Mutual Goals Research Articles

Anger displays and integrative behavior among work dyads in teams: A regulatory fit approach

SummaryAnger has often been portrayed as a destructive social emotion in the literature. However, research conducted with a social functional approach has also revealed the functionality of anger and called for a shift toward understanding the conditions in which anger can have interpersonal utility at work. Given the complicated role and inevitability of anger in work teams, it is important to understand when team members can reap the interpersonal utility of anger and promote adaptive social interactions. Contributing to this approach, we developed a contingency model to postulate when and why anger displays can produce integrative behavior among co‐worker dyads in teams. Drawing on regulatory fit theory we conducted three studies (one laboratory study and two field studies with a round‐robin design) to examine our hypotheses. Results indicated that co‐workers' anger displays were positively related to focal workers' (targets of anger) integrative behavior toward angry co‐workers (expressers) when targets had a high level of prevention focus and perceived a low level of team goal interdependence. As expected, moreover, targets' problem identification with expressers was found to be the mechanism of this conditional relationship. Implications of our research are discussed.

Emotion suppression and perceptions of interpersonal citizenship behavior: Faking in good faith or bad faith?

SummaryTeammates' perceptions of person‐focused interpersonal citizenship behavior (ICB) are important for effective teamwork, and a member's emotion suppression may critically influence others' respective perceptions. The existing research is inconclusive, however, whether emotion suppression is helpful or harmful in this regard. This ambiguity hampers our understanding of the development of ICB perceptions within work teams, and it creates uncertainty as to whether members' emotion suppression is beneficial or detrimental for themselves and the overall team. Hence, we examine a model that specifies important boundary conditions for the emotion suppression–ICB perception linkage. We illustrate a three‐way interactive relation across two studies, such that a member's emotion suppression is positively or negatively associated with a teammate's person‐focused ICB perceptions, depending on both the dyadic interaction context (i.e., relationship conflict) and the overall team context (i.e., goal interdependence). Beyond creating new knowledge on the origins of ICB perceptions, these results reconcile prior, seemingly contradictory perspectives on the role of emotion suppression by explicating when this emotion regulation strategy appears as either “faking in good faith” or “faking in bad faith.” Moreover, reiterating our findings' relevance, we link others' ICB perceptions with members' receipt of ICB from their teammates as well as team performance.

Scaling\u2010up school mental health services in low resource public schools of rural Pakistan: the Theory of Change (ToC) approach

BackgroundNinety percent of children with mental health problems live in low or middle-income countries (LMICs). School-based programs offer opportunities for early identification and intervention, however implementation requires cross-sector collaboration to assure sustainable delivery of quality training, ongoing supervision, and outcomes monitoring at scale. In Pakistan, 35% of school-aged children are reported to have emotional and behavioral problems. As in many other LMICs, the government agencies who must work together to mount school-based programs have limited resources and a limited history of collaboration. The “Theory of Change” (ToC) process offers a way for new partners to efficiently develop mutual goals and long-term prospects for sustainable collaboration.ObjectiveDevelop a model for scale-up of school based mental health services in public schools of Pakistan.MethodsWe used ToC workshops to develop an empirically supported, ‘hypothesized pathway’ for the implementation of WHO’s School Mental Health Program in the public schools of rural Pakistan. Three workshops included 90 stakeholders such as policy makers from education and health departments, mental health specialists, researchers, head teachers, teachers and other community stakeholders including non-governmental organizations.ResultsThe ToC process linked implementers, organizations, providers and consumers of school mental health services to develop common goals and relate them (improved child socioemotional wellbeing, grades and participation in activities) to interventions (training, monitoring and supervision of teachers; collaboration with parents, teachers and primary health care facilities and schools). Key testable assumptions developed in the process included buy-in from health care providers, education officials and professionals, community-based organizations and families. For example, teachers needed skills for managing children’s problems, but their motivation might come from seeking improved school performance and working conditions. Poverty, stigma and lack of child mental health literacy among teachers, administration, and parents were identified as key hypothesized barriers. Children and their families were identified as key stakeholders to make such a program successful.DiscussionToC workshops assisted in team building and served as a stakeholders’ engagement tool. They helped to develop and support testable hypotheses about the structures, collaborations, and knowledge most important to scaling-up school based mental health services in Pakistan.

ІННОВАЦІЙНИЙ ЛАНДШАФТ ЯК ФОРМА ПУБЛІЧНО-ПРИВАТНОГО ПАРТНЕРСТВА 1

The article examines the innovative landscape as a form of public-private partnership. The existing economic achievements in the interpretation of innovative landscapes are studied. It has been found that the formation of innovative landscapes is based on partnerships between economic agents. Cooperation and integration of science, education and business becomes possible provided that the interests, goals and objectives of the interacting parties are consistent. The principle of uniting the three entities on the basis of partnership determines the conditions for reconciling the interests of economic agents, coordination of their activities, exchange and distribution of resources: business is focused primarily on profit, while science is primarily interested in creating new knowledge and education for the training of qualified specialists. It is determined that the innovation landscape on the basis of public-private partnership will integrate the efforts of the state, business, science and education to develop a common vision of prospects for innovative development, as well as the formation and implementation of promising research and development programs. The main elements of public-private partnership in the field of education and science are analyzed. The main features of innovative landscapes on the basis of public-private partnership are given: mutual goals in the field of common interests; joint solution of common problems; equality; voluntary participation; pooling resources, information to achieve common goals; long term of interaction; specific forms of distribution of responsibilities and risks between partner participants; the implementation of partnerships takes place in a competitive environment. The formation of the innovation landscape is to create a partnership between the state, science, education and business, which could act as a favorable environment for the emergence and development of innovation. The key areas for the formation of innovative landscapes are the implementation of programs for the development of innovative activities; formation of new forms of territorial organization; increasing the activity of scientific and educational institutions; development of models and mechanisms to stimulate partnerships between business, research and educational institutions; stimulating the formation of new sectors of the economy; improving the efficiency of education and training.

Conceptualizing Smart Sustainable Cities: Crossing Visions and Utilizing Resources in Africa

Recent advancements in technologies enabled the development of smart cities to be more effective and possible. Smart cities depend on intelligent systems, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, control system, and many more advanced technologies. Sustainability challenges and problems worldwide, with smart and sustainability concepts, reflect almost mutual goals. It includes improving and providing the essential life services for all people efficiently while depending on sustainable, clean, and renewable energy with considerations of different economic, educational, health, social and environmental aspects in the city. In this research, a cost analysis process has been implemented to ease the implementation and resource utilization of smart and sustainable cities in Africa. The challenges and difficulties of those implementations are summarized.

The content of competitive strategy for achieving leadership among employees with different perfectionist orientation

This article discusses the results of research on the content of competitive strategy for achieve the goal of “leadership” among employees due to distinct manifestation of perfectionist orientation. The subject of this research is the competitive strategy for achieving leadership among persons with different degree of perfectionist orientation of personality; while the object is the perfectionist orientation of employees. The empirical object includes 142 employed persons (112 women, and 30 men). The author reviews perfectionist orientation as a set of personal motives and attitudes, which consistently manifest in various types of activity in pursuit of perfection due to high expectations from the others, received from others, as well as imposed on themselves, which can contribute to achieving competitive goals. The author determines the peculiarities of content of competitive strategy among persons with the following perfectionist orientation: self-orientation, orientation towards others, and orientation towards social prescriptions; determine their primary goals of their competitive strategy, including the mutual goal for all groups – the “leadership” and strategic elements for its achievement. It is established that development of the strategy on achieving the goal of “leadership” in among the persons with perfectionist self-orientation is substantiated by the desire of security and fight for the leadership in the team. In an attempt to reach the same goal, the persons with perfectionist orientation towards others focus their strategy on the client and demonstrate a tendency to fight for achieving their goal. The competitive strategy of the persons with perfectionist orientation towards social prescriptions is supported by motivational component along in form of external negative motivation of the activity. The novelty of this work consists in comprehensive examination of each element of the competitive strategy of persons with various types of perfectionist orientation in achieving the goal of “leadership”.

Writer–Reader Interaction: Investigating Interactional Metadiscourse in Advertisements from Arab Universities

Nowadays, universities heavily rely on digital marketing and social media to recruit more students and to generate interest in their schools. Digital marketing and online advertising constitute a kind of interaction between writers and their potential readers. This paper explores how such an interaction is achieved by investigating a wide range of linguistic resources that writers use to express their stance toward the content in the text and toward the reader. A corpus of 80 academic advertisements from 38 universities, totaling approximately 2,118 words, was compiled and analyzed using Hyland’s (2005b) interactional metadiscourse. The corpus was searched manually for all categories of interactional metadiscourse, and all the reported cases were examined in context to ensure their validity. The results revealed a statistically higher frequency of engagement markers than stance markers. This extensive use of engagement markers, particularly directives and reader pronouns, is a strong indicator of a high degree of interactionality, personalization, and reader consideration. Universities use these engagement features to position themselves and their students in the world of academia and in the context of interaction, where they can successfully focus students’ attention, acknowledge their presence, and guide them toward achieving mutual goals.

UNIVERSITY AND LIFELONG EDUCATION IN THE EUROPEAN EDUCATIONAL SPACE: THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF GOALS AND STRATEGIES

The article analyzes the interdependence of goals and strategies of university education and lifelong learning in the European educational space. The aim of the article is to substantiate the interaction of university education and lifelong learning and to determine their role in the modern European social space. The research is carried out on the basis of methods of theoretical generalization, comparative analy-sis; methods of grouping and systematization. It was emphasized that the rethinking of social tasks, the need to adapt to the expectations of society, the growth of the demand for future skills motivate university education at the beginning of the 21st century to prepare a successful professional who is focused on the continu-ous updating and replenishment of knowledge, skills and abilities. It is revealed that in modern conditions in university and lifelong education the emphasis is on the formation of such competencies as an optimistic view of life situations, that is, the ability to adapt and interact effectively in the growing demands of volatile and uncertain social environments, the ability to analytically process large amounts of data, detection of algo-rithms, prediction of dynamics, ability to model optimal production processes and environments for systematically achieving desired results in each individual situation, ability to establish direct and deep interpersonal connections, ability to recognize causes and consequences of key trends, notice tendencies on the periphery of social systems. It is concluded that today more and more the question arises about the need to expand the scope of universities and their exit beyond the two-dimensional classical model, which includes educational activities and scientific research and the social purpose of universities, and within their framework and education throughout their lives, the direction and formation of socially important competencies.

A Presentation of Central Communication Aspects in the Patient-Provider Relationship-Potential Learnings for Community Pharmacists.

Several studies have shown that communication between patients and HCPs is still not optimal in integrating patients’ perspectives on how best to manage their diseases and their medication. One such area where encounters between patients and professionals still needs to develop to better incorporate the patient’s perspective is pharmacy practice. The aim of this study was therefore to explore and present new typologies and communication aspects of HCP-patient relationships since a comprehensive literature search in 1997 conducted by Sondell and Söderfeldt, and relate the findings to pharmacy practice. In total, 11 articles were identified by applying the techniques of a purposeful literature search. The articles covered aspects of: shifting and adapting roles during the encounter, techniques to ensure individualizing in the encounter, avoiding inappropriate routines, coping with internet-informed patients, achieving mutual goals, dealing with uncertainty including avoiding rigid preconceptions, using social conversation, incorporating patients’ prior experiences, aligning language, adapting greetings and exploring the cultures and communication patterns of patients from other ethnic backgrounds. The variety of these communication aspects points to the immense complexity of communication as a practice discipline. This article has presented some of the literature that pharmacists can consult, in the endeavor of improving their communication practices.

The antecedents and consequences of being envied by coworkers: An investigation from the victim perspective

This study focused on the victims of coworker envy and presented a comprehensive model of being envied by coworkers to explore its antecedents and consequences in the hospitality context. Based on a sample of 232 employee-supervisor dyads in five Chinese hotels, we found that competitive goal interdependence fostered coworker envy, whereas cooperative goal interdependence prevented it. Further, the experience of being envied by coworkers undermined the frontline hospitality employees’ social exchange relationship with coworkers. This in turn prevented them from engaging in organizational citizenship behavior directed at their organizations (OCBO) and specific individuals (OCBI) such as organization members. In addition, envied employees’ others’ approval of the contingent self-esteem was found to strengthen (1) the direct effect of being envied by coworkers on coworker exchange and (2) the indirect effect of being envied by coworkers on OCBO and OCBI via coworker exchange.

A decentralized Nesterov gradient method for stochastic optimization over unbalanced directed networks

AbstractDecentralized stochastic gradient methods play significant roles in large‐scale optimization that finds many practical applications in machine learning and coordinated control. This paper studies optimization problems over unbalanced directed networks, where the mutual goal of agents in the network is to optimize a global objective function expressed as a sum of local objective functions. Each agent using only local computation and communication in the networks is assumed to get access to a stochastic first‐order oracle. In order to devise a noise‐tolerant decentralized algorithm with accelerated linear convergence, a decentralized Nesterov gradient algorithm with the constant step‐size and parameter using stochastic gradients is proposed in this paper. The proposed algorithm employing a gradient‐tracking technique is proved to converge linearly to an error ball around the optimal solution via the analysis on a linear system when the positive constant step‐size and parameter are sufficiently small. We further recover the exact linear convergence for the proposed algorithm with exact gradients under the same selection conditions of the constant step‐size and parameter. Some real‐world data sets are used in simulations to validate the correctness of the theoretical findings and practicability of the proposed algorithm.

District and University Partnerships in Support of a High Needs Urban Elementary School

The purpose of this study was to identify the strengths and challenges that emerged from the first year of a district and university partnership focused on improving a high needs urban elementary school. This research utilizes an instrumental case study design. The elementary school and the university involved in this study are both public serving institutions located in south central Texas in the United States. This paper examines the partnership after the first year of implementation. Feedback was solicited from district, campus, and university personnel regarding the successes and challenges they encountered. Three themes emerged: administrative support, challenges presented by a change in principal, and a focus on mutual self-interest and common goals. Implications are discussed.

The Effects of Organizational Traits on NGO–Business Engagement in Mexico

This paper explores the organizational traits that increase the likelihood of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to engage with businesses in order to enhance their mutual economic, environmental and social goals, consistent with UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17, Targets 17.16 and 17.17. The research is based on a survey of 364 randomly selected environmental and social NGOs in Mexico. A probit model is used to analyze the data and generate insights whereby an NGO’s proclivity to engage with the private sector is associated with a number of fundamental organizational characteristics that make them distinct from other NGOs active in their field. The main findings show that likelihood of NGO engagement with firms is correlated with making corporate donations deductible for businesses, NGO size and scope, activities and level of professionalization, sustaining broader stakeholder relations, and showing transparency about the mission and goals of the NGO. The paper includes an analysis of the determinants of specific forms of engagement and discusses some implications for NGO–business engagement and its support of the SDG targets.

The social function of the feeling and expression of guilt.

Humans are uniquely cooperative and form crucial short- and long-term social bonds between individuals that ultimately shape human societies. The need for such intense cooperation may have provided a particularly powerful selection pressure on the emotional and communicative behaviours regulating cooperative processes, such as guilt. Guilt is a social, other-oriented moral emotion that promotes relationship repair and pro-sociality. For example, people can be more lenient towards wrongdoers who display guilt than towards those who do not. Here, we examined the social consequences of guilt in a novel experimental setting with pairs of friends differing in relationship quality. Pairs of participants took part in a cooperative game with a mutual goal. We then induced guilt in one of the participants and informed the other participant of their partner's wrongdoing. We examined the outcome using a dictator game to see how they split a joint reward. We found that guilty people were motivated to repair wrongdoing regardless of friendship. Observing guilt in others led to a punishment effect and a victim of wrongdoing punished close friends who appeared guilty more so than acquaintances. We suggest, therefore, that guilt has a stronger function between close friends as the costs of relationship breakdown are greater. Relationship context, therefore, is crucial to the functional relevance of moral emotions.

Telehealth for Pregnant Women With Opioid Use Disorder: A Theory-Based Approach.

Pregnant women with opioid use disorder (OUD) face barriers to receiving substance use treatment and prenatal care, which can lead to adverse health outcomes. The purpose of the current article is to inform practice through the design of an innovative, nurse-led approach derived from King's Theory of Goal Attainment to care for pregnant women with OUD using telehealth technologies. The practice model encompasses King's theory using telehealth by addressing perceptions in the nurse-client interaction, establishing effective communication in nurse-client interactions, building mutual goal setting and decision making, and promoting clients' goal attainment using nurses' knowledge and skills. This theory-based approach using telehealth technologies can provide nurses the opportunity to increase effectiveness in nurse-client interactions, use evidence-based communication strategies for expanded access, and deliver safe care for pregnant women with OUD. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 58(12), 13-20.].

Improving Governance of Tenure in Policy and Practice: A Conceptual Basis to Analyze Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Multi-Stakeholder Transformative Governance Illustrated with an Example from South Africa

Tenure governance is a complex and multi-dimensional issue that requires cross-sectoral and holistic approaches, gathering the resources, information and expert skills of a variety of actors while exploring innovative, polycentric multi-stakeholder governance arrangements to address collective action challenges. To do this, multi-stakeholder partnerships are formed where public and private partners pool their resources and competencies to address mutual goals more effectively. A coherent theoretical framework to analyze multi-stakeholder partnerships as part of multi-stakeholder governance is presented based on internal conditions and the external environment. The paper expands existing frameworks to analyze multi-stakeholder partnerships through introducing a new element the deliberative capacity, a decisive success factor for the effectiveness of multi-stakeholder partnerships for multi-stakeholder transformative governance at the national level. Moreover, the practical applicability of this expanded framework is illustrated in a real case example in South Africa. This country-driven, inclusive multi-stakeholder partnership process, which integrates a variety of actors in collective decision-making on the land reform process as part of a multi-stakeholder governance process, is used as an illustration of the above framework. Such a partnership linked to multi-stakeholder governance is the key instrument to attain agreement and recognition for the dedicated implementation and monitoring of the ‘Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security’ (VGGT). The investment made by the different stakeholders in this organically constituted partnership may add to a greater transformative potential in the VGGT implementation and monitoring process, and the probability that the situation on the ground will change sustainably given the explicit linkage to national governance arrangements.

Decentralized stochastic optimization algorithms using uncoordinated step-sizes over unbalanced directed networks

Decentralized stochastic gradient methods play significant roles in large-scale optimization that finds many practical applications in signal processing, machine learning, and coordinated control. In this short communication, we focus on studying large-scale convex optimization problems over multi-agent systems, where the mutual goal of agents in the network is to optimize a global objective function expressed as a sum of local objective functions. Each agent in the system uses only local computation and communication in the overall process without leaking their private information. We first introduce both the local stochastic averaging gradient method and the local stochastic variance-reduced gradient method into decentralized convex optimization (DCO) over unbalanced directed networks. Then, in order to increase the autonomy and flexibility of the agents, uncoordinated step-sizes are considered. Based on the well-known variance-reduced stochastic gradient methods and uncoordinated step-sizes, we propose two fully decentralized algorithms named SAGA-UDN and SVRG-UDN for DCO over unbalanced directed networks, respectively. Finally, both SAGA-UDN and SVRG-UDN are numerically studied under various network parameters and objective functions. Some real-world data sets are used in simulations to demonstrate the improved performance of SAGA-UDN and SVRG-UDN.

\u201cStanding on common ground\u201d - a qualitative study of self-management support for patients with multimorbidity in primary health care

BackgroundMultimorbidity, the co-existence of two or more chronic conditions in an individual, is present in most patients over 65 years. Primary health care (PHC) is uniquely positioned to provide the holistic and continual care recommended for this group of patients, including support for self-management. The aim of this study was to explore professionals’, patients’, and family caregivers’ perspectives on how PHC professionals should support self-management in patients with multimorbidity. This study also includes experiences of using telemedicine to support self-management.MethodsA mixed qualitative method was used to explore regular self-management support and telemedicine as a tool to support self-management. A total of 42 participants (20 physicians, 3 registered nurses, 12 patients, and 7 family caregivers) were interviewed using focus group interviews (PHC professionals), pair interviews (patients and family caregivers), and individual interviews (registered nurses, patients, and family caregivers). The study was performed in urban areas in central Sweden and rural areas in southern Sweden between April 2018 and October 2019. Data were analyzed using content analysis.ResultsThe main theme that emerged was “Standing on common ground enables individualized support.” To achieve such support, professionals needed to understand their own views on who bears the primary responsibility for patients’ self-management, as well as patients’ self-management abilities, needs, and perspectives. Personal continuity and trustful relationships facilitated this understanding. The findings also indicated that professionals should be accessible for patients with multimorbidity, function as knowledge translators (help patients understand their symptoms and how the symptoms correlated with diseases), and coordinate between levels of care. Telemedicine supported continual monitoring and facilitated patient access to PHC professionals.ConclusionThrough personal continuity and patient-centered consultations, professionals could collaborate with patients to individualize self-management support. For some patients, this means that PHC professionals are in control and monitor symptoms. For others, PHC professionals play a less controlling role, empowering patients’ self-management. Development and improvement of eHealth tools for patients with multimorbidity should focus on improving the ability to set mutual goals, strengthening patients’ inner motivation, and including multiple caregivers to enhance information-sharing and care coordination.

Post-Disaster Collaboration between Governmental and Non-Governmental Stakeholders: The Case of Bam Earthquake, Iran

Research on cross-sector collaboration has grown over the past decade. This model of collaboration brings organizations in two or more sectors together, to link or share information, resources, activities and capabilities when no single organization has enough time, money, knowledge or authority to address them alone. In a post-disaster period, the governmental organizations particularly in developing countries usually are unable to provide all necessary services alone; hence, collaboration with other agencies is required. In the last decades, studies have used the viewpoint of collaboration between NGOs and the government, and shown a beneficial relationship between them. Most studies have focused on the structures of the collaboration in the aftermath of disasters with hierarchies, protocols, authoritarian roles and the standardization of procedures but there is a gap in analysing the process factors and the interaction of process and structural factors influencing the collaboration during post-disaster period. In this study, the aim is to identify the main factors of process and structures influencing the collaboration between Iranian government and NGOs after the earthquake in Bam city in Iran in 2003. Analysing the content of the previous studies showed that lack of experience on how to deal with disasters and unclear tasks as well as insufficient trust and mutual understanding between the actors were the main reasons of failure in collaboration. The lack of specific organizational tasks at a given time led to exacerbate the tension in the process of working together; increase the lack of common understanding, and fail to achieve the mutual goal.

Seeking the Mutual Goal: Investigating Attitude toward Collaboration between Nurses and Physicians

Seeking the Mutual Goal: Investigating Attitude toward Collaboration between Nurses and Physicians