Culture and children's cosmology

In this investigation, we examined children's knowledge of cosmology in relation to the shape of the earth and the day-night cycle. Using explicit questioning involving a choice of alternative answers and 3D models, we carried out a comparison of children aged 4-9 years living in Australia and England. Though Australia and England have a close cultural affinity, there are differences in children's early exposure to cosmological concepts. Australian children who have early instruction in this domain were nearly always significantly in advance of their English counterparts. In general, they most often produced responses compatible with a conception of a round earth on which people can live all over without falling off. We consider coherence and fragmentation in children's knowledge in terms of the timing of culturally transmitted information, and in relation to questioning methods used in previous research that may have underestimated children's competence.

The impact of organizational culture and reshaping capabilities on change implementation success: The mediating role of readiness for change

It was hypothesized that employees' perceptions of an organizational culture strong in human relations values and open systems values would be associated with heightened levels of readiness for change which, in turn, would be predictive of change implementation success. Similarly, it was predicted that reshaping capabilities would lead to change implementation success, via its effects on employees' perceptions of readiness for change. Using a temporal research design, these propositions were tested for 67 employees working in a state government department who were about to undergo the implementation of a new end-user computing system in their workplace. Change implementation success was operationalized as user satisfaction and system usage. There was evidence to suggest that employees who perceived strong human relations values in their division at Time 1 reported higher levels of readiness for change at pre-implementation which, in turn, predicted system usage at Time 2. In addition, readiness for change mediated the relationship between reshaping capabilities and system usage. Analyses also revealed that pre-implementation levels of readiness for change exerted a positive main effect on employees' satisfaction with the system's accuracy, user friendliness, and formatting functions at post-implementation. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical contribution to the readiness for change literature, and in relation to the practical importance of developing positive change attitudes among employees if change initiatives are to be successful.

The impact of leadership and change management strategy on organizational culture and individual acceptance of change during a merger

This article reports a longitudinal study that examined mergers between three large multi-site public-sector organizations. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis are used to examine the effect of leadership and change management strategies on acceptance of cultural change by individuals. Findings indicate that in many cases the change that occurs as a result of a merger is imposed on the leaders themselves, and it is often the pace of change that inhibits the successful re-engineering of the culture. In this respect, the success or otherwise of any merger hinges on individual perceptions about the manner in which the process is handled and the direction in which the culture is moved. Communication and a transparent change process are important, as this will often determine not only how a leader will be regarded, but who will be regarded as a leader. Leaders need to be competent and trained in the process of transforming organizations to ensure that individuals within the organization accept the changes prompted by a merger.

Cell cycle alterations in biopsied olfactory neuroepithelium in schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder using cell culture and gene expression analyses

We previously demonstrated that olfactory cultures front individuals with schizophrenia had increased cell proliferation compared to Cultures from healthy controls. The aims of this study were to (a) replicate this observation in a new group Of individuals with schizophrenia, (b) examine the specificity of these findings by including individuals with bipolar I disorder and (c) explore gene expression differences that may underlie cell cycle differences in these diseases. Compared to controls (n = 10), there was significantly more mitosis in schizophrenia patient cultures (it = 8) and significantly more cell death in the bipolar I disorder patient cultures (n=8). Microarray data showed alterations to the cell cycle and phosphatidylinositol signalling pathways in schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder, respectively. Whilst caution is required in the interpretation of the array results, the study provides evidence indicating that cell proliferation and cell death in olfactory neuroepithelial cultures is differentially altered in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.