A KIM-1 microprocessor interface for aversive conditioning applications using multiple subjects

The development of the microprocessor and its availability at low cost permits the small behavioral laboratory to conduct experiments using large numbers of subjects under various schedules without requiring a major investment in programming equipment. An interface for the KIM-1 microprocessor is described which provides the user great flexibility in conducting experiments involving aversive conditioning procedures in many subjects simultaneously.     

Termination in a work group: Four models of analysis and intervention

Four alternative models for understanding and consulting with work groups are presented. The major propositions of each model are summarized and then applied to the same case of work group functioning. The author is interested in the application of theory and especially how differing models focus upon the same or different group phenomena. The author advocates the importance of increased attention to the functioning of professional work groups as a means of improving training and the delivery of health services. However, such analysis should include the use of social science models as well as the more commonly employed understandings derived from an intrapsychic model of group behavior.The author wishes to thank Dr. Marvin Aronson, Dr. Nina Fieldsteel, Dr. Marcia Lawler and Dr. Bennett Roth for their encouragement and assistance during the development of this paper.     

Cultural Values as Moderators of Employee Reactions to Job Insecurity: The Role of Individualism and Collectivism

Cette recherche part de l’hypothèse que les valeurs culturelles sont l’un des déterminants des réactions des salariés face à l’insécurité professionnelle. Dans la première investigation, les valeurs culturelles ont été appréhendées au niveau de l’individu à partir des réponses de 141 salariés de diverses origines ethniques appartenant à une grande entreprise agro‐alimentaire américaine qui réduisait ses effectifs. Les répondants ont rempli des questionnaires évaluant leurs valeurs culturelles, leur perception de la sécurité au travail, leurs attitudes professionnelles, leurs réactions affectives vis‐à‐vis de la réduction des effectifs et leur niveau de stress lié au travail. Les résultats ont montré que le sentiment d’insécurité professionnelle avait un impact généralement négatif sur les employés. Toutefois, les salariés présentant des valeurs culturelles communautaires ressentaient plus négativement que leurs homologues individualistes le sentiment d’insécurité professionnelle. Dans le second volet de la recherche, la culture a été définie au niveau national. On a proposé aux salariés de sept organisations, quatre chinoises et trois américaines, de remplir des questionnaires appréciant leurs réactions à leur perception de l’insécurité professionnelle. Il apparut que les Chinois (mentalité communautaire) réagissaient plus négativement que les Américains individualistes face à la menace constituée par l’insécurité professionnelle. Les résultats sont analysés à la lumière du développement de pratiques organisationnelles qui comprennent la réduction des effectifs et autres procédures qui impliquent une moindre stabilité des emplois. This research explored the hypothesis that cultural values moderate employee reactions to job insecurity. In the first study, cultural values were measured at an individual level of analysis based on responses from one hundred and forty‐one ethnically diverse employees of a large US‐based food‐processing company undergoing a downsizing. Participants completed surveys assessing their cultural values, perceptions of job security, job attitudes, affective reactions to the downsizing, and job‐related stress levels. Results indicated that the perception of job insecurity had a generally negative impact on employees. However, employees with collectivist cultural values were more negatively affected by the perception of job insecurity than their individualist counterparts. In the second study, culture was operationalised at the national level of analysis. Employees from seven organisations (four based in China; three based in the US) completed surveys assessing their reactions to perceived job insecurity. Results suggest that Chinese (i.e. collectivist) employees reacted more negatively to the threat of job insecurity than their US counterparts (i.e. individualist employees). These results are discussed in light of growing organisational trends that include the use of downsizing and other techniques that herald a decrease in job stability.     

Left-handedness in professional basketball: prevalence, performance, and survival

Performance and handedness data were examined for 3,647 professional basketball players who participated in at least five games during the period between 1946 and 2009. Left-handed players comprised 5.1% of all professional basketball players compared to the 11% prevalence in the general population. Left-handers had better performance averages, in terms of the number of points, rebounds, and blocks over their careers, as well as other measures, and had significantly longer careers than right-handed players. Handedness was not significantly related to mean or median life expectancy.     

Empowerment and continuous improvement in the United States, Mexico, Poland, and India: predicting fit on the basis of the dimensions of power distance and individualism

Although variations in national cultures predominate as explanation for the belief that universal approaches to management do not exist, there have been few reports of systematic studies. Data from employees of a single firm with operations in the United States, Mexico, Poland, and India were used to test the fit of empowerment and continuous improvement practices with national culture. Using the theoretical constructs of individualism-collectivism and power distance, the authors predicted that the practices would be more congruent in some cultures than in others and that value congruence would result in job satisfaction. Using structural equations modeling, the authors found that empowerment was negatively associated with satisfaction in India but positively associated in the other 3 samples. Continuous improvement was positively associated with satisfaction in all samples. Substantive, theoretical, and methodological implications are discussed.     

What results when firms implement practices: the differential relationship between specific practices, firm financial performance, customer service, and quality

Previous research on organizational practices is replete with contradictory evidence regarding their effects. Here, the authors argue that these contradictory findings may have occurred because researchers have often examined complex practice combinations and have failed to investigate a broad variety of firm-level outcomes. Thus, past research may obscure important differential effects of specific practices on specific firm-level outcomes. Extending this research, the authors develop hypotheses about the effects of practices that (a) enable information sharing, (b) set boundaries, and (c) enable teams on 3 different firm-level outcomes: financial performance, customer service, and quality. Relationships are tested in a sample of observations from over 200 Fortune 1000 firms. Results indicate that information-sharing practices were positively related to financial performance 1 year following implementation of the practices, boundary-setting practices were positively related to firm-level customer service, and team-enabling practices were related to firm-level quality. No single set of practices predicted all 3 firm-level outcomes, indicating practice-specific effects. These findings help resolve the theoretical tension in the literature regarding the effects of organizational practices and offer guidance as to how to best target practices to increase specific work-related outcomes. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

The progressive construction of mind

We propose a vision of the structure of knowledge and processes of learning based upon the particularity of experience. Highly specific cognitive structures are constructed through activities in limited domains of experience. For new domains, new cognitive structures develop from and can call upon the knowledge of prior structures. Applying this vision of disparate cognitive structures to a detailed case study, we present an interpretation of addition-related matter from the corpus and trace the interplay of specific experiences with the interactions of ascribed, disparate structures. The interpretive focus is on learning processes through which a broadly applicable skill emerges from the interaction and integration of knowledge based on specific, particular experiences.