Calling all users of Verbal Behavior

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior -     

Learning about radon's risk

This article reports the results of an evaluation of the effectiveness of different types of information materials in communicating the risk from exposure to radon, a naturally occurring indoor air pollutant. The study involved a panel of 2300 homeowners who actually experienced risks from radon, and the information program used to explain these risks. The analysis considered information transfer and performance on specific tasks requiring information on the risk from radon to measure learning. The results suggest a systematic learning process, but indicate that the process can be influenced by how risk information is presented.     

Commitment: A Conceptual Structure and Empirical Application

A conceptual structure for commitment is presented, specifying and clarifying the various meanings of the term as it has been used by sociologists and social psychologists. The possible importance of the concept for social psychology is illustrated by the interpretation of a number of social psychological experiments in terms of commitment processes. The utility of the concept of commitment for the analysis of courtship systems is discussed and the application of the concept of commitment on the level of social systems is illustrated by the use of the proposed conceptual structure in research on cohabitation on a university campus.     

Evaluating qualitative management research: Towards a contingent criteriology

The term qualitative management research embraces an array of non‐statistical research practices. Here it is argued that this diversity is an outcome of competing philosophical assumptions which produce distinctive research perspectives and legitimate the appropriation of different sets of evaluation criteria. Some confusion can arise when evaluation criteria constituted by particular philosophical conventions are universally applied to this heterogeneous management field. In order to avoid such misappropriation, this paper presents a first step towards a contingent criteriology located in a metatheoretical analysis of three modes of qualitative management research which are compared with the positivist mainstream to elaborate different forms of evaluation. It is argued that once armed with criteria that vary accordingly, evaluation can reflexively focus upon the extent to which any management research consistently embraces the particular methodological principles that are sanctioned by its a priori philosophical commitments.     

你是否发掘了知识工作者的最大价值？

管理知识工作者的人必须以新的方式履行职能巴布逊学院(Babson College)信息技术与管理学总统奖教授托马斯·达文波特(Thomas Davenport)称:如今,知识工作者占据了经济发达国家25％到50％的劳动力。知识工作者为你发明新产品和新服务、设计营销计划,并制定战略。     

准备好做领袖了吗？

领导者必须做好思想上的准备以面对未知的挑战是什么让杰出的企业领袖不同于那些平庸之辈呢?最出色的领军人物能预见未来的变化,发现变化所带来的机遇,能让自己的组织从变化中受益。总的来说,他们有备而来。现在,做好充分的准备比以往愈加重要了,这是Bill Welter和Jean Egmon所坚     

Postnatal Effects of Prenatal Insult

Exogenous agents may perturb development during the embryonic period and adversely affect the formation of organs. However, adverse effects on development are not limited to the embryonic period nor are the manifestations restricted solely to outright gross structural malformation, but may instead be expressed as a decrement or abberration of postnatal function. Susceptibility to altered development may extend well into the postnatal period. Studies of functional parameters in several organ systems have demonstrated the broad-based susceptibility, subtlety of expression and potential of long-lasting effects of altered development assessed by physiologic assays. Adverse effects on functional development, whether in the CNS, reproductive, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, respiratory, or immune systems, etc., merit continuing investigation. From the viewpoint of risk estimation and hazard detection, evaluations of postnatal functional parameters may be relevant for several reasons. First, such parameters may serve as low-dose triggers. Second, they may be useful as a focal point for epidemiological studies. Finally, a more thorough understanding of the degree and magnitude of such postnatal functional deficits is needed since an adverse maternal effect may be transient, considered acceptable, or unperceived, but the effect on the conceptus may be permanent and severe. The immune and respiratory systems are discussed as two examples of how subtle and protean adverse effects on functional development may be.     

Some Bayesian lower bounds on reliability in the lognormal distribution

The two-parameter lognormal distribution with density function f(y: γ, σ²) = [(2πσ²)^1/2y] ¹exp[?(ln y ? γ)²/2σ²], y > 0, is important as a failure-time model in life testing. In this paper, Bayesian lower bounds for the reliability function R(t: γ, σ²) = ?[(γ ? ln t)/σ] are obtained for two cases. First, it is assumed that γ is known and σ² has either an inverted gamma or “general uniform” prior distribution. Then, for the case that both γ and σ² are unknown, the normal-gamma prior and Jeffreys' vague prior are considered. Some Monte Carlo simulations are given to indicate some of the properties of the Bayesian lower bounds.