Developmental stability and leadership effectiveness

Developmental stability is the degree to which we can withstand environmental or genetic stressors during development. Fluctuating asymmetry (FA), concerns the extent to which the right and left side of the body is asymmetrical and is one way to measure developmental stability. Two studies were carried out that examined both the predictive value of leader FA with leadership behaviors and its role in facilitating group performance. The first study examined the hypothesis that a leader's FA is correlated with scores on the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). The results revealed individuals with a more asymmetrical morphology scored higher on the transformational, but not transactional, dimensions of leadership behavior. A second study examined the hypothesis that asymmetrical morphology and leadership effectiveness would share a positive relationship. In this study participants who led a business game exercise, revealed a positive relationship between FA and self-reported well-being and task satisfaction. Importantly, there was also a positive correlation between the leader's FA score and group performance. The role that developmental stability may play in leadership effectiveness is discussed in the wider context of evolutionary psychology.

The role of self-regulation as a meta-competency in developing leaders: a longitudinal field experimental study

The question of how to develop leaders so that they are more effective in a variety of situations, roles and levels has inspired a voluminous amount of research. While leader development programs such as executive coaching and 360-degree feedback have been widely practiced to meet this demand within organisations, the research in this area has only scratched the surface. Drawing from the past literature and leadership practices, the current research conceptualised self-regulation, as a metacompetency that would assist leaders to further develop the specific competencies needed to perform effectively in their leadership role, leading to an increased rating of leader effectiveness and to enhanced group performance. To test this conceptualisation, a longitudinal field experimental study was conducted across ten months with a pre- and two post-test intervention designs with a matched control group. This longitudinal field experimental compared the difference in leader and team performance after receiving self-regulation intervention that was delivered by an executive coach. Leaders in experimental group also received feedback reports from 360-degree feedback at each stage. Participants were 40 leaders, 155 followers and 8 supervisors. Leaders’ performance was measured using a multi-source perceptual measure of leader performance and objective measures of team financial and assessment performance. Analyses using repeated measure of ANCOVA on pre-test and two post-tests responses showed a significant difference between leader and team performance between experimental and control group. Furthermore, leader competencies mediated the relationship between self-regulation and performance. The implications of these findings for the theory and practice of leadership development training programs and the impact on organisational performance are discussed.

Pentoxifylline and the behaviour of 29-month female mice

The dimethyl-xanthine derivative pentoxifylline (PTX) increases blood flow through capillaries. In elderly humans the drug leads to improvement in a number of imapired neuropsychological parameters. We now report that oral administration to 29-month female mice (C57, black and tan) over six days induced four different patterns of behavioural reponse: (1) consistent improvement in grooming behaviour throughout the six day trial; (2) significant improvement in light/dark zone curiosity and curiosity towards a strange object on day three, which declined but remained significantly above pre-treatment levels at day 6; (3) an improvement in general activity which only becomes detectable on day six; (4) a significant improvement in rod-walking, rearing an shuttle-box crosses on day three which returned to pre-treatment levels by day 6. Age-related deficits in general activity, grooming and curiosity were completely eliminated by the drug - the mean group performance levels attained those seen in 9-12 month individuals of this strain.

Measurement of implicit leadership theories and their effect on leadership processes and outcomes

The leadership categorisation theory suggests that followers rely on a hierarchical cognitive structure in perceiving leaders and the leadership process, which consists of three levels; superordinate, basic and subordinate. The predominant view is that followers rely on Implicit Leadership Theories (ILTs) at the basic level in making judgments about managers. The thesis examines whether this presumption is true by proposing and testing two competing conceptualisations; namely the congruence between the basic level ILTs (general leader) and actual manager perceptions, and subordinate level ILTs (job-specific leader) and actual manager. The conceptualisation at the job-specific level builds on context-related assertions of the ILT explanatory models: leadership categorisation, information processing and connectionist network theories. Further, the thesis addresses the effects of ILT congruence at the group level. The hypothesised model suggests that Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) will act as a mediator between ILT congruence and outcomes. Three studies examined the proposed model. The first was cross-sectional with 175 students reporting on work experience during a 1-year industrial placement. The second was longitudinal and had a sample of 343 students engaging in a business simulation in groups with formal leadership. The final study was a cross-sectional survey in several organisations with a sample of 178. A novel approach was taken to congruence analysis; the hypothesised models were tested using Latent Congruence Modelling (LCM), which accounts for measurement error and overcomes the majority of limitations of traditional approaches. The first two studies confirm the traditional theorised view that employees rely on basic-level ILTs in making judgments about their managers with important implications, and show that LMX mediates the relationship between ILT congruence and work-related outcomes (performance, job satisfaction, well-being, task satisfaction, intragroup conflict, group satisfaction, team realness, team-member exchange, group performance). The third study confirms this with conflict, well-being, self-rated performance and commitment as outcomes.

DEMOCRACY ISN'T THAT SMART (BUT WE CAN MAKE IT SMARTER): ON LANDEMORE'S DEMOCRATIC REASON

Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016In her recent book, Democratic Reason, Hélène Landemore argues that, when evaluated epistemically, “a democratic decision procedure is likely to be a better decision procedure than any non-democratic decision procedures, such as a council of experts or a benevolent dictator” (p. 3). Landemore's argument rests heavily on studies of collective intelligence done by Lu Hong and Scott Page. These studies purport to show that cognitive diversity – differences in how people solve problems – is actually more important to overall group performance than average individual ability – how smart the individual members are. Landemore's argument aims to extrapolate from these results to the conclusion that democracy is epistemically better than any non-democratic rival. I argue here that Hong and Page's results actually undermine, rather than support, this conclusion. More specifically, I argue that the results do not show that democracy is better than any non-democratic alternative, and that in fact, they suggest the opposite – that at least some non-democratic alternatives are likely to epistemically outperform democracy.

Radium-223 and concomitant therapies in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer: an international, early access, open-label, single-arm phase 3b trial

BACKGROUND: In the previously reported ALSYMPCA trial in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer and symptomatic bone metastases, overall survival was significantly longer in patients treated with radium-223 dichloride (radium-223) than in patients treated with placebo. In this study, we investigated safety and overall survival in radium-223 treated patients in an early access programme done after the ALSYMPCA study and before regulatory approval of radium-223.

METHODS: We did an international, prospective, interventional, open-label, single-arm, phase 3b study. Enrolled patients were aged 18 years or older with histologically or cytologically confirmed progressive bone-predominant metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer with two or more skeletal metastases on imaging (with no restriction as to whether they were symptomatic or asymptomatic; without visceral disease but lymph node metastases were allowed). Patients received intravenous injections of radium-223, 50 kBq/kg (current recommendation 55 kBq/kg after implementation of National Institute of Standards and Technology update on April 18, 2016) every 4 weeks for up to six injections. Other concomitant anticancer therapies were allowed. Primary endpoints were safety and overall survival. The safety and efficacy analyses were done on all patients who received at least one dose of the study drug. The study has been completed, and we report the final analysis here. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01618370, and the European Union Clinical Trials Register, EudraCT number 2012-000075-16.

FINDINGS: Between July 22, 2012, and Dec 19, 2013, 839 patients were enrolled from 113 sites in 14 countries. 696 patients received one or more doses of radium-223; 403 (58%) of these patients had all six planned injections. Any-grade treatment-emergent adverse events occurred in 523 (75%) of 696 patients; any-grade treatment-emergent adverse events deemed to be related to treatment were reported in 281 (40%) patients. The most common grade 3 or worse treatment-related treatment-emergent adverse events were anaemia in 32 (5%) patients, thrombocytopenia in 15 (2%) patients, neutropenia in ten (1%) patients, and leucopenia in nine (1%) patients. Any grade of serious adverse events were reported in 243 (35%) patients. Median follow-up was 7·5 months (IQR 5-11) and 210 deaths were reported; median overall survival was 16 months (95% CI 13-not available [NA]). In an exploratory analysis of overall survival with predefined factors, median overall survival was longer for: patients with baseline alkaline phosphatase concentration less than the upper limit of normal (ULN; median NA, 95% CI 16 months-NA) than for patients with an alkaline phosphatase concentration equal to or greater than the ULN (median 12 months, 11-15); patients with baseline haemoglobin levels 10 g/dL or greater (median 17 months, 14-NA) than for patients with haemoglobin levels less than 10 g/dL (median 10 months, 8-14); patients with a baseline Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS) of 0 (median NA, 17 months-NA) than for patients with an ECOG PS of 1 (median 13 months, 11-NA) or an ECOG PS of 2 or more (median 7 months, 5-11); and for patients with no reported baseline pain (median NA, 16 months-NA) than for those with mild pain (median 14 months, 13-NA) or moderate-severe pain (median 11 months, 9-13). Median overall survival was also longer in patients who received radium-223 plus abiraterone, enzalutamide, or both (median NA, 95% CI 16 months-NA) than in those who did not receive these agents (median 13 months, 12-16), and in patients who received radium-223 plus denosumab (median NA, 15 months-NA) than in patients who received radium-223 without denosumab (median 13 months, 12-NA).

INTERPRETATION: Our findings show that radium-223 can be safely combined with abiraterone or enzalutamide, which are now both part of the standard of care for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Furthermore, our findings extend to patients who were asymptomatic at baseline, unlike those enrolled in the pivotal ALSYMPCA study. The findings of prolonged survival in patients treated with concomitant abiraterone, enzalutamide, or denosumab require confirmation in prospective randomised trials.

FUNDING: Pharmaceutical Division of Bayer.

Inteligência emocional nas organizações: Colaboradores motivados e com desempenho emocionalmente inteligente?

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada para obtenção de grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Social e das Organizações.

Análisis del concepto de liderazgo y sus aplicaciones en el contexto empresarial

El presente trabajo se realizó con el objetivo de tener una visión completa de las teorías del liderazgo, teniendo de este una concepción como proceso y poder examinar las diversas formas de aplicación en las organizaciones contemporáneas. El tema es enfocado desde la perspectiva organizacional, un mundo igualmente complejo, sin desconocer su importancia en otros ámbitos como la educación, la política o la dirección del estado. Su enfoque tiene que ver con el estudio académico del cual es la culminación y se enmarca dentro de la perspectiva constitucional de la Carta Política Colombiana que reconoce la importancia capital que tienen la actividad económica y la iniciativa privada en la constitución de empresas. Las diversas visiones del liderazgo han sido aplicadas de distintas maneras en las organizaciones contemporáneas y han generado diversos resultados. Hoy, no es posible pensar en una organización que no haya definido su forma de liderazgo y en consecuencia, confluyen en el campo empresarial multitud de teorías, sin que pueda afirmarse que una sola de ellas permita el manejo adecuado y el cumplimiento de los objetivos misionales. Por esta razón se ha llegado a concebir el liderazgo como una función compleja, en un mundo donde las organizaciones mismas se caracterizan no solo por la complejidad de sus acciones y de su conformación, sino también porque esta característica pertenece también al mundo de la globalización. Las organizaciones concebidas como máquinas que en sentido metafórico logran reconstituirse sus estructuras a medida que están en interacción con otras en el mundo globalizado. Adaptarse a las cambiantes circunstancias hace de las organizaciones conglomerados en permanente dinámica y evolución. En este ámbito puede decirse que el liderazgo es también complejo y que es el liderazgo transformacional el que más se acerca al sentido de la complejidad.

Rol de las instituciones en el perfil emprendedor

En este documento se encontrarán los resultados de una revisión literaria realizada a una variedad de artículos que en conjunto permiten reconocer las temáticas principales que influyen en la creación de empresa. Lo anterior, con el fin de conocer el rol que tienen las instituciones educativas en la formación de estudiantes emprendedores.

Essays in Gender Economics

This thesis consists of three papers on gender economics. Chapter 1 studies whether people dislike collaborating with someone who corrects them and whether the dislike is stronger when that person is a woman. Having a good relationship with colleagues is integral in group work, potentially leading to successful collaborations. However, there are occasions when people have to correct their colleagues. Using a quasi-laboratory experiment, I find that people, including those with high productivity, are less willing to collaborate with a person who has corrected them even if the correction improves group performance. In addition, I find suggestive evidence that men respond more negatively to women’s corrections, which is not driven by their beliefs about the difference in women’s and men’s abilities. These findings suggest that there is a behavioral bias in group work that distorts the optimal selection of talents and penalizes those who correct others’ mistakes, and the distortion may be stronger when women correct men. Chapter 2 studies the role of gender and cognitive skills on other peoples’ generosity. Using a novel experimental design where I exogenously vary gender and cognitive skills and sufficiently powered analysis, I find neither the two attributes nor their interactions affect other people’s generosity; if anything, people are more generous to women with high potential. Chapter 3 studies how increased legal tolerance toward domestic violence affects married women’s welfare using the domestic violence decriminalization bill introduced to the Russian national congress in 2016. Using difference-in-differences and flexibly controlling for macroeconomic shocks, I find that the bill decreased married women’s life satisfaction and increased depression, especially among those with a college degree and a highly qualified white-collar occupation supposed to be more sensitive to gender regressive atmosphere. Consistent with this conjecture, people became more tolerant toward general and domestic violence after the bill.

Key performance indicators and the balanced scorecard at the Luxury Brand Hotels of Pestana Group

Traditional approaches to evaluate performance in hotels, have mainly used financial measures. Building on Speckbacher et al. (2003), this Work Project aims to design and propose a Balanced Scorecard Type II as a performance measurement/management system for the hospitality industry based on data collected at the Luxury Brand Hotels of Pestana Group. The main contribution is to better align the vision, strategy and financial and non-financial performance measures in this category of hotels, in particular those of Pestana Group, and by doing so, lead their managers to focus on what is really critical and, consequently improve the overall performance.

Performance improvement in mediterranean operations using risk management analysis : Case study of Containerships Group Ltd

Emerging markets of Northern Africa and Turkey provide growth opportunities for logistics service companies in the middle of low growth environment of European Union. The purpose of this research is to explore and analyze the risk factors in container shipping industry and third party logistics (3PL) services. The research empirically examined the risk factors, which are related within the interaction between these two parties in emerging markets of Mediterranean area. The previous studies have provided a valuable insight into the operational risks faced by container shipping industries. However, most of these studies have focused on one or several operational risk factors from a single point of view, and no studies have inclusively examined the possible operational risks faced in the container shipping industry from dual perspective of 3PL provider and its customers. A questionnaire has been deployed to collect related data; and the impacts of the risks were then be assessed and ranked using the method of risk mapping. Respondents were located in Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Research presents the most important risk factors identified, and compares them between 3PL provider and its customers. The research also provide some risk mitigation strategies for the key risk factors, and tried to figure out a common risk picture, which guides the managers in both sides to have a better decisions and as a result, improve the performance of the container shipping operations. Challenge during project execution time was that customers identified vast amount of more risks than what was the case with logistics service operator.

Understanding the financial status of a group of high performance athletes

With the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games quickly approaching, there has been a heightened interest in the performance of Canadian athletes at international competitions (Duffy, 2007; Fidlin, 2005; Longley, 2006). Two significant documents outline Canada's goal to become the number one sporting nation at the 2010 Olympic Games, and improve Canada's performance at the 2008 Olympic Games: Own the Podium and Road to Excellence (Priestner Allinger & Allinger, 2004; Road to Excellence, 2006). These two documents represent heightened interest in the performance of our elite athletes, in conjunction with Canada's hosting status of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The requirements to train and compete at the international level have become more demanding both in terms of financial resources and time commitment. The need to financially assist athletes with their training and competition costs has been an important topic of debate over the past decades (Beamish & Borowy, 1987; Gatehouse, 2004; Macintosh, 1996; Munro, 1970; Owens, 2004). Two sources of fiinding for high performance athletes in Canada are the Athlete Assistance Program (AAP) provided by the Federal Government and the Canadian Olympic Excellence Fund provided by the Canadian Olympic Committee. The importance of these fiinds for athletes has been discussed in various forums (Ekos, 1992, 1997, 2005; Priestner Allinger & Allinger, 2004; Thibault «& Babiak, 2005). However, alternative sources of funds for high performance athletes have never been the object of research. As such the purpose of this study was to describe a group of athlete applicants from the time period of November 2004 to April 2006, and to contextualize these applications within the development of the Charitable Fund for Athletes.

The relationship between performance on the Stanford Achievement Test and the Peabody Individual Achievement test for a group of hearing-impaired children

This paper discusses the Stanford and Peabody tests for achievement and which test is more efficient for hearing impaired children.