Minority influence and innovation:antecedents, processes and consequences

Social groups form an important part of our daily lives. Within these groups pressures exist which encourage the individual to comply with the group’s viewpoint. This influence, which creates social conformity, is known as ‘majority influence’ and is the dominant process of social control. However, there also exists a ‘minority influence’, which emerges from a small subsection of the group and is a dynamic force for social change. Minority Influence and Innovation seeks to identify the conditions under which minority influence can prevail, to change established norms, stimulate original thinking and help us to see the world in new ways. With chapters written by a range of expert contributors, areas of discussion include: •processes and theoretical issues •the factors which affect majority and minority influence •interactions between majority and minority group members This book offers a thorough evaluation of the most important current developments within this field and presents consideration of the issues that will be at the forefront of future research. As such it will be of interest to theorists and practitioners working in social psychology. This book offers a thorough evaluation of the most important current developments within this field and presents consideration of the issues that will be at the forefront of future research. As such it will be of interest to theorists and practitioners working in social psychology.

Full and partial privatization in China:the labor consequences

This paper is the first paper to present findings evaluating the consequences for employees of full and partial privatization using difference-in-differences combined with propensity score matching. We find: (1) partial privatization causes job creation in contrast to full privatization, which destroys jobs, (2) full privatization causes higher labor productivity improvement than partial privatization, (3) wage increases occur only in partially privatized firms and (4) there are small increases in labor quality investment in both cases. The results suggest partial privatization exploits market discipline to induce labor productivity whilst simultaneously providing welfare improvements for labor. This is the ‘win-win’ outcome predicted by the ‘helping hand’ theory of government. Our results suggest that governments are likely to gain wider support for a program of partial privatization rather than full privatization.

Audience design in the police interview:the interactional and judicial consequences of audience orientation

Police-suspect interviews in England & Wales are a multi-audience, multi-purpose, transcontextual mode of discourse. They are conducted as part of the initial investigation into a crime, but are subsequently recontextualised through the judicial process, ultimately being presented in court as evidence against the interviewee. The communicative challenges posed by multiple future audiences are investigated by applying Bell’s (1984) audience design model to the police interview, and the resulting "poor fit" demonstrates why this context is discursively counter-intuitive to participants. Further, data analysis indicates that interviewer and interviewee, although ostensibly addressing each other, may orientate to different audiences, with potentially serious consequences. As well as providing new insight into police-suspect interview interaction, this article seeks to extend understanding of the influence of audience on interaction at the discourse level, and to contribute to the development of theoretical models for contexts with multiple or asynchronous audiences.

Properties of intention:component structure and consequences for behavior, information processing and resistance

Three studies tested the impact of properties of behavioral intention on intention-behavior consistency, information processing, and resistance. Principal components analysis showed that properties of intention formed distinct factors. Study 1 demonstrated that temporal stability, but not the other intention attributes, moderated intention-behavior consistency. Study 2 found that greater stability of intention was associated with improved memory performance. In Study 3, participants were confronted with a rating scale manipulation designed to alter their intention scores. Findings showed that stable intentions were able to withstand attack. Overall, the present research findings suggest that different properties of intention are not simply manifestations of a single underlying construct ("intention strength"), and that temporal stability exhibits superior resistance and impact compared to other intention attributes. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Undermining patient and public engagement and limiting its impact:the consequences of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 on collective patient and public involvement

Patient and public involvement has been at the heart of UK health policy for more than two decades. This commitment to putting patients at the heart of the British National Health Service (NHS) has become a central principle helping to ensure equity, patient safety and effectiveness in the health system. The recent Health and Social Care Act 2012 is the most significant reform of the NHS since its foundation in 1948. More radically, this legislation undermines the principle of patient and public involvement, public accountability and returns the power for prioritisation of health services to an unaccountable medical elite. This legislation marks a sea-change in the approach to patient and public involvement in the UK and signals a shift in the commitment of the UK government to patient-centred care. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Attentional inhibition has social-emotional consequences for unfamiliar faces

Visual attention studies often rely on response time measures to show the impact of attentional facilitation and inhibition. Here we extend the investigation of the effects of attention on behavior and show that prior attentional states associated with unfamiliar faces can influence subsequent social-emotional judgments about those faces. Participants were shown pairs of face images and were asked to withhold a response if a transparent stop-signal cue appeared over one of the faces. This served to associate the cued face with an inhibitory state. Later, when asked to make social-emotional choices about these face pairs, participants chose uncued faces more often than cued faces as "more trustworthy" and chose cued faces more often than uncued faces as "less trustworthy." For perceptual choices, there was no effect of how the question was framed (which face is "on a lighter background" vs. "on a darker background"). These results suggest that attentional inhibition can be associated with socially relevant stimuli, such as faces, and can have specific, deleterious effects on social-emotional judgments.

Adaptive responses of the embryo to maternal diet and consequences for post-implantation development

Maternal periconceptional (PC) nutrition, coupled with maternal physiological condition, can impact on reproductive performance and potential across mammalian species. Oocyte quality and embryo development are affected adversely by either nutrient restriction or excess. Moreover, the quality of maternal PC nutrition can have lasting effects through fetal development and postnatally into adulthood. Chronic disease, notably cardiovascular and metabolic disease, and abnormal behaviour have been identified in adult offspring in small and large animal models of PC nutrient restriction. These long-term effects associate with compensatory responses that begin from the time of early embryo development. This review assesses the field of PC nutrition in vivo on short- and long-term developmental consequences in rodent and ruminant models and considers the implications for human health. © IETS 2012.

Climate change and construction sector SMEs:vulnerability, consequences and resilience

Climate change has become one of the prime challenges the society has to face in the future. As far as businesses are concerned, it also has added one other important issue that they have to consider as part of their business planning. Climate change is of significant importance particularly to the Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are considered as the most vulnerable among the business community to the effects of climate change. This paper presents the findings of a literature review conducted with the aim of identifying the specific importance of climate change to the construction sector SMEs. The objectives of the paper are to identify the vulnerability of construction sector SMEs to the effects of climate change, their consequences and also to identify the importance of improving resilience and implementing adaptive measures to manage these issues. The paper also outlines the directions of a study undertaken to address these issues as part of an EPSRC funded research project titled “Community Resilience to Extreme Weather Events – CREW”. The paper concludes by stressing the importance of improving the resilience of construction sector SMEs to climate change effects and also the importance of collective action in this regard.

Financial consequences of one-stop dispensing at Birmingham Children's Hospital

Poster session - Costs for one stop dispensing and the use of patients’ own drugs (PODs) were compared with traditional dispensing costs - It was found that operating a one-stop dispensing scheme, with the use of PODs where applicable, could save an average of £4.35 per patient per day on ward A and £5.19 per patient per day on ward B - These saving would equate to annual savings of £24,000 on ward A and £34,000 on ward B - Additional savings can be made to the secondary care budget as no in-patient drugs would be wasted upon patient discharge - These additional savings are an average £25.19 per patient on ward A and £13.42 per patient on ward B

24-Karat or fool’s gold? Consequences of real team and co-acting group membership in healthcare organizations

Although theory on team membership is emerging, limited empirical attention has been paid to the effects of different types of team membership on outcomes. We propose that an important but overlooked distinction is that between membership of real teams and membership of co-acting groups, with the former being characterized by members who report that their teams have shared objectives, and structural interdependence and engage in team reflexivity. We hypothesize that real team membership will be associated with more positive individual- and organizational-level outcomes. These predictions were tested in the English National Health Service, using data from 62,733 respondents from 147 acute hospitals. The results revealed that individuals reporting the characteristics of real team membership, in comparison with those reporting the characteristics of co-acting group membership, witnessed fewer errors and incidents, experienced fewer work related injuries and illness, were less likely to be victims of violence and harassment, and were less likely to intend to leave their current employment. At the organizational level, hospitals with higher proportions of staff reporting the characteristics of real team membership had lower levels of patient mortality and sickness absence. The results suggest the need to clearly delineate real team membership in order to advance scientific understanding of the processes and outcomes of organizational teamwork.

The antecedents and consequences of anticipatory identification

The aim of this thesis was to investigate anticipatory identification: newcomers’ identification with an organisation prior to entry; in particular by exploring the antecedents and consequences of the construct. Although organisational identification has been frequently investigated over the past 25 years, surprisingly little is known about what causes an individual to identify with a new organisation before entry and whether this has an impact on their relationship with the organisation after formally taking up membership. Drawing on a Social Identity approach to organisational identification, it was hypothesised that newcomers would more closely identify with an organisation prior to entry when the organisation was seen as a source of positive social identity and was situationally relevant and meaningful to the newcomer, i.e. salient, during the pre-entry period. It was also hypothesised that anticipatory identification would have post-entry consequences and would predict newcomers’ post-entry identification, turnover intentions and job satisfaction. An indirect relationship between anticipatory identification and post-entry identification through post-entry social identity judgements (termed a “feedback loop” mechanism) was additionally proposed. Finally anticipatory identification was also predicted to moderate the relationship between post-entry social identity judgements and post-entry identification (termed a “buffering” mechanism). Four studies were conducted to test these hypotheses. Study One served as a pilot study, using a retrospective self-report design with s sample of 124 university students to initially test the proposed conceptual model. Studies Two and Three adopted experimental designs. Each used a unique sample of 72 staff and students from Aston University to respectively test the hypothesised positive social identity motive and salience antecedents of anticipatory identification. Study Four explored the relationship between anticipatory identification, its antecedents and consequences longitudinally, using an organisational sample of 45 employees. Overall, these studies found support for a social identity motive antecedent of anticipatory identification, as well as more limited evidence that anticipatory identification was associated with the salience of an organisation prior to entry. Support was inconsistent for a direct relationship between anticipatory identification and post-entry identification and there was no evidence that anticipatory identification was a significant direct predictor of turnover intention and job satisfaction. Anticipatory identification was however found to act as a buffer in the relationship between post-entry social identity judgements and post-entry identification in all but one of the four samples measured. A feedback loop mechanism was observed within the experimental designs of Studies Two and Three, but not within the organisational samples of Studies One and Four. Overall the findings of these four studies highlight key ways through which anticipatory identification can develop prior to entry into an organisation. Moreover, the research observed several important post-entry consequences of anticipatory identification, indicating that an understanding of post-entry identification may be enriched by attending more closely to the extent to which newcomers identify with an organisation prior to entry.

Supply market uncertainty:exploring consequences and responses within sustainability transitions

Often it is commercial, not technological, factors which hinder the adoption of potentially valuable innovations. In energy policy, much attention is given to analysing and incentivising consumer demand for renewable energy, but new technologies may also need new supply markets, to provide products and services to build, operate and maintain the innovative technology. This paper addresses the impact of supply constraints on the long-term viability of sustainability related innovations, using the case of bioenergy from organic waste. Uncertainties in the pricing and availability of feedstock (i.e. waste) may generate market deadlock and deter potential investors. We draw on prior research to conceptualise the problem, and identify what steps might be taken to address it. We propose a research agenda aimed at purchasing and supply scholars and centred on the need to understand better the interplay between market evolution and supply uncertainty and 'market shaping' - how stakeholders can legitimately influence supply market evolution - to support the adoption of sustainability related innovation.

Exploring oxidative modifications of tyrosine:an update on mechanisms of formation, advances in analysis and biological consequences

Protein oxidation is increasingly recognised as an important modulator of biochemical pathways controlling both physiological and pathological processes. While much attention has focused on cysteine modifications in reversible redox signalling, there is increasing evidence that other protein residues are oxidised in vivo with impact on cellular homeostasis and redox signalling pathways. A notable example is tyrosine, which can undergo a number of oxidative post-translational modifications to form 3-hydroxy-tyrosine, tyrosine crosslinks, 3-nitrotyrosine and halogenated tyrosine, with different effects on cellular functions. Tyrosine oxidation has been studied extensively in vitro, and this has generated detailed information about the molecular mechanisms that may occur in vivo. An important aspect of studying tyrosine oxidation both in vitro and in biological systems is the ability to monitor the formation of oxidised derivatives, which depends on a variety of analytical techniques. While antibody-dependent techniques such as ELISAs are commonly used, these have limitations, and more specific assays based on spectroscopic or spectrometric techniques are required to provide information on the exact residues modified and the nature of the modification. These approaches have helped understanding of the consequences of tyrosine oxidation in biological systems, especially its effects on cell signalling and cell dysfunction, linking to roles in disease. There is mounting evidence that tyrosine oxidation processes are important in vivo and can contribute to cellular pathology.