Communication accommodation within global virtual team: The influence of cultural intelligence and the impact on interpersonal process effectiveness

The study builds on existing literature on global virtual team (GVT) and focuses on how individual members can achieve higher levels of interpersonal process effectiveness. Anchoring on the theory of intelligence, this study establishes and examines cultural intelligence (CQ) and how it can relate and influence a GVT member's interpersonal process effectiveness. Furthermore, this study extends the literature by drawing from communication accommodation theory in examining how communication accommodation plays an important role in the effective functioning of a GVT member. To test these assertions, data were collected from members of GVTs and their colleagues (n = 262 paired data) in a multinational information technology offshoring firm. Data were analyzed and the results revealed that a GVT member's CQ relates positively and significantly to effectiveness on both interpersonal processes of synergy and direction. Furthermore, results showed that communication accommodation of a GVT member is influenced by CQ which consequently impacts both effectiveness on interpersonal processes of synergy and direction. These results contribute to the growing literature on GVT and offer new practical insights on how to improve overall efficiency and work performance within GVT.     

Equity Dynamics in the Perceived Fairness of Infant Care

How is the perceived fairness of infant care affected by spouses' relative contributions to it and to other domains of their relationship? Longitudinal data on 178 couples expecting the birth of their first child were collected during a period spanning approximately the first year of the child's life. Overall, wives were more likely than husbands to see infant care as fair to the wife. Net of fathers' contributions to infant care, spouses were more likely to see infant care as fair to wives the more the father worked in paid labor and did housework and the more wives benefited in the sexual relationship. Fathers' contributions to infant care had a stronger effect on fairness when the child was a son. The findings are consistent with equity predictions in that fathers' compensatory contributions to other domains of marriage counterbalance an unequal workload in the arena of family work.     

Statistical issues in first‐in‐human studies on BIA 10‐2474: Neglected comparison of protocol against practice

By setting the regulatory‐approved protocol for a suite of first‐in‐human studies on BIA 10‐2474 against the subsequent French investigations, we highlight 6 key design and statistical issues, which reinforce recommendations by a Royal Statistical Society Working Party, which were made in the aftermath of cytokine release storm in 6 healthy volunteers in the United Kingdom in 2006. The 6 issues are dose determination, availability of pharmacokinetic results, dosing interval, stopping rules, appraisal by safety committee, and clear algorithm required if combining approvals for single and multiple ascending dose studies.     

Navigating Ambivalence: How Heterosexual Young Adults Make Sense of Desire Differences

The miscommunication hypothesis is the assumption that many incidents of acquaintance rape and coercive sex follow from miscommunication between men and women. This hypothesis is entrenched in popular, academic, and judicial understandings of sexual relationships. Recently some evidence has suggested that there is little miscommunication between sexual partners and that the hypothesis does not explain acquaintance rape or other forms of sexual violence. The present study used qualitative methodology in which men and women were asked to imagine themselves in a particular heterosexual dating situation and write what they think happened between the beginning (when sex was refused by one partner) and the end (when sex happened). Thematic analysis of the data found no evidence for miscommunication between partners under conditions of differences in desire. Instead, ambivalence about sexual activity was commonly described by women and men and was most often resolved to both parties’ satisfaction. Coercion by men was present in a minority of narratives under conditions of clear understanding of women's refusals. The study thus provides a rich, experience-based representation of heterosexual sexual activity, with considerable potential for the development of effective education campaigns.     

Déréglementation du marché du travail versus gains de productivité? Analyse des données de vingt pays de l'OCDE (1960–2004)

L'estimation économétrique montre que la modération salariale et la diminution de la part du travail dans le revenu national réduisent la croissance de la productivité du travail. Ainsi, les réformes du marché du travail dictées par l'offre contribuent à réduire les gains de productivité, ce qui ne peut s'expliquer par l'afflux de main‐d'?uvre faiblement productive, comme l'avance l'OCDE. En outre, déréglementation, licenciements facilités et rotation accélérée de la main‐d'?uvre freinent l'apprentissage et l'accumulation des connaissances dans les entreprises, ainsi que le modèle «routinier» d'innovation, dit «Schumpeter II». Enfin, la pertinence des lois de Baumol et Verdoorn est remise en question.     

Solving the Classification Problem in Discriminant Analysis Via Linear and Nonlinear Programming Methods*

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of applying nonlinear programming methods to solve the classification problem in discriminant analysis. The application represents a useful extension of previously proposed linear programming-based solutions for discriminant analysis. The analysis of data obtained by conducting a Monte Carlo simulation experiment shows that these new procedures are promising. Future research that should promote application of the proposed methods for solving classification problems in a business decision-making environment is discussed.     

FOUR APPROACHES TO THE CLASSIFICATION PROBLEM IN DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY*

Four discriminant models were compared in a simulation study: Fisher's linear discriminant function [14], Smith's quadratic discriminant function [34], the logistic discriminant model, and a model based on linear programming [17]. The study was conducted to estimate expected rates of misclassification for these four procedures when observations were sampled from a variety of normal and nonnormal distributions. In contrast to previous research, data were taken from four types of Kurtotic population distributions. The results indicate the four discriminant procedures are robust toward data from many types of distributions. The misclassification rates for both the logistic discriminant model and the formulation based on linear programming consistently decreased as the kurtosis in the data increased. The decreases, however, were of small magnitude. None of these procedures yielded statistically significant lower rates of misclassification under nonnormality. The quadratic discriminant function produced significantly lower error rates when the variances across groups were heterogeneous.     

Activist practitioner perspectives of website public relations: Why aren’t activist websites fulfilling the dialogic promise?

Kent and Taylor proposed five dialogic principles for mediated public relations in 1998 and numerous studies of activist groups, corporations, and educational institutions have shown that most websites fail to meet their dialogic potential. This study explores some of the reasons why activist organizations do not integrate dialogic features into their websites. Thirteen activist public relations practitioners were interviewed to determine their perceptions of websites as tools for information dissemination and resource mobilization. Three consistent themes emerged from the interviews: (1) website communication is perceived to be most effective when tied to issue-specific events and issue currency, (2) websites cater to existing and highly involved publics, and (3) websites are viewed as passive communication tools that must be supplemented with traditional public relations practices.     

Spiritual needs of mothers with sick new born or premature infants—A cross sectional survey among German mothers

Background

Spirituality is part of the basic needs of all humans, yet often undervalued by health professionals. Less is known about the spiritual needs of mothers of preterm or sick new born children.