Empowering Leadership and Effective Collaboration in Geographically Dispersed Teams

Our research integrates theoretical perspectives related to distributed leadership in geographically dispersed teams with empowering leadership theory to build a multilevel model of virtual collaboration and performance in dispersed teams. We test the model with procurement teams in a major multinational corporation. Our results show a significant cross‐level effect of empowering team leadership, such that under conditions of high empowering team leadership, a team member's virtual teamwork situational judgment (VT‐SJ) is positively and significantly associated with his or her virtual collaboration behaviors and also indirectly with his or her individual performance in the team. At the team level, our findings also suggest that the impact of empowering leadership on team members’ aggregate virtual collaboration, and indirectly on team performance, increases at higher levels of team dispersion. These findings shed important light on the role of team leadership in fostering effective collaboration and performance of geographically dispersed virtual teams.     

Thriving,burnout, and coping strategies of early and later career counseling center psychologists in the United States

We interviewed seven early career psychologists (ECPs) and seven later career psychologists (LCPs) employed at university counseling centers in the United States about their experiences with thriving, burnout, and coping. We analyzed the data using Consensual Qualitative Research. Typical factors that contributed to thriving included recognition for achievement and the climate of counseling center and campus, although the latter was more important for ECPs than LCPs. Typical factors that contributed to burnout included challenges with tasks and responsibilities and challenges related to professional relationships. Finally, interpersonal support (general), self-care, cognitive strategies, and behavioral strategies (typical) were coping strategies used by both ECPs and LCPs, but only ECPs identified using personal therapy. Implications for counseling centers and for research are presented.     

Bernard Shaw and the doctors: The art and science of medicine inThe Doctor's Dilemma

What did Bernard Shaw really think about doctors? Although any reader with a sketchy understanding of Shaw's work is inclined to think that he condened the entire profession, a careful reading of his most well-known play featuring medical practitioners reveals a mixed attitude. InThe Doctor's Dilemma, one finds a position that may be representative of Shaw's attitude. In this play, he places the entire Edwardian medical establishment—consultants and general practitioners — on stage, and he focuses the attention of this diverse group on the problem of a patient. In doing so, Shaw is able to separate the play's characters into representatives of (1) the newscientific medicine and (2) the venerableart of medicine. He satirizes the arrogance of the former, and he presents the humane attitude of the latter in a favorable light.     

The home point system: token reinforcement procedures for application by parents of children with behavior problems

Parent-child problems within the home are frequently reported to be instances in which children refuse to help with household chores, bicker among themselves, or engage in verbally inappropriate behavior toward their parents. The present study investigated the effects of a token reinforcement program administered by the parents in ameliorating these problems. Two sets of parents, with a total of five children between the ages of 5 and 10 yr, were taught to administer a token economy within their homes. The parents received instruction in specifying desired social and chore behaviors, communicated these behavioral goals to their children, recorded data on their occurrence, and managed a point system backed with reinforcers normally found in the home. The token reinforcement program was shown to have successfully modified 15 problem behaviors in Family 1 and six in Family 2. In addition, the parents rated all 21 behavior changes as significant improvements. These studies indicated that some cooperative parents need only a small amount of professional help to learn to manage their children's behavior problems with token reinforcement procedures.     

EXPERIMENTER CALCULATION ERRORS: A POTENTIAL FACTOR AFFECTING INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS1

Following a study of socially withdrawn children, it was noted that checks of experimenter calculations indicated discrepancies. The present study investigated the magnitude and direction of experimenter errors in data computations. Two full-time research assistants, who served as experimenters, processed the behavioral observation data. These experimenters were referred to as the subjects in this study. Standard data values, against which the subjects' computations were compared, were established by two other research assistants and a computer staff. The results indicated that experimenters' original data values disagreed with the standard data values. The daily errors showed considerable variability for both experimenters. The specific factors accounting for this variability could not be identified, although frequency of experimenter responses required to obtain rate and duration data, time spent calculating, and complexity of task were suggested as possible contributing variables. While disagreements occurred across all experimental days, the magnitude of differences was generally small. An examination of direction of differences in both experimenters' data showed no systematic trends in favor of the experimental hypothesis. Rather, there appeared to be a trend in the other direction. This study suggests that the same research decisions would have been made during the original investigation using either set of data.     

The attributional norm of internality and depressive sensitivity to social information

Two studies examined the existence, within an achievement-related context, of a social norm favoring internal explanations for task performances. In the first study, we investigated the reactions of observers to an actor's high, moderate, or low self-attribution of causal responsibility for his negative performance outcome on an ostensibly standardized aptitude test. The results indicated that the actor was evaluated more positively to the degree that he accepted more personal responsibility for his performance. In the second study, we examined the reactions of depressed and nondepressed observers to an actor's high or low self-attributions of causal responsibility for his poor performance on a test of analytical ability. On the basis of the notion that the chronic lack of control and resultant uncertainty, presumably characteristic of depressed persons, motivates attributional information processing, we expected depressed observers to be more sensitive to the actor's violation of the norm of internality and to respond with more social disapproval than nondepressed observers. Results generally were consistent with this reasoning. Experimental findings are discussed in terms of the interpersonal implications of expressed attributions.     

Hartsoeker's homonculus: a corrective note

Contrary to what is reported in many psychology texts, microscopists of the preformationist era in embryology, particularly Nicholas Hartsoeker and Antony van Leeuwenhoek, did not claim to have seen tiny homonculi, or fetuses, within human spermatozoa. This common misconception is based on the fact that both Hartsoeker and Leeuwenhoek had at one time included drawings of homonculi in their writings, but they did so only to suggest their possible appearance (Hartsoeker) or to refute allegations that they existed (Leeuwenhoek).     

Psychophysiological adaptation: An investigation of multiple parameters

Heart rate (EKG), digital skin resistance level (SRL), and frontalis electromyography (EMG) of 20 undergraduate volunteers were monitored in three 30-min sessions to chart the course and magnitude of adaptation. As a group, 7, 13, and 13 min of adaptation were required for SRL, EMG, and EKG, respectively. High arousal levels in any of these measures at the session's outset resulted in longer adaptation times compared to low initial arousal. EMG showed the strongest variance across sessions. Females required longer adaptation periods than males in SRL and EKG. Self-reported trait anxiety levels bore little relationship to adaptation course. Methods were outlined for setting individualized adaptation periods by either the min 1 EMG level or regression equations for the initial values of each of the measures. Overall, psychophysiological adaptation proved to be an influential variable requiring experimental management to avoid confoundment with treatment effects.Portions of this research were presented at the meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., March 1980. We gratefully acknowledge statistical consultation given by Virginia Weymouth, Memphis State University Department of Computer Services, and Dr. Michael Lupfer.