The influence of angry customer outbursts on service providers’ facial displays and affective states

This article explores the existence and extent of emotional contagion, as measured by facial displays and reported affective states, in a service failure event. Using video vignettes of customers complaining about a service failure as stimulus material, the authors measured the facial displays and affective states of service providers as proxies for emotional contagion. Following a two-step approach, service providers’ facial expressions were first recorded and assessed, revealing that service providers’ facial displays matched those of the angry consumer. Second, a mixed ANOVA revealed service providers reported stronger negative affective states after exposure to an angry complaint than prior to exposure. The results demonstrated that during a complaint situation, angry outbursts by consumers can initiate the emotional contagion process, and service providers are susceptible to “catch” consumer anger through emotional contagion. Implications for complaint management and future research are discussed

Exploring the motion advantage: evaluating the contribution of familiarity and differences in facial motion

Seeing a face move can improve familiar face recognition, face matching, and learning. More specifically, familiarity with a face may facilitate the learning of an individual's “dynamic facial signature”. In the outlined research we examine the relationship between participant ratings of familiarity, the distinctiveness of motion, the amount of facial motion, and the recognition of familiar moving faces (Experiment 1) as well as the magnitude of the motion advantage (Experiment 2). Significant positive correlations were found between all factors. Findings suggest that faces rated as moving a lot and in a distinctive manner benefited the most from being seen in motion. Additionally findings indicate that facial motion information becomes a more important cue to recognition the more familiar a face is, suggesting that “dynamic facial signatures” continue to be learnt over time and integrated within the face representation. Results are discussed in relation to theoretical explanations of the moving face advantage. </jats:p

Workplaces, Low pay and the Gender Earnings Gap in Britain : A Co-production with the Low Pay Commission

This study provides a robust assessment of the importance of a number of determinants of the gaps in earnings between the four groups of employees who make up the British workforce; males and females who work full and part-time. The analysis considers the contribution of individual employee characteristics as well as occupation, industry, region and other workplace specific characteristics. The results are compared with previous findings for 2004 (Mumford and Smith, 2009) and with alternative data from the ASHE series for 2004, 2011 and 2015

The effect of motion at encoding and retrieval for same- and other-race face recognition

In an experimental study, we assessed the role of motion when encoding and recognizing unfamiliar faces, using an old/new recognition memory paradigm. Our findings revealed a clear advantage for learning unfamiliar faces moving non-rigidly, compared with static faces. This advantage for motion was found with both same- and other-race faces. Furthermore, results indicate that it is more important that the face is learnt in motion than recognized from a moving clip. Interestingly, despite a reliable other-race effect being revealed, participants were able to utilize motion information exhibited by other-race faces in a manner akin to the motion advantage found for same-race faces. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the nature of the stored face representations, considering whether the facilitative role found here can be explained by factors other than motion per se.</p

Producing Flexible Nurses: How Institutional Texts Organize Nurses’ Experiences of Learning to Work on Redesigned Nursing Teams (Préparer des infirmières polyvalentes : comment des documents officiels orientent les expériences d’apprentissage des infirmières en fonction du travail au sein d’équipes reconfigurées)

The purpose of this qualitative research was to utilize an Institutional Ethnographic (IE) lens to trace how various institutional (regulatory, educational, union, governmental, or health authority) texts and resources organize baccalaureate (RN) and diploma (vocational or practical) nurses’ experiences of learning to practice on acute care teams. Functional care models have been introduced in acute care, creating RN-LPN-health care aide (HCA) teams in conjunction with expanded practice scopes for LPNs. Questions arise as to how nurses (RNs and LPNs) learn to work together on these intra-professional teams. Beginning from the standpoint of front-line workers provides an entry-point into understanding how institutional priorities organize the everyday work of people. Ten RNs and ten LPNs were interviewed in two small community acute care hospitals on Vancouver Island. More specifically, in observations and interviews we looked for ways in which textually mediated work processes (such as regulatory, governmental, health authority, and educational documents) and other conceptual resources influenced nurses’ understandings of nursing education and professional practice. This analysis focused on how RNs and LPNs learn to work on re-designed nursing teams and traced the textually mediated discourses that are organizing this learning in the context of recent changes to LPN education and nursing teams. Our findings highlight unarticulated nursing knowledge/thinking, and the textual insertion of functional, skilled and flexible worker discourses, which organize to blur practice between RN and LPNs making them [potentially] interchangeable in complex acute care contexts. This study, situated as one analysis among a larger study, shows the invisibility of nursing disciplinary and professional goals and knowledge in nurses’ talk, as RNs and LPNs re-learn and sustain nursing practice in ways that fulfill other institutional and organizational goals. This re-alignment has significant implications for educators in nursing programs, who participate in teaching within educational silos. This research has shown that the absence of clarity in functional roles (perpetuating role confusion and ambiguity) is purposeful, with the goal of creating flexible workers. Résumé Cette étude qualitative selon une perspective d’ethnographie institutionnelle, visait à examiner comment divers documents institutionnels (réglementaires, académiques, syndicaux, gouvernementaux ou d’autorité régionale) orientent les expériences d’apprentissage des infirmières formées au baccalauréat (IB, en anglais RN) et des infirmières diplômées de formation professionnelle ou pratique (ID, en anglais LPN), en fonction de la pratique au sein d’équipes de soins aigus . L’intégration de modèles fonctionnels dans les soins aigus a entraîné la création d’équipes d’IBs-IDs- aides-soignantes et élargi la portée de la pratique des IDs. De cette situation surgissent des questions, à savoir comment les infirmières (IBs et IDs) apprennent à collaborer dans ces équipes intraprofessionnelles. Aborder la question du point de vue des travailleuses de première ligne offre une ouverture vers la compréhension de la manière dont les priorités institutionnelles organisent le travail quotidien de ces personnes. Nous nous sommes entretenues avec dix IB et dix ID de deux petits hôpitaux communautaires de soins aigus, sur l’île de Vancouver. Plus spécifiquement, à travers les observations et les entrevues, nous avons cherché les moyens par lesquels les processus de travail inscrits dans des textes institutionnels (documentation réglementaire, gouvernementale, d’autorité régionale et académique), ainsi que d’autres ressources conceptuelles, ont influencé la compréhension des infirmières quant à la formation et à la pratique professionnelle en sciences infirmières. Cette analyse était centrée sur la manière dont les IB et les ID apprennent à travailler au sein d’équipes infirmières reconfigurées et ciblait les énoncés de textes qui orientent cet apprentissage, dans le contexte des récents changements dans la formation des ID et au sein des équipes dont elles font partie. Nos résultats soulignent un savoir/ une pensée infirmière inexprimée et l’intégration textuelle d’un discours de travail fonctionnel, compétent et polyvalent qui contribuent à brouiller les pratiques entre les IB et les ID, les rendant [potentiellement] interchangeables en contexte de soins aigus complexes. Cette étude, qui ne représente qu’une analyse d’une étude plus large, démontre l’invisibilité de la discipline infirmière et des objectifs et savoirs professionnels dans le discours des infirmières, alors que les IB et les ID réapprennent et maintiennent une pratique infirmière qui répond à d’autres objectifs institutionnels et organisationnels. Cet ajustement a d’importantes répercussions pour les enseignantes des programmes de soins et sciences infirmières, qui évoluent de manière parallèle dans des établissements d’enseignement. Cette recherche démontre que l’absence de clarté dans les rôles fonctionnels (qui maintient la confusion de rôle et l’ambiguïté) est délibérée et vise à former des travailleuses polyvalentes

The preparation, characterization and biological activity of palladium(II) and platinum(II) complexes of tridentate NNS ligands derived from S-methyl- and S-benzyldithiocarbazates and the X-ray crystal structure of the [Pd(mpasme)Cl] complex.

New complexes of general formula, [M(NNS)Cl] (M = PdII, PtII; NNS = anionic forms of the 6-methyl-2-formylpyridine Schiff bases of S-methyl- and S-benzyldithiocarbazates) have been prepared and characterized by a variety of physico-chemical techniques. Based on conductance and spectral evidence, a square-planar structure is assigned to these complexes. The crystal and molecular structure of the [Pd(mpasme)Cl] complex (mpasme=anionic form of the 6-methyl-2-formylpyridine Schiff base of S-methyldithiocarbazate) has been determined by X-ray diffraction. The complex has a distorted square-planar geometry with the ligand coordinated to the palladium(II) ion via the pyridine nitrogen atom, the azomethine nitrogen atom and the thiolate sulfur atom; the fourth coordination position around the palladium(II) ion is occupied by the chloride ligand. The distortion from a regular square-planar geometry is ascribed to the restricted bite angle of the ligand. Both the Schiff bases exhibit strong cytotoxicity against the human ovarian cancer (Caov-3) cell lines, the S-methyl derivative being two times more active than the S-benzyl derivative. The [Pt(mpasme)Cl] complex is moderately active but the palladium(II) complex is weakly active against this cancer. None of the complexes of Hmpsbz are active against Caov-3. The Schiff base, Hmpasme exhibits moderate activity against the bacteria, MRSA, P. aeruginosa and S. typhimurium but is inactive against B. subtilis. Coordination of the ligand with palladium(II) substantially reduces its activity. The Schiff base, Hmpasbz and its palladium(II) and platinum(II) complexes are inactive against these bacteria. The Schiff bases and their palladium(II) and platinum (II) complexes are inactive against the pathogenic fungi, C. albican, Aspergillus ochraceous and Saccharomyces cerevisiae