Identifying and addressing themes of job dissatisfaction for secondary principals

Secondary principals serve in important roles that are complex, high-stress, and include demanding job responsibilities. Key stakeholders such as superintendents, school board members, and legislators must understand the challenges facing secondary principals in order to address the current themes of job dissatisfaction. Using new survey data compiled from 176 secondary principals across a state in the Midwest United States, this study shows four themes of job dissatisfaction are plaguing secondary principals: high job demands with unreasonable expectations, managing difficult stakeholders, problematic work/life balance, and lack of support. This study concludes with practical suggestions to address each theme of job dissatisfaction.     

A Study of the Causes of User Dissatisfaction in Academic Libraries: A Case of University Students in a Developing Country

ABSTRACT

This article investigates students’ perceptions and expectations of service quality to understand the causes of dissatisfaction with the services delivered by the university libraries in Bangladesh. A total of 623 usable responses were collected from ten public and private university libraries in the country. The survey data were collected using a modified five dimensional SERVQUAL-based questionnaire, consisting of 26 service items. To determine the level of user satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the service items, the study used the disconfirmation theory with slight modification. It was found that users’ unrealistically high expectation for quality services is one of the key sources of their dissatisfaction. The other causes of dissatisfaction include lack of user-employee relationships, lack of attention to users’ needs, an external communication gap between library and users, lack of attention to enhance staffs’ performance, etc. Based on the service deficiencies identified, the study offers some measures that could be used as a way to improve service quality, and thereby user satisfaction.     

A vague-set-based fuzzy multi-objective decision making model for bidding purchase

A vague-set-based fuzzy multi-objective decision making model is developed for evaluating bidding plans in a bid- ding purchase process. A group of decision-makers (DMs) first independently assess bidding plans according to their experience and preferences, and these assessments may be expressed as linguistic terms, which are then converted to fuzzy numbers. The resulting decision matrices are then transformed to objective membership grade matrices. The lower bound of satisfaction and upper bound of dissatisfaction are used to determine each bidding plan’s supporting, opposing, and neutral objective sets, which together determine the vague value of a bidding plan. Finally, a score function is employed to rank all bidding plans. A new score function based on vague sets is introduced in the model and a novel method is presented for calculating the lower bound of sat- isfaction and upper bound of dissatisfaction. In a vague-set-based fuzzy multi-objective decision making model, different valua- tions for upper and lower bounds of satisfaction usually lead to distinct ranking results. Therefore, it is crucial to effectively contain DMs’ arbitrariness and subjectivity when these values are determined.     

Business intelligence in online customer textual reviews: Understanding consumer perceptions and influential factors

With the rapid development of information technology, customers not only shop online—they also post reviews on social media. This user-generated content (UGC) can be useful to understand customers’ shopping experiences and influence future customers’ purchase intentions. Therefore, business intelligence and analytics are increasingly being advocated as a way to analyze customers’ UGC in social media and support firms’ marketing activities. However, because of its open structure, UGC such as customer reviews can be difficult to analyze, and firms find it challenging to harness UGC. To fill this gap, this study aims to examine customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction toward attributes of hotel products and services based on online customer textual reviews. Using a text mining approach, latent semantic analysis (LSA), we identify the key attributes driving customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction toward hotel products and service attributes. Additionally, using a regression approach, we examine the effects of travel purposes, hotel types, star level, and editor recommendations on customers’ perceptions of attributes of hotel products and services. This study bridges customer online textual reviews with customers’ perceptions to help business managers better understand customers’ needs through UGC.     

服务失败情况下的消费者信任作用研究

现代企业以追求最大化的经济利润为目标。企业在获取利润的过程中认识到，获得并且保留忠诚顾客是至关重要的，但是，企业与消费者进行交易时经常会发生一些失败事件。当消费者面对交易过程中的失败事件时，他们的心理变化过程是怎样的？什么因素会对消费者的行为意向发生关键作用？针对上述问题．本研究选择银行与餐馆两个服务行业，采取准实验方法对理论框架进行实证检验。研究结果表明，消费者信任这一因素是消费者经历服务失败之后影响其转换意向的关键因素，传统研究中消费者满意和感知价值的作用被削弱了。这一研究结果比较清楚地解答了研究问题，从理论和实践两方面为服务失败领域的研究提供了有力证据。     

Bully/victim problems among Greek pupils with special educational needs: associations with loneliness and self‐efficacy for peer interactions

This study explores the prevalence of different types of bullying and victimisation among Greek pupils receiving special education support provision. Associations of these types with feelings of loneliness and perceived social efficacy for peer interactions are also examined. The sample consisted of 178 students of fifth and sixth primary school grades who participated in pull‐out special education delivery programmes. Participants were found to be actively involved in both bullying and victimisation, with higher rates in victimisation. Statistically significant gender and disability differences in bullying and loneliness were identified. Both bullying and victimisation were associated with loneliness/social dissatisfaction, and self‐efficacy for peer interactions. Moreover, our data provided evidence that bully/victims may be a distinct group in terms of their increased levels of loneliness. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for promoting children with special educational needs and disabilities social inclusion.     

Body dissatisfaction in women’s artistic gymnastics: A longitudinal study of psychosocial indicators

Body dissatisfaction is prevalent in women’s artistic gymnastics (WAG). Cross-sectional research points to social and individual risk factors, however it does not account for potential changes in body dissatisfaction during an athletic season. This study aimed to determine how gymnasts’ body dissatisfaction, risk factors for eating disorders, media internalisation, perfectionism and mood state change during pre-competition, competition and post-competition seasons and to identify how these psychosocial indicators impact on body dissatisfaction during the athletic year. The sample consisted of 20 Brazilian elite women’s artistic gymnasts aged 10–16 years. Data were obtained from a 9-month study using: Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ); Eating Attitude Test-26; Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-3 (SATAQ-3); Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS); Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS) and triceps and subscapular skinfolds. Body dissatisfaction was higher during the competition season and disordered eating, perfectionism and vigour values were higher in the pre-competition season. Disordered eating has been found as the strongest predictor of body dissatisfaction during all seasons, and mood state partly contributed to body dissatisfaction in the competitive season. Stakeholders should understand that body dissatisfaction and the prevalence of disordered eating may change over time.     

Fundamental Education

Abstract

This study explored over 100 Year 6 children's feelings towards, and behaviour within, literacy lessons across an academic year. This study revealed that the majority of dissatisfied children concealed their feelings from their teacher, defined within this article as ‘dissatisfaction behind a veil of compliance’. Through progressive sampling, where children were observed in a range of subjects, the effort placed in this concealment is explored, together with the role of the teacher and external forces in potentially encouraging it. The article concludes by discussing the possibility of applying the implications of the findings to practice, especially in terms of providing a more open environment, where teachers and pupils can express their views, openly and constructively.     

关于顾客不满意调研的思考

现代市场营销理论的发展与优秀企业的营销管理实践表明,顾客不满是一种有效的机制,悉心听取并妥善处理顾客不满是提升服务品质和改善顾客关系的有效途径.然而,顾客满意度测评和顾客抱怨管理在获取顾客不满意信息方面都存在很大局限性.结合服务营销的特殊性探讨了顾客不满意调研的几个相关问题.     

Application of a Relational Model to Understanding Body Image in College Women and Men

Relational cultural theory was examined in relation to body image in two samples of college women (n = 102) and men (n = 78) from a Midwestern university. Participants completed measures of mutuality and body image satisfaction. Results revealed that low mutuality with mothers and fathers predicted body dissatisfaction in both men and women, and low mutuality with romantic partners predicted body dissatisfaction in women. For women, when the shared variance between mothers and fathers was removed, mutuality with fathers was associated with body satisfaction as well as several indexes of body image, including evaluation of overall appearance, level of fitness, and overall health. For men, mutuality with mothers, fathers, and friends was associated with several body image scales. Additional findings and implications for working with college students are discussed.