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The authors present the application of the López-Fresno approach in designing an integrated management system (IMS) for an aviation company to the development of an IMS in a government-run organization responsible for the medical evaluation of work disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to share the design process, with the intention of showing that this approach is applicable to other sectors and proposing generalization and applicability strategies to other smaller government entities.

The study involves two phases. Phase I applies the López-Fresno approach to design a basic IMS-I and ends with a European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) evaluation, whose suggestions were taken into consideration for the final design of IMS-II during phase II. The data were obtained from the organization's own functioning. There was a significant degree of personal involvement by the authors, external consultants and members of the management committee in areas ranging from the approach itself to the various components analyzed.

The approach led to a better use of human and material resources and produced various advances in both internal and external communication and significant progress in employee motivation in their dealings with users and stakeholders.

The study offers guidelines and recommendations for designing an IMS adapted to small, compact, administrative organizations that operate with stakeholders with highly disparate outlooks and interests, with different quality levels, in a context related to competitiveness and economic development.

The argumentativeness measure has been used in more than a 100 studies since 1982. The measure was developed and validated within a US university/college student sample. Despite its intended use, the measure is regularly used outside of the US and outside of the university/college setting without tests of validity. There is also intense debate as to the dimensionality of the measure, with one camp defending the bi-dimensionality of the measure and another proposing uni-dimensionality. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the utility of the measure outside of its intended population.

A total of seven samples were collected (n = 1860) from the UK, Germany, France, Turkey, the Philippines, Nicaragua and the US. In this study, Infante and Rancer’s (1982) original 20-item argumentativeness measure was used to assess argumentativeness. Confirmatory factor analyses was used to test content validity.

Fit statistics were consistently poor for the unidimensional factor structure. As there is debate as to whether the measure is uni or bi-dimensional, a bi-dimensional fit was also analysed. The measure performed slightly better in each sample using a bi-dimensional factor structure. However, fit statistics were still poor for each sample.

Specifically, the seven samples are convenience samples. While such a sampling technique does limit the generalizability of a study’s findings, convenience samples are common when using the argumentativeness measure. These results present avenues for exploring the dimensionality of the argumentativeness measure and for revisiting cross-cultural examinations of argumentativeness.

Factor structure is a critical issue in validity. Whether authors specify their prediction or not, factor structure is always hypothesized as part of a study when measurements are used, and therefore, should be examined in every study as part of the scientific process. Making claims about human behaviour based upon measures with mis-specified factor structures or other validity issues can lead to the perpetuation of misinformation within the literature.

This is one of the few studies to empirically explore the psychometric properties of one of the most used measures in argument/conflict research. In doing so, this study enhances the understanding of decades of argumentativeness research.

This study aims to first explore the extent to which argumentativeness changed during the adaptation process among Muslim immigrants to France from 2006 to 2015 and, second, to examine the cultural fusion process. The study investigates the influence of intercultural contact on communication traits by exploring the extent to which members of the dominant cultural group adapt their argumentativeness over time.

Through a longitudinal panel study, the paper investigates the influence of intercultural contact on communication traits by exploring the extent to which members of the dominant cultural group adapt their argumentativeness over time. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling are used to assess the hypotheses and research question.

Results revealed a curvilinear relationship between argumentativeness and time. Argumentativeness increased from 2006 to 2009, remained constant from 2009 to 2012 and then decreased after 2012. Furthermore, data analysis revealed argumentativeness levels among members of the dominant culture did not change.

The results are potentially limited by the sample being a convenience sample and the presence of extenuating factors.

Argumentativeness is viewed by many researchers as a functional form of communication. However, few studies have longitudinally studied how this trait can change over time.

As a result of both shifting social concerns and stricter legislation, many companies are seeking innovative and sustainable solutions for both primary and secondary packaging. The craft beer industry has made the most notable advancements with a variety of alternatives to the traditional secondary packaging (e.g. plastic rings) used to link beer cans. Yet, despite the impact packaging has on consumer purchase behavior and the environment, secondary packaging has received far less attention in the literature. This study aims to understand consumer perceptions of craft beer secondary packaging on consumers’ willingness to buy via the underlying mechanisms of perceived packaging innovation and sustainability.

A single-factor between-subjects experiment with four conditions (secondary packaging format: Pak-Tech holder, Keel Clip holder, Glue-Pack holder, Biodegradable holder) was conducted with 354 participants to test the hypothesized serial mediation model.

The results demonstrate that none of the secondary packaging styles had a direct effect on willingness to buy, meaning that the package style alone does not influence a consumer’s purchase decisions. Critically, the results also revealed indirect effects; specifically, the Keel Clip and Glue-Pack six-pack can holders were perceived as more innovative than the Pak-Tech holder, which in turn positively influenced perceptions of packaging sustainability and subsequent willingness to buy.

The authors’ results extend the research on sustainable secondary packaging and aids craft breweries along with other beverage producers in making informed decisions as the push for sustainable packaging becomes more prominent.

This study aims to examine the extent to which organizational dissent predicts perception of workplace bullying. As previous studies have reported inconsistent and sometimes contradictory results regarding the interaction between the reporting of bullying and demographic variables, these variables are examined in the New Zealand context. Organizational communication research provides considerable insight into the ways individuals make sense of and resist workplace bullying through juxtaposition with the concepts of dissent and intragroup conflict.

A nationally representative sample of managers in New Zealand (n = 239) was conducted. Surveys included demographic questions and the following measures: Organizational Dissent Scale and Negative Acts Questionnaire Revised Scale.

Key results and indications for further research are highlighted by the third model in this study. First, workers who reported they engaged in either articulated dissent or latent dissent were more likely to perceive workplace bullying. Second, workers who are more likely to express contrary opinions in the workplace are more likely to recognize, acknowledge and tolerate less positive interactions in the workplace such as bullying.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to analyze dissent and bullying in the New Zealand context. Second, this research raises the question of whether there is a conflation of work-related bullying behaviors and bad leadership styles that may not be targeted (e.g. authoritative leadership and micromanaging). Finally, communication research provides a distinctive contribution by exploring the narrative form of worker responses to perceived bullying. In this manuscript, the authors examine potential predictors on the perception of workplace bullying in the context of New Zealand, particularly focus on the relationship between dissent and the perception of workplace bullying.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of black sesame germination on its nutritional composition and antioxidant activity.

Germination occurred at constant temperature and humidity (35 °C and 95 ± 5%) for 72 h. The levels of moisture, protein, lipids, ash, total dietary fibre and fractions, carbohydrates, calories, phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity were determined.

With germination, there was a significant increase in moisture and protein content, as well as a reduction in the other parameters assessed in terms of nutritional composition. When analysing bioactive compounds, no significant change was found in the content of phenolic compounds; however, there was a reduction in antioxidant capacity according to the three methods tested, which may be related to the characteristics of the grain itself, the conditions used for germination, or even the process of extracting phenolic compounds for analysis. Other conditions for the germination of black sesame using different times and temperatures should be evaluated in future studies.

This is an original research article, which has an industrial and health impact by transmitting highly relevant responses on nutrition and food. The novelty of this research is the fact of studying the germination of black sesame on the nutritional composition (moisture, protein, lipids, ash, total dietary fibre and fractions, carbohydrates and calories), levels of phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity. These results can help improve the procedures adopted by the food industries and also in nutritional conduct, as the germination process leads to a change in the nutritional composition, especially with regard to protein synthesis, which is relevant, once it is an interesting protein option. However, it also brings us responses to reductions in important nutritional compounds.

This chapter analyses the development of oleotourism through the use of local resources in a democratised decision-making process. It explains that the production of olive oil is making a novel contribution to the tourism industry. The authors suggest that oleotourism is also offering opportunities for stakeholder engagement. Therefore, the authors identify key elements that serve as drivers for the development of oleotourism in Jaén. They put forward a framework that can lead to a democratised decision-making process that is intended to support the stakeholders of oleotourism.

The paper is the story of the marginalization of the concept of networks of dyadic exchanges or patronage and clientage by Brazilian intellectuals and Brazilianist academics. I contend that though it is a pervasive pattern in the culture of the nation, Brazilian intellectuals wrote about patronage/clientage as an aspect of politics that is responsible for the country's backwardness and underdevelopment. Anthropologists, for the most part, judged it to be exploitative of the people involved and believed that it should be eliminated. The Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores or PT), as it implemented a highly commended conditional cash transfer program to help the poor, attempted to replace it with an alternative way they believed electoral politics ought to be conducted. I suggest that the pattern continues to be more than exchanges between political office seekers and voters in Brazil as it transcends the political, economic, and religious categories of modernity and may provide the most needy with what the labor market does not.

The growing trend for online peer-to-peer commerce has changed the way consumers purchase and exchange products and services across a wide variety of industries, including the craft beer industry. The lack of large scale distribution channels for local breweries has led to a growing market for social exchanges across the country. However, these barter systems remain more obscure compared to their mega counterparts in monetary exchange systems. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how the set-up of online beer marketplaces impacts the perceptions of source attractiveness as moderated by the perceived risks to encourage exchange behaviors.

Using an established beer exchange community, members appraised the impact of avatar profiles in their decision-making process based on user congruity, product congruity and risk perceptions. The research was conducted using a 2×2 between subjects mixed factorial design.

Product attractiveness and risk perceptions influenced behavioral intentions while user attractiveness did not. This is counter to past research that emphasizes the importance of relationships in sharing economy contexts.

This research shifts the discourse for sharing economy platforms from monetizing trust to prioritizing the product. While much of the emphasis had previously been on facilitating relationships between the supplier and customers on sharing economy websites, this may indicate that there needs to be a shift to prioritizing the product.