Social Mental Shaping: Modelling the Impact of Sociality on Autonomous Agents' Mental States

This paper presents a framework that captures how the social nature of agents that are situated in a multi-agent environment impacts upon their individual mental states. Roles and relationships provide an abstraction upon which we develop the notion of social mental shaping. This allows us to extend the standard Belief-Desire-Intention model to account for how common social phenomena (e.g. cooperation, collaborative problem-solving and negotiation) can be integrated into a unified theoretical perspective that reflects a fully explicated model of the autonomous agent's mental state

Multicultural Organizational Development: A Resource for Health Equity

Discusses ways to develop the multicultural capacity of health organizations, based on theories from the behavioral sciences that have been applied to organizational management

A theoretical framework for computer models of cooperative dialogue, acknowledging multi-agent conflict

This thesis describes a theoretical framework for modelling cooperative dialogue. The linguistic theory is a version of speech act theory adopted from Cohen and Levesque, in which dialogue utterances are generated and interpreted pragmatically in the context of a theory of rational interaction. The latter is expressed as explicitly and formally represented principles of rational agenthood and cooperative interaction. The focus is the development of strategic principles of multi-agent interaction as such a basis for cooperative dialogue. In contrast to the majority of existing work, these acknowledge the Positive role of conflict to multi-agent cooperation. and make no assumptions regarding the benevolence and sincerity of agents. The result is a framework wherein agents can resolve conflicts by negotiation. It is a preliminary stage to the future building of computer models of cooperative dialogue for both HCI and DAI, which will therefore be more widely and generally applicable than those currently in existence. The theory of conflict and cooperation is expressed in the different patterns of mental states which characterise multi-agent conflict, cooperation and indifference as three alternative postural relations. Agents can recognise and potentially create these. Dialogue actions are the strategic tools with which mental states can be manipulated, whilst acknowledging that agents are autonomous over their mental states; they have control over what they acquire and reveal in dialogue. Strategic principles of belief and goal adoption are described in terms of the relationships between autonomous agents' beliefs, goals, preferences, and interests, and the relation of these to action. Veracity, mendacity, concealing and revealing are defined as properties of acts. The role of all these elements in reasoning about dialogue action and conflict resolution, is tester in analyses of two example dialogues; a record of a real trade union negotiation and an extract from "Othello" by Shakespeare

Psychological contract breach and turnover intention: the moderating effects of social status and local ties.

The aim of this study is to examine whether social networks reduce the effects of psychological contract breach on an employee’s intention to leave the organisation. This paper focuses on two particular elements of the social network in an organisation: (1)\ud social status and (2) local ties/connectedness. Using a sample of 242 responses from officers in the Irish Defence Forces, the results provide empirical evidence of the impact of psychological contract breach on officer turnover intentions. The results also demonstrate that perceptions of social networks moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and turnover\ud intentions through social status. Contrary to expectations, strong connectedness with senior officers was also found to be a moderator but not in the direction that was hypothesised. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed

Innovation in tourism: Re-conceptualising and measuring the absorptive capacity of the hotel sector

Recent reviews of research on innovation in tourism have highlighted a number of weaknesses in the literature. Among these is the limited theorising and empirical investigation of innovative practices by tourism organisations. This paper responds to these concerns by examining one important dimension of innovation within commercial tourism organisations, namely their ability to acquire, assimilate and utilise external knowledge (absorptive capacity) for competitive advantage. The topic is pertinent because there is evidence to suggest that tourism organisations are particularly dependent on external sources of knowledge when compared with businesses in other sectors. Following a discussion of the conceptual antecedents of absorptive capacity and its dimensions, a validated instrument for its measurement is developed and used to measure the absorptive capacity of the British hotel sector. The results suggest that current conceptions of absorptive capacity have limitations when applied to tourism enterprises. Absorptive capacity is re-conceptualised to overcome these deficiencies. The research and policy implications of the findings are discussed. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

Service Fairness and Customer Satisfaction in Internet Bank: From a Trust and Perceived Customer Value Perspective

Recent research has found that fairness plays a key role in customer satisfaction. Fairness in an online context and how it influences customer satisfaction, however, has yet been investigated. This research examines satisfaction from a fairness lens and explores the mediators of fairness to satisfaction in the internet bank context. 131 surveys were analyzed and results show that in internet bank, fairness that includes distributive fairness, procedural fairness and informational fairness is positively related to customer satisfaction. Trust and value are identified as two key mediators of fairness to customer satisfaction

High School Boys\u27 Experiences of a Violence Against Women Prevention Program

Violence against women and girls is a global burden that requires increased action, especially among males. Although the engagement of males in violence prevention programs have recently spiked, there is minimal evidence that outlines positive changes in males’ attitudes and behaviours when addressing violence against women and girls. The present study examined high school boys’ experiences of a one-day violence against women prevention program with respect to their attitudes and intentions to address violence against women and girls. Guided by the Transtheoretical Model for Behaviour Change and the theory of Moral Disengagement, a pre-event questionnaire was utilized to assess 156 southwestern Ontario high school boys’ attitudes about violence against women, and a post-event questionnaire assessed their level of satisfaction with the event, and their intentions to engage with the issue. Five post-event focus groups were conducted with twenty-five participants to contextualize the pre- and post- event questionnaires. Key findings revealed that many of the participants were aware of the issue of violence against women and girls, and felt responsible, and felt that they had a role to play. Participants’ self-reported defensiveness was not related to their overall event satisfaction. Participants’ favourable attitudes and overall event satisfaction ratings predicted their willingness to raise awareness in their schools. Given these findings, future research may benefit from a more randomized sample of participants. Future prevention programs may benefit from more complex questionnaires that address adolescent males’ attitudes and intentions about violence against women, and utilize post-tests that assess male participants’ behaviour when addressing violence against women