Adaptive Competence Research Articles

Insights Into the Experiences of Older Workers and Change: Through the Lens of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation

The study examined the barriers faced, the goals selected, and the optimization and compensation strategies of older workers in relation to career change. Thirty open-ended interviews, 12 in the United States and 18 in New Zealand, were conducted, recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for themes. Barriers to finding and maintaining work included task difficulty, problems with coworkers and management, lack of self-confidence, health/physical limitations, ageism, and stereotyping. Respondents' most frequently selected goals for a new career were the desire to help others, work satisfaction, and acquisition of learning. Seventy-five percent of respondents in paid employment had earning an income as a goal. Optimization strategies included drawing on past experience, assessing skills, seeking careers/organizations that fitted their values, and a willingness to accept lower pay or unpaid work. Attitudinal strategies included focus and persistence, optimism, and positive attitudes toward change. The compensation strategies reported were on-the-job training; help from coworkers, clients, or customers; friends and family social support; and professional networks. Management practices considered helpful were flexible work schedules, supervisors' patience, and formal recognition of the value of older workers. This qualitative study, using the SOC framework, showed that evaluating one's skills and values, being positive about change, and being part of a supportive work environment were key contributors to adaptive competence.

The competencies demonstrated by farmers while adapting to climate change

World population growth, overconsumption of resources, competition among countries and climate change are putting significant pressure on agriculture. In Canada, changes in precipitation, the appearance of new pests and poor soil quality are threatening the prosperity of small farmers. What human competencies could facilitate citizens’ adaptation to climate change? The competencies displayed by six Canadian farmers were observed as they tried to improve the quality of their soil in order to increase its climate resilience. The farmers in the case study demonstrated a wide array of skills while adapting to climate change. Used to adjusting their farming practices to bad weather, the participants predicted that their already declining soil was very vulnerable to extreme events. They implemented some adaptations: planting forage radish and practicing more crop rotations. During the adaptation process, the farmers showed in-depth local and agricultural knowledge, critical thinking (which they used to assess the solutions), futures thinking and hindsight, identification and control of the variables affecting the crops, openness to novelty, collaboration, optimism and self-efficacy. The research, which results in the identification of competencies conducive to adaptation, leads to the recommendation of a few educational strategies to strengthen adaptive competencies when supporting citizens in a climate change adaptation process.

Human competences that facilitate adaptation to climate change: a research in progress

PurposeFor communities threatened by current or impending climate change, adaptation is becoming a necessity. Although little research has been done on human competences so far, this research shows that some appear to facilitate the adaptation process. The purpose of this multiple‐case study is to identify adaptive competences demonstrated by two groups of Canadian citizens: municipal employees in a coastal community and farmers.Design/methodology/approachAs part of workshops based on a problem solving process, the two groups analyzed the impacts of climate change in their field of work and geographical area, chose a problem related to these impacts, suggested and then implemented adaptation measures. The municipal employees worked on sea level rise, whereas the farmers focused on poor soil quality, which makes it vulnerable to bad weather.FindingsBy thematically analyzing the verbatim transcripts of the workshops and by building narratives, the authors were able to identify similar adaptive competences in both groups: local knowledge, futures thinking, hindsight, risk prediction, critical thinking, decision‐making, and problem solving (highlighting key problem components, suggesting solutions, and identifying constraints). However, two competences were chiefly found in the group composed of farmers: optimism and openness to novelty.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to lead to recommendations regarding the pedagogical support of citizens during an adaptation process to climate change. These recommendations might be helpful in many communities where adaptation to climate change is a pressing issue.

COMPETITION INFLUENCE ON PERSONALITY VALUES AND INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS

Market economy initiates competition process development as a driving force and as an outcome. Due to increasing economy development pace, one can predict that in the 21st century these processes are going to be more and more intensive. Competition should be considered in different aspects, because it penetrates not only into production, work, but also into social, interpersonal relations, has an influence on person’s maturity. On the one hand, competition conditions encourage the development of personality adaptive abilities, professional, social and personal competence development, lifelong learning and others, however permanent participation in competition hides in itself quite a lot of negative tendencies.

Constructive, Self-Regulated, Situated, and Collaborative Learning: An Approach for the Acquisition of Adaptive Competence

In today's learning society, education must focus on fostering adaptive competence (AC) defined as the ability to apply knowledge and skills flexibly in different contexts. In this article, four major types of learning are discussed—constructive, self-regulated, situated, and collaborative—in relation to what students must learn in order to acquire AC in a particular domain. Two questions are addressed: What are the characteristics of productive learning processes that are required in order to acquire AC?, and How can such learning be stimulated and sustained through instruction? An illustrative study is presented that focuses on the design of a learning environment for improving problem-solving competence in primary school students. Concluding comments address the challenges to the implementation of innovative learning environments.

Opportunities to develop adaptive teaching expertise during supervisory conferences

Adaptive teaching expertise is a critical component of quality teaching. University-based supervisors should employ specific supervision styles and discourse types during post-lesson observation conferences to help student teachers develop adaptive competencies such as, justifying decision-making, balancing experimentation and risk to pupils, and discussing instructional adaptations to address pupils' contextualized-needs. Findings from a sixteen-week, multiple-case study suggest that student teachers and supervisors (N = 6) do not use critical discourse to capitalize on opportunities to develop adaptive teaching expertise. If student teachers are expected to become adaptive experts, teacher educators must learn how to leverage discourse to promote development of adaptive teaching expertise.

The role of career adaptabilities for mid-career changers

Career adaptability is mediated by personality factors and socio-psychological processes, with learning playing an important role. Using a five-fold career adapt-abilities competency framework (defined here as control, curiosity, commitment, confidence and concern), which was developed from the international quantitative study that is the focus of this special edition, an explicitly qualitative study of the career biographies of mid-career changers from two European countries was undertaken. Data from 64 in-depth interviews with adults in contrasting labor markets from Norway and the UK were analysed deductively, using a career adapt-abilities framework. Results demonstrate the utility of the framework, as well as how adaptive adults used both formal and informal learning to develop career adapt-ability competencies, over time, across occupations and occupational sectors. A key conclusion relates to how this career adapt-abilities competency framework could be used to motivate adults in mid-career to adopt behaviors that help them effect positive career change.

Modèle organisationnel d’un programme d’éducation thérapeutique destiné aux patients migraineux en situation ou avec risque de chronicisation ou d’abus d’usage de traitements

The therapeutic educational program primarily addresses patients who present with chronic migraine or with risk of drug-induced daily headache. Such a program follows a strict methodology according to the national guidelines of national health authorities and must be authorized by regional health authorities. The objective of this article is to propose an organizational model of an educational program in a well-established clinical setting. Clinical data from patients is collected on a regular basis over 6months with a migraine diary and with an evaluation of emotional and functional impacts. The different stages are the elaboration of an educational diagnosis, definition of a personalized program, implementation of group sessions in a multidisciplinary program, and a final evaluation of individuals at 3 and 6months. The objective of such a program is to allow patients to acquire adaptive competences and personal care to decrease the frequency and severity of the crises and to improve the quality of life.

Adaptive Competence Impairment and Cognitive Deficits in Acutely Ill Schizophrenia Patients Residing in Nursing Homes

The loss of long-term inpatient psychiatric hospital beds over the years has caused schizophrenia patients of all ages to be increasingly placed in nursing home environments that were traditionally reserved for elderly patients. Consequently, many nongeriatric patients with chronic schizophrenia are now residing in nursing home settings. The objective of this article is to determine whether many of these nongeriatric patients are placed in nursing homes because of chronicity of illness and severity of impairment, or because of the limited alternative viable housing options. Multiple and stepwise regressions examined predictors of cognitive ability, adaptive competence, social skills and inpatient social and adaptive functioning, and clinical symptomatology. Inpatient psychiatric unit in a general hospital. Fifty acutely ill geriatric and nongeriatric patients with schizophrenia who reside in nursing homes. Participants' clinical symptoms, cognitive ability, adaptive functioning, social skills, and inpatient social and adaptive functioning were assessed. Findings revealed that patients' cognitive impairment and age of admission to the nursing home, irrespective of patients' current age, were predictors of impaired adaptive competence. Examination of cognitive and adaptive deficits with assessment of symptom severity, independent of patients' current age, may aide in the determination of appropriate residential placements for individuals with schizophrenia.

COMPETENCIES FOR ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION POTENTIAL: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS ON INDIAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) ORGANIZATIONS

This study examines competencies that contribute to innovation in Indian Information Technology organizations (n = 42). These competencies were conceptualized and measured in this paper. Their measurement is described. A cluster of low and high potentially innovative organizations, based on measures from an earlier study by the authors, is used to understand the competencies in the context of innovation. An organizational innovation potential score categorized organizations as innovative (high) and less innovative (low) organizations. Logistic regression was done to assess the competencies of low and high innovative organizations. Results showed that product breadth competency, innovation adaptability competency, new business development competency and organizational learning competency contribute to organizational innovation potential. The paper discusses research and managerial implications.

Frühe psychische Auffälligkeiten bei Kindern mit schwerer geistiger Behinderung

The present study examines regulatory dysfunctions and atypical behaviors in young children with various levels of intellectual disabilities. Families were recruited from parent self-help groups. 133 mothers completed questionnaires on adaptive competence (VABS-II) as well as temperament and atypical behaviors (TABS). 58 % of the children were classified as having regulatory disorders. The TABS scores vary with the child's level of intellectual ability. 80 % of children with severe and profound intellectual disabilities were described as highly detached, 50 % as under-reactive and dysregulated. The results support the validity of the TABS for the assessment of very young children with intellectual disabilities. This group has an increased risk for psychological disturbances and should be included in early mental health screening and intervention services.

Emotional intelligence and smoking: Protective and risk factors among Canadian young adults

A sample of 20 and 21 year old participants ( n = 2699) of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) was used to investigate the association between emotional intelligence and smoking in young adulthood. Emotional intelligence was measured with a short-form of the original EQ-i ( Statistics Canada, 2008), which assessed overall emotional intelligence and five dimensions: interpersonal competencies, intrapersonal competencies, stress management competencies, adaptability competencies and general mood. Using self-reported smoking behaviors, participants were classified as daily, occasional or non-smokers. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to test the association between emotional intelligence (and its dimensions) with daily and occasional smoking (compared to non-smoking – the reference category). Analyses were conducted on the total sample and were also stratified across gender. Stress management emerged as a protective factor against occasional and daily smoking among both males and females. Unexpectedly, a higher score on interpersonal competencies was associated with occasional smoking (compared to non-smoking) among males, suggesting that this group may consist of several social smokers. Our results suggest that emotional intelligence may comprise gender-specific protective and risk factors for occasional and daily smoking, which in turn should be considered in the development of smoking prevention programs.

Prediction of Real-World Functional Disability in Chronic Mental Disorders: A Comparison of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are associated with multidimensional disability. This study examined differential predictors of functional deficits in the two disorders. Community-dwelling individuals with schizophrenia (N=161) or bipolar disorder (N=130) were assessed with neuropsychological tests, symptom measures, and performance-based social and adaptive (i.e., everyday living skills) functional competence measures as well as three domains of real-world functioning: community and household activities; work skills; and interpersonal relationships. The authors used confirmatory path analysis to find the best-fitting models to examine the direct and indirect (as mediated by competence) prediction of the three domains of real-world functioning. In all models for both groups, neurocognition's relationship with outcomes was largely mediated by competence. Symptoms were negatively associated with outcomes but unassociated with competence, with the exception of depression, which was a direct and mediated (through social competence) predictor in bipolar disorder. In both groups, neurocognition was related to activities directly and through a mediated relationship with adaptive competence. Work skills were directly and indirectly (through mediation with social competence) predicted by neurocognition in schizophrenia and entirely mediated by adaptive and social competence in bipolar disorder. Neurocognition was associated with interpersonal relationships directly in the schizophrenia group and mediated by social competence in both groups. Although there was greater disability in schizophrenia, neurocognition predicted worse functioning in all outcome domains in both disorders. These results support the shared role of neurocognition in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in producing disability, with predictive differences between disorders in domain-specific effects of symptoms and social and adaptive competence.

Familienbezogene Lebensqualität bei Müttern von Jungen mit Fragilem-X-Syndrom im frühen Kindesalter

Quality of life has been conceptualized as a subjective view of one's feeling of well-being. There is evidence for restraints caused by parenting stress as well as resilience in mothers of children with an intellectual handicap. Specifically, we report on an investigation using the family-related life quality questionnaire (FLQ) in mothers of 26 young boys with Fragile X syndrome. Quality of life is affected by parenting stress as well as individual and social coping resources (hope as a personal trait and quality of family relationships). Child-related variables (age, adaptive competence) had no significant effect on perceived quality of life, child temperament and atypical behavior is related indirectly to maternal life satisfaction as a factor determining the degree of parenting stress.

Teaching French as a Second Language to Chinese students: Instructional staff adaptation and intercultural competence development

Abstract This case study is an analysis of second language instructors’ processes of adaptation to Chinese students at a small French University. More precisely, in this qualitative case study, it will be shown that the instructional staff's adaptation to an unfamiliar work environment and student population contributed to the development of their intercultural competence. Moreover, it will be argued that such competence was not developed to its full potential. Finally, we offer recommendations for teacher education programs at the end of the article.

New Insight into the Competitiveness of Supplier Firms: Aligning Competences and Customer Expectations

The focal issue of the paper is firm competitiveness and the way in which operations can contribute to it. The problem of firm competitiveness has been extensively researched in operations strategy, mainly using the concept of strategic fit, but there has been little discussion in the literature of the criteria that should be used to guide the selection of strategic capabilities to be acquired. We argue that this selection should be guided by the expectations of external stakeholders with special emphasis on customers′ expectations. We develop and test a theoretical model of expectations-based operational competitiveness, building on the concepts and terms developed by two important management approaches, the theory of customer value and the capability-based theory of the firm. To test the model, statistical analysis is carried out using the database of the research programme “In global competition - competitiveness of the Hungarian enterprise sector” at the Competitiveness Research Centre of Corvinus University of Budapest. The model developed is a useful instrument for gaining a deeper insight into firm competitiveness. We define three kinds of operational competences: production, adaptation and supply chain management competence. Our empirical analysis reveals that Hungarian companies in the manufacturing industry possess a well-developed capability base as far as production competence is concerned. However, they usually cannot effectively internalise adaptation and supply chain management competences and cannot utilise them as sources of improved operational performance.

The hopeless ape

The hopeless ape

Structure and agency in transition research

Based on the results of transition studies in the UK, Germany, USA and Canada, the virtues of analysing the structural contexts, institutional arrangements and the young peoples' action orientations are presented. In the first decade of the twenty‐first century, school and the labour market have become more and more decoupled and transition routes more uncertain. From a structural perspective, the sorting of school leavers into different transition pathways according to their educational achievements contributes to the reproduction of social inequality. From the actor' perspective, transition uncertainty requires that young adults develop agency (planful and adaptive competence) in order to manage meaningful decisions between alternative pathways to employment. By relating the concept of agency to intuitive rationality and biographical choice, various action strategies are presented that document how young people from different social origins actively pursue individual goals when choosing to follow or to change transition pathways. In contrast to an emphatic reading of the individualisation thesis, comparative transition studies show that only socially privileged and educationally successful youths succeed in transforming their agency into self‐reflexive projects.

The Influence of Length of Stay, Linguistic Competence, and Media Exposure in Immigrants' Adaptation

Empirical evidence shows that immigrants adapt best in relation to their ability to negotiate between the cultural entities they confront. Factors such as cultural knowledge, length of stay in the new culture, and linguistic competence strongly influence this process. Length of stay and linguistic competence may be essential for cultural knowledge acquisition that, in turn, may be enhanced by mass media consumption. A questionnaire is completed by 576 immigrants (196 Romanians, 179 North Africans, and 201 Latino Americans) investigating time spent in Italy, proficiency in the Italian language, familiarity with Italian and homeland mass media, and acculturation. The authors hypothesize that language plays a central role in the acculturation process and assume that length of stay influences acculturation mostly through linguistic competence and mass media knowledge. A structural equation model is tested to verify the hypothesis. The model results are acceptable, invariant across genders, and partially invariant across ethno-cultural groups.

Organ specific antioxidant responses in golden grey mullet ( Liza aurata) following a short-term exposure to phenanthrene

Phenanthrene (Phe) is among the most abundant and ubiquitous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the aquatic environment as a result of human activities. Even so, the knowledge about its impact on fish health is still limited. In this study, the teleost Liza aurata was exposed to 0.1, 0.3, 0.9 and 2.7 µM Phe concentrations during 16 h. Enzymatic antioxidants such as selenium dependent glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione S-transferase (GST), glutathione reductase (GR) and catalase (CAT), as well as a non-enzymatic antioxidant (glutathione — GSH) were quantified in three target organs — gill, kidney and liver. The lipid peroxidation (LPO) was also assessed as a marker of oxidative damage. GPx activity was decreased in gill (0.1 and 0.9 µM), whereas in the liver it was increased (0.3–2.7 µM). GST activity was decreased in kidney (0.3–2.7 µM) and CAT activity was increased in gill after 0.9 µM exposure. GSH content was significantly increased in gill by the lowest concentration and in liver by all Phe concentrations. Despite the antioxidant defense responses, LPO increased in gill (0.3–2.7 µM), kidney (0.1 µM) and liver (0.1 and 2.7 µM). These results revealed organ specific antioxidant defenses depending on the Phe concentration. Liver demonstrated a higher adaptive competence expressed as antioxidant defenses activation, namely GSH and GPX. The lower vulnerability of the kidney to oxidative damage (compared to gill and liver) seems to be related to its higher antioxidant basal levels. Globally, current data highlight the Phe potential to induce oxidative stress and, consequently, to affect the well-being of fish.