Leader-Member Exchange Paying Attention to Immediate Subordinate Pays Off

The author provides a brief review of leadership seen from the dyadic perspective, also known as leader-member exchange (LMX). This perspective focuses on the relationship between leaders and their immediate subordinates as individuals, with a review of the potential benefits and importance of this perspective. It is evident that hospitality leaders, managers, and supervisors and their organizations may gain much by paying attention to the relationship they have and that they develop with their immediate subordinates

A qualitative case study of teacher perceptions and concerns during the implementation of literacy folders in a select elementary school in Broward County, Florida

Classroom teachers are often required to implement new procedures or practices in response to local or federal education mandates. Attempts to implement innovations, often do not take into account the personal side of change; the perceptions, concerns and needs of those required to implement the innovation. One innovation that was required by the School Board of Broward County, Florida for all elementary classroom teachers was the implementation of Literacy Folders. ^ This study attempted to address the personal side of change by identifying teacher concerns during the implementation of Literacy Folders in a select elementary school in Broward County Florida. The Concerns Based Adoption model (CBAM) for change was used as the conceptual framework for this qualitative case study. ^ Sources of data for this study included participant interviews, observations and analysis of documents. Informal conversations with the participants and unscheduled classroom visits were also sources of data. Seven classroom teachers were interviewed using a predesigned interview guide developed based on the CBAM of change, specifically the Stages of Concern Dimension. Participant responses were coded into two categories, (a) recollections of past perceptions, and (b) present perceptions regarding the innovation. ^ Data analysis resulted in the emergence of one major theme and two subordinate themes. The themes were related to time and purpose of the innovation. The researcher also discovered that the participants exhibited responses typically representative of the CBAM for individuals who are in the process of adjusting to a new innovation. ^ Recommendations based on participant concerns are made for improving the implementation of the innovation. Recommendations for alternatives to the innovation and suggestions regarding areas for further research in the field of educational change are also made. ^

Personality and job performance: The mediating roles of leader -member exchange quality and action control

The present investigation examined the relationships among personality (as conceptualized by the Big Five Factors), leader-member exchange (LMX) quality, action control, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), and overall job performance (OJP). Two mediator variables were proposed and tested in this study: LMX and Action Control. Two-hundred and seven currently employed regular elementary school classroom teachers provided data during the 2000–2001 academic school year. Teachers provided personality, LMX quality (member or subordinate perspective), action control, job tenure, and demographic data. Nine school administrators (i.e., Principals, Assistant Principals) were the source for supervisor ratings of OCB, OJP, and LMX quality (leader or supervisor perspective). In eight of the nine total schools, teachers completed questionnaires during an after-school teacher gathering; in the remaining school location questionnaires were dropped off, distributed to teachers, and re-collected two weeks later. Results indicated a significant relationship between the OCB scale and overall supervisory ratings of OJP. The relationship among the big five factors of personality and OJP did not reach statistical significance, nor did the relationships among personality and OCB. The data indicated that none of the teacher tenure variables (i.e., teacher, school, or time worked with principal tenure) moderated the personality-OCB relationship nor the personality-OJP relationship. Finally, a review of the correlations among the variables of interest precluded conducting a mediation between personality-performance by OCB, mediation of personality-OCB by action control, and mediation of personality-OCB by LMX. In conclusion, the data reveal that personality was not significantly correlated with supervisory ratings of OJP or significantly related to supervisory ratings of overall OCB. Moreover, LMX quality and action control did not mediate the relationships between Personality-OJP nor the Personality-OCB relationship. Significant relationships were found between disengagement and overall LMX quality and between Initiative and overall LMX quality (both LMX-Teacher perspectives) as well as between personality variables and both Disengagement and Initiative action control variables. Despite the limitations inherent in this study, these latter findings suggest “lessons” for teachers and school administrators alike. ^

Exploring calling work orientation: Construct clarity and organizational implications

Employees maintain a personal view toward their work, which can be referred to as their work orientation. Some employees view their work as their life's purpose (i.e., calling work orientation) and they tend to be 1) prosocially motivated, 2) derive meaning from work, and 3) feel that their purpose is from beyond the self. The purpose of the current dissertation was to differentiate calling work orientation from other similar workplace constructs, to investigate the most common covariates of calling work orientation, and to empirically test two possible moderators of the relationship between calling work orientation and work-related outcomes of job satisfaction, job performance, and work engagement. Two independent samples were collected for the purpose of testing hypotheses: data were collected from 520 working students and from 520 non-student employees. Participants from the student sample were recruited at Florida International University, and participants from the employee sample were recruited via the Amazon Mechanical Turk website. Participants from the student sample answered demographic questions and responded to self-report measures of job satisfaction, job performance, work engagement, spirituality, meaningful work, prosocial motivation, and work orientation. The procedure was similar for the employee sample, but their survey also included measures of counterproductive work behaviors, organizational citizenship behaviors, conscientiousness, and numerical ability. Additionally, employees were asked whether they would be willing to have a direct supervisor, peer, co-worker, client, or subordinate rate their job performance. Hierarchical regression findings suggest calling work orientation was predictive of overall job performance above and beyond two common predictors of performance, conscientiousness and numerical ability. The results for the covariate analyses provided evidence that prosocial motivation, meaningful work, and spirituality do play a significant role in the development of an employees' work orientation. Perceived career opportunities moderated the relationship between calling work orientation and job performance for the employee sample. Core self-evaluations moderated the relationship between calling work orientation and job performance, and core self-evaluations moderated the relationship between calling work orientation and work engagement. Collectively, findings from the current study highlight the benefits of examining work orientation in the prediction of workplace outcomes.

Androgen Treatment Increases Female Aggression in the Electric Fish Brachyhypopomus Gauderio

Androgens regulate aggression in male vertebrates however the exact role they play in regulating aggression in females is not as well understood. Female aggression is commonplace in many vertebrate groups where it can provide various advantages to the aggressors. I explored whether androgens serve as important hormonal mediators of aggressive behavior in female electric fish. I paired adult females of the weakly-electric fish Brachyhypopomus gauderio in aggressive encounters and compared bloodtestosterone (T) levels of dominant and subordinate groups. Afterwards, I implanted a new set of females with the androgen 5a-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and compared frequency of different aggressive behaviors to a blank-implanted group. I created dyads ofblank-blank (BB), blank-DHT (BD), and DHT-DHT (DD). I demonstrate that dominant females have higher T-levels than subordinates. I also show that the frequency of aggressive behaviors is dependent upon treatment type. Androgens increased both the intensity and level of female aggression, however the degree and type of aggressive behavior depended on the opponent being fought.

Petrology and geochemistry of some high pressure rocks from northern part of Rio San Juan complex, Dominican Republic

The Rio San Juan Complex is an important occurrence of high pressure/low temperature rocks in the circum-Caribbean region which contains both coherent blueschist units and two varieties of melange in the same area. The melanges contain a diverse assemblage of blocks of various sizes, different degrees of metamorphism, and mineral assemblages. Some high pressure blocks show two stages of metamorphism. The earliest stage is characterized by high pressure-low temperature conditions and the second stage is characterized by high pressure-lower temperature conditions. The geochemistry of thirteen samples from the Rio San Juan Complex has been studied and data have been compared with rocks of adjacent regions. Geochemical evidence indicates that rocks from the Rio San Juan Complex have predominant calc-alkaline affinities with subordinate tholeiitic affinities. This suggests that they have a multiple tectonic provenance.

Exploring Calling Work Orientation: Construct Clarity and Organizational Implications

Employees maintain a personal view toward their work, which can be referred to as their work orientation. Some employees view their work as their life’s purpose (i.e., calling work orientation) and they tend to be 1) prosocially motivated, 2) derive meaning from work, and 3) feel that their purpose is from beyond the self. The purpose of the current dissertation was to differentiate calling work orientation from other similar workplace constructs, to investigate the most common covariates of calling work orientation, and to empirically test two possible moderators of the relationship between calling work orientation and work-related outcomes of job satisfaction, job performance, and work engagement. Two independent samples were collected for the purpose of testing hypotheses: data were collected from 520 working students and from 520 non-student employees. Participants from the student sample were recruited at Florida International University, and participants from the employee sample were recruited via the Amazon Mechanical Turk website. Participants from the student sample answered demographic questions and responded to self-report measures of job satisfaction, job performance, work engagement, spirituality, meaningful work, prosocial motivation, and work orientation. The procedure was similar for the employee sample, but their survey also included measures of counterproductive work behaviors, organizational citizenship behaviors, conscientiousness, and numerical ability. Additionally, employees were asked whether they would be willing to have a direct supervisor, peer, co-worker, client, or subordinate rate their job performance. Hierarchical regression findings suggest calling work orientation was predictive of overall job performance above and beyond two common predictors of performance, conscientiousness and numerical ability. The results for the covariate analyses provided evidence that prosocial motivation, meaningful work, and spirituality do play a significant role in the development of an employees’ work orientation. Perceived career opportunities moderated the relationship between calling work orientation and job performance for the employee sample. Core self-evaluations moderated the relationship between calling work orientation and job performance, and core self-evaluations moderated the relationship between calling work orientation and work engagement. Collectively, findings from the current study highlight the benefits of examining work orientation in the prediction of workplace outcomes.