Award Status Research Articles

Motivational Responses to Fitness Testing by Award Status and Gender

Fitness testing is a prominent element in many physical education programs, but there has been limited investigation concerning motivation constructs associated with the testing. This study investigated the relationships among physical education students' award status and gender to achievement goals, intrinsic motivation, and intentions. After they had completed a battery of fitness tests, 123 fifth-grade physical education students were classified into two groups: those who received awards and those who did not. They completed a series of questionnaires assessing motivational constructs. Analyses of variance revealed that students who received a fitness award reported higher levels of task-involvement, perceived competence, effort, enjoyment, and future intention than those who did not. Boys reported higher levels of ego-involvement than girls, but no other gender differences were evident. The findings from this study can be used to inform practitioners, test designers, and researchers about the ways fitness testing programs can be structured so that all students receive the potential benefits from participating in such assessments.

Evaluation of the childhood obesity prevention program Kids - 'Go for your life'

BackgroundKids - 'Go for your life' (K-GFYL) is an award-based health promotion program being implemented across Victoria, Australia. The program aims to reduce the risk of childhood obesity by improving the socio-cultural, policy and physical environments in children's care and educational settings. Membership of the K-GFYL program is open to all primary and pre-schools and early childhood services across the State. Once in the program, member schools and services are centrally supported to undertake the health promotion (intervention) activities. Once the K-GFYL program 'criteria' are reached the school/service is assessed and 'awarded'. This paper describes the design of the evaluation of the statewide K-GFYL intervention program.Methods/DesignThe evaluation is mixed method and cross sectional and aims to:1) Determine if K-GFYL award status is associated with more health promoting environments in schools/services compared to those who are members only;2) Determine if children attending K-GFYL award schools/services have higher levels of healthy eating and physical activity-related behaviors compared to those who are members only;3) Examine the barriers to implementing and achieving the K-GFYL award; and4) Determine the economic cost of implementing K-GFYL in primary schoolsParent surveys will capture information about the home environment and child dietary and physical activity-related behaviors. Environmental questionnaires in early childhood settings and schools will capture information on the physical activity and nutrition environment and current health promotion activities. Lunchbox surveys and a set of open-ended questions for kindergarten parents will provide additional data. Resource use associated with the intervention activities will be collected from primary schools for cost analysis.DiscussionThe K-GFYL award program is a community-wide intervention that requires a comprehensive, multi-level evaluation. The evaluation design is constrained by the lack of a non-K-GFYL control group, short time frames and delayed funding of this large scale evaluation across all intervention settings. However, despite this, the evaluation will generate valuable evidence about the utility of a community-wide environmental approach to preventing childhood obesity which will inform future public health policies and health promotion programs internationally.Trial RegistrationACTRN12609001075279

The People’s Courts and Arbitration A Snapshot of Recent Judicial Attitudes on Arbitrability and Enforcement

The legislative regime in mainland China is often said to be pro-arbitration. Yet, the People’s Courts retain significant jurisdiction to make rulings with regard to the arbitration process as well as the resulting arbitral award. This article examines a number of recent Chinese court decisions and considers how well the proarbitration rhetoric has played out in reality. The authors observe that certain aspects of the People’s Courts’ recent rulings are already in conformity with international norms, such as the arbitrability of tortious claims in China and its adherence to the doctrine of separability of the arbitration clause. Nevertheless, other aspects of the system remain troubling for foreign parties. These aspects include the Supreme People’s Court’s restrictive approach to intervention by or joinder of parties who are not signatories to the arbitration agreement, uncertainty over the “public policy” and “social and public interest” exceptions to enforcement of arbitral awards and the status of awards issued by foreign arbitration institutions in China.

Does Compensation Status Influence Treatment Participation and Course of Recovery from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

We reviewed the empirical literature to examine how seeking compensation and/or being awarded compensation for posttraumatic stress disorder-related disability are associated with participation in mental health treatment and course of recovery. The search for relevant literature was conducted using the PubMed, PsycINFO, Medline, and PILOTS databases and yielded seven studies on veterans and five on motor vehicle accident survivors. The literature indicates that veterans who are seeking or have been awarded compensation participate in treatment at similar or higher rates than do their non-compensation-seeking counterparts. Veteran treatment outcome studies produced either null or mixed findings, with no consistent evidence that compensation-seeking predicts worse outcomes. Studies of motor vehicle accident survivors found no association between compensation status and course of recovery. Recommendations to strengthen future research in this area are provided, including using clear and consistent definitions of compensation status that differentiate compensation-seeking status from award status.

Investor Reaction to Celebrity Analysts: The Case of Earnings Forecast Revisions

ABSTRACTWe examine the effects of analysts' celebrity on investor reaction to earnings forecast revisions. We measure celebrity as the quantity of media coverage analysts receive in sources included in the Dow Jones Interactive database, and find that media coverage is positively related to investor reaction to forecast revisions. The effect of celebrity on the reaction to forecast revisions remains significant after controlling for forecast performance variables examined in prior studies (ex post forecast accuracy, ex ante accuracy, award status, and other variables shown to be related to forecast accuracy). While these results are consistent with the familiarity of the analyst's name affecting the market reaction, we cannot rule out that our measure of celebrity is correlated with error in the performance measures we examine and/or correlated with other unexamined dimensions of forecast performance. A content analysis of a random subsample of the media coverage of our sample analysts suggests that our findings likely are not due to the increased availability of forecast revisions. Finally, an investigation of the excess returns around the quarterly earnings announcement date suggests that market participants react too strongly to forecast revisions issued by analysts with high levels of media coverage. Taken together, these findings suggest that an analyst's level of media coverage can affect the initial market reaction to his forecast revisions.

Congressional Considerations and Urban Characteristics in the Selection of Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities

ABSTRACT:This study examines the benefit hypothesis from distributive theory to test the assumption that the Department of Housing and Urban Development selected cities for an empowerment zone or enterprise community based on political favoritism in 1994. With data collected from the 290 urban applications, the independent variables in the ordinal logit regression model include oversight committee assignments in the House of Representatives, seniority, poverty, population, and award status sought by cities. The regression output provides support for the benefit hypothesis; the influence of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over the program’s primary funding source, is significant. However, the results of the district level coefficients question to some extent the argument that non-political factors (e.g., poverty and internal dynamics) were important to the agency’s decision-making calculus. The implications of the study reveal that the agency can accommodate its political allies without forfeiting the program’s broader goals.

Beach awards and management

Beach awards are used as promotional tools for UK coastal tourism, but information regarding public knowledge of them is sparse. Studies were carried out at two important UK resorts (Barry and Weston-super-Mare) regarding the three major beach awards — the Blue Flag, Seaside Award and Good Beach Guide. Seventy-two percent of beach users asserted that award status was an important basis for beach selection, but findings suggested poor levels of knowledge of award status at particular beaches and criteria included in awards. Research at 23 beaches in Wales, UK showed that aspects included in the Blue Flag and Seaside Award accounted for just over one-third of user's total beach rating. There is a need for beach awards to take proper account of the desires of beach users. Awards should also be appropriate to undeveloped as well as commercialised beaches, thereby reducing the temptation to add possibly undesired facilities to pristine beaches for the purpose of award qualification.

US and Canadian national quality awards: increased emphasis on business results

Starting with 1997 applications, both the US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards and the Canada Awards for Excellence have undergone changes to the evaluation categories as well as to the point systems in order to increase the emphasis on business results. Over the past several years there has been an increasingly perceived need to emphasize organizational successes owing to an overall quality management approach as opposed to celebrating specific quality improvement initiatives within establishments. The enthusiasm of management to highlight gains made in certain portions of their organization in the name of quality requires tempering by due consideration within the general context of the impact on business results. The emphasis has been shifted to ensure further that an overall balance in applying TQM throughout the organization will be required to achieve national award status.

Parity of Academic and Vocational Awards: The Experience of Modularisation in Scotland

This article considers the experience of modularisation in Scotland and its impact on the status of academic and vocational awards. It focuses on the National Certificate, the modular system of vocational awards introduced in 1984, and, in particular, its use in the general secondary school sector alongside traditional academic courses. It is here that the issue of the parity of vocational and academic awards is most visible.

The Liberal-National Parties’ Industrial Relations Policy: Deregulation by Providing an Enterprise Focus

AbstractThe central objective of the Opposition’s industrial relations policy is to provide an enterprise focus to the current industrial relations system. Deregulation will be achieved by introducing voluntary unionism and creating an alternative industrial relations stream of enterprise-based voluntary agreements alongside the existing system. The new agreements will have the status of awards but will not be within the purview of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC). Over time, the alternative, deregulated system would become the predominant one as employers recognised its benefits and opted out of the centralised system. Greater flexibility would lead to greater productivity without the problem of wage break-outs.

Participation and Pay

The participation literature generally avoids the risky area of pay decisions. This research investigated the impact on individual attitudes of participation in important pay decisions. A merit pay plan was participatively designed, installed, and maintained in a professional engineering organization (N = 380). The plan involved nomination by peers and supervisors of outstanding per formers for a cash bonus of approximately $2000. Using objective and subjective measures, participation predicted increases in understanding and commit ment to the new pay plan, organizational involvement, job involvement, and job satisfaction. Participation also predicted improvements in the perceived performance-pay contingency and pay equity, but it did not improve pay satis faction. A follow-up analysis of the award recipients showed that merit award status predicted increased job satisfaction, performance-pay contingency per ceptions, and commitment. Several aspects of participative pay decisions are discussed.

The 1964–1968 Presidential Scholars: A Follow-up Study

The purpose of this study was to examine the current status and relevant history of the 1964–1968 Presidential Scholars, who were chosen on the basis of outstanding scores on the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, the recommendation of school officials, and an autobiographical statement. A total of 172 males and 150 females responded to a 41-item questionnaire. The results indicate a high degree of postsecondary school achievement in academic accomplishments and job status and low incidence of awards for career development.

Historiographic vices II. Priority chasing

This second essay (Num. I: HM 2, 185–187) argues that the historian may be interested in studying priority controversies but should analyse historically significant events rather than award status.