Effectiveness of personal planning for residents re-entering the community during the facility initiative in Ontario

This paper reports on the relocation of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) from large-scale provincially run institutions that took place in Ontario as part of the Facility Initiative. Three case studies were examined in order to report on this process as experienced by those who lived and worked through it. Specifically, the planning process conducted by the Ministry of Community and Social Services (MCSS) to assist each person with hislher transition to community living was examined using the current standard of practice in person- centered planning approaches. Effectiveness was evaluated as the ability to apply a person-centered approach across settings and people, as well as what factors facilitated or hindered its application. Results show that, in general, the personal plans do not appear to reflect the pre-transition experience of the person. Also, the transitional planning process did not appear person-centered nor facilitate further person-centered planning in the community.

Explaining voice behaviour: The roles of personal resources, social interdependence, and supervisor leadership style

This study contributes to current research on voice behaviour by investigating several under-explored drivers that motivate employees’ expression of constructive ideas about work-related issues. It draws from the concept of psychological climate to examine how voice behaviour is influenced by employees’ (1) personal resources (tenacity and passion for work), (2) perceptions of social interdependence (task and outcome interdependence), and (3) supervisor leadership style (transformational and transactional). Using a multi-source research design, surveys were administered to 226 employees and to 24 supervisors at a Canadian-based not-for-profit organization. The hypotheses are tested with hierarchical regression analysis. The results indicate that employees are more likely to engage in voice behaviour to the extent that they exhibit higher levels of passion for work. Further, their voice behaviour is lower to the extent that their supervisor adopts a transformational leadership style characterized by high performance expectations or a transactional leadership style based on contingent rewards and contingent punishment behaviours. The study reveals that there are no significant effects of tenacity, social interdependence, and behaviour-focused transformational leadership on voice. The findings have significant implications for organizations that seek to encourage employee behaviours that help improve current work practices or undo harmful situations.

The Impact of Personal Trainer’s Leadership Style on Self-Presentational Concerns, Enjoyment, Task Self-Efficacy and Intention to Exercise in an Introductory Weight Training Orientation

The purpose of the present study was to examine two leadership styles of personal trainers (bland versus enriched) to evaluate their effects on exercise-related outcomes. Participants were 103 university women with no previous experience weight training. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two leadership style conditions. They completed primary measures prior to being introduced to the personal trainer. Next, participants completed an introductory weight training session, followed by post-manipulation measures. The leadership styles were successfully manipulated. Participants in the enriched leadership style condition reported significantly higher levels of enjoyment and intention to exercise. Participants in the bland leadership style condition reported significantly higher levels of social anxiety; no differences were found for task self-efficacy, self-presentational efficacy, social physique anxiety, or handgrip performance between groups. Thus, an enriched leadership style of personal trainers can increase positive psychological outcomes.

The Macroeconomic Effects of Infrequent Information with Adjustment Costs

In the last decade, the potential macroeconomic effects of intermittent large adjustments in microeconomic decision variables such as prices, investment, consumption of durables or employment – a behavior which may be justified by the presence of kinked adjustment costs – have been studied in models where economic agents continuously observe the optimal level of their decision variable. In this paper, we develop a simple model which introduces infrequent information in a kinked adjustment cost model by assuming that agents do not observe continuously the frictionless optimal level of the control variable. Periodic releases of macroeconomic statistics or dividend announcements are examples of such infrequent information arrivals. We first solve for the optimal individual decision rule, that is found to be both state and time dependent. We then develop an aggregation framework to study the macroeconomic implications of such optimal individual decision rules. Our model has the distinct characteristic that a vast number of agents tend to act together, and more so when uncertainty is large. The average effect of an aggregate shock is inversely related to its size and to aggregate uncertainty. We show that these results differ substantially from the ones obtained with full information adjustment cost models.

The Credibility and Authoritativeness of Documentary Information in Determining Refugee Status: The Canadian Experience

This article reviews the origins of the Documentation, Information and Research Branch (the 'Documentation Center') of Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), established in 1988 as a part of a major revision of the procedure for determination of refugee status. The Documentation Center conducts research to produce documents describing conditions in refugee-producing countries, and also disseminates information from outside. The information is available to decision-makers, IRB staff, counsel and claimants. Given the importance of decisions on refugee status, the article looks at the credibility and the authoritativeness of the information, by analyzing the structure of information used. It recalls the different types of information 'package' produced, such as a country profiles and the Question and Answer Series, the Weekly Madia Review, the 'Perspectives' series, Responses to Information Requests and Country files, and considers the trend towards standardization across the country. The research process is reviewed, as are the hiring criteria for researchers, the composition of the 'collection', how acquisitions are made, and the development of databases, particularly on country of origin (human rights material) and legal information, which are accessible on-line. The author examines how documentary information can be used by decision-makers to draw conclusions as to whether the claim has a credible basis or the claimant has a well-founded fear of persecution. Relevant caselaw is available to assess and weigh the claim. The experience of Amnesty International in similar work is cited for comparative purposes. A number of 'safeguards' are mentioned, which contribute to the goal of impartiality in research, or which otherwise enhance the credibility of the information, and the author suggests that guidelines might be drafted to explain and assist in the realization of these aims. Greater resources might also enable the Center to undertake the task of 'certifying' the authoritativeness of sources. The author concludes that, as a new institution in Canadian administrative law, the Documentation Center opens interesting avenues for the future. Beacause it ensures an acceptable degree of impartiality of its research and the documents it produces, it may be a useful model for others tribunals adjudicating in fields where evidence is either difficult to gather, or is otherwise complex.

Some Efficient Representations of 3D Information based on Octress

The thesis introduced the octree and addressed the complete nature of problems encountered, while building and imaging system based on octrees. An efficient Bottom-up recursive algorithm and its iterative counterpart for the raster to octree conversion of CAT scan slices, to improve the speed of generating the octree from the slices, the possibility of utilizing the inherent parallesism in the conversion programme is explored in this thesis. The octree node, which stores the volume information in cube often stores the average density information could lead to “patchy”distribution of density during the image reconstruction. In an attempt to alleviate this problem and explored the possibility of using VQ to represent the imformation contained within a cube. Considering the ease of accommodating the process of compressing the information during the generation of octrees from CAT scan slices, proposed use of wavelet transforms to generate the compressed information in a cube. The modified algorithm for generating octrees from the slices is shown to accommodate the eavelet compression easily. Rendering the stored information in the form of octree is a complex task, necessarily because of the requirement to display the volumetric information. The reys traced from each cube in the octree, sum up the density en-route, accounting for the opacities and transparencies produced due to variations in density.

Influence of personality factors on the consumption of personal care products

This research was undertaken with the primary objective of explaining differences in consumption of personal care products using personality variables. Several streams of research reported were reviewed and a conceptual model was developed. Theories on the relationship between self concept and behaviour was reviewed and the need to use individual difference variables to conceptualize and measure the salient dimensions of the self were emphasized. Theories relating to social comparison, eating disorders, role of idealized media images in shaping the self-concept, evidence on cosmetic surgery and persuasibility were reviewed in the study. These came from diverse fields like social psychology, use of cosmetics, women studies, media studies, self-concept literature in psychology and consumer research, and marketing. From the review three basic dimensions, namely self-evaluation, self-awareness and persuasibility were identified and they were posited to be related to consumption. Several personality variables from these conceptual domains were identified and factor analysis confirmed the expected structure fitting the basic theoretical dimensions. Demographic variables like gender and income were also considered.It was found that self-awareness measured by the variable public self-consciousness explain differences in consumption of personal care products. The relationship between public self-consciousness and consumption was found to be most conspicuous in cases of poor self-, evaluation measured by self-esteem. Susceptibility to advertising also was found to explain differences in consumption.From the research, it may be concluded that personality variables are useful for explaining consumption and they must be used together to explain and understand the process. There may not be obvious and conspicuous links between individual measures and behaviour in marketing. However, when used in proper combination and with the help oftheoretical models personality offers considerable explanatory power as illustrated in the seventy five percent accuracy rate of prediction obtained in binary logistic regression.

Career Advancement of MBAs: A study on the effect of personal, professional,organisational and environmental variables

School of Management Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology

Influence of personality factors on the consumption of personal care products

The study is significant from both an application perspective of marketing management as well as from an academic angle. The market for personal care products is a highly fragmented one, with intense competition for specific niche segments. It is well known in marketing literature that the bulk of the volume of sale is accounted for by the minority who are the heavy users. This study will help the marketers to identify the personality profile of such a group and understand how the interaction of personality factors at least partially explains differences in consumption. This knowledge might be useful for better segmentation using psychographic variables as well as for designing specific advertisement campaigns to target the vulnerable groups of customers. From a theoretical perspective, the research may contribute to understanding how specific personality variables and their interaction lead to differences in consumption. The knowledge corresponding to self theory, social comparison theory, persuasibility, evidence from psychology of eating disorders: these all may be integrated into a common frame work for explaining consumption of products having a social function.

Use of Online Information Resources for Knowledge Organisation in Library and Information Centres: A Case Study of CUSAT

The paper discusses the use of online information resources for organising knowledge in library and information centres in Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT). The paper discusses the status and extent of automation in CUSAT library. The use of different online resources and the purposes for which these resources are being used, is explained in detail. Structured interview method was applied for collecting data. It was observed that 67 per cent users consult online resources for assisting knowledge organisation. Library of Congress catalogue is the widely used (100 per cent) online resource followed by OPAC of CUSAT and catalogue of British Library. The main purposes for using these resources are class number building and subject indexing