Why people harm the organization and its members: Relationships among personality,organizational commitment,and workplace deviance

Based on the five-factor model of personality traits and social exchange theory, this study examines the relationships of personality traits, organizational commitment, and two target-based factors of workplace deviance (organizational deviance and interpersonal deviance), using a sample of 113 South Korean employees. By the use of path-analysis, we first found that Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability were meaningfully related to organizational commitment. In addition, both the effect of Conscientiousness on organizational deviance and the effect of Agreeableness on interpersonal deviance were partially mediated by organizational commitment. In sum, results clearly show that the personality traits of Conscientiousness (impersonal) and Agreeableness (interpersonal) function differently in predicting workplace deviance.     

Enhanced Hippocampal CA1 LTP but Normal Spatial Learning in Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate 3-kinase(A)-Deficient Mice

To define the physiological role of IP₃3-kinase(A) in vivo, we have generated a mouse strain with a null mutation of the IP₃3-kinase(A) locus by gene targeting. Homozygous mutant mice were fully viable, fertile, apparently normal, and did not show any morphological anomaly in brain sections. In the mutant brain, the IP₄ level was significantly decreased whereas the IP₃ level did not change, demonstrating a major role of IP₃3-kinase(A) in the generation of IP₄. Nevertheless, no significant difference was detected in the hippocampal neuronal cells of the wild-type and the mutant mice in the kinetics of Ca²⁺ regulation after glutamate stimulation. Electrophysiological analyses carried out in hippocampal slices showed that the mutation significantly enhanced the LTP in the hippocampal CA1 region, but had no effect on the LTP in dentate gyrus (DG). No difference was noted, however, between the mutant and the wild-type mice in the Morris water maze task. Our results indicate that IP₃3-kinase(A) may play an important role in the regulation of LTP in hippocampal CA1 region through the generation of IP₄, but the enhanced LTP in the hippocampal CA1 does not affect spatial learning and memory.     

Turnover of highly educated R&D professionals: The role of pre‐entry cognitive style,work values and career orientation

Retention of key R&D experts has been recognized as a critical managerial challenge for many technology‐based companies. In this study, we propose that turnover of highly educated professional workers is meaningfully related to individual characteristics such as cognitive style, work values and career orientation. We tested the hypotheses using data collected from a sample of 132 R&D professionals with PhD degrees in engineering or natural science in a Korean electronics firm. The time‐dependent risk of turnover was estimated by survival analysis using a proportional hazards regression model. The results showed that over the 7‐year period after their organizational entry, R&D professionals with high levels of intrinsic values and cosmopolitan orientation were more likely to leave the organization than were their counterparts with low levels of intrinsic values and cosmopolitan orientation. The hazard function showed that the positive effect of intrinsic work values on turnover was particularly salient in the third and fourth year of R&D professionals' organizational tenure. We found that the positive effect of cosmopolitan orientation on turnover increased over time, introducing a greater risk of turnover with increasing tenure. The present findings have practical implications for the retention of highly educated R&D professionals in a corporate setting.     

A Comparison of the Common‐Item and Random‐Groups Equating Designs Using Empirical Data

We designed this study to evaluate several data collection and equating designs in the context of item response theory (IRT) equating. The random‐groups design and the common‐item design have been widely used for collecting data for IRT equating. In this study, we investigated four equating methods based upon these two data collection designs, using empirical data from a number of different testing programs. When the randomly equivalent group assumption was reasonably met, the four equating methods tended to produce highly comparable results. On the other hand, equating methods based upon either of the equating designs produced dissimilar results. Sample size can have differential effects on the equating results produced by the different equating methods. In practice, a common‐item equivalent‐groups design often produces unacceptably large differences in the group mean due to various anomalies such as context effects, poor quality of common items, or a very small number of common items. In such cases, a random‐groups design would produce more stable equating results.     

How Do You Assess a Manager’s Decision-Making Abilities? The Use of Situational Inventories

Decision-making capabilities are absolutely crucial to a manager. Unfortunately, existing methods of assessing managers in this area for selection and development purposes (in-tray exercises, situational interviews, ability tests, etc.) leave a lot to be desired. This article focuses on an alternative for assessing managerial decision making – the situational inventory – and presents research findings and information on practical applications. Detailed findings are also presented for ‘Scenarios’, the UK’s first published situational measure of managerial judgement. Situational inventories work by presenting participants with realistic but difficult real-life management scenarios. Each scenario is accompanied by a number of possible responses which participants rate for effectiveness in dealing with the scenario. Participants’ ratings are then scored against a set of ideal answers, producing an assessment of current decision-making ability. Decision-making ability can be developed in individuals, making feedback invaluable to participants. Evidence that has been accumulating in the United States and the UK for at least 15 years is presented to support the general situational inventory approach. Additionally, specific evidence is presented for ‘Scenarios’. It was found to correlate significantly with a number of managerial performance and responsibility indicators while appearing to be largely separate from existing psychometric (ability and personality) tests.     

Culture in the Mediation of International Disputes

Unlike most treatments of culture in international diplomacy, this article suggests that culture can play a positive role in the mediation of international disputes. Cultural ties between the mediator and one or both of the disputants can facilitate mediation by, among other things, enhancing the mediator's acceptability to the parties, and enhancing the belief that the mediator can deliver concessions and agreements. Moreover, a mediator who is closer to one side than the other can be effective in mediation, especially when the mediator acts in an even‐handed manner. Data from laboratory research on mediation, as well as anecdotal evidence, support this view.     

Getting Even or Getting Equal? Retributive Desires and Transitional Justice

This article examines the effect that different policy interventions of transitional justice have on the desires of the victims of human rights violations for retribution. The retributive desires assessed in this article are conceptualized as individual, collective, and abstract demands for the imposition of a commensurate degree of suffering upon the offender. We suggest a plausible way of reducing victims' retributive desires. Instead of "getting even" in relation to the suffering, victims and perpetrators may "get equal" in relation to their respective statuses, which were affected by political crimes. The article hypothesizes that the three classes of transitional justice: (1) reparation that empowers victims by financial compensation, truth telling, and social acknowledgment; (2) retribution that inflicts punishment upon perpetrators; and (3) reconciliation that renews civic relationship between victims and perpetrators through personal contact, apology, and forgiveness; each contributes to restoring equality between victims and perpetrators, and in so doing decreases the desires that victims have for retribution. In order to test our hypotheses, we conducted a survey of former political prisoners in the Czech Republic. Results from the regression analysis reveal that financial compensation, social acknowledgement, punishment, and forgiveness are likely to reduce victims' retributive desires.     

Differentiation of Self,Interpersonal Conflict,and Depression: The Mediating Role of Anger Expression

The current study investigated how differentiation of self (Bowen in Family therapy in clinical practice. Jason Aronson, New York, 1978; Kerr and Bowen in Family evaluation. W. W. Norton and Company, New York, 1988) was related to interpersonal conflict and depression, and tested mediation hypotheses involving anger expression. The results revealed that anger expressed outwardly partially mediated the relationship between emotional reactivity and interpersonal conflict, and that anger expressed inwardly fully mediated the relationship between emotional cutoff and depression among 260 college students attending an urban university located in Midwestern United States.     

Stepwise contouring of efficient criterion vectors for large-scale MOLP

In this paper a new method of presenting the overall (focused) structure of the efficient criterion vectors (N) for large-scale MOLP is proposed. The proposed algorithm ASEOV (approximation of the set of efficient objective vectors) determines the representative subset of N and ensures full coverage of N , with corresponding coverage precision indicated. ASEOV works in objective space directly and eliminates unnecessary computational effort at the collapsing extreme points of X , which are transformed to non-extreme points in objective space. The Tchebycheff metric is employed to measure the coverage precision. ASEOV allows a decision maker (DM) to control the determination procedure by assessing the coverage allowance for each criterion. When the DM's preference is available, ASEOV can focus contouring on the subset of N which fits with the extracted preference. Combined with proper interactive methods, this focused contour over N can reduce the DM's burden, inconsistency or cognitive bias in assessing his preference from which to derive the final best-compromise solution. An illustrative example is presented.     

Value expectation confirmation and word-of-mouth intention among international tourists of a cultural festival experience

We examined expectation conformation and word-of-mouth marketing intention among international tourists (177 white; 138 black; and 98 Asian) who experienced a tourism promotion cultural festival event; taking into account their personal, artistic, and societal cultural values. We applied multiple regression analysis to predict expectation conformation and word-of-mouth marketing intention from the tourists’ personal, artistic, and societal cultural values. For the white and Asian tourists, sociocultural value predicted expectation confirmation the most. For the black tourists, personal value explained their expectation confirmation more than did sociocultural value. Culturally framed perceived values appear to influence the ways tourists respond to tourism festivals.