Kingdom Education

Whether known as Christian or Kingdom education, its very nature is opened for examination in this article. From the assumption that Christ is to be at the center of Christian education, it assumedly would be patterned after his life and activities on earth. A review of the Scriptures about Jesus points to an education orientation that is not well represented in extant Christian/Kingdom education. Closer alignment with Christ is recommended.     

Family business: A fertile ground for research on time,teams and positive organizational study

Further reflecting on the study of organizational behaviour (OB) in family business (FB), this rejoinder piece discusses and integrates the points raised in the three thoughtful commentaries and our original article. We start by highlighting the general agreement between us and the commentators on three points: (1) that family firms are theoretically distinct from non-family firms due to significant involvement of kinship ties in the enterprise; (2) there is paucity of research at the interface of OB and FB and (3) there is an abundance of interesting research questions at this interface with the potential to benefit both domains of study. Next, we discuss and elaborate on the research possibilities on time, teams and positive organizational study, suggested by the commentators. An illustrative list of interesting research questions at the OB–FB interface that extend and enrich our agenda for future research is shared. We conclude that not only is FB a promising context for behavioural scholars to investigate, the timing is perfect for such investigations.     

Effects of Age and Control Beliefs on Resource Allocation During Reading Abstract

Past work suggests that a strong sense of control over one's cognitive ability is associated with higher levels of cognitive performance and that control beliefs may be even more important in later life, due to age-related declines in cognitive processes. However, less is known about the effects of control beliefs on encoding strategies, and whether these effects are comparable for younger and older adults. Participants were divided into high- (HC) and low- control (LC) beliefs groups based on their scores on the Personality in Intellectual-Aging Contexts Inventory. Participants then read relatively easy and difficult passages word-by-word on a computer for subsequent recall. The data suggest that among older, but not younger adults, control beliefs are particularly important when reading difficult passages. Findings as they relate to models of self-regulation and to implications for everyday functioning are discussed.     

Cardiovascular and testosterone responses to contested dominance in women

Examined cardiovascular and testosterone responses of dominant and submissive women to an acute stressor involving contested dominance. Twenty (10 dominant, 10 submissive) university students rated their dominance to a predefined reference group, participated in a task that involved debating with a trained technician, and were continuously provided with bogus feedback throughout the task concerning biochemical substances in their blood that purportedly covaried with dominance. Covariance analyses revealed that dominant women were much more reactive to the stressor in several cardiovascular parameters than those classified as submissive. Serum testosterone did not vary as a function of the experimental manipulation, and at each measurement point, dominant and submissive subjects had essentially identical serum levels of this hormone. Interestingly, however, baseline testosterone for the dominant group was related to changes in systolic blood pressure (i.e., gain scores computed as task response minus baseline values).     

The role of additional information in the compliance,satisfaction, psychological,and emotion responses of non-surgical patients with low back pain: An exploratory investigation

Abstract

Noncompliance and the psychological and emotional states of patients with low back pain are major concerns for health professionals. The current study evaluated whether amount of information available to patients enhanced compliance to a medical regimen and whether it reduced negative emotions in patients with low back pain. Forty-five orthopaedic non-surgical patients with low back pain were randomly assigned to one of three information presentation conditions: 1) Standard, 2) Pre-examination, and 3) Post-examination. Patients were also separated by compensation and noncompensation within each information group. Patients completed questionnaires at their initial visit and at their follow-up which evaluated their: levels of compliance to a prescribed treatment program, psychological, and emotional states. Results indicated that some patients benefitted from receiving additional information as the Pre-examination and Post-examination groups demonstrated superior comprehension and recall as well as higher levels of compliance to a physical therapy program. In addition, compensation patients complained of more negative psychological and emotional behaviors in comparison to noncompensation patients. Implications of the research and future research considerations were discussed.     

A META-ANALYSIS OF THE CRITERION-RELATED VALIDITY OF ASSESSMENT CENTER DIMENSIONS

We used meta-analytic procedures to investigate the criterion-related validity of assessment center dimension ratings. By focusing on dimension-level information, we were able to assess the extent to which specific constructs account for the criterion-related validity of assessment centers. From a total of 34 articles that reported dimension-level validities, we collapsed 168 assessment center dimension labels into an overriding set of 6 dimensions: (a) consideration/awareness of others, (b) communication, (c) drive, (d) influencing others, (e) organizing and planning, and (f) problem solving. Based on this set of 6 dimensions, we extracted 258 independent data points. Results showed a range of estimated true criterion-related validities from .25 to .39. A regression-based composite consisting of 4 out of the 6 dimensions accounted for the criterion-related validity of assessment center ratings and explained more variance in performance (20%) than Gaugler, Rosenthal, Thornton, and Bentson (1987) were able to explain using the overall assessment center rating (14%).     

中国祝圣主教也许是符合传统的

最近梵蒂冈和中国政府之间就祝圣五位新主教所产生的冲突,媒体普遍认为是世俗政权侵占教宗特权。西方评论家们通常认为,只有教宗享有任命主教的权力(见1月14日“美国天主教周报”,以下简称NCR)。然而,虽然中国祝圣主教可以完全认为是一种蔑视行为,但纵观教会历史会发现,任命主教问题,实际情况却要复杂得多。从历史上来讲,教宗拥有直接任命教区主教的权力还是后来的事。一方面,中国任命主教,发生在教廷与北京之间关系正常化期望值正升高的时刻,因而成为新闻。1951年,随着中国共产党政府的产生,上述关系就断绝了。据说,政府承认的天主教爱国…     

Contact and the personal/group discrimination discrepancy in an Inuit community

The personal/group discrimination discrepancy involves disadvantaged group members rating discrimination directed at their group considerably higher than ratings of discrimination aimed at themselves personally as members of that group. This robust phenomenon has been found in samples of women, African Americans, and aboriginal people. In the present study, the authors used a sample of Inuit from a remote Arctic community to confirm the perceived discrepancy. However, ratings for perceived group discrimination were surprisingly low. The authors argue that geographical isolation may have led Inuit to be unaware of the impact of discrimination on their lives. In support of this argument, findings showed that group discrimination ratings were higher for Inuit who did have contact with mainstream Canadian culture. Implications for the traditional contact hypothesis are discussed.     

DO PEOPLE MAKE THE PLACE? AN EXAMINATION OF THE ATTRACTION-SELECTION-ATTRITION HYPOTHESIS

This study tests the hypotheses that (1) congruence between internal need states and external environments drives the organizational-choice process and (2) those attracted to particular organizations are more homogeneous than the applicant pool in general. Subjects were evaluated on 14 needs using the Jackson Personality Research Form. They then viewed two video-taped segments of simulated campus interviews to gain information about two distinct types of organizational reward systems. The interview segments entered the discussion in progress to avoid any reference to a particular job that might introduce an occupational confound. Subjects received job offers from both organizations and were asked to indicate which of the two organizations they found more attractive by accepting one of the offers. Analysis of variance results indicated only weak support for the congruency hypothesis. Differences were observed in nAch between the groups of subjects attracted to each organization. No differences were found for any of the other need strength measures. This suggests that the subjects attracted to the different organizations were substantially similar. Hierarchial factor analysis of the PRF has suggested a six-factor structure that appears consistent with the second-order factors from other respectable personality measures. This suggests that the second-order solution may be a parsimonious mapping of the personality domain and may therefore be more relevant in testing these hypotheses. The analysis was repeated using these dimensions. The results suggest that work force homogeneity may be more complex than originally considered. Implications for the homogeneity hypothesis are discussed, and suggestions for further study of this concept are offered.     

A HIERARCHICAL CONSTRUCT OF SELF-MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO QUALITY OF WORK LIFE AND PERCEIVED WORK GROUP EFFECTIVENESS

This study validates the self-management leadership theory as operationalized by the Self-Management Leadership Questionnaire (Manz & Sims, 1987) in a large telephone company. The sample for this study is 390 self-managing and 412 traditionally managed employees and 94 external leaders from 58 self-managing and 60 traditionally managed teams. Results support Manz and Sims' 6-factor pattern at the first-order level, and in addition, identify a common second-order factor. The hierarchical factor structure is invariant in employee and leader samples drawn from both self-managing and traditionally managed work teams, suggesting that the construct of self-managing leadership is similar for members and leaders of both types of teams. Respondents perceive slightly more self-management leadership behaviors in the self-managing than the traditional work teams. Respondents evaluate self-managing work teams as more effective than traditional work teams, and this difference is moderate in size. Self-managing leadership behaviors are positively associated with QWL (mainly employee satisfaction) and self-rated effectiveness for both self-managing and traditional teams. In general, self-managing work teams are not that different from traditionally managed groups in the relationship of self-managing leadership to outcomes. We conclude that self-management leadership is a hierarchical concept, constituted of specific strategies as well as a general orientation toward empowering employees. These leadership behaviors are applicable to managing both traditional and self-managing work teams.