Scientific advice and public policy: expert advisers’ and policymakers’ discourses on boundary work

This article reports on considerable variety and diversity among discourses on their own jobs of boundary workers of several major Dutch institutes for science-based policy advice. Except for enlightenment, all types of boundary arrangements/work in the Wittrock-typology (Social knowledge and public policy: eight models of interaction. In: Wagner P (ed) Social sciences and modern states: national experiences and theoretical crossroads. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991) do occur. ‘Divergers’ experience a gap between science and politics/policymaking; and it is their self-evident task to act as a bridge. They spread over four discourses: ‘rational facilitators’, ‘knowledge brokers’, ‘megapolicy strategists’, and ‘policy analysts’. Others aspire to ‘convergence’; they believe science and politics ought to be natural allies in preparing collective decisions. But ‘policy advisors’ excepted, ‘postnormalists’ and ‘deliberative proceduralists’ find this very hard to achieve

Technology-Assisted Supplemental Work: Construct Definition and A Research Framework

Extending the workday to the home into the night and weekends is nothing new; however, the wide array of technological tools that facilitate an anytime-anywhere connectedness of employees to their employers is a recent phenomenon. Technology-assisted supplemental work (TASW) is the practice of lengthening working time by remaining connected to work, coworkers, supervisors, and other organizational stakeholders from home via advanced digital information technology (i.e., personal and handheld computers, cellular phones, or pagers). Although previous research offers insight into some aspects of this work form (Venkatesh & Vitalari, 1992), we present a new, broader theoretical framework that explains how organizational climate and employee characteristics promote the performance of TASW, and how both perceived usefulness of technology and satisfaction with adopted technology affect the strength of these relationships. We also explain the linkages among TASW and job performance, career success, and work-tofamily conflict and incorporate media richness and time and boundary management as moderators of these relationships. We present propositions, offer a general research strategy, and discuss the framework’s theoretical and managerial implications. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

External career mentoring and mentor turnover intentions: Role of mentor work engagement, satisfaction with protégé, and meeting frequency

Purpose: Although studies have improved understanding of the relation between external career mentoring and mentor work outcomes, an important question remains regarding whether this mentoring function influences mentor turnover intentions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of career mentoring outside the workplace on mentor turnover intentions. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 101 working business professionals in the southeastern USA at two points in time who provided career mentoring to business student protégés in an eight-month university sponsored mentoring program. Findings: As hypothesized, moderated mediation analysis indicated that amount of external career mentoring negatively related to mentor turnover intentions and that the indirect effect of external career mentoring on mentor turnover intentions via mentor work engagement was stronger when both mentor protégé satisfaction and meeting frequency were high vs low. A two-way interaction revealed that mentors reporting higher protégé satisfaction had lower turnover intentions when meeting frequency was high vs low. Originality/value: The findings help clarify the external career mentoring and mentor turnover intentions relation and have valuable theoretical implications for research on the benefits external mentoring can provide mentors. They also have practical implications for using external mentoring to enhance mentor work engagement and reduce mentor turnover intentions

The impact of telecommuting design on social systems, self-regulation, and role boundaries

As more companies and employees become involved in telecommuting, researchers and managers will need to understand the effects of this relatively new working arrangement on the work perceptions and behaviors of the individual telecommuter. The extant empirical literature provides mixed results and is limited by a lack of theory; consequently, neither researchers nor managers can rely on this literature for clear direction on how telecommuting will likely affect individual telecommuters. There is a critical need for theoretical frameworks to guide research on how telecommuting may affect the telecommuter’s job perceptions, working relations, and work outcomes. We present a multi-dimensional framework of telecommuting design, and focus on how telecommuting design may affect the telecommuter’s work environment and outcomes through its effects on the social system of the telecommuter, autonomy and self-management opportunities and requirements, and role boundaries, particularly in terms of the work and non-work interface. Our goal is to provide a framework to assist managers and researchers in systematically addressing questions of how to design telecommuting arrangements to maximize their potential benefits while minimizing their potential drawbacks

Will the new competitive landscape cause your firm's decline? It depends on your mindset

A view of the new competitive landscape shows globalization, rapid technological change, and hypercompetition as conduits leading to either organizational decline or organizational growth. In this article we explain how managers can use four mindsets to convert potential threats posed by these environmental challenges into pathways of prosperity, instead of pathways of decline. A global mindset, or the ability to view the world using a broad perspective, converts globalization threats into growth opportunities by thinking beyond geographic boundaries, valuing integration across borders, and appreciating regional and cultural diversity. An innovation mindset, meaning a mental framework that fosters development and implementation of new ideas, transforms rapid technological change threats into opportunities by valuing constant generation of new ideas and business models, realizing sources of new ideas, and stressing next practices rather than best practices. A virtual mindset, or the ability of managers to hand over their firms' activities to external providers, turns hypercompetition into prospects for growth by facilitating flexibility and responsiveness. Finally, a collaboration mindset, meaning a willingness to engage in business partnerships, converts all three challenges into opportunities by allowing firms to form successful partnerships that can lead to synergy by combining business complementarities.

The Impact of Workplace Mentors on the Moral Disengagement of Business Student Protégés

Educators and practitioners often raise the question of whether business schools sufficiently prepare students to stay morally engaged when faced with ethical dilemmas in the workforce. Specifically, they criticize the theoretical nature of traditional in-class exercises for inhibiting students’ moral development. We investigate the impact working business mentors have on business student moral disengagement. We collected three waves of data from an 8-month formal mentoring program that matched business students with working mentors from the business community. We found that student protégé moral disengagement decreased during the mentoring program as a function of mentor ethical leadership skills, moral identity internalization, and moral awareness. Consequently, we recommend that mentoring programs pay close attention to these mentor characteristics to elevate business student moral reasoning and avoid unintended negative consequences. To guide mentoring programs in this endeavor, we provide specific recommendations for structuring a training program that focuses on improving mentor critical thinking, moral awareness, and ethical leadership

Further examination of the measurement properties of Leifer & McGannon\u27s (1986) goal acceptance and goal commitment scales

The factor structure and discriminant validity of the Leifer & McGannon (1986) Goal Acceptance and Goal Commitment Scales were examined with structural equation modelling and a sample of employees (N = 196) who participated in a 2-year goal-setting programme. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the Goal Acceptance and Goal Commitment Scales measured two factorially distinct constructs. Internal consistency reliabilities were .81 for the Goal Acceptance Scale and .88 for the Goal Commitment Scale. Structural equation analysis indicated that both scales related positively to performance but differentially related to participation, satisfaction with supervision and goal difficulty