Should I Stay or Should I Go? Identity and Well-being in Sensemaking About Retention and Turnover.

Explanations of turnover from extant management research focus on the what (content) and how (process) of turnover. This study engages a sensemaking framework to explore the why (meaning) for employees of quitting or staying at an employing organization, in order to add a new layer to our understanding of retention and turnover. Analysis of data from in-depth interviews with leavers and stayers, both post hoc and in situ, using grounded theory methods, reveals identity and well-being assessment sensemaking cycles, which occur periodically or when threat to core elements of identity and well-being across life domains is perceived. Core elements of identity and well-being include purpose, trajectory, relatedness, expression, acceptance, and differentiation. Perceived threat to identity and well-being across life domains leads to varying levels of psychophysiological strain, coping with threat and strain, and reassessment, often in escalating cycles resulting in turnover and continuing into new jobs. Lack of threat to, or facilitation of, identity and well-being, and successful coping result in retention. Overall, these findings suggest that from the perspective of the actors “being retained” or “turning over,” these phenomena are part of a deeply felt quest for positive, congruent identity and psychological well-being across life domains. Along with other research, these findings suggest that when people consider leaving jobs, it may invoke a liminal identity stage, which makes family and other life domains salient to turnover decisions. Implications for research on retention, turnover, identity, well-being, work life, and psychophysiological health in organizations, as well as practical implications, are discussed

Environmental impact assessment of wheat straw based alkyl polyglucosides produced using novel chemical approaches

This paper evaluates and quantifies the environmental performance of alkyl polyglucosides sourced from wheat straw (WS-APG), a low-cost and low-ecological impact agricultural residue, compared to that of their commercial counterpart, which is sourced from palm kernel oil and wheat grain (PW-APG). Escalating pressure to consider the environmental sustainability of fossil derived surfactant consumption has driven biosurfactants to become the product of choice within the surfactant market, and a class of ‘plant’ based non-ionic surfactants called alkyl polyglucosides (APG) are particularly prevalent. However, the existing food based feedstock of APG such as coconut oil, palm oil, wheat and corn (in addition to being expensive) will potentially undermine the claimed ‘sustainability’ of the APG products (i.e. the ‘food vs. chemical’ issue). Here, we present the “cradle-to-gate” life cycle impact assessment of a suggested alternative, hybridised APG synthesis technique where the Fisher glycosidation method is supplemented by novel, green chemistry based techniques. This evaluation provides a quantitative insight into direct GHG intensity and other ecological impact indicators, including land use, waste generation and energy consumption. Upon evaluation, the wheat straw-derived pathway delivered GHG-emission savings in the range of 84–98%, compared to that of the palm kernel–wheat grain pathway. Waste generated from the production of unit mass of the product amounted to 0.43 kg and 10.73 kg per kg of WS-APG and PW-APG, respectively. In addition to the above mentioned facts, the ‘cradle–gate’ stages of WS-APG production were also found to consume relatively lower amounts of water and fossil-derived energy. In conclusion, of the two APG production pathways, the suggested ‘hybrid’ pathway using an agricultural residue, wheat straw, was found to be sustainable and to demonstrate better environmental performance

A supermatrix analysis of genomic, morphological, and paleontological data from crown Cetacea

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cetacea (dolphins, porpoises, and whales) is a clade of aquatic species that includes the most massive, deepest diving, and largest brained mammals. Understanding the temporal pattern of diversification in the group as well as the evolution of cetacean anatomy and behavior requires a robust and well-resolved phylogenetic hypothesis. Although a large body of molecular data has accumulated over the past 20 years, DNA sequences of cetaceans have not been directly integrated with the rich, cetacean fossil record to reconcile discrepancies among molecular and morphological characters.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We combined new nuclear DNA sequences, including segments of six genes (~2800 basepairs) from the functionally extinct Yangtze River dolphin, with an expanded morphological matrix and published genomic data. Diverse analyses of these data resolved the relationships of 74 taxa that represent all extant families and 11 extinct families of Cetacea. The resulting supermatrix (61,155 characters) and its sub-partitions were analyzed using parsimony methods. Bayesian and maximum likelihood (ML) searches were conducted on the molecular partition, and a molecular scaffold obtained from these searches was used to constrain a parsimony search of the morphological partition. Based on analysis of the supermatrix and model-based analyses of the molecular partition, we found overwhelming support for 15 extant clades. When extinct taxa are included, we recovered trees that are significantly correlated with the fossil record. These trees were used to reconstruct the timing of cetacean diversification and the evolution of characters shared by "river dolphins," a non-monophyletic set of species according to all of our phylogenetic analyses.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The parsimony analysis of the supermatrix and the analysis of morphology constrained to fit the ML/Bayesian molecular tree yielded broadly congruent phylogenetic hypotheses. In trees from both analyses, all Oligocene taxa included in our study fell outside crown Mysticeti and crown Odontoceti, suggesting that these two clades radiated in the late Oligocene or later, contra some recent molecular clock studies. Our trees also imply that many character states shared by river dolphins evolved in their oceanic ancestors, contradicting the hypothesis that these characters are convergent adaptations to fluvial habitats.</p