A qualitative study of the relationship between the Scottish medicines consortium and their clinical experts

Internationally, health technology assessments (HTAs) are ubiquitous drivers to health policy. Within Scotland, the Scottish Medicines Consortium undertakes the medicine review process. Input from clinical experts, involved in frontline care, is an integral component of the assessment process. This paper explores the relationship between the clinical experts and the HTA agency within Scotland to better understand what motivates expert clinicians to devote their time to the medicine review process with no remuneration. Twenty-seven clinical experts from 16 different clinical specialties took part in one-to-one interviews at their place of work between October 2011 and March 2012. Data analysis was inductive and comprised the organization of data into a framework and a subsequent thematic analysis. Three distinct themes were identified: (1) recruitment, which identified two types of explanations for the experts' appointment: external justification (nominated by another) and internal justification (being recognized as an expert); (2) flexibility of the procedures, with experts able to determine their own response style and negotiate timelines; (3) health care systems, demonstrating that their affiliation to the health system underpinned the relationship and their motivation to be clinical experts. The findings of this study provide insight into the elements important to clinicians who voluntarily contribute to HTA processes. Examination of these elements in the context of the organizational citizenship behavior literature provides a foundation on which to improve understanding of this relationship and sustain and improve clinical expert participation in an increasingly intensified clinical environment and within cash-limited HTA systems

Can a leader be seen as too ethical? The curvilinear effects of ethical leadership

Ethical leadership predicts important organizational outcomes such as decreased deviant and increased organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). We argued that due to the distinct nature of these two types of employee behaviors, ethical leadership decreases deviance in a linear manner (i.e., more ethical leadership leading to less deviance), but we expected ethical leadership to reveal a curvilinear relationship with respect to OCB. Specifically, we expected that, at lower levels, ethical leadership promotes OCB. However, at high levels, ethical leadership should lead to a decrease in these behaviors. We also examined a mechanism that explains this curvilinear pattern, that is, followers’ perceptions of moral reproach. Our predictions were supported in three organizational field studies and an experiment. These findings offer a better understanding of the processes that underlie the workings of ethical leadership. They also imply a dilemma for organizations in which they face the choice between limiting deviant employee behavior and promoting OCB

Longitudinal Intergroup Contact Effects on Prejudice Using Self- and Observer-Reports

Longitudinal effects of intergroup contact on prejudice were investigated in a sample of 65 young adults (Sample 1) and a sample of their close friends (Sample 2, N = 172), adopting a full cross-lagged panel design. We first validated the self-report measure of intergroup contact from sample 1 with observer ratings from sample 2 by demonstrating that self-reports and observer ratings of contact were highly correlated. Moreover, we obtained significant cross-lagged effects of intergroup contact on prejudice with both contact measures, thereby providing a second validation for the use of self-reports of intergroup contact. Finally, by the use of latent change modeling we demonstrated that, although no overall significant change in contact and prejudice over time was found, there was meaningful variation in absolute change in the individual levels of intergroup contact and prejudice. In particular, some individuals showed increases while others showed decreases in contact or prejudice across time. Moreover, higher levels of intergroup contact at Time 1 were followed by larger subsequent decreases in prejudice between Time 1 and Time 2, and changes in contact were significantly and negatively related to changes in prejudice. Methodological implications of the findings are discussed

Interracial Public-Police Contact: Relationships with Police Officers’ Racial and Work-Related Attitudes and Behavior

In a sample of Flemish police officers (N = 172), we examined whether interracial public-police contact is associated with police officers’ racial and workrelated attitudes and self-reported behavior. Complementing previous studies, it was revealed that interracial contact (both positive and negative) is related to prejudiced behavior toward immigrants via the mediating role of racial attitudes. Moreover, intergroup contact was also shown to be related to police officers’ organizational citizenship behavior toward colleagues and superiors via their perceptions of organizational fairness. In the discussion section we elaborate on the severe impact of negative contact as well as the applied consequences of our findings within police organizations

Communities of practice in academia

Up to now, the relationships among the fundamental notions of communities of practice (CoPs), i.e. knowledge, participation, identity, and artefact development have been based mainly on results from qualitative studies; they are not yet sufficiently based on quantitative evidence. Starting from a literature review, we formulate a quantitative, causal model of CoPs that describes these variables in the context of academic communities, and aim to validate this model in two academic CoPs with a total of N = 208 participants. A cluster analysis classifies the participants into clusters that are in line with the core-periphery structure known from previous qualitative studies. A regression analysis provides evidence for the hypothesized model on the basis of quantitative data. Suggested directions for future research are to focus on factors that determine CoP participants’ contributions to artefact development and on approaches to automated monitoring of virtual CoPs

An examination of the construct validity of the Generalized Pliance Questionnaire

The Generalized Pliance Questionnaire (GPQ) was originally validated against measures of psychological flexibility and psychological distress. However, measures which have substantial conceptual overlap with the GPQ (e.g., the Need to Belong Scale [NTBS], Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale [BFNE]) were not examined. The present study seeks to investigate the construct validity of the GPQ-9. As expected, data from a survey of 272 participants indicated significant large correlations between the GPQ-9 and NTBS and BFNE respectively. The results of a confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the unidimensional structure of the GPQ-9. A structural equation model revealed that the BFNE (and not the GPQ-9 or NTBS) was significantly associated with psychological flexibility and psychological distress. Implications of these tentative preliminary findings suggest that the GPQ may be a more sensitive measure than the BFNE for ACT research

Publishing in top journals - a never-ending fad?

Starbuck is critical of faddishness, and with good reason. Fads may come, and fads may go, but go they must-or must they? We took at the relentless pressure to publish in the top journals of Management Studies. There is no sign of decline, and yet such desperation to do something of value not because it is useful but because demand for it is great certainly satisfies the definition of fad. Is a fad that runs and runs still a fad? (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Employee Attributions of the Why of HR Practices: Their Effects on Employee Attitudes and Behaviors, and Customer Satisfaction

The construct of Human Resource (HR) Attributions is introduced. We argue that the attributions that employees make about the reasons why management adopts the HR practices that it does have consequences for their attitudes and behaviors, and ultimately, unit performance. Drawing on the strategic HR literature, we propose a typology of five HR-Attribution dimensions. Utilizing data collected from a service firm, we show that employees make varying attributions for the same HR practices, and that these attributions are differentially associated with commitment and satisfaction. In turn, we show that these attitudes become shared within units and that they are related to unit-level organizational citizenship behaviors and customer satisfaction. Findings and implications are discussed