The Current State of Performance Appraisal Research and Practice: Concerns, Directions, and Implications

On the surface, it is not readily apparent how some performance appraisal research issues inform performance appraisal practice. Because performance appraisal is an applied topic, it is useful to periodically consider the current state of performance research and its relation to performance appraisal practice. This review examines the performance appraisal literature published in both academic and practitioner outlets between 1985 and 1990, briefly discusses the current state of performance appraisal practice, highlights the juxtaposition of research and practice, and suggests directions for further research

Entrepreneurial intention among University students in Malaysia: integrating self-determination theory and the theory of planned behavior

The present study endeavors to develop a deeper understanding of the motivational processes involved in intentional entrepreneurial behavior. For this purpose, it integrates the social cognitive approach of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the organismic theory of motivation of self-determination theory (SDT). More specifically, it tests the role of basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness as defined in SDT in shaping university students’ attitudes and intentions toward entrepreneurship. The sample of this study consisted of 438 (Males = 166, Females =272) 3rd and4th year university students from four Malaysian Public Universities. The results of the study show that the model strongly explains about 71% of the variance in entrepreneurial intention. Basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness have a strong indirect impact on entrepreneurial intention via their attitudinal antecedents: attitude,subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. This indicates a full-mediational model,where the attitudinal factors operated as transmitters of effects from the distal constructs ofSDT on entrepreneurial intention. These findings confirm that both SDT and the TPB provide complementary explanations of the motivational processes of entrepreneurial behavior. The study contributes to the existing knowledge by providing a theory-based understanding of the role of motivations in the formation of entrepreneurial intentions. It opens the way for future research to analyze how alternative motivations may affect new venture creation, survival and success

Experimental assessment of the thermal performance of storage canister/holding fixture configurations for the Los Alamos Nuclear Materials Storage Facility

This report presents experimental results on the thermal performance of various nested canister configurations and canister holding fixtures to be used in the Los Alamos Nuclear Materials Storage Facility. The experiment consisted of placing a heated aluminum billet (to represent heat-generating nuclear material) inside curved- and flat-bottom canisters with and without holding plate fixtures and/or extended fin surfaces. Surface temperatures were measured at several locations on the aluminum billet, inner and outer canisters, and the holding plate fixture to assess the effectiveness of the various configurations in removing and distributing the heat from the aluminum billet. Results indicated that the curved-bottom canisters, with or without holding fixtures, were extremely ineffective in extracting heat from the aluminum billet. The larger thermal contact area provided by the flat-bottom canisters compared with the curved-bottom design, greatly enhanced the heat removal process and lowered the temperature of the aluminum billet considerably. The addition of the fixture plates to the flat-bottom canister geometry greatly enhances the heat removal rates and lowers the canister operating temperatures considerably. The addition of the fixture plates to the flat-bottom canister geometry greatly enhances the heat removal rates and lowers the canister operating temperatures considerably. Finally, the addition of extended fin surfaces to the outer flat-bottom canister positioned on a fixture plate, reduced the canister temperatures still further