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Book part
Publication date: 20 November 2013

Dennis M. McInerney and Ronnel B. King

The aims of this study were (1) to examine the relationships among achievement goals, self-concept, learning strategies and self-regulation for post-secondary Indigenous…

Abstract

Purpose

The aims of this study were (1) to examine the relationships among achievement goals, self-concept, learning strategies and self-regulation for post-secondary Indigenous Australian and Native American students and (2) to investigate whether the relationships among these key variables were similar or different for the two groups.

Methodology

Students from the two Indigenous groups answered questionnaires assessing the relevant variables. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data. Structure-oriented analysis was used to compare the two groups in terms of the strengths of the pathways, while level-oriented analysis was used to compare mean level differences.

Findings

Self-concept was found to positively predict deep learning and self-regulated learning, and these effects were mediated by achievement goals. Students who pursued mastery and social goals had more positive educational outcomes. Both structure and level-oriented differences were found.

Research implications

Drawing on two distinct research traditions – self-concept and achievement goals – this study explored the synergies between these two perspectives and showed how the key constructs drawn from each framework were associated with successful learning.

Practical implications

To improve learning outcomes, interventions may need to target students’ self-concept, mastery-oriented and socially oriented motivations.

Social implications

Supporting Indigenous students in their post-secondary education is an imperative. Psychologists have important insights to offer that can help achieve this noble aim.

Originality/value of the chapter

Research on Indigenous students has mostly adopted a deficiency model. In contrast, this study takes an explicitly positive perspective on Indigenous student success by focusing on the active psychological ingredients that facilitate successful learning.

Details

Seeding Success in Indigenous Australian Higher Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-686-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 June 2017

Peter Mayer, Nina Gerber, Ronja McDermott, Melanie Volkamer and Joachim Vogt

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of goal setting in organizations, especially regarding the mitigation of conflicting productivity and security goals.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of goal setting in organizations, especially regarding the mitigation of conflicting productivity and security goals.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper describes the results of a survey with 200 German employees regarding the effects of goal setting on employees’ security compliance. Based on the survey results, a concept for setting information security goals in organizations building on actionable behavioral recommendations from information security awareness materials is developed. This concept was evaluated in three small- to medium-sized organizations (SMEs) with overall 90 employees.

Findings

The survey results revealed that the presence of rewards for productivity goal achievement is strongly associated with a decrease in security compliance. The evaluation of the goal setting concept indicates that setting their own information security goals is welcomed by employees.

Research limitations/implications

Both studies rely on self-reported data and are, therefore, likely to contain some kind of bias.

Practical implications

Goal setting in organizations has to accommodate for situations, where productivity goals constrain security policy compliance. Introducing the proposed goal setting concept based on relevant actionable behavioral recommendations can help mitigate issues in such situations.

Originality/value

This work furthers the understanding of the factors affecting employee security compliance. Furthermore, the proposed concept can help maximizing the positive effects of goal setting in organizations by mitigating the negative effects through the introduction of meaningful and actionable information security goals.

Details

Information & Computer Security, vol. 25 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4961

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 August 2015

Jon Aarum Andersen

This paper aims to show how organisation theory can be used to understand the controversy between the shareholder and the stakeholder perspectives. Rationalistic and open system…

2103

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to show how organisation theory can be used to understand the controversy between the shareholder and the stakeholder perspectives. Rationalistic and open system theories may enhance research on corporate governance by offering well-defined concepts and by specifying core relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper applies descriptions of the two perspectives in organisation theory as a “method” for illustrating how they are linked to and support the shareholder versus the stakeholder perspectives.

Findings

The controversy stems from the fact that the shareholder and the stakeholder perspectives address different relationships. The shareholder perspective captures two relationships that accord with rationalistic organisation theory: shareholders are managing the managers and the organisation, and managers are managing the corporation on behalf of the owners. The stakeholder perspective focuses on three relationships that are not concordant with system theory: managers are managing the shareholders (i.e. the symbolic management of stockholders), managers are managing the corporation (i.e. general management theory) and managers are managing the stakeholders.

Research limitations/implications

Organisation theory provides suggestions for more fruitful definitions of the often-used concepts of direction, control, administration and influence. These terms may be substituted with the well-defined concepts of management, power and control.

Practical implications

Proponents of organisation theory find it theoretically difficult to deal with the topic of corporate governance, if they do at all. When they do, they do it only perfunctorily.

Originality/value

Organisation theory may strengthen research on corporate governance if we insist on both theoretical clarifications of major relationships and on the use of more strictly defined concepts.

Details

Corporate Governance, vol. 15 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1472-0701

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 September 2010

Chen‐Chung Liu, Shih‐Hsun Fan Chiang, Chih‐Yueh Chou and Sherry Y. Chen

Exploratory learning is regarded as an important ability for developing knowledge from open environments. During the exploration, learners not only need to acquire new information…

Abstract

Purpose

Exploratory learning is regarded as an important ability for developing knowledge from open environments. During the exploration, learners not only need to acquire new information based on their current interests, but also they need to form new perspectives by incorporating new knowledge into their previous knowledge. This paper seeks to address these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

To this end, this paper proposes an approach that includes a concept association bank to recommend related concepts in a domain based on the goal of an exploration. By doing so, learners' knowledge can be expanded beyond their current understanding. An experiment was conducted to investigate how the proposed approach facilitated the learners' exploration.

Findings

The results indicated that the concept association bank is a useful mechanism to help learners gain new understanding, including providing exploration directions, reducing complexity and cognitive load, facilitating data‐ and goal‐driven exploration strategies, and commenting on new understanding. The implications of these results are discussed.

Originality/value

Current recommendation systems emphasise a data‐driven strategy, which seeks isolated pieces of information, instead of suggesting directions related to their exploration goal. The problem with such an approach is that learners' exploration will be limited by their existing knowledge. Thus, this paper presents an approach to support both data‐ and goal‐driven strategies.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 34 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1980

E. Anthony Lowe and Wai Fong Soo

It may be well argued that in modern industrial society bureaucratic organisations are the predominant means of marshalling society's resources in order to produce desired goods…

Abstract

It may be well argued that in modern industrial society bureaucratic organisations are the predominant means of marshalling society's resources in order to produce desired goods and services. Because bureaucracies influence the creation and distribution of scarce wealth and resources, one must necessarily be interested in the assessment of their organisational utility. The commonly used evaluative concept of effectiveness is complex and requires careful definition. It is often couched in terms of financial measures like profit, profitability, return on investment, but we shall argue that these criteria are insufficient and moreover cannot be applied to all organisations. Clearly financial measures are necessary to a definition of organisational effectiveness but they are not sufficient in themselves. For example, a firm may enjoy a high rate of return on investment because of a monopoly power conferred upon it by society. Some adjustment must, however, be made for that matter in concluding about its effectiveness. Explicit research into the concept began to emerge about 20 years ago but the term remains controversial and still somewhat ill‐defined. As Steers (1977) pointed out, there is no generally recognised theory on the concept, no agreement on its criteria of measurement, determinants and influences.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Article
Publication date: 8 October 2018

Nikolaos Argyropoulos, Konstantinos Angelopoulos, Haralambos Mouratidis and Andrew Fish

The selection of security configurations for complex information systems is a cumbersome process. Decision-making regarding the choice of security countermeasures has to take into…

Abstract

Purpose

The selection of security configurations for complex information systems is a cumbersome process. Decision-making regarding the choice of security countermeasures has to take into consideration a multitude of, often conflicting, functional and non-functional system goals. Therefore, a structured method to support crucial security decisions during a system’s design that can take account of risk whilst providing feedback on the optimal decisions within specific scenarios would be valuable.

Design/methodology/approach

Secure Tropos is a well-established security requirements engineering methodology, but it has no concepts of Risk, whilst Constrained Goal Models are an existing method to support relevant automated reasoning tasks. Hence we bridge these methods, by extending Secure Tropos to incorporate the concept of Risk, so that the elicitation and analysis of security requirements can be complimented by a systematic risk assessment process during a system’s design time and supporting the reasoning regarding the selection of optimal security configurations with respect to multiple system objectives and constraints, via constrained goal models.

Findings

As a means of conceptual evaluation, to give an idea of the applicability of the approach and to check if alterations may be desirable, a case study of its application to an e-government information system is presented. The proposed approach is able to generate security mechanism configurations for multiple optimisation scenarios that are provided, whilst there are limitations in terms of a natural trade-off of information levels of risk assessment that are required to be elicited.

Originality/value

The proposed approach adds additional value via its flexibility in permitting the consideration of different optimisation scenarios by prioritising different system goals and the automated reasoning support.

Details

Information & Computer Security, vol. 26 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4961

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 July 2015

Muhammad Zakky Azhari and Adi Zakaria Afiff

This paper aims to examine two important factors in developing convergence products: the congruence of basic product and the addition in terms of utilitarian or hedonic…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine two important factors in developing convergence products: the congruence of basic product and the addition in terms of utilitarian or hedonic consumption goals, and the overall coherence of consumption goals. In recent years, the proliferation of convergence products, i.e. any product that combines two or more basic product functionalities in consumer electronics, is increasingly prevalent. For manufacturers, the lingering question in developing convergence products is what kind of basic product functionalities can be combined and can elicit favorable response from consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is a 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design, with basic product functionality’s consumption goals (utilitarian, hedonic) as the between-subject factor, and the additional product functionality’s consumption goals (utilitarian, hedonic) and the coherence of consumption goals (coherent addition, incoherent addition) as the two within-subject factors.

Findings

It confirms and validates prior work on goal congruence effects. More importantly, this study finds that overall consumption goal coherence elicits higher value addition irrespective of goal congruence or incongruence on utilitarian or hedonic consumption goals.

Research limitations/implications

In some literatures, the combination of two or more product functionalities from different product categories is considered as product bundling. While product bundling concept can be used in many different product categories, convergence product concept is utilized more specifically in consumer electronics.

Practical implications

As convergence era offers wide opportunities for manufacturers to develop new convergence products, this study provides guidance as to what kind of new functionalities need to be added.

Originality/value

Not only does the present research investigates the likely success of convergence products involving the congruence of basic product and the addition, but also in more comprehensive way by looking at the overall coherence of consumption goals.

Details

Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1061-0421

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1987

Stuart Hannabuss

It is contended that knowledge management is directed towards finding out how and why information users think, what they know about what they know, the knowledge and attitudes…

Abstract

It is contended that knowledge management is directed towards finding out how and why information users think, what they know about what they know, the knowledge and attitudes they have and the decisions they make when they interact with others. At the heart lies the mutation of information into knowledge, a process best understood through seeing, knowing and information retrieval as features common to cognitive psychology and information management. The knowledge we have of knowledge, and changes to knowledge, can be monitored in negotiations like knowledge interviews for trainees. Such knowledge and belief systems can also be translated into managerial strategies, both qualitative, as when we emphasise value and benefit in the marketing approach to information, and quantitative, as when we devise ways of assessing probabilities with which desired outcomes will occur. Knowledge management is as much the management of meaning as management of entities and people, for in meaning lies the key to our understanding of what we decide to do as information managers. It is a multi‐disciplinary field offering a semantics and pragmatics for the evaluating and self‐evaluating manager.

Details

Library Management, vol. 8 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-5124

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2001

ANITA M.M. LIU and RICHARD FELLOWS

Researchers have written extensively on the partnering approach in project procurement. Some emphasize it as a process, i.e. how it works in terms of the project structure…

Abstract

Researchers have written extensively on the partnering approach in project procurement. Some emphasize it as a process, i.e. how it works in terms of the project structure, signing of agreements, etc., and others emphasize the nature of the partnering culture dimensions, i.e. how it works in terms of operating in trust and harmony. It is postulated that the Confucian concept of self‐cultivation is central to the development of the values of trust and harmony. Western perspectives on the partnering culture are relatively abundant in writing; the intention of this paper is to complement existing literature with an Eastern perspective to develop a behavioural model of partnering. This paper examines the partnering dimensions and postulates that an understanding of (1) the Eastern concept of self and self‐cultivation, and (2) the central role of goal setting at strategic and project levels will enhance goal attainment in partnering.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1976

A. LOCKER and N.A. COULTER

From the point of view of goals to be pursued, three kinds of system can be distinguished: (1) the teleonomic (or goal determined) system, which acts according to fixed goals, (2…

Abstract

From the point of view of goals to be pursued, three kinds of system can be distinguished: (1) the teleonomic (or goal determined) system, which acts according to fixed goals, (2) the teleozetic (or goal selecting) system, which is able to choose among a repertoire of goals and (3) the teleogenic (or goal generating) system which is able to generate (previously non‐existing) goals for its own activity. The aim of the paper is to explore the possibility for the existence (i.e. realization) of such systems. Therefore, the problems arising with systems description and prescription are outlined and some distinctions regarding goals and different modes of teleogenesis are proposed. After a hint at preliminary mathematical models and computer simulations the realization problem is briefly examined.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 5 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

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