Revisiting leadership development:the participant perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address limitations of prevailing approaches to leadership development programmes and make suggestions as to how these might be overcome. These limitations are an outcome of the dominant rational functional approach to leadership development programmes. Based on empirical research, and underpinned by organisational theory, the paper suggests a shift towards a socio-constructivist perspective on design and implementation of leadership development programmes. The explorative study proposes that context and participant differences need to be recognised as factors impacting on the effectiveness of leadership development initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a review of relevant literature and qualitative data collected using the case study method. The study presented is explorative. Findings – The paper finds that participant interaction with leadership development programmes varies depending on individual and/or contextual factors. Current design logic neither recognises nor utilises such situatedness as programmes develop their linear and unidirectional logic. Designers of programmes underestimate the extent to which programme participants create a context-specific understanding of leadership learning as they interact with the programme. Their personal and organisational context shapes this interaction. A socio-constructivist perspective can provide theoretical foundation for the argument that leadership development programmes can become more effective if context-specific dimensions are recognised as shaping and constraining factors impacting on programme participants. Originality/value – The paper argues that it is time to move away from offering leadership development programmes which emphasise input over interaction. The paper encourages commissioners and designers of leadership programmes to recognise that an overly didactic approach may limit the effectiveness of such programmes

Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A1 and gelsolin identified as novel invasion-modulating factors in conditioned medium of pancreatic cancer cells

Conditioned medium (CM) from clonal sub-populations of the pancreatic cancer cell line, MiaPaCa-2 with differing invasive abilities, were examined for their effect on in vitro invasion. Conditioned medium from Clone #3 (CM#3) strongly promoted invasion, while CM from Clone #8 (CM#8) inhibited invasion in vitro. 2D DIGE followed by MALDI-TOF MS analysis of CM#3 and CM#8 identified 41 proteins which were differentially regulated; 27 proteins were down-regulated and 14 proteins up-regulated in the invasion-promoting CM#3 when compared to CM#8. Western blotting analysis confirmed the down-regulated expression of gelsolin and the up-regulation of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A1 in CM#3. Down-regulation of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A1 in Clone #3 CM and gelsolin levels in Clone #8 CM by siRNA transfection revealed an important involvement of these proteins in promoting and inhibiting invasion in these pancreatic cancer cell lines

Identification of proteins found to be significantly altered when comparing the serum proteome from Multiple Myeloma patients with varying degrees of bone disease

Background: Bone destruction is a feature of multiple myeloma, characterised by osteolytic bone destruction due to increased osteoclast activity and suppressed or absent osteoblast activity. Almost all multiple myeloma patients develop osteolytic bone lesions associated with severe and debilitating bone pain, pathologic fractures, hypercalcemia, and spinal cord compression, as well as increased mortality. Biomarkers of bone remodelling are used to identify disease characteristics that can help select the optimal management of patients. However, more accurate biomarkers are needed to effectively mirror the dynamics of bone disease activity. Results: A label-free mass spectrometry-based strategy was employed for discovery phase analysis of fractionated patient serum samples associated with no or high bone disease. A number of proteins were identified which were statistically significantly correlated with bone disease, including enzymes, extracellular matrix glycoproteins, and components of the complement system. Conclusions: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of complement C4 and serum paraoxonase/arylesterase 1 indicated that these proteins were associated with high bone disease in a larger independent cohort of patient samples. These biomolecules may therefore be clinically useful in assessing the extent of bone disease. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-904) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Displaced and Squeezed Number States

After beginning with a short historical review of the concept of displaced (coherent) and squeezed states, we discuss previous (often forgotten) work on displaced and squeezed number states. Next, we obtain the most general displaced and squeezed number states. We do this in both the functional and operator (Fock) formalisms, thereby demonstrating the necessary equivalence. We then obtain the time-dependent expectation values, uncertainties, wave-functions, and probability densities. In conclusion, there is a discussion on the possibility of experimentally observing these states.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, plus 4 figure

Evolution of filament structures during edge-localized modes in the MAST tokamak

Edge-localized modes (ELMs) are repetitive instabilities that occur in the outer region of tokamak plasmas. This Letter provides new information on and the implications of the evolution of the filament structures observed during ELMs in the MAST tokamak. The filaments exist for the time over which particles are being released into the scrape off layer. They start off at the plasma edge rotating at the velocity of the pedestal, and then decelerate toroidally and accelerate radially outwards. As the filaments propagate radially they remain aligned with the local magnetic field line

The Existence and Persistence of the Pay-per-use Bias in Car Sharing Services

A key benefit of using car sharing services (relative to car ownership) is that they are more cost effective. Car sharing firms offer a menu of pricing plans to make this happen. The two most common plans are flat-rate and pay-per-use pricing. However, little is known about how consumers choose among these pricing plans. In this study, we analyze consumers' choices between pay-per-use and flat-rate pricing using data from a car sharing provider in a large European city. We show that over 40% of customers make nonoptimal pricing plan choices (i.e., they do not choose the cost minimizing plan). In contrast to previous research, we find a prevalent and time-persistent pay-per-use bias; i.e., we find little evidence that consumers 'learn'. We propose three potential explanations for the existence and persistence of this bias. First, we suggest that customers underestimate their usage. Second, we propose that customers have a preference for flexibility, leading them to pay more. Finally, we show that the physical context, such as weather, increases the likelihood of a pay-per-use bias. We suggest that the pay-per-use bias may be the prevalent tariff choice bias in the Sharing Economy

Formal Analysis of Multi-Device Group Messaging in WhatsApp

WhatsApp provides end-to-end encrypted messaging to over two billion users. However, due to a lack of public documentation and source code, the specific security guarantees it provides are unclear. Seeking to rectify this situation, we combine the limited public documentation with information we gather through reverse-engineering its implementation to provide a formal description of the subset of WhatsApp that provides multi-device group messaging. We utilise this description to state and prove the security guarantees that this subset of WhatsApp provides. Our analysis is performed within a variant of the Device-Oriented Group Messaging model, which we extend to support device revocation. We discuss how to interpret these results, including the security WhatsApp provides as well as its limitations

An experimental analysis of overconfidence in tariff choice

Consumers regularly have to choose between a pay-per-use and a flat-rate option. Due to the increasing number and range of (digital) services, the frequency at which consumers have to make tariff-choice decisions to use these services has become even more prevalent. Prior work has demonstrated that consumers’ tariff choices are often systematically biased and identified overconfidence as one of the key drivers. Yet, prior research is non-experimental and focused on the so-called flat-rate bias. By contrast, we examine the effects of overconfidence on the choice between a pay-per-use and a flat-rate option using an experimental approach. We develop an incentive-compatible experiment to provide causal evidence for the effect of overconfidence on tariff-choice decisions. We find that overconfident (underconfident) consumers underestimate (overestimate) their actual usage, which leads them to choose a pay-per-use (flat-rate) option relatively more frequently. Based on the results, we discuss theoretical and managerial implications as well as avenues for future research