Supporting the Role of Associate Dean in Universities: an Alternative Approach to Management Development

Located between senior management and academic staff, the role of the Associate Dean in universities appears to be growing in number, complexity and importance in recent years. A role arguably fraught with complexity, it remains largely undefined and under‐researched. While little is known about the role in general, less still is known about their leadership development experiences. This paper reports on a Leadership Foundation funded UK study to explore what training and role preparation Associate Deans have had. Data was collected from 15 interviews with Associate Deans from five different institutions and a follow‐up online survey of Associate Deans (n = 172) throughout England and Wales. The study found that 60 per cent of respondents had received little or no formal management training and that 24 per cent of those who had received training reported it to be only moderately useful or of little or no use. In contrast, however, the respondents identified the establishment of informal learning and support networks with other Associate Deans as being a vital source of support. The paper argues that an alternative model of management development, based on relational and social learning theories, might be a more appropriate way to help support this group of academic middle leaders.     

Human Affection Exchange: XV. Metabolic and Cardiovascular Correlates of Trait Expressed Affection

Recent research on the communication of affection has begun to illuminate its implications for mental and physical health. Specifically, when compared to non-affectionate people, self-report studies have indicated that highly affectionate people are less susceptible to depression and stress, and endocrine studies have shown that highly affectionate people have more differentiated 24-hour cortisol rhythms (a pattern indicative of adaptive physiological stress management). The present studies extend this knowledge by focusing on the associations that trait affection has with cardiologic (resting heart rate), vascular (resting blood pressure), and metabolic (glycosylated hemoglobin) properties of physical health. Participants in both studies provided self-assessments of their trait levels of expressed affection and received affection (the latter for use as a covariate). Resting heart rate and blood pressure were assessed in the first study, and glycosylated hemoglobin was assessed in the second study. Results indicate that when the influence of received affection is controlled for, trait expressed affection was inversely related to resting blood pressure and glycosylated hemoglobin (but not heart rate), suggesting that the expression of affection is associated with a healthy vascular and metabolic profile.     

Human affection exchange: VII. Affectionate communication in the sibling/spouse/sibling‐in‐law triad

This study sought to investigate affectionate communication among members of sibHng/spouse/sibling‐in‐law triads as well as the influence of such communication on relational quality. Under the principles of Affectionate Exchange Theory, affectionate communication among these family members may ultimately serve the evolutionary mandates of viability and procreation. Three hundred twenty‐seven participants, comprising 109 sibling/spouse/sibling‐in‐law triads, completed surveys about their communication of affection, relational satisfaction, and closeness. Consistent with predictions, spouses reported communicating more affection to each other than did siblings, who reported communicating more affection than siblings‐in‐law. The communication of affection by spouses and siblings showed a significant correlation, as did the communication of affection by siblings and siblings‐in‐law, and these correlations were significant even when controlling for the affection communicated in the third relationship in the triad (except for nonverbal support communicated in the sibling and marital relationships). Finally, for all three relational types, affectionate communication was positively correlated with both relational satisfaction and closeness.     

Effects of brain laterality on accuracy of decoding facial displays of emotion

The human face is capable of producing numerous unique expressions and comprises the primary nonverbal channel for the communication of emotion. In this study, we investigated the effects of sex and neurological hemispheric dominance on the ability to decode facial expressions of emotion accurately. On the basis of a battery of measures assessing handedness, familial sinistrality, and immune disorders, we classified participants as having standard, anomalous, or mixed hemispheric dominance. Consistent with previous studies, we found that hemispheric dominance and sex interacted to influence participants' abilities to decode facial displays of affect from photographs. Specifically, mixed dominant females had the highest accuracy in the decoding of facial emotion, whereas mixed dominant males had the lowest accuracy. We discuss these findings within the context of communibiology and comment on their implications for the study of neurology and social behavior.     

From pentagon to triangle: A cross‐cultural investigation of an implicit theory of giftedness

The present study examined an implicit theory of giftedness among pre‐service Chinese teachers. Participants were 189 second year students (preservice teachers, 74 male and 115 female, average age 20 years) from China Central Teachers’ University. Participants responded to an inventory based on Stemberg and Zhang's (1995) pentagonal implicit theory of giftedness and a simple questionnaire designed to cross‐validate two of the five criteria in the pentagonal model. Results indicated that in making judgments about giftedness, participants took into consideration three of the five criteria specified in the pentagonal model: excellence, productivity, and value. The excellence and productivity criteria were also confirmed by results from the simple questionnaire. Rarity and demonstrability, the two other criteria specified in the pentagonal model, were not taken into consideration by the participants in their evaluation of giftedness. Implications of these findings are discussed.