Collaborative Style Research Articles

Officers’ views on women in policing

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how receptive police officers are to having women as partners and supervisors at work in a cross-national context. Specifically, it compares male and female police officers’ views on women in policing along three dimensions in Dubai and Taipei: perceived efficacy of women in policing; receptiveness of women at work (as partners and supervisor); and perceived women’s role in police work. Design/methodology/approach Surveys (with the same instrument) were conducted with 622 officers (344 male and 278 female officers) in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and 391 officers (297 male and 94 female officers) in Taipei, Taiwan. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were employed to compare male and female officers’ views on women in policing in both countries. Findings It was found that female officers (in Dubai and Taipei) were more likely than their male colleagues to see women as capable and effective in performing police duties. Compared to their colleagues in Taiwan, the Emirati male and female officers were more likely to be supportive of women’s restricted role in policing. Dubai male officers were less likely to be receptive to working at a unit with a female as their supervisor in comparison to their female colleagues in both countries. Research limitations/implications Although this study provides important information from a cross-national perspective, caution should be taken while interpreting these findings. The gender roles embedded in Islamic cultures seem to explain Dubai officers’ favorable attitudes toward women’s restricted role in policing. Future studies should incorporate in-depth interviews to explain why officers in Dubai prefer women’s restricted roles in policing. Practical implications The statistical analyses show that officers with higher levels of confidence not only held more positive attitudes toward women in policing, but also were more receptive to having women as their partners and supervisors. It suggests that confident officers would be more open-minded and welcome the entry of women into police work. By offering training courses that enhance officers’ work confidence, police organizations in both countries might well cultivate a welcoming work environment for women. Social implications If police organizations in Taiwan and the UAE instill cultures with an emphasis less on masculine traits than on collaborative style, male officers might free themselves from traditional gender norms and become more welcoming to women who work in policing. Originality/value Previous scholarly efforts on examining different areas of women in policing have mainly focused on police officers in western countries, leaving a relative scarcity of information about how officers perceive women’s role in policing in the other parts of the globe. Female officers have to work hand in hand with male officers in policing. To enhance the efficiency of deployment and cohesion of work relationship among male and female officers, it is important to understand how male officers perceive women’s roles in policing and how receptive they are to having women as partners. Understanding their perceptions from both sides can help administrations initiate effective training and educational programs.

GP leadership in clinical commissioning groups: a qualitative multi-case study approach across England.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were established in England in 2013 to encourage GPs to exert greater influence over the processes of service improvement and redesign in the NHS. Little is known about the extent and the ways in which GPs have assumed these leadership roles. To explore the nature of clinical leadership of GPs in CCGs, and to examine the enablers and barriers to implementing a policy of clinical leadership in the NHS. A qualitative multi-case study approach in six localities across England. The case studies were purposefully sampled to represent different geographical localities and population demographics, and for their commitment to redesigning specified clinical or service areas. Data were collected from the case study CCGs and their partner organisations using a review of relevant documents, semi-structured individual or group interviews, and observations of key meetings. The data were analysed thematically and informed by relevant theories. GPs prefer a collaborative style of leadership that may be unlikely to produce rapid or radical change. Leadership activities are required at all levels in the system from strategy to frontline delivery, and the leadership behaviours of GPs who are not titular leaders are as important as formal leadership roles. A new alliance is emerging between clinicians and managers that draws on their different skillsets and creates new common interests. The uncertain policy environment in the English NHS is impacting on the willingness and the focus of GP leaders. GPs are making an important contribution as leaders of health service improvement and redesign but there are significant professional and political barriers to them optimising a leadership role.

The Intersection of Gender and Resuscitation Leadership Experience in Emergency Medicine Residents: A Qualitative Study.

The objective was to examine emergency medicine (EM) residents' perceptions of gender as it intersects with resuscitation team dynamics and the experience of acquiring resuscitation leadership skills. This was an exploratory, qualitative study using grounded theory and a purposive sample of postgraduate year (PGY) 2-4 EM residents who function as resuscitation team leaders in two urban EM programs. One-on-one interviews were conducted by a single experienced researcher. Audiotaped interviews were transcribed and deidentified by two research assistants. A research team composed of a PhD educational researcher, a research nurse, an MPH research assistant, and an EM resident reviewed the transcripts and coded and analyzed data using MAXQDA v12. Themes and coding schema were discussed until consensus was reached. We used member checking to assess the accuracy of our report and to confirm that the interpretations were fair and representative. Theme saturation was reached after interviewing 16 participants: 10 males and 6 females. The three major themes related to gender that emerged included leadership style, gender inequality, and relationship building. Both male and female residents reported that a directive style was more effective when functioning in the resuscitation leadership role. Female residents more often expressed discomfort with a directive style of leadership, preferring a more communicative and collaborative style. Both female and male residents identified several challenges as disproportionately affecting female residents, including negotiating interactions with nurses more and "earning the respect" of the team members. Residents acknowledged that additional challenges exist for female residents in becoming resuscitation team leaders. Increasing awareness in residency program leadership is key to affecting change to ensure all residents are trained in a similar manner, while also addressing gender-specific needs of residents where appropriate. We present suggestions for addressing these barriers and incorporating discussion of leadership styles into residency training.

Study on generic tangible objects used to collaborate remotely on RFID tabletops

Having the tools to work remotely with other people is one of the ambitions of people who work in a group context. In fact they have to move and to link their team-work in order to collaborate on one or several tasks. This paper describes a study on an innovative system designed to support remote collaborative applications on tabletops with tangible interaction. We propose a set of generic tangible objects. They model a set of collaborative styles which are possible between tabletop users. Our goal is to study the usability of and satisfaction with such objects that provide remote collaboration among users of interactive tabletops for tangible interaction. An application adapted to remote collaboration was tested in the laboratory with adult participants. Twelve test groups, each composed of three participants, tested a distributed application for the learning and recognition of colors. Our analysis, supported by observations, log file analysis and questionnaires, focuses on whether the use of generic objects to collaborate remotely is easy and understandable for users. It also considers user satisfaction when using the distributed tabletop with tangible objects.

Inverse design in search of materials with target functionalities

Solid-state chemists have been consistently successful in envisioning and making new compounds, often enlisting the tools of theoretical solid-state physics to explain some of the observed properties of the new materials. Here, a new style of collaboration between theory and experiment is discussed, whereby the desired functionality of the new material is declared first and theoretical calculations are then used to predict which stable and synthesizable compounds exhibit the required functionality. Subsequent iterative feedback cycles of prediction–synthesis–characterization result in improved predictions and promise not only to accelerate the discovery of new materials but also to enable the targeted design of materials with desired functionalities via such inverse design. The conventional theoretical approach to the study of materials typically involves explaining the properties of known materials. This approach is compared with the inverse design of materials, in which the desired properties are set as inputs and the material that exhibits them as the output.

Web-Based and Quality-Oriented Remote Collaboration Platform Tolerant to Severe Network Constraints

Existing remote collaboration systems are not suitable for a collaboration style where distributed users touch work tools at the same time, especially in demanding use cases or in severe network situations. To cover a wider range of use cases, we propose a novel concept of a remote collaboration platform that enables the users to share currently-used work tools with a high quality A/V transmission module, while maintaining the advantages of web-based systems. It also provides functions to deal with long transmission delay using relay servers, packet transmission instability using visual feedback of audio delivery and limited bandwidth using dynamic allocation of video bitrate. We implemented the platform and conducted evaluation tests. The results show the feasibility of the proposed concept and its tolerance to network constraints, which indicates that the proposed platform can construct unprecedented collaboration systems.

The impact of self-avatars on trust and collaboration in shared virtual environments.

A self-avatar is known to have a potentially significant impact on the user’s experience of the immersive content but it can also affect how users interact with each other in a shared virtual environment (SVE). We implemented an SVE for a consumer virtual reality system where each user’s body could be represented by a jointed self-avatar that was dynamically controlled by head and hand controllers. We investigated the impact of a self-avatar on collaborative outcomes such as completion time and trust formation during competitive and cooperative tasks. We used two different embodiment levels: no self-avatar and self-avatar, and compared these to an in-person face to face version of the tasks. We found that participants could finish the task more quickly when they cooperated than when they competed, for both the self-avatar condition and the face to face condition, but not for the no self-avatar condition. In terms of trust formation, both the self-avatar condition and the face to face condition led to higher scores than the no self-avatar condition; however, collaboration style had no significant effect on trust built between partners. The results are further evidence of the importance of a self-avatar representation in immersive virtual reality.

Relationships between Learning Styles, Perceived Advantages of Online Collaborative Learning and Practical Knowledge in Teaching among Taiwanese Student Teachers

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the three learning styles (collaborative, competitive, and individualistic) on the perceived advantage of collaborative learning (PAoCL) and practical knowledge in teaching (PKiT) among Taiwanese student teachers in an online collaborative environment. This study built a Facebook Group and developed the tasks of collaborative learning based on field-experience courses. The participants were required to share various practical experiences as the collaborative learning tasks. A total of 100 student teachers who enrolled in field-based courses between August 2016 and January 2017 participated in this study and were required to complete a validated survey in January 2017. This study determined the relationships between the three learning styles and PAoCL and PKiT and further identified predictors of online collaborative learning. The collaborative learning style of student teachers was positively associated with their PAoCL, while competitive learning style was correlated with their PKiT. Accordingly, teacher educators can encourage student teachers to share experiences about teaching practices during participating in field-experience courses through online collaboration. However, teacher educators should remind the student teachers to transfer the online information into PKiT.

RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIOUR THERAPY AS A COLLABORATIVE STYLE IN RESOLVING MARITAL CONFLICTS

Conflict in marriage like any other institution is inevitable. Conflicts between married couple are normal and not necessarily disruptive. However, conflict becomes disruptive based on the way and manner it is handled. Marital harmony is crucial to every society. Inability to resolve marital conflict appropriately can lead to devastating consequences not only to the family and the society but also to a nation as a whole. This paper discussed conflict, conflict resolution and models of approaching conflict resolution. It also discussed marriage, marital conflict and their causes. Lastly, the paper examined Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) and how it can be used as a collaborative style in marital conflict resolution. Article visualizations:

L2 Learners' Perception of STAD and its Relationship with Learning Styles

Kim, Suyeon. 2017. “L2 Learners' Perception of STAD and its Relationship with Learning Styles”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 25(2), 73~102. This study aims to examine the relationship among cooperative learning, L2 learning, and learning styles. To that end, I utilized Slavin's Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD) and investigated how learners perceive the effect of STAD on second language (L2) learning and how the effect of STAD is associated with their learning styles. I implemented STAD in two college English conversation classes during a semester, with 44 learners completing two questionnaires and six participating in interviews. Three key findings emerged: 1) L2 learners perceived STAD as being more useful than lecture-centered classes in improving their conversational skills, promoting more active participation and interaction, and developing higher self-confidence and lower anxiety, 2) while avoidant learning styles had a significant negative correlation with students' perception, a significant positive correlation resulted with the majority of learning styles, and 3) collaborative and independent learning styles had a more significant effect on L2 students' perception of STAD than other learning styles. The results show that through cooperative learning, L2 learners are scaffolded to improve conversational skills, and STAD accommodates diverse learning styles by giving learners equal opportunities for success. This study implies that L2 learning can be maximized when teachers employ a strategy that allows learners with different learning styles to participate.

Leadership and Teamwork

Leaders inspire confidence and builds trust among people to attain objectives. In an organization, leadership is required at all levels to lead the team members towards organizational development. However, leadership alone cannot attain anything superior unless the entire team follows the leader and works together with the leader to achieve the goals (Dubrin, 2010). Leadership and teamwork are the two most important keywords for the success of any organization. Poor leadership cannot lead a team to success and a group of unmotivated and incompetent team cannot help a leader to achieve great success (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). To achieve organizational goals, the team must work as a whole under the leader and the leader must exhibit behavioural skills that can motivate the team (Bass, 1990). Today, there are several leadership theories that tries to define leadership as transactional, transformational, autocratic or charismatic. However, to achieve success as a team, the leader must exhibit participative leadership where each member of the team is valued and each member is offered the opportunity to participate in organizational development (Dubrin, 2010). This essay looks into the different theories of leadership and urges that collaborative leadership is the best style for leaders to build team and achieve teamwork capabilities. This paper also looks at some of the companies that have incorporated collaborative leadership style to achieve success.

A focus on collaboration: Fostering Australian screen production students’ teamwork skills.

Recent research undertaken in Australia and abroad suggests that the development of effective collaboration skills is a significant factor affecting the successful employment of graduate screen practitioners. This article outlines the results of a study that examined student response to the explicit teaching of collaboration skills in an Australian screen production course. The authors report on an empirical research project undertaken in 2015 and 2016 in the Department of Screen Arts at Curtin University, Western Australia. This involved two cohorts of second year screen production students (83 in total), and aimed to foster students’ teamwork skills. The activities and resources shared with students encouraged an interrogation of contemporary models of filmmaking collaboration, the use of group contracts to identify shared values of teamwork and the implementation of activities designed to improve students’ awareness of various collaboration styles. Outcomes were measured by both qualitative and quantitative means through student surveys administered at both the beginning and end of the unit of study. The results of these surveys suggest a change in student attitudes towards collaboration, particularly in regards to the value of communication. The authors aim to disseminate these findings and to encourage further discussion and study in this area. The article builds a case for more attention being placed on the explicit teaching of teamwork and collaboration skills in University screen production courses.

Fathering moderates the effects of maternal depression on the family process.

Maternal depression negatively impacts children's development, yet few studies have focused on fathering and the family process in cases of maternal depression. A community cohort of married/cohabitating women was recruited on the second postbirth day (N = 1,983) and maternal depression repeatedly assessed across the first year and again at 6 years to form two cohorts: mothers chronically depressed from birth to 6 (N = 46) and nondepressed controls (N = 103). At 6 years, mother-child, father-child, and family interactions were observed. In families of depressed mothers, both mother and father exhibited lower sensitivity and higher intrusiveness, and children displayed lower social engagement during interactions with mother and father. Fathering moderated the effects of maternal depression on the family process. When fathers showed low sensitivity, high intrusiveness, and provided little opportunities for child social engagement, the family process was less cohesive, implying a decrease in the family's harmonious, warm, and collaborative style. However, in cases of high father sensitivity, low intrusiveness, and increased child engagement, the family process was unaffected by maternal depression. Findings describe both comparability and compensatory mechanisms in the effects of fathering on family life when maternal care is deficient, highlight the buffering role of fathers, and underscore the importance of father-focused interventions when mothers are depressed.

Firestorms: Modeling conflict diffusion and management strategies in online communities

This study aims to provide a better understanding of how organizations can manage public conflict and firestorms in social media spheres. We develop an agent-based simulation model of conflicts in firm-hosted online communities and find that a collaborating conflict management style characterized by high levels of cooperativeness and assertiveness helps to successfully handle conflict. However, the effectiveness of this collaborative style is highly dependent on contingency factors related to the participating individuals and the social structure within the community itself, such as the number of moderators and aggressors present in the community, their credibility, as well as the overall opinion of the community. Depending on these factors, collaborating and accommodating conflict management becomes more or less successful. Under some configurations it is even less effective than more competitive and assertive management styles. Therefore, to successfully handle conflict and restrain the escalation of a firestorm, organizations need to optimally adapt their conflict management style to varying conditions by considering individual-level and community-level characteristics.

Collaboration in the Kindergarten as a Pedagogical Means for Developing Positive Attitudes

Nowadays preschool pedagogical process organisation needs scientific basis. The research methodological substantiation involves activity procedural structural and anthropological methodological approaches. The article explains possibilities of Latvia preschool education, analyses concepts on collaboration essence in teaching/learning, teacher’s position and competences in collaboration at up-bringing activity at preschool. In kindergarten pedagogical process, collaboration is used as pedagogical means, up-bringing principle and the teacher’s personally significant activity for development of child’s positive attitudes. The empirical research is based on the authors’s pedagogical self-experience at music sessions at preschool interest education, experience of teachers’ collaboration styles at Latvian preschool music education association courses (1000 respondents), observations at preschool education institutions (kindergartens and education of interests) and reflection of teachers’ experience using collaboration as pedagogical means for development of children’s positive attitudes at kindergarten.

Collaborative leadership and the implementation of community-based fall prevention initiatives: a multiple case study of public health practice within community groups

BackgroundFalls among community-dwelling older adults are a serious public health concern. While evidence-based fall prevention strategies are available, their effective implementation requires broad cross-sector coordination that is beyond the capacity of any single institution or organization. Community groups comprised of diverse stakeholders that include public health, care providers from the public and private sectors and citizen volunteers are working to deliver locally-based fall prevention. These groups are examples of collective impact and are important venues for public health professionals (PHPs) to deliver their mandate to work collaboratively towards achieving improved health outcomes. This study explores the process of community-based group work directed towards fall prevention, and it focuses particular attention on the collaborative leadership practices of PHPs, in order to advance understanding of the competencies required for collective impact.MethodsFour community groups, located in Ontario, Canada, were studied using an exploratory, retrospective, multiple case study design. The criteria for inclusion were presence of a PHP, a diverse membership and the completion of an initiative that fit within the scope of the World Health Organization Fall Prevention Model. Data were collected using interviews (n = 26), focus groups (n = 4), and documents. Cross-case synthesis was conducted by a collaborative team of researchers.ResultsThe community groups differed by membership, the role of the PHP and the type of fall prevention initiatives. Seven practice themes emerged: (1) tailoring to address context; (2) making connections; (3) enabling communication; (4) shaping a vision; (5) skill-building to mobilize and take action; (6) orchestrating people and projects; and (7) contributing information and experience. The value of recognized leadership competencies was underscored and the vital role of institutional supports was highlighted.ConclusionTo align stakeholders working towards fall prevention for community-dwelling older adults and establish a foundation for collective impact, public health professionals employed practices that reflected a collaborative leadership style. Looking ahead, public health professionals will want to shift their focus to evaluating the effectiveness of their group work within communities. They will also need to assess outcomes and evaluate whether the anticipated reductions in fall rates among community-dwelling older adults is being achieved.

Epistemic Cultures in Conflict: The Case of Astronomy and High Energy Physics

The article presents an in-depth analysis of epistemic cultures in conflict by exemplifying the epistemic conflict between high energy physics (HEP) and astronomy which emerged after the discovery of “dark energy” and the accelerating expansion of the universe. It suggests a theoretical framework combining Knorr-Cetina’s concept of epistemic cultures with Whitley’s theory of dependencies in the sciences system, which explains that epistemic conflicts occur, if the strategic and functional dependency of two incommensurable epistemic cultures is suddenly growing. The pre-history of the conflict is discussed on a micro-level for the two research groups involved in the breakthrough. The analysis of the consequent epistemic conflict on a macro-level reveals that it embraces the preferred epistemic strategy, the collaboration style, the instrumental concepts and the question how social legitimacy can be generated.

Roger Arthur Cowley. 24 February 1939 — 27 January 2015

Roger Cowley was one of the leading solid-state physicists of his generation. He was a highly versatile scientist who made important contributions to the understanding of the motion of atoms in solids and liquids, of the mechanisms of structural phase transitions, and of a range of magnetic phenomena, especially in systems with quenched disorder. Adept at both experiment and theory, he had the rare gift of being able to see through layers of complexity that often cloud real-world materials and capture the essence of their behaviour in simple models. His style was instinctively collaborative so he often worked together with some of the other leading people in his field, both nationally and internationally. His collaborative style also meant that he was frequently called on to serve in administrative roles. He was head of department at the University of Edinburgh for seven years and Chairman of Physics at Oxford for eight years. He played a large role in the administration of Oxford as a whole. Many of his graduate students went on to distinguished careers of their own, both within Britain and abroad.

The management of teachers’ non-directed time in a secondary school

This article describes a study which investigated the motivations behind why teachers dedicate non-directed time to school-related tasks and the extent to which managers understand and harness these motivations. Data were collected through three case studies within one secondary school. Three heads of department (HoDs) and three teachers were interviewed, and questionnaires were given to all the teachers in the three departments. A questionnaire was developed using ideas from the voluntary sector with the premise that teachers give their time out of their ‘own free will’. This was used to assess what motivates teachers to dedicate their non-directed time to school-focused tasks and the attitudes of their managers towards this. A common finding from all case studies was that teachers are motivated by the idea that they are ‘doing it for the students’. At the same time, it was reported that ‘motivators’ such as performance-related pay had little effect on teachers’ motivation to dedicate their non-directed time to school-focused activities but could increase teachers’ work pressure and stress. The implications for educational managers from this research is that an understanding of teachers’ motivation is imperative if they are to be managed well, especially in terms of the monitoring of non-directed time, and that a reduction of pressure from extrinsic motivators may be of benefit to teachers’ well-being and job satisfaction. One way in which this could be achieved is through a more collaborative style of management and shared departmental goals.

The Relationship between Individual Collaborative Art Elements and Collaborative Learning Style for Character Education: Mediating Effects of Titling Artwork

The Relationship between Individual Collaborative Art Elements and Collaborative Learning Style for Character Education: Mediating Effects of Titling Artwork