Involving the family in higher education:do they really matter?

In an ever-changing higher education (HE) environment, institutions are seeing the involvement of parents in students' education increasing. This may partly be due to tuition fees and the introduction of deferred variable tuition fees ("top-up fees") from 2006, and also because of the increased number of students choosing to remain in the family home for the duration of their studies. Many students see their families as the most important source of motivation and advice right through from school age to when they make decisions about HE. In the light of this increase in involvement, institutions need to provide information about, and access to, university to ensure that families are fully prepared and able to support their children throughout the university experience. In recognition of the vital role parents play, the Involving the Family project focuses on parents or key family members from groups currently under-represented in HE in order to increase their awareness and understanding of HE. This article evaluates research undertaken to investigate the views, perceptions and key concerns held by minority ethnic parents with regards to their children and participation in HE. The article then details how these results were utilised in the development of the Involving the Family project.

Heparanase and COX-2 expression as predictors of lymph node metastasis in large, high-grade breast tumors

Background/Aim: Heparanase (HPA) contributes to breast cancer metastasis by facilitating the breakdown of the basement membrane and extracellular matrix. High expression of HPA is thought to be associated with increased nodal involvement and poor survival in patients with breast cancer. Overexpression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in breast cancer is associated with indicators of poor prognosis such as lymph node metastasis, poor differentiation, and large tumor size. The underlying mechanism by which HPA and COX-2 overexpression increases the metastatic potential of breast cancer is not fully-understood. To enhance our understanding over these mechanisms, we aimed to investigate the relationship between the size of the tumor and HPA expression, tumor grade as well as lymph node status in patients with breast cancer. Materials and Methods: Immunohistochemical analysis of HPA and COX-2 expression was performed on 246 breast tumor samples. The expression of HPA was correlated with COX-2 expression, tumor grade, lymph node status, oestrogen receptor status. Results: The overexpression of HPA and COX-2 was associated with increased likelihood of lymph node positivity in large, high-grade tumors. High-grade tumors with size greater than 20 mm, that overexpressed HPA, were 4-times more likely to be associated with lymph node involvement (OR 4.71, CI 1.21-18.25). Whereas, tumors greater than 20 mm in size were 5-times more likely to metastasize to the regional lymph nodes, if associated with overexpression of COX-2 (OR 5.5, CI 1.2-24.8). Conclusion: Expression of HPA appears to be a key mechanism by which large, highgrade breast tumors metastasize to regional lymph nodes, while COX-2 overexpression may be an independent predictor of lymph node positivity.

Building bank brands:how leadership behavior influences employee commitment

Front line employees are critical to service brand success, as their performance brings brand promises to life. Banking employees, like others, must remain committed to their employers, to live the brand, particularly during periods of economic uncertainty and customer frustration. Employees' commitment influences their brand adoption and brand-supporting behavior during service encounters. Effective leadership fosters employee commitment and brand supporting behaviors. This study examines the nature of employee commitment in banking, distinguishing between affective, continuance and normative commitment. The study explores bank leaders, examining whether initiating structure leader behavior or considerate leader behavior is most effective in encouraging employee commitment. Data from a sample of 438 employees in a leading Irish bank reveals the optimal leadership style for employee commitment. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

A computational approach to measuring the correlation between expertise and social media influence for celebrities on microblogs

Social media influence analysis, sometimes also called authority detection, aims to rank users based on their influence scores in social media. Existing approaches of social influence analysis usually focus on how to develop effective algorithms to quantize users’ influence scores. They rarely consider a person’s expertise levels which are arguably important to influence measures. In this paper, we propose a computational approach to measuring the correlation between expertise and social media influence, and we take a new perspective to understand social media influence by incorporating expertise into influence analysis. We carefully constructed a large dataset of 13,684 Chinese celebrities from Sina Weibo (literally ”Sina microblogging”). We found that there is a strong correlation between expertise levels and social media influence scores. Our analysis gave a good explanation of the phenomenon of “top across-domain influencers”. In addition, different expertise levels showed influence variation patterns: e.g., (1) high-expertise celebrities have stronger influence on the “audience” in their expertise domains; (2) expertise seems to be more important than relevance and participation for social media influence; (3) the audiences of top expertise celebrities are more likely to forward tweets on topics outside the expertise domains from high-expertise celebrities.

Patients' and physicians' experiences of atrial fibrillation consultations and anticoagulation decision-making:a multi-perspective IPA design

OBJECTIVE: To explore patients' and physicians' experiences of atrial fibrillation consultations and oral anticoagulation decision-making. DESIGN: Multi-perspective interpretative phenomenological analyses. METHODS: Participants included small homogeneous subgroups: AF patients who accepted (n=4), refused (n=4), or discontinued (n=3) warfarin, and four physician subgroups (n=4 each group): consultant cardiologists, consultant general physicians, general practitioners and cardiology registrars. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. Transcripts were analysed using multi-perspective IPA analyses to attend to individuals within subgroups and making comparisons within and between groups. RESULTS: Three themes represented patients' experiences: Positioning within the physician-patient dyad, Health-life balance, and Drug myths and fear of stroke. Physicians' accounts generated three themes: Mechanised metaphors and probabilities, Navigating toward the 'right' decision, and Negotiating systemic factors. CONCLUSIONS: This multi-perspective IPA design facilitated an understanding of the diagnostic consultation and treatment decision-making which foregrounded patients' and physicians' experiences. We drew on Habermas' theory of communicative action to recommend broadening the content within consultations and shifting the focus to patients' life contexts. Interventions including specialist multidisciplinary teams, flexible management in primary care, and multifaceted interventions for information provision may enable the creation of an environment that supports genuine patient involvement and participatory decision-making.

KM governance:the mechanisms for guiding and controlling KM program

Purpose: To establish and sustain their KM programs organizations need to establish mechanisms to ensure their governance. KM programs require business integration, senior management involvement and decision making authority. The present research investigates the KM governance mechanisms organizations use to guide and control their KM programs. The research seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the governance of KM and to support organizations in the development of their KM programs. Methodology: The study employs multiple case research methodology to analyze the KM governance arrangements of twelve international organizations and identify patterns in their governance configurations. Findings: The analysis identifies a range of structural, process and relational mechanisms that are critical for governing an organizational KM program. Different patterns among the KM governance mechanisms are identified which lead to the development of generic KM governance typologies. Research implications: The development of the KM governance framework allows future research to systematically investigate the KM governance phenomenon. As the present study is based on a configurational analysis future research should particularly target the performance implications of different KM governance configurations. Practical implications: The research provides insights into the diversity of KM governance mechanisms and their impact on a KM program. The KM governance framework can assist managers in reviewing their present and prospective KM programs and thereby support benchmarking or re-organization efforts. Originality: Building on prior research that has focused on individual KM governance aspects, the present study adopts a comprehensive perspective integrating structural, process and relational governance mechanisms.

Conceptualizing leadership perceptions as attitudes:using attitude theory to further the understanding of the relation between leadership and outcomes

Leadership is one of the most examined factors in relation to understanding employee wellbeing and performance. While there are disparate approaches to studying leadership, they share a common assumption that perceptions of a leader's behavior determine reactions to the leader. The concept of leadership perception is poorly understood in most theoretical approaches. To address this, we propose that there are many benefits from examining leadership perceptions as an attitude towards the leader. In this review, we show how research examining a number of aspects of attitudes (content, structure and function) can advance understanding of leadership perceptions and how these affect work-related outcomes. Such a perspective provides a more multi-faceted understanding of leadership perceptions than previously envisaged and this can provide a more detailed understanding of how such perceptions affect outcomes. In addition, we examine some of the main theoretical and methodological implications of viewing leadership perceptions as attitudes to the wider leadership area. The cross-fertilization of research from the attitudes literature to understanding leadership perceptions provides new insights into leadership processes and potential avenues for further research. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

How leadership and commitment influence bank employees' adoption of their bank's values

Retail banking is facing many challenges, not least the loss of its customers' trust and loyalty. The economic crisis is forcing banks to examine their relationships with stakeholders and to offer greater reassurance that their brand promises will be delivered. More than ever, banks need to stand for something positive and valued by stakeholders. One way to achieve this is through paying more attention to brand values. Our article explores how values are adopted by employees within a bank. When employees 'live' their brand's values, their behaviour during customer interactions reflects this, encouraging the strengthening of customer relationships. Specifically, we test the relationship between leadership style, employee commitment, and the adoption of values. Data was collected from a survey of 438 branch employees in a leading Irish retail bank. The study found that a structured and directive leadership style was effective at encouraging the adoption of the bank's values. Moreover, when employees are committed to the organisation, this has a significant impact on their adoption of values. Thus, this study supports the literature which suggests that leadership and commitment are prerequisites for values adoption. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

The involvement/exclusion paradox of spontaneous volunteering:new lessons from winter flood episodes in England

This article focuses on the involvement and management of spontaneous volunteers (SVs). It develops a new theory—which we call the “involvement/exclusion” paradox—about a situation which is frequently manifested when SVs converge in times of disaster. After reviewing research and policy guidance relating to spontaneous volunteering, we present findings from a study of responses to winter flood episodes in England. Taking together the empirical findings and the literature, the article analyzes elements inherent in the involvement/exclusion paradox and develops a conceptual model to illustrate and explain the paradox. Implications for managers and future research are discussed.

The effects of servant leadership on follower performance and well-being:underlying mechanisms, boundary conditions, and the role of training

Based on a review of the servant leadership, well-being, and performance literatures, the first study develops a research model that examines how and under which conditions servant leadership is related to follower performance and well-being alike. Data was collected from 33 leaders and 86 of their followers working in six organizations. Multilevel moderated mediation analyses revealed that servant leadership was indeed related to eudaimonic well-being and lead-er-rated performance via followers’ positive psychological capital, but that the strength and di-rection of the examined relationships depended on organizational policies and practices promot-ing employee health, and in the case of follower performance on a developmental team climate, shedding light on the importance of the context in which servant leadership takes place. In addi-tion, two more research questions resulted from a review of the training literature, namely how and under which conditions servant leadership can be trained, and whether follower performance and well-being follow from servant leadership enhanced by training. We subsequently designed a servant leadership training and conducted a longitudinal field experiment to examine our sec-ond research question. Analyses were based on data from 38 leaders randomly assigned to a training or control condition, and 91 of their followers in 36 teams. Hierarchical linear modeling results showed that the training, which addressed the knowledge of, attitudes towards, and ability to apply servant leadership, positively affected leader and follower perceptions of servant leader-ship, but in the latter case only when leaders strongly identified with their team. These findings provide causal evidence as to how and when servant leadership can be effectively developed. Fi-nally, the research model of Study 1 was replicated in a third study based on 58 followers in 32 teams drawn from the same population used for Study 2, confirming that follower eudaimonic well-being and leader-rated performance follow from developing servant leadership via increases in psychological capital, and thus establishing the directionality of the examined relationships.