Antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior among blue- and white-collar workers in Turkey

This study investigated the relationship between employees’ beliefs about their social world (social axioms: reward for application, social cynicism, religiosity, social flexibility, and fate control), their relational identification with their supervisor, and their organizational citizenship behavior (OCB; i.e., interpersonal facilitation, job dedication and organizational support) within collectivistic Turkish society. We expected OCB to depend upon one's relational identification with the supervisor and also to depend on several social axioms, given their salience in collectivistic cultures. We also investigated these relationships across white- and blue-collar workers, as this has not been studied much. To this end, we conducted a survey among 376 Turkish blue-collar and 147 white-collar factory employees. A series of hierarchical regression analyses confirmed our expectations that for both blue- and white-collar workers the reward for application belief was positively related to job dedication and organizational support. Religiosity was positively related to job dedication and organizational support only among blue-collar employees. As hypothesized, relational identification with the supervisor related positively to all dimensions of OCB in blue-collar employees and to interpersonal facilitation and organizational support in white-collar employees. However, the relationship between relational identification with the supervisor and organizational support appeared stronger for blue-collar than for white-collar employees. Apparently, relational identification with the supervisor is an important antecedent of OCB, particularly for blue-collar employees. Theoretical and practical implications of the study findings are discussed.     

A care-infused market tale: on (not) maintaining relationships of trust in energy retrofit products

ABSTRACT

Issues of maintenance offer exceptional opportunities for advancing our understanding of how market-driven innovation can meet societal objectives for energy transitions. In this article, I present a case study of ongoing attempts by two spin-outs and one start-up to stabilise innovative socio-technical agencements – ‘customer journeys’ – designed to catalyse economic exchange of certain singular goods – energy retrofit products – in the Netherlands. This market-driven innovation relies on sustaining carefully crafted relationships of trust among supply-chain actants and homeowners. I mobilise the analytical lens of ‘care’ to show how the multiplicity of connections that form through socio-technical agencements – and function as a market – are tentative, contested, and unpredictable. Trust relationships are in a constant process of becoming through contestation and convergence among supply-chain actants. In doing so, I expose the precarious and arduous work involved in maintaining a market for singular public goods. This implies a knowledge politics as well: in a call to sensitise us, market scholars, to processes of maintenance integral to market-driven innovation for energy transitions I propose to advance Callon’s call to civilise markets by sharing troubled, though encouraging, care-infused market tales in an effort to counteract the storification of energy transitions as innovation fairy tales.     

Reconceptualising fair access to highly academically selective universities

Higher Education - The higher education regulator for England has set challenging new widening access targets requiring universities to rethink how merit is judged in admissions. Universities are...     

Academic and social integration and study progress in problem based learning

The present study explores the effects of problem-based learning (PBL) on social and academic integration and study progress. Three hundred and five first-year students from three different psychology curricula completed a questionnaire on social and academic integration. Effects of a full-fledged PBL environment were compared to (1) effects of a conventional lecture-based learning environment, and (2) effects of a learning environment that combined lectures and other methods aimed at activating students. Lisrel analyses show direct positive effects of the learning environment on study progress: students in PBL obtained more credits compared to students in more conventional curricula. Moreover, the levels of social and academic integration were also higher among students in the PBL curriculum. The links between integration and study progress were less straightforward. Formal social integration positively affected study progress, but informal academic integration was negatively related to study progress.     

Inspection of Home Education in European Countries

In many European countries and in North America, home education is a viable alternative for education at school. Parents who want to home school their child are legally allowed to do so, although some countries impose rather strict conditions. This article concentrates on the way authorities supervise or inspect the quality of home education. A comparison is made of inspection regulations in 14 European countries. Substantial differences were found, regarding among other things the function of inspection, inspection methods and the outcomes. Most countries do not have data on the effectiveness of inspection. It is recommended that governments screen their procedures for the inspection of home education using criteria such as transparency, consistency, and efficiency.     

Physics teaching and learning with multimedia applications: a review of teacher-oriented literature in 34 local language journals from 2006 to 2015

Teacher-oriented journals provide many ideas for practical use of multimedia in physics teaching and learning. However, they are often written in their respective native languages. Moreover, having 24 official languages in the European Union is a huge barrier to the exchange of teaching and learning material. Knowledge about what is discussed in neighbouring countries is rare. Hence, in this article scientific members of the MPTL group (Multimedia in Physics Teaching and Learning) present a review on multimedia applications and the corresponding concepts that are discussed in non-English language journals. 491 articles in 34 teacher-oriented journals from 10 countries are reviewed, using a list of 81 categories, to characterise addressed topics, teaching strategies, technology and multimedia features. Log-linear multiway frequency and cluster analysis were used to get more insights about preferred combinations of content and teaching strategies, differences between countries, changes between periods and patterns of articles. There is a divergence in the main topics focused on between countries and some changes within the periods 2006–2010 and 2011–2015. Such a large diversity of ideas and concepts covered throughout the EU highlights the potential benefits of more international exchange. However, findings also point to additional requirements, concerning theoretical background, ideas for implementations of modern features like augmented reality, and the use of internet-based sources and modern devices. Thus this article is also calling for more exchange and discussions concerning topics to be addressed in teacher-oriented journals.     

Measures of international collaboration in scientific literature: Part I

Research evaluating models of scientific productivity require coherent metrics that quantify various key relations among papers as revealed by patterns of citation. This paper focuses on the various conceptual problems inherent in measuring the degree to which papers tend to cite other papers written by authors of the same nationality. We suggest that measures can be given a degree of assurance of coherence by being based on mathematical models describing the citation process. A number of such models are developed.     

Science and Values in Undergraduate Education

Science & Education - While a conception of science as value free has been dominant since Max Weber defended it in the nineteenth century, recent years have witnessed an emerging consensus that...     

Motivation to commit oneself as a determinant of achievement in problem-based learning

Problem-based learning is a constructivist approach toprofessional education stressing the use of real lifeproblems in education. Several previous attempts tounderstand the intricacies of learning in theproblem-based context have led to a causal model,elements of which were tested in the present study.The focus of the investigation was on the students' motivation to committhemselves to studying in a problem-based healthsciences curriculum, expressed in term of levels ofattendance at tutorial meetings. Data were collectedregarding functioning of the tutorial group, tutorfunctioning, level of prior knowledge, quality of theinstructional problems, time spent on individualstudy, academic achievement and increased interest.These data were analyzed using a structural equationsmodeling approach. As hypothesized, commitment appears to bea potent determinant of achievement. In fact, itrepresents one of the strongest determinants oflearning in the model tested.