The Effort-Reward Imbalance model of psychosocial stress at the workplace—a comparison of ERI exposure assessment using two estimation methods

It is not unusual for old data to be used in epidemiological studies. Recently developed instruments for measuring work-related stress did not exist when the data collection was carried out. Therefore, approximate questions are sometimes used. An apparent problem is the lack of validation of proxy questions. The aim of this study was to compare the original questions for measuring Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) with approximate questions. The study population corresponded with a subgroup in the WOLF-n (WOrk, Lipids, Fibrinogen-north) cohort study of cardiovascular risk in a working population in the north of Sweden: 655 men and 178 women. The agreement in exposure between the original and the approximate ERI single questions was relatively low throughout, whereas the correlation between the ERI subscales and the ERI ratios was reasonable. The latter agreement between the original and the approximate ERI ratio indicates that the approximate measures might have been useful in the past. Yet, whenever possible the implementation of the original questionnaire in study protocols is recommended since a complete measurement of ERI might help to further improve the internal consistency and the predictive validity of this exposure to effort-reward imbalance.     

和谐管理理论评析

管理学在中国的发展轨迹为“生理学-病理学-诊断学”,和谐管理理论的诞生和发展是其中的代表。作为-种学说,和谐管理理论经历了泰罗式的“走出经验”、西蒙式的“走出最优”、哈耶克式的“走出建构”,走向新型管理诊断学。这-理论的切入点,经历了“计划-战略-定向”,具有范式性贡献;其研究内容,经历了“控制-协调-和谐”,形成对不确定性的消解。但尚有值得进-步思考的问题,包括排除人性假设是研究策略还是学科逻辑问题、和则与谐则耦合的“-手硬-手软”问题、问题导向与原理导向的关系问题、理性建构和知识演化的认识论问题。     

Some Cautions on the Measurement of User Information Satisfaction*

User information satisfaction (UIS) is important because of its potential effects on MIS department goals, quality of user work life, and extent of voluntary usage of systems. Reliable measurement of UIS is important for providing evaluative information for both researchers and practitioners. This study used 92 managers and executives as subjects to compare the test/retest reliability of a widely used, 13-scale UIS instrument together with four summary questions under experimental and control conditions. The summary questions behaved more reliably than the detailed questions for all groups, perhaps because of problems with scale units and origins and with item heterogeneity. This suggests that researchers need more reliable measures of UIS and that practitioners need to exercise caution when collecting and interpreting UIS scores.     

The Effort-Reward Imbalance model of psychosocial stress at the workplace—a comparison of ERI exposure assessment using two estimation methods

It is not unusual for old data to be used in epidemiological studies. Recently developed instruments for measuring work-related stress did not exist when the data collection was carried out. Therefore, approximate questions are sometimes used. An apparent problem is the lack of validation of proxy questions. The aim of this study was to compare the original questions for measuring Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) with approximate questions. The study population corresponded with a subgroup in the WOLF-n (WOrk, Lipids, Fibrinogen–north) cohort study of cardiovascular risk in a working population in the north of Sweden: 655 men and 178 women. The agreement in exposure between the original and the approximate ERI single questions was relatively low throughout, whereas the correlation between the ERI subscales and the ERI ratios was reasonable. The latter agreement between the original and the approximate ERI ratio indicates that the approximate measures might have been useful in the past. Yet, whenever possible the implementation of the original questionnaire in study protocols is recommended since a complete measurement of ERI might help to further improve the internal consistency and the predictive validity of this exposure to effort-reward imbalance.     

The basic rules of questions and answers

Our world is full of basic rules. And life is loaded with questions. The physician executive's life is certainly governed by both items. With a mountain of information, separation of fact from nonfact involves methodical processing. The physician executive must spend vast amounts of time in the pursuit of factual, pertinent information. Equally time-consuming is the application and dissemination of this information. This article offers a physiologic model for understanding the acquisition and dissemination of information and applies the model to the specifics of handling questions from a broad range of people--subordinates, superiors, constituents, customers, etc.     

Heuristics for prioritizing pair-wise elicitation questions with additive multi-attribute value models

Additive value models are widely used in Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis. Direct elicitation of the value model preference parameters can impose excessive cognitive burden on the decision maker. Indirect techniques that employ pair-wise questions have been proposed for lowering the elicitation effort. In all practically relevant problems, more than a single question needs to be answered for arriving at a sufficiently precise outcome. The selection and ordering of questions affects the number of answers required for ranking the decision alternatives. However, evaluating all possible questions and answers is intractable due to the search space being, in the worst case, of factorial size. This paper develops heuristics for prioritizing pair-wise elicitation questions based on (1) necessary preference relations, (2) extreme ranks attained by the alternatives, (3) pair-wise preference indices, and (4) rank acceptability indices. We also introduce three metrics for assessing quality of a question prioritization heuristic. Numerical results allow us to identify a subset of heuristics that score well on our metrics in a variety of problem settings. This conclusion was validated in a real-world experiment where 101 subjects answered pair-wise questions to rank 10 mobile phone packages evaluated in terms of four criteria.     

How new leaders affect strategic change following a succession event: A critical review of the literature

In this study we review literature on leaders' impact on strategic change in the context of CEO succession events. We critically examine the progress made by research within the field focusing on four questions: WHY, WHAT, HOW, and WHEN. WHY addresses the theoretical arguments put forth in the literature to explain the phenomenon of post-succession strategic change. WHAT addresses the contingency factors that have been argued to affect leaders' impact on strategic change in succession contexts. HOW addresses the way, in which strategic change manifests itself within firms. Finally, WHEN addresses the temporal dimension of strategic change. Overall, we find that although research on the leadership succession strategic change (LSSC) relationship is immature with attention being focused on only few theoretical explanations and research questions, it is indeed evolving. We find need for improvements to theory, research questions pursued, and methodology and offer several opportunities to extend the literature along these needs.     

The effect of the channel tunnel on Europe

In this article the author examines some of the implications of the Channel Tunnel. The paper sets out to answer two questions: (i) concerning the effects of the Tunnel as conceived in the British Government White Paper; and (ii) concerning the effects of a tunnel system differently conceived. Whilst the author's conclusions must be tentative, they suggest questions which ought to be asked and imply answers which seem likely to be approximately right. They imply a criticism of the official approach to the Tunnel which did not ask these questions.     

A Study of Typology of Teacher’s Questions

This study invested the typology of teacher’s questions as well as its functions in teaching. Teacher’s questions are widely acknowledged as a valuable instrumental strategy,improved classroom questioning strategies may contribute to the development of students’ higher cognitive-thinking skills,asking the right questions appears to enhance the student learning.     

Positive psychology coaching

Researchers have found that we live in a world our questions create because what we ask people determines what they discover and shapes their ability to imagine plan and create their future reality. So are you asking questions that help people to discover the true, the good and the possible in their situations in ways that fuel their confidence, courage and commitment? In this article we’ll begin by understanding the growth of strengths-based coaching, explore the potential benefits of a strengths approach and see how coaches are putting a strengths focus into practice, the tools they are using, the questions they are asking and the emerging research that is guiding their work.     

Sequencing questions to ferret out terrorists: Models and heuristics

Consider the problem of granting boarding clearance for a large population of air travelers while ferreting out any potential terrorists and denying them entry, in a short time. It is assumed that the probability of having a terrorist in the group is very small. Further assume that the process consists of asking a series of questions and the decision to clear or deny is dependent on the answer set. An efficient sequencing of the questions may reduce the number of questions needed to be asked in order to reach a decision. This problem is modeled as a question sequencing problem. The problem is intrinsically hard and hence we develop two approaches to solving the problem. The first uses a traditional greedy heuristic approach exploiting the relationship between answers and the outcome. The second adopts the decision tree approach used in classification problems to this problem. We also report on the performance of the two heuristics which does exceptionally well on problems with a very low probability of occurrence.     

The Concept of Distance in International Business Research: A Review and Research Agenda

This paper reviews the literature on the effects of distance arising from country differences on outcomes at the firm and subsidiary level. It provides some clarity on what has been learned so far about distance by answering four questions: Which distance? Why does distance matter? What outcomes are affected by distance? and What aggravates or alleviates the effects of distance? Based on the review of the literature, a set of future research suggestions are developed, intended to direct attention to research questions that the authors believe are among the most pressing questions in distance research and that may have the potential to advance the field substantially.     

Improving Environmental Leadership: Asking Better Questions about Existing Inefficiencies

Physicist John Wheeler once commented that, “we shape the world by the questions we ask.” By asking better questions about how we can more efficiently produce our nation's goods and services, environmental leadership no longer means ratcheting down the economy. Rather, it becomes more an issue of how we can put our technological know-how and leadership to work. When we think about encouraging more investment in more productive technologies, we are taking the first step that will both save money and reduce environmental impacts. And it appears that more businesses are beginning to ask those tougher and better questions. The remaining question is whether we can sufficiently increase the number of businesses who are willing to ask those harder questions, and who are willing to explore new ways to turn missed opportunities into real world savings – to the benefit of the environment. Paraphrasing the great English economist, John Maynard Keynes, “the difficulty lies not with the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones.”     

The coordination processes and dynamics within the inter-organizational context of contract-based outsourced engineering projects

This paper examines the coordination processes (CPs) in outsourced engineering projects by focusing on two questions: How are these processes shaped in contract-driven projects, and is there an alternative approach that improves inter-organizational control of CPs from the client perspective? In studying these questions, we compare two engineering projects, one of which implements the meetings-flow approach, abbreviated as MFA. The findings suggest that, for effective management of different organizations through various dependent project activities, the CPs require an integrated and institutionalized venue enabled by the client. CPs are shaped between clients and contractors, and they can be improved and sustained by this approach.     

Putting "teeth" in your résumé

How can physician executives get the kind of management experience they need to move to the next level? Is the MBA the end all or can significant management experience and top assignments impress recruiters and CEOs? Here are some important questions to ask yourself about each job you have held as you prepare to move forward in your career: How did I improve the organization? How did I contribute to greater efficiency? How did I affect productivity? How did my work increase the bottom line? Thinking about these questions can help you put teeth in your résumé and get you where you want to go. When you can answer those questions from your own experience, you will have created a powerful career track record that is likely to impress the next CEO whose staff you want to join.     

The application of microcomputers in production management

The findings reported result from a questionnaire survey, and a number of company interviews. Further questions which need to be answered are identified, and a research project to provide these answers is outlined.     

SERVICE SYSTEM DESIGN FOR THE PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE INDUSTRY

This paper describes the changes that are forcing property and casualty insurance firms to rethink their service system design and in particular their distribution strategies. A set of questions related to distribution that are uppermost in the minds of executives in this industry are presented along with a literature survey of models that can be used to answer some of these questions. Based on the survey, a normative framework for designing the distribution system is proposed. Qualitative and quantitative analysis based on the proposed framework is presented along with empirical data to demonstrate the usefulness of the framework. The paper concludes with an agenda for further research.     

The services field: A cornucopia filled with potential management topics

A primary aim of management research is to develop knowledge about the management of organizations. Many countries’ long-trend shift towards a service economy and the concomitant increase in the number of service organizations have stimulated advancements in service management research. However, some blind spots remain. In this article, we focus on product market stakeholders and organizational stakeholders and discuss research questions (or blind spots) that map to different areas of management literature, especially those of service management literature. We believe that attaining answers to those research questions can yield important insights that have the potential to advance management research.     

How to cope with behavioral interviewing questions.

What should a potential employee do when asked behavioral or highly intrusive questions during the interview? Here are some suggestions to help you be prepared should the interviewer ask you personal or objectionable questions: (1) Take some time for introspection; (2) be prepared to draw the line; (3) complain; and (4) write it off. And remember: A show of determination and setting boundaries in an interview may advance your progress. Coolness under fire is an attractive personality trait.     

The future of forms of data communications

The first section of the paper is a review of current and planned data communications services. This covers the current state of the art in these services, identifies the need for change and surveys what plans have been made for new services. It looks at what forms of data communications have been established in various countries including the U.K., Germany, U.S.A. and Australia. The second part of the paper poses some key questions. These are broadly similar to those involved in planning other major new investments in utilities or public transportation involving a high degree of technical innovation. They cover the problems of designing a new technology, the pricing of data communications utilities, how to evaluate new services and what the role of the monopoly supplier should be. The paper does not set out to answer these questions but to expose them as areas where controversy is centred, and new research work required.