Ethics,character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior

The morality of transformational leadership has been sharply questioned, particularly by libertarians, “grass roots” theorists, and organizational development consultants. This paper argues that to be truly transformational, leadership must be grounded in moral foundations. The four components of authentic transformational leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration) are contrasted with their counterfeits in dissembling pseudo-transformational leadership on the basis of (1) the moral character of the leaders and their concerns for self and others; (2) the ethical values embedded in the leaders' vision, articulation, and program, which followers can embrace or reject; and (3) the morality of the processes of social ethical choices and action in which the leaders and followers engage and collectively pursue.The literature on transformational leadership is linked to the long-standing literature on virtue and moral character, as exemplified by Socratic and Confucian typologies. It is related as well to the major themes of the modern Western ethical agenda: liberty, utility, and distributive justice Deception, sophistry, and pretense are examined alongside issues of transcendence, agency, trust, striving for congruence in values, cooperative action, power, persuasion, and corporate governance to establish the strategic and moral foundations of authentic transformational leadership.     

中国收入不平等:发展、转型和政策

描述了中国改革开放以来收入不平等变动的主要趋势,并将其归因于如下四种因素的相互影响:第一,由传统的发展理论所刻画,以结构转型、市场扩展、剩余劳动力吸收和收入差距的库兹涅茨“倒U型”路径等为主要影响的发展因素。第二,经济制度的转型变化因素。在经济体制从计划经济向市场经济的转型过程中经济活动决策过程的微观化,多种所有制经济的出现,以及收入分配机制的变化引起了收入分配格局的改变。第三,经济体制转型不彻底和不完善的因素。这导致了寻租、设租和隐性收入的产生,带来收入差距扩大和收入分配不平等。第四,社会保障制度和再分配政策的逐步完善因素。这在一定程度上起到了缓解收入分配不平等的作用。     

Do student social background and school context affect implementation of a school-based physical activity program?

This study examined the relationship between student- and school- characteristics and different implementation parameters of “Active All Year Round”, a nationwide Danish school-based physical activity program. The study is based on data from multiple sources: questionnaire data from students from 16 fifth-grade school classes (n = 276) and their teachers (n = 16), in-class observations (n = 15) and register data. Predictors included the student-level characteristics of gender, family affluence, immigration background, and perception of school connectedness as well as the school-level characteristics of school size, school parental education level, school physical activity policy and school’s prioritization of health promotion. Implementation was assessed by creating an implementation score from data on program psychological reach, dose delivered, dose received and fidelity. Data were analyzed by multilevel linear regression analysis. Findings indicated that the program was more easily implemented for students with higher school connectedness. To conclude, school-based health promotion programs can be improved by knowing, before the program is implemented, which factors increase the odds of better implementation.     

Strategic leadership for exploration and exploitation: The moderating role of environmental dynamism

This study advances prior theoretical research by linking transformational and transactional behaviors of strategic leaders to two critical outputs of organizational learning: exploratory and exploitative innovation. Findings indicate that transformational leadership behaviors contribute significantly to adopting generative thinking and pursuing exploratory innovation. Transactional leadership behaviors, on the other hand, facilitate improving and extending existing knowledge and are associated with exploitative innovation. In addition, we argue that environmental dynamism needs to be taken into account to fully understand the effectiveness of strategic leaders. Our study provides new insights that misfits rather than fits between leadership behaviors and innovative outcomes matter in dynamic environments. Hence, we contribute to the debate on the role of strategic leaders in managing exploration and exploitation, not only by examining how specific leadership behaviors impact innovative outcomes, but also by revealing how the impact of leadership is contingent upon dynamic environmental conditions.     

Does it make a difference? Evaluation of a Canadian poverty reduction initiative

Program evaluation is an important aspect of any organization. The ability to reflect on past performance and plan for the future is essential to an organization’s health and future growth. This exploratory study is part of a larger program evaluation initiative that examined the efficacy of a regionally based organization that provided funding to community groups to alleviate poverty. The purpose of the study was to explore testimonials provided by participants of the organization’s funded programs, to determine if the participants were satisfied with the programs and the extent to which participants’ perceptions are congruent with the goals of the organization. Content analysis was used to examine 3494 testimonials from 77 different agencies. Three overall themes were determined from the analysis: 1 Developing Social Networks, 2 Learning Comes in Various Forms, and 3 Developing Self-Efficacy. Findings from the testimonials suggest that the benefits of the programs are highly social and that connections with others are important, but also provide rich opportunities for learning new skills and knowledge, as well as gaining confidence and a sense of control. The findings from this analysis support one goal of the organization which is to engage people living in poverty in meaningful ways.     

State investments in high-technology job growth

Since the early 1970's state and local governments have launched an array of economic development programs designed to promote high-technology development. The question our analysis addresses is whether these programs promote long-term high-technology employment growth net of state location and agglomeration advantages. Proponents talk about an infrastructure strategy that promotes investment in public research and specialized infrastructure to attract and grow new high technology industries in specific locations, and a more decentralized entrepreneurial strategy that reinforces local agglomeration capacities by investing in new enterprises and products, promoting the development of local networks and partnerships. Our results support the entrepreneurial strategy, suggesting that state governments can accelerate high technology development by adopting market-supportive programs that complement private sector initiatives. In addition to positive direct benefits of technology deployment/transfer programs and SBIR programs, entrepreneurial programs affect change in high-technology employment in concert with existing locational and agglomeration advantages. Rural (i.e. low population density) states tend to benefit by technology development programs. Infrastructure strategy programs also facilitate high technology job growth in places where local advantages already exist. Our results suggest that critics of industrial policy are correct that high technology growth is organic and endogenous, yet state governments are able to “pick winners and losers” in ways that grow their local economy.     

Optimal designs for calibration of orientations

This paper concerns designed experiments involving observations of orientations following the models of Prentice (1989) and Rivest &Chang (2006). The authors state minimal conditions on the designs for consistent least squares estimation of the matrix parameters in these models. The conditions are expressed in terms of the axes and rotation angles of the design orientations. The authors show that designs satisfying U₁ + … + U_n = 0 are optimal in the sense of minimizing the estimation error average angular distance. The authors give constructions of optimal n‐point designs when n ≥ 4 and they compare the performance of several designs through approximations and simulation.     

A functional law of the iterated logarithm for kernel-type estimators of the tail index

Under von Mises's condition, the kernel tail index estimators of Csörgő et al. (Ann. Statist. 13 (1985) 1050) have been generalized by Groeneboon et al. (Ann. Statist. 31 (2003) 1956) for all real tail indices. Weak consistency and asymptotic normality of their kernel estimators have been established. In this paper, we present a characterization of the almost sure behavior of these estimators and we show their strong consistency.     

The possibilities for global inequality and poverty reduction using revenues from global carbon pricing

Global carbon pricing can yield revenues which are large enough to create significant global pro-poor redistributive opportunities. We analyze alternative multidecade growth trajectories from 2015 to 2105 for major global economies with carbon tax rates designed to stabilize emissions in the presence of both continued country growth and autonomous energy use efficiency improvement. In our central case analysis, revenues from globally internalizing carbon pricing rise to 8 % and then fall to 6 % of gross world product. High growth in India and China reduces global inequality and poverty strongly over time, but important incremental redistributive effects can be achieved using global carbon pricing revenues. Taking into account both between-country effects and previous literature estimates of within-country effects, a global carbon tax alone tends to be regressive in its global incidence. However, if its revenues are redistributed globally via equal per capita transfers, in our central case the Gini coefficient for world income falls by about 3 % and the share of the bottom decile rises by 81 % on average from 2015 to 2105. The population living in poverty falls by 16 % in 2015. Going further, global poverty could be eliminated entirely by 2015 according to our calculations if one third of global carbon tax revenues were redistributed directly to the poorest individuals.