Central Theoretical Construct Research Articles

Employee Engagement as Human Motivation: Implications for Theory, Methods, and Practice.

The central theoretical construct in human resource management today is employee engagement. Despite its centrality, clear theoretical and operational definitions are few and far between, with most treatments failing to separate causes from effects, psychological variables from organizational variables, and internal from external mechanisms. This paper argues for a more sophisticated approach to the engagement concept, grounding it in the vast psychological literature on human motivation. Herein lies the contribution of our paper; we argue that the apparent diversity of operational definitions employed by academics and practitioners can be understood as tentative attempts to draw ever nearer to key motivational concepts, but never quite get there. We review the leading definitions of employee engagement in the literature and find that they are reducible to a core set of human motives, each backed by full literatures of their own, which populate a comprehensive model of twelve human motivations. We propose that there is substantial value in adopting a comprehensive motivational taxonomy over current approaches, which have the effect of "snowballing" ever more constructs adopted from a variety of fields and theoretical traditions. We consider the impact of rooting engagement concepts in existing motivational constructs for each of the following: (a) theory, especially the development of engagement systems; (b) methods, including the value of applying a comprehensive, structural approach; and (c) practice, where we emphasize the practical advantages of clear operational definitions.

Epistemic Roots, Universal Routes and Ontological Roofs of African “Ritual Archives”: Disciplinary Formations in African Thought

Epistemic Roots, Universal Routes and Ontological Roofs of African “Ritual Archives”: Disciplinary Formations in African Thought

Finding consensus on indicators for organizational climate capacity in sport

ABSTRACT Rationale: As climate change presents organizations with unpredictable challenges, including damages, losses, and cancelations resulting from climate hazards, research into climate vulnerability and resilience in the sport sector is urgently needed. Approach: This study used a consensus-seeking method with 25 experts from 3 disciplines to identify indicators for organizational resilience. Findings: The three-round iterative process resulted in a list of 77 indicators organized into 6 dimensions: infrastructural resources, natural resources, planning and development resources, human resources, financial resources, and network and relationship resources. The highest importance and representativeness scores were associated with the planning and development dimension, indicating the salience of proactive approaches, planning frameworks, goal setting, measurement and monitoring of progress toward goals, and worst-case-scenario planning for overall resilience. Practical implications: The list of indicators can serve as a prompt for managers to assess climate resilience and begin the process of developing and strengthening response capacities. Research contribution: This study contributes to the growing body of sport ecology research and offers a preliminary list of indicators from which researchers might further develop measures of climate resilience. Additionally, the findings of this study confirm the salience of adaptive capacity and organizational capacity as central theoretical constructs underscoring climate resilience.

Bracketing: a phenomenological theory applied through transpersonal reflexivity

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to improve our understanding of bracketing, one of the most central philosophical and theoretical constructs of phenomenology, as a theory of mind. Furthermore, we wanted to showcase how this theoretical construct can be implemented as a methodological tool.Design/methodology/approachIn this study we have adopted an approach similar to a qualitative meta-synthesis, comparing the emergent patterns of two empirical projects, seeking synergies and contradictions and looking for additional insights from new emerging patterns.FindingsOn a philosophical level, we have found that bracketing, as a theoretical construct, is not about the achievement of objectivity; quite to the contrary, it embraces subjectivity and puts it centre-stage. On a theoretical level, we have achieved a better understanding of Husserl's phenomenology, as a theory of mind. On a methodological level, we have achieved a powerful way of supplementing and/or clarifying research findings, by using a theoretical construct as a methodological tool.Originality/valueOur paper contributes to the phenomenology literature at a philosophical, theoretical and methodological level, by offering a better understanding and a novel implementation of one of the central theoretical constructs of phenomenology.

Meaning and linguistic variation: The third wave in sociolinguistics by Penelope Eckert

Reviewed by: Meaning and linguistic variation: The third wave in sociolinguistics by Penelope Eckert Meredith Tamminga Meaning and linguistic variation: The third wave in sociolinguistics. By Penelope Eckert. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. xiv, 209. ISBN 9781107122970. $29.99. In Meaning and linguistic variation: The third wave in sociolinguistics, Penelope Eckert brings us her ‘intellectual autobiography’: a curated sequence of papers from her career wrapped in firstperson narratives about the social and personal context in which each paper was written. While the book covers the full span of E’s career, the focus is on third-wave sociolinguistics, which she defines as ‘a theoretical perspective that puts the meaning of variation, in all its dynamism and indeterminacy, at the center of analysis’ (xi). In tracing the origins of key third-wave theoretical constructs to earlier work by both herself and others in the first and second waves, E builds up an unmistakable narrative arc covering the full span of her career. The first two chapters of the book, presented under the heading ‘Beginnings’, deal primarily with E’s years studying Gascon in St. Pierre de Soulatan at the time when the region was shifting from Occitan varieties to French dominance. In contrast to the historical phonological focus of her M.A. thesis and Ph.D. dissertation, the papers she chooses for inclusion here focus on the politics of multilingualism. Ch. 1, ‘Gascon’, discusses how minority nationalist projects such as the Occitan movement crucially rely on linguistic unification, but in doing so inevitably erase the finer-grained sources of linguistic diversity within their own borders (Eckert 1983). Ch. 2, ‘Stigma and meaning in language shift’, uses the relationship between French and Gascon to illustrate how diglossia involves not the peaceful coexistence of two varieties but rather the oppression and stigmatization of the ‘low’ variety; the introductory material here situates the paper’s inception in the political context of the Ann Arbor Black English trial (Eckert 1980). This pair of papers captures the beginning of E’s concern with the nuances of language’s ideological force. Although they are distinct in flavor from the rest of the chapters, their inclusion effectively foreshadows the themes of locality, identity, and the semiotic landscape found in the later chapters about the third wave. The second section, titled ‘My participation in the second wave’, is dominated by the Jocks and Burnouts of Belten High (Eckert 1989a). Chs. 3–6 lay out E’s analytic insights into the social and linguistic practices of these high school social groups in suburban Detroit. Ch. 3 (‘Jocks and Burnouts’), E’s study of the width of blue jeans as a signifier of different social groups occupying different parts of the high school (Eckert 1982), marks the first appearance of ‘style’ as a central theoretical construct that transcends linguistic practice. In Chs. 4 (‘Jocks, Burnouts and sound change’), 5 (‘The local and the extra-local’), and 6 (‘On the outs’), E delves progressively deeper into the territory laid out in Ch. 3, persuasively weaving the social life of adolescents into the study of sound change in progress (Eckert 1988, 1989b). In this, probably E’s best-known work, she argues that macrosocial structures like class and gender shape language change only insofar as they are indirectly realized on the ground through hegemonic oppositions between identifiable, locally specific social categories. The narrative portions of this section lay out clearly why the classic Jocks and Burnouts research, with its continued focus on static categories as opposed to [End Page 462] the agentive construction of meaning through stylistic practice, is not itself of the third wave. At the same time, the bracketing of the section with chapters about style nonetheless makes it evident that this work directly laid important foundations for the emergence of the third wave. The final section, ‘The third wave’, arrives at the thesis of the book: that social meaning and stylistic practice are central to understanding sociolinguistic variation (Eckert 2012). E’s cadre of notable graduate students come to the fore at the start of the section with Ch. 8, ‘The SLIC generation’. SLIC stands for the Style, Language and Ideology Cooperative/Collaborative, a studentled seminar with...

Serious games may improve physician heuristics in trauma triage

Trauma triage depends on fallible human judgment. We created two "serious" video game training interventions to improve that judgment. The interventions' central theoretical construct was the representativeness heuristic, which, in trauma triage, would mean judging the severity of an injury by how well it captures (or "represents") the key features of archetypes of cases requiring transfer to a trauma center. Drawing on clinical experience, medical records, and an expert panel, we identified features characteristic of representative and nonrepresentative cases. The two interventions instantiated both kinds of cases. One was an adventure game, seeking narrative engagement; the second was a puzzle-based game, emphasizing analogical reasoning. Both incorporated feedback on diagnostic errors, explaining their sources and consequences. In a four-arm study, they were compared with an intervention using traditional text-based continuing medical education materials (active control) and a no-intervention (passive control) condition. A sample of 320 physicians working at nontrauma centers in the United States was recruited and randomized to a study arm. The primary outcome was performance on a validated virtual simulation, measured as the proportion of undertriaged patients, defined as ones who had severe injuries (according to American College of Surgeons guidelines) but were not transferred. Compared with the control group, physicians exposed to either game undertriaged fewer such patients [difference = -18%, 95% CI: -30 to -6%, P = 0.002 (adventure game); -17%, 95% CI: -28 to -6%, P = 0.003 (puzzle game)]; those exposed to the text-based education undertriaged similar proportions (difference = +8%, 95% CI: -3 to +19%, P = 0.15).

Регистрация ускорения и перегрузки как факторов формирования профессионально важных психофизиологических свойств обучающихся летным профессиям

The article deals with some aspects of improving the educational process aimed at developing professionally important psychophysical and psychophysiological qualities. These qualities are considered as a separate specific component of the system of professionally important qualities of personality, as the central theoretical construct of engineering psychology and labor psychology. From the position of psychophysiology, we described the influence of acceleration phenomena and overloading as important dynamic factors, the response to which requires the presence of certain psychophysical and psychophysiological characteristics. On the basis of the specifics of training for flying professions we reflected the psychophysiological effects, which arise in situations of rectilinear, radial and angular acceleration, as well as Coriolis acceleration, are reflected. We considered some psychophysiological (according to their origin) reactions of the cardiovascular system, depending on the training and adaptation of the vestibular system to rotational loading, acceleration and overloading. It is showed that using in the training process devices built on the principles of modern information technologies allows recording and analyzing acceleration and overloading, which experienced under experimental conditions. The principal scheme and basic characteristics of acceleration sensor are described, the information from the sensor is transmitted by interference-free wireless channel with the minimum threshold values of the actually measured acceleration values of 1.5g followed by its processing by artificial intelligence methods.

The infusion of Islam into pluralistic politics: The need to explore the Islamist identity beyond ideological boundaries – The case of the Moroccan Party of Justice and Development

This article analyzes the discourse of the Moroccan Party of Justice and Development (PJD) on the plan to integrate women into development. Analysis is grounded in Paul Chilton’s two main analytical approaches, namely, the strategic use of language and the dimension of deixis. The latter provides a central theoretical construct and is a valuable tool for analyzing identity in the context of the PJD since political actors from this perspective are situated with respect to a particular time, place, and group. The deictic and strategic components of the selected corpus are assessed, thereby digging deeply into the representational dimension of language use by the party as well as the construction of reality about particular meaning categories and events. The aim is to explore the Islamist discourse beyond the taken-for-granted assumption that it is mainly premised on ideology, which ultimately reduces the Islamist experience to an ideological frame that is dissociated from the context where it lies situated. The current article presents a case study of the Moroccan Islamist PJD from this perspective to help de-emphasize the ideology with which research on political Islam has been mainly concerned. This in turn highlights the processes of meaning making and identity building as well as contributes potentially to more analytical gains in the study of political discourse.

The Challenge of Normative Influences for Program Design for Youth in Detention

Young people in detention are at greater risk of death and disability from injury sustained while not in custody. Injury prevention and mental health programs have been designed for this group but their theoretical basis is rarely discussed. The present study investigates whether the conceptual basis of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is relevant to youth in a detention center. Focus group and observational data were collected. A thematic analysis supported central theoretical constructs and emphasized “Subjective Norms.” The challenge of normative influences must be actively addressed in the design of health interventions for youth in detention.

"I don't know" my cancer risk: exploring deficits in cancer knowledge and information-seeking skills to explain an often-overlooked participant response.

Perceived risk is a central theoretical construct in health behavior research. Participants' "don't know" responses to perceived-risk items (DKPR) are usually excluded from analyses. Yet those who provide such responses may have unique cancer information needs. The hypotheses that DKPR responding may be due to cancer knowledge deficits or behavioral, skill, and attitudinal antecedents to knowledge deficits (information seeking, numeracy, and self-efficacy, respectively) were explored. Data from the 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS; N = 1789), a US population-based survey, and an urban, minority, primary care clinic survey (N = 590) were analyzed. Multivariable logistic regressions were conducted to examine knowledge deficit explanations for responding DKPR to colon cancer risk perception questions (adjusting for demographics and family colorectal cancer history). Comparative (HINTS) and absolute verbal perceived risk of colon cancer (HINTS, clinic survey), knowledge of colon cancer risks and screening, cancer/health information-seeking behavior and self-efficacy (HINTS), and numeracy (clinic survey). Greater knowledge of colon cancer prevention and screening, cancer and health information seeking, and numeracy were each associated with lower odds of providing a DKPR response. The study was cross-sectional, which limits the ability to infer causal direction. The use of existing data sets limited our variable choices. Other plausible hypotheses may also explain DKPR responding. People who report that they don't know their colon cancer risk may have low cancer knowledge and reduced knowledge acquisition behaviors and skills. Health behavior research could benefit from including data concerning DKPR responses to risk perception questions, because individuals who respond in this way may require interventions to address potential cancer risk knowledge deficits.

Observing shape in spacetime

The notion of "reference frame" is a central theoretical construct for interpreting the physical implications of spacetime diffeomorphism invariance in General Relativity. However, the alternative formulation of classical General Relativity known as Shape Dynamics suggest that a subset of spacetime diffeomorphisms - namely hypersurface deformations - are, in a certain sense, dual to spatial conformal (or Weyl) invariance. Moreover, holographic gauge/gravity dualities suggest that bulk spacetime diffeomorphism invariance can be replaced by the properties of boundary CFTs. How can these new frameworks be compatible with the traditional notion of reference frame so fundamental to our interpretation of General Relativity? In this paper, we address this question by investigating the classical case of maximally symmetric spacetimes with a positive cosmological constant. We find that it is possible to define a notion of "Shape Observer" that represents a conformal reference frame that is dual to the notion of inertial reference frame in spacetime. We then provide a precise dictionary relating the two notions. These Shape Observers are holographic in the sense that they are defined on the asymptotic conformal boundaries of spacetime but know about bulk physics. This leads to a first principles derivation of an exact classical holographic correspondence that can easily be generalized to more complicated situations and may lead to insights regarding the interpretation of the conformal invariance manifest in Shape Dynamics.

Measuring cognitive load and cognition: metrics for technology-enhanced learning

This critical and reflective literature review examines international research published over the last decade to summarise the different kinds of measures that have been used to explore cognitive load and critiques the strengths and limitations of those focussed on the development of direct empirical approaches. Over the last 40 years, cognitive load theory has become established as one of the most successful and influential theoretical explanations of cognitive processing during learning. Despite this success, attempts to obtain direct objective measures of the theory's central theoretical construct – cognitive load – have proved elusive. This obstacle represents the most significant outstanding challenge for successfully embedding the theoretical and experimental work on cognitive load in empirical data from authentic learning situations. Progress to date on the theoretical and practical approaches to cognitive load are discussed along with the influences of individual differences on cognitive load in order to assess the prospects for the development and application of direct empirical measures of cognitive load especially in technology-rich contexts.

Deconstructing typologies

Typologies are widely used in the field of intercultural communication to explain cultural differences. Especially the typology ‘individualism versus collectivism’ (I/C) is a central theoretical construct in cross-cultural comparison. But are such typologies really suited for explaining cultural phenomena? Is their explanatory power limited because the theoretical underpinnings are based on a Western mindset? And is using typologies as scientific models appropriate to explain intercultural incidents and uncover cultural patterns from a non-Western view as well? Do such typologies meet the demands of a modern view on the field of intercultural communication? This article casts a critical light on the appropriateness and applicability of typologies. The aim is twofold. The first part examines the limitations of typologies from an East Asian standpoint, bringing out the hidden cultural mindset on which this bipolar construct is built. The second part presents a model meant to contribute to a more profound debate between East Asian and Western views on intercultural communication.

The differentiation of self and the capacity to tolerate interpersonal difference and societal expectations: an exploratory study

Murray Bowen developed one of the most influential and long-standing family systems therapies: Multigenerational Family Therapy. His central theoretical construct is the ‘differentiation of self’. Differentiation is the capacity to establish and maintain a solid sense of self in the context of relationship pressures and emotional demands. While Bowen's theory has enjoyed popularity, it is only in more recent years that his central construct has been tested via the development of new inventories. Skowron and Friedlander based their Differentiation of Self Inventory on four factors; I-Position, Emotional Reactivity, Emotional Cut-off and Emotional Fusion. While these factors have served to give insight into the structure of the differentiation of self, questions remain as to whether they provide a full and sufficient representation of the complexity of this construct. The following investigation extends Skowron and Friedlander's research by investigating whether other factors form a fundamental part of the differentiation of self. Two new potential constructs were suggested by the study: one, the significance of an individual's capacity to tolerate interpersonal difference and, two, the importance of societal expectations on self differentiation, especially in collectivist cultures.

Determinants of Behavioral Responses to Online Privacy: The Effects of Concern, Risk Beliefs, Self-Efficacy, and Communication Sources on Self-Protection Strategies

AbstractThis study identifies the underlying dimensions of privacy protection behavior and examines how it is selectively influenced by central theoretical constructs such as affect/attitude (operationalized here as privacy concern), cognitive beliefs (risk beliefs and self-efficacy beliefs), and external factors (communication effects) pertaining to online privacy. The findings reveal three unique dimensions of privacy protection behavior (i.e., opt-out, proactive, and use of privacy enhancing technologies [PET]). The results, based on survey data (n = 836), reveal that privacy concerns, risk beliefs, and self efficacy have a significant impact on self-protective action, though their impact varies across the types of behavioral strategy. While opt-out and proactive protection strategies were mainly influenced by privacy concern, the use of PET was directly influenced by risk beliefs (perceived vulnerability) and self-efficacy beliefs. Communication factors figured as an antecedent to risk beliefs (person...

The Use of Boundaries by Self-employed, Home-Based Workers to Manage Work and Family: A Qualitative Study in Canada

This qualitative study used grounded theory methodology to explore the experiences of 30 self-employed, home-based workers in Canada. Using boundary and work–family border theories as central theoretical constructs, this research examined the extent to which workers used boundaries to manage work and family, the nature of these boundaries, and how they were negotiated by the workers and their families. The results indicated that self-employed, home-based workers used both conceptual and physical barriers to create and manage the boundaries between home and work and that these boundaries were reinforced by rules. Gender differences and similarities were observed in the ways that boundaries were constructed and managed. Based on these observations, several areas for further investigation are proposed.

Development of leadership self-efficacy and collective efficacy: Adolescent girls across castes as peer educators in Nepal

Adolescent girls in Nepal face enormous social barriers to accessing education and health services due to exclusionary socio-religious traditions and years of conflict. The programme and study reported here address two issues that a national assembly of in-school and out-of-school adolescent girls, who had completed a basic life skills class, and, in the case of unschooled girls, an intensive literacy course, identified as important to their well-being – menstrual restrictions and HIV awareness and prevention. Local non-governmental organizations developed a peer education programme in three districts of Nepal that paired girls from different castes and different educational levels. The programme sought to increase peer educators’ (PE) leadership and collective efficacy for informing peers and adults in their communities about the effects that these issues have on women and girls. In total, 504 girls were selected and trained as PEs. They conducted targeted discussion sessions with other girls and organised mass awareness events, reaching 20,000 people. Examination of the effects of participating in the programme on key outcome measures showed that leadership self-efficacy, which was a central theoretical construct for the programme, provided a strong predictor of both increased HIV knowledge and of practicing fewer menstrual restrictions at endline. The project demonstrated that girls from different caste and educational backgrounds are able to work together to change individual behaviour and to address socio-cultural norms that affect their lives and well-being within their communities.

The industrial ecosystem balanced scorecard

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is among the central concepts in strategic management. The four Industrial Ecosystem Principles (IEPs) are among the central theoretical constructs in industrial ecology. This theoretical contribution applies the BSC approach to IEPs to construct an Industrial Ecosystem Balanced Scorecard (IEBSC). BSC breaks the strategy of the organisation down to four interdependent perspectives. The Industrial Ecosystem (IE) is divided into four perspectives according to the four IEPs. The IEPs are roundput (materials cycles, energy cascades), diversity (in the involved actors/organisations), cooperation/symbiosis (cooperation in their relations) and locality in product life cycles. In BSC, two criteria are employed to evaluate the perspectives of the organisation's scorecard: the strategic vision and the financial perspective. In IEBSC, the strategic vision and overall objective is ecological sustainability. Sustainability principles (the strategic vision) and roundput (the central IEP perspective) are used to assess the diversity, cooperation/symbiosis and locality in IEBSC. The cause-and-effect chains and interdependencies between the four IEPs are identified. We innovate by linking the engineering and natural science-derived IEPs with the management and organisational models of the BSC that introduce strategic thinking to industrial ecology. The four IEPs can now be used complementarily. The IEBSC further illustrates how the cause-and-effect chains between the four IEPs may actually create unsustainable solutions and environmentally harmful outcomes.

Consumer Privacy and Trust Online: An Experimental Analysis of Anti-Phishing Promotional Effects

ABSTRACT This article reports results of a pre-test/post-test experimental analysis of anti-phishing website promotional effects on participant trust. Participants (n = 101) were randomly assigned to view varying levels (high, medium, low) of online promotional strategies banks use to combat phishing, which refers to the fraudulent and increasingly authentic looking e-mail attempts aimed to lure unsuspecting recipients into sharing sensitive financial and personal information. Results for the dependent variable measures of trust, a central theoretical construct for relational theories of public relations and relationship marketing, reveal that higher amounts of anti-phishing information promote higher levels of trust. Despite initial concern that a threshold effect may result from promotion of anti-phishing information, results show consumers grow more trusting when organizations show more response to phishing threats.

Instinct in the '50s: the British reception of Konrad Lorenz's theory of instinctive behavior*

At the beginning of the 1950s most students of animal behavior in Britain saw the instinct concept developed by Konrad Lorenz in the 1930s as the central theoretical construct of the new ethology. In the mid 1950s J.B.S. Haldane made substantial efforts to undermine Lorenz's status as the founder of the new discipline, challenging his priority on key ethological concepts. Haldane was also critical of Lorenz's sharp distinction between instinctive and learnt behavior. This was inconsistent with Haldane's account of the evolution of language, and, according to Haldane, inconsistent with elementary genetics. British attitudes to the instinct concept changed dramatically in the wake of Daniel S. Lehraman's 1953 critique of Lorenz, and by the 1960s Lorenz drew a clear distinction between his own views and those of the ‘English-speaking ethologists’. The inconsistencies between Lorenz's ideas and the trends in contemporary evolutionary genetics that are reflected in Haldane's critiques may help to explain why the Lorenzian instinct concept was unable to maintain itself in Britian.