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Multimodal Speech Emotion Recognition Based on Large Language Model

Congcong FANG,Yun JIN,Guanlin CHEN,Yunfan ZHANG,Shidang LI,Yong MA,Yue XIE, Vol.E107-D, No.11, pp.1463-1467
Currently, an increasing number of tasks in speech emotion recognition rely on the analysis of both speech and text features. However, there remains a paucity of research exploring the potential of leveraging large language models like GPT-3 to enhance emotion recognition. In this investigation, we harness the power of the GPT-3 model to extract semantic information from transcribed texts, generating text modal features with a dimensionality of 1536. Subsequently, we perform feature fusion, combining the 1536-dimensional text features with 1188-dimensional acoustic features to yield comprehensive multi-modal recognition outcomes. Our findings reveal that the proposed method achieves a weighted accuracy of 79.62% across the four emotion categories in IEMOCAP, underscoring the considerable enhancement in emotion recognition accuracy facilitated by integrating large language models.
Publication Date: 2024/11/01




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Multi-Focus Image Fusion Algorithm Based on Multi-Task Learning and PS-ViT

Qinghua WU,Weitong LI, Vol.E107-D, No.11, pp.1422-1432
Multi-focus image fusion involves combining partially focused images of the same scene to create an all-in-focus image. Aiming at the problems of existing multi-focus image fusion algorithms that the benchmark image is difficult to obtain and the convolutional neural network focuses too much on the local region, a fusion algorithm that combines local and global feature encoding is proposed. Initially, we devise two self-supervised image reconstruction tasks and train an encoder-decoder network through multi-task learning. Subsequently, within the encoder, we merge the dense connection module with the PS-ViT module, enabling the network to utilize local and global information during feature extraction. Finally, to enhance the overall efficiency of the model, distinct loss functions are applied to each task. To preserve the more robust features from the original images, spatial frequency is employed during the fusion stage to obtain the feature map of the fused image. Experimental results demonstrate that, in comparison to twelve other prominent algorithms, our method exhibits good fusion performance in objective evaluation. Ten of the selected twelve evaluation metrics show an improvement of more than 0.28%. Additionally, it presents superior visual effects subjectively.
Publication Date: 2024/11/01




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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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BiConvNet: Integrating Spatial Details and Deep Semantic Features in a Bilateral-Branch Image Segmentation Network

Zhigang WU,Yaohui ZHU, Vol.E107-D, No.11, pp.1385-1395
This article focuses on improving the BiSeNet v2 bilateral branch image segmentation network structure, enhancing its learning ability for spatial details and overall image segmentation accuracy. A modified network called “BiconvNet” is proposed. Firstly, to extract shallow spatial details more effectively, a parallel concatenated strip and dilated (PCSD) convolution module is proposed and used to extract local features and surrounding contextual features in the detail branch. Continuing on, the semantic branch is reconstructed using the lightweight capability of depth separable convolution and high performance of ConvNet, in order to enable more efficient learning of deep advanced semantic features. Finally, fine-tuning is performed on the bilateral guidance aggregation layer of BiSeNet v2, enabling better fusion of the feature maps output by the detail branch and semantic branch. The experimental part discusses the contribution of stripe convolution and different sizes of empty convolution to image segmentation accuracy, and compares them with common convolutions such as Conv2d convolution, CG convolution and CCA convolution. The experiment proves that the PCSD convolution module proposed in this paper has the highest segmentation accuracy in all categories of the Cityscapes dataset compared with common convolutions. BiConvNet achieved a 9.39% accuracy improvement over the BiSeNet v2 network, with only a slight increase of 1.18M in model parameters. A mIoU accuracy of 68.75% was achieved on the validation set. Furthermore, through comparative experiments with commonly used autonomous driving image segmentation algorithms in recent years, BiConvNet demonstrates strong competitive advantages in segmentation accuracy on the Cityscapes and BDD100K datasets.
Publication Date: 2024/11/01




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Hybrid of machine learning-based multiple criteria decision making and mass balance analysis in the new coconut agro-industry product development

Product innovation has become a crucial part of the sustainability of the coconut agro-industry in Indonesia, covering upstream and downstream sides. To overcome this challenge, it is necessary to create several model stages using a hybrid method that combines machine learning based on multiple criteria decision making and mass balance analysis. The research case study was conducted in Tembilahan district, Riau province, Indonesia, one of the primary coconut producers in Indonesia. The analysis results showed that potential products for domestic customers included coconut milk, coconut cooking oil, coconut chips, coconut jelly, coconut sugar, and virgin coconut oil. Furthermore, considering the experts, the most potential product to be developed was coconut sugar with a weight of 0.26. Prediction of coconut sugar demand reached 13,996,607 tons/year, requiring coconut sap as a raw material up to 97,976,249.




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A novel approach of psychometric interaction and principal component for analysing factors affecting e-wallet usage

The Republic of India has witnessed an enormous leap in financial transactions after a sudden demonetisation in 2016. The study represents an in-depth analysis of the factors influencing e-wallets usage post-COVID situation covering the National Capital Region. The scientifically collected data were subjected to Pearson's correlation to recognise the correlation amongst the selected e-wallets. The usage of e-wallets is observed mainly during recharge, UPI payments, and utility payments. Through psychometric response and interaction analysis, six factors were selected and examined for data distribution and stable observation using standard deviation and variance coefficient. The coefficient of variance for six factors was observed ≤ 1. The weight of the factors noted to be secured way (0.184), to take advantage of cashback (0.182), low risk of theft (0.169), fast service (0.1689), ease to use (0.156), and saves time (0.139) using principal component eigenvectors analysis. Freecharge and Tez wallets reveal a maximum 99.2% correlation.




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International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management




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A Method for Indoor Vehicle Obstacle Avoidance by Fusion of Image and LiDAR

Background and Objective: In response to the challenges of poor mapping outcomes and susceptibility to obstacles encountered by indoor mobile vehicles relying solely on pure cameras or pure LiDAR during their movements, this paper proposes an obstacle avoidance method for indoor mobile vehicles that integrates image and LiDAR data, thus achieving obstacle avoidance for mobile vehicles. Materials and Methods: This method combines data from a depth camera and LiDAR, employing the Gmapping SLAM algorithm for environmental mapping, along with the A* algorithm and TEB algorithm for local path planning. In addition, this approach incorporates gesture functionality, which can be used to control the vehicle in certain special scenarios where “pseudo-obstacles” exist. The method utilizes the YOLO V3 algorithm for gesture recognition. Results: This paper merges the maps generated by the depth camera and LiDAR, resulting in a three-dimensional map that is more enriched and better aligned with real-world conditions. Combined with the A* algorithm and TEB algorithm, an optimal route is planned, enabling the mobile vehicles to effectively obtain obstacle information and thus achieve obstacle avoidance. Additionally, the introduced gesture recognition feature, which has been validated, also effectively controls the forward and backward movements of the mobile vehicles, facilitating obstacle avoidance. Conclusion: The experimental platform for the mobile vehicles, which integrates depth camera and LiDAR, built in this study has been validated for real-time obstacle avoidance through path planning in indoor environments. The introduced gesture recognition also effectively enables obstacle avoidance for the mobile vehicles.




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CEO SEVERANCE AGREEMENTS: A THEORETICAL EXAMINATION AND RESEARCH AGENDA

CEO severance has captured the attention of a wide array of audiences, yet it remains largely unexplored by management scholars. This paper offers a rigorous theoretical examination of CEO severance with the goal of developing a foundation for a systematic research agenda. In particular, we consider if, and how, severance agreements can be effective in serving the interests of both CEOs and shareholders. We argue that severance agreements have potential value as both an executive recruitment and governance tool, but that the way they are conventionally structured undermines the value that shareholders realize from them. The implications of structure have been almost entirely overlooked by scholars, perhaps because the influence of compensation consultants has left little variance in how severance agreements are implemented across firms. We address this gap by theorizing about how severance agreements could be structured to effectively generate value for executives and shareholders. To do this, we introduce a categorization of key dimensions of CEO severance agreements, and consider how each of these dimensions can be structured to facilitate CEO recruiting, while simultaneously mitigating future governance problems. Our propositions offer new opportunities for governance and compensation scholars to link CEO severance agreements to important organizational outcomes.




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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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What's going on? Developing reflexivity in the management classroom: From surface to deep learning and everything else in between.

'What's going on?' Within the context of our critically-informed teaching practice, we see moments of deep learning and reflexivity in classroom discussions and assessments. Yet, these moments of criticality are interspersed with surface learning and reflection. We draw on dichotomous, linear developmental, and messy explanations of learning processes to empirically explore the learning journeys of 20 international Chinese and 42 domestic New Zealand students. We find contradictions within our own data, and between our findings and the extant literature. We conclude that expressions of surface learning and reflection are considerably more complex than they first appear. Moreover, developing critical reflexivity is a far more subtle, messy, and emotional experience than previously understood. We present the theoretical and pedagogical significance of these findings when we consider the implications for the learning process and the practice of management education.




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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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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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It's Personal: An Exploration of Students' (Non)Acceptance of Management Research

Management educators often assume that research-based arguments ought to be convincing to students. However, college students do not always accept even well-documented research findings. Among the reasons this might happen, we focus on the potential role of psychological mechanisms triggered by scholarly arguments that affect students' self-concepts, leading them to engage in self-enhancing or self-protective responses. We investigated such processes by examining students' reactions to a research argument emphasizing the importance of intelligence to job performance, in comparison to their reactions to research arguments emphasizing the importance of emotional intelligence and/or fit. Consistent with our predictions, students were less likely to accept the argument for the importance of intelligence compared to the alternative, less threatening, arguments (i.e., the importance of emotional intelligence or fit). Further, acceptance of the argument about the importance of intelligence was affected by students' grade point average (GPA) and moderated by their emotional stability. Specifically, consistent with self-enhancement theory, students with lower GPAs were more likely to reject the argument for intelligence and give self-protective reasons for their responses, whereas students with higher GPAs were more likely to accept the argument and give self-enhancing reasons. Implications for future research and for management teaching are discussed.




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Financial Regulation and Social Welfare: The Critical Contribution of Management Theory

While many studies explain how social science theories shape social reality, few reflect critically on how such theories should shape social reality. Drawing on a new conception of social welfare and focusing on financial regulation, we assess the performative effects of theories on public policy. We delineate how research that focuses narrowly on questions of efficiency and stability reinforces today's technocratic financial regulation that undermines social welfare. As a remedy, we outline how future management research can tackle questions of social justice and thereby promote an inclusive approach to financial regulation that better serves social welfare.




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COORDINATING KNOWLEDGE CREATION IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAMS: EVIDENCE FROM EARLY-STAGE DRUG DISCOVERY

Based on a multi-year field study of early-stage drug discovery project teams at a global pharmaceutical company, this paper examines how multidisciplinary teams engaged in knowledge creation combine formal and informal coordination mechanisms when faced with unpredictable interdependencies among specialists' knowledge domains. While multidisciplinary teams are critical for knowledge creation in increasingly specialized work environments, the coordination literature has been divided with respect to the extent to which such teams rely on formal coordination structures and informal coordination practices. Our findings show that when interdependencies among knowledge domains are dynamic and unpredictable, specialists design self-managed (sub-)teams around collectively held assumptions about interdependencies based on incomplete information (conjectural interdependencies). These team structures establish the grounds for informal coordination practices that enable specialists to both manage known interdependencies and reveal new interdependencies. Newly revealed interdependencies among knowledge domains, in turn, promote structural adaptation. Drawing on these findings, we advance an integrative model explaining how team-based knowledge creation relies on the mutual constitution of formal coordination structures and informal coordination practices. The model contributes to theory on organizational design and practice-based research on coordination in cross-disciplinary knowledge creation.




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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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A Study of Anglo Expatriate Managers' Learning, Knowledge Acquisition, and Adjustment in Multi-National Companies in China

This study investigates Anglo expatriate managers learning, knowledge acquisition, and adjustment to the host culture when working within Anglo multi-national companies operating in China. A structural equation model based on data from 121 expatriate managers reveal that Anglo managers adjust more effectively when their learning styles are congruent with the demands of the host culture. Their levels of accumulated managerial tacit knowledge and adaptive flexibility were also associated with their learning styles which in turn led to more effective adjustment to the host culture. Implications for theory, global manager development, and expatriate management are provided.




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Partnerships for peace and development in fragile states: Identifying missing links

Literature on partnerships has grown rapidly in the past decade across different disciplines. However, despite conceptual attention to the value of strategic multi-stakeholder collaboration to promote peace and reconciliation, challenges posed by (post-)conflict, fragile contexts have barely been considered in empirical studies. In this article we contribute by bringing together debates from different partnership literatures and providing an overview of existing, relatively limited research insights on partnerships for peace in fragile states. We present a typology of different levels (local, national, international) at which collaboration takes place and different types of partnerships (philanthropic, transactional, engagement, transformative). This is exemplified with specific attention to Africa, where most fragile states are found, and to partnerships with transformative potential. The analysis suggests that the lowest-level (local) partnerships tend to exclude the national government, while the most recent international, multilateral-driven collaboration has not included business; national cases are most transformative but incidental and not yet leveraged internationally. Despite the interconnected nature of conflict and fragility issues, linkages between partnerships and partners at different levels are largely missing, offering potential for further development by a broad spectrum of scholars and thought leaders. Insights from 'extreme' unconventional contexts thus have relevance for management research more generally.




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How does leader humility influence team performance? Exploring the mechanisms of contagion and collective promotion focus

Using data from 607 subjects organized in 161 teams (84 laboratory teams and 77 organizational field teams), we examined how leader humility influences team interaction patterns, emergent states, and team performance. We developed and tested a theoretical model arguing that when leaders behave humbly, followers emulate their humble behaviors, creating a shared interpersonal team process (collective humility). This collective humility in turn creates a team emergent state focused on progressively striving toward achieving the team's highest potential (collective promotion focus), which ultimately enhances team performance. We tested our model across three studies wherein we manipulated leader humility to test the social contagion hypothesis (Study 1), examined the impact of humility on team processes and performance in a longitudinal team simulation (Study 2), and tested the full model in a multistage field study in a health services context (Study 3). The findings from these lab and field studies collectively supported our theoretical model, demonstrating that leader behavior can spread via social contagion to followers, producing an emergent state that ultimately affects team performance. Our findings contribute to the leadership literature by suggesting the need for leaders to lead by example, and showing precisely how a specific set of leader behaviors influence team performance, which may provide a useful template for future leadership research on a wide variety of leader behaviors.




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Stakeholder Agency and Social Welfare: Pluralism and Decision Making in the Multi-Objective Corporation

Social welfare, or the good society, is of central concern to the Academy of Management. In this paper, we review the concept of social welfare, suggesting that regardless of discipline, social welfare is defined as a multi-dimensional phenomenon. We then review the literature on the corporate objective within a market economy, where the dominant view is that of a single-objective function. Analyzing this view, we argue for a multi-dimensional objective for organizations in order to meet social welfare objectives: where decision making within a market economy better utilizes the benefits of markets. We suggest that improvements in social welfare are possible where markets are better-enabled to operate among stakeholders unconstrained by some single-valued objective. In doing so, we respond to the critics of stakeholder theory who argue that it is an untenable theory due to its inability to specify how stakeholder objectives are to be prioritized.




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Understanding the Direction, Magnitude, and Joint Effects of Reputation When Multiple Actors' Reputations Collide

Despite the extensive research into the effects of reputation, virtually all of this research has examined the effect of one type of reputation on one or more specific outcomes. In this study we ask the question: How do the reputations of analysts, CEOs, and firms individually and jointly affect firm outcomes? To answer this question we focus on a context where reputations are particularly relevant - changes in analyst recommendations and the effect of those changes on stock market reactions. Our study makes contributions to the growing reputation literature by being one of the first studies to recognize and measure how the market accounts for multiple reputations. Further, we argue and find that the reputations of different actors interact with each other when determining particular firm outcomes. We find that different actor's reputations influence the reactions of observers.




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MANAGING THE RISKS OF PROACTIVITY: A MULTILEVEL STUDY OF INITIATIVE AND PERFORMANCE IN THE MIDDLE MANAGEMENT CONTEXT

Drawing on theories of behavioral decision making and situational strength, we developed and tested a multilevel model that explains how the performance outcomes of personal initiative tendency depend on the extent of alignment between organizational control mechanisms and proactive individuals' risk propensities. Results from a sample of 383 middle managers operating in 34 business units of a large multinational corporation indicated that risk propensity weakens the positive relationship between personal initiative tendency and job performance. This negative moderating effect was further amplified when middle managers receive high job autonomy but was attenuated in business units with a strong performance management context. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on proactivity, risk taking, and organizational control.




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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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Perceptions of employee volunteering: Is it "credited" or "stigmatized" by colleagues?

As research begins to accumulate on employee volunteering, it appears that this behavior is largely beneficial to employee performance and commitment. It is less clear, however, how employee volunteering is perceived by others in the workplace. Do colleagues award volunteering "credit"- for example, associating it with being concerned about others - or do they "stigmatize" it - for example, associating it with being distracted from work? Moreover, do those evaluations go on to predict how colleagues actually treat employees who volunteer more often? Adopting a reputation perspective, we draw from theories of person perception and attribution to explore these research questions. The results of a field study revealed that colleagues gave credit to employee volunteering when they attributed it to intrinsic reasons and stigmatized employee volunteering when they attributed it to impression management reasons. Ultimately, through the awarded credits, volunteering was rewarded by supervisors (with the allocation of more resources) and coworkers (with the provision of more helping behavior) when it was attributed to intrinsic motives - a relationship that was amplified when stigmas were low and mitigated when stigmas were high. The results of a laboratory experiment further confirmed that volunteering was both credited and stigmatized, distinguishing it from citizenship behavior, which was credited but not stigmatized.




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Misfit and Milestones: Structural Elaboration and Capability Reinforcement in the Evolution of Entrepreneurial Top Management Teams

We examine how top management team (TMT) misfit, defined as discrepancies between the TMT's functional roles and the qualifications of the managers who fill those roles, affects the evolution of TMT composition and structure in a longitudinal study of entrepreneurial ventures. We distinguish two types of misfit - overqualification and underqualification - and study how each is associated with TMT changes. We further consider the moderating effect of firm development. Results reveal that underqualified TMTs hire new managers to reinforce existing capabilities whereas overqualified TMTs elaborate their role structures. However, achieving developmental milestones (i.e., obtaining venture capital funding and staging an initial public offering) is a critical contingency to TMT change: absent these milestones, firms neither hire new managers nor add roles, even when they seemingly need to do so. These findings contribute to knowledge of how TMTs and new ventures evolve by underscoring the importance of simultaneously attending to TMT composition and structure.




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MANAGEMENT EDUCATION BY THE FRENCH GRANDES ECOLES DE COMMERCE - PAST, PRESENT AND AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

This essay presents a comprehensive briefing on the past and present of a business educational culture that is significantly different in ethos and structure to the widely known systems in the US and UK. That is the history and culture of the French Grandes Ecoles de Commerce. A brief reminder of extant literature on the utility of business education and its seeming misalignment with the competencies and skills as specified by practitioners is then given. Key pressures and trends on and within this system - such as internationalisation, accreditation and a greater emphasis on publications are identified and discussed. These threads are then combined in a partial replication of the work of Dierdorff and Rubin (2006; 2009). Specifically, information on 1582 classes from 542 programmes at the top Grandes Ecoles de Commerce is presented alongside further secondary data and then analysed in respect of alignment with Rubin and Dierdorff's identified behavioural competencies. We argue that whilst well intentioned, the outcome of these pressures may well be that inherent and historical strengths of great value are being discarded, and that the degree of irrelevance and misalignment between educational provision and required managerial competence will stay the same or even get worse.




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HOW INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS INFLUENCE SKILL DEVELOPMENT IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

Research concerning why and how to promote social interaction and learner reflection in management education and training is somewhat underdeveloped. In this investigation, we used a predictive, quasi-experimental design with 246 students from a business school in Colombia who were enrolled in 10 sections of a leadership course to examine expected effects of instructional methods that promoted different levels of social interaction and reflection on self-reported learning behaviors (dialogue and reflection activities), self-efficacy for class performance, and instructors' assessments of students' skill demonstration (team work, communication, influence, and work proficiency and effort). In comparisons to students participating in instructional conditions with less social interaction and fewer reflective activities, students participating in an instructional condition that promoted higher levels of these activities exhibited considerably greater student-student dialogue, instructor-student dialogue, and reflection. These learning behaviors in turn led to enhanced self-efficacy for class performance and skilled activity. In addition, students' perceptions of psychological safety partially mediated relationships between instructional method and dialogical and reflective activities. The implications of these findings for coupling action, dialogue and reflective activities in management education and training as well as avenues for future research are discussed.




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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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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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What David Foster Wallace can teach management scholars

Book Review




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THE OPERATIONAL AND SIGNALING BENEFITS OF VOLUNTARY LABOR CODE ADOPTION: RECONCEPTUALIZING THE SCOPE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN EMERGING ECONOMIES

Labor codes have been voluntarily adopted and used by manufacturers in emerging economies for the past two decades, as a means of ensuring minimally acceptable or core labor standards for workers. However, far too little is known of the potential benefits from the voluntary adoption of labor codes to the manufacturer, and prior human resource management research has been virtually silent on the business implications of their use for emerging economy manufacturers participating in global supply chains. Drawing on previous work across multiple disciplines and proposing a framework that extends human resource management theory more explicitly and rigorously to the context of emerging economy manufacturing, I theorize and demonstrate that the voluntary adoption of a labor code may constitute an effective human resource investment in emerging economies in improving establishment-level employee outcomes and operational and financial performance. The hypotheses are tested using longitudinal data on a sample of apparel manufacturing plants in Sri Lanka. Implications of this study include providing insight into how to expand the scope and relevance of human resource management theory to better understand research and practice in emerging economies.




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Review: Global Leadership Practices: A Cross-Cultural Management Perspective

Do you teach anyone whom you would consider a member of the next generation of global leaders? If you answered "yes" to this question, you likely teach an audience within which many of its members already possess intercultural experience, have traveled widely, and perhaps speak several languages. These globally minded students demand in-depth learning approaches which help them prepare for complex global leadership settings. Global Leadership Practices is an excellent source of teaching materials and tools targeted to these learners.




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Review: Applied Crisis Communication and Crisis Management: Cases and Exercises

Over the past decade, the terms "crisis" and "crisis management" have become increasingly popular topics of interest for business professionals and management academics alike. According to the Institute for Crisis Management (2013), "Newsworthy business crises have been on a steady upward trend since 2009.




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An Approach/Avoidance Framework of Workplace Aggression

The number of constructs developed to assess workplace aggression has flourished in recent years, leading to confusion over what meaningful differences exist (if any) between the constructs. We argue that one way to frame the field of workplace aggression is via approach/avoidance principles, with various workplace aggression constructs (e.g., abusive supervision, supervisor undermining, and workplace ostracism) differentially predicting specific approach or avoidance emotions and behaviors. Using two multi-wave field sample of employees, we demonstrate the utility of approach/avoidance principles in conceptualizing workplace aggression constructs, as well as the processes and boundary conditions through which they uniquely influence outcomes. Implications for the workplace aggression literature are discussed.




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Magnification and Correction of the Acolyte Effect: Initial Benefits and Ex Post Settling up in NFL Coaching Careers

What are the long-term consequences of initially beneficial high-reputation workplace ties? Under uncertainty, acolytes (i.e., subordinates with work connections to high-reputation industry leaders) are likely to benefit in terms of signaling fitness for promotion in the external job market. Analysis of promotion outcomes of coaches in the NFL over 31 years showed that the acolyte effect was reduced for individuals for whom uncertainty was the least (acolytes with considerable industry experience or high centrality in the co-worker industry network). There was no support for either a knowledge-transfer or an intrinsic quality explanation for why acolytes initially gained advantage. Rather, the evidence supported the idea that ties to high-reputation leaders were somewhat randomly distributed so that acolytes faced ex post settling up consequences after their promotions: fewer further promotions or lateral moves, more demotions. Thus, acolytes initially benefited from a loose-linkage between their unobservable quality and signals offered by their industry-leader ties, but they also suffered as the unreliability of social network signals became evident. The results suggest that a competitive job market may exhibit self-correction over time. We offer countervailing theory and evidence to the prevailing view that high-reputation third-party endorsements perpetuate a rich-get-richer social structure resistant to performance outcomes.




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Programming-based formal languages and automata theory: design, implement, validate, and prove

This rather difficult read introduces the programming language FSM and the programming platform DrRacket. The author asserts that it is a convenient platform to design and prove an automata-based software




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Improving equity in data science: re-imagining the teaching and learning of data in K-16 classrooms

Improving equity in data science, edited by Colby Tofel-Grehl and Emmanuel Schanzer, is a thought-provoking exploration of how data science education can be transformed to foster equity, especially within K-16 classrooms. The editors advocate for redefining




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Natural language processing: a textbook with Python implementation

I had one big question after taking on this review: How relevant is this book with the advent of large language models (LLMs)? In the past two years, the launches of OpenAI’s GPT and Google’s Gemma, amongst others, have severely disrupted the study of natural language




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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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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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Actor Timothy West dies aged 90

One of Britain's most distinguished actors, West was married to Fawlty Towers star Prunella Scales.




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Plano Field Ammo Box Heavy-Duty Storage Case – $6.99 Free S/H over $35

Plano Field Ammo Box Heavy-Duty Storage Case - $6.99  each with FREE returns and FREE shipping for order over $35.00.




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Magtech 9mm 115 Grain FMJ Ammo 1000 Rounds $0.25 Each FREE Shipping

Magtech 9mm 115 Grain FMJ Ammo, 1000 Rounds for $250.00 FREE Shipping options. That is $0.25 for each round.




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RSWC #216, Mark Keefe, NRA Managing Director of Editorial & Public Affairs

If you have read any of the NRA’s magazines, watch American Rifleman, or have seen some shows on The Outdoor Channel or The History Channel, you have seen Mark Keefe for years.





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Magpul FDP-9 Update, The Folding PCC is Finally Here!

Uncover the cutting-edge design of the Magpul FDP-9 and FDC-9. Learn how these folding firearms are redefining personal defense.




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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.