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Methodological Approaches for Researching Complex Organizational Phenomena




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Information Gatekeepers – Aren't We All?

In today’s knowledge environment, individuals and groups who gather relevant information about the organization’s external environment and distribute that information for use by their colleagues receive increasing attention and are viewed with great importance. These individuals have been named Information Gatekeepers. Thus far, researchers have not established a unanimous and interdisciplinary definition regarding the human information gatekeeper. Nonetheless, a recurrent theme in previous papers regards gatekeepers as a select few throughout the organization. This approach creates two kinds of employees based on a specific set of criteria – those who are gatekeepers and those who are not. The main goal of this research is to examine whether gate keeping is an individual attribute that exists or does not exist within the organization, or whether gate keeping is a continuous attribute that exists within every member and throughout the organization in varying intensity subject to differences in personal characteristics and other factors. We find that evidence to the existence of latter approach is significant and suggest practical recommendations that arise from these findings.




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A Review of Information Privacy and Its Importance to Consumers and Organizations

The privacy of personal information is an important area of focus in today’s electronic world, where information can so easily be captured, stored, and shared. In recent years it has regularly featured as a topic in news media and has become the target of legislation around the world. Multidisciplinary privacy research has been conducted for decades, yet privacy remains a complex subject that still provides fertile ground for further investigation. This article provides a narrative overview of the nature of information privacy, describing the complexities and challenges that consumers and organizations face when making decisions about it, in order to demonstrate its importance to both groups. Based on this work, we present a transdisciplinary view of information privacy research linking the consumer and organization. It illustrates areas of concern for consumers and organizations together with the factors that influence the decisions they make about information privacy. By providing such a view we hope to encourage further cross-disciplinary research into this highly pertinent area.




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Organizational Creativity and IT-based Support

The main aim of this paper is to provide a theoretically and empirically grounded discussion on IT-based organizational creativity support. This study attempts to answer the following questions: (1) what is the issue of organizational creativity and its IT-based support, (2) what is the demand for IT –based organizational creativity support; (3) what are the main determinants and barriers to IT-based organizational creativity support; and (4) what success factors are crucial for IT-based organizational creativity support. This paper presents the analysis results of a survey conducted in 25 selected organizations. The paper provides valuable information on the possibilities of IT applications in organizational creativity support as well as the associated success factors. It makes useful contribution to our better understanding of IT-based organizational creativity support issues.




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The KGB and Anti-Israel Propaganda Operations

Aim/Purpose: The paper explores the success of KGB Operation SIG to incite hatred and create chaos against a democracy Background: About 50 years ago, the KGB created the means to create upheaval in the Mid-dle East. This paper explores one such campaign and its successor campaign, revealing some disinformation techniques in use today. Methodology: The paper brings together literature from many fields in its exploration of Op-eration SIG. Contribution: The paper reveals the role of the KGB in the PLO’s campaign to replace Israel with an Arab Muslim state and the PLO and Hamas’s successor disinformation mechanisms Findings: Operation SIG is an early and extremely successful example of the Sovi-et/Russian campaign to disrupt democracy. Recommendation for Researchers: The recurrence of antisemitism, particularly on campus, can be attributed to Operation SIG.




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Informing Agility in the Context of Organizational Changes

Aim/Purpose. This paper, although conceived earlier than the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic, addresses the problem of informing agility as part of organizational agility that has become a rather important issue for business survival. Background. While the general issues of business informing, and business intelligence (BI) in particular, have been widely researched, the dynamics of informing, their ability to act in accord with changes in business and preserve the key competencies has not been widely researched. In particular, the research on BI agility is rather scattered, and many issues need to be clarified. Methodology. A series of in-depth interviews with BI professionals to determine relations between organizational agility and BI agility, and to round up a set of key factors of BI agility. Contribution. The paper clarifies a candidate set of key factors of BI agility and gives ground for future research in relations with areas like corporate and BI resilience and culture. Findings. The interview results show the relations between organizational changes, and changes in BI activities. BI has limited potential in recognizing important external changes but can be rather helpful in making decision choices and detecting internal problems. Lack of communication between business and IT people, existence of data silos and shadow BI, and general inadequacy of organizational and BI culture are the key factors impairing BI agility. Recommendations for Practitioners. There are practical issues around BI agility that need solving, like the reason-able coverage of standards or creation of a dedicated unit to care about BI potential. Recommendations for Researchers. The research is still in its starting phase, but additional interesting directions start to emerge, like relations between BI agility, resilience and corporate agility, or the role of informing culture and BI culture for BI agility issues. Impact on Society. Agile business, especially in times of global shocks like COVID-19, loses less value and has more chances to survive. Future Research. Most likely this will be focused on the relations between BI agility, resilience, and corporate agility, and the role of informing culture and BI culture for BI agility issues.




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Organizing Information Obtained From Literature Reviews – A Framework for Information System Area Researchers

Aim/Purpose: A literature review is often criticized for the absence of coherent construction, synthesis of topics, and well-reasoned analysis. A framework is needed for novice researchers to organize and present information obtained from the literature review. Background: Information and communication technologies advancement have yielded overwhelming information. The massive availability of information poses several challenges, including storage, processing, meaningful organization, and presentation for future consumption. Information System Researchers have developed frameworks, guidelines, and tools for gathering, filtering, processing, storing, and organizing information. Interestingly, information system researchers have vast information that needs meaningful organization and presentation to the research fraternity while conducting a literature review on a research topic. Methodology: This paper describes a framework called LACTiC (Location, Author, Continuum, Time, and Category) that we adapted from another framework called LATCH (Location, Alphabetical, Time, Category, and Hierarchy). LATCH was used to organize and present information on e-commerce websites for seamless navigation. We evaluated the LACTiC framework. Contribution: Information System Researchers can use the LACTiC framework to organize information obtained from literature review. Findings: The evaluation reveals that most researchers from information systems organize information obtained from the literature review category-wise, followed by continuum, author, time, and location. Recommendation for Researchers: Overall, the framework works well and can be helpful for researchers for an initial idea for organizing information obtained from the literature review. Future Research: To conceptualize the framework, the study was carried out using Information Systems related literature. To generalize the proposed framework, we may suggest that the study can be extended to other areas of business management, such as marketing, finance, operation, decision sciences, accounting, and economics.




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Mediating Effect of Burnout Dimensions on Musculoskeletal Pain: The Role of Emotional Intelligence and Organisational Identification

Aim/Purpose: The present study aims to frame the relationship between job and personal resources (namely, organizational identification and emotional intelligence), burnout, and musculoskeletal disorders (i.e., back pain, upper limb pain, lower limb discomfort), into the theoretical framework provided by the JD-R health model. Background: Empirical research indicates a connection between burnout and the onset of musculoskeletal problems, one of the most important occupational health issues affecting all jobs and organizations. In light of the JD-R health model, we investigated the association between personal and job resources with burnout and musculoskeletal disorders. Methodology: An anonymous online questionnaire was answered by 320 workers (82.4% female, Mage = 42.18; SDage = 12.24) investigating their perceived level of burnout, the presence of musculoskeletal pain (back, neck, and shoulder), and their level of organizational identification and emotional intelligence. Descriptive analysis, correlation, and moderated mediation model were performed using SPSS. Contribution: We confirmed the role of personal and organizational resources in the salutogenic process considered by the JD-R health model. Emotional intelligence, decreasing the perceived level of burnout, limited the development of musculoskeletal disorders. Moreover, when organizational identification presented low and medium levels, the association between emotional intelligence and burnout strengthened. Findings: Our results showed a negative, indirect effect of emotional intelligence on musculoskeletal disorders via burnout. Moreover, we found a moderation of organizational organization, indicating that at low and medium levels of identification, the association between emotional intelligence and burnout is stronger. Recommendation for Researchers: In addition to work factors involved in the link between burnout and musculoskeletal disorders, it is also important to consider personal and emotional factors, which can decrease the occurrence of adverse consequences. Future Research: Future research developments could contribute to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms linking emotional intelligence, burnout, and musculoskeletal problems, as well as consider objective indicators of burnout levels or consider using ecological data collection methodologies (e.g., ecological momentary assessment), to identify patterns and associations between burnout and musculoskeletal disorders.




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Development and Validation of a Noise in Decision Inventory for Organizational Settings

Aim/Purpose: The aim of the present paper is to present a Noise Decision (ND) scale. First, it reports the development and validation of the instrument aimed at examining organizational factors that have an influence on decision-making and the level of noise. Second, it validates this rating scale by testing its discriminant and convergent validity with other measures to assess decision-making qualities. Background: According to the literature, the concept of noise is the unwanted variability present in judgments. The notion of noise concerns the systematic influence to which individuals are exposed in their environment. The literature in the field has found that noise reduction improves the perception of work performance. Methodology: The first study involves the development of a scale (composed of 36 items) consisting of semi-structured interviews, item development, and principal component analysis. The second study involves validation and convergent validity of this scale. In the first study, there were 43 employees from three medium-sized Italian multinationals. For the second study, a sample of 867 subjects was analysed. Contribution: This paper introduces the first scale aimed at assessing noise within individuals and, in the organizational context, within employees and employers. Findings: Results show that the estimated internal reliability for each of the ND subscales and also the correlations between the subscales were relatively low, suggesting that ND correctly measures the analyzed components. Furthermore, the validation of the psychometric qualities of the ND allowed for the assertion that the influence of noise is present in the decision-making process within the context of work environments, validating the initial hypotheses. Recommendation for Researchers: This paper aims to improve theory and research on decision-making; for example, by providing a possible implementation for scales for evaluating decision-making skills. Furthermore, detecting and limiting noise with a systematic method could improve both the quality of decisions and the quality of thought processes. Future Research: Given the measurement of ND, the study can be a starting point for future research on this topic. Since there is no literature about this construct, it would be necessary to spend more time researching, so that the topic becomes clearer. System noise has been tested by some researchers with a “noise audit,” which means giving the same problem to different people and measuring the differences in their responses. Repeating this kind of audit in conjunction with the ND in a specific work environment could be helpful to detect but also measure the influence of noise.




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The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Workers’ Skills: Upskilling and Reskilling in Organisations

Aim/Purpose: This paper examines the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on professional skills in organizations and explores strategies to address the resulting challenges. Background: The rapid integration of AI across various sectors is automating tasks and reducing cognitive workload, leading to increased productivity but also raising concerns about job displacement. Successfully adapting to this transformation requires organizations to implement new working models and develop strategies for upskilling and reskilling their workforce. Methodology: This review analyzes recent research and practice on AI's impact on human skills in organizations. We identify key trends in how AI is reshaping professional competencies and highlight the crucial role of transversal skills in this evolving landscape. The paper also discusses effective strategies to support organizations and guide workers through upskilling and reskilling processes. Contribution: The paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by examining recent trends in AI's impact on professional skills and workplaces. It emphasizes the importance of transversal skills and identifies strategies to support organizations and workers in meeting upskilling and reskilling challenges. Our findings suggest that investing in workforce development is crucial for ensuring that the benefits of AI are equitably distributed among all stakeholders. Findings: Our findings indicate that organizations must employ a proactive approach to navigate the AI-driven transformation of the workplace. This approach involves mapping the transversal skills needed to address current skill gaps, helping workers identify and develop skills required for effective AI adoption, and implementing processes to support workers through targeted training and development opportunities. These strategies are essential for ensuring that workers' attitudes and mental models towards AI are adaptable and prepared for the changing labor market. Recommendation for Researchers: We emphasize the need for researchers to adopt a transdisciplinary approach when studying AI's impact on the workplace. Given AI's complexity and its far-reaching implications across various fields including computer science, mathematics, engineering, and behavioral and social sciences, integrating diverse perspectives is crucial for a holistic understanding of AI's applications and consequences. Future Research: Looking ahead, further research is needed to deepen our understanding of AI's impact on human skills, particularly the role of soft skills in AI adoption within organizations. Future studies should also address the challenges posed by Industry 5.0, which is expected to bring about even more extensive integration of new technologies and automation.




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The Relationship between Perceived Organizational Support (POS) and Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Job Motivation, Affective and Normative Commitment

Aim/Purpose: The study aims to examine the mediating role of job motivation and affective and normative commitment on the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and job turnover intention. Background: POS refers to employees’ beliefs and perceptions concerning the extent to which the organization values their contributions, cares about their well-being, and fulfils their socio-emotional needs. To date, research has shown that employee turnover is a complex construct resulting from the interplay of both individual and organizational variables, such as motivation and climate. Methodology: Cross-sectional data were collected from 143 employees of an Italian industrial company. Paper-and-pencil questionnaires were used to assess respondents’ POS, job motivation, affective and normative organizational commitment, and turnover intentions. Contribution: Specifically, in this research, we aim at examining (i) the indirect effect of POS on turnover intention via (ii) job motivation and (iii) normative and affective commitment. Findings: Results show that high POS is associated with high levels of job motivation and affective and normative commitment, which in turn are negatively linked to turnover intentions. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should not lose sight of the importance of studying and delving into the concept of turnover intention given that, from an organizational point of view, losing personnel means losing competencies, which need to be replaced through assessment, selection, training, and development, processes that are often challenging and expensive. Future Research: Future research should further investigate the role of motivation and commitment, other than additional variables, for POS and turnover intention. Longitudinal studies and further testing are required to verify the causal processes stemming from our model. Future research could consider linking employees’ self-reported measures with objective data concerning turnover rates.




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Informing Academia Through Understanding of the Technology Use, Information Gathering Behaviors, and Social Concerns of Gen Z

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine Gen Z students located in a representative region of the United States when it comes to technology use, news and information gathering behaviors, civic engagement, and social concerns and whether differences exist based on institutional type. The purpose is to report this information so that academics can better understand the behaviors, priorities, and interests of current American students. Background: This paper investigates the mindset of Generation Z students living in the United States during a period of heightened civic unrest. Through the lens of the Theory of Generations, Uses and Gratifications Theory, and Intersectional Theory, this study aims to examine the Gen Z group and compare findings across populations. Methodology: An electronic survey was administered to students from 2019 through 2022. The survey included a combination of multiple responses, Likert scaled, dichotomous, open-ended, and ordinal questions. It was developed in the Survey Monkey system and reviewed by content and methodological experts to examine bias, vagueness, or potential semantic problems. The survey was pilot-tested in 2018 before implementation in order to explore the efficacy of the research methodology. It was then modified accordingly before widespread distribution to potential participants. The surveys were administered to students enrolled in classes taught by the authors, all of whom are educators. Participation was voluntary, optional, and anonymous. Contribution: This paper provides insight into the mindset of Generation Z students living in the United States, which is helpful to members of academia who should be informed about the current generation of students in higher education. Studying Generation Z helps us understand the future and can provide insight into the shifting needs and expectations of society. Findings: According to the findings, Gen Z are heavy users of digital technologies who use social media as their primary source for gathering news about current events as well as information for schoolwork. The majority of respondents considered themselves to be social activists. When institutional type was considered, there were notable differences with the students at the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), noting the greatest concern with a number of pressing issues, including racial justice/Black Lives Matter, women’s rights, gun violence, immigration reform, and human trafficking. Less significance across groups was found when LGBTQIA+ rights and climate change were considered. Recommendation for Researchers: As social media continues to proliferate in daily life and become a vital means of news and information gathering, additional studies such as the one presented here are needed. In other countries facing similarly turbulent times, measuring student interest, awareness, and engagement is highly informative. Future Research: Future research will explore the role that influencers have in opinion formation and the information-gathering habits of Gen Z.




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Observations on Arrogance and Meaning: Finding Truth in an Era of Misinformation

Aim/Purpose: The paper discusses various factors contributing to disagreements, such as differing experiences, perspectives, and historical narratives, leading to disagreements within families and societies. It explores how beliefs, values, and biases feed into disagreements, with confirmation bias affecting decision-making and the media. Cultural values also play a role, showcasing conflicts between meritocracy and inclusivity in ethical decision-making. Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory highlights differences in value priorities between Western and Eastern societies. The impact of Western values like rationalism, freedom, and tolerance, under threat from Marxist illiberalism on campuses, is dis-cussed. The text also delves into disinformation, emotions in warfare, and the use of fake information and images for propaganda purposes. The need for diligent reporting to avoid spreading disinformation is emphasized, given its potential to create misconceptions and harm diplomatic relations.




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Aggregated to Pipelined Structure Based Streaming SSN for 1-ms Superpixel Segmentation System in Factory Automation

Yuan LI,Tingting HU,Ryuji FUCHIKAMI,Takeshi IKENAGA, Vol.E107-D, No.11, pp.1396-1407
1 millisecond (1-ms) vision systems are gaining increasing attention in diverse fields like factory automation and robotics, as the ultra-low delay ensures seamless and timely responses. Superpixel segmentation is a pivotal preprocessing to reduce the number of image primitives for subsequent processing. Recently, there has been a growing emphasis on leveraging deep network-based algorithms to pursue superior performance and better integration into other deep network tasks. Superpixel Sampling Network (SSN) employs a deep network for feature generation and employs differentiable SLIC for superpixel generation. SSN achieves high performance with a small number of parameters. However, implementing SSN on FPGAs for ultra-low delay faces challenges due to the final layer’s aggregation of intermediate results. To address this limitation, this paper proposes an aggregated to pipelined structure for FPGA implementation. The final layer is decomposed into individual final layers for each intermediate result. This architectural adjustment eliminates the need for memory to store intermediate results. Concurrently, the proposed structure leverages decomposed layers to facilitate a pipelined structure with pixel streaming input to achieve ultra-low latency. To cooperate with the pipelined structure, layer-partitioned memory architecture is proposed. Each final layer has dedicated memory for storing superpixel center information, allowing values to be read and calculated from memory without conflicts. Calculation results of each final layer are accumulated, and the result of each pixel is obtained as the stream reaches the last layer. Evaluation results demonstrate that boundary recall and under-segmentation error remain comparable to SSN, with an average label consistency improvement of 0.035 over SSN. From a hardware performance perspective, the proposed system processes 1000 FPS images with a delay of 0.947 ms/frame.
Publication Date: 2024/11/01




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Dimensions of anti-citizenship behaviours incidence in organisations: a meta-analysis

Research growth in organisational behaviour research, has increased the importance of paying attention to anti-citizenship behaviours. The current research with the aim of quantitative combination, has examined the results of research in effect of underlying factors of organisational anti-citizenship behaviours using meta-analysis method and CMA2 software and 55 articles during the time period of 2000-2020. The results showed a positive significant link between underlying factors of organisational anti-citizenship behaviours and occurrence of these behaviours and this influence was 0.389, 0.338, 0514 and 0.498 (structural, organisational, managerial, employment and professional and socio-economic and cultural factors). The level of connection found relating to each four occurrences is '68 links, 49 links, 93 links and 71 links'. Findings indicate that minute attention has been paid to organisational anti-citizenship behaviours, especially to job and professional factors in research works. Research should be conducted to control and manage these behaviours more purposefully in organisations.




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Advancements in the DRG system payment: an optimal volume/procedure mix model for the optimisation of the reimbursement in Italian healthcare organisations

In Italy, the reimbursement provided to healthcare organisations for medical and surgical procedures is based on the diagnosis related group weight (DRGW), which is an increasing function of the complexity of the procedures. This makes the reimbursement an upper unlimited function. This model does not include the relation of the volume with the complexity. The paper proposes a mathematical model for the optimisation of the reimbursement by determining the optimal mix of volume/procedure, considering the relation volume/complexity and DRGW/complexity. The decreasing, linear, and increasing returns to scale have been defined, and the optimal solution found. The comparison of the model with the traditional approach shows that the proposed model helps the healthcare system to discern the quantity of the reimbursement to provide to health organisations, while the traditional approach, neglecting the relation between the volume and the complexity, can result in an overestimation of the reimbursement.




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The limits and possibilities of history: How a wider, deeper and more engaged understanding of business history can foster innovative thinking

Calls for greater diversity in management research, education and practice have increased in recent years, driven by a sense of fairness and ethical responsibility, but also because research shows that greater diversity of inputs into management processes can lead to greater innovation. But how can greater diversity of thought be encouraged when educating management students, beyond the advocacy of affirmative action and relating the research on the link between multiplicity and creativity? One way is to think again about how we introduce the subject. Introductory textbooks often begin by relaying the history of management. What is presented is a very limited mono-cultural and linear view of how management emerged. This article highlights the limits this view outlines for initiates in contrast to the histories of other comparable fields (medicine and architecture), and discusses how a wider, deeper and more engaged understanding of history can foster thinking differently.




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Managing the Consequences of Organizational Stigmatization: Identity Work in a Social Enterprise

In this inductive study, we shift the focus of stigma research inside organizational boundaries by examining its relationship with organizational identity. To do so, we draw on the case of Keystone, a social enterprise in the East of England that became stigmatized after it initiated a program of support for a group of migrants in its community. Keystone's stigmatization precipitated a crisis of organizational identity. We examine how the identity crisis unfolded, focusing on the forms of identity work that Keystone's leaders enacted in response. Interestingly, we show not only that the internal effects of stigmatization on identity can be managed, but also that they may facilitate unexpected positive outcomes for organizations.




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Persona Non Grata? Determinants and Consequences of Social Distancing from Journalists Who Engage in Negative Coverage of Firm Leadership

We consider how social and psychological connections among CEOs explain the propensity for corporate leaders to distance themselves socially from journalists who engage in negative reporting about firm leadership at other companies, and we examine the consequences for the valence of journalists' subsequent coverage. Our theoretical framework suggests that journalists who have engaged in negative coverage of a firm's leadership and strategy are especially likely to experience distancing from other leaders who (i) have friendship ties to the firm's CEO, (ii) are demographically similar to the CEO on salient dimensions, or (iii) are socially identified with the CEO as a fellow member of the corporate elite. Our theory and findings ultimately suggest that, due to the multiple sources of social identification between CEOs, journalists who engage in negative coverage of firm leadership tend to experience social distancing from multiple CEOs, and such distancing has a powerful influence on the valence of journalists' subsequent reporting about firm leadership and strategy across all the firms that they cover. We also extend our theoretical framework to suggest how the effect of social distancing on the valence of journalists' coverage is moderated by the early and late stages of a journalist's career.




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Classical Deviation: Organizational and Individual Status as Antecedents of Conformity

Beside making organizations look like their peers through the adoption of similar attributes (which we call alignment), this paper highlights the fact that conformity also enables organizations to stand out by exhibiting highly salient attributes key to their field or industry (which we call conventionality). Building on the conformity and status literatures, and using the case of major U.S. symphony orchestras and the changes in their concert programing between 1879 and 1969, we hypothesize and find that middle-status organizations are more aligned, and middle-status individual leaders make more conventional choices than their low- and high-status peers. In addition, the extent to which middle-status leaders adopt conventional programming is moderated by the status of the organization and by its level of alignment. This paper offers a novel theory and operationalization of organizational conformity, and contributes to the literature on status effects, and more broadly to the understanding of the key issues of distinctiveness and conformity.




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Unearned Status Gain: Evidence From a Global Language Mandate

Theories of status rarely address unearned status gain—an unexpected and unsolicited increase in relative standing, prestige or worth, attained not through individual effort or achievement, but from a shift in organizationally valued characteristics. We build theory about unearned status gain drawing from a qualitative study of 90 U.S.-based employees of a Japanese organization following a company-wide English language mandate. These native English-speaking employees believed that the mandate elevated their worth in the organization, a status gain they attributed to chance, hence deeming it unearned. They also reported a heightened sense of belonging, optimism about career advancement, and access to expanded networks. Yet among those who interacted regularly with Japanese counterparts, narratives also revealed discomfort, which manifested in at least two ways. These informants engaged in "status rationalization," emphasizing the benefits Japanese employees might obtain by learning English, and prevaricated on whether the change was temporary or durable, a process we call "status stability appraisal." The fact that these narratives were present only among those working closely with Japanese employees highlights intergroup contact as a factor in shaping the unearned status gain experience. Supplemental analysis of data gathered from 66 Japanese employees provided the broader organizational context and the nonnative speakers' perspective of the language shift. These findings expand our overall understanding of status dynamics in organizations, and show how status gains can yield both positive and negative outcomes.




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Empowered to Perform: A multi-level investigation of the influence of empowerment on performance in hospital units

Psychological empowerment has been studied extensively over the past few decades in a variety of contexts and appears to be especially salient within dynamic and complex environments such as healthcare. However, a recent meta-analysis found that psychological empowerment relationships vary significantly across studies, and there is still a rather limited understanding of how empowerment operates across levels. Accordingly, we advance and test a multi-level model of empowerment which seeks to better understand the unique and synergistic effects between unit and individual empowerment in hospital units. Analysis of data involving 544 individuals in 78 units, collected from multiple sources over three different time periods, revealed that unit empowerment evidenced a synergistic interaction with individual-level psychological empowerment as related to individuals' job performance, as well as an indirect effect on performance via individual empowerment, while controlling for previous performance levels. Notably, these effects were significant at relatively high, but not at relatively low levels of unit empowerment. Furthermore, we found that unit voice climate increased unit empowerment and thereby enhanced individual psychological empowerment. These findings suggest that, in complex and dynamic environments, empowering work units is an important means by which leaders can enhance individuals' performance.




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TURNING THEIR PAIN TO GAIN: CHARISMATIC LEADER INFLUENCE ON FOLLOWER STRESS APPRAISAL AND JOB PERFORMANCE

We develop and test a theoretical model that explores how individuals appraise different types of stressful job demands and how these cognitive appraisals impact job performance. The model also explores how charismatic leaders influence such appraisal and reaction processes, and by virtue of these effects, how leaders can influence the impact of stressful demands on their followers' job performance. In Study 1 (n = 74 U.S. Marines), our model was largely supported in hierarchical linear modeling analyses. Marines whose leaders were judged by superiors to exhibit charismatic leader behaviors appraised challenge stressors as being more challenging, and were more likely to respond to this appraisal with higher performance. Although charismatic leader behaviors did not influence how hindrance stressors were appraised, they negated the strong negative effect of hindrance appraisals on job performance. In Study 2 (n = 270 U.S. Marines) charismatic leader behaviors were measured through the eyes of the focal Marines, and the interactions found in Study 1 were replicated. Results from multilevel structural equation modeling analyses also indicate that charismatic leader behaviors moderate both the mediating role of challenge appraisals in transmitting the effect of challenge stressors to job performance, and the mediating role of hindrance appraisals in transmitting the effect of hindrance stressors to job performance. Implications of our results to theory and practice are discussed. Keywords: stress, leadership, job performance, multilevel modeling




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ORGANIZATIONAL HOSTILITY: A FRAMEWORK OF ATYPICAL COMPETITIVE ENGAGEMENTS

Competitive dynamics theory overlooks an entire class of attackers who pose a serious threat to commercial firms—nonmarket players (NMPs) such as activists, environmentalists, social entrepreneurs, and NGOs. Using an institutional perspective, this conceptual manuscript advances competitive dynamics theory by developing a framework of organizational hostility. The framework profiles NMPs according to their propensity to engage firms; it also classifies firms based on their vulnerability and initial reaction to NMP attacks. Corroborated with a mathematical model (Appendix), the conceptual framework explains which NMPs are most hostile to firms; why some NMPs issue threats whereas others quickly strike commercial firms; and which firms are most vulnerable to such hostility.




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When Experts Become Liabilities: Domain Experts on Boards and Organizational Failure

How does the presence of domain experts on a corporate board—directors whose primary professional experience is within the focal firm's industry—affect organizational outcomes? We argue that under conditions of significant decision uncertainty, a higher proportion of domain experts on a board may detract from effective decision making and thus increase the probability of organizational failure. Building on exploratory interviews with board members and CEOs, we derive hypotheses from this argument in the context of local banks in the United States. We predict that the greater the level of decision uncertainty—due to rapid asset growth or operation in less predictable markets—the stronger the relationship between the proportion of banking expert directors and the probability of bank failure. Longitudinal analyses of 1,307 banks between 1996 and 2012 support this prediction, even after accounting for both the overall level of professional diversity among directors and banks' different propensities to have an expert-heavy board. We discuss implications for the key dimensions of board composition, the conditions under which the professional background of directors is more or less consequential, and the mechanisms whereby board composition affects organizational outcomes.




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WHEN IN ROME, LOOK LIKE CAESAR? INVESTIGATING THE LINK BETWEEN DEMAND-SIDE CULTURAL POWER DISTANCE AND CEO POWER

Agency theory-grounded research on boards of directors and firm legitimacy has historically viewed CEO power as de-legitimating, often taking this fact for granted in theorizing about external assessors' evaluations of a firm. With few exceptions, this literature has focused exclusively on capital market participants (e.g., investors, securities analysts) as the arbiters of a firm's legitimacy and has accordingly assumed that legitimate governance arrangements are those derived from the shareholder-oriented prescriptions of agency theory. We extend this line of research in new ways by arguing that customers also externally assess firm legitimacy, and that firms potentially adjust their governance characteristics to meet customers' norms and expectations. We argue that the cultural-cognitive institutions prevalent in customers' home countries influence their judgments regarding a firm's legitimacy, such that firms competing heavily in high-power distance cultures are more likely to have powerful CEOs, with CEO power a source of legitimacy—rather than illegitimacy—among customers. We also argue that the more dependent a firm is on its customers and the more salient cultural power distance is as a demand-side institutional norm, the greater this relationship will be. Data from 151 U.S. semiconductor and pharmaceutical firms over a 10-year period generally support our predictions.




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Conceptualizing Historical Organization Studies

The promise of a closer union between organizational and historical research has long been recognized. However its potential remains unfulfilled: the authenticity of theory development expected by organization studies and the authenticity of historical veracity required by historical research place exceptional conceptual and empirical demands on researchers. We elaborate the idea of historical organization studies, organizational research that draws extensively on historical data, methods and knowledge to promote historically informed theoretical narratives attentive to both disciplines. Building on prior research, we propose a typology of four differing conceptions of history in organizational research: history as evaluating, explicating, conceptualizing, and narrating. We identify five principles of historical organization studies - dual integrity, pluralistic understanding, representational truth, context sensitivity and theoretical fluency - and illustrate our typology holistically from the perspective of institutional entrepreneurship. We explore practical avenues for a creative synthesis, drawing examples from social movement research and micro-history. Historically informed theoretical narratives whose validity derives from both historical veracity and conceptual rigor, afford dual integrity that enhances scholarly legitimacy, enriching understanding of historical, contemporary and future-directed social realities.




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"I IDENTIFY WITH HER," "I IDENTIFY WITH HIM": UNPACKING THE DYNAMICS OF PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS

Despite recognizing the importance of personal identification in organizations, the literature has rarely explored its dynamics. We define personal identification as perceived oneness with another individual, where one defines oneself in terms of the other. While many scholars have found that personal identification is associated with helpful effects, others have found it harmful. To resolve this contradiction, we distinguish between three paths to personal identification -threat-focused, opportunity-focused, and closeness-focused - and articulate a model that includes each. We examine the contextual features, how individuals' identities are constructed, and the likely outcomes that follow in the three paths. We conclude with a discussion of how the threat-, opportunity-, and closeness-focused personal identification processes potentially blend, as well as implications for future research and practice.




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LINKING WORKPLACE PRACTICES TO COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: THE CASE FOR ENCOURAGING EMPLOYEE VOICE

We argue that employees who perceive that they are provided with a safe climate at work within which to voice their concerns and suggestions about work-related issues or problems will not only be more engaged employees but will also be likely to be more engaged and involved members of their communities. By focusing on the importance of employee voice opportunities, in work organizations, we seek to build our understanding of how to create "positive" organizations that contribute to the building of human potential, both inside the organizational setting and outside in our communities and societies. We also consider how employee voice opportunities in for-profit organizations may be influenced by the law and prevailing attitudes about corporate governance.




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REPUTATION AS A BENEFIT AND A BURDEN? HOW STAKEHOLDERS' ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTIFICATION AFFECTS THE ROLE OF REPUTATION FOLLOWING A NEGATIVE EVENT

Research about the effects of an organization's general reputation following a negative event remains equivocal: Some studies have found that a high reputation is a benefit because of the stock of social capital and goodwill it generates; others have found it to be a burden because of the greater stakeholder attention and violation of expectations associated with a negative event. We theorize that stakeholders' level of organizational identification helps explain which mechanisms are more dominant. We test our hypotheses on a sample of legislative references associated with NCAA major infractions from 1999-2009. Our results indicate that a high reputation is a burden for an organization when considering low-identification stakeholder support: As the number of legislative references increases, a high-reputation university will receive fewer donations from non-alumni donors than universities without this asset. In contrast, a high reputation is a benefit when considering high-identification stakeholder support: As the number of legislative references increases, a high-reputation university will receive more donations from alumni donors than universities without this asset. However, an exploratory investigation reveals that alumni donations to high-reputation universities decline as the number of legislative references increases, suggesting that the benefit of a high reputation has a limit.




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Devolution of Researcher Care in Organization Studies and the Moderation of Organizational Knowledge

In this paper, we critically assess how the devolution of researcher care moderates knowledge development in organization studies. Defining researcher care as what scholars are concerned and passionate about, we consider the extent to which individuals researchers lose their personal voice in researching organizations. This bounding of care by the research community is a reflection of the way that researchers knowingly alter their care in researching organizations to gain associated career and reputational benefits. We describe how the field's institutional logic for researching organizations enables this devolution to take hold and how larger institutional forces reinforce how it progressively moderates organizational knowledge. We offer preliminary suggestions for addressing the devolution of researcher care in organization studies and ameliorating its threat to knowledge development.




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Protecting Market Identity: When and How Do Organizations Respond to Consumers' Devaluations

This article examines the conditions under which organizations publicly respond to unfavorable consumer evaluations that challenge their market identity. Because organizations' market identities are certified by expert evaluations, consumers' devaluations that challenge these expert evaluations represent an identity threat. However, organizations do not always react to consumers' devaluations because of the risks associated to public responses. Hence, we first predict that organizations are more likely to respond to severe devaluations than to weaker ones; second, we propose that organizations, when faced with severe devaluations, are more likely to craft responses that justify their actions and behaviors. We further contend that, for any market identity under consideration, an organization's reputation amplifies these relationships. Analyses of a dataset of London hoteliers' responses to online reviews posted on TripAdvisor during the period 2002-2012 lend substantial support to our hypotheses.




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AGAINST EVIDENCE-BASED MANAGEMENT, FOR MANAGEMENT LEARNING

Evidence-based management has been widely advocated in management studies. It has great ambition: all manner of organizational problems are held to be amenable to an evidence-based approach. With such ambition, however, has come a certain narrowness which risks restricting our ability to understand the diversity of problems in management studies. Indeed, in the longer term, such narrowness may limit our capacity to engage with many real-life issues in organizations. Having repeatedly heard the case for evidence-based management, we invite readers to weigh up the case against. We also set out an alternative direction - one that promotes intellectual pluralism and flexibility, the value of multiple perspectives, openness, dialogue, and the questioning of basic assumptions. These considerations are the antithesis of an evidence-based approach, but central to a fully rounded management education.




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A Rolling Stone Gathers Momentum: Generational Units, Collective Memory, and Entrepreneurship

We draw on the historiographical concepts of "generational units" and "collective memories" as a framework for understanding the emergence of entrepreneurially oriented cohesive groups within regions. Generational units are localized subgroups within generations that have a self-referential, reflexive quality, by virtue of the members' sense of their own connections to each other and the events that define them. Collective memories are shared accounts of the past shaped by historical events that mold individuals' perceptions. The two concepts provide a valuable point of departure for incorporating historical concepts into the study of entrepreneurial dynamics and offer a framework for understanding how entrepreneurs' historically situated experiences affect them. Our framework breaks new theoretical ground in several ways. First, we synthesize disparate literatures on generational units, collective memory, and organizational imprinting. Second, we specify mechanisms through which imprinting occurs and persists over time. We develop analytical arguments framed by sociological and historiographical theories, focusing on the conditions under which meaningful generational units of entrepreneurs may emerge and benefit from leadership and legacy building, technologies of memory, and institutional support that increases the likelihood of their persistence.




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Beginning's end: How founders psychologically disengage from their organizations

Exit is a critical part of the entrepreneurial process. At the same time, research indicates that founders are likely to form strong identity connections to the organizations they start. In turn, when founders exit their organizations, the process of psychological disengagement might destabilize their identities. Yet, limited research addresses how founders experience exit or how they manage their identities during this process. Through a qualitative, inductive study of founders of technology-based companies, I developed a theoretical model of founder psychological disengagement that delineates how founder work orientations relate to the disengagement paths that founders follow when leaving one organization and starting another. In elaborating theory on psychological disengagement, this study has implications for understanding the psychology of founders, how founders exit and begin again, and psychological disengagement, more broadly.




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Engaged and productive misfits: How job crafting and leisure activity mitigate the negative effects of value incongruence

The work life of misfits - employees whose important values are incongruent with the values of their organization - represents an under-researched area of the person-environment fit literature. The unfortunate reality is that these individuals are likely to be disengaged and unproductive at work. In this manuscript, we entertain the possibility that employees can protect themselves from this situation if they engage in alternative actions that supplement the fundamental needs that go unmet from value incongruence. We integrate theorizing about the motivational role of need fulfillment and work/non-work behaviors in order to examine whether two actions in particular - job crafting and leisure activity - can potentially mitigate the negative effects of value incongruence on employee performance. In a field study of employees from diverse organizations and industries, the results suggest that both job crafting and leisure activity indeed act as a buffer, mitigating the otherwise negative effects of value incongruence on employee engagement and job performance (both task performance and citizenship behavior).




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How Do Leader-Departures Affect Subordinates' Organizational Attachment?: A 360-Degree Relational Perspective

Management scholars have noted that leader departures often foreshadow higher turnover intentions (or lower organizational attachment) by subordinates left behind, especially when relationships between the departing leader and the subordinates, or leader-member exchanges (LMX), had been of high quality. In this paper, we posit that the quality of subordinates' relationships with all members of their relational system, not only their leader, must be considered to better understand how leader departures affect subordinates' organizational attachment. Our proposed relationships are illustrated in a theoretical model that includes phenomena at the individual-level (i.e., a subordinate's identification with the departing leader and with his/her organization), at the group-level (i.e., turnover contagion), and at the organizational level (i.e., organization-wide developmental climate). As such, we propose that elucidating how leader-departures affect organizational attachment requires multi-level theorizing and constructs. Theoretical and practical implications of such a 360-degree relational perspective on leader-departure effects are discussed.




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Ethical and legal aspects of computing: a professional perspective from software engineering

With this book, O’Regan efficiently addresses a wide range of ethical and legal issues in computing. It is well crafted, organized, and reader friendly, featuring many recent, relevant examples like tweets, fake news, disinformation




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VAR misread West Ham penalty against Man Utd - Webb

A penalty awarded to West Ham during Erik ten Hag's final match in charge of Man Utd was a 'misread', according to refereeing boss Howard Webb.




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Man who ran illegal football streaming service jailed

Jonathan Edge was caught selling reprogrammed Firestick devices after advertising on Facebook.




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Málaga evacuates thousands as Spain issues more flood alerts

Spain's Civil Protection Agency sent a mass alert to phones warning of an "extreme risk of rainfall".




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Is the Second Amendment Only America’s Right? Do Illegal Immigrants Have Gun Rights?

For advocates of universal gun rights, this debate represents a fundamental question about the nature of the Second Amendment: is it an American right or a human right?





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28th Singapore Pharmacy Congress




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29th Singapore Pharmacy Congress




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Do vaccines against pneumonia protect you against COVID-19? 预防肺炎的疫苗能预防COVID-19吗?

Vaccines against certain pneumonias, such as influenza, pneumococcal vaccine and Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) vaccine, do not provide protection against the new coronavirus. However, these vaccines are important especially if you have some medical conditions that would make you vulnerable to these infections (e.g. elderly, immunocompromised patients, or some patients with certain lung or heart conditions). We are glad that some of these vaccines are covered by MOH’s National Adult Immunisation Schedule (NAIS), and you can discuss with your primary care doctor to learn more.




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33rd Singapore Pharmacy Congress




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33rd Singapore Pharmacy Congress

‘Interlacing Health: Weaving the Future of Pharmacy’ Congress to be held on 5–6 October 2024 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore.

Find out more: https://pharmacycongress.org.sg/ 




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Helping single mothers gain financial independence

THIS Hari Raya, The Gardens Mall is bringing the comfort of home and the memories of celebrations with loved ones to its mall decor. With many unable to travel back to their kampung to visit grandparents and other loved ones, the Mall decided to bring elements of grandma’s eclectic home to the mall for all to enjoy this year.

Step into the mall and be greeted by a burst of colour and patterns with traditional woven pandanus ware and hand-sewn patchwork fabric. Snap photos with friends and family at the various vignettes set-up along the Ground Floor. Much like atok’s garden, there is much greenery around
to coax nostalgia for the simple kampung life.

Not forgetting the underprivileged this season, over at the South Palm on the Ground Floor, The Gardens Mall is collecting your unwanted denim to donate to the single mothers of SURI. SURI is a social enterprise that employs single mothers from low-income communities to turn unwanted denim material into fashionable apparel and other household items. SURI also believes in protecting the environment through upcycling.

As part of the partnership during Hari Raya, The Gardens Mall has pledged RM10,000 to SURI for its efforts in helping these single mothers gain financial independence.




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Fight against climate change

IN celebration of Earth Month, global prestige skincare brand, Origins, proudly announces the establishment of the Origins Green The Planet Fund and its inaugural non-profit partner, One Tree Planted, upholding the brand’s longstanding commitment to the well-being of people and our planet.

As a brand rooted in nature, Origins believes it is its responsibility to give back to the earth while also striving to make decisions that help limit our impact on the planet. Which is why, for over a decade, Origins has partnered with various environmental non-profit organisations to Green The Planet, planting one tree at a time to aid global reforestation initiatives and helping combat the effects of climate change.

In celebration of Earth Month 2021, Origins designed a limited-edition Dr. Andrew Weil for Origins Mega-Mushroom Relief & Resilience Soothing Treatment Lotion to help Green The Planet and support future tree-planting projects. One US dollar has been donated for every limited-edition Dr. Andrew Weil for Origins Mega-Mushroom Relief & Resilience Soothing Treatment Lotion available at Origins stores and online at Lazada Origins Flagship Store which allows one tree to be planted and cared for in partnership with Origins Green The Planet Fund.