The influence of communication, empowerment and trust on organizational ethical climates

In this study, communication, empowerment and trust were examined to determine their influence on an organization’s ethical climate. A total of 150 questionnaires completed by managers and executives based in the Klang Valley, Malaysia were analysed. The results demonstrated that empowerment was positively related to a benevolent-local climate while trust was positively related to both benevolent-local and principled-local climates. However, communication did not have a significant influence on all three ethical climate types. We discuss our results and the implications for both future academic research and practice

Thermal reaction norms and the scale of temperature variation: latitudinal vulnerability of intertidal Nacellid limpets to climate change

The thermal reaction norms of 4 closely related intertidal Nacellid limpets, Antarctic (Nacella concinna), New Zealand (Cellana ornata), Australia (C. tramoserica) and Singapore (C. radiata), were compared across environments with different temperature magnitude, variability and predictability, to test their relative vulnerability to different scales of climate warming. Lethal limits were measured alongside a newly developed metric of “duration tenacity”, which was tested at different temperatures to calculate the thermal reaction norm of limpet adductor muscle fatigue. Except in C. tramoserica which had a wide optimum range with two break points, duration tenacity did not follow a typical aerobic capacity curve but was best described by a single break point at an optimum temperature. Thermal reaction norms were shifted to warmer temperatures in warmer environments; the optimum temperature for tenacity (Topt) increased from 1.0°C (N. concinna) to 14.3°C (C. ornata) to 18.0°C (an average for the optimum range of C. tramoserica) to 27.6°C (C. radiata). The temperature limits for duration tenacity of the 4 species were most consistently correlated with both maximum sea surface temperature and summer maximum in situ habitat logger temperature. Tropical C. radiata, which lives in the least variable and most predictable environment, generally had the lowest warming tolerance and thermal safety margin (WT and TSM; respectively the thermal buffer of CTmax and Topt over habitat temperature). However, the two temperate species, C. ornata and C. tramoserica, which live in a variable and seasonally unpredictable microhabitat, had the lowest TSM relative to in situ logger temperature. N. concinna which lives in the most variable, but seasonally predictable microhabitat, generally had the highest TSMs. Intertidal animals live at the highly variable interface between terrestrial and marine biomes and even small changes in the magnitude and predictability of their environment could markedly influence their future distributions

Upper Temperature Limits of Tropical Marine Ectotherms: Global Warming Implications

Animal physiology, ecology and evolution are affected by temperature and it is expected that community structure will be strongly influenced by global warming. This is particularly relevant in the tropics, where organisms are already living close to their upper temperature limits and hence are highly vulnerable to rising temperature. Here we present data on upper temperature limits of 34 tropical marine ectotherm species from seven phyla living in intertidal and subtidal habitats. Short term thermal tolerances and vertical distributions were correlated, i.e., upper shore animals have higher thermal tolerance than lower shore and subtidal animals; however, animals, despite their respective tidal height, were susceptible to the same temperature in the long term. When temperatures were raised by 1°C hour−1, the upper lethal temperature range of intertidal ectotherms was 41–52°C, but this range was narrower and reduced to 37–41°C in subtidal animals. The rate of temperature change, however, affected intertidal and subtidal animals differently. In chronic heating experiments when temperature was raised weekly or monthly instead of every hour, upper temperature limits of subtidal species decreased from 40°C to 35.4°C, while the decrease was more than 10°C in high shore organisms. Hence in the long term, activity and survival of tropical marine organisms could be compromised just 2–3°C above present seawater temperatures. Differences between animals from environments that experience different levels of temperature variability suggest that the physiological mechanisms underlying thermal sensitivity may vary at different rates of warming

Does CSR image matter to hypermarket’s consumers in Malaysia? perspective from persuasion knowledge model

It is commonly accepted that positive corporate social responsibility (CSR) image brings desirable outcomes, for instance, brand loyalty, improved brand image, enhanced store image, as well as increased visit intention; suggesting there are various direct outcomes of CSR image. Underpinned by the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), this paper proposes that these outcomes are presented in a sequential manner, where there is a core mechanism that relates CSR image to store image and brand awareness, and in turn associate with consumers’ visit intention. A quantitative research methodology has been used where a structured questionnaire was distributed to consumers in selected states in Malaysia using the mall intercept method. Structural equation modelling was applied to examine the proposed model. The discoveries of the current study offer the observed evidence for the correlation between perceived CSR image and hypermarket visit intention, mediated by overall store image and brand awareness. The study emphasises a prominent role of CSR schemes, bringing together the overall hypermarket store image and the hypermarket brand awareness, which will enable hypermarket management to further boost visit intention from consumers

Development of a multi-factor social desirability bias scale

Social desirability bias is one of the most common and critical survey distortions that may misleading the research findings and conclusion. Despite 60 years of research, there is still an open debate on its conceptualization and operationalization. Hence, the purpose of this study was to develop and validate a multi-dimensions scale namely, Multi-Factors Social Desirability Bias (MFSDB) scale that can be used to measure the degree of social desirability bias present in a survey. This study adopted DeVellis (2016)’s scale development guidelines and employed a mixed methodology to gather and analyses the data. In the first phase, qualitative inquiry was carried out to collection respondents’ descriptions about social desirability bias through personal interview. In particular, a total of 15 participants were interviewed to identify any potential dimensions for the construct. Six dimensions were identified in the interviews which were the Hubris State, Impression Management State, Secrecy State, Trust State, Adequacy State and Utilitarian State. The initial items pool was then generated according to the six dimensions based on the findings of the interviews and literature. In the second phase, quantitative inquiry was carried out to examine the reliability and validity of the items derived from the qualitative inquiry. The initial items pool of the MFSDB scale consisted of 100 items were tested against 688 working adults around Malaysia. The dimensions of the new measurement scale were identified through the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Only 17-items grouped under six dimensions fulfilled all the criteria to form the MFSDB scale. The scale has good psychometric properties, consistently demonstrating construct validity in various tests of discriminance and convergence. Its predictability has also been demonstrated in a nomological framework with related constructs. And it meets the requirements of face validity. The MFSDB scale suggests a new composition of social desirability bias. This scale provides a more accurate measurement for researchers to identify social desirability bias

Measuring social desirability bias: do the full and short versions of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale matter

Given the sensitive nature of ethics research, the presence of social desirability bias (SDB) threatens the validity of research findings. As ethics studies often overlook this bias, we aimed to provide evidence that SDB varies across individual and situational factors. We thus investigated the influence of socio-demographic factors and survey modes on SDB. A total of 348 working adults were randomly chosen to participate in either an on-line or off-line survey containing eight versions of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability (MCSD) scale. The reliabilities for the eight versions ranged from 0.35 to 0.81. Statistical tests revealed that different socio-demographic factors influence different versions of the MCSD scale. The results also showed that using on-line surveys minimizes SDB. This study provides practical implications and suggestions for future research

The temperature limits for tenacity and upper lethal limits correlated with environmental temperatures of the four subtidal limpet species.

<p>Pearson’s correlation co-efficient (R²) and significance (p). Significant correlations in bold.</p

Temperature limits for survival (functional mortality) of A) Antarctic (intertidal <i>N. concinna</i>; upper limit from Morley et al, 2009) B) New Zealand (<i>C. ornata</i>), C) Melbourne (<i>C. tramoserica</i>) and D) Singapore (<i>C. radiata</i>) Nacellid limpets (Mean ±95%CI).

<p>Temperature limits for survival (functional mortality) of A) Antarctic (intertidal <i>N. concinna</i>; upper limit from Morley et al, 2009) B) New Zealand (<i>C. ornata</i>), C) Melbourne (<i>C. tramoserica</i>) and D) Singapore (<i>C. radiata</i>) Nacellid limpets (Mean ±95%CI).</p

Thermal reaction norm of duration tenacity in Nacellid limpets.

<p>Fitted curves are shown. A) Antarctic (<i>N. concinna</i>), B) New Zealand (<i>C. ornata</i>), C) Melbourne (<i>C. tramoserica</i>) and D) Singapore (<i>C. radiata</i>). (Mean ±95%CI). Linear regressions are shown with break points calculated using the R-package strucchange (Zeileis et al., 2002).</p

Summary of environmental data and thermal sensitivity of limpets from Rothera (<i>Nacella concinna</i>), Dunedin New Zealand (<i>Cellana ornata</i>), Melbourne Australia (<i>C. tramoserica</i>) and Singapore (<i>C. radiata</i>).

<p>Warming tolerance, WT = CT_max-T_hab, where T_hab is the mean maximum daily logger temperature or mean maximum surface seawater temperature. Thermal safety margin, TSM = T_opt-T_hab, where T_hab is the same as for WT (after Deutsch et al., 2008). T_opt, the temperature of maximum tenacity and CT_max, the upper temperature at which tenacity had dropped to 50%, were taken from <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0052818#pone-0052818-t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a>.</p>†<p>Indicates that the lower limit for functional mortality (LTL) was below the freezing point of seawater.</p