to analyze the relationship between institutional arrangements—that typically do not vary within a single country—and student achievement. Similarly, we utilize TIMSS 1999 to determine if there is an indirect relationship between institutional arrangements and student achievement, via a relationship with school efficiency. Our results show that the specified link between institutional arrangements and student …

Teacher Qualifications And Student Achievement: A Panel Data Of Analysis, Trevor Collier

Trevor Collier

Recent academic research suggests that teacher quality plays an important role in student achievement: however, empirical research on the efficacy of policies requiring teachers to obtain certain degrees is inconclusive, particularly in elementary education. This paper models a panel data production function with fixed effects using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) to asses the relationship between different undergraduate and graduate majors and elementary student test scores. Specifcally, we aim to discern if there is a difference in teacher efficacy within the different education related majors (e.g. early childhood education and elementary education) and between education and non-education related majors.

Estimation Of Multi-Output Production Functions In Commercial Fisheries, Trevor Collier, Andrew Mamula, John Ruggiero

Trevor Collier

Measuring the productivity of vessels in a multi-species fishery can be problematic. Typical regression techniques are not capable of handling multiple outputs while Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) tends to ignore the stochastic nature of production. Applied economists have devoted considerable time to this problem and have developed several methods of dealing with the issue of multiple output technologies in commercial fisheries. Our paper contributes to this literature by providing another method for estimating production functions of vessels operating in multi-species fisheries. We utilize a two-stage model – with data from the West Coast Limited Entry Groundfish Trawl Fishery – using …

Tobin, James, Tony Caporale

Tony Caporale

James Tobin was born in Champaign, Illinois, in 1918. He received his bachelor's degree in 1939 and his master's degree in 1940, both from Harvard. Following naval service during the years 1942-6, he returned to his graduate studies and received his PhD from Harvard in 1947. In 1950, he joined the economics department at Yale University, and he has largely remained at Yale and has been identified with this institution throughout his career. He twice directed the Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, first from 1955 to 1961, and then from 1964 to 1965. He also served for two years, …

The Relationship Between Output Variability And Growth: Evidence From Post War U.K. Data, Tony Caporale, Barbara Mckiernan

Tony Caporale

The paper investigates the relationship between output variability and economic growth using a GARCH-M model with industrial production in post-war Great Britain. The data reveals a positive relationship between variability and growth rates.

Assessment In Action: A Journey Through Campus Collaboration, A Learning Community, And Research Design, Amy Stewart-Mailhiot, Mary O'Kelly, Danielle Theiss

Mary Kathleen O'Kelly

Members of the first cohort (2014) of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Assessment in Action (AiA) learning community share the impact of the AiA program on library and university assessment initiatives. This article shares brief examples of effective and challenging cross-campus collaborative assessment projects and the five best practices the authors developed through the year-long experience of examining student success in three different academic library environments.

Seven Questions For Assessment Planning: A Discussion Starter, Mary O'Kelly

Mary Kathleen O'Kelly

Do a quick Google search for assessment cycle or evaluation cycle and you’ll find thousands of variations. It’s easy for a newly emerging culture of assessment to stall as the participants agonize over which is the right way, which is the most thorough way, which is the perfect way to evaluate an instruction program. I’ve been through many assessment processes and have experienced those long pauses firsthand. I have come to realize that the first and most important step is to simply have a conversation. Yes, there are rigorous assessment projects that require exceptionally detailed methods and a close involvement …

Information Literacy Threshold Concepts And The Acrl Framework For Information Literacy For Higher Education, Gayle Schaub, Hazel Mcclure

Gayle Schaub

Behavioral Genetics Research And Criminal Dna Databanks, David H. Kaye

David Kaye

This article examines the current concerns about whether DNA databases may be used for actions other than to apprehend criminals, such as genetic research, in particular, searching for a "crime gene". Part II considers the perspective that these databases may be useful for research. The information within a DNA sample consists of a limited number of DNA base-pair variations, which are important to identification, but not necessarily to genetic research. However, while it may be difficult to conduct genetic research, it is not impossible. Part III examines state and federal database legislation. There are examples of three states' statutes and …

Presentation At The American Psychology-Law Society (March 2016)

Scott

Multilevel Marketing Diffusion And The Risk Of Pyramid Scheme Activity: The Case Of Fortune Hi‐Tech Marketing In Montana, Stacie A. Bosley, Kim Mckeage

Stacie Bosley

While statisticians have simulated the expected rate of growth in pyramid schemes, this research examines actual data on the spread of an alleged pyramid scheme in Montana. Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing (FHTM) was a multilevel marketing firm, sued by six states and the Federal Trade Commission and permanently shut down in 2014. Data from a settlement with the State of Montana provide a population of participants in a geographic region with definable markets and offer unique insights into local contagion. The authors analyze the pattern of FHTM adoption within a diffusion-of-innovation framework. The findings confirm that nearly all adoption results from …

Community As Resource: Crowdsourcing Transcription Of An Historic Newspaper., Caroline Daniels, Terri L. Holtze, Rachel I. Howard, Randy Kuehn

Terri Holtze

Like many cultural heritage institutions, the Archives and Special Collections at the University of Louisville faces the dichotomy of material abundance and budgetary scarcity. Driven by the desire to make historical primary sources accessible online, this organization harnessed the power of the public to transcribe the Louisville Leader, an historic African American newspaper. The first sections of this article define crowdsourcing and describe how it was implemented at the University of Louisville, including the tools adopted and the process used. The latter sections outline the marketing strategy, the public response, and lessons learned from this ongoing project.

Managing The Merger Of Archives And Special Collections: Setting Our Own Agenda, Caroline Daniels, Delinda Buie, Rachel Howard, Elizabeth Reilly

Carrie Daniels

At the University of Louisville a merger of archives and special collections had been discussed for decades, but for a variety of reasons, always dismissed. There were practical reasons in favor of it, but there were some significant internal barriers that made it easier to keep things as they were. But in 2012 things changed. Heightened appreciation for the traditional and emerging roles of special collections in university libraries, institutional budget concerns, key retirements and gradual replacement of people resistant to change, and an inclusive approach to planning, all aligned to make the merger seem like a natural progression for …

Exploring Demographic, Structural, And Behavioral Overlap Among Homicide Offenders And Victims, Lisa Broidy, Jerry Daday, Cameron Crandall, David Sklar, Peter Jost

Jerry K. Daday

Criminologists tend to focus their attention on the dynamics of offending, paying limited theoretical and empirical attention to the well-established relation between offending and victimization. However, a number of criminological theories predict similarities in the correlates and etiology of victimization and offending, suggesting substantial overlap across offender and victim populations. Empirical research confirms this overlap across offender and victim populations, at least among those involved in nonlethal incidents. This research explores whether similarities between offender and victim populations extends to homicide, using criminal justice, health care, and U.S. Census data linked to homicide offenders and victims in Bernalillo County, New …

Outsourcing Open Access: Digital Commons At The University Of Wollongong, Australia, Michael Organ, Helen Mandl

Michael Organ

Purpose - The purpose of this article is to outline the experiences of an Australian university in selecting a proprietary solution for its open access digital repository requirements.

Design/methodology/approach - An overview is presented of the environment leading up to the decision to select Digital Commons over an open source software solution. The paper also outlines subsequent experiences during a one-year period in operating the outsourced solution.

Findings - Outsourcing is an appropriate digital repository option for higher education institutions when costs are considered and compared with open source solutions, and especially when on-site IT support is limited. Outsourcing allows …

Outsourcing Open Access: Digital Commons At The University Of Wollongong, Australia, Michael Organ, Helen Mandl

Michael Organ

Purpose - The purpose of this article is to outline the experiences of an Australian university in selecting a proprietary solution for its open access digital repository requirements.

Design/methodology/approach - An overview is presented of the environment leading up to the decision to select Digital Commons over an open source software solution. The paper also outlines subsequent experiences during a one-year period in operating the outsourced solution.

Findings - Outsourcing is an appropriate digital repository option for higher education institutions when costs are considered and compared with open source solutions, and especially when on-site IT support is limited. Outsourcing allows …