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This study explores the role of polychronic temporal orientation and decision-making decentralization on founders' perceptions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE).

Longitudinal survey data were collected from 141 business founders in China.

Findings suggest that decision-making decentralization is positively associated with founders' ESE. In addition, a polychronic temporal orientation is positively related to ESE, and this relationship is mediated by decision-making decentralization.

This study adds to existing knowledge on ESE and temporal related issues by presenting empirical evidence that explains how and why the temporal orientation context and the practice of decision-making decentralization can shape ESE perceptions among venture founders.

From the start, organizational socialization has been all about learning. In fact, most definitions of organizational socialization are very explicit about this and the general notion that socialization involves learning “the ropes” of a particular organizational role (Fisher, 1986). Socialization has been described as a sense-making and learning process in which newcomers acquire a variety of types of information and knowledge to become effective members of the organization (Klein & Weaver, 2000).

The purpose of this paper is to explore a health program comprising the individual experiences, successes and setbacks of adults in an individually tailored, community-based smoking intervention and physical activity program. The program incorporated physical activity consultation (PAC) and phone support from the well-established Quit smoking cessation program, and in partnership with Melton City Council, Victoria, Australia.

Expert facilitators in PAC led the intervention. The program was titled “ActivePlus” and the intervention was conducted for eight weeks. Post-program facilitator guidance continued for three weeks and follow-up on participants was conducted at week 24. Five participants continued to week 24 and were interviewed. Three case descriptions were chosen as a sample to analyse using descriptive content analysis to illustrate the range of experiences, successes and setbacks reported by these individual participants.

Smoking reduction/cessation results varied among cases, but increases in PA were sustained. Participants valued the expert support of PAC facilitators, though usage and appraisal of Quit telephone smoking cessation services was mixed. The individually tailored PAC was valued by participants, who felt it also contributed to their smoking reduction/cessation goals.

In future, the intervention would benefit from the same ongoing support in smoking cessation as the PAC. Practitioners should consider the benefit of including PAC in smoking cessation interventions. However, such interventions should be individually tailored and include facilitation by a PAC and a smoking cessation expert.

Few studies have looked at completely individualised smoking cessation interventions using PAC. The current study also addresses the recommendations of previous research to investigate the use of more intense PA intervention supported by expert PAC facilitation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of college leadership experiences on the leader self-efficacy development of freshmen in two historically black institutions (HBIs).

Data were collected in two phases from 200 freshmen to assess their leader self-efficacies at the beginning and end of a 16-week semester. The authors developed an eight-item questionnaire to measure college leadership experiences and adapted the 22-item leader efficacy questionnaire developed by Hannah and Avolio (2013) to measure self-efficacy.

The result of the structural equation modeling revealed that college leadership experiences have a significant positive impact on college leader self-efficacy. Moreover, college leadership experiences significantly mediated the effect of high school leadership experiences on college leader self-efficacy. Pre-college leader self-efficacy had a significant positive effect on college leader self-efficacy but an insignificant effect on college leadership experiences. The findings indicated that holding leadership positions and volunteering in the first semester of college were positively and strongly related to college leadership experiences.

First, this study will empirically examine the causal relationships between college leadership experiences and leader self-efficacy by controlling for the effect of the pre-college leader efficacy. Without controlling for the pre-existing differences among participants, the effects of college leadership experiences on leader self-efficacy development may be overestimated. Second, despite self-efficacy being a critical component in leadership models and being important in boosting leaders’ confidence, only limited research uses well-defined conceptual leadership models in studying student leader self-efficacy. This study fills the gap by using a contemporary conceptual model that encompasses the key leadership variables necessary in assessing the student leadership development.

The present study aimed to test the hypothesis that ethical leadership positively contributes to exploitative learning and explorative learning simultaneously and then examine the moderating role of work centrality in the relationships of ethical leadership with exploitative learning and explorative learning.

Time-lagged survey data were collected from 257 middle managers and their 257 immediate supervisors in 76 firms in China. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and Hayes' PROCESS macro for SPSS.

The results revealed that ethical leadership positively contributed to exploitative learning and explorative learning simultaneously. Importantly, the authors found that work centrality strengthened the positive relationships of ethical leadership with both exploitative learning and explorative learning.

The findings can help organizations enhance exploitative learning and explorative learning simultaneously and enable them to gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Although explorative learning and exploitative learning together constitute fundamental resources for organizations' long-term success, prior research has not looked into whether and when leader behaviors facilitate explorative learning and exploitative learning simultaneously. The study contributed to fill this gap by introducing ethical leadership, signifying its positive role in enhancing both explorative learning and exploitative learning, and establishing work centrality as a moderator to reinforce these two positive relationships.

The purpose of this study was to design and iteratively improve the quality of survey-based measures of three non-cognitive constructs for Grade 5-6 students, keeping in mind information needs of users in education reform contexts. The constructs are: Mathematics-related Self-Efficacy, Self-Concept, and Anxiety (M-SE, M-SC, and M-ANX).

The authors applied a multi-stage, iterative and user-centered approach to design and validate the measures, using several psychometric techniques and three data samples. They evaluated the utility of student-level scores and aggregated, classroom-level means.

At both student and classroom levels, replicated evidence supported theoretically-grounded validity arguments on information produced by four of five scales tapping M-SC, M-ANX and M-SE. The evidence confirmed a second order, two-factor structure for M-SC, representing positive math affect and perceived competence, and a one factor structure for M-ANX representing negative math affect. Consistent with the literature, these served as precursors to a perceived confidence factor of M-SE which, in turn, positively influenced mathematics achievement scores, off-setting negative effects of M-ANX. Research is continuing on a self-regulatory efficacy factor of M-SE, which yielded mixed results.

The survey scales are in line with current reform policies in the United States calling for schools to monitor changes in cognitive and non-cognitive domains of student development. Validated scales could be useful in serving information needs of teachers, decision-makers and researchers in similar school-based contexts.

This study demonstrates a comprehensive, user-centered methodology for designing and validating construct measures, departing from purely psychometric traditions of scale development.

This study aims to explore what causes stress to day care center directors and what their coping strategies are. In addition, the study examined the extent to which directors experience work-related stress and burnout, and the factors associated with their work-related stress, engagement and recovery from work.

A mixed method approach was used.

The results showed that the main sources of directors' stress were connected to leading oneself, leading others, managing change and lack of social support. Moreover, the main coping strategies with stress were leading oneself, social support and leading others. In addition, both pre- and in-service leadership training played a significant role in the experience of stress. The nature of factors causing stress and coping strategies with stress may imply that directors need further support in self-management and developing their internal competences.

The present study has limitations that need to be considered when making generalizations. First, a small sample size limits the generalization of the findings. Second, the study relied solely on one source of information, i.e. directors' self-reports. Third, data were collected only at one time point at the end of the year when stress levels might have accumulated. Finally, the study has been done in the Finnish educational context where day care center directors' job description varies depending on municipality.

The findings provide important information about the causes of directors' work-related stress as well as their coping strategies and about factors that might be related to those.

Because directors' stress impact on children’s development and well-being through teachers' well-being, it is crucial to pay attention on directors' well-being and provide more support for them.

The current study is among the few ones focusing on the stress of directors at early childhood education (ECE) settings.

The purpose of this research was to study teachers' self‐efficacy and occupational stress in the context of a large‐scale curriculum reform in New South Wales, Australia. The study aims to follow up and replicate a study carried out approximately one year earlier.

A theoretical framework, primarily based on social cognitive theory and the teachers' attribution of responsibility for stress model and consistent with the earlier study, was used to guide the research. Data were gathered using a self‐report questionnaire. Analysis was carried out using structural equation modelling, based on results of the earlier study, and partial correlation analysis.

A more parsimonious model of the related phenomena than had been established by the earlier study was confirmed, suggesting that the context of the educational reform was different one year later, particularly in terms of perceived social support and occupational stress specifically associated with the changes. The important result from the earlier study was replicated – understanding what was required by the reform was negatively associated with teachers' self‐efficacy for the new type of teaching and self‐efficacy for using technology with the new curriculum.

The paper provides insights into teachers' cognitions associated with a major curriculum reform. Results have implications for system administrators and reforming curriculum bodies.

The urgency of improving the schools call for a distributed instructional leadership model where teachers are not just recipients of professional development, but also active leaders who are coaches and mentors for their peers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the teacher leadership development system in Shanghai, and identify pathways to constructing actionable models that develop and maximize instructional expertise.

This is a qualitative study. Purposive sampling was conducted to select four teaching-study groups from a frame that included all certified “expert teachers” from a large Shanghai district with about 9,000 teachers. Grounded theory approaches were used to understand “what actually happens in the teachers’ world.” Participative observations (of lesson delivering and collaborative decoding), semi-structured interviews, teachers’ reflective journal entries, and video recording of group work and lessons were the main measures of data collection.

Three key features of expertise infusion were identified: recognizing, differentiating, and labeling teacher expertise at multiple mastery levels; providing expert teachers with support and leadership responsibilities to lead practice-embedded and cross-school peer learning; and creating a roadmap for teachers to chart continuous learning pathways individually and build an enhanced content pedagogical knowledgebase collectively.

Results from this study provide the impetus for further exploration in how Shanghai continuously share and improve good teaching systemically, which could be informative to US schools and districts in their effort of redesigning professional development that maximizes available expertise among teachers and stimulates teacher-led action research for student learning.

The international student population is steadily increasing. However, we know little about what happens to their academic motivation as they transit from their home culture into a new host culture. This gap in knowledge needs to be addressed given that motivation is a key driver of academic success. The aim of this chapter is to examine factors that can influence international students' academic motivation during and after transition. Three broad theoretical frameworks drawn from the acculturation literature – culture learning theory, stress and coping theory, and social identification theory – are proffered to help understand the impact of the transition on student motivation. It seems inevitable that student motivation will generally decline during the early phases of the transition. This may be due to the differences in sociocultural norms between the home and host culture, the variety of stressors that international students face, and the potential impact of stereotyping and discrimination. However, the extent and duration of this decline could be moderated by a variety of personal (e.g., language proficiency, personality, acculturation strategies, reasons for going abroad) and contextual (e.g., cultural distance, social support) factors. Examples of intervention programs that can buffer against motivational decline are given. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.