Building From Within: Designing a Values-Based Cultural Template

Lifelong education and prolific writer Joseph Hester, together with businessman and philosopher H. Darrell Young, combine their years of knowledge and experience to introduce the reader to a cultural business plan designed for rebuilding businesses and organizations on a values foundation

The Effects of Stimulants on the Pulse Rate

A recent article in Science by Maugh II (1973), dealing with the possible relationship between coffee and heart disease, inspired me to develop and execute a laboratory exercise designed to measure the effects of stimulants on the body. This exercise was, of course, designed to only measure immediate short-term effects, since long-term effects are obviously more difficult to measure

Malware Avoidance Motivations and Behaviors: A Technology Threat Avoidance Replication

The current study presents a conceptual replication of Liang and Xue’s (2010) test of their proposed Technology Threat Avoidance Theory (TTAT). Whereas the original study investigated individuals’ spyware related threat perceptions, avoidance motivations, and behaviors; we applied the original study’s research questions, hypotheses, and model to the more general context of malware. Results from a sample of 486 computer users revealed that safeguard effectiveness, safeguard cost, and self-efficacy are relatively robust predictors of avoidance motivation across varied settings. Perceived severity is a strong predictor of perceived threat, however the impact of this overall threat perception (along with its perceived susceptibility antecedent) may be less stable in predicting avoidance motivation under changing contextual/environmental circumstances. The results suggest that TTAT is a valid foundational framework for examining user behavior related to malicious software. Future research should investigate additional predictors of avoidance motivation such as risk propensity, distrust, and impulse control to improve the power of the model. Additionally, the current TTAT instrument offers several opportunities for enhanced measurement accuracy through item modifications, scale anchor revisions, and improvements in parsimony

A Conceptual Replication of the Unified Model of Information Security Policy Compliance

Conceptual replications offer robust tests of theory by subjecting the relational notions of a scientific model to evaluation using alternate instruments, treatments, and subject pools. This study performs a conceptual replication of Moody, Siponen, and Pahnila’s 2018 empirical analysis that integrated elements of eleven theoretical models to produce the unified model of information security policy compliance (UMISPC). This replication employed a substantially more parsimonious instrument, using modestly revised treatment scenarios targeted toward a U.S. audience of 218 IT professionals as opposed to the Finnish graduate students used in the original study. Our results indicate that UMISPC is robust across variations in instruments and subject pools. The replicated model explained approximately two thirds of the variance in information systems security policy compliance intentions across both studies. In contrast, competing models such as the theory of planned behavior and extended protection motivation theory exhibited large changes in explanatory power when the instrument and subject pool were modified. This suggests that UMIPSC may be a superior theoretical model for consistently evaluating security policy compliance behavioral intentions among varied populations. Our results also indicate that the theoretical model is capable of detecting and integrating a wide range of behavioral antecedents that may have differing levels of influence among various populations

The Sociological Advantage

Abstract: To some, sociology is in a significant decline as a relevant social science. To others, the discipline provides a unique perspective of the interaction of social forces that define the role of race, class and gender. Through the development of useful theoretical propositions and pedagogical practices, the discipline can address its potential for social management and the application of sociological principles at the individual, group, organizational, and societal levels. By understanding intersectionality and the patterns or forms of social interaction, the informed sociologist can effectively practice, teach and apply the sociological advantage, possibly even five moves ahead

IT Career Counseling: Are Occupational Congruence and the Job Characteristics Model Effective at Predicting IT Job Satisfaction?

The IT industry struggles to attract qualified talent despite an exceptional outlook in terms of both job availability and compensation. Similarly, post-secondary academic institutions report difficultiesrecruitingstudents for IT majors. One potential reason for this is that current career counseling practices do not adequately convey relevant job characteristic data to prospective job applicants and academic majors. Accordingly, we report the results of a survey of72 IT professionals regarding their job interests and perceptions of important characteristics of their current job. We use the data to test the efficacy of Holland’s classic occupation congruence model, the basis of current career counseling practices.In addition, we assess an alternate congruence model based on professionals’job perceptions and the Job Characteristics Model of Work Motivation (JCM) to determine which is more effective at predicting desired job outcomes. Results show that a sub-set of JCM constructs including task variety, task identity, and task autonomy is superior to both congruence models in predicting positive job outcomes. This suggeststhat IT career counseling outcomes mightbe improved by emphasizingthe JCMcharacteristics

ESP: A Laboratory Exercise

Extrasensory perception (ESP), is defined as that knowledge acquired above and beyond that which is obtained by using the five senses

Parsimonious Education

In science, the Law of Parsimony or Occam\u27s Razor, is a statement of economy; it expresses the view that the simplest, adequate explanation of data is preferable to a more complex interpretation of equal adequacy. The Law of Parsimony may be applied to the area of education as well. It should be the ultimate goal of education to provide the simplest, adequate explanation in communicating to parents and students phenomenon occurring in the classroom

The Effects of 2-Deoxyglucose on the ATP Consumption in Cell Cultures

Cultures of Chinese Hamster Cells (CCL 16, Don Strain) were treated with 2-Deoxyglucose over varying lengths of time in order to compare the mitotic index with the rate of adenosine triphosphate synthesis. Treatment with the glucose analog reduces both the mitotic index and the ATP level by nearly 50 percent. The relationship to the Swann energy reservoir hypothesis is also discussed

A Description of an Experiment Involving the Use of a Modified Drum-Type Spherometer for Measuring the Rate of Weathering

For the teacher who is interested in teaching a unit on weathering, the cemetery may provide unlimited amounts of data. As an exercise in weathering, a measuring instrument was devised and tested by the author on tombstones in the Buffalo area. The instrument used and the results of the test are described as follows