Black Holes as Effective Geometries

Gravitational entropy arises in string theory via coarse graining over an underlying space of microstates. In this review we would like to address the question of how the classical black hole geometry itself arises as an effective or approximate description of a pure state, in a closed string theory, which semiclassical observers are unable to distinguish from the "naive" geometry. In cases with enough supersymmetry it has been possible to explicitly construct these microstates in spacetime, and understand how coarse-graining of non-singular, horizon-free objects can lead to an effective description as an extremal black hole. We discuss how these results arise for examples in Type II string theory on AdS_5 x S^5 and on AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4 that preserve 16 and 8 supercharges respectively. For such a picture of black holes as effective geometries to extend to cases with finite horizon area the scale of quantum effects in gravity would have to extend well beyond the vicinity of the singularities in the effective theory. By studying examples in M-theory on AdS_3 x S^2 x CY that preserve 4 supersymmetries we show how this can happen.Comment: Review based on lectures of JdB at CERN RTN Winter School and of VB at PIMS Summer School. 68 pages. Added reference

Making things happen : a model of proactive motivation

Being proactive is about making things happen, anticipating and preventing problems, and seizing opportunities. It involves self-initiated efforts to bring about change in the work environment and/or oneself to achieve a different future. The authors develop existing perspectives on this topic by identifying proactivity as a goal-driven process involving both the setting of a proactive goal (proactive goal generation) and striving to achieve that proactive goal (proactive goal striving). The authors identify a range of proactive goals that individuals can pursue in organizations. These vary on two dimensions: the future they aim to bring about (achieving a better personal fit within one’s work environment, improving the organization’s internal functioning, or enhancing the organization’s strategic fit with its environment) and whether the self or situation is being changed. The authors then identify “can do,” “reason to,” and “energized to” motivational states that prompt proactive goal generation and sustain goal striving. Can do motivation arises from perceptions of self-efficacy, control, and (low) cost. Reason to motivation relates to why someone is proactive, including reasons flowing from intrinsic, integrated, and identified motivation. Energized to motivation refers to activated positive affective states that prompt proactive goal processes. The authors suggest more distal antecedents, including individual differences (e.g., personality, values, knowledge and ability) as well as contextual variations in leadership, work design, and interpersonal climate, that influence the proactive motivational states and thereby boost or inhibit proactive goal processes. Finally, the authors summarize priorities for future researc

Measuring affective well-being at work using short-form scales : implications for affective structures and participant instructions

Measuring affective well-being in organizational studies has become increasingly widespread, given its association with key work-performance and other markers of organizational functioning. As such, researchers and policy-makers need to be confident that well-being measures are valid, reliable and robust. To reduce the burden on participants in applied settings, short-form measures of affective well-being are proving popular. However, these scales are seldom validated as standalone, comprehensive measures in their own right. In this article, we used a short-form measure of affective well-being with 10 items: the Daniels five-factor measure of affective well-being (D-FAW). In Study 1, across six applied sample groups (N = 2624), we found that the factor structure of the short-form D-FAW is robust when issued as a standalone measure, and that it should be scored differently depending on the participant instruction used. When participant instructions focus on now or today, then affect is best represented by five discrete emotion factors. When participant instructions focus on the past week, then affect is best represented by two or three mood-based factors. In Study 2 (N = 39), we found good construct convergent validity of short-form D-FAW with another widely used scale (PANAS). Implications for the measurement and structure of affect are discussed

How Communication and Control Processes Improve Quality

In order to achieve excellence, an organization should use two key instruments—quality and an effi cient and effective communication process amongst all employees—so it can attain quality management. This chapter aims to examine whether organizational communication and quality are interrelated, in order to answer the following question: Is it necessary to improve communication within an organization so that quality management can be effi ciently and effectively pursued? For this purpose, data were collected through the administration of a questionnaire to the staff of a Portuguese public organization. The fi ndings showed that, in this organization, communication among employees of various sectors is satisfactory and that there is mutual help between them in order to improve the organizational performance

How Servant Leadership Influences Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Roles of LMX, Empowerment and Proactive Personality

While the link between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has been established, the individual-level mechanisms underlying this relationship and its boundary conditions remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigate the salience of the mediating mechanisms of leader-member exchange (LMX) and psychological empowerment in explaining the process by which servant leaders elicit discretionary OCB among followers. We also examine the role of followers’ proactive personality in moderating the indirect effects of servant leadership on OCB through LMX and psychological empowerment. Analysis of survey data collected from 446 supervisor-subordinate dyads in a large Chinese multinational firm suggests that while servant leadership is positively related to subordinate OCB through LMX, psychological empowerment does not explain any additional variance in OCB above that accounted for by LMX. Moderated mediation tests confirm the moderating effect of proactive personality through LMX. By providing a nuanced understanding of how and when servant leadership leads followers to go above and beyond their job role, our study assists organizations in deciding how to develop and utilize servant leaders in their organizations

When Can Employees Have a Family Life? The Effects of Daily Workload and Affect on Work-Family Conflict and Social Behaviors at Home

This article presents a longitudinal examination of antecedents and outcomes of work-to-family conflict. A total of 106 employees participating in an experience-sampling study were asked to respond to daily surveys both at work and at home, and their spouses were interviewed daily via telephone for a period of 2 weeks. Intraindividual analyses revealed that employees ’ perceptions of workload predicted work-to-family conflict over time, even when controlling for the number of hours spent at work. Workload also influenced affect at work, which in turn influenced affect at home. Finally, perhaps the most interesting finding in this study was that employees ’ behaviors in the family domain (reported by spouses) were predicted by the employees ’ perceptions of work-to-family conflict and their positive affect at home

A bound on the entropy of supergravity?

We determine, in two independent ways, the number of BPS quantum states arising from supergravity degrees of freedom in a system with fixed total D4D0 charge. First, we count states generated by quantizing the spacetime degrees of freedom of 'entropyless' multicentered solutions consisting of anti-D0-branes bound to a D6-anti-D6 pair. Second, we determine the number of free supergravity excitations of the corresponding AdS_3 geometry with the same total charge. We find that, although these two approaches yield a priori different sets of states, the leading degeneracies in a large charge expansion are equal to each other and that, furthermore, the number of such states is parametrically smaller than that arising from the D4D0 black hole's entropy. This strongly suggests that supergravity alone is not sufficient to capture all degrees of freedom of large supersymmetric black holes. Comparing the free supergravity calculation to that of the D6-anti-D6-D0 system we find that the bound on the free spectrum imposed by the stringy exclusion principle (a unitarity bound in the dual CFT) seems to be captured in the dynamics of the fully interacting but classcial supergravity equations of motion.Comment: 33 pages, 5 figure

A Universal Behavior of Half BPS Probes in the Superstar Ensemble

In this paper we probe the typical states of the superstar ensemble of (hep-th/0508023) using half-BPS states of type-IIB string theory on AdS$_5 \times$ S$^5$. We find a very simple universal result that has the structure \log\, \lag\lag \y \; \y \rag\rag_\calo \approx \a\, h \, \log N, where $h$ is the conformal weight of the probe \y and \a is a constant that depends mainly of the shape of the probe \y. A complete understanding of some properties of this leading term from the dual effective superstar geometry point of view is still lacking.Comment: 34 pages + appendice

The use of virtual reality as a potential restorative environment in school during recess

Peer reviewe