Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Previous Discussions (previous + discussion)
Selected AbstractsORGANIZATIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL COMMITMENT: KNOWLEDGE WORKERS IN LARGE CORPORATIONS*JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 6 2002TAM YEUK-MUI MAY Previous discussion of knowledge work and workers tends to overlook the importance of contextual knowledge in shaping the organizational form of knowledge workers who are employees in large corporations. This paper proposes a model to understand the way knowledge base and organizational form are related to the work commitment, effort and job satisfaction of knowledge workers. The model is derived from (1) a critical examination of the market model of knowledge work organization, and (2) the results of empirical research conducted in two large corporations. We argue that contextual knowledge is important in the relationships between the corporation and knowledge workers. A dualistic model and an enclave organizational form are suggested to examine the relationships between the commitment, work effort and job satisfaction of knowledge workers. We noted from our empirical cases that enclave-like work teams enhanced the expertise and job autonomy of knowledge workers vis-à-vis management. These work teams together with the performance-based pay system, however, led to unmet job expectations including limited employee influence over decision-making and careers, and communication gaps with senior management. Under these circumstances, and in contrast to the impact of occupational commitment, organizational commitment did not contribute to work effort. The study highlights the importance of management's strategy in shaping the organizational form of knowledge work. The paper concludes by noting general implications of our study for the management of expertise and for further research. [source] The Evolution of the Human Self: Tracing the Natural History of Self-AwarenessJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 4 2003Mark R. Leary Previous discussions of the evolution of the self have diverged greatly in their estimates of the date at which the capacity for self-thought emerged, the factors that led self-reflection to evolve, and the nature of the evidence offered to support these disparate conclusions. Beginning with the assumption that human self-awareness involves a set of distinct cognitive abilities that evolved at different times to solve different adaptive problems, we trace the evolution of self-awareness from the common ancestor of humans and apes to the beginnings of culture, drawing upon paleontological, anthropological, biological, and psychological evidence. These data converge to suggest that that modern self-thought appeared just prior to the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition, approximately 60,000 years ago.Recto running head: Evolution of the Self. [source] Minority Languages, Nationalism and Broadcasting: The British and Irish ExamplesNATIONS AND NATIONALISM, Issue 3 2000Mike Cormack This paper examines the relationship between nationalist movements and minority languages, with particular emphasis on examples from Britain and Ireland. This relationship is less straightforward than often assumed, and the media's role in it is particularly complex. The varying political uses of minority language broadcasting are discussed, along with the implications of the separation between cultural and political nationalism. The notion of the routine banality of daily broadcasting is used to indicate how such broadcasting can work against nationalist mobilisation. Finally, Ireland is examined in the light of the previous discussion in order to offer an explanation of why it was so far behind many other areas in the provision of minority language broadcasting. [source] Libraries in transition to a marketing orientation: are librarians' attitudes a barrier?INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 4 2007Richard Parker This study examines librarians' attitudes toward the marketing of library services, as libraries continue their transition to a marketing orientation. Although prior studies had observed misunderstandings and hostility to marketing among librarians, most previous discussions of this topic were either speculative or based on extremely small samples. In order to provide more evidence in this matter, a large-scale survey of members of the New Jersey Library Association (NJLA) was conducted. A ,Pro Marketing' scale was introduced and used to segment participants with respect to their attitudes. The findings indicate that most respondents expressed relatively positive attitudes toward marketing, but that more positive attitudes were expressed by public librarians than school or college/university librarians, and by administrators as opposed to reference and technical services librarians. Illustrative respondent comments and implications for library management are included. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Another chapter in the story of /r/: ,Labiodental' variants in British EnglishJOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 1 2000Paul Foulkes In this article we trace the history of [bnu;]-like variants of British English /r/. Although [bnu;] has generally been dismissed as an infantilism, or indicative of affected or disordered speech, it seems to have become established as an accent feature of non-standard south-eastern accents. We present tentative evidence to suggest this may be related to the presence of similar variants in the London East End Jewish community. After summarising previous discussions of [bnu;], we concentrate on a sociophonetic study of /r/ variants used by speakers from Derby and Newcastle. [bnu;] is found in both cities, with a higher incidence in Derby. Acoustic evidence suggests that the spreading variants are qualitatively different from [?]. We conclude that the spread of [bnu;] is part of a general and widespread process of accent levelling. [source] DECENTRALIZING HEALTH SERVICES IN THE UK: A NEW CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 2 2008STEPHEN PECKHAM Decentralization is a central plank of current government health policy. However, it is possible to discern both centralist and decentralist movements in the UK. This paper examines existing frameworks of decentralization in relation to identifying whether policy is decentralist or not and identifies a number of problems that limit their value. Key problems relate to the way decentralization is conceptualized and defined. Existing frameworks are also highly contextualized and are therefore of limited value when applied in different contexts. The paper then presents a new framework which, it is argued, provides a more useful way of examining centralization and decentralization by providing a way of categorizing policies and actions and avoids the problems of being contextually constrained. The paper ends with a discussion of how the framework can be applied in a health context and shows how this framework helps avoid the problems found in previous discussions of decentralization. [source] Use and misuse of the reduced major axis for line-fittingAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Richard J. Smith Abstract Many investigators use the reduced major axis (RMA) instead of ordinary least squares (OLS) to define a line of best fit for a bivariate relationship when the variable represented on the X -axis is measured with error. OLS frequently is described as requiring the assumption that X is measured without error while RMA incorporates an assumption that there is error in X. Although an RMA fit actually involves a very specific pattern of error variance, investigators have prioritized the presence versus the absence of error rather than the pattern of error in selecting between the two methods. Another difference between RMA and OLS is that RMA is symmetric, meaning that a single line defines the bivariate relationship, regardless of which variable is X and which is Y, while OLS is asymmetric, so that the slope and resulting interpretation of the data are changed when the variables assigned to X and Y are reversed. The concept of error is reviewed and expanded from previous discussions, and it is argued that the symmetry-asymmetry issue should be the criterion by which investigators choose between RMA and OLS. This is a biological question about the relationship between variables. It is determined by the investigator, not dictated by the pattern of error in the data. If X is measured with error but OLS should be used because the biological question is asymmetric, there are several methods available for adjusting the OLS slope to reflect the bias due to error. RMA is being used in many analyses for which OLS would be more appropriate. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] | |||||||||||||