Appraisal Mechanism Research Articles

The Psychological Characteristics of Performance Under Pressure in Professional Rugby Union Referees

This study used qualitative methods to explore the stressors, appraisal mechanism, emotional response, and effective/ineffective coping strategies experienced by elite rugby union referees during pressurized performances. Participants included seven male rugby union referees from the United Kingdom (Mage = 27.85, SD = 4.56) who had been officiating as full-time professionals for between 1 and 16 years (M = 4.85, SD = 5.42). Data revealed that the referees encountered a number of stressors, which were appraised initially as a ‘threat’, and elicited negatively-toned emotions. The referees were able to maintain performance standards under pressure by adopting proactive, problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies which managed effectively the stressors and their emotions. However, the use of avoidance-coping, reactive control, and informal impression management were perceived as ineffective coping strategies, and associated with poor performance and choking. Recommendations are offered to inform the psychological skills training of rugby union referees.

Economics of public capital expenditure in the Sri Lankan road infrastructure sector

The Sri Lankan Government spends a significant share of its capital budget on road infrastructure. Therefore, it is important to ensure the efficiency of capital deployment in road sector projects. This research was undertaken with the objective of assessing capital efficacy in road development. In addition, the research sought to appraise strategies adopted in the institutionalisation of an appropriate public investment management mechanism, such that the maximum possible economic gain could be obtained. Road projects undertaken by the Road Development Authority of Sri Lanka over the period 2005-2012, covering an overwhelmingly large share of public spending on road sector, were examined. The indicator used as the inverse of capital efficacy was the real capital expenditure intensity per unit of surface area, which was regressed against a selected set of cost-influencing factors, whereby significant determinants of capital intensity were identified. Project size, class of road, nature of terrain, funding mechanism and contract procurement process emerged as significant determinants with their influence being exerted in the expected direction, while the surface technology and the type of contractor were not significant. It was found that to fund projects through bilateral credit tied to contractors domiciled in lender countries without competitive bidding was highly capital intensive, and therefore inefficient, in terms of capital deployment. The outcomes of the study recommend that public investments should be executed through local contractors to the maximum possible extent, and that, whenever foreign funding becomes necessary, contract negotiation with a pre-designated company without competitive bidding should be avoided, given that such a modality would be prone to wastage, leakages, mismanagement, and corruption. It is strongly recommended to institutionalise a competitive procurement process through an effective mechanism for public investment planning, appraisal, and implementation management, to ensure the efficiency of public sector capital expenditure.

Exploration of the mechanism for performance appraisal and allocation of primary healthcare institutions in Suichang county of Zhejiang province

In view of such outcomes of the performance pay practice at primary healthcare institutions as decline of motivation of medical workers, the county explored the mechanism of graded performance appraisal and allocation, against the macro background of ceiling setting for the total of performance pay andbalance subsidy and total amount controlfiscal policy.The following measures are taken, namely adual linkageto relate the performance appraisal outcome of a township hospital with both allocation of fiscal subsidy and setting of the merit-based performance pay standard per person; higher ratio of merit-based performance pay; floating of the performance pay level per person for the institution in question; separation of the performance pay of the chief leader from others; and subsidies for remote mountainous areas.It is proposed by the author to build a routine increase mechanism for both the total of performance pay and fiscal subsidies, to combine specific subsidy with pay for services, and to join funding compensation with service performance.These measures are expected to create a new mechanism for performance pay allocation, featuring more pay for more work and more pay for better performance. Key words: Zhejiang province; Primary healthcare institution; Performance pay; Performance appraisal; Allocation mechanism

A Theory of the Evolution of Social Power: Natural Trajectories of Interpersonal Influence Systems along Issue Sequences

This article reports new advancements in the theory of influence system evolution in small deliberative groups, and a novel set of empirical findings on such evolution. The theory elaborates the specification of the single-issue opinion dynamics of such groups, which has been the focus of theory development in the field of opinion dynamics, to include group dynamics that occur along a sequence of issues. The theory predicts an evolution of influence centralities along issue sequences based on elementary reflected appraisal mechanisms that modify influence network structure and flows of influence in the group. The new empirical findings, which are also reported in this article, present a remarkable suite of issue-sequence effects on influence network structure consistent with theoretical predictions.

How to reduce local government decision-making competition in China’s new urbanization process

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of local government decision-making competition new urbanization, further to seek measures to weaken the negative effect of local government decision-making competition. Design/methodology/approach – This paper first puts forward the three paths which make local government decision-making competition: construction of new-style urbanization, economic development and construction of people’s livelihood and take China’s new-style urbanization as an example, the authors analyzed the internal mechanism of decision making of local government competition which caused by above three paths. Second, using the prospect theory, risk aversion theory and Cournot duopoly model, the authors analyzed how to avoid the local government decision-making competition and how to reduce the harm caused by local government decision-making competition. Findings – The central government can curb the appearance of local government competition strategy through regulating and controlling the effectiveness of local government protective-investment policy, improving the degree of market competition and punishment coefficient of government decision-making failure and further, the authors can reduce the detriment of decision-making competition between local governments through adjusting the revenue function of local government in the process of new-style urbanization. Originality/value – New-style urbanization is the main driving force of China’s future economic development, however, in the process of new-style urbanization, because of the “principle-agent” relationship between central government and local government, officials achievements appraisal mechanism and promotion game, they all cause competition between local government decision making, and this will weaken the positive effect of urbanization. Although, there are many researches on horizontal and intergovernmental competition, most researches devoted to how to avoid it from the angle of institutional economics, and the suggestions put forward by these researches are hardly applied. Anyone interested in how to avoid local government decision-making competition and reduce the negative influences of it from the angle of unitary government state’s reality will find this paper valuable.

Study on reform of rural healthcare workers development in Pudong New Area

The paper introduced the policy implemented in Pudong for rural healthcare workers development, featuring incentives for talents, encouragement for mobility and talent retention. This policy has scored initial success in attracting healthcare workers to work in rural areas, promoting growth and structural optimization of rural healthcare teams and alleviating talent loss in such areas. The authors held that future reforms should focus on fiscal sustainability, avoiding the policy lowland effect and build a mechanism for long-term follow-up, appraisal and feedback. Key words: Shanghai; Rural healthcare workers; Team building; Incentive mechanism

Linking appraisal to behavioral flexibility in animals: implications for stress research.

In fluctuating environments, organisms require mechanisms enabling the rapid expression of context-dependent behaviors. Here, we approach behavioral flexibility from a perspective rooted in appraisal theory, aiming to provide a better understanding on how animals adjust their internal state to environmental context. Appraisal has been defined as a multi-component and interactive process between the individual and the environment, in which the individual must evaluate the significance of a stimulus to generate an adaptive response. Within this framework, we review and reframe the existing evidence for the appraisal components in animal literature, in an attempt to reveal the common ground of appraisal mechanisms between species. Furthermore, cognitive biases may occur in the appraisal of ambiguous stimuli. These biases may be interpreted either as states open to environmental modulation or as long-lasting phenotypic traits. Finally, we discuss the implications of cognitive bias for stress research.

Resilience: Mediated by not one but many appraisal mechanisms.

Kalisch et al. discuss the causal process underlying stress in terms of a multidimensional goal-appraisal process, but there are several mechanisms at various levels of the brain that use different types of information to guide behavior. Depending on the mechanism, the characteristics of the process are different. Hence, both research and prevention must deal with appraisal in mechanism-specific ways.

Beyond resilience: Positive mental health and the nature of cognitive processes involved in positive appraisals.

Although the PASTOR model provides a comprehensive framework to study resilience, it faces some challenges. First, some higher-order concepts (e.g., meaning) may be difficult to model in the laboratory. Second, defining resilience as an absence of pathology might be conceptually restrictive. Finally, the proposal that the severity of the event is associated to different appraisal mechanisms needs further evidence.

Bullying at Work: Cognitive Appraisal of Negative Acts and the Impact on Wellbeing and Performance

The negative outcomes of workplace bullying are well documented, but a strong theoretical explanation for this has been relatively neglected. We draw on cognitive appraisal theory to suggest that individuals’ primary and secondary appraisals of negative acts at work will moderate the impact of said acts on wellbeing and performance outcomes. In a large study (N = 3217) in Southeast Asia, we examine moderators in the form of 1) the extent to which individuals identify themselves as being bullied and 2) the coping strategies that individuals employ to deal with negative acts. We find that these appraisal mechanisms do moderate the impact of negative acts, in particular work-related negative acts. When individuals are subject to work-related negative acts but do not see themselves as being bullied they report higher levels of performance. Problem-focused coping was found to be effective for those sometimes bullied, but for victims of persistent negative acts it was detrimental to wellbeing. The present research has important implications for bullying research in examining factors which contribute to outcomes of bullying.

Opinion Dynamics and the Evolution of Social Power in Influence Networks

This paper studies the evolution of self-appraisal, social power, and interpersonal influences for a group of individuals who discuss and form opinions about a sequence of issues. Our empirical model combines the averaging rule of DeGroot to describe opinion formation processes and the reflected appraisal mechanism of Friedkin to describe the dynamics of individuals' self-appraisal and social power. Given a set of relative interpersonal weights, the DeGroot--Friedkin model predicts the evolution of the influence network governing the opinion formation process. We provide a rigorous mathematical formulation of the influence network dynamics, characterize its equilibria, and establish its convergence properties for all possible structures of the relative interpersonal weights and corresponding eigenvector centrality scores. The model predicts that the social power ranking among individuals is asymptotically equal to their centrality ranking, that social power tends to accumulate at the top of the hierarchy,...

Performance Management System as a Predictor of Organizational Effectiveness: Insights from Indian Manufacturing Industries

Assessment of performance in a regular and systematic manner is an essential activity on the part of the management, because it not only serves to evaluate and monitor the growth and development of the organization; but also provides necessary career direction for an individual employee. By establishing clear performance expectations which includes results, actions, and behaviors, the process helps the employees in understanding what exactly is expected out of their jobs. Clearly defined goals blended with regular assessments of individual performance is pertinent for defining the corporate competencies and exploring the major skill gaps that serves as a useful input for designing the HRD plans for the employees. However, in many organizations there happens to be a gap between the intention and actual practice of performance appraisal systems. Especially in Indian organizations, earlier research has surfaced the fact that, the existing performance management systems (PMSs) though provides for use of appraisal data for administrative purposes, but in actual practice there is missing link between the appraisal outcomes and subsequent design and execution of developmental program. Keeping in view of the importance of such an emerging area, an attempt has been made by the researchers to assess the perceptions of employees regarding the PMS and its role in achieving organizational effectiveness. A survey has been conducted though a questionnaire along with focused group discussion to examine the efficacy of performance management as a tool of HR interventions with 200 purposive sample professionals employed in Indian manufacturing industries. The analysis confirms the association between PMS and organizational effectiveness. However, there are difference of perception between line managers about PMS and where agreement exists; it is not associated with superior outcomes because of lack of clarity in the existing system. By analyzing the discussions, it was concluded that, there is distinct differentiation of involvement of different levels of management in the performance appraisal mechanism. Moreover, the reciprocal trigonometric relationship between the PMS, competency management system, and training and development is also emphasized.

Analysis of Training and Development Management Practices: A Case Study of Zenith Bank Nigeria PLC

In this research work, the researcher hopes to closely examine the conduct and roles of training and development on employees performance on organization development in Zenith Bank plc as a case study. The fact that the banking industry operates on effective risk assessment and management, any bank seeking to improve its performance must put forward an effective risk appraisal mechanism without compromising the satisfaction of its valued customers. Recent improvement in Information Technology (IT) and the advent of computer- base telecommunications like internet, e-mail, ATM, E- banking and other forms of electronic transfer methods as placed additional burden of cost, product quality and information management on the capacity of banks for accurate, fast and effective risk appraisal and management. The proliferation of bank and finance houses culminating in the setting up of the “Failed Bank Tribunals” in Nigeria has revealed real management challenges to the few surviving banks. All the factors mentioned above in addition to the increasing competition in the banking industry, re-capitalization and consolidation in the banking sector has imposed a need for urgent change in order to survive. For effective change process, a re-orientation of knowledge, attitudes, and skills of employee in line with the new dispensation is imperative. Its achievement, can only be through resource development programmes of which staff is a significant pact. Zenith Bank Plc are forward-thinking benchmarking trends in technology to shape the future coupled with their practical delivery on a highly automated platform that makes the bank unique in providing the best financial service possible. The success or performance hinges on satisfying customer better than competitors do and helping them unlock the real value of their business.

The Crossmodal Effect of Attention on Preferences: Facilitation versus Impairment

This article builds a conceptualization for the crossmodal effect of attention on preferences, predicting when and why an irrelevant auditory signal will facilitate or impair preferences for visually processed target products located in the direction of the signal. Extending perspectives on crossmodal attention, this conceptualization posits that the functional tendency to pay visual attention toward an auditory signal will translate to a facilitation effect on preferences. However, given a goal of signal avoidance, crossmodal functionality dictates a lowering of visual attention toward the signal, impairing preferences for targets in that direction. Finally, a two-stage model of involuntary and voluntary attention is invoked to reconcile opposing predictions: an aversive noise is held to produce initial facilitation because of an involuntary appraisal mechanism, before a more deliberative attention-allocation process produces impairment. Results from five experiments support these predictions, contributing to the literature on crossmodal information processing and also that on preference formation.

A social appraisal mechanism for online purchase decision support in the micro-blogosphere

Owing to the plentiful participation of knowledgeable users, an online social network could be seen as a large group of experts that support the decisions of online users. Collective opinions solicited from friends are largely beneficial for online purchase support and can create significant opportunities for sales. In this paper, a social appraisal mechanism composed using the methodologies of social companionship analysis, collective opinion analysis, and consensus decision analysis is proposed for the online users of the micro-blogosphere. The proposed mechanism can successfully summarize collective opinions and expedite the decision-making process that characterizes users' purchasing behaviors.

Insight on core human resource management of a hospital

Core human resource serves as the principal capital of carrier of knowledge and skills of a hospital,which is the most decisive factor of a hospital' s competitiveness and adaptability for its initiative and creativity.Their stability and development plays a key role in hospital development.This study analyzed the characteristics and capacity demand of such human resource,and proposed that their management should differ from the rest,recommending reforms in their job description,development and training,performance appraisal,remuneration design and incentive mechanism. Key words: Hospital; Core human resource; Management; Study; Insight

A Balanced Approach towards Market Orientation

There has been a lot of research on implementation of the concept and examination of the link between market orientation and business performance. In these offerings, scales such as MARKOR, introduced by Kohli, Jaworski, and Kumar (1993), and MKTOR, introduced by Narver and Slater (1990) have been frequently employed without further investigation. Analogous to this academic endeavour, few marketing researchers have raised doubts regarding the reliability and validity of the extant scales and have also shown concern towards the definition of the concept. Apropos, the present study has been planned to examine the degree of market orientation from management perspective and also to develop a scale for measuring market orientation in the selected public and private sector banks, viz., State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), and The Jammu and Kashmir Bank Pvt. Ltd. (JKB). The study finds: Significant difference between the responses of management with respect to Internal Market Orientation (IMO) and External Market Orientation (EMO). The management of all the three major banks, viz., PNB, SBI, and JKB is more optimistic with regard to the three dimensions of EMO than that of IMO. Significant impact of internal market orientation on the overall market orientation as compared to external market orientation. Positive and significant relationship between internal customers' and external customers' satisfaction; internal customers' satisfaction and business performance, and external customers' satisfaction and business performance. For improving market orientation in the banking sector, managers are suggested to take the following initiatives: Initiate crucial steps towards developing a healthy work environment — delineating employee expectations; discussing goal achievement, tracking performance and feedback; and devising an appropriate mechanism for follow-up and employee appraisal. Employees should be made the root cause identifiers and solvers whereas managers must be problem eradicators. Ensure parallel inter- and intra-departmental communication. An open door policy can be encouraged to communicate through various formal and informal channels so that inter-departmental work teams can perform efficiently. Conduct internal market research once a year to generate information pertaining to the job requirements of internal customers. Retain its employees through the successful implementation of internal marketing strategies which in turn demands proper understanding of employees' work-related needs, feelings, emotions and intellect, proper treatment as an individual, open and free communication with the management, and establishing and managing effective long-term employee-management relationships.

Valuing active travel: Including the health benefits of sustainable transport in transportation appraisal frameworks

Sustainable transport investments linked to improving public transport or designed specifically to improve walking and cycling networks (for example, bicycle infrastructure) typically underestimate the contribution of these active travel modes. This is because the investment appraisal mechanism, social cost benefit analysis, lacks an agreed methodology or well defined parameter values for establishing the demand and the associated health benefits and costs of active travel.Correcting for the acknowledged benefits of walking and cycling (including contributions to achieving physical activity targets and maintaining health) requires an appropriate framework and parameter values to allow these benefits to be captured in a robust and consistent manner. This paper proposes such a framework for the Australian context and a consequent weighted benefit of $1.68per km (range $1.23–$2.50) for walking and a $1.12per km (range $0.82–$1.67) for cycling that includes both mortality and morbidity changes resulting from a more active lifestyle. Investigation of the potential health costs associated with motorised travel and reduced physical activity requires further detailed research.

Racial Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms Among African-American Men: The Mediating and Moderating Roles of Masculine Self-Reliance and John Henryism.

Despite well-documented associations between everyday racial discrimination and depression, mechanisms underlying this association among African-American men are poorly understood. Guided by the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, we frame masculine self-reliance and John Henryism as appraisal mechanisms that influence the relationship between racial discrimination, a source of significant psychosocial stress, and depressive symptoms among African-American men. We also investigate whether the proposed relationships vary by reported discrimination-specific coping responses. Participants were 478 African-American men recruited primarily from barbershops in the West and South regions of the United States. Multiple linear regression and Sobel-Goodman mediation analyses were used to examine direct and mediated associations between our study variables. Racial discrimination and masculine self-reliance were positively associated with depressive symptoms, though the latter only among active responders. John Henryism was negatively associated with depressive symptoms, mediated the masculine self-reliance-depressive symptom relationship, and among active responders moderated the racial discrimination-depressive symptoms relationship. Though structural interventions are essential, clinical interventions designed to mitigate the mental health consequences of racial discrimination among African-American men should leverage masculine self-reliance and active coping mechanisms.

Resource allocation and uncertainty in transportation infrastructure planning: A study of highway improvement program in Taiwan

Transportation infrastructure planning can have significant impacts on urban development. However, to fund infrastructure projects can be a challenging task. On one hand, resources are normally too scared to undertake all feasible projects. On the other hand, the transportation investment decision-making process has become increasingly complex and under severe scrutiny (particularly in the early planning stages) as the degree of uncertainty embedded in the outcome of a project increases. Facing uncertainty and resource constraints, public administrators need to decide which projects to fund, and by how much. Therefore, an appropriate appraisal mechanism should be established to optimize all objectives simultaneously. The mechanism should be able to evaluate and prioritize project implementation difficulty levels based on the associations among project resource requirements. It should also be able to assess the interdependencies within project properties. Thus, an appropriate appraisal mechanism evaluates and prioritizes performance, uncertainty, project demands and needs, and resource constraints among possible candidate projects. Taking into account the concepts of benefit-opportunity-cost-risk and multi-objective optimization, this study presents a robust model by combining Monte Carlo Simulation and Analytic Network Process techniques. An empirical study of a large-scale nationwide (east-west) highway improvement program in Taiwan is conducted to illustrate how the modeling process proceeds.