Development and Validation of Work Place Integrity Scale; Evidence from Ghana.

This article developed and validated work place integrity scale that are applicable across industries. Responded questionnaire perceived to contribute to integrity were subjected to principal components analysis. Overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.843 was reported. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value was 0.887, whiles the Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity reached statistical significance, supporting the use of factor analysis. Total variance explained initially, revealed the presence of six components with eigenvalues 24.973%, 8.309%, 5.045%, 4.843%, 4.077%, 3.969% of the variance respectively contributing to a cumulative variance of 51.2%. Using Cattell’s scree test, it was decided to retain components 1&2 for further investigation. To aid in the interpretation of these two components, oblimin rotation was performed which resulted in a simple pattern matrix with 2 components showing a number of strong loadings. The resulted component correlation matrix was very strong (0.346). The two-component solution explained a total of 33.2% of the variance, with Component 1 contributing 24.9% and Component 2 contributing 8.3%. The resulted pattern matrix relating to component 1 supports the non- usage of inducement to assess the integrity of a person, whiles component 2 support the use of inducement to assess the integrity of a person. Key Words: Integrity; Reliability test; Validation test; Cronbach’s alpha; Bartlett’s test of sphericity, Oblimin rotation

Short-term effects of rice straw biochar on hydraulic properties and aggregate stability of an Acrisol

Biochar application to a structurally poor tropical soil could potentially alter the soil's aggregate strength and hydraulic properties. However, very few field studies have investigated the impact of biochar on the aggregate strength and hydraulic properties of tropical soils. A field experiment was therefore conducted to investigate the short-term effects of rice straw biochar on soil hydraulic properties and aggregate stability of an Acrisol in Ghana. The biochar was broadcast at rates of 10 t ha(-1) and 20 t ha(-1) as single applications that were incorporated into the top 20 cm of the soil using a spade and then the soil was levelled using a rake. Field saturated hydraulic conductivity and laboratory-measured soil water retention, aggregate stability and water-repellency were determined 10 months after the biochar application. Biochar increased aggregate stability against fast wetting by up to 33% compared to the control. This implies that biochar might improve the stability of aggregate of an Acrisol against slaking and erosivity of heavy rainfall. However, axregate stability against slow wetting and mechanical breakdown after pre-wetting were unaffected by the biochar. Biochar did not affect field saturated hydraulic conductivity, water retention characteristics and water-repellency. Further field studies on weathered tropical soils with low native soil organic matter is recommended to elucidate the effect of repeated biochar addition on soil hydraulic and aggregate characteristics