Coaching as a Packaged Intervention for Telemarketing Personnel

Prior literature indicates that although the sales function of an organization is a critical element for its success, there is a lack of research on specific actions managers can take to influence sales subordinates. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of a coaching package combined with incentives on sales performance for telemarketing personnel in an organizational setting. Following the implementation of the coaching package, there was a substantial increase in critical behaviors performed, pending sales set, and final sales completed by all telemarketers.     

On the Compatibility of Organizational Behavior Management and BACB Certification

The number of practicing behavior analysts who hold Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) certification has substantially increased in the past decade. Some have mistakenly interpreted the BACB’s certification requirements as being specific to the autism and intellectual disabilities practice area. We present key BACB requirements, describe how they are practice-area neutral, and provide specific examples of their relevance to organizational behavior management.     

Leader individual differences,situational parameters,and leadership outcomes: A comprehensive review and integration

In this article, we provide a wide-ranging review of recent research on leader individual differences. The review focuses specifically on the explosion of such research in the last decade. The first purpose of this review is to summarize and integrate various conceptual frameworks describing how leader attributes influence leader emergence and leader effectiveness. The second purpose is to provide a comprehensive review of empirical research on this relationship. Also, most prior reviews primarily examined leader personality traits; this review includes a broader array of leader attributes, including cognitive capacities, personality, motives and values, social skills, and knowledge and expertise. The final broad purpose of this paper is to review and integrate situational and contextual parameters into our conceptual framing of leader individual differences. Few, if any, prior reviews have systematically accounted for the critical role of such parameters in cuing, activating, or delimiting the effects of particular leader attributes. We do so in this article.     

Capturing hearts and minds: The influence of relational identification with the leader on followers' mobilization and cardiovascular reactivity

The influence of relational identification (RI) on leadership processes and the effects of social identity leadership on followers' responses to stress have received scant theoretical and research attention. The present research advances theoretical understanding by testing the assertion that high RI with the leader drives follower mobilization of effort and psychophysiological responses to stress. Two experimental scenario studies (Study 1 and Study 2) support the hypothesis that being led by an individual with whom followers perceive high RI increases follower intentional mobilization. Study 2 additionally showed that high (vs. low) RI increases follower resource appraisals and cognitive task performance. A laboratory experiment (Study 3) assessing cardiovascular (CV) reactivity showed that, compared to neutral (i.e., non-affiliated) leadership, being led by an individual with whom participants felt low RI elicited a maladaptive (i.e., threat) response to a pressurized task. In addition, relative to the low RI and neutral conditions, high RI with the leader did not engender greater challenge or threat reactivity. In conclusion, advancing social identity leadership and challenge and threat theory, findings suggest that leaders should be mindful of the deleterious effects (i.e., reduced mobilization and greater threat state) of low RI to optimize follower mobilization of effort and psychophysiological responses to stress.     

Perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness within a Moroccan Higher Education Institution

The purpose of this research was to determine what behaviourally distinguishes effective and ineffective managers within a Moroccan Higher Education Institution (HEI). The critical incident technique (CIT) was the methodology deployed to collect data from participants in terms of how they perceive managers as either effective or ineffective. The collected data (CIs) were subjected to content and thematic analysis that resulted in derived positive and negative behavioural statements (BSs). A total of 42 participants/informants were interviewed and revealed a total of 418 CIs, of which 189 were positive CIs and 229 were negative. The analysis revealed a total of 49 BSs, of which 19 were positive and 30 were negative behavioural indicators. The findings of this investigation bring empirical evidence to understand what and how managers are perceived as effective or ineffective in the Moroccan academic context and, therefore, adds to the literature. The information obtained can also provide rich information/knowledge that can be used as a basis to address the behavioural developmental needs of managers in HEIs. This research adds value by following by following two previous replication studies in a French and a Hungarian HEI; moreover, this study is the first to be conducted in the Moroccan/North African region.     

The matching extension problem in general graphs is co-NP-complete

A simple connected graph G with 2n vertices is said to be k-extendable for an integer k with \(0<k<n\) if G contains a perfect matching and every matching of cardinality k in G is a subset of some perfect matching. Lakhal and Litzler (Inf Process Lett 65(1):11–16, 1998) discovered a polynomial algorithm that decides whether a bipartite graph is k-extendable. For general graphs, however, it has been an open problem whether there exists a polynomial algorithm. The new result presented in this paper is that the extendability problem is co-NP-complete.     

Reliability evaluation of a multicast over coded packet networks

Network coding is a generalization of conventional routing methods that allows a network node to code information flows before forwarding them. While it has been theoretically proved that network coding can achieve maximum network throughput, theoretical results usually do not consider the stochastic nature in information processing and transmission, especially when the capacity of each arc becomes stochastic due to failure, attacks, or maintenance. Hence, the reliability measurement of network coding becomes an important issue to evaluate the performance of the network under various system settings. In this paper, we present analytical expressions to measure the reliability of multicast communications in coded networks, where network coding is most promising. We define the probability that a multicast rate can be transmitted through a coded packet network under a total transmission cost constraint as the reliability metric. To do this, we first introduce an exact mathematical formulation to construct multicast connections over coded packet networks under a limited transmission cost. We then propose an algorithm based on minimal paths to calculate the reliability measurement of multicast connections and analyze the complexity of the algorithm. Our results show that the reliability of multicast routing with network coding improved significantly compared to the case of multicast routing without network coding.     

What innovation managers really do: a multiple-case investigation into the informal role profiles of innovation managers

Over the last fifteen years companies tended to formalise their innovation management activities and to establish formal jobs like the innovation officer, the network manager or the innovation manager. Knowledge of the informal role profiles of these formal roles is still rare. HR and R&D Managers do not know which informal role profile might suit them best, thus having difficulties to assign the best candidates for jobs in innovation management. Researchers cannot help to resolve the problem. Our research answers the question what innovation managers really do, by analysing their tasks, skills and traits, theoretically based on informal role theories. Furthermore, we will analyse how these characteristics change with company size. To provide answers to our research questions we choose a multiple-case study approach. We found, among others, that innovation managers fulfil the role of the relationship and process promotor or a combination of both with the champion, but we also found, that the innovation manager’s roles profile becomes fuzzier with shrinking company size. Our results have practical implications for top management and also HR and R&D managers, enabling them to better select and steer employees in innovation management. Researchers will be able to build on our results because we offer a comprehensive understanding of the informal role profiles of innovation managers based on informal role theories.     

Risks of Mortality and Morbidity from Worldwide Terrorism: 1968–2004

Worldwide data on terrorist incidents between 1968 and 2004 gathered by the RAND Corporation and the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) were assessed for patterns and trends in morbidity/mortality. Adjusted data analyzed involve a total of 19,828 events, 7,401 "adverse" events (each causing >or= 1 victim), and 86,568 "casualties" (injuries), of which 25,408 were fatal. Most terror-related adverse events, casualties, and deaths involved bombs and guns. Weapon-specific patterns and terror-related risk levels in Israel (IS) have differed markedly from those of all other regions combined (OR). IS had a fatal fraction of casualties about half that of OR, but has experienced relatively constant lifetime terror-related casualty risks on the order of 0.5%--a level 2 to 3 orders of magnitude more than those experienced in OR that increased approximately 100-fold over the same period. Individual event fatality has increased steadily, the median increasing from 14% to 50%. Lorenz curves obtained indicate substantial dispersion among victim/event rates: about half of all victims were caused by the top 2.5% (or 10%) of harm-ranked events in OR (or IS). Extreme values of victim/event rates were approximated fairly well by generalized Pareto models (typically used to fit to data on forest fires, sea levels, earthquakes, etc.). These results were in turn used to forecast maximum OR- and IS-specific victims/event rates through 2080, illustrating empirically-based methods that could be applied to improve strategies to assess, prevent, and manage terror-related risks and consequences.