Extraordinary Service Research Articles

International Humanitarian Award: Kathryn L. Norsworthy.

The International Humanitarian Award recognizes extraordinary humanitarian services and activism by psychologists, including professional and volunteer work conducted primarily in the field with underserved populations. The 2017 award winner is Kathryn L. Norsworthy, for work as an educator, activist, and scholar of international humanitarian work. Among her notable achievements, she has "helped to strengthen the identity of Nepali, Thai, and Burmese women, assisted them in preventing and confronting human rights abuses, and contributed to their mobilization as influential leaders." Her award citation, biography, and selected bibliography are presented here. (PsycINFO Database Record

In appreciation: Charles M. Tipton and the history of physiology.

The editors of Advances in Physiology Education and the leadership of the American Physiological Society (APS) History of Physiology Group would like to express their profound appreciation to Charles M. Tipton, PhD, for his extraordinary service to both the journal and to the History of Physiology

The transformative direction of innovation toward an IoT-based society - Increasing dependency on uncaptured GDP in global ICT firms

Driven by the possibilities of the Internet of Things (IoT), global information and communication technology (ICT) firms have taken significant steps forward in recent years.The Internet provides extraordinary services to people while promoting a free culture. However, such services cannot be captured through gross domestic product (GDP) data that measure revenue. Consequently, advancement of the Internet leads to increasing dependency on uncaptured GDP (added value providing people utility and happiness beyond economic value) and ICT price decreases.Against such circumstances, global ICT firms are quickly embracing digital solutions for new competitiveness that urge them to restructure their business model toward digital business strategies. Aiming at demonstrating this hypothetical view, this paper attempts to explore new approach for analyzing such dynamism and examines some optimal solutions that are co-evolving with it.An empirical analysis of digital business solutions in 500 global ICT firms over the period 2005–2016 was conducted with special attention to their specific features.It was identified that research and development–intensive firms have fallen into a trap in ICT advancement, resulting in a decline in their marginal productivity of ICT that could be due to increasing dependency on uncaptured GDP. As a result, these firms are endeavoring to harness soft innovation resources and activate a self-propagating function that induces functionality development sublimating sophisticated digital business strategies, such as:• Shifting from software to network (e.g., Apple and Google),• Merging network and real (e.g., Amazon's merging of e-commerce and brick-and-mortal retail),• Shifting from commodity to culture (e.g., Facebook and Samsung).All can be considered as soft value addition in response to uncaptured GDP.This analysis explores new insights for ICT firms in their transformative strategies toward an IoT-based society.

Idiosyncratic service experiences: When customers desire the extraordinary in a service encounter

For many customers “good” service is not enough to create an experience that warrants telling others. Customers want an extraordinary service experience, but what does that really mean? Through an initial qualitative study, the authors tackle this question and conceptualize a term called Idiosyncratic Service Experience (ISE) to represent the interpersonal aspects that create these unique or special service experiences. ISE is a higher order construct made up of a) perceived employee effort, b) surprise, and c) perceived employee empathy. Further, the authors examine the antecedents and consequences of ISEs in a structural model. The results of our study found that ISEs promoted feelings of delight which lead to a higher tolerance to future failures, decreased price consciousness, and stimulated self-enhancing word-of-mouth. We also explore how exception making or the willingness of an employee to break a service norm influences ISEs and evaluations of delight.

Geraldine Richmond named Priestley Medalist

In the early 1970s, Geraldine L. Richmond—then a math major—did exceptionally well on an analytical chemistry exam and was rewarded with a job offer from the professor. It was a lucky break for the chemistry enterprise. Richmond went on to develop spectroscopic and theoretical techniques for studying the molecular structure and dynamics of water-oil and water-air interfaces, which she continues to investigate as the Presidential Chair in Science and a professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon. She also became passionate about developing the chemistry workforce worldwide. To recognize “her pioneering contributions to our understanding of the molecular properties of liquid surfaces and her extraordinary service to chemistry on a global level,” Richmond will receive the Priestley Medal, the American Chemical Society’s highest honor, in 2018. “I’m honored and especially gratified to be selected for both my research achievements and my work in developing countries to increase their scientific

Mark B. Moldwin Receives 2016 Waldo E. Smith Award

Mark B. Moldwin received the 2016 Waldo E. Smith Award at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, held on 14 December 2016 in San Francisco, Calif. The award honors an individual for "extraordinary service to geophysics."

The role of delight in driving repurchase intentions

A channel differentiator for brick-and-mortar retail stores is the availability of salespeople to assist customers directly in their purchase decision. This research considers two aspects of customer interactions with retail salespeople that lead to perceptions of extraordinary service and enhance repurchase intentions: customer comfort and salesperson expertise. Retail customers desire value-added informational assistance from the salesperson to minimize ambiguity associated with the product and to reduce the risk associated with a purchase decision. A retail salesperson needs to make customers feel comfortable so that the customer will share specific needs during the interaction, and the salesperson can recommend appropriate products and services. Our findings reveal that while both customer comfort and salesperson expertise positively influence satisfaction with the salesperson and customer delight, only customer delight leads to repurchase intentions. While satisfaction is a commonly asserted goal for retailers; the present research suggests that in a transaction-based environment, elevated emotions such as customer delight represent a more powerful predictor of repurchase intentions. This research provides evidence of trainable salesperson behaviors that enhance customer perceptions of extraordinary service and offer firms an opportunity for significant performance gains.

Business Processes & Operations

This technical note defines and provides example calculations for certain process analysis concepts—capacity, bottleneck, cycle time, throughput time, Little's Law—relating inventory, throughput time, and throughput rate. Excerpt UVA-OM-1013 BUSINESS PROCESSES & OPERATIONS This note serves as an introduction to processes in business. It provides a background of terminology and measurements of processes and an example of using these tools to analyze a process. Effective business managers must be able to understand processes and make knowledgeable decisions on how to improve operations. Importance of Operations Processes Every business has a set of processes whose goal is to add value for customers. An organization's success is frequently determined by how effectively operations can satisfy customers' expectations. Operations fulfillment is often a critical part of realizing an organization's strategy. There are countless examples of businesses that depend upon their operational excellence for success. For instance, Wal-Mart's strategy is to be the low-cost retailer of general merchandise. Wal-Mart is the undisputable market leader because its operations processes are the best in supply-chain management, and its efficiency allows significant cost savings through best-practice distribution and inventory. Therefore, discount-store customers choose Wal-Mart because it offers the lowest prices with reasonable service. Alternatively, Ritz-Carlton hotels' strategy focuses on providing the highest personal service at a premium price. Their customers expect extraordinary service in return for the high rates of their hotel. Therefore, the operations at each hotel must ensure that every staff member provides superior service to their guests. . . .

International Humanitarian Award.

The International Humanitarian Award recognizes extraordinary humanitarian services and activism by psychologists, including professional and volunteer work conducted primarily in the field with underserved populations. Award recipients are psychologists who, by their extraordinary service at a difficult time, improve the lives and contribute to the well-being of people in a large or small geographic area anywhere in the world. The 2016 recipient of the APA International Humanitarian Award was selected by the 2015 Committee on International Relations in Psychology (CIRP). The members of the 2015 CIRP were Rehman Abdulrehman, PhD (Chair); Gonzalo Bacigalupe, EdD; Silvia S. Canetto, PhD; Amanda Clinton, PhD; Melissa L. Morgan Consoli, PhD; Chryse G. Hatzichristou, PhD; Arpana G. Inman, PhD; Lori Foster Thompson, PhD; and Danny Wedding, PhD. Dr. Abdulrehman, Dr. Morgan Consoli, Dr. Thompson, and Dr. Wedding were members of the subcommittee for the 2016 award. (PsycINFO Database Record

Substytucja Lévinasa – substancjalna służba innemu?

Artykuł podejmuje centralny temat Lévinasowskiej etyki, jakim jest sub­stytucja. Porównuje ją najpierw z różnymi formami miłości: od miłości­‑eros, poprzez przyjaźń, miłość oblubieńczą, aż do chrześcijańskiej miłości­‑agape. Następnie, m.in. dzięki zagadnieniu miłosierdzia, przechodzi do omówienia postawy służby, zarówno czysto ludzkiej, jak i motywowanej religijnie. Takie zestawienie, zdaniem autora, pozwala najlepiej wniknąć w rozumienie substytucji, która jawi się odtąd raczej jako służba niż miłość drugiego. W przeciwieństwie do miłości służba jest bowiem przede wszystkim dziełem do wykonania. Nie wymaga natomiast ani wzajemności, ani intymnego poznania, do których dąży miłość. Substytucja jest jednak służbą nadzwyczajną, bo totalną: chce drugiego ocalić, biorąc go całego na siebie. Jak mesjasz. Czy jednak możliwą?

Design of Fuzzy-Based Traffic Provisioning in Software Defined Network

This Software defined networks helps to realize extraordinary services that can be easily embedded in network operations of switch. It provokes the decomposition of the control and data planes. The control plane is more extensible, as it is unproblematic to change or introduce any new functionality into the network. It is studied that any new integration can be easily added up with a very low line of code (LOC). The work proposes a fuzzy based approach for traffic provisioning in SDN. Fu zzy Logic Control System (FLCS) is a controller co mp rising of two fuzzy systems - Label Switched Path setup System (LsS) and Traffic Splitting System (TSS). The co mputation of dynamic status of Load and Delay is utilized by LsS to arrange the paths in preference order. The attained Link Capacity and Utilizat ion Rate are emp loying by TSS for maintain ing congestion free path. Created three different topologies and performed ping reachability test and executed iperf testing tool for performance analysis on Mininet framework.The impact of this is to facilitate better decision making for splitting the traffic for different capable paths. Simulat ion setup is deployed using OpenFlow Switches and Controllers to study their performance. The packet delivery rat io remained above 98% , showing rare chances of congestion and delay was below than 2.6 seconds with TTL in range of 60-80 milliseconds.

자율주행 자동차 임시운행 허가를 위한 안전 성능 평가 시나리오

자율주행 자동차 임시운행 허가를 위한 안전 성능 평가 시나리오

International Humanitarian Award: Alan Poling.

The International Humanitarian Award recognizes extraordinary humanitarian services and activism by psychologists, including professional and volunteer work conducted primarily in the field with underserved populations. The 2016 award winner is Alan Poling, who "has used his expertise in behavioral psychology to make unique and significant contributions to public health in developing nations." He received this award for his work in concert with a Belgian nongovernmental organization, in which he has tested and refined the ability of African pouched rats to detect land mines as well as tuberculosis in Africa and Asia. Poling's award citation, biography, and a selected bibliography are presented here. (PsycINFO Database Record

Lawrence Gostin: legal activist in the cause of global health

Lawrence Gostin: legal activist in the cause of global health

Meinrat O. Andreae Receives 2014 Waldo E. Smith Award

Meinrat O. Andreae received the 2014 Waldo E. Smith Award at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, held on 17 December 2014 in San Francisco, Calif. The award honors an individual for “extraordinary service to geophysics.”

Sunil Bhatia: International Humanitarian Award.

The International Humanitarian Award recognizes extraordinary humanitarian services and activism by psychologists, including professional and volunteer work conducted primarily in the field with under served populations. One of the 2015 award winners is Sunil Bhatia, who received this award "using his knowledge of qualitative and ethnographic methods, which has formed alliances with over a dozen community partners and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the United States and in his native city of Pune, India, to provide the urban poor with access to clean sanitation and private toilets." Sunil's award citation, biography, and a selected bibliography are presented here.

Exploring private universities service quality in Kenya: A structural equation modeling technique

The Kenyan private higher education sub-sector is considered one of the fastest rising and as such, pivotal within the economy. Whereas achieving higher service quality is challenging among private universities, it is not easy to come up with extraordinary service delivery deliverables which will fully entice customers. Therefore, a university has to discern their customers well, and in turn, provide superior services in order to achieve significant customer satisfaction. The aim of the present research was to empirically investigate specific dimensions of service quality (SQ) that influence customer satisfaction with, service delivery in private universities and the consequent contribution towards internal customers' satisfaction in a Kenyan context. One aspect emphasized is taking cognizant dimensions tested in intricate situations as well as the reality in a developing country which in itself is self-contradictory. The study employed an adapted HEdPERF survey type with higher education service quality attributes namely; non-academic, academic, reputation, access, programme issues and understanding aspects, and structural equation modelling (SEM). The fit of the HEdPERF model to the data gained through stratified random sampling from 'internal customers' - students and employees was checked using SEM. Results claimed that in respect to private higher education, not all HEdPERF SQ variables are significant to internal customers. Two dimensions of SQ were identified and have the greatest predictive power on internal customers' satisfaction ratings with regard to the quality of service, and these were presented in model(s) to indicate their inter-relatedness in terms of service quality and customer satisfaction. This research presents significant insights towards better understanding of internal customers' attitudes. Private universities will be able to design and improve their internal services and/or internal marketing strategies as per their consumers' preferences in a different cultural context. Finally, the use of SEM in exploring the HEdPERF model is also a valuable contribution.

Malcolm MacLachlan: International Humanitarian Award.

The International Humanitarian Award recognizes extraordinary humanitarian services and activism by psychologists, including professional and volunteer work conducted primarily in the field with under-served populations. Award recipients are psychologists who, by their extraordinary service at a difficult time, improve the lives and contribute to the well-being of people in a large or small geographic area anywhere in the world. The 2014 recipient is Malcolm MacLachlan. "Focused on the rights and empowerment of vulnerable and marginalized groups, Malcolm MacLachlan's work synthesizes health, rehabilitation, and organizational and political psychology to promote social inclusion and global health." MacLachlan's award citation, biography, and selected bibliography are presented here.

LEADING THROUGH UNCERTAINTY

Few people like uncertainty, yet Davis believes it can be profitably navigated, and can also contain opportunity. Before you can lead others, you have to be able to lead yourself. If you always tell the truth, you'll help guide others through fear of the unknown. You must also be sure that you are really good at the basics of whatever your field is—in Davis's case, banking. Umpqua, the bank he leads, has four core values: (1) absolute integrity, (2) extraordinary service, (3) innovative delivery, and (4) a strong sense of community as it expands its footprint.

In Appreciation of an Outstanding Surgeon-in-Chief

Welcome to the tenth volume of HSS Journal®. In reflection, 2013 was a notable year for the HSS community. Not only did we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the hospital but also the 100th anniversary of the founding of our alumni association. Thomas Sculco, MD, our current surgeon-in-chief, announced that after 10 years of service, he will be stepping down. A search for his replacement is currently underway. At the 2013 Alumni Association meeting, in his presidential address, Daniel Rich, MD chronicled many of Dr. Sculco's contributions as surgeon-in-chief. Among these was his leadership in establishing the International Society of Orthopedic Centers also known as ISOC. It was Dr. Sculco's vision to create a society of the best orthopedic centers from throughout the world to collaborate on issues of innovation in clinical care, research, and education. Currently, 17 leading orthopedic academic centers participate with meetings taking place every 18 months. Within the mission of ISOC is the charge to collaborate and build consensus around complex issues in clinical care. We are excited that ISOC has chosen the HSS Journal® as a forum for the publication of two of these consensus-building initiatives. Benjamin Ricciardi, MD and his coauthors report on two studies, which establish a consensus for practice, which is aimed at the prevention and treatment of prosthetic joint infection. The most commonly employed methods for the prevention of surgical site infection are reviewed, and the approaches to clinical management of the infected arthroplasty are described. Although these topics have been described in other studies, these reports provide the consensus of the most active orthopedic centers in Europe and North and South America. ISOC is an impressive accomplishment, and success is largely due to the leadership and vision of Dr. Sculco. One of his other great contributions is the HSS Journal®. Without his support, the journal would not have become a reality. I am sure, and I join with every member of the HSS community and readers around the world in extending our congratulations and appreciation to Dr. Sculco for his 10 years of extraordinary service. Join me in extending best wishes for his future endeavors.