Leadership and the negotiation of order in small groups

This thesis is focussed on the role differentiationhypothesis as it relates to small groups (Bales, 1958). The hypothesis is systematically examined, both conceptually and empirically, in the light of the Equilibrium Hypothesis (Bales, 1953) and the Negotiated Order Theory of leadership (e.g. Hosking, 1988). Chapter 1 sketches in a context for the research,which was stimulated by attempts during the 60s and 70s to organise small groups without leaders (the leaderless group, based on isocratic principles). Chapter 2 gives a conceptual and developmental overview of Bales' work, concentrating on the Equilibrium Hypothesis. It is argued that Bales' conceptual approach, if developed, can potentially integrate the disparate small groups and leadership literatures. Chapters 3 and 4 examine the concepts `group', `leader' and `leadership' in terms of the Negotiated Order perspective. In chapter 3 it is argued that two aspects of the concept group need to be taken separately into account; physical attributes and social psychological aspects (the metaphysical glue). It is further argued that a collection of people becomes a group only when they begin to establish a shared sense of social order. In chapter 4 it is argued that leadership is best viewed as a process of negotiation between those who influence and those who are influenced, in the context of shared values about means and ends. It is further argued that leadership is the process by which a shared sense of social order is established and maintained, thus linking the concepts `leadership' and `group' in a single formulation. The correspondences with Bales' approach are discussed at the end of the chapter. Chapters 5 to 8 present a detailed critical description and evaluation of the empirical work which claims to show role differentiation or test the hypothesis, both Bales original work and subsequent studies. It is argued here, that the measurement and analytical procedures adopted by Bales and others, in particular the use of simple means as summaries of group structures, are fundamentally flawed, and that role differentiation in relation to particular identifiable groups has not been demonstrated clearly anywhere in the literature. Chapters 9 to 13 present the empirical work conducted for the thesis. 18 small groups are examined systematically for evidence of role differentiation using an approach based on early sociometry (Moreno, 1934). The results suggest that role differentiation, as described by Bales, does not occur as often as is implied in the literature, and not equivocally in any case. In particular structures derived from Liking are typically distributed or weak. This suggests that one of Bales' principal findings, that Liking varies independently of his other main dimensions, is the product of statistical artifact. Chapter 14 presents a general summary of results and presents some considerations about future research.

The construction and negotiation of identity and face in post observation feedback

Identity influences the practice of English language teachers and supervisors, their professional development and their ability to incorporate innovation and change. Talk during post observation feedback meetings provides participants with opportunities to articulate, construct, verify, contest and negotiate identities, processes which often engender issues of face. This study examines the construction and negotiation of identity and face in post observation feedback meetings between in-service English language teachers and supervisors at a tertiary institution in the United Arab Emirates. Within a linguistic ethnography framework, this study combined linguistic microanalysis of audio recorded feedback meetings with ethnographic data gathered from participant researcher knowledge, pre-analysis interviews and post-analysis participant interpretation interviews. Through a detailed, empirical description of situated ‘real life’ institutional talk, this study shows that supervisors construct identities involving authority, power, expertise, knowledge and experience while teachers index identities involving experience, knowledge and reflection. As well as these positive valued identities, other negative, disvalued identities are constructed. Identities are shown to be discursively claimed, verified, contested and negotiated through linguistic actions. This study also shows a link between identity and face. Analysis demonstrates that identity claims verified by an interactional partner can lead to face maintenance or support. However, a contested identity claim can lead to face threat which is usually managed by facework. Face, like identity, is found to be interactionally achieved and endogenous to situated discourse. Teachers and supervisors frequently risk face threat to protect their own identities, to contest their interactional partner’s identities or to achieve the feedback meeting goal i.e. improved teaching. Both identity and face are found to be consequential to feedback talk and therefore influence teacher development, teacher/supervisor relationships and the acceptance of feedback. Analysis highlights the evaluative and conforming nature of feedback in this context which may be hindering opportunities for teacher development.

A knowledge based system of principled negotiation for complex business contract

Automated negotiation systems can do better than human being in many aspects, and thus are applied into many domains ranging from business to computer science. However, little work about automating negotiation of complex business contract has been done so far although it is a kind of the most important negotiation in business. In order to address this issue, in this paper we developed an automated system for this kind of negotiation. This system is based on the principled negotiation theory, which is the most effective method of negotiation in the domain of business. The system is developed as a knowledge-based one because a negotiating agent in business has to be economically intelligent and capable of making effective decisions based on business experiences and knowledge. Finally, the validity of the developed system is shown in a real negotiation scenario where on behalf of human users, the system successfully performed a negotiation of a complex business contract between a wholesaler and a retailer. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

The dynamics of a genetic algorithm under stabilizing selection

A formalism recently introduced by Prugel-Bennett and Shapiro uses the methods of statistical mechanics to model the dynamics of genetic algorithms. To be of more general interest than the test cases they consider. In this paper, the technique is applied to the subset sum problem, which is a combinatorial optimization problem with a strongly non-linear energy (fitness) function and many local minima under single spin flip dynamics. It is a problem which exhibits an interesting dynamics, reminiscent of stabilizing selection in population biology. The dynamics are solved under certain simplifying assumptions and are reduced to a set of difference equations for a small number of relevant quantities. The quantities used are the population's cumulants, which describe its shape, and the mean correlation within the population, which measures the microscopic similarity of population members. Including the mean correlation allows a better description of the population than the cumulants alone would provide and represents a new and important extension of the technique. The formalism includes finite population effects and describes problems of realistic size. The theory is shown to agree closely to simulations of a real genetic algorithm and the mean best energy is accurately predicted.

Non-invasive phakometric measurement of corneal and crystalline lens alignment in human eyes

We describe a non-invasive phakometric method for determining corneal axis rotation relative to the visual axis (β) together with crystalline lens axis tilt (α) and decentration (d) relative to the corneal axis. This does not require corneal contact A-scan ultrasonography for the measurement of intraocular surface separations. Theoretical inherent errors of the method, evaluated by ray tracing through schematic eyes incorporating the full range of human ocular component variations, were found to be larger than the measurement errors (β < 0.67°, α < 0.72° and d < 0.08 mm) observed in nine human eyes with known ocular component dimensions. Intersubject variations (mean ± S.D.: β = 6.2 ± 3.4° temporal, α = 0.2 ± 1.8° temporal and d = 0.1 ± 0.1 mm temporal) and repeatability (1.96 × S.D. of difference between repeat readings: β ± 2.0°, α ± 1.8° and d ± 0.2 mm) were studied by measuring the left eyes of 45 subjects (aged 18-42 years, 29 females and 16 males, 15 Caucasians, 29 Indian Asians, one African, refractive error range -7.25 to +1.25 D mean spherical equivalent) on two occasions. © 2005 The College of Optometrists.

Time and professional work in public sector organisations: an examination of four occupational groups in education and medicine

The aim of this thesis is to examine the experience of time of four professional occupational groups working in public sector organisations and the factors affecting this experience. The literature on time and work is examined to delineate the key parameters of research in this area. A broad organisation behaviour approach to the experience of time and work is developed in which individual, occupational, organisational and socio-political factors are inter-related. The experience of secondary school teachers, further education lecturers, general medical practitioners and hosoital consultants is then examined. Multiple methods of data collection are used: open-ended interviews, a questionnaire survey and the analysis of key documents relating to the institutional settings in which the four groups work. The research aims to develop our knowledge of working time by considering the dimensions of the experience of time at work, the contexts in wlhich this experience is generated and the constraints these contexts give rIse to. By developing our understanding of time as a key feature of work experience we also extend our knowledge of organisation behaviour in general. In conclusion a model of the factors relating the experience of time to the negotiation of time at work is presented.

Negotiating proximity:expert testimony and collective memory in the trials of environmental activists in France and the United Kingdom

This article analyzes the role of expert witness testimony in the trials of social movement actors, discussing the trial of the "Kingsnorth Six" in Britain and the trials of activists currently mobilising against airport construction at Notre Dame des Landes in western France. Though the study of expert testimony has so far overwhelmingly concentrated on fact-finding and admissibility, the cases here reveal the importance of expert testimony not simply in terms of legal argument, but in "moral" or political terms, as it reflects and constitutes movement cognitive praxis. In the so-called climate change defence presented by the Kingsnorth Six, I argue that expert testimony attained a "negotiation of proximity," connecting different types of contributory expertise to link the scales and registers of climate science with those of everyday understanding and meaning. Expert testimony in the trials of activists in France, however, whilst ostensibly able to develop similar bridging narratives, has instead been used to construct resistance to the airport siting as already proximate, material, and embedded. To explain this, I argue that attention to the symbolic, as well as instrumental, functions of expert testimony reveals the crucial role that collective memory plays in the construction of both knowledge and grievance in these cases. Collective memory is both a constraint on and catalyst for mobilisation, defining the boundaries of the sayable. Testimony in trials both reflects and reproduces these elements and is a vital explanatory tool for understanding the narrativisation and communication of movement identities and objectives. © 2013 The Author. Law & Policy © 2013 The University of Denver/Colorado Seminary.

Effect of microstructure upon elastic behaviour of human tooth enamel

Tooth enamel is the stiffest tissue in the human body with a well-organized microstructure. Developmental diseases, such as enamel hypomineralisation, have been reported to cause marked reduction in the elastic modulus of enamel and consequently impair dental function. We produce evidence, using site-specific transmission electron microscopy (TEM), of difference in microstructure between sound and hypomineralised enamel. Built upon that, we develop a mechanical model to explore the relationship of the elastic modulus of the mineral-protein composite structure of enamel with the thickness of protein layers and the direction of mechanical loading. We conclude that when subject to complex mechanical loading conditions, sound enamel exhibits consistently high stiffness, which is essential for dental function. A marked decrease in stiffness of hypomineralised enamel is caused primarily by an increase in the thickness of protein layers between apatite crystals and to a lesser extent by an increase in the effective crystal orientation angle. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neurophysiological evaluation of convergent afferents innervating the human esophagus and area of referred pain on the anterior chest wall

Noxious stimuli in the esophagus cause pain that is referred to the anterior chest wall because of convergence of visceral and somatic afferents within the spinal cord. We sought to characterize the neurophysiological responses of these convergent spinal pain pathways in humans by studying 12 healthy subjects over three visits (V1, V2, and V3). Esophageal pain thresholds (Eso-PT) were assessed by electrical stimulation and anterior chest wall pain thresholds (ACW-PT) by use of a contact heat thermode. Esophageal evoked potentials (EEP) were recorded from the vertex following 200 electrical stimuli, and anterior chest wall evoked potentials (ACWEP) were recorded following 40 heat pulses. The fear of pain questionnaire (FPQ) was administered on V1. Statistical data are shown as point estimates of difference +/- 95% confidence interval. Pain thresholds increased between V1 and V3 [Eso-PT: V1-V3 = -17.9 mA (-27.9, -7.9) P < 0.001; ACW-PT: V1-V3 = -3.38 degrees C (-5.33, -1.42) P = 0.001]. The morphology of cortical responses from both sites was consistent and equivalent [P1, N1, P2, N2 complex, where P1 and P2 are is the first and second positive (downward) components of the CEP waveform, respectively, and N1 and N2 are the first and second negative (upward) components, respectively], indicating activation of similar cortical networks. For EEP, N1 and P2 latencies decreased between V1 and V3 [N1: V1-V3 = 13.7 (1.8, 25.4) P = 0.02; P2: V1-V3 = 32.5 (11.7, 53.2) P = 0.003], whereas amplitudes did not differ. For ACWEP, P2 latency increased between V1 and V3 [-35.9 (-60, -11.8) P = 0.005] and amplitudes decreased [P1-N1: V1-V3 = 5.4 (2.4, 8.4) P = 0.01; P2-N2: 6.8 (3.4, 10.3) P < 0.001]. The mean P1 latency of EEP over three visits was 126.6 ms and that of ACWEP was 101.6 ms, reflecting afferent transmission via Adelta fibers. There was a significant negative correlation between FPQ scores and Eso-PT on V1 (r = -0.57, P = 0.05). These data provide the first neurophysiological evidence of convergent esophageal and somatic pain pathways in humans.

Post-national citizenship without post-national identity? A case study of UK immigration policy and intra-EU migration

A key dividing line in the literature on post-national citizenship concerns the role of collective identity. While some hold that a post-national form of identity is desirable in developing citizenship in contexts such as the European Union (EU), others question the defensibility of a collective identity at this supra-national level. The aim of this article is to intervene in this debate, drawing on qualitative research to consider the extent to which post-national citizenship should be accompanied by a form of post-national identity. The article takes the UK as a case study, and explores tensions between the immigration policies and rhetoric of the Coalition Government since 2010 and the post-national citizenship rights of EU citizens migrating into British local communities. It draws on independently collected qualitative data from the county of Herefordshire, UK, to argue that the persistent reinforcement of national identity reproduces national lines of difference which further problematise the full realisation of European citizenship. At a theoretical level, this highlights the need for the development of post-national citizenship rights to be accompanied by a paradigmatic shift in the way that collective identity is constituted in post-national contexts.

"Trade creep" and implications of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement for the United Kingdom National Health Service

The ambitious and comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP/TAFTA) agreement between the European Union and United States is now being negotiated and may have far-reaching consequences for health services. The agreement extends to government procurement, investment, and further regulatory cooperation. In this article, we focus on the United Kingdom National Health Service and how these negotiations can limit policy space to change policies and to regulate in relation to health services, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and health industries. The negotiation of TTIP/TAFTA has the potential to "harmonize" more corporate-friendly regulation, resulting in higher costs and loss of policy space, an example of "trade creep" that potentially compromises health equity, public health, and safety concerns across the Atlantic.

Sub-types of nonbelieved memories reveal differential outcomes of challenges to memories

Nonbelieved memories (NBMs) highlight the independence between metamemorial judgments that contribute to the experience of remembering. Initial definitions of NBMs portrayed them as involving the withdrawal of autobiographical belief despite sustained recollection. While people rate belief for their NBMs as weaker than recollection, the average difference is too small to support the idea that belief is completely withdrawn in all cases. Furthermore, ratings vary considerably across NBMs. In two studies, we reanalyzed reports from prior studies to examine whether NBM reports reflect a single category or multiple sub-categories using cluster analytic methods. In Study 1, we identified three sub-types of NBMs. In Study 2 we incorporated the concept of belief in accuracy, and found that two of the clusters from Study 1 split into two clusters apiece. Higher ratings of recollection than belief in occurrence characterized all clusters, which were differentiated by the degree of difference between these variables. In both studies the clusters were differentiated by a number of memory characteristic ratings and by reasons reported as leading to the alteration of belief. Implications for understanding the remembering of past events and predicting the creation of NBMs are discussed.

Interprétation des insultes et relations de solidarité

This article focuses on the empirical domain of the solidarity uses of certain insults in different varieties of French (standard, Quebec, Burgundy) from diachronic and synchronic points of view. Solidarity uses refers to the usage of axiological terms as terms of endearment to mark social proximity between subjects. This value is signalled by morphosyntactic, prosodic and mimeo-gestural features indicating the speaker's disposition towards the addressee. These psychological and social parameters conspire to attenuate the axiological term's argumentative program, which however can never be entirely evacuated. This argumentative program is nevertheless subordinated to pragmatics, which remains necessary in order to evaluate the extent to which the conventional lexical meaning is maintained in these uses. The attenuation of conventional meaning under solidarity uses shows the relevance of relational and attitudinal notions for the negotiation of meaning. It further establishes that at least in some cases, the analysis of linguistic interpretation require a multidisciplinary approach, most specifically where the relation between Semantics and Pragmatics is concerned.