Politics in evaluation: Politically responsive evaluation in high stakes environments

The role of politics has often been discussed in evaluation theory and practice. The political influence of the situation can have major effects on the evaluation design, approach and methods. Politics also has the potential to influence the decisions made from the evaluation findings. The current study focuses on the influence of the political context on stakeholder decision making. Utilizing a simulation scenario, this study compares stakeholder decision making in high and low stakes evaluation contexts. Findings suggest that high stakes political environments are more likely than low stakes environments to lead to reduced reliance on technically appropriate measures and increased dependence on measures better reflect the broader political environment.     

女性"隐形"地位的多元认知透视

在男性占主导地位的语言,诚如英汉语中"乞丐""医生"等职业术语和"chairman""hero"等官衔荣誉称呼之类的名词,一般性的人类泛指"a man","mankind"以及代词的非指示用法中,女性往往被置于"隐形"的地位。性别差异和性别歧视的现象已引起社会上各学科的普遍关注,然而,从认知角度对这一现象作出注解的文章寥寥。运用认知语言学中的原型和范畴理论、框架理论、心理空间和概念合成理论对此予以阐释,可为英汉语中这一现象的理论阐释提供全新的多元认知视角。     

语境教学与法学教育之关联分析

语境教学法与学习过程的内在规律性相契合 ,是启发式的核心环节 ,是激发学习主体学习兴趣的重要方式 ,因而是一种行之有效的教学方法。法学知识结构的系统性与严密的内在逻辑性决定了语境教学在法学教育中的地位与作用。信息社会法律教学应该加强语境教学 ,培养学生对语境的感受力     

断章取义:意义生成机制合法性的维系

本文从三个方面"对断章取义"的意义生成机制的合法性予以简要维护。一、依据哲学阐释学理论",前理解"的存在是阐释者不可逃避的宿命所在,因"而此非诗人之情,而引诗者之情也"也即"断章取义"式理解应当是合法的。二、从语义学角度来讲",断章取义""之取"的主要诉求乃为当下的交流效果,只要能够达到此一目的,即"有断章取义而理可通者"那么我们就应当说它是合法的。三、从互文性角度来审视",断之于彼,而无损于此"此一命题已经表明对于《诗》的断章取义其意义生成也应当是合法的。     

Communicating Conservation Status: How Different Statistical Assessment Criteria Affect Perceptions of Extinction Risk

Although alternative forms of statistical and verbal information are routinely used to convey species’ extinction risk to policymakers and the public, little is known about their effects on audience information processing and risk perceptions. To address this gap in literature, we report on an experiment that was designed to explore how perceptions of extinction risk differ as a function of five different assessment benchmarks (Criteria A–E) used by scientists to classify species within IUCN Red List risk levels (e.g., Critically Endangered, Vulnerable), as well as the role of key individual differences in these effects (e.g., rational and experiential thinking styles, environmental concern). Despite their normative equivalence within the IUCN classification system, results revealed divergent effects of specific assessment criteria: on average, describing extinction risk in terms of proportional population decline over time (Criterion A) and number of remaining individuals (Criterion D) evoked the highest level of perceived risk, whereas the single‐event probability of a species becoming extinct (Criterion E) engendered the least perceived risk. Furthermore, participants scoring high in rationality (analytic thinking) were less prone to exhibit these biases compared to those low in rationality. Our findings suggest that despite their equivalence in the eyes of scientific experts, IUCN criteria are indeed capable of engendering different levels of risk perception among lay audiences, effects that carry direct and important implications for those tasked with communicating about conservation status to diverse publics.     

Piety over Protest: Cognitive Liberation and Deflected Collective Action in Central India

Cognitive liberation is often treated in the social movements literature as a mediating factor through which political opportunities and mobilizing structures generate protest. This paper unpacks multiple dimensions of cognitive liberation and finds that they may operate in tension with one another. Building on scholarship that focuses on subjective factors in social movements, the paper examines the case of the Korku, an oppressed indigenous community in central India, who choose not to protest despite the presence of several dimensions of cognitive liberation. Rather than engage in collective political action, the Korku’s grievances are deflected toward depoliticized religious goals. The Korku seek communal improvement through Hindu piety in a context of the Hindutva cultural-nationalist ideology, rather than protest against the encroachment of this ideology on their community.     

Dealing with context in logic model development: Reflections from a realist evaluation of a community health worker programme in Nigeria

Logic models (LMs) have been used in programme evaluation for over four decades. Current debate questions the ability of logic modelling techniques to incorporate contextual factors into logic models. We share experience of developing a logic model within an ongoing realist evaluation which assesses the extent to which, and under what circumstances a community health workers (CHW) programme promotes access to maternity services in Nigeria. The article contributes to logic modelling debate by: i) reflecting on how other scholars captured context during LM development in theory-driven evaluations; and ii) explaining how we explored context during logic model development for realist evaluation of the CHW programme in Nigeria. Data collection methods that informed our logic model development included documents review, email discussions and teleconferences with programme stakeholders and a technical workshop with researchers to clarify programme goals and untangle relationships among programme elements. One of the most important findings is that, rather than being an end in itself, logic model development is an essential step for identifying initial hypotheses for tentative relevant contexts, mechanisms and outcomes (CMOs) and CMO configurations of how programmes produce change. The logic model also informed development of a methodology handbook that is guiding verification and consolidation of underlying programme theories.     

Managing C-suite conflict: The unique impact of internal and external governance interfaces on top management team reflexivity

The ability of Top Management Teams (TMTs) to reflect critically on their own actions represents an important element of effective TMT decision making and governance effectiveness. This paper therefore examines how the TMT-board interface internal to the organization, as well as the TMT interface with the external supervisory authority, shape TMT reflexivity. Drawing from governance and psychological theories, we posit that cognitive conflict at the TMT-board interface can escalate by increasing levels of affective TMT-board conflict, and hereby, harm TMT reflexivity if not managed well. This proposition was tested in a multisource team-level data set collected in the field among TMTs (N = 111 TMT members) and their supervisory boards (N = 152 board members) of 56 Dutch insurance companies. The findings demonstrate that the link between cognitive and affective TMT-board conflict is mitigated by board membership influx. Yet in cases where conflict escalation does occur, its subsequent impact on TMT reflexivity hinges on the degree to which an external supervisory authority monitored TMT actions. The results illustrate that TMT decision making processes can be effectively influenced by internal and external TMT-governance interfaces, yet at different conflict stages, and through different governance actions.     

The effect of cognitive diversity on the illusion of control bias in strategic decisions: An experimental investigation

By integrating cognitive diversity into debiasing literature, this paper contributes towards opening the black box of executive judgment. Based on information processing theory we investigate the role of cognitive diversity in strategic decision making. We apply a vignette-based experimental research design to examine the effect of cognitive diversity in teams on decision maker's illusion of control. The results of these experiments provide evidence for a positive influence of high cognitive diversity for debiasing judgment while similarly indicating no such effect for groups with low cognitive diversity. These findings suggest that group composition aspects can play an important role for improving judgment in decision making teams and open promising new avenues for studying debiasing in behavioral strategy research.     

顺应论视域下的企业网站翻译问题探析

根据Verschueren的语言顺应理论,翻译是译者对原文和译文的语言结构以及语境关系不断顺应的动态过程,但在企业网站翻译中,未对译文做出动态顺应的例子比比皆是,影响了网站的宣传推介作用。以平湖服装企业的网站英译为例,从语言结构和语境关系两个方面分析网站英译存在的问题,并提出相应的解决方法。