How Do Happy Leaders Enhance Team Success? The Mediating Roles of Transformational Leadership,Group Affective Tone,and Team Processes1

Extending previous research regarding the relationship between leader positive moods and team performance, the present study examined 2 mediating mechanisms that explain the leader positive moods–team performance linkage: transformational leadership, and positive group affective tone. Data were collected from 85 sales teams (85 team leaders, 365 team members). Structural equation modeling analyses were performed to test the hypotheses. The results showed that leader positive moods not only directly enhanced team performance, but also indirectly led to improved team performance through the explicit mediating process (i.e., transformational leadership) and the implicit mediating process (i.e., positive group affective tone). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Child’s Play: The Role of Play in Mitigating the Fear of Death Among Pediatric Palliative Care Team Patients,Families, and Caregivers

Terror Management Theory (TMT), derived from Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death (1974), maintains that humans are motivated by the desire to overcome our fear of death by constructing meaning and significance in our lives in various ways, including making light of our mortality. In this paper, we examine the role of play as seriously ill children involved with a hospital-based palliative care team live out what may be the remainder of their lives. We question the function that play has, if any, in mitigating the fear of death among dying children and their caregivers. We explore formal and informal manners of therapeutic play among children and adults occurring in moments of terrible stress, pain, and the looming threat of death. We draw on playful representations of death from popular culture and from extended field research conducted with a pediatric palliative care team in a large regional children’s hospital caring for seriously ill children and their families, as patients, families, and caretakers struggle to make sense of their suffering, fear and loss.     

The Moderating Roles of Perceived Task Interdependence and Team Size in Transformational Leadership’s Relation to Team Identification: A Dimensional Analysis

This study is aimed at investigating perceived task interdependence and team size as contingencies for team leaders’ transformational leadership influence on team identification. Data were obtained from a two-phase survey among 234 employees from ten multinational pharmaceutical subsidiaries in South Korea. Each dimension of transformational leadership by team leaders relates positively to team identification. However, the impact of leadership dimensions on team identification is attenuated by distinct moderator(s): charisma by higher perceived task interdependence, individualized consideration by larger team size, and intellectual stimulation by higher perceived task interdependence or larger team size. This study’s findings help us develop a more nuanced understanding of how transformational leadership operates. This study illustrates that team leaders’ transformational influence on team identification fluctuates, depending on the team structure. Such knowledge may help inform team leader development and team-structuring strategies used by practitioners and may contribute to improving organizational team effectiveness. This is one of the first studies showing evidence that the influence of the dimensions of transformational leadership is contingent upon distinct moderators, thereby contributing to advancing the theory of transformational leadership. Further, this study, by investigating team structure as a contingency of the transformational leadership-team identification relationship, complements previous research that focused on follower characteristics. Additionally, our explicit attention to the team as both the context of leaders’ action and the target of employee identification helps us gain a more concrete understanding of team leadership and team development issues, which are particularly salient in the highly competitive pharmaceutical industry.     

What Do You Think About What the Team Said? The Solution-Focused Reflecting Team as a Virtual Therapeutic Community

The authors describe the use of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy with the use of a reflecting team and discuss the benefits they have found for the clients, the reflecting team, and the therapist.     

The Morality of the “Immoral”: The Case of Homeless,Drug-Using Street Prostitutes

The wide-ranging literature on deviance and stigma rarely allows for disjuncture between action (behavior) and disposition (values): individuals act deviantly because they are deviant, or they re-present deviant actions as consistent with dominant morality through processes of stigma management. Drawing on research carried out with female homeless street sex workers in England, this article suggests there can be such disjuncture. The women participating in the research displayed mainstream values while also acknowledging the deviant nature of their behavior but rarely employed stigma management techniques. The article suggests that when prostitution is viewed as a functional act rather than one invested with value, the need to revalue is diminished.     

Team members’ emotional displays as indicators of team functioning

Emotions are inherent to team life, yet it is unclear how observers use team members’ emotional expressions to make sense of team processes. Drawing on Emotions as Social Information theory, we propose that observers use team members’ emotional displays as a source of information to predict the team's trajectory. We argue and show that displays of sadness elicit more pessimistic inferences regarding team dynamics (e.g., trust, satisfaction, team effectiveness, conflict) compared to displays of happiness. Moreover, we find that this effect is strengthened when the future interaction between the team members is more ambiguous (i.e., under ethnic dissimilarity; Study 1) and when emotional displays can be clearly linked to the team members’ collective experience (Study 2). These studies shed light on when and how people use others’ emotional expressions to form impressions of teams.     

The advantages,shortcomings, and existential issues of Zhuangzi’s use of images

Zhuangzi is considered a creative poet-philosopher because of his use of imaginative images. He used the imaginative images of his system to construct the world of the Dao. He left the essence of material things as they are to speak for the mystery of existence itself, and let them express both the state of and the dream for human freedom. Zhuangzi’s way of using images shows his own lack of the understanding about images, and his lack of adequate assessments. He used images in accord with his own personal preferences and fixed characteristics. He also had a tendency to equate the Dao which he experienced in his mind with the Dao itself. These shortcomings limit his improving and understanding of the Dao, so that his Dao failed to become more open to a wider existence.     

Examining the “Pros” and “Cons” of Team Conflict: A Team-Level Meta-Analysis of Task,Relationship, and Process Conflict

Jehn (e.g., 1997) offered three distinct types of team conflict, namely, task conflict, relationship conflict, and process conflict. Despite existing meta-analyses, there remain important and ongoing issues that warrant further meta-analytic investigation. Our contribution is threefold. First, we report novel meta-analytic findings involving moderators of the conflict–team performance relationship. Second, we report on meta-analytic correlations involving all three conflict types and team innovation. Third, we report on the relations involving task conflict and relationship conflict with previously unexamined, but critical, teamwork variables: team potency, cooperative behaviors, competitive behaviors, and avoidance behaviors. Input for the current meta-analysis included 89 independent samples, 6,122 teams, and approximately 28,000 team members.     

Ebola,Team Communication,and Shame: But Shame on Whom?

Examined as an isolated situation, and through the lens of a rare and feared disease, Mr. Duncan's case seems ripe for second-guessing the physicians and nurses who cared for him. But viewed from the perspective of what we know about errors and team communication, his case is all too common. Nearly 440,000 patient deaths in the U.S. each year may be attributable to medical errors. Breakdowns in communication among health care teams contribute in the majority of these errors. The culture of health care does not seem to foster functional, effective communication between and among professionals. Why? And more importantly, why do we not do something about it?     

The Immigration Experience of Iranian Baha’is in Saskatchewan: The Reconstruction of Their Existence, Faith, and Religious Experience

For approximately 150 years, Baha’is in Iran have been persecuted on the basis of their religion. Limitations to aspects of their lives have compelled them to face “civic death” or migrate to other countries. This qualitative pilot study explored the experience of forced migration and how religion attenuates the disruption to the lives of Iranian Baha’is. Adaptive strategies that four participants utilised to re-establish continuity were examined. Participants who were satisfied with their lives developed a way to allow parallel cultural traditions (Iranian and Canadian) to co-exist; those who could not integrate found it difficult to maintain a balance between these traditions.     

Illuminating and Applying “The Dark Side”: Insights From Elite Team Leaders

In contrast to socially desirable behaviors, recent work has implied that effective elite team leadership also relies on socially undesirable behaviors. Accordingly, this study aimed to further explore the authenticity of dark side leadership behaviors, what they look like, and how they may be best used. Via interviews with 15 leaders, behaviors associated with Machiavellianism/mischievousness, skepticism, social dominance, and performance-focused ruthlessness were found. Moreover, these behaviors were enabled by leaders’ sociopolitical awareness and engineering as well as their adaptive expertise. Findings promote practitioner sensitivity to dark side leadership and, for leader effectiveness, sociopolitical and temporal features of its application.     

Analyzing Team Performance: In the Eye of the Beholder?

The effect of team-member experience was examined in relation to perceptions of importance of teamwork behaviors during an analysis of team performance. Impor- tance ratings were collected from military aircrews (i.e., two-member teams) from three distinct types of aircraft. Results indicated that when assessing team behavior importance, less experienced team members weighted difficulty of performing team behaviors more heavily, whereas more experienced team members weighted time spent performing team behaviors more heavily. Implications for analyzing team performance, with respect to the process of conducting such analyses and the type of information collected, are discussed.     

The role of passion,need satisfaction,and conflict in athletes’ perceptions of burnout

This research examined the role of harmonious and obsessive passion in athletes’ perceptions of burnout. Two studies using correlational designs were carried out with different samples of athletes of varied skill levels. In Study 1, we found that obsessive passion was positively, and harmonious passion negatively, associated with burnout perceptions in athletes. Results of Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 and in addition used Structural Equation Modeling analyses to support the mediating role of conflict and need satisfaction in the relation between types of passion for sport and athletes’ perceptions of burnout. Furthermore, it was found that harmonious passion for a second activity was associated with lower athletes’ perceptions of burnout; while obsessive passion for a second activity was directly associated with it. The results have important implications for theory and research on passion as well as burnout in sport.     

The value of an oath of professional conduct: process, content, or both?

...I would suggest that the major objectives of studying the Hippocratic Oath or other pertinent oaths and codes are fourfold. First, studying oaths and codes pertaining to medical conduct and standards enables students to learn about historical changes and cultural influences. Second, choosing an oath or developing one for recitation at graduation enables students to engage in conceptual and moral reasoning. Third, the deliberations and discussions involving students enable them to practice interactional, communication skills about highly charged issues. Fourth, the identified limitations of the Hippocratic Oath or other pertinent oaths and codes enable students to appreciate the value of the broader principles that support medical ethics...The remainder of this commentary is divided into two parts. In the first part, recommendations for an educational program are presented. In the second part, recommendations for future research in this area are offered.     

Tourist Assessment of Archaeological Sites: The Case of The Archaeological Complex of Itálica (Seville,Spain)

ABSTRACT

Few studies have examined visitors’ assessments of their stay at archaeological complexes. This study analyzed this issue, focusing on Itálica (Seville, Spain). The results show that three factors are important in assessing a visit: quality of service, perceived sacrifice and satisfaction. With regard to these three factors, significant differences were found depending on whether the visitor had previously been to Itálica and where he or she came from. From these results, the authors have identified possible ways of improving the services provided, and, consequently, visitor satisfaction.     

The Frame,Within and Without: Discussion of “The Therapeutics of the Fee in Psychoanalysis”

The author picks up and expands on themes of fusion and separation brought up in Pauley’s discussion of the therapeutic uses of the fee in the psychoanalytic encounter. She asserts that the elemental nature of the exchange of goods speaks to us in the language of corporeal experience, making it a powerful disruptive force that can reshuffle defenses at the level of our most primary experiencing selves. This affords the fee the potential to reach us in the registers of sensation and enactment that bypass conscious, verbal communication making our authentic and ongoing attempts to grapple with it vital to the analytic project.     

The ��Problem of Number�� Revisited: The Relative Contributions of Psychosocial, Experiential, and Evolutionary Factors to the Desired Number of Sexual Partners

Three studies (N?=?329) using U.S. community samples examined the relative contributions of self-reported ??sex,?? gender identity, and actual number of sexual partners to the question how many sexual partners individuals desire over the lifetime. In Study 1, the more ??feminine?? a participant identified, not self-reported sex, was significantly related to the desired number of sexual partners. Study 2a showed that a person??s actual number of sexual partners also correlated with the desired number. In Study 3, Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) (Bem Psychological Review, 88: 354?C364 1981) femininity scores and actual number of sexual partners significantly predicted desired number of sexual partners separately for men and women. These results suggest that non-evolutionary variables drive the ??problem of number?? in mate preference.     

The Embarrassing Adam’s Apple, Compromised Masculinity, and Hope: The Case of Norman Rockwell

Taking its cue from Norman Rockwell’s embarrassment regarding his protruding Adam’s apple, this article focuses on the role that this embarrassment played in his development of a sense of “compromised masculinity” (Halpern 2006). This focus is informed by a discussion of the Adam’s apple from a historical and medical point of view, and by a consideration of Rockwell’s work as an artist. The article concludes with an exploration of his painting Freedom of Speech and its role in his turning of a perceived physical liability into a psychological strength and of its implications for a view of Rockwell as an agent of hope.     

The discovery of the principles of reinforcement,extinction, generalization,and differentiation of conditional reflexes in Pavlov’s laboratories

The discovery of reinforcement, extinction, generalization, and differentiation with the conditional reflex method in Pavlov’s laboratories is described. Modern American introductory texts show that contemporary understanding of the experimental work on conditioning in Pavlov’s laboratories is derived from a 1927 English translation of Pavlov’s lectures on the conditional reflexes. The lectures present the discoveries topically, not chronologically. In contrast, this article presents a chronological account of the contributions of S. G. Vul’fson, I. F. Tolochinov, and B. P. Babkin, which led to the conceptualization of reinforcement and extinction, and the work of V. N. Boldyrev and N. A. Kashereninova, which led to the formulation of the concepts of generalization and differentiation. This historical approach avoids giving the impression that the development of the Pavlovian paradigm was a highly systematic pursuit.