Driving performance improvements by integrating competencies with human resource practices

This study explores the issues in the development and application of a competency model and provides implications for more precise integration of competencies into human resource (HR) functions driving performance improvement. This research is based on a case study from a Korean consumer corporation. This study employed document reviews, observation, and interviews. Although competency modeling is time‐consuming work, this study's results found that it can be a helpful intervention tool for improving HR performance in several ways. Furthermore, the results identified critical issues for success in each aspect of competency modeling. This article offers practical and useful insights into the relationship between competency modeling and HR performance improvement.     

冬奥会五大难忘时刻

悲剧赛道 这一悲伤时刻将永远笼罩着温哥华冬奥会.2月12日,就在开幕式开始前的几个小时,诺达尔·库玛丽塔什维利,一位来自格鲁吉亚的单人雪橇运动员,在训练中通过惠斯勒赛道的最后一个弯道时,撞上赛道内墙,突然弹出,撞上了赛迫外的钢柱,后不治身亡,年仅21岁.     

An Analysis of the Actual Processes of Physicists’ Research and the Implications for Teaching Scientific Inquiry in School

Investigation of scientists’ actual processes of conducting research can provide us with more realistic aspects of scientific inquiry. This study was performed to identify three aspects of scientists’ actual research: their motivations for scientific inquiry, the scientific inquiry skills they used, and the main types of results obtained from their research. To do this, we interviewed six prominent physicists about why and how they researched and what they obtained from their research results. We also analyzed their published papers. In the previous part of this study, types and features of the physicists’ research motivations were identified (Park and Jang, Journal of the Korean Physical Society, 47(3), 401–408, 2005). In this article, as the second part of the study, it was found: (1) Various inquiry skills including theoretical as well as experimental research skills and the social skills of scientific inquiry were used in physicists’ research. (2) New inventions, articulation of, and falsification of the previous findings were regarded as important research results. (3) Physicists’ research processes were often non-linear and cyclical. For each of these findings, implications for teaching scientific inquiry in schools were developed. Finally, we proposed a model of scientific inquiry process consisting of research motives, scientific inquiry skills, and results of inquiry.

Taking Race into Account: Charting Student Attitudes Towards Affirmative Action

This paper examines student attitudes towards affirmative action over 4 years of college. Asian American and Latino/a students were more likely than White students to disagree strongly or somewhat with abolishing affirmative action after 4 years of college. A student’s attitude towards the policy as a first-year student, peer group influence, and political orientation were significant predictors of student attitudes of affirmative action during the fourth year of college. The findings suggest that while college plays some role in shaping affirmative action attitudes, its influence is somewhat limited in comparison to the background traits and attitudes that students bring to college.