Leadership, anxiety and the search for liminal space: a visual auto-ethnography

Recent scholarship on leadership identities (Nyberg and Svenningsen, 2014; Ford, 2010; Svenning and Alvesson, 2003) views the process of identity construction, or the creation of a narrative self-image, as intrinsic to the practice of leadership. Some see this as part of the symbolic work required to establish and maintain leadership (Grint, 1999; Sims, 2010) while others view it more as a symptom of the narcissism engendered in the assumption of a leadership role (Pullen and Rhodes, 2008). All recognise however the anxieties that underlie the process, assigning them in turn to: struggles over authenticity (Nyberg and Svenningsen, 2014); the expectations of followers and crisis addiction (Grint, 2010); dissonance between self-image and practice (Pullen and Rhodes, 2008); personal psychological history (Ford, 2010); and the absence of time or space for reflection (Simpson and French, 2006). While recognizing these theoretical interests in the causes of leadership anxiety, this paper examines the lived experience of a manager in a leadership role (an Associate Dean in a University Business School), exploring the manifestation of anxiety in the adoption of a set of practices which are spatially enacted. The starting point for this is an understanding of leadership as situated practice which is both embodied (Fisher & Robbins, 2015) and aesthetic (Grint 1999; Sims, 2010). While recognizing the importance of debates about the discursive nature of leadership (Collinson, 2012), the paper challenges dominant textual discourses absorbed by practicing managers (Ford, 2008) which appear to constrain narrative identity construction, by exploring an embodied narrative of fragmented, mobile spatial experienc

The development of an assessment center for cooperating teachers

The primary purpose of this investigation was to develop and test an assessment center for prospective cooperating teachers to be used as an alternative to a student teacher supervision workshop for certifying school-based student teacher supervisors (cooperating teachers). The assessment center components included a forty item paper-and-pencil test of knowledge of instructional supervision, and a set of exercises in which subjects evaluated a set of instructional plans and evaluated a teacher\u27s performance in a videotaped teaching episode;One group of subjects participated in the student teacher supervision workshop at California Polytechnic State University and then took part in the assessment center. Another group participated in the assessment center without the training from CPSU. Subjects\u27 scores on the knowledge test were compared, as were their ratings of the instructional plan and the teacher\u27s performance in the simulation. Results were disaggregated by group, gender, and level of employment (elementary teachers, secondary teachers, administrators);There were no significant differences found between groups or with respect to gender or level of employment for any of the assessment center components taken as a whole. There were some differences in the ratings of the teacher\u27s instructional plan and performance on a few of the individual criteria, when disaggregated by level of employment;It was concluded that the assessment center is a feasible alternative for training personnel in instructional supervision in a conventional program

Organizing spaces: photography and the visual production of space-texts in organizational ethnography

This paper examines the use of ethnographic photography to investigate organizational space. We integrate insights from social anthropology and discourse theory on the practices of photography in ethnographic research; and, organizational theory and post-modern geography on the socially productive, relational nature of space. An approach to researching organizational/organizing space-texts that addresses the challenge of a theoretically informed visual methodology by positing ethnographic photography as integral to the both spatial practice and its theorization is advanced. Through this we challenge current approaches, much of which retain an empiricist/realist flavour in certifying the photographer as an ‘objective’ witness to spacing, or at best support an individualist aesthetic. We contribute to knowledge through an examination of the materiality and embodied experiences of space. Our use of intertextual theory positions the ethnographic photographer in a dialogic practice of spacing and the textual politics of authorship and authorit

Trust and the Demand for Personal Collateral in SME - Bank Relationships

Previous research on relationship lending has paid very little attention to the role of trust. Trust might be ex-pected to reduce agency costs, perceived credit risk and thus the request for personal collateral. Trustworthiness is associated with three attributes of SME owner/managers’: ability, benevolence and integrity. We hypothe-sised that loan managers’ assessment of the trustworthiness of owner/managers is negatively associated with the personal collateral demanded by banks. Using the quantitative and qualitative data about 457 SMEs-bank rela-tionships in North East Italy, we tested this hypothesis. The results show that trust has a minor role in reducing the request of collateral

The Debt Structure of SMEs: An Optimization Model

The existing finance literature is inadequate with respect to its coverage of the debt structure of small and medi-um sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition, the role of trust in accessing finance for such enterprises is under-investigated. This paper presents a mathematical model for optimizing the debt structure of SMEs that, since SMEs are often equity constrained, focuses on optimizing debt structure by minimizing its cost. The model is then extended by incorporating the level of trust that suppliers and bank managers have in the enterprise. The extended model, suggests that the higher the level of trust that bank managers and suppliers have in the SME, the more short-term finance an SME can obtain and should use

Testing Transferability: Quantitative Evaluation of Labor Market Area Definition Methods in Three Contrasting Countries

Sub-national economic policies increasingly use labor market areas (LMAs) rather than administrative areas for analysis and implementation. How a set of LMAs was defined influences the results of such analyses, and so accurate policy delivery needs appropriately defined LMAs. Multinational bodies need comparable LMA definitions in many countries, calling for a definition method that is transferable across national boundaries. This article applies quantitative metrics to evaluate LMAs defined in three contrasting countries by three methods that represent the main methodological approaches. The deductive approach—based on a center and hinterland—is too inflexible to deal with differing geographical circumstances and cannot cope with statistical zones that are very small, or do not respect settlement structure. The alternative inductive methods tested define appropriate LMAs in each country, with the newer method performing slightly better in statistical terms. The article also exemplifies the usefulness of the metrics for comparisons of alternative regionalizations.Funding for related Spanish analyses was via Project PID2020-114896RB-100/Agencia Estatal de Investigación, AEI/10.13039/501100011033, Spanish State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research, and Innovation 2017–2020, and Project AICO/2021/062, Generalitat Valenciana, Department of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society

A Case Study of the Impact of Bioenergy Development Upon Crop Production, Livestock Feeding, and Water Resource Usage in Kansas

The development of grain-based ethanol production in Kansas has had a marked impact upon the feedgrain and livestock industries of the state. The increased focus on feedgrain production stemming from ethanol development impacts the use and sustainability of Kansas water resources, and has changed the proportional mix of crops grown in the state. The need to handle increased amounts of feedgrains and to transport them to ethanol plants has affected the functional role of local grain elevators as well as the directional flow of grain within the state. The grain trucking industry has been dramatically affected by the increase in demand for moving both feedstock inputs and co-product outputs to and from ethanol plants in the state.Crop Production/Industries, Livestock Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Artificial and Computational Intelligence in Games (Dagstuhl Seminar 12191)

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 12191 "Artificial and Computational Intelligence in Games". The aim for the seminar was to bring together creative experts in an intensive meeting with the common goals of gaining a deeper understanding of various aspects of artificial and computational intelligence in games, to help identify the main challenges in game AI research and the most promising venues to deal with them. This was accomplished mainly by means of workgroups on 14 different topics (ranging from search, learning, and modeling to architectures, narratives, and evaluation), and plenary discussions on the results of the workgroups. This report presents the conclusions that each of the workgroups reached. We also added short descriptions of the few talks that were unrelated to any of the workgroups

Confirmation or Elaboration:What Do Yes/No Declaratives Want?

Recent analyses have argued that when requests for confirmation are implemented with declarative word order, they are closure-implicative due to the relatively knowing stance indexed with the declarative. This article demonstrates, however, that in some cases participants show an orientation to both confirmation and elaboration as a relevant next action. By comparing requests for confirmation that are closure-implicative to those that are expansion-implicative, it is argued that in addition to epistemic stance, participants also orient to the lexical design features and sequential placement of these declarative yes/no-type initiating actions to determine the relevant type of response. Data are in Dutch with English translations

A new near-IR window of low extinction in the Galactic plane

Reproduced with permission from Astronomy & Astrophysics. © 2018 ESO. Comments: 6 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & AstrophysicsAims. The windows of low extinction in the Milky Way (MW) plane are rare but important because they enable us to place structural constraints on the opposite side of the Galaxy, which has hither to been done rarely. Methods. We use the near-infrared (near-IR) images of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) Survey to build extinction maps and to identify low extinction windows towards the Southern Galactic plane. Here we report the discovery of VVV WIN 1713-3939, a very interesting window with relatively uniform and low extinction conveniently placed very close to the Galactic plane. Results. The new window of roughly 30 arcmin diameter is located at Galactic coordinates (l, b) = (347.4, -0.4) deg. We analyse the VVV near-IR colour-magnitude diagrams in this window. The mean total near-IR extinction and reddening values measured for this window are A Ks = 0.46 and E(J - K s) = 0.95. The red clump giants within the window show a bimodal magnitude distribution in the K s band, with peaks at K s = 14.1 and 14.8 mag, corresponding to mean distances of D = 11.0 ± 2.4 and 14.8 ± 3.6 kpc, respectively. We discuss the origin of these red clump overdensities within the context of the MW disk structure.Peer reviewe