Search results

Items that ask the respondent for a comment in his/her own words are becoming increasingly popular in online employee surveys, but research on such comments is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to analyze, theoretically and empirically, what kind of comments are generated in employee surveys by respondents who differ in terms of job satisfaction and commitment.

The data studied here are from an online employee survey conducted in 2004 in a multinational IT organization with a German headquarter. Some 24,000 employees generated about 75,000 comments focusing on 15 topic fields. The comments were additionally coded on their tone, using a computerized dictionary approach especially developed for this purpose. Frequencies, wordiness, and the tone of different types of comments are measured. The statistical relationship of comments to job satisfaction and to organizational commitment is analyzed.

Some 40 per cent of the respondents provide comments. Most comments have a negative tone. Negative comments are wordier than positive ones. The likelihood of writing comments is inversely related to the respondents’ job satisfaction and to their organizational commitment. Dissatisfied employees and employees with low commitment also write more negative and wordier comments.

The study sets benchmarks on what to expect when using open‐ended comment fields in employee surveys. A methodology for analyzing huge text files with respect to their tone is presented.

This is the first paper that investigates a realistically large data set of comments. It also shows how to use computer methods to relate frequencies, wordiness, and tone of comments to standard variables such as job satisfaction or commitment.

Job analysis is the common basis for designing a training course or programme, preparing performance tests, writing position (job) descriptions, identifying performance appraisal criteria, and job restructuring. Its other applications in human resource development include career counselling and wage and salary administration. Job analysis answers the questions of what tasks, performed in what manner, make up a job. Outputs of this analytical study include: (a) a list of the job tasks; (b) details of how each task is performed; (c) statements describing the responsibility, job knowledge, mental application, and dexterity, as well as accuracy required; and (d) a list of the equipment, materials, and supplies used to perform the job. Various techniques for conducting a job analysis have been used. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. As a result, different techniques or combinations of techniques are appropriate to different situations. The combined on‐site observation and individual interview techniques are recommended for industrial, trade, craft, clerical, and technical jobs because they generate the most thorough and probably the most valid information. A job analysis schedule is used to report the job information obtained through observations and individual interviews. The schedule provides a framework of 12 items in which to arrange and describe important job analysis information. These 12 items are organised into four sections. Section one consists of items one through four. These items identify the job within the establishment in which it occurs. The second section presents item five, the work performed. It provides a thorough and complete description of the tasks of the job. The Work Performed section describes what the job incumbent does, how it is done, and why it is done. Section three presents items six through nine. These are the requirements placed on the job incumbent for successful performance. It is a detailed interpretation of the basic minimum (a) responsibility, (b) job knowledge, (c) mental application, and (d) dexterity and accuracy required of the job incumbent. The fourth section includes three items which provide background information on the job. These items are: (a) equipment, materials and supplies; (b) definitions of terms; and (c) general comments. Appendix A is a glossary of terms associated with job analysis. It is provided to facilitate more exacting communication. A job analysis schedule for a complex and a relatively simple job are included in Appendices B and C. These examples illustrate how important job analysis information is arranged and described. Appendix D provides a list of action verbs which are helpful when describing the manipulative tasks of a job.

This paper aims to evaluate the social validity of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist - Communit y (ABC-C).

Thirty-six participants completed a questionnaire in which they identified and commented on items of the ABC-C they saw as problematic. Thematic analysis was conducted on the comments made.

All participants identified at least one item of the ABC-C as problematic with six items being so identified by over half the participants. A number of themes were identified in participant comments including ambiguity, judgemental language, child-focussed language, lack of attention to behavioural function and repetition.

More research is required using empirically based methodologies on measures used to assess people with learning disabilities. This should involve ascertaining the social validity of such measures by soliciting the views of both those being assessed and those assessing.

This study is the first of its kind to evaluate the social validity of one of the most widely used measures of challenging behaviour for people with learning disabilities.

The increasingly booming e-commerce development has stimulated vehicle consumers to express individual reviews through online forum. The purpose of this paper is to probe into the vehicle consumer consumption behavior and make recommendations for potential consumers from textual comments viewpoint.

A big data analytic-based approach is designed to discover vehicle consumer consumption behavior from online perspective. To reduce subjectivity of expert-based approaches, a parallel Naïve Bayes approach is designed to analyze the sentiment analysis, and the Saaty scale-based (SSC) scoring rule is employed to obtain specific sentimental value of attribute class, contributing to the multi-grade sentiment classification. To achieve the intelligent recommendation for potential vehicle customers, a novel SSC-VIKOR approach is developed to prioritize vehicle brand candidates from a big data analytical viewpoint.

The big data analytics argue that “cost-effectiveness” characteristic is the most important factor that vehicle consumers care, and the data mining results enable automakers to better understand consumer consumption behavior.

The case study illustrates the effectiveness of the integrated method, contributing to much more precise operations management on marketing strategy, quality improvement and intelligent recommendation.

Researches of consumer consumption behavior are usually based on survey-based methods, and mostly previous studies about comments analysis focus on binary analysis. The hybrid SSC-VIKOR approach is developed to fill the gap from the big data perspective.

This study aims to develop a highly interactive exhibition guiding system which enables both authors and visitors to interact with one another on an exhibition site.

The guiding system was designed with a “pull‐type” concept in a way that a handheld device must be close to a specific work to “pull” the information out of that work. The highly interactive functions between visitors and authors or among visitors were enabled by the Web 2.0. Verification and validation of the system's functions were tested in an art gallery with PDAs utilizing passive RFID readers and tags. A questionnaire survey was conducted to learn of the opinions from authors and visitors after they used the system.

The verification and validation test showed that all the functions have met the predefined requirements. The results of the questionnaire survey also revealed that the majority were satisfied with the interactive guiding system.

Not only can the system perform the guide tasks well, but it also allows the users to select interested modules so as to avoid overloading the irrelevant information. Additionally, the visitors can chat with unacquainted visitors who are onsite and have the same taste on a specific artwork, and the authors can visualize the visitors' comments, recommendations, and suggestions on their works in a real‐time manner.

The paper shows that the proposed system has some innovative features. It enables the authors to interact with the visitors, to understand the visitors' thoughts and opinions on their works, and to share the ideas of their creativity with the interested visitors onsite. On the other hand, it also enables the visitors to interact with the authors and other visitors. The visitors can recommend appreciated works to others, provide their comments and suggestions, visualize others' comments and suggestions, and exchange their views with those who are onsite and even recommend the same works.

The ability to work effectively in a team is highly regarded by employers of accounting graduates, yet they have expressed concern that many university graduates lack teamwork skills. Furthermore, in the context of the accounting curriculum, a “conceptual vagueness” surrounds a workplace-relevant definition of teamwork. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives of the healthcare sector where teamwork skills are required to be taught and assessed as part of accreditation processes, this study investigates what teamwork means from the perspective of accounting employers.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of employers to acquire descriptions of teamwork observed from graduate recruits. Using an analyst triangulation process, resulting teamwork items were analysed and emerging themes were identified.

Teamwork in accounting work contexts were identified, confirmed and explained. Mapped against the healthcare teamwork theories, many teamwork items from the interview analysis clustered around the mutual support competency and the dimensions of traits and motives.

The study was restricted to employers collaborating in one university’s placement program. Further research could investigate more diverse employer groups, determine importance ranking of identified teamwork themes and seek explanations for differences among different employer groups.

An enhanced description of teamwork is significant in supporting student awareness and informing teaching innovations/assessments of this generic skill in the accounting curriculum.

The paper provides a unique contribution of evidence-based descriptions of teamwork expected of accounting graduates, thus addressing conceptual and practical ambiguity of the meaning of teamwork skills in the accounting profession.

Encourages the use of Delphi for librarians in search of a research methodology. Describes one of many applications of the method, as an example of how the method can be employed in a library‐related problem solving process. The Delphi method is an effective means of consensus building, without all the meetings. Includes a description of one such consensus building process, used at an academic library a number of years ago, to determine standardized course content for a formal course in library instruction, a component of the university's general education initiative. A 134‐item checklist of learning objectives was distributed to participants, with the aim of refining the list based on an environmental scan of faculty librarians as experts. High consensus learning objectives were included in the manual, and low consensus objectives were not used. Discusses the viability of applying the Delphi technique to library science and librarianship.

Increasing amount of empirical research in operations and supply chain management is using institutional theory as its theoretical lens. Yet, a common scale to measure the three institutional pressures – coercive, mimetic and normative – is lacking. Many studies use proxies or a single, grouped, construct of external pressures which present methodological challenges. This study aims to present the development of multi-item scales to measure institutional pressures (in a purchasing context).

First, items were generated based on the theoretical construct definitions. These items were then tested through academic sorting and an international survey. The first empirical testing failed to produce reliable and valid scales, and further refinement and analysis revealed that coercive pressure splits into two separate constructs. A second q-sorting was then conducted with purchasing practitioners, followed by another survey in Italy to verify the new measurement scale for four institutional pressures.

The multimethod and multistage measurement development reveals that empirically the three institutional pressures actually turn into four pressures. The theoretical construct of coercive pressure splits into two distinct constructs: coercive market pressure and coercive regulatory pressure.

The results of the paper, namely, the measurement scales, are an important theoretical and methodological contribution to future empirical research. They present a much-needed measurement for these theoretical constructs increasingly used in management research.

The main purpose of this paper is to describe the development of an instrument designed to measure information‐seeking behaviour of undergraduate students during study assignments.

Literature research, internal consistency and reliability computed with Cronbach's Alpha (α), Factor Analyses with Varimax rotation, and item response theory form the approach to examining the subject.

Four scales were found within a 46‐item survey on information‐seeking behaviour: a ten‐item scale for applying search strategies (α=0.68), a 14‐item scale for evaluating information (α=0.74), a six‐item scale for referring to information (α=0.81) and a 12‐item scale for regulation activities when seeking information (α=0.75).

The four scales for information‐seeking behaviour can be used to monitor and evaluate this behaviour of students in higher education.

This study aims to develop a reliable and valid German/Deutsch version of the management standards indicator tool (MSIT-D) to broaden the pool of instruments available to practitioners and to support international collaborations regarding this workplace management issue.

The MSIT-D was translated from English to German, then its psychometric properties examined using data from British employees (n = 321) and German employees (n = 358). Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were used to evaluate the internal structure and measurement invariance, and Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess internal consistency. Comparisons were made with the German language risk assessment tool Fragebogen zur Gefährdungsbeurteilung psychischer Belastungen (FGBU) to examine concurrent and incremental validity. Criterion validity was checked using established measures of work-related health.

The MSIT-D has an equivalent seven-factor structure (demands, control, managerial support, peer support, relationships, role and change) as the original; the analyses confirmed configural and metric measurement invariance with the original scale. The internal consistency of the scales ranged from 0.82 to 0.91. Regarding criterion validity, the MSIT-D was positively correlated with emotional exhaustion and psychosomatic complaints and negatively correlated with work engagement and workability. The analyses yielded meaningful correlations between the MSIT-D dimensions and the FGBU.

This is the first study to develop a German version of the MSIT and confirm metric measurement invariance. This will allow a comparison of MSIT scores with related constructs between German- and English-speaking samples. As a reliable and valid instrument for assessing work-related stressors, the outcome of this study presents opportunities for developing a unified surveillance system for work-related stress at the European level.