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1 – 10 of 40Theresa Horstman, Gavin Tierney and Carrie Tzou
This paper aims to focus on two areas of digital badge design that impact learner experience: the value and meaning of badges outside of their original context and badge function…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on two areas of digital badge design that impact learner experience: the value and meaning of badges outside of their original context and badge function and platform functionality that impact learner experience.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses a design-based research approach. For this paper, components of badge systems were analyzed to identify the characteristics of learning experiences in each program.
Findings
Findings in this paper are from a National Science Foundation-funded project where digital badge systems were co-designed to connect informal science learning with college credit. The badge design principles presented to address the value of badges and badge function and platform functionality, as well as making program design more systematic and using badge design as a conceptual, organizing design framework for improved educational programs.
Research limitations/implications
Though this research is limited in the number of programs examined, the findings provide a framework for the language and standards to discuss and implement digitals badges.
Practical implications
This paper will be of use to programing developers seeking to integrate badges into their educational programs or simply reexamine their educational goals and opportunities for learners.
Originality/value
This paper challenges the conventional use of badges for simply increasing learner engagement by illustrating that the badge design and development process can improve program design and subsequent learner experience rather than serving purely as a learner motivational tool.
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Wallace Alexander Williams, Randolph-Seng Brandon, Mario Hayek, Stephanie Pane Haden and Guclu Atinc
The purpose of this paper is to examine how servant leadership and political skill combine to impact workplace spirituality and employee creativity.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how servant leadership and political skill combine to impact workplace spirituality and employee creativity.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were working adults recruited by graduate and undergraduate students from a US public regional comprehensive university. Data were collected across three time periods, with a final sample size of 280 participants.
Findings
The authors’ findings suggest that servant leaders impact employee creativity by fostering an environment that promotes workplace spirituality. Furthermore, this relationship is strengthened to the extent that the servant leader possesses high levels of political skill.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a foundation for the interplay between servant leadership and political skill. Therefore, the data collection procedures undertaken in this study (i.e. from sources in multiple organizations) are beneficial. A limitation to this study is the use of a single informant to measure all of the constructs, which may cause a bias in the results.
Practical implications
This study provides a foundation for the interplay between servant leadership and political skill. Therefore, the data collection procedures undertaken in this study (i.e. from sources in multiple organizations) are beneficial.
Originality/value
Although servant leadership research continues to receive increased attention in the extant literature, researchers have tended to focus on the relational aspects of servant leadership. Curiously, the “leader” side of servant leadership has been largely neglected. As a result, some have questioned the construct as a viable leadership model. Greenleaf (1977), however, noted that servant leaders also possess conceptual skills; yet, these skills are rarely included in servant leadership measurements or empirical studies. The authors argue that political skill captures the essence of these abilities, and that including it strengthens the servant leader’s impact on workplace spirituality, ultimately influencing employee creativity.
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Stephen Weatherhead, Gavin Newby and Paul Skirrow
The sequelae of acquired brain injury can lead to a complex array of risks. This research explores professionals' perspectives on those risks, focussing on how psycho‐social risks…
Abstract
Purpose
The sequelae of acquired brain injury can lead to a complex array of risks. This research explores professionals' perspectives on those risks, focussing on how psycho‐social risks are assessed and managed.
Design/methodology/approach
A self completion questionnaire was designed, and distributed to a range of professionals working in brain injury services.
Findings
A total of 177 participants completed an anonymous questionnaire. Principal components analysis produced three factors, which were given the labels “User‐friendliness”, “Person‐centeredness” and “Coherence”. Inconsistencies were identified in approaches to risk assessment and management. Participants also reported particular beneficial approaches, such as multi‐disciplinary discussions, and using assessments to guide rehabilitation.
Research limitations/implications
The convenience sampling approach limits the generalisablity of the findings. However, the study was adequately powered, reliable, and valid.
Practical implications
The findings of this research, existing literature, and clinical experience are drawn together in a proposed model for managing risk. This model, which incorporates the three factors identified through statistical analysis could guide effective risk management, documentation and associated procedures. The model presents a framework for service design and provision, as well as providing a focus for future research.
Social implications
It is likely that more active engagement in risk assessment on the part of professionals, services, and those who access services, will be engendered if the process is able to become more user‐friendly, person‐centred, and coherent, across and within service provision.
Originality/value
Despite legislative calls for regular training and effective communication in relation to risk, this is not the routine experience of professionals working in brain injury services. The findings of the present research offer a new, structured process, for overcoming the challenge for embedding legislation and research findings into practice.
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Helen Sharpe, Peter Musiat, Olivia Knapton and Ulrike Schmidt
Pro‐eating disorder websites are online communities of individuals who do not consider eating disorders to be serious mental illnesses requiring treatment. People visit these…
Abstract
Purpose
Pro‐eating disorder websites are online communities of individuals who do not consider eating disorders to be serious mental illnesses requiring treatment. People visit these websites to meet other like‐minded individuals, to share tips and tricks on how to lose weight and how to otherwise maintain the symptomatology of the disorder. This paper aims to review what is actually known about the risks associated with visiting these websites and provides recommendations for dealing with pro‐eating disorder material.
Design/methodology/approach
Relevant peer‐reviewed papers were located by means of searching three online journal databases (SCOPUS, PubMed, Web of Knowledge), and through carrying out reference checking. Key words for the search were: pro‐anorexia, pro‐ana, pro‐bulimia, pro‐mia and pro‐eating disorders.
Findings
Pro eating disorder websites are common and visited by a significant proportion of patients with eating disorders and non‐patients. The sites may be perceived beneficial, as they provide support and a sense of community. Although there is evidence for the harmfulness of pro‐eating disorder content on the internet, there is no clear indication that such sites promote the development or maintenance of eating disorders. Therefore, banning pro eating disorder websites seems inappropriate and unpractical, but measures for web‐hosting companies should be in place allowing them to remove such content. Instead, bodies creating alternative websites for young people should be supported. Clinicians and parents should be made aware of the existence of pro eating disorder websites and how to deal with them.
Originality/value
This paper provides an overview of the research in this field and discusses possible ways in which health professionals and the general public may respond to the existence of these web sites.
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AFTER some unsuccessful negotiations during the period when the first full‐time schools of librarianship were being established, the Birmingham School was founded in the autumn of…
Abstract
AFTER some unsuccessful negotiations during the period when the first full‐time schools of librarianship were being established, the Birmingham School was founded in the autumn of 1950. Circumstances were not entirely favourable—the immediate post‐war generation of enthusiastic ex‐service students had already passed through other schools; the accommodation available was indifferent; the administrative support was bad; resources were weak, both in books and in equipment. There was, more importantly, a strong local tradition of part‐time classes in librarianship and little or no conviction that full‐time study was necessary or desirable.
Ana Suzete Semedo, Arnaldo Coelho and Neuza Ribeiro
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how authentic leadership (AL) predicts creativity both directly and through the mediating role of affective commitment (AC) and job…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how authentic leadership (AL) predicts creativity both directly and through the mediating role of affective commitment (AC) and job resourcefulness (JR).
Design/methodology/approach
Data collected from a questionnaire administered to a sample of 543 employees have been analyzed. The model was tested using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings show that AL predicts AC, JR and creativity. The findings also show that AC and JR predict creativity. In other words, leaders’ authenticity increases employees’ creative spirit and, thus, employees’ ability to overcome obstacles and meet challenges at work and their emotional bond play an important role (mediators) in this relationship.
Practical implications
The results of this study are conclusive and contribute to a better understanding of AL and its implication for employees’ emotional bond, their ability to overcome obstacles and their ability to introduce new and useful ideas. This study provides evidence that organizations should focus on training leaders with authentic characteristics.
Originality/value
This study considers both AC and JR as mediators of the relationship between AL and creativity. Therefore, the originality of this study lies in the integration of these four concepts in a single study to provide a model that depicts the chain of effects between AL, AC, JR and an employee’s creativity.
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Ana Suzete Dias Semedo, Arnaldo Fernandes Matos Coelho and Neuza Manuel Pereira Ribeiro
The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study examining the relationship between authentic leadership (AL), attitudes and employees’ behaviours. More…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study examining the relationship between authentic leadership (AL), attitudes and employees’ behaviours. More specifically, how AL influences affective commitment, job resourcefulness and creativity, which, in turn, influence individual performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical research has analysed the data from a questionnaire administered to a sample of 543 employees belonging to various public and private organisations in Cape Verde. The model was tested using structural equation modelling.
Findings
The results reveal that AL influences employees’ attitudes (affective commitment and job resourcefulness) and their creativity, affective commitment and job resourcefulness predict the employees’ creativity, and job resourcefulness and creativity predict individual performance.
Practical implications
The results from this study can help managers to understand how to increase employees’ creativity and performance through AL, affective commitment and job resourcefulness. Indirectly, the study also suggests that organisations should focus on selecting leaders with authentic features and implement appropriate training activities, coaching and development that aim to increase AL since this may well result in a positive impact on employees’ attitudes and behaviours.
Originality/value
The originality of this study is that it focusses on the integration of the five concepts, AL, affective commitment, job resourcefulness, creativity and individual performance, in a single study, providing a model that depicts the chain of effects between AL, employees’ attitudes, employees’ creativity and individual performance.
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John M. Maslyn, Birgit Schyns and Steven M. Farmer
The purpose of this paper is to examine psychological attachment styles (secure, anxious, and avoidant) as antecedents to leader-member exchange (LMX) quality both directly and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine psychological attachment styles (secure, anxious, and avoidant) as antecedents to leader-member exchange (LMX) quality both directly and through their impact on employees’ efforts to build high quality LMX relationships. Employees with secure attachment styles are proposed to be successful at building high quality LMX relationships while employees with anxious and avoidant styles are proposed to display the opposite effect.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through a survey of 213 employees nested in 37 work groups. Hypotheses were tested using multilevel modeling within MPlus.
Findings
Results indicated that secure and anxious attachment styles were associated with LMX only by impacting the exertion of effort specifically aimed at relationship development with the manager. Alternatively, the avoidant style was directly and negatively linked to LMX but not associated with effort undertaken to build a high quality relationship.
Practical implications
The effects of attachment style on effort to develop high quality LMX relationships reveal that subordinate attachment style may impact those subordinates’ ability and interest in developing positive LMX relationships. Therefore, managers may need to purposively deviate from typical LMX development processes in order to create a more conducive environment for developing high quality relationships with subordinates of differing attachment styles.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first to examine the mediating impact of effort to build high quality LMX relationships given personal propensities (attachment style) to form relationships in the workplace.
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Ahmad Adeel, Zhang Pengcheng, Farida Saleem, Rizwan Ali and Samreen Batool
This paper aims to investigate relationship conflicts and creative idea endorsement to develop the understanding of managerial reactions towards ideas of those who develop…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate relationship conflicts and creative idea endorsement to develop the understanding of managerial reactions towards ideas of those who develop relationship conflicts with managers/supervisors at work. Taking a contingency perspective, the authors also investigated role subordinates’ political skills and implementation instrumentality play in determining supervisors’ endorsement of subordinates’ creative ideas.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used two sources of data collected from 243 subordinates and their respective 41 supervisors of a multinational software company operating in an emerging economy (Pakistan) and analyzed the hypothesized model with Mplus using random coefficient modeling.
Findings
With this research, the authors contributed to management literature by investigating how the effects of relationship conflicts on creative idea endorsement depend on subordinates’ political skills and implementation instrumentality. They postulate a negative relationship between relationship conflict and creative ideas endorsement and predict that this negative relationship is augmented by subordinates’ implementation instrumentality but attenuated by subordinates’ political skills. They also give directions to decision makers in organizations that they must inform the managers/supervisors about negative effects of their relationship conflict with their subordinates and train supervisors and subordinates about reducing their relationship conflicts with each other for mutual benefits.
Originality/value
Organizations should take a relationship perspective when creating an environment for creativity: an environment based on mutual trust and respect so that exchange relationships can foster. With this research, the authors extended the list of potential detriment associated with relationship conflicts, that is the endorsement of creative ideas by supervisors. The authors also extended creativity literature by investigating social relationships for selection-focused creativity (idea endorsement) instead of variance-focused creativity (idea generation).
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Shinhee Jeong, Gary N. McLean, Laird D. McLean, Sangok Yoo and Kenneth Bartlett
By adopting a multilevel approach, this paper aims to examine the relationships among employee creativity and creative personality, domain expertise (i.e. individual-level…
Abstract
Purpose
By adopting a multilevel approach, this paper aims to examine the relationships among employee creativity and creative personality, domain expertise (i.e. individual-level factors), non-controlling supervision style and organizational learning culture (i.e. team-level factors). It also investigates the cross-level interactions between individual differences and organizational context influencing employee creativity.
Design/methodology/approach
Hierarchical linear modeling was performed to test the hypotheses using multisource data with 416 employees and their supervisors in 86 research and development teams.
Findings
This paper found that domain expertise and non-controlling supervision style are positively associated with employee creativity. Also, a positive moderating role of non-controlling supervision style was found in explaining the relationship between domain expertise and employee creativity. However, no significant relationship was found between creative personality and employee creativity, and there was no moderating effect of organizational learning culture. The paper discusses the theoretical implications of these findings and provides practical suggestions based on the findings.
Originality/value
This paper has begun to address the significant gap in the extant employee creativity literature and has departed from the common research practice of investigating creativity at a single level. It has expanded understanding of the antecedents of creativity with empirical evidence, as it revealed domain expertise and non-controlling supervision as influential factors. Further, domain expertise has generally positive effects on creative performance, whether non-controlling leadership is high or low. Additionally, this study brings an interesting insight in interpreting the contribution of organizational learning culture as measured by the Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire to creativity and also affirms the importance of autonomy that increases intrinsic motivation and creativity. Another theoretical contribution of this study can be found from an intriguing contradiction in the literature that understands the role of expertise in creative performance. Moreover, the finding on non-controlling supervision supports the effectiveness of a freedom approach.
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