395 research outputs found
Tracking serendipitous interactions: How individual cultures shape the office
In many work environments, serendipitous interactions between members of
different groups may lead to enhanced productivity, collaboration and knowledge
dissemination. Two factors that may have an influence on such interactions are
cultural differences between individuals in highly multicultural workplaces,
and the layout and physical spaces of the workplace itself. In this work, we
investigate how these two factors may facilitate or hinder inter-group
interactions in the workplace. We analyze traces collected using wearable
electronic badges to capture face-to-face interactions and mobility patterns of
employees in a research laboratory in the UK. We observe that those who
interact with people of different roles tend to come from collectivist cultures
that value relationships and where people tend to be comfortable with social
hierarchies, and that some locations in particular are more likely to host
serendipitous interactions, knowledge that could be used by organizations to
enhance communication and productivity.This work was supported by the Google Europe Fellowship in Mobile Computing.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is published in the Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing and can be found in the ACM digital library here: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2531602.2531641
SOCIAL DESIRABILITY AND CYNICISM: BRIDGING THE ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOR GAP IN CSR SURVEYS
Many consumer-focused corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies suggest a positive link between the responsibility demonstrated by a company and consumers’ intention to favor the company in their purchases. Yet an analogous causal effect between corporate social and financial performances is not evident. This chapter conceptualizes how social desirability and cynicism contribute to the discrepancy between consumers’ attitudes and their actual purchase behavior, and analyzes why consumer choices indicated in surveys do not consistently convert into actions
The outcome of a training programme (RESPECT) on staff’s attitudes towards causes and management of aggression in a Regional Referral Hospital of Northern Uganda
Introduction
Occupational violence has been demonstrated to impact negatively on the well‐being of nurses and patients. Staff attitudes towards causes and management of patients’ aggression influence their practice. Training is likely to influence attitudes towards aggression; however, Uganda's health system lacks adequate resources to provide aggression management training for staff.
Aim
To assess the impact of a training programme (RESPECT) on staff attitudes towards causes and management of patient's aggression in a Ugandan hospital.
Methods
This study used a mixed‐methods convergent design. A convenience sample of nurses and support staff employed in the psychiatric ward and other services across the hospital (N = 90) completed the Management of Aggression and Violence Attitude Scale (MAVAS) pre‐ and post‐training. The views of a smaller sample (n = 35) were captured via interviews and focus groups and analysed using thematic analysis.
Results
Participants reported greater agreement with patients’ physical and social environment (external and situational causative models) as factors influencing patient's aggression. Qualitative findings substantiated the results identified in the survey. Attitudes towards seclusion, restraint and medication remained unchanged.
Discussion and implications for practice
RESPECT has the potential to change staff attitudes towards aggression in the short term. Further research is needed to investigate long‐term effects and impact on incidents of aggression
Circular agri-food approaches : will consumers buy novel products made from vegetable waste?
This article discusses the challenges associated with managing waste in the horticultural sector by presenting the circular economy framework as a solution to the problem of food waste. The research focuses on consumers’ role and value adding as one strategy that transforms food waste for reuse in accordance with a circular economy. A structured questionnaire was collected from a sample (n = 330) of Australian households to assess consumers’ willingness buy food derived from underutilised biomass. The survey found half of the sample was willing to buy value-added food. Helping Australian farmers was the top-ranking factor driving demand. Awareness of the food waste problem is significant in distinguishing consumers who are willing to buy value-added food from those who are not. Marketing recommendations for communication design a circular economy are to stress empathy and care for farmers and highlight the consequences of food waste for both the natural environment and people
Academic Performance and Behavioral Patterns
Identifying the factors that influence academic performance is an essential
part of educational research. Previous studies have documented the importance
of personality traits, class attendance, and social network structure. Because
most of these analyses were based on a single behavioral aspect and/or small
sample sizes, there is currently no quantification of the interplay of these
factors. Here, we study the academic performance among a cohort of 538
undergraduate students forming a single, densely connected social network. Our
work is based on data collected using smartphones, which the students used as
their primary phones for two years. The availability of multi-channel data from
a single population allows us to directly compare the explanatory power of
individual and social characteristics. We find that the most informative
indicators of performance are based on social ties and that network indicators
result in better model performance than individual characteristics (including
both personality and class attendance). We confirm earlier findings that class
attendance is the most important predictor among individual characteristics.
Finally, our results suggest the presence of strong homophily and/or peer
effects among university students
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Tandem quadruplication of HMA4 in the zinc (Zn) and cadmium (Cd) hyperaccumulator noccaea caerulescens
Zinc (Zn) and cadmium (Cd) hyperaccumulation may have evolved twice in the Brassicaceae, in Arabidopsis halleri and in the Noccaea genus. Tandem gene duplication and deregulated expression of the Zn transporter, HMA4, has previously been linked to Zn/Cd hyperaccumulation in A. halleri. Here, we tested the hypothesis that tandem duplication and deregulation of HMA4 expression also occurs in Noccaea. A Noccaea caerulescens genomic library was generated, containing 36,864 fosmid pCC1FOSTM clones with insert sizes ~20–40 kbp, and screened with a PCR-generated HMA4 genomic probe. Gene copy number within the genome was estimated through DNA fingerprinting and pooled fosmid pyrosequencing. Gene copy numbers within individual clones was determined by PCR analyses with novel locus specific primers. Entire fosmids were then sequenced individually and reads equivalent to 20-fold coverage were assembled to generate complete whole contigs. Four tandem HMA4 repeats were identified in a contiguous sequence of 101,480 bp based on sequence overlap identities. These were flanked by regions syntenous with up and downstream regions of AtHMA4 in Arabidopsis thaliana. Promoter-reporter b-glucuronidase (GUS) fusion analysis of a NcHMA4 in A. thaliana revealed deregulated expression in roots and shoots, analogous to AhHMA4 promoters, but distinct from AtHMA4 expression which localised to the root vascular tissue. This remarkable consistency in tandem duplication and deregulated expression of metal transport genes between N. caerulescens and A. halleri, which last shared a common ancestor >40 mya, provides intriguing evidence that parallel evolutionary pathways may underlie Zn/Cd hyperaccumulation in Brassicaceae
Covert observation in practice: lessons from the evaluation of the prohibition of smoking in public places in Scotland
Background: A ban on smoking in wholly or substantially enclosed public places has been in place in Scotland since 26th March 2006. The impact of this legislation is currently being evaluated in seven studies, three of which involve direct observation of smoking in bars and other enclosed public places. While the ethical issues around covert observation have been widely discussed there is little practical guidance on the conduct of such research. A workshop was therefore convened to identify practical lessons learned so far from the Scottish evaluation. Methods: We convened a workshop involving researchers from the three studies which used direct observation. In addition, one of the fieldwork managers collected written feedback on the fieldwork, identifying problems that arose in the field and some solutions. Results: There were four main themes identified: (i) the difficulty of achieving and maintaining concealment; (ii) the experience of being an observer; (iii) the risk of bias in the observations and (iv) issues around training and recruitment. These are discussed. Conclusion: Collecting covert observational data poses unique practical challenges, in particular in relation to the health and safety of the researcher. The findings and solutions presented in this paper will be of value to researchers designing similar studies
Pornography consumption and non-marital sexual behaviour in a sample of young Indonesian university students
Using a sample of Indonesian university students and a cross sectional design, this study investigated prevalence rates and patterns of pornography consumption in Indonesia, a religious, sexually conservative, Muslim-majority nation with strict antipornography laws. Further, the association between pornography consumption and common non-marital sexual behaviours was explored. The study found that in this sample, pornography is as widely and readily consumed as in comparable international studies predominantly utilising Western background samples from more sexually liberal and less religious countries with very few laws on pornography. Gender differences in patterns of pornography consumption were pronounced and comparable with findings in international counterpart studies. For men only, pornography consumption was found to significantly predict common sexual behaviours in nonmarital relations. The study is the first to provide insights into prevalence rates and patterns of pornography consumption and its association with common non-marital sexual behaviours in a sexually conservative, Muslim-majority nation with strict antipornography laws
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