How Positive Practices in Organizations are Associated with Employee Engagement via the Moderating Effects of Generational Cohorts in U.S. Customer Service Organizations

The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role that the respective workforce generational cohorts may have on the relationship between positive practices in organizations and levels of employee engagement of U.S. based adult customer service representatives of all races. Studies show that higher employee engagement positively affects employee motivation, satisfaction, productivity, and ultimately the financial success of the organization. However, the levels of engagement for front line customer service positions are some of the lowest of occupations measured by Gallup and have actually declined in recent years. The broaden and build theory of positive emotions shows that a person who frequently experiences positive emotions not only has greater personal resources, wider range of responses, and scope of attention, but that it leads to an upward spiral of more positive emotions and overall well-being (Fredrickson & Joiner, 2002). Positive practices in organizations include phenomena such as excellence, trust, vitality, flourishing, teamwork, appreciation, respect, empathy, and those processes that are generative, strengthening, and enriching (Cameron et al., 2003; Peyrat-Guillard & Glinska-Newes, 2010). In addition, in a multigenerational workforce, critical events of their history shape each generation resulting in shared norms, values, and expectations in the workplace for that generation (Alwin, 1997; Strauss & Howe, 1991). Therefore, because of these different experiences and values, positive practices may affect some employees more acutely than others. This study is a quantitative non-experimental correlational study (Creswell, 2014) using a non-probability data collection method of crowdsourcing to collect responses from 249 adult customer service representatives in the United States listed on the LinkedIn website about their attitudes and practices in their workplace. Employee engagement was measured using the employee engagement scale (EES) developed by Shuck et al. (2017). Positive practices in the organization used Cameron et al.’s (2011) 29-item Positive Practices scale. This study showed that the use of positive practices in organizations predicts higher levels of employee engagement. In addition, the study found that generation does moderate the relationship between positive practices and employee engagement, showing a significant difference in the employee engagement in the Millennials’ generation based on whether positive practices is used in their organization versus the reactions of other generations. This study provides a valuable resource to customer service executives, because the results imply that those employees that are the least engaged today (Millennials) would respond the most dramatically to the use of positive practices in their organizations

State and its margins: Comparative ethnographies

La Teoría Política occidental ha concebido el estado como forma administrativa racional de organización y orden político. Uno de los efectos resultantes de pensar el estado en términos de sus funciones de producción de orden es que los márgenes espaciales y sociales, que tan a menudo constituyen el terreno del trabajo de campo etnográfico, son contemplados como lugares de desorden en los que el estado ha sido incapaz de imponer su orden. No obstante es posible invertir el interrogante y preguntarse acerca de qué es el estado cuando se lo contempla insertado en prácticas, lugares y lenguajes que se consideran situados en los márgenes del estado-nación. Desde la perspectiva antropológica, los márgenes proporcionan una perspectiva excepcional para comprender el estado, no porque capten las prácticas exóticas de los considerados “estados fallidos”, sino porque insinúan que los márgenes son implicaciones necesarias del estado e invitan a repensar los límites entre centro y periferia, público y privado, legal e ilegalAnthropology offers a radical rethinking of the state when it interrogates itself about what would constitute an Ethnography of the state. Western Political Theory has conceived the state as a rational administrative form of political organization and order. One of the effects of thinking the state in terms of ordermaking functions is that the spatial and social margins that so often constitute the terrain of ethnographic fieldwork are seen as sites of disorder, where the state has been unable to impose its order. However, reversing the question is also possible, therefore interrogating what is the state when it is seen as embedded in practices, places and languages considered to be at the margins of the nation-state. From the anthropological point of view, margins provides an unique perspective to the understanding of the state, not because it captures the exotic practices of the so considered "failed states", but because it suggests that such margins are a necessary entailment of the state, and in so doing, invites us to rethink the boundaries between center and periphery, public and private, legal and illega

Diferencias Ambiguas: memorias visuales y la diversidad de lenguajes en la Oaxaca posrevolucionaria

En este artículo, la autora analiza la naturaleza de lo que constituye identidad cultural, distinción y pertenencia. Específicamente, aborda el papel que juegan los iconos visuales æespecialmente en los trajes de mujeres como marcadores consensuales alrededor de los cuales se pueden hacer por lo menos dos tipos de aseveraciones que compiten entre sí por las cualidades históricas y materiales (o "genéticas") de la culturamisma: Memoria ("señales de identidad") y Pertenencia ("identidad cultural"). Para ello, la autora comienza con una breve discusión de un proyecto del porfiriato tardío para construir un inventario visual de la cultura oaxaqueña. Después, examina el papel de la indumentaria de mujer en los proyectos culturales del gobierno revolucionario de Oaxaca. Finalmente, analiza un espectáculo cultural patrocinado por el Estado moderno en el cual las mujeres compiten por el honor de ser la "Diosa del Maíz" que representa a Oaxaca en la gran fiesta folclórica anual de la Guelaguetza.In this article, the author analyzes the nature of cultural identity, distinction, and belonging. Specifically, she deals with the role of visual icons -especially women's clothes- as the consensual markers around which a least two competing sorts of claims can be made for the simultaneously historical and material (or "genetic") qualities of culture itself: Memory ("signs of identity") and Belonging ("cultural identity"). In order to do this, the author begins with a brief discussion of a late Porfirian project to construct a visual inventory of Oaxacan culture. Then, she examines the role of women's clothes in the cultural projects of Oaxaca's revolutionary government. Finally, analizes a modern state sponsored cultural pageant in which women compete for the honor of being the "Maize Goddess" who represents Oaxaca in the annual folklore extravaganza of the Guelaguetza

Formas inciertas: La política precaria en el Estado neoliberal peruano

The present article aims to explore the way in which collectivity and authority is perceived and understood in the context of a recently decentralized, neoliberal state. In this sense, the author utilizes the concept of postregulatory government to refer to forms of government, prevalent in Peru and Latin America, in which the enforcement and issuance of regulatory standards and norms is left up to non-state agencies and institutions.By providing examples of real scenarios of decision-making at the local and regional government levels in the Peruvian Andes. The author aims to show how three components: collectivity, politics, and law, have reconfigured themselves as elements characteristic of the new decentralized, Peruvian state.El presente artículo busca explorar la manera en cómo la colectividad y la autoridad son percibidas y entendidas en el contexto de un Estado neoliberal, recientemente descentralizado. En ese sentido, la autora utiliza el concepto de gobierno postregulatorio para referirse a las formas de gobierno, prevalentes en Perú y América Latina, dentro de las cuales el ejercicio y la emisión de estándares y normas regulatorias han pasado a las manos de agencias e instituciones no-estatales.Al proveer ejemplos de escenarios reales de toma de decisión al nivel local y regional de gobierno en los Andes peruanos, la autora busca demostrar como tres componentes: colectividad, política y derecho, se han reconfigurado como elementos característicos del recientemente descentralizado estado peruano

Very small deletions within the NESP55 gene in pseudohypoparathyroidism type 1b

Pseudohypoparathyroidism (PHP) is caused by reduced expression of genes within the GNAS cluster, resulting in parathormone resistance. The cluster contains multiple imprinted transcripts, including the stimulatory G protein α subunit (Gs-α) and NESP55 transcript preferentially expressed from the maternal allele, and the paternally expressed XLas, A/B and antisense transcripts. PHP1b can be caused by loss of imprinting affecting GNAS A/B alone (associated with STX16 deletion), or the entire GNAS cluster (associated with deletions of NESP55 in a minority of cases). We performed targeted genomic next-generation sequencing (NGS) of the GNAS cluster to seek variants and indels underlying PHP1b. Seven patients were sequenced by hybridisation-based capture and fourteen more by long-range PCR and transposon-mediated insertion and sequencing. A bioinformatic pipeline was developed for variant and indel detection. In one family with two affected siblings, and in a second family with a single affected individual, we detected maternally inherited deletions of 40 and 33 bp, respectively, within the deletion previously reported in rare families with PHP1b. All three affected individuals presented with atypically severe PHP1b; interestingly, the unaffected mother in one family had the detected deletion on her maternally inherited allele. Targeted NGS can reveal sequence changes undetectable by current diagnostic methods. Identification of genetic mutations underlying epigenetic changes can facilitate accurate diagnosis and counselling, and potentially highlight genetic elements critical for normal imprint settin

An annotated list of the Lepidoptera of Honduras

A biodiversity inventory of the Lepidoptera of Pico Bonito National Park and vicinity, in the Department of Atlantida of northern Honduras, was initiated in 2009 to obtain baseline data. We present a revised checklist of Honduran butterfly species (updated from the initial 1967 lists), as well as the first comprehensive list of Honduran moths. Our updated list includes 550 species of Papilionoidea, 311 Hesperioidea, and 1,441 moth species

An annotated list of the Lepidoptera of Honduras

A biodiversity inventory of the Lepidoptera of Pico Bonito National Park and vicinity, in the Department of Atlantida of northern Honduras, was initiated in 2009 to obtain baseline data. We present a revised checklist of Honduran butterfly species (updated from the initial 1967 lists), as well as the first comprehensive list of Honduran moths. Our updated list includes 550 species of Papilionoidea, 311 Hesperioidea, and 1,441 moth species

Effects of HMG‐COA reductase inhibitors (statins) in patients with heart failure

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106135/1/ejhf80342-6.pd

Why do we need a new journal about writing for wellbeing?

A discussion among practitioners and researchers, forming an editorial article for the first issue of LIRI