Managerial strategies to promote employee brand consistent behavior: the new frontier for brand building strategies

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of managerial strategies in promoting employee brand consistent behavior. Using a recently developed, holistic model of behavioral branding (Mazzei and Ravazzani, 2015), that suggests that a wide array of managerial strategies affect the branding process, this study addresses two specific questions: What communication strategies, in the opinion of managers, sustain employee brand consistent behavior? and What are the most important factors, both contextual and related to their cognitive-emotional states, that employees think affect their brand ambassadorship behavior. Research was conducted, based on a multiple methods strategy, to answer the two questions. The choice of methods was based on the specific characteristics of the two targets, communication managers and employees. An initial study conducted in-depth interviews with 32 communication managers, and this was followed by a case study of a single company. The results show that enablement-oriented strategies are more effective then communication-oriented strategies in sustaining employee brand builder roles. Weak employee commitment, unsatisfactory external communication, and low levels of motivation are strong contextual factors inhibiting employee attitudes to brand ambassadorship, one of the most relevant employee brand consistent behaviors in competitive contexts. The main practical implication is that companies should engage employees as brand ambassadors, not by means of prescriptions of in-role behavior, but enablement strategies leading to authentic and voluntary behaviors; besides, that companies should put a significant effort in “preparing the soil”, i.e. investing in enhancing employee commitment, level of motivation and understanding/alignment with the external communication. The values of the study lies in highlighting the crucial role of enablement-oriented strategies, and the relevance of specific contextual variables affecting the attitudes of employees towards brand consistent behaviors

Fostering self-compassion. An online intervention with university students

openL’auto-compassione permette di affrontare le situazioni di fallimento senza sentirsi giudicati da se stessi. Neff (2009) definisce l'auto-compassione come la capacità di offrire gentilezza al proprio dolore, comprendendolo. Egli propone un modello, all’interno del quale vi sono tre componenti: gentilezza verso se stessi, umanità comune, consapevolezza. Grazie all’auto-compassione, il soggetto risponde ai momenti di difficoltà, senza identificarsi con stati emotivi negativi. Sono stati sviluppati diversi interventi di promozione dell’auto-compassione, aventi come obiettivo la sua promozione. In tal modo, accrescendo l'auto-compassione aumenta il benessere nelle persone. All’interno di tale lavoro di tesi, vi è la descrizione di uno studio di un intervento online condotto su studenti universitari, con l’obiettivo di favorire stati motivazionali funzionali

The impact of successful cross-competencies on a career in tourism in Italy: the meeting point between the student's perceptions and the requirements for professionals

The paper aims to understand how the changes occurring in the tourism sector are affecting the labor market in Italy, with a special focus on the relevance of successful cross competences (SCC). It focuses on comparing the relevance of these competencies in the perception of both students preparing to enter the tourism field and tour operators. The two-step study combined qualitative analysis that put forth specific characteristics of the tourism labor market in Italy through interviews with experts, and quantitative analysis that correlated the requirements of the tour operators to the ideas students have of what competencies tour operators entering the field should have. The results evinced differing perceptions of SCC and their relative importance in professional fields. Students manifest to miss awareness of the importance of SCC for their future careers. Furthermore, organizational ability, self-control and self-esteem were perceived by tour operators as the most important competencies to be acquired

Self‐reported drug allergy in a general adult Portuguese population

Clin Exp Allergy. 2004 Oct;34(10):1597-601. Self-reported drug allergy in a general adult Portuguese population. Gomes E, Cardoso MF, Praça F, Gomes L, Mariño E, Demoly P. Serviço de Imunoalergologia, Hospital Maria Pia, Porto, Portugal. [email protected] Abstract AIM: To estimate the prevalence of self-reported drug allergy in adults. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey of a general adult population from Porto (all of whom were living with children involved in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood-phase three), during the year 2002, using a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: The prevalence of self-reported drug allergy was 7.8% (181/2309): 4.5% to penicillins or other beta-lactams, 1.9% to aspirin or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and 1.5% to other drugs. In the group 'allergic to beta-lactams', the most frequently implicated drug was penicillin G or V (76.2%) followed by the association of amoxicillin and clavulanic acids (14.3%). In the group 'allergic to NSAIDs', acetylsalicylic acid (18.2%) and ibuprofen (18.2%) were the most frequently identified drugs, followed by nimesulide and meloxicam. Identification of the exact name of the involved drug was possible in less than one-third of the patients, more often within the NSAID group (59.5%). Women were significantly more likely to claim a drug allergy than men (10.2% vs. 5.3%). The most common manifestations were cutaneous (63.5%), followed by cardiovascular symptoms (35.9%). Most of the reactions were immediate, occurring on the first day of treatment (78.5%). Only half of the patients were submitted to drug allergy investigations. The majority (86.8%) completely avoided the suspected culprit drug thereafter. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that self-reported allergy to drugs is highly prevalent and poorly explored. Women seem to be more susceptible. beta-lactams and NSAIDs are the most frequently concerned drugs. PMID: 15479276 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

In viaggio verso la professione turistica: competenze trasversali di successo tra domanda e offerta

Tourism managers’ employment and entrepreneurial activity are relevant topics nowadays. The university curricula in this field have become extensive and well-structured on different levels. They are mainly focusing on hard skills, while Soft Skills - like leadership, entrepreneurship, emotion management, public speaking, time management and so on – must also be learned, improved, enhanced. Starting from Boyatzis (1982) who valued competence as determining valid professional results and considered that individual performance should be measurable and comparable through numerical evaluation and according to what was stated by Kaneklin et al. (2006), the current research develops from a specific investigation methodology (Bustreo e Russo, 2015) and involves a group of graduating students in different higher education courses in the tourism area and a group of tourism professionals. The objectives are, on the one side, identifying students’ awareness of their own successful cross-competences (SSC) in advanced education; on the other side, singling out the cross skills a group of professionals operating in the field basically require when interviewing a candidate. The survey allows to comprehend better what are the overlapping areas and what areas are not, between professional demand and declared students’ competences. That is, what does education in the field offer and what does the market require to be competent and able tourism professionals today

IgE-mediated hypersensitivity to cephalosporins: Cross-reactivity and tolerability of alternative cephalosporins

BACKGROUND: Studies regarding the cross-reactivity and tolerability of alternative cephalosporins in large samples of subjects with an IgE-mediated hypersensitivity to cephalosporins are lacking. OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate the possibility of using alternative cephalosporins in subjects with cephalosporin allergy who especially require them. METHODS: One hundred two subjects with immediate reactions to cephalosporins and positive skin test results to the responsible drugs underwent serum specific IgE assays with cefaclor and skin tests with different cephalosporins. Subjects were classified in 4 groups: group A, positive responses to 1 or more of ceftriaxone, cefuroxime, cefotaxime, cefepime, cefodizime, and ceftazidime; group B, positive responses to aminocephalosporins; group C, positive responses to cephalosporins other than those belonging to the aforementioned groups; and group D, positive responses to cephalosporins belonging to 2 different groups. Group A subjects underwent challenges with cefaclor, cefazolin, and ceftibuten; group B participants underwent challenges with cefuroxime axetil, ceftriaxone, cefazolin, and ceftibuten; and group C and D subjects underwent challenges with some of the aforementioned cephalosporins selected on the basis of their patterns of positivity. RESULTS: There were 73 subjects in group A, 13 in group B, 7 in group C, and 9 in group D. Challenges with alternative cephalosporins (ceftibuten in 101, cefazolin in 96, cefaclor in 82, and cefuroxime axetil and ceftriaxone in 22 subjects) were well tolerated. CONCLUSIONS: Cephalosporin hypersensitivity does not seem to be a class hypersensitivity. Subjects with cephalosporin allergy who especially require alternative cephalosporins might be treated with compounds that have side-chain determinants different from those of the responsible cephalosporins and have negative pretreatment skin test responses