Organizational Learning: The Role of the Physical Environment

This paper examines the role of the physical environment in facilitating organizational learning. Semi-structured interviews related to learning and experiences of physical environment were conducted in two organizations in India. Workspaces were studied using non-participant observation. Cognitive maps of the layouts were created and movements in the workspaces mapped. Content analysis was performed on interview responses, and space syntax analysis was used to analyse maps of the workspaces. Findings suggest that knowledge in organizations is transformed through dialogue and discussion. Relationships, supportive leadership, culture, organizational strategy, and physical environment were found to play a key role in facilitating this process. The physical environment afforded co-presence, movement, and encounter. These features were found to contribute to interaction that facilitated dialogue, and thereby transformation of knowledge. This paper highlights the importance of physical design and provides areas of concrete intervention, allowing for facilitation of learning based on the physical dimension of the learning context.     

The implementation of routine outcome measures in a Tier 3 Psychological Therapies Service: The process of enhancing data quality and reflections of implementation challenges

Background: The Newham Psychological Therapies Service (PTS) has been using the CORE System of evaluation to demonstrate effectiveness since 2004. More recently there has been the national and local drive to improve outcomes as outlined by a number of Department of Health policies and the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) initiative. Aims: This paper describes how, as a secondary care complex mental health service, we have engaged with the process of outcome measurement through complementing the usage of the CORE System with additional measures forming the service pilot minimum dataset. The process of implementation is outlined along with reflections on the challenges which the service faced in introducing outcome measurement. Findings: Engagement with outcome measurement by a service requires attention to be paid to the organisational and professional aspects and personal resonances for clinicians if it is to become established as a meaningful enterprise within secondary care services. Despite success at this task, challenges remain to the further development of this area of work.     

拉比犹太教探源

拉比犹太教是一个阶段性宗教,这一课题在国内鲜有人问津。由于资料缺乏等原因,它起源于何时,何时终结,至今在学术界争论不断。本文在总结国内外学者观点的基础上,意在对拉比犹太教的源头进行详细探讨,同时对拉比犹太教的内涵进行简单梳理。     

The “Buzz” Behind the Buzz Matters: Energetic and Tense Arousal as Separate Motivations for Word of Mouth

This research provides a novel theoretical framework to explain the missing mechanism behind one of the strongest predictors for engaging in word of mouth (WOM): the consumer's psychological arousal (i.e., greater arousal leads to greater WOM; e.g., Berger, 2011). Across six studies (N = 1,309), we provide evidence for a motivational theory of the arousal–WOM relationship, highlighting the importance of the WOM's valence (positive vs. negative) as well as the consumer's salient type of arousal (energetic vs. tense; Thayer, 1989). In doing so, we demonstrate that consumers use WOM as an arousal management strategy: They are motivated to engage in positive WOM to maintain or increase their energetic arousal and to engage in negative WOM to reduce or eliminate their tense arousal. These findings also demonstrate the importance of the WOM recipient's response for the WOM source to achieve his/her desired arousal state. Thus, this work both expands our understanding of the arousal–WOM relationship and provides a framework for interpreting past work and conducting future investigations into when and how consumers will engage in WOM.     

Distinct performance profiles on the Brixton test in frontotemporal dementia

The Brixton Spatial Anticipation Test is a well-established test of executive function that evaluates the capacity to abstract, follow, and switch rules. There has been remarkably little systematic analysis of Brixton test performance in the prototypical neurodegenerative disorder of the frontal lobes: behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) or evaluation of the test’s ability to distinguish frontal from temporal lobe degenerative disease. We carried out a quantitative and qualitative analysis of Brixton performance in 76 patients with bvFTD and 34 with semantic dementia (SD) associated with temporal lobe degeneration. The groups were matched for demographic variables and illness duration. The bvFTD group performed significantly more poorly (U = 348, p < .0001, r = .58), 53% of patients scoring in the poor–impaired range compared with 6% of SD patients. Whereas bvFTD patients showed problems in rule acquisition and switching, SD patients did not, despite their impaired conceptual knowledge. Error analysis revealed more frequent perseverative errors in bvFTD, particularly responses unconnected to the stimulus, as well as random responses. Stimulus-bound errors were rare. Within the bvFTD group, there was variation in performance profile, which could not be explained by demographic, neurological, or genetic factors. The findings demonstrate sensitivity and specificity of the Brixton test in identifying frontal lobe degenerative disease and highlight the clinical value of qualitative analysis of test performance. From a theoretical perspective, the findings provide evidence that semantic knowledge and the capacity to acquire rules are dissociable. Moreover, they exemplify the separable functional contributions to executive performance.     

Sex-role attitudes: A comparison of sex-race groups

This study investigated the differences in the three dimensions of sex-role attitudes among four sex-race groups and also the ability of sex and race jointly to condition the effects of background characteristics on these attitudes. In a sample of 409 college students significant differences were found on all three dimensions of sex-role attitudes between the two sex groups, but not between the two racial groups, implying that gender is the most significant variable in eliciting differences in sex-role attitudes. Stepwise multiple regression analysis did not find a single common predictor to explain the variance in the wife role, the mother role, and the father role for the four sex-race group models. Some predictors were found in common in the four models explaining the variance in three dimensions of sex-role attitudes when the effects of sex and race were examined separately. However, the interaction of race and sex in conditioning the effect of background variables on the sex-role attitudes was quite different for each of the four sex-race subsamples.