NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Bridging the gap: why, how and when HR analytics can impact organizational performance
No full textPurpose – Despite the growth and adoption of human resource (HR) analytics, it remains unknown whether
HR analytics can impact organizational performance. As such, this study aims to address this important issue
by understanding why, how and when HR analytics leads to increased organizational performance and
uncover the mechanisms through which this increased performance occurs.
Design/methodology/approach – Using data collected from 155 Irish organizations, structural equation
modeling was performed to test the chain mediation model linking HR technology, HR analytics, evidence based management (EBM) and organizational performance.
Findings – The study’s findings support the proposed chain model, suggesting that access to HR technology
enables HR analytics which facilitates EBM, which in turn enhances organizational performance.
Originality/value – This research contributes significantly to the HR analytics and EBM literature. First, the
study extends our understanding of why and how HR analytics leads to higher organizational performance.
Second, the authors identify that access to HR technology enables and is an antecedent of HR analytics. Finally,
empirical evidence is offered to support EBM and its impact on organizational performance
Teaching militant humility against the aggressions of a neoliberal world
No full textThis article develops a militant teaching humility regarding the foundational aggression and violence of a neoliberal worldview within late capitalism. Mainly the article shows how such aggressions and violence take shape as schooling the self-interested consumer within a school market. This article also shows how such self-interest understands education in terms of individualism, comparison, and competition, ultimately leading to the destruction of the social fabric of the common good of democracies. The teaching strategy identified highlights the humility and discipline needed to transform the aggression and
violence of late capitalism into a non-violent but consistent strategy for democratization. The strategy developed in the article takes inspiration from Judith Butler, Jacques Rancière and Thich Nhat Hanh, and exemplifies what democratization in education implies today. This article concludes with teaching understood as an ethical and political concern in being for the
other, in being interested in the freedom of the other
"How can I support positive transitions in my early years setting?"
No full textThis self-study action research study explores, “How can I support positive transitions for children in my early years setting”. Children’s experiences when they are growing up are full of change such as moving from home to an early year setting, moving house, the loss of a family member, or a break-up of the family unit. All these changes in a child’s life are regarded as transitions. The aim of this research was to examine my current practice and to identify how I support positive transitions in my early years setting, while also aligning these practices to my values. This research project occurred within my place of work at an early childhood education and care
facility.
The research methodology I used included questionnaires, a reflective journal, anecdotal and event sample observations, and team meetings. These qualitative research tools would enable me to gain the perspective of participants while including my own learnings as a researcher. All ethical considerations were adhered to during this research, these included gaining informed consent from the participants, and the collection and storage of data.
There were two action research cycles within the self-study, all of which focused on enhancing how transitions occur and happen within my setting. From the extensive but rich data that I collected, I then analysed this data to search for certain themes that were evident. From this I was able to extract my findings which showed indications of episodes of where I was living more closely to my values, and this enabled me to make a claim to knowledge.
Furthermore, this study recommends and extends the understanding of transitions. By adopting a right-based approach I was able to identify and respond to the multiple ways children communicate and express their views. By leveraging the children’s agency, through an emergent curriculum instead of imposing adult-controlled routines and by collaborating with parents to help me understand children’s perspectives and structuring the daily routine accordingly. These findings have led me to deeply consider my practices, identity, and values as an early childhood educational leader. Furthermore, it has supported me in constructing a living theory of my practice by providing a rationale and awareness as to why I had previously engaged in such practices
Towards Anyonic Quantum Computation in Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensates.
No full textThe main objective of this thesis is to describe the codes that we have developed in order
to simulate the ground state of a spin one and spin two Bose-Einstein condensate as well
as codes that we have developed to solve the Bogoliubov equations used to examine the
elementary excitations of these ground states. Motivated by viewing non-abelian vortices
within a spin two condensate as anyons that can be used for quantum computation, we also
look at introducing vortices into our codes by means of suitable initial conditions. To do
this, we have developed methods for setting up and looking at vortices in our ground state
systems. Finally, we will put all our code together by numerically solving the Bogoliubov
equations for a ground state system with a vortex present and provide analysis of these
results
Historical Escape Rooms: Unlocking the potential for communication and collaboration in History lessons.
No full textThe purpose of this Living Theory action research project was to identify how I can change my practice in History lessons to live closer to my values of social-constructivism and democracy. I explored ways in which Educational Escape Rooms could be used during History lessons to create opportunities for communication and collaboration between students in a mixed gender, urban, disadvantaged school with a 5th class group.
This research documents my professional learning journey, captured from multiple perspectives to negate some of the shortcomings of the Living Theory approach. Data was collected from my reflective journal, lesson observations and discussions from Critical Friends, and through questionnaires, feedback loops and interviews with children. By navigating the ethical considerations carefully, placing the child’s voice at the centre of this research allowed me to live closer to my value of democracy.
The research was conducted across two research cycles, each consisting of a different teacher-made, History-based, Educational Escape Room. Children completed History lessons on a topic over four weeks and entered the Escape Room on week five. Puzzles were based on History content and skills developed during class lessons and children worked collaboratively to solve these and escape before the time expired.
This self-study found that the Educational Escape Room provided opportunities for collaboration, affected by the degree of choice children had in choosing their own teams. The Escape Room also created opportunities for meaningful communication between students within the game and for communication between the teacher, students and colleagues. Evidently, children applied historical content knowledge from lessons in the new situation of the Escape Room and children utilised higher order historical skills without even realising it. The research unearthed two unexpected findings on the topic of engagement.
Children found physical, tactile puzzles and locks more engaging than digital ones. Additionally, children found Escape Rooms that demanded players to move around and use the room more engaging than those that did not require as much movement.
The findings declare that Educational Escape Rooms are a social-constructivist teaching approach that will allow me to live closer to my values in History lessons. Given the infancy of the teaching approach, a lacuna in literature pertaining to Educational Escape Rooms in primary schools does exist. This study has the potential to contribute to the body of research that exists and has encouraged me to look for creative and innovative teaching methods that can continue to challenge my assumptions
The ‘I Wonder’ Curriculum: An Enquiry-Based Approach to History in Junior Infants
No full textThe aim of this self-study action research project was to enhance my teaching of the Myself strand of the Junior Infant History curriculum so that lessons reflected the lives of the children I teach. The research was conducted in a multi-grade Junior/Senior Infant class in an urban DEIS school.
In line with the principles of self-study action research, my values were articulated and used to highlight times when my values and practice were in tension. To address this tension, an intervention was designed to ensure History lessons were child-centred, democratic and inclusive. This was achieved through use of a dialogic teaching method, I-wonder questions and sharing of historical evidence to encourage children to ask questions about their own lives and the lives of their families. Families became involved when these questions were sent home in children’s History Portfolios. Further involvement from families occurred when they were invited into school to work on an art-based Family Tree Project.
A qualitative approach was taken to data collection as this method allowed for a range of voices to be included in my research, including the voice of children, parents/grandparents, colleagues and academics. Data was collected using questionnaires, interviews, work samples, photographs and a teacher reflective journal. The ethical implications were considered and addressed prior to commencing research.
A reflexive thematic analysis approach was taken to data analysis resulting in the emergence of four findings. The findings revealed the central place of parents/grandparents sharing details of the children’s histories to help children meet the objectives of the History curriculum. Furthermore, the research found that teacher-sharing of stories, photographs and artefacts from their own history awakens the children’s curiosity and acts as a stimulus for historical enquiry. The remaining findings were that children’s ability to act agentically
during History lessons is impacted by adult perceptions of agency and children’s ability to formulate questions about their lives.
Illustrations have been used in Chapter One to show the research journey and changes to my mindset when teaching History as a result. These images have been included with kind permission from the illustrator, David Mahon.
The self-study research approach has had an impact on the way I teach the Myself strand of the History curriculum. My planning in the future will include participation from parents/grandparents and use of historical evidence. Lessons will be child-led, based on children’s questions, so that the objectives of the History curriculum are tailored to each child in my class
A Data-Informed Perspective on Public Preferences for Retaining or Abolishing Biannual Clock Changes
No full textScientific, public, and political discourse around the perennial changing of the clocks during the transitions into and out of daylight saving time (DST) is a touchstone issue for the translation of fundamental chronobiology into societal impacts. The Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, along with other sleep science bodies, has issued a position statement that advocates for the abolition of the biannual clock changes and the adoption of permanent standard time for the optimization of population circadian health. However, there is a paucity of data on preexisting public perceptions and preferences with regard to these issues. In this perspective, we examine 5 issues that we believe are pertinent for chronobiologists to consider to enable effective advocacy on these policies; in particular, we discuss public preference for permanent DST and steps that may need to be taken to understand this preference. We inform our discussion with reference to cross-sectional studies we undertook in Spring 2020 and Fall 2019, around the transition out of and into DST Ireland. We conclude that there appears to be a gap between existing public perceptions and preferences around the clock changes and chronobiological and sleep science-informed positions, and that the chronobiology community may benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration with colleagues with specific social sciences expertise to most effectively advocate for these research-informed positions
My Tweets Bring All the Traits to the Yard: Predicting Personality and Relational Traits in Online Social Networks
No full textUsers in Online Social Networks (OSNs,) leave traces that reflect their personality characteristics. The study of these traces is important for several fields, such as social science, psychology, marketing, and others. Despite a marked increase in research on personality prediction based on online behavior, the focus has been heavily on individual personality traits, and by doing so, largely neglects relational facets of personality. This study aims to address this gap by providing a prediction model for holistic personality profiling in OSNs that includes socio-relational traits (attachment orientations) in combination with standard personality traits. Specifically, we first designed a feature engineering methodology that extracts a wide range of features (accounting for behavior, language, and emotions) from the OSN accounts of users. Subsequently, we designed a machine learning model that predicts trait scores of users based on the extracted features. The proposed model architecture is inspired by characteristics embedded in psychology; i.e, it utilizes interrelations among personality facets and leads to increased accuracy in comparison with other state-of-the-art approaches. To demonstrate the usefulness of this approach, we applied our model on two datasets, namely regular OSN users and opinion leaders on social media, and contrast both samples’ psychological profiles. Our findings demonstrate that the two groups can be clearly separated by focusing on both Big Five personality traits and attachment orientations. The presented research provides a promising avenue for future research on OSN user characterization and classification
The Network Structure of ICD-11 Disorders Specifically Associated with Stress: Adjustment Disorder, Prolonged Grief Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
No full textIntroduction: The ICD-11 includes a new grouping for “disorders specifically associated with stress” that contains revised descriptions of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and adjustment disorder (AjD) and new diagnoses in the form of complex PTSD (CPTSD) and prolonged grief disorder (PGD). These disorders are similar in that they each require a life event for the diagnosis; however, they have not yet been assessed together for validity within the same sample. We set out to test the distinctiveness of the four main ICD-11 stress disorders using a network analysis approach. Methods: A population-based, cross-sectional design. A nationally representative sample of adults from the Republic of Ireland aged 18 years and older (N = 1,020) completed standardized measures of PTSD, CPTSD, AjD, and PGD. A network analysis was conducted at the symptom level. Outcome measures included the International Trauma Questionnaire, the Inventory of Complicated Grief, and the International Adjustment Disorder Questionnaire. Results: Consistent with the taxonomic structure of the ICD-11, our results showed that although the four conditions clustered independently at the disorder level, the specific symptoms of PTSD, CPTSD, PGD, and AjD clustered together very strongly but more strongly than with symptoms of the other disorders. The majority (61%) of the variation in each symptom could be explained by its neighboring symptoms. The strongest transdiagnostically connecting symptom was “startle response.” Discussion/Conclusion: Mental health professionals caring for people who have experienced a range of stressors and traumatic life events can be confident in diagnosing these conditions that have clear diagnostic boundaries. Interventions addressing stress-associated disorders should be based on diagnostic assessment to ensure close fit between symptoms and treatment
The Complex and Spatially Diverse Patterns of Hydrological Droughts Across Europe
No full textThis study presents a new data set of gauged streamflow (N = 3,224) for Europe spanning the period 1962–2017. The Monthly Streamflow of Europe Dataset (MSED) is freely available at http://msed.csic.es/. Based on this data set, changes in the characteristics of hydrological drought (i.e., frequency, duration, and severity) were assessed for different regions of Europe. Due to the density of the database, it is possible to delimit spatial patterns in hydrological droughts trend with the greatest detail available to date. Results reveal bidirectional changes in monthly streamflow, with negative changes predominating over central and southern Europe, while positive trends dominate over northern Europe. Temporally, two dominant patterns were noted. The first pattern corresponds to a consistent downward trend in all months, evident for southern Europe. A second pattern was noted over central and northern Europe and western France, with a predominant negative trend during warm months and a positive trend in cold months. For hydrological drought events, results suggest a positive trend toward more frequent and severe droughts in southern and central Europe and conversely a negative trend over northern Europe. This study emphasizes that hydrological droughts show complex spatial patterns across Europe over the past six decades, implying that hydrological drought behavior in Europe has a regional character. Accordingly it is challenging to adopt “efficient” strategies and policies to monitor and mitigate drought impacts at the continental leve