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Culture is a central concept broadly studied in social anthropology and sociology. It has been gaining increasing attention in economics, appearing in research on labor market discrimination, identity, gender, and social preferences. Most experimental economics research on culture studies cross-national or cross-ethnic differences in economic behavior. In contrast, we explain laboratory behavior using two cultural dimensions adopted from a prominent general cultural framework in contemporary social anthropology: group commitment and grid control. Groupness measures the extent to which individual identity is incorporated into group or collective identity; gridness measures the extent to which social and political prescriptions intrinsically influence individual behavior. Grid-group characteristics are measured for each individual using selected items from the World Values Survey. We hypothesize that these attributes allow us to systematically predict behavior in a way that discriminates among multiple forms of social preferences using a simple, parsimonious deductive model. The theoretical predictions are further tested in the economics laboratory by applying them to the dictator, ultimatum, and trust games. We find that these predictions are confirmed overall for most experimental games, although the strength of empirical support varies across games. We conclude that grid-group cultural theory is a viable predictor of people’s economic behavior, then discuss potential limitations of the current approach and ways to improve it.

Successful teams tend to be highly cohesive and team cohesion to be particularly helpful in allowing teams and their members to sustain their success even in the most challenging times. One disillusioning consequence of this reciprocity between cohesion and performance would suggest that failures made by teams and/or their members likely jeopardize their success by preventing them from capitalizing on such virtuous circles associated with team cohesion. Yet, many teams uphold their performance despite the failures they have to cope with, suggesting that the potential vicious circles can be overcome. This chapter aims at illuminating the vicious and virtuous circles associated with team cohesion that are induced by either collective failures of teams or individual failures of their members. It therefore offers a multilevel perspective not only on the emergence and diffusion of failures at the individual and team levels, but also on the critical role that team cohesion plays for a team’s (dys)functional coping across these levels. It is theorized that collective failures triggered exogenously can help build team cohesion, and that whether endogenously-triggered collective failures bring about the vicious or the virtuous circles of team cohesion depends on whether the individual failures developing into collective failures are triggered endogenously or exogenously. The implications of this conceptual work are discussed in light of the literatures on error/failure management and group cohesiveness.

Adopting the theoretical framework of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT; Ellis, 1962, 1994), we examine the cognitive antecedents of functional behavior and adaptive emotions as indicators of emotional intelligence (EI) and test central assumptions of REBT. In an extension of REBT, we posit that adaptive emotions resulting from rational cognitions reflect more EI than maladaptive emotions, which result from irrational cognitions, because the former lead to functional behavior. The results of the first study using organizational scenarios in an experimental design confirm central assumptions of REBT and support our hypotheses. In a second correlational study we replicate the connection between rational cognitions and EI by measuring real person data using psychometric scales. Both studies indicate that irrational attitudes result in reduced job satisfaction.

This review of the applications of gel permeation chromatography (GPC) in the paint and allied industries is based on a literature search which mainly covers the years 1978 to 1982 and follows on from previous similar review articles, the last of which was published in this journal in 1979. [R. A. Ellis, Pigment & Resin Technology 5(11),17–21 (1979)]. As the technique of GPC is chiefly applied to binder resins the article is once again divided into sections dealing with the specific chemical polymer species that are used as paint binders. There is also a section dealing with finished paints and another which attempts to bring together all that is novel in GPC practice. There is a considerable variation in the degree of sophistication that needs be applied to carry out this technique, and it is again very much in evidence from this literature survey how much valuable work can still be done with the simplest of chromatographic equipment. However, the degree of sophistication that can be achieved in GPC procedures in terms of setting up fully automated computer‐controlled systems, which require only that the sample be presented in a suitable state of solution for complete analysis and data processing, is also evident from this review.

The direct comparison of similar polymers was achieved by a technique of differential GPC which, according to Runyon provided a simple yet sensitive technique that was relatively insensitive to operational variables. In this procedure the ‘standard’ polymer was dissolved in THF or an alternative suitable solvent, and the solution was used as the eluent in the GPC.

The interaction between formaldehyde and urea or thiourea has been reported by Richard and Gourdenne who used G.P.C. columns packed with reticular polystyrene gel of pore sizes 3×104, 3×103, 103, 500, 200, 100, 60 and 60 A and which were eluted with N, N‐dimethylformamide at 50°C. These authors prepared precursors such as monomethylolurea and N, N‐dimethylolurea in aqueous base at 4°C which prevented their autocondensation. These materials were positively identified by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, but they were not resolved from one another nor from urea itself on the G.P.C. columns on account of the fact that the strong solvation by the eluent dimethyl‐formamide was not affected by the substitution of one or two methylol groups into the urea molecule. Using an acid solution at room temperature, it was found that the reaction between formaldehyde and urea or disubstituted urea produced substances such as methylene diurea and methylene di (N, N‐dimethylurea) which, respectively, eluted before and after urea itself. When urea or thiourea was reacted with formaldehyde at a molar ratio of 1:1.8 in a 30% aqueous solution of pH 8 at 95°C, it was shown by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy that the individual urea residues were linked by ether bridges only and that methylenic linkages were totally absent. The degree of cross‐linking of the products was expressed in terms of the ratio of the number of protons included in these bridges to the total number of protons in the various methylene groups as determined by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Five samples were taken from such a reaction between urea and formaldehyde. Their G.P.C. curves were obtained and they were shown to display a wider molecular size distribution as the calculated degree of cross‐linking increased. The initial sample was found to be comprised of a mixture of mono‐ and dimethylolurea, but the samples taken later on during the reaction were more highly polymerised and could not be assigned individual molecular structures. A similar conclusion was reached using a mixture of thiourea and formaldehyde in the preparation of a resin.

Searching for a job is an important process that influences short- and long-term career outcomes as well as well-being and psychological health. As such, job search research has grown tremendously over the last two decades. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of prior research, discuss important trends in current research, and suggest areas for future research. The authors conceptualize the job search as an unfolding process (i.e., a process through which job seekers navigate through stages to achieve their goal of finding and accepting a job) in which job seekers engage in self-regulation behaviors. The authors contrast research that has taken a between-person, static approach with research that has taken a within-person, dynamic approach and highlight the importance of combining between- and within-person designs in order to have a more holistic understanding of the job search process. Finally, authors provide some recommendations for future research. Much remains to be learned about what influences job search self-regulation, and how job self-regulation influences job search and employment outcomes depending on individual, contextual, and environmental factors.

This chapter identifies the attributes that learners need in order to learn effectively in new technology rich educational environments. There are a number of different ways of synthesising the findings from this emerging literature which relies heavily on qualitative research. This chapter reports on a literature review which adopted a deliberately interpretative qualitative meta-analysis, synthesising the findings from 15 key studies. As such, the chapter demonstrates a way of reviewing and compiling current research. The synthesis resulted in the identification of six attributes that learners need to do well in next generation learning spaces. These are engaged, connected, confident, adaptable, intentional and self-aware. Although some of these attributes are applicable to all learning contexts, those of being connected, confident, adaptable, and intentional seem to be particularly important in learning in next generation learning spaces. The challenge is to design learning activities that encourage and reward the development of these attributes. The hope is that through both its findings and its method, this chapter provokes debate on what it now means to be a successful learner in today’s technology rich world.

I present and evaluate various explanations for why new workers who were sponsored by oldtimers tend to have better job outcomes (better performance, more satisfaction, and less turnover) than do new workers who were not sponsored.

My evaluations involve searching for evidence that fits (or does not fit) each of the explanations.

The two most popular explanations argue that the job benefits of sponsorship arise because (a) sponsored newcomers have more realistic job expectations than do unsponsored newcomers, or (b) the quality of sponsored newcomers is greater than that of unsponsored newcomers. Unfortunately, these explanations have weak empirical support. A third explanation, largely untested as yet, attributes the performance benefits of sponsorship to social pressures that can arise when someone is sponsored for a job. These pressures include efforts by newcomers to repay the people who sponsored them, efforts by sponsors to assist the newcomers they sponsored after those persons have been hired, and stereotypes among coworkers about the kinds of people who get jobs through sponsors. Although limited as yet, the evidence regarding this new explanation seems promising.

More research on this third explanation for sponsorship effects should be done. Suggestions for how to do such research are reviewed and a relevant experiment is presented.

The ideas and evidence presented here could help employers who want to improve the job outcomes of their new workers. Poor outcomes among such persons are a major problem in many settings.

Although some of my ideas have been mentioned by others, they were not been described in much detail, nor were they tested. My hope is that this chapter will promote new theory and research on the performance benefits of sponsorship, a topic that has been largely ignored in recent years.