An evaluation of the stimulants and impediments to innovation within PFI/PPP projects

This paper identifies the theoretical stimulants and impediments associated with the implementation of PFI/PPP (Private Finance Initiative/Public Private Partnership) projects. A current defect of this procurement approach is the unintentional constraint upon the innovations incorporated into the development of PFI projects. A critical evaluation of the published literature has been utilized to synthesize a theoretical model. The paper proposes a theoretical model for the identification of potential innovation stimulants and impediments within this type of procurement. This theoretical model is then utilised to evaluate four previously completed PFI projects. These project case-studies have been examined in detail. The evaluation demonstrates how ineffective current procedures are. The application of this model before project letting could eliminate unintentional constraints and stimulate improved innovation within the process. The implementation of the model could improve the successful delivery of innovation within the entire PFI/PPP procurement process

Perspectives on the Social Psychology of Creativity

Scholars began serious study into the social psychology of creativity about 25 years after the field of creativity research had taken root. Over the past 35 years, examination of social and environmental influences on creativity has become increasingly vigorous, with broad implications for the psychology of human performance, and with applications to education, business, and beyond. In this article, we revisit the origins of the social psychology of creativity, trace its arc, and suggest directions for its future

Helping You Help Me: The Role of Diagnostic (In)congruence in the Helping Process within Organizations

Through an inductive, multi-method field study at a major design firm, we investigated the helping process in project work and how that process affects the success of a helping episode, as perceived by help-givers and/or -receivers. We used daily diary entries and weekly interviews from four project teams, and a separate sample of critical incident interviews, to induce process models of successful and unsuccessful helping episodes. We found that, in unsuccessful episodes, help-givers and -receivers maintained incongruent expectations and project understandings throughout the episode, which we call diagnostic incongruence. In contrast, the parties in successful episodes engaged in aligning practices that fostered shared expectations and project understandings (i.e., diagnostic congruence). Importantly, aligning practices in successful episodes occurred before or at the beginning of episodes. We also found that people’s assessments of unsuccessful episodes were often marked by intense emotionality, which sometimes led them to disregard whether the helping resulted in instrumental progress. We discuss the implications of our process model for theory and practice

Culture change in a professional sports team: Shaping environmental contexts and regulating power

Although high performing cultures are crucial for the enduring success of professional sport performance teams, theoretical and practical understanding of how they are established and sustained is lacking. To develop knowledge in this area, a case study was undertaken to examine the key mechanisms and processes of a successful culture change programme at English Rugby Union’s Leeds Carnegie. Exploring the change process from a 360 degree perspective, semi-structured interviews were conducted with team management, one specialist coach, six players, and the CEO. Analysed and explained through decentred theory, results revealed that culture change was effectively facilitated by team management: a) subtly and covertly shaping the physical, structural, and psychosocial context in which support staff and players made performance-impacting choices, and b) regulating the ‘to and fro’ of power which characterises professional sport performance teams. Decentred theory is also supported as an effective framework for culture change study

Innovator resilience potential: A process perspective of individual resilience as influenced by innovation project termination

Innovation projects fail at an astonishing rate. Yet, the negative effects of innovation project failures on the team members of these projects have been largely neglected in research streams that deal with innovation project failures. After such setbacks, it is vital to maintain or even strengthen project members’ innovative capabilities for subsequent innovation projects. For this, the concept of resilience, i.e. project members’ potential to positively adjust (or even grow) after a setback such as an innovation project failure, is fundamental. We develop the second-order construct of innovator resilience potential, which consists of six components – self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, optimism, hope, self-esteem, and risk propensity – that are important for project members’ potential of innovative functioning in innovation projects subsequent to a failure. We illustrate our theoretical findings by means of a qualitative study of a terminated large-scale innovation project, and derive implications for research and management

Avaliação temporal de genótipos de girassol no cerrado do Distrito Federal em safrinha.

Resumo: Com o objetivo de avaliar o comportamento agronômico de genótipos de girassol no cerrado do Distrito Federal, foram conduzidos ensaios na safrinha dos anos de 2011 e 2012, em delineamento experimental de blocos ao acaso com quatro repetições. Os caracteres avaliados foram rendimento de grãos, tamanho do capítulo, peso de mil aquênios, altura de plantas, dias para floração inicial e teor de óleo. Foram observadas diferenças altamente significativas entre os genótipos para todas as características morfoagronômicas avaliadas. Em relação ao rendimento de grãos, em 2011, esta característica variou de 2.376 kg.ha (SRM 822) a 5.490 kg.ha (BRSG 30) e, em 2012, de 2.306 kg.ha (V60415) a 4.412 kg.ha (SYN 039A). Materiais genéticos promissores para as características agronômicas avaliadas foram identificados no trabalho, podendo ser explorados comercialmente em condições de safrinha do Cerrado. Abstract : Aiming to evaluate the agronomic performance of sunflower genotypes in the Savannah of the Federal District, experiments were conducted in the second crop of 2011 and 2012 in a randomized block design with four replications. The characters evaluated were grain yield, head length, weight of thousand achenes, plant height, days to initial flowering and oil content. Differences among genotypes for all traits morphoagronomic were highly significant. In relation to grain yield in 2011, this feature[ ranged from 2376 kg.ha (SRM 822) to 5,490 kg.ha (BRSG 30) and, in 2012, from 2,306 kg.ha (V60415) to 4412 kg.ha (SYN 039A). Genetic materials promising for agronomic traits were identified in work and can be commercially exploited in the second crop of Savannah

J. Richard Hackman (1940-2013)

When J. Richard Hackman died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on January 8, 2013, psychology lost a giant. Six and a half feet tall, with an outsize personality to match, Richard was the leading scholar in two distinct areas: work design and team effectiveness. In both domains, his work is foundational. Throughout his career, Richard applied rigorous methods to problems of great social importance, tirelessly championing multi-level analyses of problems that matter. His impact on our field has been immense

Induced pluripotent stem cells in hematology: current and future applications

Reprogramming somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells is nowadays approaching effectiveness and clinical grade. Potential uses of this technology include predictive toxicology, drug screening, pathogenetic studies and transplantation. Here, we review the basis of current iPS cell technology and potential applications in hematology, ranging from disease modeling of congenital and acquired hemopathies to hematopoietic stem and other blood cell transplantation