Collegial Environment Research Articles

Improving Workplace Climate in Large Corporations: A Clustered Randomized Intervention

Abstract We evaluate the impact of a training program aimed at improving the relational atmosphere in the workplace. The program encourages prosocial behavior and the use of professional language, focusing primarily on leaders’ behavior and leader-subordinate interactions. We implement this program using a clustered randomized design involving over 3,000 headquarters employees of 20 large corporations in Turkey. We evaluate the program with respect to employee separation, pro- and antisocial behavior, the prevalence of support networks, and perceived workplace climate. We find that treated firms have a lower likelihood of employee separation at the leadership level, fewer employees lacking professional and personal help, and denser, less segregated support networks. We also find that employees in treated corporations are less inclined to engage in toxic competition, exhibit higher reciprocity toward each other, and report higher workplace satisfaction and a more collegial environment. The program’s success in improving leader-subordinate relationships emerges as a likely mechanism to explain these results. Treated subordinates report higher professionalism and empathy in their leaders and are more likely to consider their leaders as professional support providers.

Getting Around in a College Town: A Case Study of Transportation Barriers Faced by International Students at the University of Alabama

University students' day-to-day lives largely depend on transportation. Public transit alternatives are not widely available in small-town, rural, and suburban collegiate environments in the United States (U.S.). In this study, an online survey was conducted among international students studying at The University of Alabama (UA) campus located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The objective of this research was to investigate and analyze international student travel experiences in a city with a significant college-affiliated population, as well as to highlight, in particular, some of the transportation issues in the area. The survey results show that international students face various challenges in transportation in and around the campus, finding it difficult to travel within Tuscaloosa without a personal vehicle, as other modes of transportation including walking, biking, and using public transportation are not always convenient or reliable. The study findings may be of interest to transportation experts, city planners, university administrators, and college students who want to better understand travel-related challenges experienced by international students.

Teachers’ professional agency in a centralisation-decentralisation system and a hierarchical cultural context: the case of Hong Kong

ABSTRACT Teachers are frontline actors in actualising educational innovations. In some contexts, teachers’ professional agency is undervalued. This study investigated teachers’ agency and its related workplace affordances in Hong Kong, which features a centralised-decentralisation education governance system, and a hierarchical work culture. The study was based on 21 semi-structured interviews with teachers, and employed a deductive thematic analysis. Agency enactment was categorised into 1) pedagogical agency within classrooms, and 2) relational agency in the professional community. The factors contributing to workplace affordances were grouped as pertaining to 1) the collegial community, 2) school leadership, 3) access to resources, and 4) availability of time, space, and job stability. Agency-supportive leadership and a favourable collegial environment significantly facilitated teachers’ agentic actions. Teachers did not explicitly resist but implemented emotionally meaningless order in a ‘work-to-rule’ manner. The study contributes to professional agency research as applied to a particular political, regional, and socio-cultural context.

Developing Innovators: A Longitudinal Analysis Over Four College Years

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of collegiate environments and experiences on students’ development of innovation capacities over four years of college. Drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework and reliable innovation measures, students from nine postsecondary institutions in North America were surveyed at three time points: first-year fall, first-year spring, and fourth-year spring. Data were comprehensively analyzed using a growth mixture modeling approach. Results suggest that being a transfer student and having sustained engagement with experiences that connect in-class and out-of-class learning were associated with a robust innovation growth trajectory over-and-above known covariates, including personality traits. Implications for research, theory, and practice are considered.

Exercising operational agility in virtual training sessions

AbstractAs businesses adapt during the recovery phase of COVID‐19, there has been a major reset in the way work activities are prepared, conducted, and delivered. In this challenging environment, it may not be prudent or possible to have face‐to‐face workshops involving key personnel. This certainly applies to the conduct of hazard management training, where personnel would typically learn, apply, and reinforce the required learning competencies in a collegiate environment. It has become evident that facilitators have had to alter the way they organize and deliver content in a virtual environment to ensure that there is no adverse change in quality. The challenge is to maintain engagement and foster a nurturing environment to promote learning and communication among the learners as well as between the learners and facilitator(s). This paper relays the good and bad experiences from Sherpa's delivery of hazard management virtual training to operating facilities located nationally and overseas. Sherpa identified eight key steps in the plan and prepare phase of developing a training session that can be used to equip facilitators with operational agility. Sherpa then developed solutions to overcome the challenges of a virtual environment and ensure that key learning outcomes are successfully delivered.

Trends of Teacher Professional Development Strategies: A Systematic Review

Professional development is important for all teachers to improve the quality of teaching. This study is aimed to investigate the trends of professional development strategy and learning outcome in 2015-2019. A systematic review was used in analyzing 267 articles published between 2015 and 2019 in the Teaching and Teacher Education. The findings showed that the trend of professional development strategy is more collaborative and using collegial learning environment, and the trend of learning outcomes which developed through PD programs is more focused on the ability to teach, ability to manage the classroom, and ability to understand the subject field. These findings suggest future studies to develop professional development programs with collaborative and collegial learning environments to develop learning outcomes on practicing new instructional strategies.

“Viewed as Equals”: The Impacts of Library Organizational Cultures and Management on Library Staff Morale

The literature on academic librarian morale is burgeoning, yet less attention has been paid to the workplace experiences of staff. This research team, which included library staff and librarians, conducted 34 structured online interviews with academic library staff across the United States. A theoretical model and interview findings are presented, which reveal the ways in which organizational culture, library hierarchies, and management style affect staff morale. Recommendations are offered, suggesting that, while change can present substantial challenges, efforts to address equity in compensation, provide professional growth opportunities, and create more collegial work environments are essential to improving staff morale.

The Advancement of ASMA: Highlights from the 2022 Annual Conference

The Applied Sport Management Association (ASMA) is a scholarly organization that aims to builds research partnerships between faculty and students as well as strong connections between scholars and students studying sport and practitioners working in the sport industry. Each year, ASMA hosts a national (international) conference. Since 2005, ASMA has progressed to become the preeminent outlet for students and faculty to present research in a collegial and professional environment as well as build strong connects with sport industry practitioners. As evidence of the continued growth of ASMA, several noticeable events took place at the 2022 annual conference. A brief summary is provided.

Delivering Urgent Care Using Telemedicine: Insights from Experienced Clinicians at Academic Medical Centers

BackgroundCare delivered using telemedicine has been steadily growing in the USA but represented a small fraction of overall visits before the COVID-19 pandemic as few clinicians had been providing care using telemedicine. Understanding how experienced clinicians have practiced telemedicine can help guide today’s exponential adoption of telemedicine.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to explore barriers and facilitators to providing effective, high-quality urgent care using telemedicine (“tele-urgent care”) from the perspective of clinicians experienced in telemedicine.ApproachWe conducted semi-structured interviews between July 2018 and March 2019 of clinicians who had been providing tele-urgent care services to patients as a part of their routine clinical practice. Themes were identified using content analysis with a constant comparative coding approach.Key ResultsAmong the 20 clinicians interviewed, the majority were female (90%) and nurse practitioners (65%). We identified four themes related to barriers and facilitators to providing effective, high-quality tele-urgent care. Workplace factors such as a strong information technology (IT) infrastructure, real-time IT support, an electronic health record, and a collegial work environment, often virtual, were necessary standards. Communication and exam techniques from in-person encounters were adapted to tele-urgent care including active listening skills and teaching patients to conduct specific exam maneuvers virtually. The convenience of tele-urgent care should be preserved to support improvements in access to care. Finally, patients and clinicians occasionally had mismatched expectations about what could or would be provided during a tele-urgent care encounter. Managing the added tension that can occur during a telemedicine encounter was important.ConclusionAs telemedicine becomes an integral part of the care continuum, incorporating and accounting for these key insights when we train and support clinicians will be necessary to provide effective, high-quality care to patients in the future.

EXPEDITIONS FROM ROME: THOMAS ASHBY, HIS BSR COMPANIONS AND THE ROMAN ROADS OF ITALY

In the early twentieth century, Thomas Ashby published extensively on the Roman roads of Italy. The BSR Director was determined to create a lasting record of the ancient Roman road network before it was lost forever. Yet Ashby's research vision was grand and it was too ambitious a task for one man to accomplish on his own. This paper investigates the crucial role of BSR scholars in Ashby's research. It discusses his relationship with the community of residents and scholars at the BSR in the pre- and post-World War I years, especially those with whom he collaborated in order to survey, map and record the Roman roads and their surrounding countryside. Focus is given to Ashby's research on roads like the Via Flaminia and Via Appia as this work highlights his methodology, the collegial environment at the BSR during his directorship, and his successful collaboration with award-holders. To date, the role of these BSR scholars has largely been underrated. Yet there were BSR award-holders — historians, archaeologists and architects — who helped to keep Ashby's research vision alive. Without them, he could not have produced such a comprehensive and impressive body of work on Italy's Roman roads.

Factors Affecting Corporate Security Policy Effectiveness in Telecommuting

COVID-19 has prompted a rise in telecommuting practices in most companies worldwide. Meanwhile, companies are struggling to cope with the new and evolving security threats in telecommuting using old control methods. Specifically, there is an increased danger of hacking attacks in telecommuting environments. Furthermore, corporate concerns regarding telecommuting security have led to a questioning of existing control methods that no longer seem adequate. Significant research has been conducted on the factors that improve the effectiveness of corporate security policies, such as formal control, informal control, and extrarole behaviors. However, these studies did not consider telecommuting environments, which surged after the COVID-19 outbreak. Telecommuting loosens the physical control over employees and eliminates the collegial environment in which employees encourage each other to protect system information. This study determined how the factors that influence the effectiveness of existing information security policies behave in a telecommuting environment. Our study shows that specification and mandatoriness are the most important factors for an effective telecommuting security policy. We conclude that this sudden change in the working environment has rendered existing security controls obsolete, and specification and mandatoriness are likely to receive increasingly more attention in the growing field of telecommuting security policy.

Rapid, centralised decision-making in a higher education emergency

PurposeThis study aims to explain the primacy that rapid, centralised decision-making gained in higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on Australian universities.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on discussions regarding policy problems of an international, purpose-convened on-line policy network involving over 100 registrations from multiple countries. It analyses emerging institutional policy governance texts and documents shared between network participants, applies policy science literature regarding traditional institutional policy-making routines and rapid decision-making, and references media reportage from 2020. The paper traces how higher education institutions rapidly adjusted to pandemic conditions and largely on-line operations.FindingsThe study finds that higher education institutions responded to the COVID-19 crisis by operationalising emergency management plans and introducing rapid, centralised decision-making to transition to remote modes of operation, learning and research under state-imposed emergency conditions. It highlights the need to ensure robust governance models recognising the ascendance of emergency decision-making and small-p policies in such circumstances, notwithstanding longstanding traditions of extended collegial policy-making routines for big-P (institutional) Policy. The pandemic highlighted practice and policy problems subject to rapid reform and forced institutions to clarify the relationship between emergency planning and decision-making, quality and institutional policy.Practical implicationsIn covering a range of institutional responses, the study advances the possibility of institutions planning better for unexpected, punctuated policy shifts during an emergency through the incorporation of rapid decision-making in traditionally collegial environments. At the same time, the paper cautions against the normalisation of such processes. The study also highlights key practices and policies that require urgent reconsideration in an emergency. The study is designed as a self-contained and freestanding narrative to inform responses to future emergencies by roundly addressing the particularities of the 2020 phase of the COVID-19 pandemic as it affected higher education.Originality/valueThere is only limited research on policy-making in higher education institutions. This research offers an original contribution on institutional policy-making during a prolonged emergency that deeply changed higher education institution’s governance, operations and outlook. Particularly significant is the synthesis of experiences from a wide range of sector personnel, documenting punctuated policy shifts in policy governance (meta-policy), institutional policy-making routines and quality assurance actions under great pressure. This paper is substantially developed from a paper given at the Association for Tertiary Education Management Institutional Policy Seminar, 26th October 2020.

Faculty Positions

Creighton University invites qualified applications for the position of Chair the Department of General Dentistry who will provide vision, leadership, direction, and management of the didactic, pre-clinical and clinical instruction in coordination with the other departments and the School’s pre-doctoral curriculum. This position involves engaging the faculty of the department in teaching, scholarly activity, professional development, and service activities in alignment with the mission and purpose of the department, School and University. The position will need to work well in a collegial environment with other department chairs and leadership of the School to assure that the department is integrated within the School and the University and fosters the continued growth of the school’s team practice model and advances the efficient delivery of the department’s curriculum. The position includes the opportunity for advancement through rank and tenure processes of the University. DDS/DMD degree or equivalent is required along with eligibility for dental licensure in Nebraska. Preferred qualifications include certificate, Master’s or PhD degree in operative or material sciences, or advanced degrees appropriate for academia and the needs of the position.If interested, please apply via this link: http://k.rfer.us/CREIGHTONhrP1TB

Optimal Coordinated Charging and Routing Scheme of Electric Vehicles in Distribution Grids: Real Grid Cases

The government policies and benefits led to the surge in penetration of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) and Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) into both public and private sectors. Power Grids are dynamic with load and generation varying, and wide spread adoption of PHEVs can jeopardize and endanger the operation and security of the distribution grids due to overloading and congestion. This paper develops two optimization models, one is for the routing algorithm of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) to find the minimum energy consumption for Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system in a collegiate environment. The other optimization model is for charging a maximum number of PHEVs interfaced with American Electric Power (AEP) utility system. Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) is used to determine the charging schedules of PHEVs to minimize the power system overloading. MILP is also used to find the optimum charging schedule of BEVs to satisfy the passenger demand of the transit system. Different charging strategies have been developed, and their effects on distribution system voltage profile and losses have been illustrated. We used the real-time data for the PRT routing algorithm. PHEV customers are categorized into different real-world Demand Response (DR) participants capable of flattening the load curve. A time series simulation of a distribution feeder test system is performed to show the feasibility of the proposed methods. Case studies on AEP system and West Virginia University transportation system were carried out. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed optimization framework in reducing system peak load and satisfying the demand while utilizing minimum number of BEVs.

The impact of organizational culture on professional fulfillment and burnout in an academic department of medicine.

Physician wellness is vital to career satisfaction, provision of high quality patient care, and the successful education of the next generation of physicians. Despite this, the number of physicians experience symptoms of burnout is rising. To assess the impact of organizational culture on physicians' professional fulfillment and burnout, we surveyed full-time Department of Medicine members at the University of Toronto. A cross-sectional survey assessed: physician factors (age, gender, minority status, disability, desire to reduce clinical workload); workplace culture (efforts to create a collegial environment, respectful/civil interactions, confidence to address unprofessionalism without reprisal, witnessed and/or personally experienced unprofessionalism); professional fulfillment and burnout using the Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index. We used multivariable linear regression to examine the relationship of measures of workplace culture on professional fulfillment and burnout (scores 0-10), controlling for physician factors. Of 419 respondents (52.0% response rate), we included 400 with complete professional fulfillment and burnout data in analyses (60% ≤ age 50, 45% female). Mean scores for professional fulfillment and burnout were 6.7±1.9 and 2.8±1.9, respectively. Controlling for physician factors, professional fulfillment was associated with satisfaction with efforts to create a collegial environment (adjusted beta 0.45, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.70) and agreement that colleagues were respectful/civil (adjusted beta 0.85, 95% CI 0.53 to 1.17). Lower professional fulfillment was associated with higher burnout scores. Controlling for professional fulfillment and physician factors, lower confidence in taking action to address unprofessionalism (adjusted beta -0.22, 95% CI -0.40 to -0.03) was associated with burnout. Organizational culture and physician factors had an impact on professional fulfillment and burnout. Professional fulfillment partially mediated the relationship between organizational culture and burnout. Strategies that promote inclusion, respect and civility, and safe ways to report workplace unprofessionalism are needed in academic medicine.

Does Medical Students' Sense of Belonging Affect Their Interest in Orthopaedic Surgery Careers? A Qualitative Investigation.

The concept of social belonging has been shown to be important for retention and student success in collegiate environments and general surgery training. However, this concept has never been explored in relation to medical students' impressions of orthopaedic surgery careers. To investigate medical students' sense of belonging in orthopaedic surgery and how it affects their interest in pursuing orthopaedic surgery careers. Medical students from four medical schools were invited to participate in telephone interviews aimed to investigate medical students' reasons for considering (or not considering) orthopaedic surgery as a future career. Students were selected using random sampling and theoretical sampling methods (selecting participants based on specific characteristics) to obtain a diversity of student perspectives across medical school year, gender, race, age, and interest in orthopaedics. Semistructured interviews with open-ended questions and face validity were used to minimize bias in the interview process. Analysis was performed using grounded theory methodology, a rigorous and well-established method for creating conceptual models based on qualitative data. The result seeks to be a data-driven (as opposed to hypothesis-driven) theory that provides perspective on human behavior. Interviews were conducted until the point of thematic saturation, defined as the point when no new ideas occur in subsequent interviews; this was achieved at 23 students (16 self-identified as women, 12 self-identified as underrepresented minorities). Medical students articulated stereotypes about orthopaedic surgeons, in particular, that they were white, male, and athletic. Students derived their sense of belonging in orthopaedic surgery from how closely their identities aligned with these stereotypes about the field. Students who felt a sense of belonging described themselves as being part of a cultural "in-group," and students who did not feel a sense of belonging felt that they were in a cultural "out-group." Members of the in-group often reported that orthopaedic experiences further reinforced their positive identity alignment, which typically led to increased interest and continued engagement with the field. Conversely, students in the out-group reported that their exposures to orthopaedics further reinforced their lack of identity alignment, and this typically led to decreased interest and engagement. Many students in the out-group reported pursuing other specialties due to a lack of belonging within orthopaedics. Students derive their sense of belonging in orthopaedics based on how closely their identity aligns with stereotypes about the field. Importantly, there were gender and racial factors associated with orthopaedic stereotypes, and thus with belonging (self-identifying as the in-group). Moreover, out-group students tended not to choose orthopaedic surgery careers because of a lack of belonging in the specialty. With knowledge of the factors that influence students' sense of belonging, academic orthopaedic departments can focus on interventions that may lead to a more diverse pool of medical students interested in orthopaedic surgery. These might include explicitly addressing stereotypes about orthopaedics and cultivating positive identity alignment for students from diverse backgrounds through targeted mentorship fostering partnerships with affinity organizations, and creating space to talk about barriers. Targeted interventions such as these are needed to interrupt the cycle of in-group and out-group formation that, in this small multicenter study, appeared to deter students with underrepresented identities from pursuing orthopaedic surgery careers.

AAA Science Communication Bootcamp: empowering members with effective communication strategies

This presentation summarizes the outcomes from the inaugural AAA Science Communication Boot Camp (SCBC). SCBC is a 3-day, hands-on professional development workshop in effective science communication strategies. The inaugural workshop was convened in Indianapolis, IN, from July 10-12, 2019, with the following goals: 1) To equip a cadre of AAA members with a toolkit of methods proven to enhance the effectiveness of science communication: dynamic listening, message distilling, storytelling, and audience connection all derived from the principles of improvisational theater; and 2) To provide a collegial and interactive environment where SCBC participants can practice the communication skills they learn in real time, network with others, and train to communicate science with the media and with policymakers. Days 1 and 2 of SCBC focused on formal communication training from the faculty of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. The Alda Method borrows techniques from applied improvisational theater to teach participants to effectively connect with their audience in real time, to distill their message into language that is free from jargon and easily understood by the general public, and to use storytelling as a mechanism for these tasks. Day 3 of SCBC focused on communication with media, visual communication, and communication with policymakers. A morning panel of local and regional print, radio, and television reports and media professionals spoke to participants about effective ways to communicate the importance of their work to general audiences. The media panel was followed by a session on the importance of visual communication led by a representative of the Indiana Center for Translational Science. The afternoon included two sessions where SCBC participants were able to apply techniques learned over the previous two days: mock media interviews and advocacy training for effective communication with policymakers run by FASEB staff. Participants completed pre- and post-workshop evaluations (5-pt. Likert scale) regarding their comfort and willingness to communicate their science in multiple media platforms. We predicted that more participants would agree/strongly agree with the evaluation statements on the post-workshop survey than on the pre-workshop survey. Twenty-nine participants were surveyed, and response rates were high (79% pre-survey, 89% post-survey). Data were analyzed by independent samples t-tests of means between pre- and post-workshop surveys. Likert scores were considered statistically significant with a Bonferroni correction of 0.05 for 9 analyses (i.e., p<0.0056). Data demonstrate that participants found the program to be valuable because they left with a science communication toolkit to draw on as they continue practicing how to communicate their work to diverse audiences. We expect to offer additional SCBC programs in the future.

Examining Individualism in College Student Retention Theory and Practice

College student retention and completion rates correlate with the production of societal benefits such as community engagement, human capital, diverse campus communities, and social mobility. While ideas vary, most contemporary retention practices and strategies rely on foundational studies that focus on individualism, the student-institution relationship, and inhibiting factors to student integration into a collegiate environment. This meta-synthesis examines the individualistic nature of foundational historic and contemporary retention theories and practices as well as recommends a collectivist, culturally-responsive alternative paradigm for retention theory and strategy development moving forward.

Classroom Confirmation Panels: Facilitating Feedback in Communities of Practice in Classroom Learning Groups

This article explores innovative peer-assessment strategies to create and support lifelong learners. It proposes that the confirmation panel—a formal progression requirement of a postgraduate degree—can effectively facilitate feedback, function as an assessment tool, and meaningfully induct both secondary and undergraduate tertiary students into a community of practice. The confirmation panel offers immediacy and richness of feedback, promotion of accountability, empathy, confidence, content knowledge, and—importantly—the transfer of tacit knowledge specific to a community of practice. Other positive results include: building and (re)structuring metacognitive frameworks, facilitation of self-reflection, and the forming of a creative, collegial environment where standards are clarified and learning is scaffolded.

Supporting practice change in early years classrooms: Australia and Turkey as case studies

ABSTRACT This paper brings together two studies, conducted independently in two different countries, Turkey and Australia, both focusing on supporting early years teachers to research and strengthen their own practice in relation to play-based pedagogies. It reports on the professional learning programmes that were implemented to improve understanding about play and young children’s learning, leading to a change in practice. We argue that practice change is achievable through effective professional learning programmes that combine essential elements such as knowledge building, situating the learning within the context of practice, and encouraging critical deliberation in a supportive collegial environment. In both studies this has led to change in teacher’s pedagogical knowledge and practice.