Employee imagination and its implication for entrepreneurs : inspiration from Chinese business enterprises

Purpose: In 2015 the European Group of Organisation Studies released a call for papers highlighting poor knowledge of employee imagination in organisations. To address this need, the current study hypothesises employee imagination consisting of seven conditions common to the organisational experience of Chinese Entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach: The current paper reviews the Chinese enterprising context. Cases from China are used to illustrate the effects of proposed conditions and their value for entrepreneurs and innovators in businesses undergoing change. Findings: Employee imagination underpins and conditions how Chinese employees make sense of their organisations and better understand the process of organisational change. From the viewpoint of human resource management, coaching and developing imagination enables businesses to stay competitive and adapt to environmental demands such as lack of information, too much information, or the need for new information. Research limitations/implications: The proposed conditions apply to the Chinese context, however, their application to wider contexts is suggested and requires attention. Originality/Value: Theoretically, our research adds new insights to knowledge of a poorly understood organisational behaviour topic – employee imagination. Practically, the research findings provide mangers with knowledge of conditions, which could be adopted as powerful tools in facilitating organisational change management

The knowledge transfer openness matrix facilitating accessibility in UK management education teaching

This is an empirical investigation considering how the Knowledge Transfer Openness Matrix (KTOM) could facilitate accessibility and Knowledge Transfer (KT) for the UK Higher Education (HE) Management Education Teaching when utilising learning technologies. Its focus is where learning technologies applications currently assist the KT process and support accessibility for the HE teacher and learner. It considers the philosophy of openness, focussing on its usefulness to support accessibility within UK HE Management Education Teaching. It discusses how the openness philosophy may assist the KT process for the HE teacher and learners using learning technologies. In particular, the potential to support accessibility within HE Management Education Teaching environments is appraised. There appear several implications for both teachers and learners. These are characterized in the proposed KTOM. The matrix organises KT events based on the principles of the openness philosophy. The role of learning technologies in events is illustrated with regard to teaching and learning accessibility

Imagination in entrepreneurship : an inspiration from Heidegger

Entrepreneur's imagination has crucial implication on business success and management. Despite its espoused importance, imagination is still undervalued and deserves more academic attention. The current article aims to provide a novel perspective on imagination informed by Heidegger (1889-1976; widely acknowledged to be one of the most original philosophers of the 20th century). Specifically, the article has clarified the definition of imagination in entrepreneurship and risen constructs align with the proposed conception. Under the microscope of Heidegger’s theory, entrepreneur’s imagination co-operates ventures successfully by incorporating notions of webs of significance, authenticity, spontaneity, heroes and moods, which guide opportunity identification and exploration in markets. The article has offered new insights to the knowledge of entrepreneur's imagination. From a pragmatic viewpoint, inferential leaps are possible because entrepreneurs practice against a background of webs of significance they own - which they relationally, linguistically and pragmatically - share across institutional frames. Implications of the findings on management are discussed. Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Heidegger; Imagination; Instability; Unpredictability; Spontaneity

Decision and intuition during organizational change : an evolutionary critique of dual process theory

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review intuition in the context of organizational change. We argue that intuition as a concept requires attention and its formulation is necessary prior to its application in organizations. The paper provides a critique of Dual Process Theory and highlights shortcomings in organization theorizing of intuition. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is conceptual and provides in-depth theoretical discussions by drawing from the literature on decision and intuition in the context of organizational change. Findings: Investigating whether Dual Process Theory is sufficiently clear, we found ambiguity. Specifically, the current definition provided by Dane and Pratt is not clear in terms of its four sections: (1) The consciousness of non-conscious processing, (2) involving holistic associations, (3) that are produced rapidly, which (4) result in affectively charged judgments. Finally, we note that the Evolutionary perspective is missing and we provide foundational concepts for such a perspective, including the discussion of information templates, memes and genes, as argued by research, condition intuition. Originality/value: The paper finds that an evolutionary perspective develops a picture of intuition as an adaptive resource. This evolutionary perspective is currently absent in research and we provide foundational concepts for such a perspective. We propose specific arguments to highlight the evolutionary perspective

Transformational changes and sustainability : from the perspective of identity, trust, commitment, and withdrawal

Drawing upon the psychology of sustainability, effective organizations can create a sense of belongingness for people, and successfully facilitate growth and development activities for both individuals as well as the organization itself. Extending the recommendations of Zappala, Toscano, and Licciardello, the current study considers a range of variables. The role of overall justice judgements and change favorableness are taken as predictors of affective commitment to change and exit-based withdrawal. The relationship is mediated by organizational identification and moderated by trust in organization. Overall, the results support the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, findings showed that both change favorableness and overall justice judgements are positively related to affective commitment to change and negatively related to exit-based withdrawal. Organizational identification mediates the relationships between overall justice judgements−affective commitment to change, change favorableness−affective commitment to change, and change favorableness−exit-based withdrawal, whilst trust in organizations moderated the direct relationship between overall justice judgements−affective commitment to change, and change favorableness−exit-based withdrawal. Furthermore, the indirect effect of trust in organizations positively moderated the relationship of overall justice judgements and change favorableness with affective commitment to change, and at the same time, it negatively moderated the relationship between change favorableness and exit-based withdrawal via organizational identification. Crucially, for practitioners, this brings trust of employees as a key factor that should be managed to ensure sustainable change. Both trust and identity appear important in improving commitment and lowering the exit-based withdrawal behavior of employees. Future recommendations, implications, and limitations are discussed

Structural, Vibrational and Thermodynamic Properties of AgnCu34-n Nanoparticles

We report results of a systematic study of structural, vibrational and thermodynamical properties of 34-atom bimetallic nanoparticles from the AgnCu34-n family using model interaction potentials as derived from the embedded atom method and in the harmonic approximation of lattice dynamics. Systematic trends in the bond length and dynamical properties can be explained largely on arguments based on local coordination and elemental environment. Thus increase in the number of silver atoms in a given neighborhood introduces a monotonic increase in bond length while increase of the copper content does the reverse. Moreover, based on bond lengths of the lowest coordinated (6 and 8) copper atoms with their nearest neighbors (Cu atoms), we find that the nanoparticles divide into two groups with average bond length either close to (~ 2.58 A) or smaller (~ 2.48 A) than that in bulk copper, accompanied by characteristic features in their vibrational density of states. For the entire set of nanoparticles, vibrational modes are found above the bulk bands of copper/silver. Furthermore, a blue shift in the high frequency end with increasing number of copper atoms in the nanoparticles is traced to a shrinkage of bond lengths from bulk values. The vibrational densities of states at the low frequency end of the spectrum scale linearly with frequency as for single element nanoparticles, however, the effect is more pronounced for these nanoalloys. The Debye temperature was found to be about one third of that of the bulk for pure copper and silver nanoparticles with a non-linear increase with increasing number of copper atoms in the nanoalloys.Comment: 37 pages, 12 figure

To evaluate the correlation between gingival crevicular blood glucose and capillary blood glucose to screen diabetes mellitus in the dental office

Background: Most of the Indian population goes undiagnosed for diabetes due to unawareness. This will lead to more serious and long-term complications of diabetes. Thus, there is a critical need to increase opportunities for diabetes screening and early diabetes detection. Research has explored the dental office as a strategic venue of opportunity for glucose testing, examining the possibility of using gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) for diabetes screening. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the reliability of gingival crevicular blood (GCB) to screen the diabetes. Methodology: Thirty patients were randomly selected based on bleeding on probing and probing depth. GCB and capillary finger blood (CFB) glucose levels were calculated using glucometer from patients. Data for glucose levels were statistically analyzed. Results: The correlation between GCB and CFB was high. Conclusion: GCB can be used as the screening test for diabetes in the dental office. Clinical Significance: GCB blood glucose level detection can be used as chairside screening test for diabetes patients

Phagocytosis is the main CR3-mediated function affected by the lupus-associated variant of CD11b in human myeloid cells.

The CD11b/CD18 integrin (complement receptor 3, CR3) is a surface receptor on monocytes, neutrophils, macrophages and dendritic cells that plays a crucial role in several immunological processes including leukocyte extravasation and phagocytosis. The minor allele of a non-synonymous CR3 polymorphism (rs1143679, conversation of arginine to histidine at position 77: R77H) represents one of the strongest genetic risk factor in human systemic lupus erythematosus, with heterozygosity (77R/H) being the most common disease associated genotype. Homozygosity for the 77H allele has been reported to reduce adhesion and phagocytosis in human monocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages, respectively, without affecting surface expression of CD11b. Herein we comprehensively assessed the influence of R77H on different CR3-mediated activities in monocytes, neutrophils, macrophages and dendritic cells. R77H did not alter surface expression of CD11b including its active form in any of these cell types. Using two different iC3b-coated targets we found that the uptake by heterozygous 77R/H macrophages, monocytes and neutrophils was significantly reduced compared to 77R/R cells. Allele-specific transduced immortalized macrophage cell lines demonstrated that the minor allele, 77H, was responsible for the impaired phagocytosis. R77H did not affect neutrophil adhesion, neutrophil transmigration in vivo or Toll-like receptor 7/8-mediated cytokine release by monocytes or dendritic cells with or without CR3 pre-engagement by iC3b-coated targets. Our findings demonstrate that the reduction in CR3-mediated phagocytosis associated with the 77H CD11b variant is not macrophage-restricted but demonstrable in other CR3-expressing professional phagocytic cells. The association between 77H and susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus most likely relates to impaired waste disposal, a key component of lupus pathogenesis

An insight to HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) pathogenesis; evidence from high-throughput data integration and meta-analysis

Background Human T-lymphotropic virus 1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) is a progressive disease of the central nervous system that significantly affected spinal cord, nevertheless, the pathogenesis pathway and reliable biomarkers have not been well determined. This study aimed to employ high throughput meta-analysis to find major genes that are possibly involved in the pathogenesis of HAM/TSP. Results High-throughput statistical analyses identified 832, 49, and 22 differentially expressed genes for normal vs. ACs, normal vs. HAM/TSP, and ACs vs. HAM/TSP groups, respectively. The protein-protein interactions between DEGs were identified in STRING and further network analyses highlighted 24 and 6 hub genes for normal vs. HAM/TSP and ACs vs. HAM/TSP groups, respectively. Moreover, four biologically meaningful modules including 251 genes were identified for normal vs. ACs. Biological network analyses indicated the involvement of hub genes in many vital pathways like JAK-STAT signaling pathway, interferon, Interleukins, and immune pathways in the normal vs. HAM/TSP group and Metabolism of RNA, Viral mRNA Translation, Human T cell leukemia virus 1 infection, and Cell cycle in the normal vs. ACs group. Moreover, three major genes including STAT1, TAP1, and PSMB8 were identified by network analysis. Real-time PCR revealed the meaningful down-regulation of STAT1 in HAM/TSP samples than AC and normal samples (P = 0.01 and P = 0.02, respectively), up-regulation of PSMB8 in HAM/TSP samples than AC and normal samples (P = 0.04 and P = 0.01, respectively), and down-regulation of TAP1 in HAM/TSP samples than those in AC and normal samples (P = 0.008 and P = 0.02, respectively). No significant difference was found among three groups in terms of the percentage of T helper and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (P = 0.55 and P = 0.12). Conclusions High-throughput data integration disclosed novel hub genes involved in important pathways in virus infection and immune systems. The comprehensive studies are needed to improve our knowledge about the pathogenesis pathways and also biomarkers of complex diseases.Peer reviewe