I can see clearly now the moderating effects of role clarity on subordinate responses to ethical leadership

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose – Although there is growing research on the relationship between ethical leadership and subordinate work behaviors, limited research has examined the boundary conditions under which ethical leadership is more or less effective. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether subordinate perceptions of role clarity in their job role influence the relationship between ethical leadership and subordinate work behaviors. Drawing on both social exchange and social learning theories, the authors predict that in contexts where subordinates perceive low levels of role clarity, the relationship between ethical leadership behavior and subordinate helping and deviant behaviors will be weaker. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 239 employees in the Chinese public sector completed surveys across three separate time points. Confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings – Analyses provided support for the hypothesized relationships. When subordinates perceived higher levels of role clarity the positive relationship between ethical leadership and helping behavior was stronger, and the negative relationship between ethical leadership and deviant behavior was stronger. Research limitations/implications – As with all research the findings of this study need to be viewed in light of its limitations. First, the use of data from a single set of respondents opens up the possibility of common method bias. Second, given the study used of a sample of public sector employees from one part of China, there would be value in future research examining whether the findings from the present study are generalizable to other industrial and cultural contexts. Practical implications – This research has a number of practical implications. Given that the authors found a significant positive relationship between ethical leadership and helping behavior, and a significant negative relationship between ethical leadership and deviant behavior, it is crucial for organizations to include ethical training as an essential part of leadership development programs. However, the findings also suggest at the same time as facilitating the development of ethical leadership behaviors amongst supervisory employees, it is important for organizations to also provide employees with clarity over what is expected of them in their jobs, and the means they should employ to facilitate goal achievement. Originality/value – This study responds to recent calls for more research to identify factors which may strengthen or mitigate the influence of ethical leadership in the workplace.

Fundamental movement skills are more than run, throw and catch: the role of stability skills

INTRODUCTION: In motor development literature fundamental movement skills are divided into three constructs: locomotive, object control and stability skills. Most fundamental movement skills research has focused on children's competency in locomotor and object control skills. The first aim of this study was to validate a test battery to assess the construct of stability skills, in children aged 6 to 10 (M age = 8.2, SD = 1.2). Secondly we assessed how the stability skills construct fitted into a model of fundamental movement skill. METHOD: The Delphi method was used to select the stability skill battery. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to assess if the skills loaded onto the same construct and a new model of FMS was developed using structural equation modelling. RESULTS: Three postural control tasks were selected (the log roll, rock and back support) because they had good face and content validity. These skills also demonstrated good predictive validity with gymnasts scoring significantly better than children without gymnastic training and children from a high SES school performing better than those from a mid and low SES schools and the mid SES children scored better than the low SES children (all p < .05). Inter rater reliability tests were excellent for all three skills (ICC = 0.81, 0.87, 0.87) as was test re-test reliability (ICC 0.87-0.95). CFA provided good construct validity, and structural equation modelling revealed stability skills to be an independent factor in an overall FMS model which included locomotor (r = .88), object control (r = .76) and stability skills (r = .81). DISCUSSION: This study provides a rationale for the inclusion of stability skills in FMS assessment. The stability skills could be used alongside other FMS assessment tools to provide a holistic assessment of children's fundamental movement skills.

Construct validity of the pictorial scale of perceived movement skill competence

Objectives: The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence (PMSC) assesses young children's perceptions of movement skill competence: 12 perceived Fundamental Movement skills (FMS; based on the Test of Gross Motor Development 2nd edition TGMD-2) and six Active Play activities (e.g. cycling). The main study purpose was to assess whether children's movement perception scores fit within the imposed constructs of Active Play and FMS by testing the latent structure and construct validity of the PMSC.

Design: Construct validation study.

Methods: Participants were part of the Melbourne Infant Feeding, Activity and Nutrition Trial (InFANT). The latent structure of the PMSC responses was tested through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling (BSEM). Internal consistency was conducted using polychoric correlation-based alphas.

Results: The 303 children (boys 53.1%, n = 161) were aged 4-5 years (M = 4.7, SD = 0.46). The final model had an 18 item 3-factor solution with good fit indices (using CFA and BSEM). Factors were: Active Play (Bike, Board Paddle, Climb, Skate/Blade, Scooter, and Swim), Object Control - Hand Skills (Bounce, Catch, Hit, Throw), and FMS skills with a leg action (Gallop, Hop, Jump, Leap, Run, Step Slide, Kick, Roll). Alpha reliability values were: Active Play (0.78), Object Control-Hand Skills (0.76) and FMS-Dynamic Leg (0.84).

Conclusion: Young children can distinguish between movement perceptions. The factors reflect the hypothesized structure in terms of FMS being distinguished from Active Play. Further research should investigate how and if these constructs change in children over time.

Psychometric properties of a tool to measure nurses' attitudes to single checking medications: SCAMS-II

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Single checking medications has been increasingly adopted over the past decade by nurses in Australian healthcare services. However, attitudes toward the practice of only one nurse checking medications remain unclear. The aim of this article is to report on the development, reliability, and validity of a tool to measure nurses' attitudes to single checking medications in a health service in which single checking has been in place for over a decade. METHODS: In a cross-sectional survey design, the Single Checking and Administration of Medications Scale (SCAMS-II) was used to measure the attitudes of 299 registered nurses (RNs) who were single checking medications in one metropolitan teaching hospital in Australia. Exploratory factor analysis was used to explore the dimensions that best represented the SCAMS-II. Cronbach's α was used to assess internal consistency of the identified subscales. To test the construct validity of the emergent questionnaire, Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Rasch analyses were performed. RESULTS: The psychometric properties of the SCAMS-II revealed 12 items with three reliable subscales: a five-item accountability model; a four-item efficiency model; and a three-item knowledge model. LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION: In settings where single checking is current practice, the SCAMS-II is recommended as a reliable tool to measure nurses' attitudes toward the single checking of medications. The findings from this study may assist healthcare organizations in the development of policy and procedure guidelines for the safe administration of medications.

What factors influence the organizational commitment of public sector employees in China? The role of extrinsic, intrinsic and social rewards

This study investigates the relationship between extrinsic, intrinsic and social rewards, and the organizational commitment of 239 Chinese public sector employees. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that although variables included to measure extrinsic and social rewards were strongly related to organizational commitment, variables included to measure intrinsic rewards had limited influence. These findings suggest that the antecedents of organizational commitment in the Chinese public sector are significantly different from those in the Chinese private sector and public sector organizations in the West. © 2013 © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

Participative leadership and the organizational commitment of civil servants in China: The mediating effects of trust in supervisor

The present study examines whether participative leadership engenders organizational commitment amongst Chinese civil servants and analyses the mechanisms by which it transmits its effects. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling revealed that there was a significant relationship between supervisor-level participative leadership and the affective and normative commitment of subordinates, but no relationship with continuance commitment. Affective trust was also identified as the mediator variable underlying the relationship between participative leadership and organizational commitment. We show that participative leadership of supervisors elicits higher levels of trust and leads subordinates to reciprocate through exhibiting higher levels of organizational commitment. Our study also reveals that Chinese civil servants who accept an unequal distribution of power between supervisors and subordinates typically exhibit lower levels of affective and normative commitment to the organization than those who do not. Our results provide greater support for the deepening of administrative reforms and the dissemination of participative leadership practices in China's new civil service system. © 2013 British Academy of Management.

Fear of self and unacceptable thoughts in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Cognitive-behavioural models have linked unacceptable or repugnant thoughts in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with vulnerable self-themes and fear-of-self concerns. To investigate this notion, Aardema and coworkers recently developed and validated the Fear of Self-Questionnaire (FSQ) in non-clinical samples, finding it had strong internal inconsistency, and good divergent and convergent validity, including strong relationships to obsessional symptoms and with other processes implicated in cognitive models of OCD (e.g., obsessive beliefs and inferential confusion). The current article describes two studies that aim to replicate and extend these findings in clinical OCD and non-clinical samples. Study 1 investigated the psychometric properties of an Italian translation of the FSQ in a non-clinical sample (n=405). Results of confirmatory factor analysis supported the unidimensionality of the scale; the FSQ also showed very good internal consistency and temporal stability. Study 2 investigated the role of fear of self in OCD symptoms, and unacceptable thoughts and repugnant obsessions in particular, using a clinical OCD sample (n=76). As expected, fear of self was a unique, major predictor of unacceptable thoughts independent of negative mood states and obsessive beliefs. Moreover, even when considered with obsessive beliefs, anxiety and depression, the feared self was the only unique predictor of obsessionality, providing support for the notion that self-themes could explain why some intrusions convert into obsessions, whereas others do not. Implications for current cognitive-behavioural models are discussed.

Internalization as a mediator of the relationship between conformity to masculine norms and body image attitudes and behaviors among young men in Sweden, US, UK, and Australia

We examined whether internalization of sociocultural body ideals mediated the relationship between conformity to masculine norms and drive for muscularity, leanness, and thinness in a sample of males from Sweden, US, UK, and Australia. Over six hundred young men [n=142 (Sweden); n=192 (US); n=141 (UK); n=160 (Australia)] completed an online survey that included assessments of masculine role norms, body image, and internalization of sociocultural body ideals. Path analyses confirmed internalization as a mediator between greater conformity to masculine norms and body image measures (drive for thinness, desire for leanness, and desire for muscularity) across the sample. However, significant cross-country differences in the strength of these mediation effects were found. Mediation effects among US, Australian, and Swedish males were comparable, whereas these effects were weaker in the UK sample. Findings confirmed the importance of internalization of sociocultural body ideals in the tested models.

The influence of market orientation on innovation strategies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of market orientation on exploratory and exploitative innovation, and the moderating effects of family ownership on these relationships. Design/methodology/approach – This study utilizes multi-group path analysis and confirmatory factor analysis in LISREL on data from 228 firms in the Australian service sector. Findings – This study establishes that both customer and competitor innovation are positively related to exploitative and exploratory innovation. However, customer orientation does not lead to significantly stronger effects on exploitative innovation than on exploratory innovation, and competitor orientation does not lead to significantly stronger effects on exploratory innovation than on exploitative innovation. In addition, the study found that the relationship between customer orientation and exploratory innovation was stronger for family firms, while the relationships between competitor orientation and both exploratory and exploitative innovation were stronger for non-family firms. Research limitations/implications – The cross-sectional design is one weakness of this study. In addition, as firms in the present study came from the service sector the generalizability of the findings to other sectors of the economy need to be determined. Practical implications – These findings of this study highlight the need for managers to build a strong market orientation in order to promote innovation, and consider the effects of ownership structure on innovation strategies. Originality/value – This study is the first to measure the relative influence of customer and competitor orientation on a firm’s use of exploitative and exploratory innovation strategies.

Development, evaluation and use of a student experience survey in undergraduate science laboratories: the advancing science by enhancing learning in the laboratory student laboratory learning experience survey

Student experience surveys have become increasingly popular to probe various aspects of processes and outcomes in higher education, such as measuring student perceptions of the learning environment and identifying aspects that could be improved. This paper reports on a particular survey for evaluating individual experiments that has been developed over some 15 years as part of a large national Australian study pertaining to the area of undergraduate laboratories—Advancing Science by Enhancing Learning in the Laboratory. This paper reports on the development of the survey instrument and the evaluation of the survey using student responses to experiments from different institutions in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. A total of 3153 student responses have been analysed using factor analysis. Three factors, motivation, assessment and resources, have been identified as contributing to improved student attitudes to laboratory activities. A central focus of the survey is to provide feedback to practitioners to iteratively improve experiments. Implications for practitioners and researchers are also discussed.

Bayesian nonparametric approaches to abnormality detection in video surveillance

In data science, anomaly detection is the process of identifying the items, events or observations which do not conform to expected patterns in a dataset. As widely acknowledged in the computer vision community and security management, discovering suspicious events is the key issue for abnormal detection in video surveil-lance. The important steps in identifying such events include stream data segmentation and hidden patterns discovery. However, the crucial challenge in stream data segmenta-tion and hidden patterns discovery are the number of coherent segments in surveillance stream and the number of traffic patterns are unknown and hard to specify. Therefore, in this paper we revisit the abnormality detection problem through the lens of Bayesian nonparametric (BNP) and develop a novel usage of BNP methods for this problem. In particular, we employ the Infinite Hidden Markov Model and Bayesian Nonparamet-ric Factor Analysis for stream data segmentation and pattern discovery. In addition, we introduce an interactive system allowing users to inspect and browse suspicious events.

The antecedents of health professionals' service recovery performance

 The aim of this thesis is to identify the antecedents to the self-perceived recovery performance of health professionals in Qatar. The quantitative phase of the thesis utilised a survey instrument, which was developed and modified as a result of consultations with experts and piloting. A total of 343 questionnaires were completed and returned by respondents. After determining the adequacy of the congeneric models and the overall measurement model using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), structural analysis was undertaken to determine the fit of the data to the hypothesised associations between the latent constructs of interest.

Os "sentidos do trabalho" em duas visões: São Paulo e Paris

Este relatório é o resultado de uma pesquisa exploratória sobre os sentidos do trabalho .O objetivo da pesquisa foi o de fazer uma sondagem de opinião, isto é, investigar, globalmente, os sentidos do trabalho para duas amostras de população oriundas de duas empresas distintas, de mesmo ramo de atividades. A sondagem foi feita através de um questionário composto de 36 questões com temas relativos à percepção do trabalho, seus significados e impactos sobre a saúde e a qualidade de vida, além de dados sócio-demográficos das pessoas que fizeram parte do estudo. O que é o Trabalho? e O que você pensa sobre do seu trabalho atual? foram as questões centrais de pesquisa, analisadas neste relatório. Elas foram propostas para uma amostra de funcionários de uma empresa pública de serviços localizada na Região Parisiense e para uma amostra de funcionários de uma empresa pública de serviços, localizada na Região Metropolitana de São Paulo e de atividades semelhantes. Uma abordagem comparativa São Paulo / Paris foi feita sobre a importância do trabalho e semelhanças e diferenças foram apontadas para as amostras analisadas, tanto globalmente, quanto divididas por sexo. Os dados foram tratados através do programa estatístico SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) e as duas questões principais, através de Análises Fatoriais. As análises fatoriais das duas principais questões permitiram condensar e resumir dados dos diversos itens das questões, possibilitando a obtenção de dimensões latentes agrupadas em fatores. A análise fatorial foi utilizada em uma perspectiva exploratória.

O estrategista brasileiro da micro, pequena e média empresa privada nacional

The leadership of American literature in the field of business strategy and its consequent influence on the scientific and entrepreneurial world in Brazil is a real fact. It's also true that the major theories in strategy, especially from the classic school, the oldest and most influent in this field, were originated from empirical studies in large ¿ if not giant ¿ companies, many of them currently present in Brazil. The micro, small and medium Brazilian companies, of well known social and economical importance to the country, and its strategists are certainly not inert to this knowledge, but it doesn¿t necessarily means it can be applied with success in such different context. Previous studies indicate that this strategist makes use of intuition and is not very friendly with bureaucratic controls, but, in reality, the profile of this Brazilian executive is still unknown. Naturally, we do not expect this profile to be static in time, but reactive to changes on business environment, especially with the current globalization process. This research, aiming at knowing the profile of the Brazilian strategist of micro, small and medium companies and through an intensive revision on strategy literature, has built a mathematical model by the use of factor analysis, that can be applied in future studies. A new typology to understand the strategic thinking of these leaders is proposed. The conclusion shows that, for the executives in this research, intuition is not predominant on their decisions. Although more rational than intuitive, they refuse the idea of being purely rational. Besides, in the strategy formation process, they tend to have a collective spirit rather than deciding alone and to believe in the importance of being formal, planning and registering their intentions.