RAD Managers: Strategic Coaching for Managers and Leaders

Objective: Managerial coaching is a nascent area of research; as such there are few models supported by independent inquiry endorsing their effectiveness in impacting employee outcomes. The purpose of the current investigation was to present a concise, practical model of managerial coaching (RAD: relationships, accountability, development) that can be used for teaching and evaluating coaching behaviors. The model was hypothesized to predict ratings of coaching effectiveness (CE), perceptions of supervisor support (PSS), occupational self-efficacy (OSE), and work engagement (WE). Further, each factor of the model was tested in a series of secondary hypotheses to determine which factors were the most influential in predicting each outcome. Method: Participants consisted of 1477 employees who reported to 439 managers enrolled in managerial coaching workshops belonging to a variety of organizations from over 30 countries. Each employee rated managers on their coaching behaviors, CE, and PSS. They also provided self-ratings about their OSE and WE. This cross-sectional data was used in a series of multi-model regressions using a compositional approach to centering, which allows analysis of individual (L1) and group effects (L2) in addition to cross-level interactions. Results: The RAD model predicted CE (βL1 = 0.66; βL2 = 0.83), PSS (βL1 = 0.42; βL2 = 0.43; βinteraction = -0.17), OSE (βL1 = 0.18; βL2 = 0.15), and WE (βL1 = 0.45; βL2 = 0.39) with all significance levels at p \u3c .001. The L1 effects support the use of coaching with each direct report; the L2 effects suggest that outcomes show additional improvements when managers coach all their employees rather than just some. The cross-level interaction for PSS indicates that when managers coach all their employees, it can act as a buffer effect for employee perceptions even when managers do not do supportive behaviors for an individual employee. Secondary hypotheses revealed that each factor had differing individual- and group-level effects, suggesting that each factor could be used strategically to intentionally improve the different outcomes. Conclusions: This study adds to the mounting evidence for the potential effectiveness of managerial coaching across a variety of outcomes. The examination of each factor as a separate predictor provided insights about how managers might leverage strategic coaching, indicating that further research on multi-factored models may consider a similar nested design and statistical approach. Ultimately, the RAD model shows great promise for organizations interested in developing leaders and improving outcomes for employees

The seasonal variations of atmospheric 134,137Cs activity and possible host particles for their resuspension in the contaminated areas of Tsushima and Yamakiya, Fukushima, Japan

A large quantity of radionuclides was released by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 2011, and those deposited on ground and vegetation could return to the atmosphere through resuspension processes. Although the resuspension has been proposed to occur with wind blow, biomass burning, ecosystem activities, etc., the dominant process in contaminated areas of Fukushima is not fully understood. We have examined the resuspension process of radiocesium (134,137Cs) based on long-term measurements of the atmospheric concentration of radiocesium activity (the radiocesium concentration) at four sites in the contaminated areas of Fukushima as well as the aerosol characteristic observations by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the measurement of the biomass burning tracer, levoglucosan.The radiocesium concentrations at all sites showed a similar seasonal variation: low from winter to early spring and high from late spring to early autumn. In late spring, they showed positive peaks that coincided with the wind speed peaks. However, in summer and autumn, they were correlated positively with atmospheric temperature but negatively with wind speed. These results differed from previous studies based on data at urban sites. The difference of radiocesium concentrations at two sites, which are located within a 1 km range but have different degrees of surface contamination, was large from winter to late spring and small in summer and autumn, indicating that resuspension occurs locally and/or that atmospheric radiocesium was not well mixed in winter/spring, and it was opposite in summer/autumn. These results suggest that the resuspension processes and the host particles of the radiocesium resuspension changed seasonally. The SEM analyses showed that the dominant coarse particles in summer and autumn were organic ones, such as pollen, spores, and microorganisms. Biological activities in forest ecosystems can contribute considerably to the radiocesium resuspension in these seasons. During winter and spring, soil, mineral, and vegetation debris were predominant coarse particles in the atmosphere, and the radiocesium resuspension in these seasons can be attributed to the wind blow of these particles. Any proofs that biomass burning had a significant impact on atmospheric radiocesium were not found in the present study

Temperature Evolution of Sodium Nitrite Structure in a Restricted Geometry

The NaNO$_{2}$ nanocomposite ferroelectric material in porous glass was studied by neutron diffraction. For the first time the details of the crystal structure including positions and anisotropic thermal parameters were determined for the solid material, embedded in a porous matrix, in ferro- and paraelectric phases. It is demonstrated that in the ferroelectric phase the structure is consistent with bulk data but above transition temperature the giant growth of amplitudes of thermal vibrations is observed, resulting in the formation of a "premelted state". Such a conclusion is in a good agreement with the results of dielectric measurements published earlier.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Molecular dynamics simulation of the order-disorder phase transition in solid NaNO2_2

We present molecular dynamics simulations of solid NaNO$_2$ using pair potentials with the rigid-ion model. The crystal potential surface is calculated by using an \emph{a priori} method which integrates the \emph{ab initio} calculations with the Gordon-Kim electron gas theory. This approach is carefully examined by using different population analysis methods and comparing the intermolecular interactions resulting from this approach with those from the \emph{ab initio} Hartree-Fock calculations. Our numerics shows that the ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition in solid NaNO$_2$ is triggered by rotation of the nitrite ions around the crystallographical c axis, in agreement with recent X-ray experiments [Gohda \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. B \textbf{63}, 14101 (2000)]. The crystal-field effects on the nitrite ion are also addressed. Remarkable internal charge-transfer effect is found.Comment: RevTeX 4.0, 11 figure