Bryn Bandt-Law and Daniel Krauss
Mortality is a salient factor during capital sentencing. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role death plays in jurors’ decisions when sentencing a severely mentally ill…
Abstract
Purpose
Mortality is a salient factor during capital sentencing. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role death plays in jurors’ decisions when sentencing a severely mentally ill defendant who is subject to possible discrimination in a capital trial because of that status.
Design/methodology/approach
The current experiment measured venire jurors’ (n=133) mental illness dangerousness beliefs, and then experimentally manipulated type of mortality salience (dual-focused: participants who contemplated their own mortality and were exposed to trial-related death references vs trial focused: only exposed to death references) and the type of defendant (severely mentally ill vs neutral) accused of a capital offense.
Findings
Mock jurors perceived mental illness to be an important mitigating factor when dual (i.e. self) focused mortality (DFM) salience was induced, whereas participants only exposed to trial-related death references considered mental illness to be an aggravating factor in sentencing and were more likely to evidence stereotype adherence toward the defendant.
Practical implications
The implications of the authors’ findings are problematic for the current legal system. During the majority of capital sentencing, jurors will only be exposed to trial-related death references, as individuals in the trial-focused mortality condition were. The findings suggest that these jurors are likely to engage in discriminatory stereotypes that do not consider fair process when making sentencing decisions. This research also suggests that mortality salience may be able to increase jurors’ attention to such concerns in a trial scenario even when negative mental illness stereotypes are present.
Originality/value
Research builds on existing terror management theory and offers a more nuanced perspective of how focusing on one’s own death can affect jurors’ reliance on stereotypes and lead to inappropriate decisions. Mortality salience can lead to decisions based upon procedural fairness when stereotypes and mortality salience are both present.
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Daniel Graff and Mark A. Clark
This study reviews the construct of analogy as an individual communication mode, examining its relationship with cross-understanding in knowledge-diverse teams. The authors…
Abstract
Purpose
This study reviews the construct of analogy as an individual communication mode, examining its relationship with cross-understanding in knowledge-diverse teams. The authors theorize that analogy use enhances team information processing beyond mere communication frequency through bridging knowledge differences across team members. The authors propose that analogies will have a direct relationship to knowledge application, and an indirect effect via cross-understanding. However, communication frequency will have only an indirect effect on knowledge application through cross-understanding.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors sampled a 49-member team with 14 subteams, yielding 146 usable dyadic relationships. Two mediation models were estimated while using linear mixed-effect models in SPSS.
Findings
The results confirm the importance of analogies and cross-understanding in teams, generally supporting the hypotheses. Mere communication frequency was not related to knowledge application, indicating that “how you say it” may be more important than how often a team member speaks.
Research limitations/implications
This research explored these constructs through a three-week project in a sample of graduate students working with a real-world client. Future research could explore the validity of this model in other organizational settings and test the analogy construct on the team level.
Practical implications
The effectiveness of team member communication should be measured not only as frequency but also in terms of analogies to transmit meaning.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to an understanding of teams as information processors by building empirical support for the utility of analogical communication in design teams, establishing the relationship of analogies to cross-understanding and knowledge application.
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Academic viewpoints about the evolution of the book over time incorporating historical purposes and contemporary approaches to issuing new forms of scholarship.
Abstract
Purpose
Academic viewpoints about the evolution of the book over time incorporating historical purposes and contemporary approaches to issuing new forms of scholarship.
Design/methodology/approach
Outunes the themes of the conference.
Findings
Technology allows for so much today and the intersection of text and image is just one way to interpret the potential for new practices and information products.
Practical implications
Different forms of scholarship emphasize media and implications for new information products suggest new roles for creators, readers, preservationists, librarians, and technologists.
Originality/value
Provides a useful summary of a conference of interest of information professionals.
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Catherine J. Taylor, Laura Freeman, Daniel Olguin Olguin and Taemie Kim
In this project, we propose and test a new device – wearable sociometric badges containing small microphones – as a low-cost and relatively unobtrusive tool for measuring stress…
Abstract
Purpose
In this project, we propose and test a new device – wearable sociometric badges containing small microphones – as a low-cost and relatively unobtrusive tool for measuring stress response to group processes. Specifically, we investigate whether voice pitch, measured using the microphone of the sociometric badge, is associated with physiological stress response to group processes.
Methodology
We collect data in a laboratory setting using participants engaged in two types of small-group interactions: a social interaction and a problem-solving task. We examine the association between voice pitch (measured by fundamental frequency of the participant’s speech) and physiological stress response (measured using salivary cortisol) in these two types of small-group interactions.
Findings
We find that in the social task, participants who exhibit a stress response have a statistically significant greater deviation in voice pitch (from their overall average voice pitch) than those who do not exhibit a stress response. In the problem-solving task, participants who exhibit a stress response also have a greater deviation in voice pitch than those who do not exhibit a stress response, however, in this case, the results are only marginally significant. In both tasks, among participants who exhibited a stress response, we find a statistically significant correlation between physiological stress response and deviation in voice pitch.
Practical and research implications
We conclude that wearable microphones have the potential to serve as cheap and unobtrusive tools for measuring stress response to group processes.
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Martin Götz and Ernest H. O’Boyle
The overall goal of science is to build a valid and reliable body of knowledge about the functioning of the world and how applying that knowledge can change it. As personnel and…
Abstract
The overall goal of science is to build a valid and reliable body of knowledge about the functioning of the world and how applying that knowledge can change it. As personnel and human resources management researchers, we aim to contribute to the respective bodies of knowledge to provide both employers and employees with a workable foundation to help with those problems they are confronted with. However, what research on research has consistently demonstrated is that the scientific endeavor possesses existential issues including a substantial lack of (a) solid theory, (b) replicability, (c) reproducibility, (d) proper and generalizable samples, (e) sufficient quality control (i.e., peer review), (f) robust and trustworthy statistical results, (g) availability of research, and (h) sufficient practical implications. In this chapter, we first sing a song of sorrow regarding the current state of the social sciences in general and personnel and human resources management specifically. Then, we investigate potential grievances that might have led to it (i.e., questionable research practices, misplaced incentives), only to end with a verse of hope by outlining an avenue for betterment (i.e., open science and policy changes at multiple levels).
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial orientation in Tanzania’s informal economy. The development of personal…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial orientation in Tanzania’s informal economy. The development of personal wealth is used to measure the performance of subsistence entrepreneurs in the mama lishe sector.
Design/methodology/approach
On the basis of a literature review and a qualitative pre-study involving 27 interviewees, a questionnaire was completed by 152 subsistence entrepreneurs who are known as the mama lishe. Subsequently, a correlation analysis, a factor analysis, and regression analyses were performed to test the hypotheses.
Findings
On the basis of a factor analysis, a distinction is made between the development of basic personal wealth and the development of advanced personal wealth. Entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial orientation, as constructed by studies in western countries, have little effect on both forms of personal wealth. Instead, the owner’s age, as an indicator of entrepreneurial experience, is a relatively strong predictor for the development of personal wealth.
Originality/value
By examining the determinants of the performance of subsistence entrepreneurs in an African least developed country (LDC), this study shows that the western definitions of entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial orientation are not directly applicable in this context. By using performance measures such as the development of personal wealth, this study supports the perspective that entrepreneurs in the informal economy of an LDC operate under a different paradigm than their counterparts in the industrialized nations of the west. Accordingly, it is concluded that one size does not fit all.
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A GOOD deal of fuss has been occasioned by the barring of several novels by the Libraries Association recently. Into the pros and cons of the matter—which have been over‐canvassed…
Abstract
A GOOD deal of fuss has been occasioned by the barring of several novels by the Libraries Association recently. Into the pros and cons of the matter—which have been over‐canvassed already—we do not propose to enter in detail: these circulating libraries and their customers can be left to reconcile their own differences of opinion. It is, however, unfortunate that a few commercial circulating libraries, when combining to form an association, should have chosen a title that was bound to be confused with that of the Library Association.