Search results

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships among team leader emotional intelligence competencies, team level emotional intelligence, and team performance.

It is argued here that the team leader's emotional intelligence (EI) will influence the development of group level emotional intelligence (GEI), which was measured by a team's emotionally competent group norms (ECGN). Second, it is hypothesized that the presence of ECGNs will positively influence group effectiveness. Data were collected from 422 respondents representing 81 teams in a military organization.

Results show that team leader emotional intelligence is significantly related to the presence of emotionally competent group norms on the teams they lead, and that emotionally competent group norms are related to team performance.

Limitations of this research include a narrow sample with the teams not being highly interdependent.

This research provides implications for practice in three primary areas: development and sustainment of emotionally intelligent managers and leaders; development and sustainment of emotionally intelligent work groups; and establishment of organizational leaders at all levels to foster and support emotional competence throughout the organization.

This research contributes to the field by offering support for the effects the team leaders' emotional intelligence has on the teams they lead as well as by showing how team level emotional intelligence affects team performance. This study adds to the body of literature in what is considered a relatively new area of study. The four key contributions of this research are: this research shows that the leader's behaviors are important at the team level; this research further validates Wolff and Druskat's (forthcoming) ECGN theory by lending support for the ECGNs as well as offering alternative clustering ideas for the norms; ECGNs were shown to be related to performance; and lastly this research extends the knowledge base about emotions in groups.

Mindfulness helps improve effectiveness by facilitating the use of emotion as information, which improves learning, adaptation, and performance. When mindful we observe emotions and are curious about them rather than controlled by them, freeing us to explore what the emotion is telling us.

I discuss three forms of mindfulness that combine to create a pattern of behavior called mindful organizing. Mindful organizing has numerous benefits but there are also costs that must be balanced against the benefits. Bringing mindfulness into organizations must be done in a way that reduces costs and increases benefits; practical mindfulness is introduced as a means to do this.

Practical mindfulness begins with what is achievable at the present time and reduces the social and emotional barriers to behaving mindfully through the use of tools. Practical mindfulness recognizes the importance of interaction to task accomplishment by focusing attention on all three phases of interaction: before, during, and after.

Lester and Wolff (2013) find little empirical support for the Austrian business cycle theory. According to their analysis, an unexpected monetary shock does not alter the structure of production in a way consistent with the Austrian view. Rather than increasing production in early and late stages relative to middle stages, they find the opposite – a positive monetary shock typically decreases production in early and late stages relative to middle stages. We argue that the measures of production and prices employed by Lester and Wolff (2013) are constructed in such a way that makes them inappropriate for assessing the empirical relevance of the Austrian business cycle theory’s unique features. After describing how these measures are constructed and why using ratios of stages is problematic, we use a structural vector autoregression to consider the effects of a monetary shock on each stage of the production process. We show that, with a clearer understanding of what is actually being measured by the stage of process data, the results are consistent with (but not exclusive to) the Austrian view.

Using a sample of 214 US metropolitan areas, we examine the connection between the Great Recession and bad jobs, taking into consideration the macro-level determinants of the troubled economy. Our measure of bad jobs is derived from Kalleberg, Reskin, and Hudson’s (2000) conceptualization as those that have low pay, lack health insurance, and lack pension plans. We find that the Great Recession increased the prevalence of bad jobs, consistently for men and selectively for women. Among the macro-level processes, the decline of the manufacturing base, union membership, and public sector employment are sources of increasing bad jobs, especially for men. Those macro-level processes which are growing in influence such as casualization, globalization and financialization show no signs of reversing the negative trends in bad jobs. Human capital variables in the labor market such as educational and age variability consistently suggest more adverse effects on bad jobs for men than women. Our findings contribute to the further understanding of the nature of precarious work in a troubled economy.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a heuristic method for topology optimization of a continuum with bi-modulus material which is frequently occurred in practical engineering.

The essentials of this model are as follows: First, the original bi-modulus is replaced with two isotropic materials to simplify structural analysis. Second, the stress filed is adopted to calculate the effective strain energy densities (SED) of elements. Third, a floating reference interval of SED is defined and updated by active constraint. Fourth, the elastic modulus of an element is updated according to its principal stresses. Final, the design variables are updated by comparing the local effective SEDs and the current reference interval of SED.

Numerical examples show that the ratio between the tension modulus and the compression modulus of the bi-modulus material in a structure has a significant effect on the final topology design, which is different from that in the same structure with isotropic material. In the optimal structure, it can be found that the material points with the higher modulus are reserved as much as possible. When the ratio is far more than unity, the material can be considered as tension-only material. If the ratio is far less than unity, the material can be considered as compression-only material. As a result, the topology optimization of continuum structures with tension-only or compression-only materials can also be solved by the proposed method.

The value of this paper is twofold: the bi-modulus material layout optimization in a continuum can be solved by the method proposed in this paper, and the layout difference between the structure with bi-modulus material and the same structure but with isotropic material shows that traditional topology optimization result could not be suitable for a real bi-modulus layout design project.

Rates for self‐inflicted deaths (SIDs) were analysed in English and Welsh prisons. Whilst the overall reductions in SIDs are to be welcomed, the data demonstrate that there is variation in progress with SIDs reduction across the different types of prison. SIDs is increasing in high security prisons and these findings have implications for both research and commissioning. Those that commission prison mental health services in primary care trusts must recognise the need for targeted interventions that acknowledge three major issues indicated in the literature: the likely childhood trauma experienced by mentally disordered prisoners; a better recognition of the important role played by victimisation and intimidation in SIDs; and greater investment in alcohol treatment programmes in prison. Research should be commissioned that examines these factors in relation to SID.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).