Gainsharing: A Critical Review and a Future Research Agenda

This paper provides a critical review of the extensive literature on gainsharing. It examines the reasons for the fast growth in these programs in recent years and the major prototypes used in the past. Different theoretical formulations making predictions about the behavioral consequences and conditions mediating the success of these programs are discussed and the supporting empirical evidence is examined. The large number of a theoretical case studies and practitioner reports or gainsharing are also summarized and integrated. The article concludes with a suggested research agenda for the future

DRAFT Report:Community Systems Strengthening Toward a Research Agenda

Communities have a long history of acting to preserve and promote the health of their members. Public health researchers, programmers, and funders are increasingly recognizing that community involvement is essential to improving health, especially among populations that are disproportionately affected by HIV. The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, together with civil society organizations and other development partners, created the Community Systems Strengthening (CSS) Framework to help Global Fund applicants frame, define, and quantify efforts to strengthen community contributions engagement (Global Fund 2011). Although the use of a CSS approach in health programming implementation shows promise, it lacks a theoretical framework to guide collaborations with communities. Additionally, it suffers from a paucity of program designs and evaluation practices, an incomplete evidence-based rationale for investing in CSS, and imprecise definitions (e.g., what is meant by “community” and “CSS”).The purpose of this paper is to highlight promising areas for future research related to CSS. Toward this objective, we propose to lay a foundation for a CSS research agenda by using theories and approaches relevant to CSS, reinforced with evidence from projects that employ similar approaches

Towards Learning ‘Self’ and Emotional Knowledge in Social and Cultural Human-Agent Interactions

Original article can be found at: http://www.igi-global.com/articles/details.asp?ID=35052 Copyright IGI. Posted by permission of the publisher.This article presents research towards the development of a virtual learning environment (VLE) inhabited by intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) and modeling a scenario of inter-cultural interactions. The ultimate aim of this VLE is to allow users to reflect upon and learn about intercultural communication and collaboration. Rather than predefining the interactions among the virtual agents and scripting the possible interactions afforded by this environment, we pursue a bottomup approach whereby inter-cultural communication emerges from interactions with and among autonomous agents and the user(s). The intelligent virtual agents that are inhabiting this environment are expected to be able to broaden their knowledge about the world and other agents, which may be of different cultural backgrounds, through interactions. This work is part of a collaborative effort within a European research project called eCIRCUS. Specifically, this article focuses on our continuing research concerned with emotional knowledge learning in autobiographic social agents.Peer reviewe

Competencies And Strategies Utilized By Higher Education Leaders During Planned Change

In a mixed methods study designed to explore the competencies and strategies utilized by self-described successful leaders of public, four-year U. S. institutions, this study confirmed that there was little difference among academic and non-academic leaders in their approach to successful change beyond that found in terms of non-academic preference for resilience and an academic preference for personal learning. Both leaders (N=47) showed high agreement for the nine proposed competencies, five of which were statistically higher in perceived importance (personal learning, resilience, emotional engagement/creating a safe space, networking/coalition building, and project management). Adapting Bolman and Deal’s four frames (2013) as an organizing framework for interview responses (N=25), the most frequent strategy themes in descending order were: personal strategies (including resilience, perseverance, setting expectations, establishing credibility, openness, adaptability/flexibility), political strategies (including knowing who to engage, scheming, sr. leader support, academic leader discretion), structure strategies (including forming/staffing a team and team activities such as benchmarking, use of a change model, creating a team charter), and symbolic strategies (including communication, inspiration, and emotional engagement activities). This study supports the creation of a competency framework that could be used for the recruitment/selection, coaching/mentoring, and ongoing development of both academic and non-academic higher education change leaders. Planning and change launch with communication were the primary phases referenced; institutionalization was minimally featured. Leaders would do well to partner with others in central units such as organizational development and/or human resource professionals to set change goals, monitor and evaluate progress, and embed the change into organizational structures, systems, and processes

Innovative methods for observing and changing complex health behaviors: Four propositions

Precision health initiatives aim to progressively move from traditional, group-level approaches to health diagnostics and treatments toward ones that are individualized, contextualized, and timely. This article aims to provide an overview of key methods and approaches that can help facilitate this transition in the health behavior change domain. This article is a narrative review of the methods used to observe and change complex health behaviors. On the basis of the available literature, we argue that health behavior change researchers should progressively transition from (i) low- to high-resolution behavioral assessments, (ii) group-only to group- and individual-level statistical inference, (iii) narrative theoretical models to dynamic computational models, and (iv) static to adaptive and continuous tuning interventions. Rather than providing an exhaustive and technical presentation of each method and approach, this article articulates why and how researchers interested in health behavior change can apply these innovative methods. Practical examples contributing to these efforts are presented. If successfully adopted and implemented, the four propositions in this article have the potential to greatly improve our public health and behavior change practices in the near future

An Exploratory Investigation of Stakeholders\u27 Perceptions of Political Leaders\u27 Behavior and Outcomes

This was an exploratory and descriptive study on stakeholders’ perceptions of political leaders’ behavior and outcomes. A purposeful sample comprised of 471 respondents whom were highly engaged in the political process was conducted on five distinct stakeholder groups, consisting of government employees, elected officials, union-building trades, business professionals, and college students. Two emergent results were identified: political party affiliation was a major indicator of stakeholder differences, and the inversion of agency theory. Contributing factors of the inversion of agency theory whereby a political agent begins to acts as a principle have led the researcher to develop the Corrupt-Unethical Behavior (CUB) model. Future research would focus more on the salient differences between political party affiliations rather than differences between stakeholder groups

An Exploratory Investigation of Stakeholders\u27 Perceptions of Political Leaders\u27 Behavior and Outcomes

This was an exploratory and descriptive study on stakeholders’ perceptions of political leaders’ behavior and outcomes. A purposeful sample comprised of 471 respondents whom were highly engaged in the political process was conducted on five distinct stakeholder groups, consisting of government employees, elected officials, union-building trades, business professionals, and college students. Two emergent results were identified: political party affiliation was a major indicator of stakeholder differences, and the inversion of agency theory. Contributing factors of the inversion of agency theory whereby a political agent begins to acts as a principle have led the researcher to develop the Corrupt-Unethical Behavior (CUB) model. Future research would focus more on the salient differences between political party affiliations rather than differences between stakeholder groups

Organizational energy: A behavioral analysis of human and organizational factors in manufacturing

This paper seeks to explore the behavior and embodied energy involved in the decision-making of information technology/information systems (IT/IS) investments using a case within a small- to medium-sized manufacturing firm. By analyzing decision making within a given case context, this paper describes the nature of the investment through the lens of behavioral economics, causality, input-output (IO) equilibrium, and the general notion of depletion of executive energy function. To explore the interplay between these elements, the authors structure the case context via a morphological field in order to construct a fuzzy cognitive map of decision-making relationships relating to the multidimensional and nonquantifiable problems of IT/IS investment evaluation. Noting the significance of inputs and outputs relating to the investment decision within the case, the authors assess these cognitive interrelationships through the lens of the Leontief IO energy equilibrium model. Subsequently, the authors suggest, through an embodied energy audit, that all such management decisions are susceptible to decision fatigue (so-called 'ego depletion'). The findings of this paper highlight pertinent cognitive and IO paths of the investment decision-making process that will allow others making similar types of investments to learn from and draw parallels from such processes

Fron Neo-classical Entrepreneur to Socio-economic Organization

Despite the growing role that business has played in the development of capitalism, the neo-classical paradigm has largely ignored the concept of organization. This paper illustrates the neo-classical concept of the firm and the entrepreneur. Analyzing both, the moral and economic thought of Adam Smith, this paper explains why, in the heart of Industrial Revolution, the paradigm elects an unrealistic and quasi-medieval concept of the firm. The paper argues that it is not by chance that the collective actions and thinking were neglected, rather it is necessary in order to maintain the core-values of the paradigm. Finally, the paper discusses if a firm could be a good subject for institutionalizing of socioeconomics.