Search results
1 – 10 of 516Julian Barling, Julie G. Weatherhead, Shani Pupco, Nick Turner and A. Wren Montgomery
Why some people are motivated to become leaders is important both conceptually and practically. Motivation to lead compels people to seek out leadership roles and is a distinct…
Abstract
Purpose
Why some people are motivated to become leaders is important both conceptually and practically. Motivation to lead compels people to seek out leadership roles and is a distinct predictor of leader role occupancy. The goal of our research is to determine contextual (socioeconomic status and parenting quality), interpersonal (sociometric status), and personal (self-esteem and gender) antecedents of the motivation to lead among young adults.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors tested the model using two samples of Canadian undergraduate students (Sample 1: N = 174, M age = 20.02 years, 83% female; Sample 2: N = 217, M age = 18.8 years, 54% female). The authors tested the proposed measurement model using the first sample, and tested the hypothesized structural model using the second sample.
Findings
The proposed 5-factor measurement model provided an excellent fit to the data. The hypothesized model also provided a good fit to the data after controlling for potential threats from endogeneity. In addition, gender moderated the relationship between sociometric status and affective-identity motivation to lead, such that this interaction was significant for females but not males.
Practical implications
The findings make a practical contribution in understanding how parents, teachers, and organizations can encourage greater motivation to lead, especially among young adults who have faced poverty and marginalization and tend to be excluded from leadership positions in organizations.
Originality/value
The authors conceptualize and test the contextual, interpersonal, and personal predictors of affective-identity motivation to lead among young adults.
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Alessandro Stefanini, Davide Aloini and Peter Gloor
This study investigates the relationships between team dynamics and performance in healthcare operations. Specifically, it explores, through wearable sensors, how team…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the relationships between team dynamics and performance in healthcare operations. Specifically, it explores, through wearable sensors, how team coordination mechanisms can influence the likelihood of surgical glitches during routine surgery.
Design/methodology/approach
Breast surgeries of a large Italian university hospital were monitored using Sociometric Badges – wearable sensors developed at MIT Media Lab – for collecting objective and systematic measures of individual and group behaviors in real time. Data retrieved were used to analyze team coordination mechanisms, as it evolved in the real settings, and finally to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
Findings highlight that a relevant portion of glitches in routine surgery is caused by improper team coordination practices. In particular, results show that the likelihood of glitches decreases when practitioners adopt implicit coordination mechanisms rather than explicit ones. In addition, team cohesion appears to be positively related with the surgical performance.
Originality/value
For the first time, direct, objective and real time measurements of team behaviors have enabled an in-depth evaluation of the team coordination mechanisms in surgery and the impact on surgical glitches. From a methodological perspective, this research also represents an early attempt to investigate coordination behaviors in dynamic and complex operating environments using wearable sensor tools.
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Giulia Balboni, Simona de Falco and Paola Venuti
School inclusion of students with disabilities in ordinary classes is a multidimensional phenomena that may be evaluated with respect to different dimensions: social acceptance…
Abstract
School inclusion of students with disabilities in ordinary classes is a multidimensional phenomena that may be evaluated with respect to different dimensions: social acceptance, social interactions, and supports toward the student with disabilities, teachers’ and parents’ attitudes toward inclusion, and students’ mental representations of the peer with disabilities. The purpose of the present review is to present several methods for evaluating school inclusion: sociometric techniques, systematic observation, questionnaires, and student drawings. Additionally, an integrated use of these methods is presented to plan interventions to facilitate school integration.
Jessica M. Santoro, Aurora J. Dixon, Chu-Hsiang Chang and Steve W. J. Kozlowski
Team cohesion and other team processes are inherently dynamic mechanisms that contribute to team effectiveness. Unfortunately, extant research has typically treated team cohesion…
Abstract
Team cohesion and other team processes are inherently dynamic mechanisms that contribute to team effectiveness. Unfortunately, extant research has typically treated team cohesion and other processes as static, and failed to capture how these processes change over time and the implications of these changes. In this chapter, we discuss the characteristics of team process dynamics and highlight the importance of temporal considerations when measuring team cohesion. We introduce innovative research methods that can be applied to assess and monitor team cohesion and other process dynamics. Finally, we discuss future directions for the research and practical applications of these new methods to enhance our understanding of the dynamics of team cohesion and other processes.
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Catherine J. Taylor, Laura Freeman, Daniel Olguin Olguin and Taemie Kim
In this project, we propose and test a new device – wearable sociometric badges containing small microphones – as a low-cost and relatively unobtrusive tool for measuring stress…
Abstract
Purpose
In this project, we propose and test a new device – wearable sociometric badges containing small microphones – as a low-cost and relatively unobtrusive tool for measuring stress response to group processes. Specifically, we investigate whether voice pitch, measured using the microphone of the sociometric badge, is associated with physiological stress response to group processes.
Methodology
We collect data in a laboratory setting using participants engaged in two types of small-group interactions: a social interaction and a problem-solving task. We examine the association between voice pitch (measured by fundamental frequency of the participant’s speech) and physiological stress response (measured using salivary cortisol) in these two types of small-group interactions.
Findings
We find that in the social task, participants who exhibit a stress response have a statistically significant greater deviation in voice pitch (from their overall average voice pitch) than those who do not exhibit a stress response. In the problem-solving task, participants who exhibit a stress response also have a greater deviation in voice pitch than those who do not exhibit a stress response, however, in this case, the results are only marginally significant. In both tasks, among participants who exhibited a stress response, we find a statistically significant correlation between physiological stress response and deviation in voice pitch.
Practical and research implications
We conclude that wearable microphones have the potential to serve as cheap and unobtrusive tools for measuring stress response to group processes.
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Britta Ruschoff, Katariina Salmela-Aro, Thomas Kowalewski, Jan Kornelis Dijkstra and René Veenstra
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether young people’s peer networks can be an asset in finding employment during the transition from school to work. It examines…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether young people’s peer networks can be an asset in finding employment during the transition from school to work. It examines whether peer networks size and peers’ self-efficacy regarding their own job search are associated with job seekers’ career-relevant behaviors and outcomes, i.e., the number of applications completed and the number of job offers received.
Design/methodology/approach
Associations between job seekers’ peer networks and their job search behaviors and outcomes were investigated during their final year of vocational training. Sociometric measures were used to assess young people’s peer network size. Sociometric and self-report measures were used to establish the characteristics of the peers that comprise each job seekers’ network, resulting in the overall self-efficacy across each job seekers’ network.
Findings
The results show that peers’ efficacy beliefs are positively associated with young people’s engagement in job search activities (i.e. a greater number of applications completed) and indirectly associated with their job search outcomes (i.e. a greater number of job offers, which are mediated by the number of applications) that are independent of the peer network size.
Originality/value
The results underline that although peers might not provide instrumental support, encouraging interactions with (efficacious) peers may nonetheless be beneficial to young job seekers. Methodologically, the results demonstrate that the operationalization of self-efficacy as a network characteristic might provide us with valuable insights into the characteristics that turn social networks into beneficial social resources.
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Hyunsook Kim, Eun‐Young Rhee and Jaeyeol Yee
The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the “fashion process” by exploring and comparing fashion‐process networks and friendship networks in small groups of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the “fashion process” by exploring and comparing fashion‐process networks and friendship networks in small groups of adolescents, and to explore the factors involved in the causation of “clothing leadership” and “popularity” in such groups.
Design/methodology/approach
Fashion‐process networks and friendship networks are investigated by sociometric nomination with respect to “clothing acceptance” and “social acceptance” in three age groups of Korean adolescents. The patterns and structures of the networks are analyzed using UCINET 6.0 and Netminer 2.6. Certain factors contributing to “clothing leadership” and “popularity” are measured using Likert‐type scales; these include “clothing interest,” “fashion interest,” and “perceived clothing acceptance.” Other factors of interest (such as “academic grade,” “facial attractiveness,” and “bodily attractiveness”) are rated by peer informants.
Findings
Fashion‐process networks are found to be more centralized and polarized than friendship networks. Clothing acceptance is related to peer acceptance and is found to occur within and across friendship links. Clothing leaders are not necessarily the most popular subjects. The most significant factor determining “clothing leadership” is found to be “facial attractiveness.”
Research limitations/implications
Social network analysis is exploratory in nature and the results cannot be statistically verified. However, a better understanding of the characteristics of fashion‐process networks in small groups assists in bridging the gap between individual adoption of fashion at the micro‐level and fashion diffusion in society at the macro‐level.
Practical implications
By illuminating the dynamics of the fashion process in small groups, the study is of assistance in developing marketing strategies that target adolescents.
Originality/value
The study is original in that fashion process in small groups of Korean adolescents is investigated by social network analysis of “clothing acceptance,” and then compared to friendship networks.
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