From imagination to application: Making the case for the general method of theory-building research in applied disciplines

The author examines what factors determine leadership success in UK social enterprises. Despite the attention prompted by the UK government's ‘Big Society’ policies, this remains a relatively unexplored field in the leadership literature. Based on in-depth interviews with successful social enterprise chief executives, carried out between April and December 2010, this article challenges the dominance of competency models, based on purely behaviourist tradition. It examines the impact of personality, values, circumstance and career arc on the way these leaders perform in an attempt to take a fresh look at the interaction of traits, behaviours and situational flexibility in determining successful leadership in this type of organization. A number of key factors are identified and categorized as dimensions of ‘being’, ‘doing’ and ‘style’. Consistent contra-indicators are also identified, providing the basis for an approach to both leadership selection and development in this growing sector of the economy.     

A Cooperative Savings Game Approach to a Time Sensitive Capacity Allocation and Scheduling Problem

We consider a competitive scheduling setting with arbitrary number of agents each having the option to utilize two parallel resources to satisfy its demand: (i) an in‐house resource dedicated to process only the tasks of each specific agent, and (ii) a flexible resource capable of processing all agents' workloads. In a noncooperative setting, each agent would determine how much of its demand it will subcontract to the flexible resource with the objective to deliver its entire demand as quickly as possible subject to the priority rules set by the owner of the flexible resource (i.e., third‐party). In this study, we also allow for agents to coalesce with other agents and update their initial subcontracting decisions to attain rescheduling savings. Evidently, a grand coalition of all agents can coordinate to achieve the maximum savings possible, but the resulting schedule may yield individual losses for a subset of agents (which we refer to as “losers”), thus necessitating a transfer payment scheme to distribute the rescheduling savings among the agents in an equitable way. We model the rescheduling interactions among the agents as a cooperative savings game, and propose savings distribution schemes that invoke the core allocation concept.     

When Knowing You Are Doing Well Hinders Performance

Summary

The effect of two types of verbal consequences, rule-following feedback and task performance feedback, on rule-induced insensitivity to programmed schedules of reinforcement were examined. Rule-following feedback could be either accurate or non-contingently positive. The task involved moving a sign through a grid using telegraph keys operating on a multiple DRL 6/FR 18 schedule of reinforcement in the presence of an initially accurate rule. After acquisition, the multiple schedule was changed without notice to a FR 1/FI Yoked schedule. Accurate rule-following feedback plus feedback on task performance produced striking insensitivity to the DRL 6 to FR 1 schedule change, the opposite of what might be expected by a common sense analysis of task performance feedback, even after controlling for contact with the changed contingency. It is argued that findings such as these can only be understood by considering the mutual verbal relations evoked by the combinations of rules and feedback, rather than treating feedback as a simple consequential event or as a verbal consequence whose effects do not depend on the relations sustained with other events.     

Sustaining the Benefits of a Quality Initiative through Cooperative Values: A Longitudinal Study

Although research has shown that organizational cultural values influence the success of quality initiatives, how and when cultural values are influential is unclear. This longitudinal study asserts that quality management should be viewed from a dynamic perspective to better understand the role of cooperative cultural values in a quality initiative. We use a multilevel model of quality management, and develop time‐oriented hypotheses using a sociotechnical systems perspective to examine the role of cooperative values. Our analysis uses longitudinal data from over 30 U.S. federal government agencies, collected during an enterprise‐wide quality initiative. We find that, over time, the influence of organization‐level quality practices diminishes, but the influence of cooperative values increases; workgroup‐level quality practices remain consistently important. Our findings reveal the unexplored influences of cooperative values to sustain the benefits of quality management.     

Managing Employee Compliance with Information Security Policies: The Critical Role of Top Management and Organizational Culture*

We develop an individual behavioral model that integrates the role of top management and organizational culture into the theory of planned behavior in an attempt to better understand how top management can influence security compliance behavior of employees. Using survey data and structural equation modeling, we test hypotheses on the relationships among top management participation, organizational culture, and key determinants of employee compliance with information security policies. We find that top management participation in information security initiatives has significant direct and indirect influences on employees’ attitudes towards, subjective norm of, and perceived behavioral control over compliance with information security policies. We also find that the top management participation strongly influences organizational culture which in turn impacts employees’ attitudes towards and perceived behavioral control over compliance with information security policies. Furthermore, we find that the effects of top management participation and organizational culture on employee behavioral intentions are fully mediated by employee cognitive beliefs about compliance with information security policies. Our findings extend information security research literature by showing how top management can play a proactive role in shaping employee compliance behavior in addition to the deterrence oriented remedies advocated in the extant literature. Our findings also refine the theories about the role of organizational culture in shaping employee compliance behavior. Significant theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

对马斯洛需要理论的再认识

本文目的在于重新系统介绍和解释马斯洛的需要理论。针对目前学术界对这一理论的批评,提出了一些商榷性的意见,并对马斯洛需要理论做出了一些新的评价。我们认为:马斯洛需要理论的真正缺陷是它把人的需要看作是一种层次分明的结构,而未认识到其是一个复杂的矛盾系统。该理论的贡献则在于革命性地使心理学的研究对象由精神病患者和动物转为正常人,并指出人的普遍本质是自我实现,这使得人的本质渐趋清晰和完整。     

基因与人性——生命科学与社会学理论的分析

基因结构与功能的发现是20世纪自然科学的一项重大成就,它也使得我们能够对人性作进一步的认识与阐释。基因可以说是主宰人性的原动力,其特性具有本性(自私和复制)以及习性(与环境的合作交流)两个层面。这些特性也表现在人类身上:人类的本性即动物性是由天赋决定,通过遗传代代相继;习性即文化性则可随环境改变,为个体后天学习得来。孟子的"性善论"与荀子的"性恶论"各执其一端,而孔子"性相近,习相远"的观点,则更为合理地概括了人性之双重性的善恶两面。     

后现代知识观与社会批判方法的知识学意义

现代西方知识论研究特别明显地表现了形而上学的特征:哲学家们对知识的研究不是从知识的获得过程和知识的最终形式上探究其中的思维活动内容,而主要是研究知识的基本性质、知识成为可能的条件以及知识表达的形式与世界之间的关系。这些不仅构成了现代知识论的基本内容,同时也体现了知识论与认识论的不同。在当代,西方知识论发展的一个明显的变化是随着分析哲学作为主流哲学的登场,"形而上学"遭到无情的批判与摒弃。为知识寻求形而上学根据之类的努力,被斥为无意义的东西。哲学、知识论回到经验论。虽然如此,知识论寻求知识根据的努力依然在进行着,只不过这样的根据表现为知识的诸种条件,包括真、确证(理由)与信念等,尤其是"确证"这一条件,构成当代知识论的核心部分。     

"三个代表"体现了马克思主义的与时俱进

本文首先论证“三个代表”重要思想既渊源于马克思主义党建学说 ,又体现了马克思主义与时俱进的创新精神 ,赋予这些基本原理以新的思想内涵。接着 ,就对这些思想内涵的内容展开具体论述 ,指出“三个代表”以党的地位变化为立足点 ,以国际环境的变化为着眼点 ,以国内环境的变化为出发点 ,以始终保持党同人民的血肉联系为最终落脚点。     

地方师范院校女大学生心理问题探究

本文从四个方面分析了地方师范院校女大学生的心理问题主要表征及原因,提出了加强地方师范院校女大学生心理健康教育对策和建议。