Capitalizing On Diversity: Interpersonal Congruence In Small Work Groups

We examine interpersonal congruence, the degree to which group members see others in the group as others see themselves, as a moderator of the relationship between diversity and group effectiveness. A longitudinal study of 83 work groups revealed that diversity tended to improve creative task performance in groups with high interpersonal congruence, whereas diversity undermined the performance of groups with low interpersonal congruence. This interaction effect also emerged on measures of social integration, group identification, and relationship conflict. By eliciting self-verifying appraisals, members of some groups achieved enough interpersonal congruence during their first ten minutes of interaction to benefit their group outcomes four months later. In contrast to theories of social categorization, the interpersonal congruence approach suggests that group members can achieve harmonious and effective work processes by expressing rather than suppressing the characteristics that make them unique.Managemen

The Tientsin Incident (1939): A Case-Study of Japan's Imperial Dilemma in China.

This is a study of an incident that took place in North China when the Japanese Army decided to institute a blockade around the British and French Concessions at Tientsin on 15 June 1939. This precipitated a serious international crisis between Japan, Britain and China, although other countries, in particular the United States and France, were also involved. The crisis was in large part defused by the middle of September 1939, although the blockade of the British and French areas would not be lifted until June 1940. This was one of many incidents between Japan, China and the western imperial powers in Asia that occurred in the wake of Japan's invasion into China, particularly from July 1937. The object of this study is to determine why, unlike many of these other events, the Tientsin Incident escalated into a crisis and how it could be defused almost nine months before the blockade of the British and French Concessions would eventually be raised. This is a multi-archival work. But particular emphasis has been put upon the analysis of Japanese primary materials in order to discover the light this Incident can shed upon the nature and problems of Japanese imperial expansion into Asia, and how this affected the course of Anglo-Japanese relations. We examine the extent to which the political dynamics of this conflict were decided by the situation in Tientsin as opposed to the conflict in China as a whole and the tensions that it was putting on Japan's body-politic. We also examine to what extent the Incident acted as a catalyst in promoting a more confrontational relationship between Japan and the Western Powers. Finally, we try to make an assessment of the implications of this event both for China and other Asian countries that would later follow China's lead in seeking to deal with their foreign imperial conquerors --- Japanese or Western --- upon a more equal footing

Proton-Induced X-Ray Emission Spectrometry in Archaeology

Proton-induced x-ray emission (PIXE) spectrometry is fast developing a reputation as a powerful analytical tool in the study of a range of ancient materials, including bronze, iron, gold, glass, faience, and smelting slag. PIXE data allows determination of the primary constituents which would indicate their recipe of production and determine their bulk physical properties (e.g., color of a glass, brittleness in a metal), and of a wide range of trace elements which may indicate the source of raw material s from which an artifact was constituted. Over the past seven years, PIXE spectrometry\u27s primary advantage over other recognized methods now being applied in archaeological research (particularly, xrf spectrometry and SEM/EDAX) - -that protons induce very little bremsstrahlung and therefore contribute very little to spectrum background during analysis has been much enhanced through the use of various kinds of selective filters in the detection system that heavily suppress the x-ray signal of dominant element(s) in the artifact\u27s matrix (Cu in bronze, Si and Ca in glass, etc.). PIXE detection limits are kept exceptionally low (usually in the 10 ppm to 100 ppm range), because the selective filters almost entirely eliminate secondary background effects arising from response inertia in the detection system\u27s electronics. Archaeological applications of the PIXE method, as reviewed here, now cover both the Old World, the New World, ancient Asia and Polynesia, and a time-span of the 5th millennium B.C. through to the 19th century A.D