Social (network) psychology: How networks shape performance, persistence, and access to information

Social psychologists have long been interested in understanding behavior as a function of both individuals and the social structures in which they are embedded. However, since the cognitive revolution of the 1960s, processes internal to individuals have received greater attention than structural influences. This dissertation examines how networks may shape important real-world outcomes beyond intrapsychic phenomena across three studies in varied contexts. In doing so, this work suggests that the networks to which people belong—whether networks of social ties or networks of information—provide both affordances and constraints that affect behavior and outcomes. Chapter I provides a brief introduction to social network analysis as a set of theoretical, methodological, and analytical tools. Chapter II examines the gender gap in negotiation performance. Findings suggest that disparities between male and female MBA students in class social network positions predict this gap more strongly than intrapsychic mechanisms more commonly studied, such as apprehension about negotiating and stereotype threat. Chapter III examines how students’ social networks promote persistence over time in a high-stress science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) setting. This chapter pulls social network analysis into an experimental context by examining the effects of a randomly assigned social psychological intervention on students’ social networks and subsequent persistence in the biosciences. Chapter IV approaches networks from a different angle, examining how online news media are organized into network structures that may contribute to selective exposure to homogenous information. Finally, Chapter V discusses implications of these three studies. Specifically, I discuss implications for education research, intervention science, and the growing area of social network psychology

The social network's influences on individual performance

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The role of social and human capital in assessing firm value: A longitudinal study of UK firms

This study examines the role of board social and human capital in assessing the market value of firms in the UK context. As the world economy has shifted from manufacturing to service and knowledge-based economies, attributes such as knowledge, expertise, skills, ability and reputation are increasingly fundamental to the success of business enterprises. There is a growing consensus that these attributes are an increasingly valuable form of capital, asset or resource, despite their intangibility. In accounting, there are a number of problems arising from the accountability of non-physical, non-financial capital. Firstly, some forms of capital and certain assets are neither recognised nor presented in the statement of financial position. Secondly, some accounting practices relating to intangible assets are very conservative, resulting in undervalued assets and overstated liabilities. Consequently, there is an increasing gap between the book value and market value of firms. This gap restricts the relevance of information presented in financial statements and suggests that there is something missing in financial statements. This is the research problem being addressed in this study. While prior literature demonstrates that it has proven difficult to operationalise intangible forms of capital, there has been significant empirical attention and theoretical development in social and human forms. This thesis aims to contribute to accounting theory and practice by exploring the impact that board social and human capital have on firm market value. In light of extant research, it is hypothesised that social and human capital possessed at board level are positively related to the market value of firms. This study employs the Ohlson’s (1995) residual income valuation model to test the impact of social and human capital using a sample of UK firms listed on the FTSE All Share index for a period of 10 years (2001-2010). Social and human capital measures are derived from interlocking directorate ties and detailed biographic information of board directors. This study benefits from Pajek and Ucinet network packages to generate network maps and calculate positional metrics such as centrality and structural hole measures.University of Exeter Business Schoo

Defining Information Systems as Work Systems: Implications for the IS Field

The lack of an agreed upon definition of information system is one of many obstacles troubling the academic information systems discipline. After listing a number of definitions of IS, this paper defines information system as a special case of work system as defined in Alter (1999a). This definition has many desirable characteristics: It is easy to understand; differentiates IS from IT; covers totally manual, partially automated, and totally automated information systems; links to a life cycle model that generates many insights about development and implementation problems; provides a simple guideline that helps in interpreting common IS/IT jargon; and has other useful implications related to IS concepts, IS terminology, and the analysis and design of information systems. The paper presents the proposed IS definition and evaluates the definition in terms of simplicity, clarity, scope, systematic power, explanatory power, validity, reliability, and fruitfulness. An Appendix summarizes previously published concepts and two frameworks that flow from the proposed definition and are useful for appreciating many points in the evaluation section

Women empowerment through higher education in Gilgit-Baltistan

The growing social awareness across the globe has brought a number of issues to the fore among which gender equality and empowerment of women are very significant. Discrimination against women in the form of male-female differentiation constitutes the core of the gender-biased system. Education is the biggest liberating force and rise in the levels of education, which nourishes progressive outlook, and the advent of industrialization and moderanization have effected a sea change in the attitudes and thinking pattern of the people. The empowerment is not essentially political, in the fact, political empowerment will not succeed in the absence of economic empowerment. The scheme of higher education through the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in Gilgit-Baltistan has transferred the real economic power to the hands of women and has considerably reduced their dependence on men. This has helped in empowerment of women and building self confidence, but lack of education often comes in the way and many a times they have to seek help from their husbands for day to day work viz; bank accounts, etc. Higher education provides an opportunity to these women to improve their knowledge and skills. The higher level learning will also help them to play an effective role in the whole society

Modernization of Education in Pakistan: A Case Study

AbstractThe developing world is grappling with diverse educational trends in their quest to become globalized and to keep pace with the developed world. This quest is by no means the prime motivator. What is of importance is the development of the nation in terms of the moral, political, socio-economic, and cultural perspective. Education theories which emerged in the efforts for the ‘modernization’ of education, namely the Common World Educational Culture Theory and the Globally Structured Agenda for Education Theory have been the subject of evolution over time with the present trends favoring post modern education or as it may be simplified, ‘experiential learning’, that is, learning by doing. The developing world is grappling with these educational trends. This paper attempts to examine the ‘modernization’ of education in Pakistan with reference to an institution selected for the purpose of the study. In this context a premier business institution has been considered as a point of reference and its curriculum and education philosophy have been examined through document analysis to determine what education theory it subscribes to and what its aims are in the future. The document analysis of the catalog and curriculum led to the conclusion that the education philosophy of the institution is modern; however, extracurricular activities are inclined to be postmodern

Investigating the relationship between work values and work ethics: A South African perspective

Published ArticleUnethical behaviour is a worldwide phenomenon, within increasingly unethical societies. Within these societies, individuals are required to make decisions on many different matters on a daily basis, where it is not always easy to distinguish a good decision from a bad decision. Vyas- Doorgapersad (2007) argues that developing countries, such as South Africa, are more susceptible to unethical behaviour because of widespread poverty, relatively low public-sector compensation, a lack of risk mechanisms (e.g. insurance and a well-developed market), opportunities created by complex, poorly defined, continually changing, and inadequate rules and regulations, a lack of properly established laws and principles, a lack of institutions to enforce a code of conduct and an absence of watchdog agencies. Unethical behaviour in South Africa, mainly in the form of corruption through bribery, has reached crisis proportions (Patel, 2013) and, as such, on a daily basis, citizens are confronted with media reports of corruption, fraudulent activities and bribery, among other things

Sharing Global Governance: The Role of Civil Society Organizations

This report explores the multiple roles and potential of CSOs in international policymaking and examines the strengths and weaknesses of CSOs and state-based organizations in global governance. It looks particularly closely at the resources, access, skills and experience that each group of actors brings to the table. It concludes that the infrastructure used to incorporate CSOs into the United Nations and other multilaterals must be strengthened and expanded if more integrated and effective forms of collaboration are to be developed and outlines policy recommendations how this goal can be accomplished