“More than Meets the Eye”: A Guide to Interpreting the Descriptive Statistics and Correlation Matrices Reported in Management Research

The author of this essay wonders whether in teaching our students the latest analytic techniques we have neglected to emphasize the importance of understanding the most basic aspects of a study’s primary data. In response, he provides a 12-part answer to a fundamental question: “What information can be derived from reviewing the descriptive statistics and correlation matrix that appear in virtually every empirically based, nonexperimental paper published in the management discipline?” The seeming ubiquity of strained responses, to what many at first consider to be a vexed question about a mundane topic, leads the author to suggest that students at all levels, seasoned scholars, manuscript referees, and general consumers of management research may be unaware that the standard Table 1 in a traditional Results section reveals “more than meets the eye!”

“More than Meets the Eye”: A Guide to Interpreting the Descriptive Statistics and Correlation Matrices Reported in Management Research

The author of this essay wonders whether in teaching our students the latest analytic techniques we have neglected to emphasize the importance of understanding the most basic aspects of a study’s primary data. In response, he provides a 12-part answer to a fundamental question: “What information can be derived from reviewing the descriptive statistics and correlation matrix that appear in virtually every empirically based, nonexperimental paper published in the management discipline?” The seeming ubiquity of strained responses, to what many at first consider to be a vexed question about a mundane topic, leads the author to suggest that students at all levels, seasoned scholars, manuscript referees, and general consumers of management research may be unaware that the standard Table 1 in a traditional Results section reveals “more than meets the eye!”

C. Bertrand Thompson and Management Consulting in Europe

This paper aims to highlight myriad accomplishments of C. Bertrand Thompson, who is perhaps most well known as a scientific-management bibliographer and a Taylor disciple, in the belief that his contributions as a pioneer management theorist and consultant in Europe deserve to be more widely known and more deeply appreciated

Effects of spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) density, biomass, and removal on the growth of blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) and strawberry (Fragaria virginiana).

General EcologyCentaurea maculosa, commonly known as spotted knapweed, is an allelopathic invasive plant species rapidly increasing across rangelands and meadows throughout North America. Such invasions have notable impacts on soil chemistry and biodiversity loss, though the differential responses of native plant species to increasing C. maculosa densities or to the removal of C. maculosa following population establishment remain unknown. This study sought to determine (1) relationships between the density of C. maculosa and those of two native plant species: Vaccinium angustifolium (low-bush blueberry) and Fragaria virginiana (strawberry); and (2) whether the removal of C. maculosa differentially affects the growth of V. angustifolium and F. virginiana by comparing density and percent cover of the species of interest along with other commonly found species in the plots. In order to measure the difference in the growth of V. angustifolium and F. virginiana in the absence of C. maculosa, manual removal of C. maculosa was performed on a series of paired plots. Density and percent cover of C. maculosa had no influence on the density and percent cover of V. angustifolium or F. virginiana. The results suggest that C. maculosa density does not affect V. angustifolium or F. virginiana density within the study site. The removal of C. maculosa did not affect the growth of either V. angustifolium or F. virginiana, indicating that C. maculosa does not have short-term effects on either native species, and that manual removal of C. maculosa may not be an effective removal method.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/101127/1/Bedeian_Bosard_Janecke_Sakshaug_2013.pd

Of journal editors and editorial boards: who are the trailblazers in increasing editorial board gender equality?

Female academics continue to be under-represented on the editorial boards of many, but not all, management journals. This variability is intriguing, because it is reasonable to assume that the size of the pool of female faculty available and willing to serve on editorial boards is similar for all management journals. Thus, we focus on the characteristics of the journal editors to explain this variability; journal editors or editors-in-chief are the most influential people in the selection of editorial board members. We draw on social identity and homosocial reproduction theories, and on the gender and careers literature to examine the relationship between an editor’s academic performance, professional age and gender, and editorial board gender equality. We collected longitudinal data at five points in time, using five-year intervals, from 52 management journals. To account for the nested structure of the data, a 3-level multilevel model was estimated. Overall, we found that the prospects of board membership improve for women when editors are high performing, professionally young, or female. We discuss these findings and their implications for management journals with low, stagnant, or declining representation of women in their boards

The Current State of Performance Appraisal Research and Practice: Concerns, Directions, and Implications

On the surface, it is not readily apparent how some performance appraisal research issues inform performance appraisal practice. Because performance appraisal is an applied topic, it is useful to periodically consider the current state of performance research and its relation to performance appraisal practice. This review examines the performance appraisal literature published in both academic and practitioner outlets between 1985 and 1990, briefly discusses the current state of performance appraisal practice, highlights the juxtaposition of research and practice, and suggests directions for further research

Satisfaction with Life Scale among adolescents and young adults in Portugal: extending evidence of construct validity

The paper presents three empirical studies designed to extend the test of the construct validity of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) among Portuguese students. In the first study, the responses of 461 elementary and secondary education students were submitted to a principal component analysis. A solution of one single factor was chosen, accounting for 55.7 % of the total variance, with Cronbach alpha coefficient and inter-item correlation above .70 and .20, respectively. The second study used a sample of 317 undergraduate students and registered a similar factor solution for SWLS (/pq = 0.99), which accounted for 65.6 % of the total variance (Cronbach alpha .89 and inter-item correlation above .20). A test–retest analysis registered coefficients of .70 (T2) and .77 (T3) and no significant statistically differences between T2, T3 and T1. The third study used a sample of 107 foster care youths from elementary and secondary education. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicate adequate fit indexes for the one-factor solution (v2/df = 2.70, GFI = .96, CFI = .96), which showed convergent validity, reliability and homogeneity. In conclusion, there is psychometric evidence for the one-factor structure of the SWLS in Portugal.FCTCOMPET

Complex relationships among personality traits, job characteristics, and work behaviors

The aim of the study was to investigate the additive, mediating, and moderating effects of personality traits and job characteristics on work behaviors. Job applicants (N = 161) completed personality questionnaires measuring extraversion, neuroticism, achievement motivation, and experience seeking. One and a half years later, supervisors rated the applicants' job performance, and the job incumbents completed questionnaires about skill variety, autonomy, and feedback, work stress, job satisfaction, work self-efficacy, and propensity to leave. LISREL was used to test 15 hypotheses. Perceived feedback mediated the relationship between achievement motivation and job performance. Extraversion predicted work self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Work stress mediated the relationship between neuroticism and job satisfaction. Job satisfaction and experience seeking were related to propensity to leave. Autonomy, skill variety, and feedback were related to job satisfaction

Factors associated with home hazards: findings from the Malaysian Elders Longitudinal Research study

Aim: Previous studies have investigated home hazards as a risk factor for falls without considering factors associated with the presence of home hazards. The present study aimed to determine patterns of home hazards among urban community-dwelling older Malaysians, and to identify factors contributing to home hazards. Methods: Cross-sectional data from the initial wave of the Malaysian Elders Longitudinal Research study were used. Basic demographics were obtained from the Global Questionnaire. Basic and instrumental activities of daily living were measured using the Katz and Lawton-Brody scales, and home hazards were identified using the Home Falls and Accidents Screening Tool. Participants were also asked if they had fallen in the previous 12 months. Results: Data were analyzed from 1489 participants. Hazards were frequently identified (>30%) in the toilet and bathroom areas (no grab rail, no non-slip mat, distant toilet), slippery floors, no bedside light access and inappropriate footwear. Lower educational attainment, traditional housing, Chinese ethnicity, greater number of home occupants, lower monthly expenditure, poor vision and younger age were the factors independently associated with home hazards. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that home hazards are a product of the interaction of the individual's function within their home environment. Hazards are also influenced by local sociocultural and environmental factors. The relationship between home hazards and falls appears complex and deserves further evaluation