13,994 research outputs found
Team perfectionism and team performance: A prospective study
Get PDFPerfectionism is a personality characteristic that has been found to predict sports performance in athletes. To date, however, research has exclusively examined this relationship at an individual level (i.e., athletes’ perfectionism predicting their personal performance). The current study extends this research to team sports by examining whether, when manifested at team level, perfectionism predicts team performance. A sample of 231 competitive rowers from 36 boats completed measures of self-oriented, team-oriented, and team-prescribed perfectionism prior to competing against one another in a 4-day rowing competition. Strong within-boat similarities in the levels of team members’ team-oriented perfectionism supported the existence of collective team-oriented perfectionism at the boat level. Two-level latent growth curve modeling of day-by-day boat performance showed that team-oriented perfectionism positively predicted the position of the boat in mid-competition and the linear improvement in position. The findings suggest that imposing perfectionistic standards on team members may drive teams to greater levels of performance
Communities' views on prerequisites for collaboration between modern and traditional health sectors in relation to STI/HIV/AIDS care in Zambia
No full textTraditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TM/CAM) is globally increasing in popularity. The World Health Organization (WHO) has advocated for the integration of TM/CAM in national public health policies to enhance health care resources. Interest in collaboration between traditional and biomedical health sectors has been renewed in attempts to strengthen control of the AIDS epidemic. However, studies exploring communities' views on the prerequisites for such collaboration are inexistent.We conducted 21 focus group discussions with community members in two Zambian urban centres (Ndola and Kabwe) to explore their perspectives on preconditions for useful collaboration between traditional and modern health workers in the management of STIs and HIV/AIDS.This study shows that laypersons' perspectives can be rich and inform complex policy issues. Five categories indicating key areas of actions were identified, including protection of traditional medicine and of compensation of healers, education of both groups of providers and adequate community involvement. The respect for some degree of secrecy in traditional medicine was also called for.As part of efforts to strengthen available resources for better care of STI/HIV/AIDS, this study provides policymakers, researchers and practitioners with an outline of fundamentals in terms of needed crucial changes at health policy level, among providers and in the community for sustainable collaboration between modern and traditional health practitioners.</p
A Study of R&D Team Leadership Roles, Gaps in Role Execution and Team Performance Outcomes
No full textR&D is the mother of many technological innovations, provides an economic advantage and is imperative in the growth story of any nation. Particularly for a developing nation like India, R&D growth and sustenance helps to keep pace with the developed countries, who are the competitive forerunners and exporters of advanced technologies. Literature suggests several internal and external factors that lead to success and failures of R&D. This research focuses its scope on R&D team leadership, which literature reports as one of the most highly regarded internal/humanistic factors, that significantly contributes to R&D team performance. Much of the leadership research since 1980s is on leadership traits, styles, theories, etc. We narrow down the wide taxonomies of leadership to a few specific roles. We build a role-inventory and propose the ‘critical five’ roles which are indispensable for R&D team performance. We propose a ‘role-based model of R&D team leadership’ as the conceptual framework. This research stresses on dual focus of R&D team leaders towards their team, considering roles both internal and external to teams. We also acknowledge the idea of various contingency factors influencing the ‘role-performance’ relationship. A gap in execution of critical roles may undermine the performance and productivity of R&D teams. Thus, further to the exploration of ‘role-performance’ relationship and effect of moderators on this association, we conduct a gap analysis of critical R&D team leadership roles.
This research focusses on the public sector R&D labs, and data primarily collected from the CSIR labs of India, is subjected to validation. At the outset, we assess the factor structure and measurement scales for the five roles. This is an additional step to ensure the suitability of the theory-derived scales, for the purpose of this study. We further use PLS-SEM, to assess the measurement and structural aspects of the ‘role-based’ model and provide its empirical validation. After having ascertained the ‘role-performance’ association, we perform interaction moderation analysis to study the moderating effect of situational variables on the ‘role-performance’ relationship. Further, we analyse the presence and severity of a role-gaps. Findings suggest a significantly positive association between the five proposed roles and team performance outcomes. Moderating effects suggest the extent of emphasis that a team leader needs to put on each role, depending upon situation confronted. Findings also suggest presence of low-moderate gap in the execution of the five roles critical for team performance. Suggestions to address the gaps are also proposed. Finally, based on the research findings, we make recommendations to the R&D labs, which would be useful in the staffing, appraisal, training and development exercises of R&D team leadership
[[alternative]]A Study of the Factors Effecting Team Creativity: the Case Study of Advertising Teams
No full text[[abstract]]The purposes of this study were to explore the important issues of the factors that effect team creativity. The research method adopted was the case study of the qualitative research and the data was collected by in-depth interviews. In the process of the research, the author interviewed with five advertising teams, including eleven co-researchers.
According to the analysis of the research data, we can get the findings of the study as follows:
1. There are six factors effecting team creativity: (1) personal characteristics, (2) team characteristics, (3) creating process, (4) organizational culture, (5) working environment, (6) characters of team tasks.
2. There are three factors of personal characteristics effecting team creativity, including: (1) personality, (2) professional abilities, (3) life experiences.
3. There are four factors of team characteristics effecting team creativity, including: (1) professional abilities of the team leader (2) leading styles of the team leader (3) elements of team composition (4) the relationship among the team members.
4. There are three factors of creating process effecting team creativity, including:(1) team creating procedure (2) team creating technique (3) team creating principle.
5. There are three factors of organizational culture effecting team creativity, including: (1) corporation mission (2) working atmosphere (3) the way to motivate creativity (4) the supporting business processes.
6. There are two factors of working environment effecting team creativity, including: (1) the corporation systems (2) the corporation facilities and equipment.
7. There are two factors of characters of customers effecting team creativity, including: (1) customers’ views towards creativity (2) traits of goods.
Top Management Team Diversity: A systematic Review
Get PDFEmpirical research investigating the impact of top management team (TMT)
diversity on executives’ decision making has produced inconclusive results.
To synthesize and aggregate the results on the diversity-performance
link, a meta-regression analysis (MRA) is conducted. It integrates more
than 200 estimates from 53 empirical studies investigating TMT diversity
and its impact on the quality of executives’ decision making as reflected
in corporate performance. The analysis contributes to the literature by
theoretically discussing and empirically examining the effects of TMT diversity
on corporate performance. Our results do not show a link between TMT
diversity and performance but provide evidence for publication bias. Thus,
the findings raise doubts on the impact of TMT diversity on performance
A study to determine performance measures in high performance service organizations
Get PDFPlan BThe competitive situation facing independents in the textile rental services industry is both challenging and exciting with competitive cost advantages, limited financial resources and in some respects a business mindset that the industry giants control the independent’s future. There also exists a current shift in business today, that doing business with large national service based companies reduces a sense of trust, honesty and above all integrity. The intent of this research is to provide the association of network independents in the textile services industry a glimpse into the competitive advantages of becoming a High Performance Organization. Traits and attributes of high performance companies were researched and noted. A survey instrument to measure the association member’s level of understanding and practices that define a high performance organization was developed and administered, based on the research and review of literature focusing on high performance measures and systems. The review of literature consistently talked of the values of team-based work, creating learning environments and respect for the opinions and judgements of the employee. The research also focused on soft performance measures that indirectly drive financial indicators such as growth, return on investment and profitability. Independent textile services companies have a great advantage in their ability to provide extreme value in service offerings through highly skilled, motivated and dedicated employees. Developing their business model using the traits and attributes of a High Performance Service Organization will help these companies thrive in a mature and highly competitive industry
Long-term carbon transport and fuel retention in gaps of the main toroidal limiter in TEXTOR
Get PDFThe 1.1–1.5 mm wide gaps between tiles of the main toroidal belt limiter in TEXTOR were utilized to study the long-term impurity deposition and fuel retention in gaps. The tiles were exposed during a full tokamak campaign of 9365 s of plasma to various discharge conditions and wall conditioning, accumulating of up to 30 μm thick layers at the gap entrance. It was found that (i) gaps trap impurities twice as efficient as the top surface, (ii) the deposition in the toroidal gaps is twice as high as in the poloidal, (iii) carbon deposition decays with a fall-off length of about 0.7 mm towards the gap bottom, (iv) deposition on the bottom is significantly higher than on the adjacent side walls of gaps, and (v) the amount of deuterium scales with the amount of carbon with D/C varying from 3% to 30% depending on the surface temperature
The Team to Address Bariatric Care in Canadian Children (Team ABC3): Team Grant Research Proposal
No full textAbstract Background Severe obesity (SO) in Canadian children remains poorly understood. However, based on international data, the prevalence of SO appears to be increasing and is associated with a number of psychosocial, bio-mechanical, and cardiometabolic health risks. The purpose of our national Team to Address Bariatric Care in Canadian Children (Team ABC3) is to develop and lead a series of inter-related studies to enhance the understanding and management of SO in Canadian children and adolescents (0–18 years). Methods/design From 2015 to 2019, Team ABC3 will conduct a series of projects at the regional, provincial, and national levels using multiple methods and study designs to respond to key knowledge gaps by (i) generating evidence on the prevalence of SO and its impact on health services utilization in children using existing Canadian data sources from primary care settings, (ii) exploring contemporary definitions of SO that link with health outcomes, (iii) comparing and contrasting health risks across the continuum of SO, (iv) understanding potential barriers to and facilitators of treatment success in children with SO, and (v) examining innovative lifestyle and behavioral interventions designed to successfully manage SO in children and their families. Furthermore, to examine the impact of innovative interventions on the management SO, we will (vi) evaluate whether adding a health coach, who provides support via text, email, and/or phone, improves children’s ability to adhere to a web-based weight management program and (vii) test the feasibility and impact of a community-based weight management program for pre-school children with SO and their parents that combines group-based parenting sessions with in-home visits. Discussion Our research aligns with national priorities in obesity research, brings together leading scientists, clinicians, and stakeholders from across Canada, and will inform health services delivery throughout the country to provide the best care possible for children with SO and their families
The Dantu blood group prevents parasite growth in vivo: Evidence from a controlled human malaria infection study
Get PDFBackground: The long co-evolution of Homo sapiens and Plasmodium falciparum has resulted in the selection of numerous human genetic variants that confer an advantage against severe malaria and death. One such variant is the Dantu blood group antigen, which is associated with 74% protection against severe and complicated P. falciparum malaria infections in homozygous individuals, similar to that provided by the sickle haemoglobin allele (HbS). Recent in vitro studies suggest that Dantu exerts this protection by increasing the surface tension of red blood cells, thereby impeding the ability of P. falciparum merozoites to invade them and reducing parasite multiplication. However, no studies have yet explored this hypothesis in vivo.
Methods: We investigated the effect of Dantu on early phase P. falciparum (Pf) infections in a controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) study. 141 sickle-negative Kenyan adults were inoculated with 3.2 × 103 aseptic, purified, cryopreserved Pf sporozoites (PfSPZ Challenge) then monitored for blood-stage parasitaemia for 21 days by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)analysis of the 18S ribosomal RNA P. falciparum gene. The primary endpoint was blood-stage P. falciparum parasitaemia of ≥500/μl while the secondary endpoint was the receipt of antimalarial treatment in the presence of parasitaemia of any density. On study completion, all participants were genotyped both for Dantu and for four other polymorphisms that are associated with protection against severe falciparum malaria: α+-thalassaemia, blood group O, G6PD deficiency, and the rs4951074 allele in the red cell calcium transporter ATP2B4.
Results: The primary endpoint was reached in 25/111 (22.5%) non-Dantu subjects in comparison to 0/27 (0%) Dantu heterozygotes and 0/3 (0.0%) Dantu homozygotes (p=0.01). Similarly, 49/111 (44.1%) non-Dantu subjects reached the secondary endpoint in comparison to only 7/27 (25.9%) and 0/3 (0.0%) Dantu heterozygotes and homozygotes, respectively (p=0.021). No significant impacts on either outcome were seen for any of the other genetic variants under study.
Conclusions: This study reveals, for the first time, that the Dantu blood group is associated with high-level protection against early, non-clinical, P. falciparum malaria infections in vivo. Learning more about the mechanisms involved could potentially lead to new approaches to the prevention or treatment of the disease. Our study illustrates the power of CHMI with PfSPZ Challenge for directly testing the protective impact of genotypes previously identified using other methods.
Funding: The Kenya CHMI study was supported by an award from Wellcome (grant number 107499). SK was supported by a Training Fellowship (216444/Z/19/Z), TNW by a Senior Research Fellowship (202800/Z/16/Z), JCR by an Investigator Award (220266/Z/20/Z), and core support to the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya (203077), all from Wellcome. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication. For the purpose of Open Access, the authors have applied a CC BY public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.
Clinical trial number: NCT0273976
Organically Integrated Project Delivery of a Mission-Driven Team: An exploratory study on managing the MOR Team TU Delft during the Solar Decathlon Europe 2019
No full textThis master thesis investigated the coordination aspects of the MOR Team TU Delft, a volunteer-students based team, that produced an AEC project for the Solar Decathlon Europe 2019 (SDE19) competition. With a closer look at the aspects of organisation, motivation, and mission, this researched provides an objective account of the characteristics and functions of coordination that aided this team in producing an award-winning project. It is thanks to the study of the available documents, the personal notes of the author, and the interviews with some key members of the team that this research highlighted how a mission-driven team developed an experimental attitude toward an Organically Integrated Project Delivery. The organisational and coordination aspects of Solar Decathlon teams it is not yet a widespread area of research; therefore, this master thesis conducted an exploratory case study that followed an inductive approach. Among the results mentioned above, this work highlighted how the study of volunteer-students based teams, competing in the various Solar Decathlons, can become an exciting area of study for management practices within AEC projects. The peculiarities of these projects have the potential to provide tangible and comparable results in the study of design and construction management. It is thanks to these considerations that this research asks for the development of further studies, with the effects of both further validating the results here presented and to further expand the body of knowledge on this typology of projects.Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Management in the Built Environmen
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