Development and Validation of a Circumplex Measure of the Interpersonal Culture in Work Teams and Organizations

Interpersonal circumplex (IPC) inventories assess a range of dispositions but can condense and compare their findings within a circular model defined by two factors: agency and communion. Whereas other IPC inventories assess individuals, the current research introduces IPC inventories assessing the interpersonal culture (interaction and communication norms) characterizing an entire organization or team—namely, the Circumplex Culture Scan (CCS) and Circumplex Team Scan (CTS). Across an initial development sample (n = 1676), online validation sample (CCS, n = 808; CTS, n = 832), and onsite validation sample (CCS, n = 516 respondents from 21 organizations; CTS, n = 347 respondents from 38 teams), the eight 8-item CCS/CTS octant scales demonstrated good internal consistencies, circumplex properties, reliable within-group agreement and between-group variance (thus justifying aggregation across an organization/team), and convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity in relation to other measures. According to their members, the organizations/teams with the most satisfied members and customers/clients were organizations/teams with considerably stronger communal (e.g., being open and respectful) than uncommunal (e.g., being rude and guarded) norms and somewhat stronger agentic (e.g., being eager and assertive) than unagentic (e.g., being cautious and quiet) norms. The CCS/CTS complements existing IPC and organizational culture measures and helps bridge the IPC and organizational literatures

Time Required for Lameness Detection on an Embedded Microcomputer Based Force Plate in a Lab Based Setting

The objective of this study was to determine the minimum time required for the embedded microcomputer based force plate (force plate) to detect lameness. The force plate can be placed under an electronic sow feeder or a gestation stall to routinely assess lameness. Previous work with the force plate has required sows to remain standing in a gestation stall for longer than a typical feeding time allotment of 9 minutes to measure the force applied to each foot. Comparing sows’ weight distribution across time showed that an adjustment period is required before force distribution measurements are consistent, as the sows adapts to the force plate. When using a 30 second adjustment period, sows only needed to stand on the force plate for 210 seconds in order to have a consistent reading across time. This could create a labor reduction during research trials, and allow more data to be used from a commercial setting, than when using the previous times

Evaluation of mechanical and thermal nociception as objective tools to measure painful and nonpainful lameness phases in multiparous sows

The objective of this study was to quantify pain sensitivity differences using mechanical nociception threshold (MNT) and thermal nociception threshold (TNT) tests when sows were in painful and nonpainful transient lameness phases. A total of 24 mixed parity crossbred sows (220.15 ± 21.23 kg) were utilized for the MNT test, and a total of 12 sows (211.41 ± 20.21 kg) were utilized for the TNT test. On induction day (D0), all sows were anesthetized and injected with Amphotericin B (10mg/mL) in the distal interphalangeal joint space in both claws of one randomly selected hind limb to induce transient lameness. Three days were compared: (1) D-1 (sound phase, defined as 1 d before induction), (2) D+1 (most lame phase, defined as 1 d after induction), and (3) D+6 (resolution phase, defined as 6 d after induction). After completion of the first round, sows were given a 7-d rest period and then the procedures were repeated with lameness induced in the contralateral hind limb. During the MNT test, pressure was applied perpendicularly to 3 landmarks in a randomized sequence for each sow: 1) middle of cannon on the hind limb (cannon), 2) 1 cm above the coronary band on the medial hind claw (medial claw), and 3) 1 cm above the coronary band on the lateral hind claw (lateral claw). During the TNT test, a radiant heat stimulus was directed 1 cm above the coronary band. The data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure in SAS with sow as the experimental unit. Differences were analyzed between sound and lame limbs on each day. For the MNT test, pressure tolerated by the lame limb decreased for every landmark (P \u3c 0.05) when comparing D-1 and D+1. The sound limb tolerated more pressure on D+1 and D+6 than on baseline D-1 (P \u3c 0.05). Thermal stimulation tolerated by the sound limb did not change over the 3 d (P \u3e 0.05). However, the sows tolerated less heat stimulation on their lame limb on D+1 compared to D-1 levels (P \u3c 0.05). Both MNT and TNT tests indicated greater pain sensitivity thresholds when sows were acutely lame