Relational Risk and Its Personal Correlates in Strategic Alliances

In this study we focus on the perception of one particular type of risk in the context of strategic alliances—relational risk. Perceived relational risk refers to the degree to which decision makers are concerned with the partner's opportunistic behavior in cooperative efforts. We develop a measure of relational risk in strategic alliances, and empirically examine some of its personal correlates. Based on a survey of senior executives of corporations and MBA students, we found partial support for the principal hypothesis that the perception of relational risk for prospective strategic alliances is related to an individual's age and trust in people.     

The Risk-Based View of Trust: A Conceptual Framework

Trust and risk have often been linked in the literature, but their relationship is far from clear. Trust has been used in three different ways — namely, as a perception (subjective trust), as various personal and situational factors that lead to subjective trust (trust antecedents), and as the actions resulting from subjective trust (behavioral trust). We explain how risk is related to these three conceptions of trust. First, we argue that subjective trust and perceived risk are in fact mirror images of each other. Second, we show how behavioral trust can be viewed as risk taking, so that the causal relationship between subjective trust and behavioral trust is similar to that of perceived risk and risk taking. And third, we discuss the role of personal characteristics (such as risk propensity and trust propensity) in the risk–trust relationship. We also develop a number of propositions based on our risk-based view of trust.     

A distributed intercortical processing of binocular rivalry: psychophysical evidence

When dissimilar visual scenes are viewed dichoptically, the observer perceives several different representations of the scene over time. To reveal that a distributed intercortical network mediates this phenomenon of binocular rivalry, we used a Kanizsa square-like display consisting of four pairs of color-rivalry-inducing elements. We found that when all four dominant elements had the same color, regardless of whether they were from the same or different eyes, the visual system ably integrated them into a larger subjective surface. Once formed, the same-colored subjective surface enjoyed a relatively longer predominance than mixed-colored patterns. During rivalry alternation, this same-colored surface was more likely to be replaced by a complementary same-colored surface, rather than by mixed-colored patterns (cohesive effect). Further, surface integration, which is mainly an extrastriate cortical function, was stronger when the same eye viewed the same-colored rivalry stimuli. Since the eye-of-origin signature is explicitly represented in V1, these findings together suggest that rivalry is processed along a distributed network including V1 and the extrastriate cortices.     

Perceptual space in the dark affected by the intrinsic bias of the visual system

Correct judgment of egocentric/absolute distance in the intermediate distance range requires both the angular declination below the horizon and ground-surface information being represented accurately. This requirement can be met in the light environment but not in the dark, where the ground surface is invisible and hence cannot be represented accurately. We previously showed that a target in the dark is judged at the intersection of the projection line from the eye to the target that defines the angular declination below the horizon and an implicit surface. The implicit surface can be approximated as a slant surface with its far end slanted toward the frontoparallel plane. We hypothesize that the implicit slant surface reflects the intrinsic bias of the visual system and helps to define the perceptual space. Accordingly, we conducted two experiments in the dark to further elucidate the characteristics of the implicit slant surface. In the first experiment we measured the egocentric location of a dimly lit target on, or above, the ground, using the blind-walking-gesturing paradigm. Our results reveal that the judged target locations could be fitted by a line (surface), which indicates an intrinsic bias with a geographical slant of about 12.4 degrees. In the second experiment, with an exocentric/relative-distance task, we measured the judged ratio of aspect ratio of a fluorescent L-shaped target. Using trigonometric analysis, we found that the judged ratio of aspect ratio can be accounted for by assuming that the L-shaped target was perceived on an implicit slant surface with an average geographical slant of 14.4 degrees. That the data from the two experiments with different tasks can be fitted by implicit slant surfaces suggests that the intrinsic bias has a role in determining perceived space in the dark. The possible contribution of the intrinsic bias to representing the ground surface and its impact on space perception in the light environment are also discussed.     

Binocular rivalry and surface-boundary processing

Theoretical and empirical studies show that the visual system relies on boundary contours and surface features (e.g. textures) to represent 3-D surfaces. When the surface to be represented has little texture information, or has a periodic texture pattern (grating), the boundary contour information assumes a larger weight in representing the surface. Adopting the premise that the mechanisms of 3-D surface representation also determine binocular rivalry perception, the current paper focuses on whether boundary contours have a similar role in binocular rivalry. In experiment 1, we tested the prediction that the visual system prefers selecting an image/figure defined by boundary contours for rivalry dominance. We designed a binocular rivalry stimulus wherein one half-image has a boundary contour defined by a grating disk on a background with an orthogonal grating orientation. The other half-image consists solely of the (same orientation) grating background without the grating disk, ie no boundary contour. Confirming our prediction, the predominance for the half-image with the grating disk is approximately 90%, despite the fact that the grating disk corresponds to an area with orthogonal grating in the fellow eye. The advantage of the grating disk is dramatically reduced to about 50% predominance when a boundary contour is added to the background-only half-image at the location corresponding to the grating disk. We attribute this reduced advantage to the formation of a corresponding binocular boundary contour. In experiment 2 the grating background was substituted by a random-dot background in a similar stimulus design. We found that the perceptual salience of the corresponding binocular boundary contours extracted by the interocular matching process is an important factor in determining the dynamics of binocular rivalry. Experiment 3 showed that vertical lines with uneven thickness and spacing as the background reduce the contribution of the monocular boundary contour of the grating disk in binocular rivalry, possibly through the formation of binocular boundary contours between the local edges (vertical components) of the vertical lines and the corresponding grating disk.     

The effects of newcomer proactive behaviours on socialization outcomes: A meta-analysis

Organizational researchers and practitioners have shown increasing interest in how newcomer proactivity contributes to socialization. This meta-analysis synthesizes the existing empirical research that examines the relationships between frequently performed newcomer proactive behaviours (sensemaking, relationship building, positive framing and job change negotiation) and proximal and distal socialization outcomes. Proximal outcomes include role clarity, task mastery and social integration; distal outcomes include job performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention. Based on 45 independent samples (N = 11,508), proactive behaviours were found to be generally beneficial for newcomer socialization. Relative weight analyses identified positive framing as the strongest predictor of five of the seven reviewed outcomes while relationship building accounted for the greatest part of the variance in social integration. Job change negotiation was the weakest predictor of socialization outcomes. The study also explored the impact of boundary conditions, including culture, study design and sample type, on the magnitude of these effects. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, along with the study's limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Does Social Protest Shake People’s Justice Beliefs? It Depends on the Level of Group Identification

We examined whether social protests will shake people's justice belief, and its potential mechanisms. Participants were reminded of an occurrence of a social protest (vs. an ordinary event) and their justice belief toward social system as well as attitudes toward the protest was measured. Moreover, participants’ perceived group identification with the protesters was measured in Experiment 1 and manipulated in Experiment 2. The results revealed that participants with greater group identification perceived the social system as more just, and were less supportive of the protest than those with low group identification. The implications of these findings were discussed.     

When Does Job Insecurity Lead to Feedback-Seeking Behavior? The Counterintuitive Moderating Role of Perceived Organizational Support

A competitive business environment makes organizations increasingly dependent on their employees to proactively seek feedback aimed at improving job performance and requires organizations to frequently engage in restructuring activities that may cause employees to experience job insecurity. This poses an important theoretical puzzle regarding the relationship between job insecurity and feedback-seeking behavior. This study clarifies this relationship by addressing the moderating role of perceived organizational support and provides a mechanism that explains the mechanism behind the moderating process. This study builds a mediated moderating model by drawing from the uncertainty reduction and social exchange theories. By analyzing data collected from 567 employees of manufacturing enterprises in China, we find that the relationship between job insecurity and feedback-seeking behavior is negative under conditions of high perceived organizational support and is positive under conditions of low perceived organizational support. Collectivism value can mediate the moderating role of perceived organizational support.     

Psychiatric Distress and Suicidal Tendencies in Adult Cancer Survivors: Verifying the Validity of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 for Identifying Suicidal Ideation in the Hospitalized Population of Mainland China

The Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18) is widely used to assess psychiatric distress but has not been verified in the Chinese population. From March to April 2019, 293 hospitalized cancer patients, aged 20–87, completed the cross-sectional survey with demographics questionnaire, BSI-18, and PHQ-9. We analyzed the single suicide-related item of PHQ-9 with the full score clinical outpoint for BSI-18 and PHQ-9 using SPSS 22.0 and R 2.15, including Pearson's χ² test and ROC curve analyses. A Pearson's χ² test was carried out to compare the three different methods with the gold screening criteria. The p-value was correspondingly to .006, .066, .838. When the PHQ-9?≥?10 criteria for the BSI-18, receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that AUC values were 0.839, optimal cut-off points for both BSI-18?≥?50, the sensitivity of 85.8%, and 62.5%, respectively. The BSI-18 is suitable for a screening tool for psychological distress and could also be used in clinical settings for preliminary screening of hospitalized cancer patients.