Project team trust in leadership and leader values

This international research showed that when senior leaders' values and behaviours were perceived as being congruent by project teams, there was enrichment of interpersonal relationships and a reinforcement of relational trust. Conversely, when leaders' values and behaviours were perceived as not congruent, they were considered to lack integrity and trustworthiness.

Some insights on religion from public goods economics

This paper provides a theoretical discussion on what analytical insight is gained by viewing religion as both a pure and impure public good. It suggests that organized religion converts a public good into an excludable club good and can be viewed as providing both an access regime for this club good as well as acting as an intermediary. Interestingly, this drives a wedge between the ardent and moderate adherents of a religion. It also presents an analysis of trust in social relationships when organized religion works to provide a credible signal of trustworthiness.

Establishing trust in hybrid cloud computing environments

Establishing trust for resource sharing and collaboration has become an important issue in distributed computing environment. In this paper, we investigate the problem of establishing trust in hybrid cloud computing environments. As the scope of federated cloud computing enlarges to ubiquitous and pervasive computing, there will be a need to assess and maintain the trustworthiness of the cloud computing entities. We present a fully distributed framework that enable trust-based cloud customer and cloud service provider interactions. The framework aids a service consumer in assigning an appropriate weight to the feedback of different raters regarding a prospective service provider. Based on the framework, we developed a mechanism for controlling falsified feedback ratings from iteratively exerting trust level contamination due to falsified feedback ratings. The experimental analysis shows that the proposed framework successfully dilutes the effects of falsified feedback ratings, thereby facilitating accurate and fair assessment of the service reputations.

Understanding the conditions of trust in the ALT and AMT relationships in project alliancing

This research also aims to develop a robust trust framework which can improve the understanding of the theory to support trust in alliancing, in particular the ALT and AMT relationship to improve project success factors. Research in trust within the construction industry has not yet examined how the relational signals within the five situations in the normative framework identified by Siegwart Lindenberg affect the level of trustworthiness between partners. More research is necessary to explore potential frameworks that can be used as the basis for future research in trust. Data from previous research in the performance of alliance has been used to verify the proposed framework. The framework will be developed in the ALT and AMT relationship to improve project success factors within the alliance. The originality of this research is trying to understand trust in the context of project alliancing in Australia as there are an increasing number of construction projects using the alliancing procurement method. Additionally, this research is examining the conditions of trust from the ALT and AMT teams specifically formed for the collaboration of project alliancing.

Trust/worthiness and accountability

Based on recent research with Indigenous people in south eastern Australia and non-Indigenous supporters of their struggles, this paper explores the question of trust: something that recurred in non-Indigenous people's thinking about their work. It looks at different approaches to working in a context in which distrust is well-founded. The paper suggests a revisiting of key works on accountability as a possible resource for transformative relationships.

Perceptions of corporate social responsibility amongst immigrant entrepreneurs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the understanding of the term corporate social responsibility (CSR) by Sri Lankan immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia. It also seeks to investigate the importance the entrepreneurs place on CSR, their understanding of stakeholders, the types of CSR activities undertaken by them, and the issue of social capital.

Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with Sri Lankan entrepreneurs based in Victoria, Australia.

Findings – The interviewees were aware of the term CSR but, nevertheless, had different interpretations of its meaning. However, CSR was considered important and all the interviewees were, in some way, involved in CSR activities and also had a good understanding of the importance of their stakeholders. Findings also highlighted the significance attached to social capital by the entrepreneurs such as informal relationships and trustworthiness which build the intangible attributes of CSR. The present findings can be attributed to immigrant entrepreneurs behaving partly to adapt to the host country, by changing their beliefs, values, traditions and partly by being influenced by their home country culture as found in the extended part of this current study.

Research limitations/implications – This paper addresses gaps in the fields of both CSR and immigrant entrepreneurship literature. However, the small sample size is a limitation and further research is required in order to generalize the findings.

Originality/value – It is important to have an understanding of the interpretation of social responsibility amongst immigrant entrepreneurs. Despite the steadily growing number of Sri Lankan immigrant entrepreneurs and their potential impact on the Victorian and Australian socio-economic context, this area remains under-researched. This paper addresses this gap in the literature and makes an attempt to provide insight into this area that can be used as a catalyst for future research.

Transfer of electronic commerce trust between brick-and-mortar and online business environments

Through experimentation, we establish a causal relationship between trust and the expansion of a retailer from online to brick-and-mortar and vice versa. Trust is multidimensional and contingent on the distribution path first chosen. Vendor trustworthiness (knowledge-based) and technological trustworthiness (institution-based) have different effects depending on the initial and new distribution channel. Expanding from brick-and-mortar to online negatively affects technology-based trust, while transfers from an online to a physical location maintain the same level of technology-based trust. Vendor-based trust is positively affected by transfer from online to the brick-and-mortar location, and is not significantly unaffected by transfers from brick and-mortar to online locations. The perceived “permanence” of a physical location influences consumer beliefs about the location’s trustworthiness.

Resident well‐being, community connections, and neighbourhood perceptions, pride, and opportunities among disadvantage metropolitan and regional communities : evidence from the neighbourhood renewal project.

The current study aims investigate the relationship between participants’ neighbourhood perceptions and social capital and resident well-being using data from the Neighbourhood Renewal Project (NRP; n = 7855). Resident well-being was positively associated with the quality of the physical environment and safety of the neighbourhood, but negatively associated with government trustworthiness and community connections. Life satisfaction had a positive relationship with community connections, resident well-being, as well as quality of community services and safety. We conclude that free or low-cost opportunities to engage and connect with neighbours through participation in activities such as sporting groups, volunteer organizations, and leisure/hobby groups may increase life satisfaction of individuals in a neighbourhood, particularly for those living in low socioeconomic or stigmatized areas.

Advancements in research synthesis methods: From a methodologically inclusive perspective

The dominant literature on research synthesis methods has positivist and neo-positivist origins. In recent years, the landscape of research synthesis methods has changed rapidly to become inclusive. This article highlights methodologically inclusive advancements in research synthesis methods. Attention is drawn to insights from interpretive, critical, and participatory traditions for enhancing trustworthiness, utility, and/or emancipatory potential for research syntheses. Also noted is a paucity of the literature that builds connections between methodologically diverse segments of the literature on research synthesis methods. Salient features of a methodologically inclusive research synthesis (MIRS) framework are described. The MIRS framework has been conceptualized by distilling and synthesizing ideas, theories, and strategies from the extensive literatures on research synthesis methods and primary research methods. Rather than prescribe how a research synthesis should be conducted or evaluated, this article attempts to open spaces, raise questions, explore possibilities, and contest taken-for-granted practices.

Online health information seeking: How people with multiple sclerosis find, assess and integrate treatment information to manage their health

Background and objective: The Internet is increasingly prominent as a source of health information for people with multiple sclerosis (MS). But there has been little exploration of the needs, experiences and preferences of people with MS for integrating treatment information into decision making, in the context of searching on the Internet. This was the aim of our study. Design: Sixty participants (51 people with MS; nine family members) took part in a focus group or online forum. They were asked to describe how they find and assess reliable treatment information (particularly online) and how this changes over time. Thematic analysis was underpinned by a coding frame. Results: Participants described that there was both too much information online and too little that applied to them. They spoke of wariness and scepticism but also empowerment. The availability of up-to-date and unbiased treatment information, including practical and lifestyle-related information, was important to many. Many participants were keen to engage in a 'research partnership' with health professionals and developed a range of strategies to enhance the trustworthiness of online information. We use the term 'self-regulation' to capture the variations in information seeking behaviour that participants described over time, as they responded to their changing information needs, their emotional state and growing expertise about MS. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Early career teacher attrition: new thoughts on an intractable problem

Early career exit from teaching has reached epidemic proportions and appears intractable. Previous attempts to find solutions are yet to make much of an inroad. The aim of the research was to discover what nine beginning teachers required to remain in the classroom, by adopting a phenomenological approach. The authors identified participants’ common experiences through semi-structured interviews and unprompted written narratives. Data were examined for trustworthiness by reference to the literature. Key words from the narratives were synonyms, or broadly synonymous with, optimism, arrested development or disillusionment. The process of leaving involved entry, characterised by optimism; early experiences, characterised by arrested development; pre-exit, characterised by disillusionment; and exit.

A framework for mobile elearning (mLearning) with analytical decision model

Mobile eLearning (mLearning) can create a revolution in eLearning with the popularity of smart mobile devices and Application. However, contents are the king to make this revolution happen. Moreover, for an effective mLearning system, analytical aspects such as, quality of contents, quality of results, performance of learners, needs to be addressed. This paper presents a framework for personal mLearning. In this paper, we have used graph-based model called bipartite graph for content authentication and identification of the quality of results. Furthermore, we have used statistical estimation process for trustworthiness of weights in the bipartite graph using confidence interval and hypothesis test as analytical decision model tool.

Occupational therapists' experiences of career progression following promotion

BACKGROUND/AIM: The recruitment and retention of a skilled occupational therapy workforce is highlighted as a key issue for the profession, and yet there have been relatively few studies into the career progression of occupational therapists. METHODS: A qualitative, naturalistic approach was adopted to answer the research question, using semi-structured interviews to gather data. Eleven purposefully selected participants at an Australian health service were interviewed as part of this study. Categories representing the most common themes and topics supplied by participants within their individual interviews were identified and consolidated by the research team. The trustworthiness of this study was supported by strategies to maximise its credibility, dependability and confirmability. RESULTS: Four main themes were elicited from the data - (i) Readiness for progression, (ii) Tools and processes, (iii) Expectations and (iv) What I wish I had known first. Within these themes, related findings were also identified by both Grade 2 and Grade 3 staff. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that the readiness of occupational therapists to climb the career ladder is influenced by the tools and processes they can utilise, and the expectations they have around the realities of their new position. With hindsight, participants highlighted some things they wish they had known at the time of transition, which appeared to have been implicit. SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY: This study is the first to address the common issues for occupational therapy staff around progression between grade levels. It therefore provides a basis for further research in other practice settings and for the development of supports for therapists climbing the career ladder.

Servant leadership, trust, and the organizational commitment of public sector employees in China

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. So-called servant leaders strive selflessly and altruistically to assist others before themselves, work to develop their followers' greatest potential, and seek to benefit the wider community. This article examines the trust-based mechanisms by which servant leadership influences organizational commitment in the Chinese public sector, using data from a survey of civil servants. Quantitative analysis shows that servant leadership strongly influences affective and normative commitment, while having no impact on continuance commitment. Furthermore, we find that affective trust rather than cognitive trust is the mechanism by which servant leadership induces higher levels of commitment. Our findings suggest that in a time of decreasing confidence levels in public leaders, servant leadership behaviour may be used to re-establish trust and create legitimacy for the Chinese civil service.

Optimized Water Demand Management Through Intelligent Sensing And Analytics: The WISDOM Approach

New business and technology platforms are required to sustainably manage urban water resources [1,2]. However, any proposed solutions must be cognisant of security, privacy and other factors that may inhibit adoption and hence impact. The FP7 WISDOM project (funded by the European Commission - GA 619795) aims to achieve a step change in water and energy savings via the integration of innovative Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) frameworks to optimize water distribution networks and to enable change in consumer behavior through innovative demand management and adaptive pricing schemes [1,2,3]. The WISDOM concept centres on the integration of water distribution, sensor monitoring and communication systems coupled with semantic modelling (using ontologies, potentially connected to BIM, to serve as intelligent linkages throughout the entire framework) and control capabilities to provide for near real-time management of urban water resources. Fundamental to this framework are the needs and operational requirements of users and stakeholders at domestic, corporate and city levels and this requires the interoperability of a number of demand and operational models, fed with data from diverse sources such as sensor networks and crowsourced information. This has implications regarding the provenance and trustworthiness of such data and how it can be used in not only the understanding of system and user behaviours, but more importantly in the real-time control of such systems. Adaptive and intelligent analytics will be used to produce decision support systems that will drive the ability to increase the variability of both supply and consumption [3]. This in turn paves the way for adaptive pricing incentives and a greater understanding of the water-energy nexus. This integration is complex and uncertain yet being typical of a cyber-physical system, and its relevance transcends the water resource management domain. The WISDOM framework will be modeled and simulated with initial testing at an experimental facility in France (AQUASIM – a full-scale test-bed facility to study sustainable water management), then deployed and evaluated in in two pilots in Cardiff (UK) and La Spezia (Italy). These demonstrators will evaluate the integrated concept providing insight for wider adoption.