Media Effects on Group Collaboration: An Empirical Examination in an Ethical Decision‐Making Context

Even though it is widely acknowledged that collaboration underlies much of the decision‐making efforts in contemporary organizations, and that organizational groups are increasingly making decisions that have ethical implications, few studies have examined group ethical decision‐making processes and outcomes. In addition, while there is increasing evidence that groups often collaborate/communicate using different mediating technologies, few studies have examined the effect of the characteristics of the media in group ethical decision‐making contexts. Finally, there is a clear paucity of studies that have investigated group decision making pertaining to information technology (IT)‐related ethical dilemmas, an area of rising importance for information systems (IS) and decision science researchers. This article seeks to address the gaps described above through an experimental study where groups collaborating either in a face‐to‐face context or in a computer‐mediated context (using NetMeeting or Wiki) were required to make a decision with respect to a scenario with an IT‐related ethical dilemma. Results indicate that media characteristics (e.g., anonymity, immediacy of feedback, parallelism) do not have an effect on whether groups make ethical (or unethical) decisions. However, several media characteristics were found to play a significant role on downstream variables, such as the quality of a follow‐up task (i.e., creation of a decision justification document), and overall process satisfaction of the group members.     

Identifying the time of change in the mean of a two-stage nested process

Statistical process control charts are used to distinguish between common cause and special cause sources of variability. Once a control chart signals, a search to find the special cause should be initiated. If process analysts had knowledge of the change point, the search to find the special cause could be easily facilitated. Relevant literature contains an array of solutions to the change-point problem; however, these solutions are most appropriate when the samples are assumed to be independent. Unfortunately, the assumption of independence is often violated in practice. This work considers one such case of non-independence that frequently occurs in practice as a result of multi-stage sampling. Due to its commonality in practice, we assume a two-stage nested random model as the underlying process model and derive and evaluate a maximum-likelihood estimator for the change point in the fixed-effects component of this model. The estimator is applied to electron microscopy data obtained following a genuine control chart signal and from a real machining process where the important quality characteristic is the size of the surface grains produced by the machining operation. We conduct a simulation study to compare relative performances between the proposed change-point estimator and a commonly used alternative developed under the assumption of independent observations. The results suggest that both estimators are approximately unbiased; however, the proposed estimator yields smaller variance. The implication is that the proposed estimator is more precise, and thus, the quality of the estimator is improved relative to the alternative.     

Rank‐based estimate of four‐parameter logistic model

During drug development, the calculation of inhibitory concentration that results in a response of 50% (IC₅₀) is performed thousands of times every day. The nonlinear model most often used to perform this calculation is a four‐parameter logistic, suitably parameterized to estimate the IC₅₀ directly. When performing these calculations in a high‐throughput mode, each and every curve cannot be studied in detail, and outliers in the responses are a common problem. A robust estimation procedure to perform this calculation is desirable. In this paper, a rank‐based estimate of the four‐parameter logistic model that is analogous to least squares is proposed. The rank‐based estimate is based on the Wilcoxon norm. The robust procedure is illustrated with several examples from the pharmaceutical industry. When no outliers are present in the data, the robust estimate of IC₅₀ is comparable with the least squares estimate, and when outliers are present in the data, the robust estimate is more accurate. A robust goodness‐of‐fit test is also proposed. To investigate the impact of outliers on the traditional and robust estimates, a small simulation study was conducted. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Ethnicity’: The Irish in Scotland‐football,politics and identity

One of the central arguments of this paper is that football in Scotland has acquired characteristics which make it a nationalistic, political and cultural repository. An examination of football allows us to examine characteristics of identity in Scotland otherwise unclear. These identities have their origins in the post‐Reformation period in Scotland, Irish immigration into Scotland and Scotland/Britain's historically contentious relationship with Ireland. This paper examines some of the mainfeatures of these identities.     

Myth,identity, and social interaction: Encountering Santa Claus at the mall

Each year during the Christmas season Santa Claus appears at shopping malls across the country. This qualitative study shows how Santa actors and the public respond to the typification of the Santa myth. Using the dramaturgical approach, the authors examine the meanings that people of various age and gender identities attribute to the mall environment, and how these understandings influence their interactions with Santa. Behaviors are analyzed in age cohorts ranging from infancy to the elderly. Gender strongly influenced people's interactions with Santa across all age cohorts. Adult behaviors varied widely, but in the presence of children, both males and females promoted the Santa Claus fantasy. In the mall setting, where one's social identity is subject to public scrutiny, interactions with Santa help define, reinforce, and confirm one's sense of self.     

The E-R-A Model: The Role of Feelings in Family Therapy Reconsidered: Implications for a Classification of Theories of Family Therapy

The importance of considering a continuum of Emotionality (E) separately from Rationality (R) or Activity (A) is emphasized. A model showing equally all three aspects is presented that allows a clearer classification of family therapy theorists than has been possible heretofore. Diagnostic, therapeutic, and research implications are hinted at, but will be part of future work.