The Role of Mentorship in Shaping Public Library Leaders

published or submitted for publicatio

Semantic browsing of digital collections

Visiting museums is an increasingly popular pastime. Studies have shown that visitors can draw on their museum experience, long after their visit, to learn new things in practical situations. Rather than viewing a visit as a single learning event, we are interested in ways of extending the experience to allow visitors to access online resources tailored to their interests. Museums typically have extensive archives that can be made available online, the challenge is to match these resources to the visitor’s interests and present them in a manner that facilitates exploration and engages the visitor. We propose the use of knowledge level resource descriptions to identify relevant resources and create structured presentations. A system that embodies this approach, which is in use in a UK museum, is presented and the applicability of the approach to the broader semantic web is discussed

Being Different Yet Feeling Similar: The Influence Of Demographic Composition And Organizational Culture On Work Processes And Outcomes

Drawing from self-categorization theory, we tested hypotheses on the effects of an organization's demographic composition and cultural emphasis on work processes and outcomes. Using an organizational simulation, we found that the extent to which an organization emphasized individualistic or collectivistic values interacted with demographic composition to influence social interaction, conflict, productivity, and perceptions of creativity among 258 MBA students. Our findings suggest that the purported benefits of demographic diversity are more likely to emerge in organizations that, through their culture, make organizational membership salient and encourage people to categorize one another as having the organization's interests in common, rather than those that emphasize individualism and distinctiveness among members.(.)Managemen

Exploring Bicycle and Public Transit Use by Low-Income Latino Immigrants: A Mixed-Methods Study in the San Francisco Bay Area

Latin American immigrants will continue to make up a large share of transit ridership, bicycling and walking in the United States for the foreseeable future, but there is relatively little research about them. This mixed-methods study compares the travel patterns of low-income immigrants living in the San Francisco Bay Area with that of other groups and investigates the barriers and constraints faced by low-income immigrants when taking transit and bicycling. Much of the previous work on immigrant travel has relied on national surveys and qualitative analysis, which underrepresent disadvantaged population groups and slower modes of travel, or are unable to speak to broader patterns in the population. We conducted interviews with 14 low-income immigrants and a paper-based intercept survey of 2,078 adults. Interviewees revealed five major barriers that made public transit use difficult for them, including safety, transit fare affordability, discrimination, system legibility, and reliability. Although crime was the most prominent issue in interviews, the survey results suggest transit cost is the most pressing concern for low-income immigrants. Low-income immigrants were less likely than those with higher-incomes to have access to a motor vehicle, and were less likely than higher-income immigrants or the U.S.-born of any income to have access to a bicycle or bus pass. Finally, although most barriers to public transit use were the same regardless of nativity or household income, low-income immigrants were much less willing to take public transit when they had the option to drive and less willing to bicycle for any purpose. The prevalence of concerns about transit affordability, crime, and reliability suggest transit agencies should consider income-based fare reductions, coordinated crime prevention with local law enforcement, and improved scheduling

Innovation in services: corporate culture and investment banking

The article discusses service innovation in the investment banking industry. Service industry innovations differ from innovations in industries that produce physical products because they rarely have intellectual property and patent protections. However, investment banking services are typically a series of interrelated businesses such as consulting, wealth management and accounting, and innovations require a business wide coordinated approach. The authors argue that a strong corporate culture can support rather than hinder innovation. The creation of such a culture requires strong leadership and an emphasis on innovation in hiring and promotions

Increasing public transport provision in metropolitan areas can be of great benefit for wages and employment density

Increasing the provision of public transport is not only desirable in a time of concern over climate change and high fuel prices, it may also have important effects on employment and wages. Using current and historic data from over 360 U.S. metropolitan areas, Daniel G. Chatman and Robert B. Noland argue that public transport increases employment in central city areas, whilst also leading to higher wages in these areas totaling from between $1.5 million and$1.8 billion yearly depending on the city

The consequences of functionalist assumptions in the epistemology of organizational culture : the perspective of Critical Management Studies

W artykule zaprezentowano refleksję nad konsekwencjami założeń filozoficznych charakterystycznych dla paradygmatu funkcjonalizmu w epistemologii kultury organizacyjnej. Refleksja prowadzona jest z perspektywy nurtu krytycznego w naukach o zarządzaniu, który stoi w opozycji względem funkcjonalizmu, proponując rozstrzygnięcia teoretyczne i praktyczne o charakterze emancypacyjnym. Prezentowany artykuł ma spełniać cel emancypacyjny związany z denaturalizacją funkcjonalizmu i zaproponowaniem ramy teoretycznej dla krytycznego wglądu w konsekwencje, jakie wynikają z przyjęcia jego założeń w teorii i praktyce zarządzania i organizowania.The author presents the reflection about the consequences of assumptions characteristic for the functionalist paradigm in the epistemology of organizational culture in the management sciences. The study was conducted from the perspective of Critical Management Studies, which stands in opposition to the functionalist paradigm, offering theoretical and practical settlement of an emancipation

Politically correct norms encourage creativity among mixed-sex work groups

They reduce uncertainty, write Jack A. Goncalo, Jennifer Chatman, Michelle M. Duguid and Jessica A. Kenned