Jose M. Acevedo and George B. Yancey
This paper aims to examine the importance of new employee orientation (NEO) programs, the quality of typical NEOs, and how to improve NEOs.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the importance of new employee orientation (NEO) programs, the quality of typical NEOs, and how to improve NEOs.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides a viewpoint of the importance of new employee orientation programs, the quality of typical NEOs, and how to improve NEOs.
Findings
Although western organizations are revamping their NEO programs, western culture still seems to foster a mediocre orientation process.
Originality/value
Provides a viewpoint of the importance of new employee orientation programs, the quality of typical NEOs, and how to improve NEOs.
Details
Keywords
ROGER N. CONWAY and RON C. MITTELHAMMER
In the last two decades there has been considerable progress made in the development of alternative estimation techniques to ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. The search…
Abstract
In the last two decades there has been considerable progress made in the development of alternative estimation techniques to ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. The search for alternative estimators has no doubt been motivated by the observance of erratic OLS estimator behavior in cases where there are too few observations, multicollinearity problems, or simply “information‐poor” data sets. Imprecise and unreliable OLS coefficient estimates have been the result.
Gabe Ignatow, Nicholas Evangelopoulos and Konstantinos Zougris
The authors apply topic sentiment analysis (several relatively new text analysis methods) to the study of public opinion as expressed in social media by comparing reactions to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors apply topic sentiment analysis (several relatively new text analysis methods) to the study of public opinion as expressed in social media by comparing reactions to the Trayvon Martin controversy in spring 2012 by commenters on the partisan news websites the Huffington Post and Daily Caller.
Methodology/approach
Topic sentiment analysis is a text analysis method that estimates the polarity of sentiments across units of text within large text corpora (Lin & He, 2009; Mei, Ling, Wondra, Su, & Zhai, 2007).
Findings
We apply topic sentiment analysis to public opinion as expressed in social media by comparing reactions to the Trayvon Martin controversy in spring 2012 by commenters on the partisan news websites the Huffington Post and Daily Caller. Based on studies that depict contemporary news media as an “outrage industry” that incentivizes media personalities to be controversial and polarizing (Berry & Sobieraj, 2014), we predict that high-profile commentators will be more polarizing than other news personalities and topics.
Originality/value
Results of the topic sentiment analysis support this prediction and in so doing provide partial validation of the application of topic sentiment analysis to online opinion.
Details
Keywords
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are…
Abstract
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.
To describe the role one classroom writing community played in shaping students’ understandings of the analytical writing genre; and to discuss the impact the community had on…
Abstract
Purpose
To describe the role one classroom writing community played in shaping students’ understandings of the analytical writing genre; and to discuss the impact the community had on students’ developing academic writing identities.
Design/methodology/approach
While research has demonstrated the impact of classroom writing communities on student writing practices and identities at the elementary level (Dyson, 1997) and for secondary students engaged in fiction writing (Halverson, 2005), less is known about the role classroom writing communities may play for secondary students who are learning to write in academic discourses. This chapter explores the practices of one such classroom community and discusses the ways the community facilitated students’ introduction to the discourse of analytical writing.
Findings
The teacher turned the classroom writing community into an authentic audience, and in so doing, he developed students’ understandings of the analytical writing genre and their growing identities as academic writers. First, he used the concept of immediate audience (i.e., writing to persuade real readers) as the primary rationale for students to follow the outlined expectations for analytical writing. Second, he used inquiry discussions around student work (i.e., interacting with other members of the writing community) to prepare students for a future audience of prospective independent school English classrooms.
Practical implications
By turning the classroom writing community into an authentic audience through inquiry discussions, teachers can develop students’ deep and flexible understandings of a potentially unfamiliar writing genre. Furthermore, by employing the classroom writing community as a support for moving students through moments of struggle, teachers implicate students’ expertise as academic writers, thereby facilitating their willingness to take on academic writing identities.
Details
Keywords
Kavitha Rajagopal, George T Oommen, P. Kuttinarayanan, Sisilamma George and K.M. SyamMohan
This study aims to assess the effects of calcium chloride marination on buffalo meat tenderness, instrumental color and palatability traits and to compare the effects with that of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess the effects of calcium chloride marination on buffalo meat tenderness, instrumental color and palatability traits and to compare the effects with that of aging, so as to suggest a cost-effective tenderizing method to meat retailers.
Design/methodology/approach
Buffalo longissimus thoracis (LT) steaks were marinated post-rigor with 200-mM (5 per cent w/w) calcium chloride solution and were subjected to aging at 2-4°C for eight days. The pH, water holding capacity (WHC), cooking loss, color, myofibrillar fragmentation index, Warner–Bratzler shear force and sensory quality attributes were assessed at 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 days post-mortem. The values were then compared with those of control steaks kept at the same storage conditions.
Findings
Marination was not found to affect pH, WHC, cooking loss or color as compared to the control steaks. Tenderness was found to be improved in marinated steaks by 53.44 per cent as against 35.59 per cent in those that aged without marination. The sensory panel evaluation showed that marinated steaks significantly improved (p < 0.01) in the scores for the different attributes, and no flavor problems or alterations in cooked color were noticed.
Research limitations/implications
The animals used in this study fall in the age group of four-eight years with one of them being four years old and the rest above the age of six years. Given the fact that, age-related increase in pyridinoline content of intramuscular collagen and cross-link formation influenced by sex can contribute to the toughness of meat in spent animals (Bosselmann et al., 1995), the variation in age of the animals under study could be regarded as a limitation of the study. But apart from one animal, all of them were more than six years old, forming more or less uniform samples.
Originality/value
This research is of value to the meat industry or retailers. The post-rigor marination of buffalo LT steaks with 200-mM CaCl2 (5 per cent w/w) appears to be a promising measure from the view of practicability. The relative ease of operation makes it superior to other successful techniques in reducing toughness, such as electrical stimulation.
Details
Keywords
Prevailing explanations of the US secession crisis trace the latter’s origins to slavery and slaveowners’ interests. The central problem with all such explanations, however, is…
Abstract
Prevailing explanations of the US secession crisis trace the latter’s origins to slavery and slaveowners’ interests. The central problem with all such explanations, however, is that the Whig Party, the party of the largest slaveowners, opposed secession until the mid-1850s. Why did southern Whigs and their planter base resist secession through the political crisis over slavery only to fold by 1861? Drawing on archival electoral returns by precinct, party newspapers, speeches, and personal correspondence from antebellum Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, I argue for an institutional and sequential approach to the secession crisis that does not take social actors’ individual interests as given, but rather as naturalized and denaturalized in the back and forth struggle of political parties to advance competing solutions to the problem of preserving slavery.
Details
Keywords
Purpose – This chapter analyzes stratification in embeddedness in religious congregations, as well as the civic and political implications of this stratification in congregational…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter analyzes stratification in embeddedness in religious congregations, as well as the civic and political implications of this stratification in congregational embeddedness.
Methodology – With data from more than 70,000 attendees of 385 congregations, I examine how race, education, and income affect the prevalence of friendships in religious congregations, and how these friendships affect civic and political activity.
Findings – Analyses of friendships show that white and lower-class Americans are particularly likely to have close friends in their congregations, and attendees are disproportionately likely to have close friends in their congregations when other attendees are of the same race and level of education. Analyses of civic and political participation show that congregational friendships are strongly associated with civic and political participation, though the positive effects of congregational friendships on civic and political participation are moderately reduced for African-Americans and lower-class attendees.
Research Implications – The findings are relevant to future research on congregational stability, stratification in access to social resources, and U.S. civil society.
Originality/Value – This research shows that the resources that accompany congregational embeddedness, like many other resources, are stratified by race, education, and income.
Details
Keywords
E‐portfolios, which document and facilitate learning and performance, have recently attracted interest in the USA, UK, and Europe as means to increase employability and support…
Abstract
Purpose
E‐portfolios, which document and facilitate learning and performance, have recently attracted interest in the USA, UK, and Europe as means to increase employability and support lifelong learning. This article aims to critically examine these objectives in order to guide the future e‐portfolio practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Social theory, drawing on the work of Foucault, suggests that the discourse of employability and lifelong learning shapes individuals into means to fulfill economic objectives. This theory is applied to show that many e‐portfolio projects participate in this discourse. In the USA, the discourse around integrative learning suggests an alternative.
Findings
Integrative learning has two different styles, which correspond with two different types of self, the network and symphonic. The network self suggests ways for e‐portfolios to promote employability, while representing the symphonic in e‐portfolios creates space for a broader conception of what is important in life that pushes back against an entirely economic conception of citizenship. e‐portfolio projects have made progress cultivating both kinds of selves, and two, the Nedcar project in The Netherlands, and the eFolio Minnesota project in the USA, are examined. These selves need to be woven together, layering the networked and symphonic, to create e‐portfolios that promote employability while asserting the value of their authors as whole human beings. The idea of “good work” developed to describe the professions may serve as a model for this integration.
Originality/value
Much current work developing e‐portfolio software, services, and policies uncritically embraces the problematic conceptions of employability and lifelong learning discussed. The alternative model proposed in the paper can inform future work.