Social networking, social harassment and social policy

This paper reports on the misuse of social networking sites (SNS). It was based on a study of 226 students in UK, Sweden, Turkey and France and a panel survey of 1068 Australian adults. Although only a minority of people experienced social harassment and abuse, the distressing nature of the bad experiences suggested that social marketing was needed on several fronts -self-regulation, regulation, education and personal responsibility - in order to minimise these behaviours.<br /

The effects of perceived organisational support on expatriate adjustment, assignment completion and job satisfaction

This study examines the influence of perceived organisational support (POS) on expatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment, assignment completion and job satisfaction in the sub-Saharan African context. While multinationals depend on expatriates to manage their foreign subsidiaries, successful expatriation is influenced by expatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment to their host country’s environment. Survey responses from 229 expatriates were analysed using partial least squares path modelling. The results reveal that support from their organisations relates positively to expatriate adjustment, assignment completion and job satisfaction. The empirical results also demonstrate that expatriate adjustment partially mediates the relationship between POS and assignment completion and job satisfaction. Furthermore, findings suggest that assignment completion positively influences job satisfaction and partially mediates the association between POS and job satisfaction. The findings of this research have important theoretical and practical implications for multinational companies operating in sub-Saharan Africa. © The Author(s) 2021

Tough-mindedness and the enjoyment of negative emotions in music: a psychophysiological investigation

Deposited with permission of the author. © 2011 Timothy Colin BednallA fundamental question in musical literature is: how it is possible to enjoy music that expresses negative emotions? Three explanations for this problem have been postulated: 1) listeners experience an inherently pleasant ‘musical’ emotion that is unrelated to music’s emotional content (the aestheticist position), 2) listeners perceive emotions in music but do not experience them (the cognitivist position), 3) listeners experience emotions that match the emotional content of music (the emotivist position). To address this issue, this study examined the relationship between participants’ reported emotional reactions to presentations of emotional music and sounds, and their physiological responses (including facial EMG, startle reflex, heart rate and GSR). Physiological responses were found to vary with the emotional pleasantness and intensity of sounds, but not music, thereby supporting the cognitivist account. In addition, the relationship between Eysenck’s Tough-mindedness or Psychoticism (P) dimension, and reported enjoyment was examined. Compared with tender-minded individuals, high P participants reported significantly greater liking for highly arousing, emotionally unpleasant music, and a marked disliking for emotionally unstimulating music. It is concluded that this result is reflective of the sensation-seeking component of P

Create a People Analytics Dashboard for Managers

This project asks students to develop a prototype HR dashboard. It helps students to develop critical thinking capabilities in designing appropriate data visualisations and digital literacy skills in using Adobe XD. The resources include 2 sets of student instructions, lesson plans and marking rubrics for the implementation of this project for either an individual or group-based task

Modeling Directional and Non-Directional Discrepancy between Dependent Variables

This paper proposes a new approach for modeling the antecedents of congruence in two dependent variables. In this approach, the difference between the dependent variables is decomposed into directional discrepancy and non-directional discrepancy, which are analogous to the concepts of accuracy and precision in measurement. The paper reviews previous approaches to congruence, including the models of Edwards (1995), McArdle (2009) and Cheung (2009). It then outlines how directional and non-directional discrepancy may be analyzed within a latent variable framework, and explains how this approach may be applied to these models. We explain how this approach resolves many of the shortcomings of past methods, and provides a more informative analysis of the nature of difference. We provide an illustrative example of our approach, and show how discrepancy in self and supervisor ratings of leadership effectiveness is influenced by each leader’s level of transformational leadership. Finally, the strengths and limitations of our approach are discussed, and we propose several directions for elaborating the basic latent directional / non-directional discrepancy (LDND) approach

Modeling directional and non-directional discrepancy between dependent variables

This paper proposes a new approach for modeling the antecedents of congruence in two dependent variables. In this approach, the difference between the dependent variables is decomposed into directional discrepancy and non-directional discrepancy, which are analogous to the concepts of accuracy and precision in measurement. The paper reviews previous approaches to congruence, including the models of Edwards (1995), McArdle (2009) and Cheung (2009). It then outlines how directional and non-directional discrepancy may be analyzed within a latent variable framework, and explains how this approach may be applied to these models. We explain how this approach resolves many of the shortcomings of past methods, and provides a more informative analysis of the nature of difference. We provide an illustrative example of our approach, and show how discrepancy in self and supervisor ratings of leadership effectiveness is influenced by each leader’s level of transformational leadership. Finally, the strengths and limitations of our approach are discussed, and we propose several directions for elaborating the basic latent directional / non-directional discrepancy (LDND) approach

Effects of self-regulatory instructional aids on self-directed study

This study examined the effectiveness of providing instructional support for the self-regulation of a self-directed homework assignment. Across four parallel experiments, university students completed an online module on critical thinking. In Experiment 1, participants who were prompted on a broad spectrum of study strategies showed superior performance on a subsequent test of application relative to a control group. In Experiment 2, participants were prompted to use two specific strategies: generation of explanations and summarization. The former improved performance, whereas the latter did not. In Experiment 3, instructional aids designed to facilitate planning improved some aspects of performance relative to the control group. In Experiment 4, attempts to encourage self-feedback impaired performance. In conclusion, beyond encouraging a broad spectrum of study strategies, the generation of explanations and planning particularly improve learning without overburdening working memory

Donating blood: a meta-analytic review of self-reported motivators and deterrents

Although research on blood donor motivation abounds, most studies have typically focused on small sets of variables, used different terminology to label equivalent constructs, and have not attempted to generalize findings beyond their individual settings. The current study sought to synthesize past findings into a unified taxonomy of blood donation drivers and deterrents and to estimate the prevalence of each factor across the worldwide population of donors and eligible nondonors. Primary studies were collected, and cross-validated categories of donation motivators and deterrents were developed. Proportions of first-time, repeat, lapsed, apheresis, and eligible nondonors endorsing each category were calculated. In terms of motivators, first-time and repeat donors most frequently cited convenience, prosocial motivation, and personal values; apheresis donors similarly cited the latter 2 motivators and money. Conversely, lapsed donors more often cited collection agency reputation, perceived need for donation, and marketing communication as motivators. In terms of deterrents, both donors and nondonors most frequently referred to low self-efficacy to donate, low involvement, inconvenience, absence of marketing communication, ineffective incentives, lack of knowledge about donating, negative service experiences, and fear. The integration of past findings has yielded a comprehensive taxonomy of factors influencing blood donation and has provided insight into the prevalence of each factor across multiple stages of donors' careers. Implications for collection agencies are discussed

A meta-analysis on employee perceptions of human resource strength: Examining the mediating versus moderating hypotheses

Human resource (HR) strength research has substantially informed an understanding of the relationship between HR practices and employee-level outcomes. However, a key unresolved issue is whether employee perceptions of HR strength act as a mediator or a moderator in the relationship between HR practices and these outcomes. A meta-analysis of 42 studies (comprising 65 samples and 29,444 unique participants) was conducted to address this issue. Results support the mediating hypothesis for all five employee outcomes: employee reactions, proactive behavior, burnout, performance, and perceived organizational effectiveness. Conversely, the moderating hypothesis was only supported for employee performance. In addition, we examined five study characteristics (the operationalization of perceived HR strength, research study design, industry, sampling strategy, and publication status) as moderators. Using this analysis, we test the robustness of our main results and identify sources of heterogeneity in the results across studies. The results show that the mediating hypothesis still holds under different study designs and contexts. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed