Examining employee attitudes and behaviours towards organisational change using supervisor and peer relations

This study focuses on employee workplace and demographic predictors to know the employee attitudes and behaviours regarding organisational change. Five hundered fifty six surveys out of one thousand were returned from full time academics working in public sector universities of Pakistan. The findings indicate significant relationships between readiness for change and workplace and demographic factors. First time supervisor and peer relations predictor has been examined to readiness for change. Results indicate positive and significant relationships between readiness for change and supervisor and peer relations. However, from demographic characteristics only two i.e. number of dependents and younger employees have positive and significant relationships to readiness for change. This study contribute in the literature on change management particularly for developing countries i.e. Pakistan and assist the management and practitioners of human resources management (HRM), organisational development (OD) and change agents in assessing, designing and evaluating new or existing programs for organisational change

Impact of employees psychological and financial predictors for readiness to organizational change

This study focuses on employees’ psychological and financial predictors to know the employees reaction regarding change. One hundred forty one surveys were returned from full time teaching staff working in public sector universities of Pakistan. The findings indicate significant relationships between readiness to change and psychological and financial predictors. First time job involvement, training and skills development, pays/wages/fringe benefits and promotions predictors have been examined for readiness to change. Results indicate no relationship between readiness to change and employees’ organizational commitment. However, employees’ job involvement, training and skills development pays/wages/fringe benefits, and promotions have positive impact on readiness to change. This study may contribute in the literature on change management particularly for developing countries and may assist the management and practitioners of Human Resources Management (HRM), Human Resources Development (HRD), and Organizational Behaviour (OB) in assessing, designing and evaluating new or existing programs for organisational change

Immunogenicity evaluation of a DNA vaccine expressing the hepatitis C virus non-structural protein 2 gene in C57BL/6 Mice

Backgrounds: Most of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections elicit poor immune responses and 75% to 85% of cases become chronic; therefore, the development of an effective vaccine against HCV is of paramount importance. In this study, we aimed to evaluate co-administration of HCV non-Structural Protein 2 and IL-12 DNA vaccines in C57BL/6 mice. Methods: A plasmid encoding full-length HCV NS2 protein (non-structural protein 2) was generated and used to vaccinate mice. Negative control (an empty expression vector) was also employed to evaluate the background response. To investigate immune responses against vaccine, C57BL/6 mice received three doses of the vaccine with a two-week interval. Cellular immunity was assessed using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay for lymphocyte proliferation, lactate dehydrogenase release for cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) activity and cytokine assay. Results: The findings demonstrated that immunization of mice with plasmid expressing HCV NS2 induced CTL response, interferon gamma production, and lymphocyte proliferation compared to negative control. The results also demonstrated that co-administration of IL-12 with the HCV NS2 plasmid induced significantly better immune response in C57BL/6 mice. Conclusion: DNA vaccine encoding HCV NS2 is an effective candidate that can trigger CTL-based immune response against HCV. In addition, the results suggested that combining the DNA vaccine approach with immune stimulatory cytokines may significantly enhance antigen-specific immune responses

Opening the Doors to Agriculture: The Effect of Transparent Communication on Attitude

As consumers have become further disconnected from the agricultural industry, their concerns about agriculture have increased. Effective communication with consumers about agriculture has been identified as a potential solution to minimizing this disconnect. Transparent communication has been offered as a strategy to increase the effectiveness of industry communication. Therefore, this study sought to assess the effects of transparent communication and personal relevance, in a livestock production context, on the attitudes of college students. Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and transparency served as the theoretical framework for this study. To fulfill the purpose of the research, an experimental design was used. The experimental treatments were tested with 688 college students through an online survey format. The results of the study found that both transparent communication and perceived transparency had a significant impact on attitude toward the communication, while personal relevance was not found to be significant. Further research examining transparent communication in ELM was recommended. In addition, it was recommended that practitioners implement transparent communication when communicating about the industry with those in the Millennial generation

Is thrombophilia a major risk factor for deep vein thrombosis of the lower extremities among Lebanese patients?

R Kreidy1, N Irani-Hakime21Department of Vascular Surgery, 2Department of Laboratory Medicine, Saint George Hospital, University Medical Center, University of Balamand, Beirut, LebanonAim: Factor V Leiden (R506Q) mutation is the most commonly observed inherited genetic abnormality related to vein thrombosis. Lebanon has one of the highest frequencies of this mutation in the world with a prevalence of 14.4% in the general population. The aim of this study is to define risk factors including inherited genetic abnormalities among Lebanese patients with lower extremity deep vein thrombosis. We report the clinical outcome of patients with thrombophilia.Methods: From January 1998 to January 2008, 162 patients (61 males and 101 females) were diagnosed with lower extremity deep vein thrombosis. Mean age was 61 years (range: 21 to 95 years).Results: The most frequent risk factors for vein thrombosis were surgery, advanced age, obesity, and cancer. Twenty-five patients had thrombophilia, 16 patients had factor V Leiden (R506Q) mutation, and seven patients had MTHFR C677T mutation. Ninety-two percent of patients screened for thrombophilia were positive. Screening was requested in young patients (16), patients with recurrent (11), spontaneous (8), and extensive (5) venous thrombosis, familial history (5), pregnancy (4), estroprogestative treatment (3), and air travel (1). Nine patients had one, 11 patients had two, and five had three of these conditions. Follow-up (6 to 120 months) of these 25 patients treated with antivitamin K did not reveal recurrences or complications related to venous thromboembolism.Conclusion: Factor V Leiden mutation followed by MTHFR mutation are the most commonly observed genetic abnormalities in these series. Defining risk factors and screening for thrombophilia when indicated reduce recurrence rate and complications. Recommendations for thrombophilia screening will be proposed.Keywords: venous thrombosis, risk factors, genetics, factor V Leiden, prothrombin G20210A, MTHFR C677

The impact of organisational justice on ethical behaviour

YesWithin the workplace, justice is influenced by the interpersonal relationships between colleagues and/or management among other things. The main reason for this research is to examine the correlation between organisational justice and the ethical behaviour of employees. Based on the literature, the conceptual model developed in this paper integrates distributive, procedural, interpersonal and informational justice in relation to ethical behaviour. By applying an adapted survey questionnaire, data were collected from teaching staff at public sector higher education institutions. Multiple regression analysis was applied to 360 samples and this showed that distributive and procedural justice have a more positive and significant impact than informational and interpersonal justice on the ethical behaviour of employees. This is an empirical study which may contribute to the literature on ethical behaviour, organisational development and employee development

Finite versus small strain discrete dislocation analysis of cantilever bending of single crystals

© 2017, The Author(s). Plastic size effects in single crystals are investigated by using finite strain and small strain discrete dislocation plasticity to analyse the response of cantilever beam specimens. Crystals with both one and two active slip systems are analysed, as well as specimens with different beam aspect ratios. Over the range of specimen sizes analysed here, the bending stress versus applied tip displacement response has a strong hardening plastic component. This hardening rate increases with decreasing specimen size. The hardening rates are slightly lower when the finite strain discrete dislocation plasticity (DDP) formulation is employed as curving of the slip planes is accounted for in the finite strain formulation. This relaxes the back-stresses in the dislocation pile-ups and thereby reduces the hardening rate. Our calculations show that in line with the pure bending case, the bending stress in cantilever bending displays a plastic size dependence. However, unlike pure bending, the bending flow strength of the larger aspect ratio cantilever beams is appreciably smaller. This is attributed to the fact that for the same applied bending stress, longer beams have lower shear forces acting upon them and this results in a lower density of statistically stored dislocations

A discrete dislocation analysis of hydrogen-assisted mode-I fracture

© 2016 Elsevier LtdFracture of engineering alloys in the presence of hydrogen commonly occurs by decohesion along grain boundaries via a mechanism known as hydrogen induced decohesion (HID). This mechanism is investigated here by analysing the mode-I fracture of a single crystal with plastic flow in the crystal described by discrete dislocation plasticity (DDP) and material separation (decohesion) modelled using a cohesive zone formulation. The motion of dislocations is assumed to be unaffected by hydrogen diffusion. While the cohesive strength is assumed to be reduced proportional to the local hydrogen concentration. Two limiting cases are analysed: (i) the fast diffusion limit where the hydrogen within the material is assumed to be at chemical equilibrium throughout the loading so that there is a high hydrogen concentration in the regions of high hydrostatic stress around dislocations and near the crack tip and (ii) the slow diffusion limit where we assume that there is no appreciable hydrogen diffusion over the duration of loading and thus the hydrogen concentration remains spatially uniform as in a stress-free material. The lower cohesive strength at high hydrogen concentrations results in reduced dislocation activity around the crack tip and a reduction in the material toughness. In fact, at the highest hydrogen concentrations analysed here, crack growth primarily occurs in an elastic manner. However, surprisingly the calculations predicted that the toughness in the fast diffusion case was no more than 12% lower compared to the slow diffusion case suggesting that the stress concentrations due to the dislocation structures and the crack tip fields have only a minor effect on the toughness reduction in the presence of hydrogen. The DDP calculations are finally used to investigate the sensitivity of the material toughness to the grain boundary cohesive strength. The calculations show that the toughness of materials with a small cohesive opening at the peak cohesive traction are more sensitive to hydrogen loading. We speculate that this result might be used as a guide in grain boundary engineering to design alloys that are less sensitive to hydrogen embrittlement by the HID mechanism