Reactions to Job Content Plateaus: Examining Role Ambiguity and Hierarchical Plateaus as Moderators

Plateauing research often reveals a negative relationship between job content plateauing (i.e., lacking challenge in one's job) and work attitudes. This study explores situations where job content plateauing is associated with fewer negative work attitudes, revealing role ambiguity (i.e., being unclear about job duties and responsibilities) and hierarchical plateauing (i.e., low likelihood of promotions) as moderators of the job content plateau‐work attitude relationship. Specifically, job content plateaued employees reported greater job satisfaction and organizational commitment if they were not also experiencing a hierarchical plateau. Job content plateaued employees also reported greater job satisfaction when role ambiguity was low.     

Performing on a Wider Stage: Developing Inner-City Youth Through Play and Performance

This article reports on an ethnographic study of a youth leadership program that utilizes play and performance to support the development of inner-city youth. Participant observation and focus groups were used to learn about young people’s experience participating in the program and how they perceive its effect on their lives. The findings demonstrated that approaching the activities in the program as performances provided participants a way to practice being who they are not, a language for understanding their own development, and a way to become creators of developmental environments for themselves and others.     

An assessment of GRAI Grids and their use in the Strathclyde Integration Method

The purpose of this paper is to present a critical assessment of GRAI Grids as a tool for improved manufacturing integration. GRAI Grids, a key component of the GRAI approach, form an integral part of the Strathclyde Integration Method SIM for manufacturing integration. The contribution of the paper is thus to provide a 'third party' view of the effectiveness of GRAI Grids as a modelling tool. The paper presents a brief overview of the GRAI approach, concentrating particularly on the Grids, and an overview of SIM, showing how GRAI Grids are used. The main section of the paper presents an assessment and critique of GRAI Grids. Several benefits and limitations of the Grid as used in SIM and some suggestions for extensions are presented. The paper concludes that the use of the GRAI Grid, within a methodology, provides a unique insight into the behaviour and design of manufacturing information systems and that those who criticize the technique perhaps do so from a lack of awareness of its concepts, principles and advantages.     

The self-perceptions and interpersonal relationships of persons with significant physical disabilities: a qualitative pilot study

This exploratory, qualitative research was conducted to obtain the perspectives of people with significant physical disabilities regarding factors that have facilitated and hindered the development of a positive self-concept, participation in the broader society, and the formation of interpersonal relationships. The sample was high achieving in terms of education and/or career and attributed positive self-perceptions and their success in the broader society and interpersonal relationships to the attitudes and perceptions regarding their abilities, talents, and potential modeled in supportive family relationships. Females reported the influence of significant others most often, and males the effectiveness of their personality characteristics. Societal barriers, both practical and attitudinal, were reported along with the process for developing a positive selfperception despite these.     

On the relationship between compliance with recommendations on the audit committee of codes of good practices and financial reporting quality

Codes of good practices provide a soft alternative to the hard legislation approach to corporate governance. These codes include a set of recommendations that companies are expected to follow in order to enhance governance structures and practices. Some of these recommendations specifically aim to improve the effectiveness of the audit committee. We investigate the relationship between the level of compliance with recommendations on the audit committee of the Spanish Unified Code and financial reporting quality, as measured by discretionary accruals and by the opinion of the audit report. We use a sample of companies listed in the Spanish stock market for the years between 2007 and 2013. Results show a strong and positive relationship between the level of compliance with recommendations and the quality of financial reporting. We also report significant results for some specific recommendations. These results are robust to various checks. Therefore, the level of compliance with recommendations on the audit committee might provide a feasible and reliable indicator of the quality of financial reports released by the company.     

Usability in product design--the importance and need for systematic assessment models in product development--Usa-Design Model (U-D) ©

In product design, human factors are considered as an element of differentiation given that today's consumer demands are increasing. Safety, wellbeing, satisfaction, health, effectiveness, efficiency, and other aspects must be effectively incorporated into the product development process. This work proposes a usability assessment model that can be incorporated as an assessment tool. The methodological approach is settled in two stages. First a literature review focus specifically on usability and developing user-centred products. After this, a model of usability named Usa-Design (U-D?) is presented. Consisted of four phases: understanding the use context, pre-preliminary usability assessment (efficiency/effectiveness/satisfaction); assessment of usability principles and results, U-D? features are modular and flexible, allowing principles used in Phase 3 to be changed according to the needs and scenario of each situation. With qualitative/quantitative measurement scales of easy understanding and application, the model results are viable and applicable throughout all the product development process.     

Value-added distribution to stakeholder of Spanish listed companies: a corporate governance perspective

Journal of Management and Governance - Following a stakeholder corporate governance perspective, we examine whether the characteristics of boards of directors (board size, separation of Chairman...