EXPRESS: Onboarding Salespeople: Socialization Approaches

The effective training of salespeople is crucial to a firm’s success; there is arguably no more critical type of training than a salesperson’s onboarding. In this study, the authors leverage a natural field experiment in which a firm’s newly hired salespeople can undergo onboarding through either a decentralized program or a centralized program to examine the relative impact of each program. Drawing on organizational socialization theory, the authors consider whether an onboarding program that incorporates both individualized and institutionalized socialization tactics (the decentralized program) can develop salespeople into higher performers by encouraging them to take a more innovative and adaptive approach to different facets of the sales role. The findings reveal that salespeople who underwent the decentralized program achieved approximately 23.5% higher sales performance than those who underwent the centralized program. The performance benefits of the decentralized program were amplified for salespeople whose managers had a narrower span of control. In addition, these performance benefits were appreciable for those salespeople transitioning from another job but negligible for those transitioning from school. A scenario-based experiment enriches the field experiment’s findings by showing evidence of the theorized mechanism underlying the sales performance benefits observed: the fostering of an innovative role orientation.

Deadlines and Memory Limitations

This paper presents the results of two natural field experiments at a dental clinic. Guided by a simple theoretical model, we exogenously vary deadlines and associated rewards for arranging checkup appointments. Our data show strong and systematic effects of deadlines on patients’ behavior. Imposing deadlines induces patients to act earlier and at a persistently higher frequency than without a deadline. We further document that individuals systematically respond to deadlines even if these are not tied to explicit rewards. Several of our findings suggest that individuals’ responses to deadlines are shaped by limitations in memory and attention. Our results illustrate that deadlines can be a powerful management tool to encourage timely task completion and to increase the cost effectiveness of performance-contingent rewards. This paper was accepted by Axel Ockenfels, behavioral economics and decision analysis.

The meta-gut: community coalescence of animal gut and environmental microbiomes

All animals carry specialized microbiomes, and their gut microbiota are continuously released into the environment through excretion of waste. Here we propose the meta-gut as a novel conceptual framework that addresses the ability of the gut microbiome released from an animal to function outside the host and alter biogeochemical processes mediated by microbes. We demonstrate this dynamic in the hippopotamus (hippo) and the pools they inhabit. We used natural field gradients and experimental approaches to examine fecal and pool water microbial communities and aquatic biogeochemistry across a range of hippo inputs. Sequencing using 16S RNA methods revealed community coalescence between hippo gut microbiomes and the active microbial communities in hippo pools that received high inputs of hippo feces. The shared microbiome between the hippo gut and the waters into which they excrete constitutes a meta-gut system that could influence the biogeochemistry of recipient ecosystems and provide a reservoir of gut microbiomes that could influence other hosts. We propose that meta-gut dynamics may also occur where other animal species congregate in high densities, particularly in aquatic environments.

Forage productivity and chemical composition of Megathyrsus maximus cv. Tamani under defoliations regimes

The effects of defoliation frequency (21, 28, 35 and 42 days) and defoliation intensity (20, 30 and 40 cm above the ground) on green dry matter (GDM) yield, and chemical composition of Megathyrsus maximus cv. Tamani were evaluated under natural field conditions at the Roraima´s savannas. Defoliation regimes affect productivity and chemical composition of M. maximus cv. Tamani forage. The decrease in the pasture defoliation frequency and intensity improved the accumulation of forage, however it reduces the tissue concentrations of N, P, Ca, Mg and K. Irrespective of defoliation frequencies, the highest levels of N (25.31 g kg-1), P (2.11 g kg-1), Mg (2.78 g kg-1) and K (21.13 g kg-1) were recorded for the defoliation intensity at 40 cm above the ground, except for Ca (4.31 g kg-1), where the greatest concentration was obtained with defoliations at 30 cm above the ground. The use of defoliation frequency around 32 days and defoliation intensity of 28 cm above the ground can be considered adequate for the management of pastures of M. maximus cv. Tamani, in order to provides higher forage productivity and quality, regrowth vigor, larger efficiency of forage utilization, greater tissue renewal and canopy structure more favorable to grazing.

Study on Radionuclides from Soil to Onion at Johor and Perak, Malaysia

In this report, the radiological survey of radioactivity measurements in soil and onion and their mobility is carried out which is very important in the environment and several scientific fields. The measurements about the concentrations of activity in soil, leaves and bulbs for onion in the location of Johor and Perak, Malaysia have been carried out using neutron activation analysis (NAA) of TRIGA MARK II research reactor facilities at Nuclear Agency, Bangi, Malaysia. The transfer factors (TFs) of 238U, 232Th and 40K from 6 different natural background soils are studied from soil to onion under natural field conditions. The TFs for onion leaves and bulb are in the range of (6.01-79.2) x 10-3, (1.21-61.4) x 10-3, (1.012-4.265) x 10-1 and 0.028-0.334, 0.017-0.293 and (0.908 -3.685) x10-1for 238U, 232Th, and 40K respectively. There exists a linearity correlation between the dose rate as well as activity concentration of the soils. The observed transfer factor of onion bulbs was usually higher than in leaves.

Screening of Tuberose Cultivars against Leaf Spot (Alternaria polyanthi) and its Management

Background: Tuberose flower has been found to be affected by various fungal and viral diseases which affect growth and cause loss in flower yield. Among them, leaf spot incited by Aternaria polianthi is an important fungal disease in tuberose. The incidence of the disease is common in the both single and double-type tuberose varieties due to prevalence of high rainfall and humid conditions. During survey it was found that the disease incidence was increasing gradually causing economic losses in Assam. Methods: The field trial was carried out during kharif seasons (2015 -18) to test the efficacy of six fungicides against leaf spot of tuberose (Var. Local single petal) caused by Alternaria polyantha. Four sprays with fungicides at an interval of seven days starting from the first appearance of the disease symptom were done. Per cent disease incidence (%) with growth parameters were recorded one week after the last spray. Another field experiment for screening the resistant genotypes was conducted using 11 tuberose genotypes during kharif seasons (2016-17 and 2017-18). Result: Eleven tuberose cultivars (Bidhan Ranjani-1, Bidhan Ranjani-2, Arka Nirantara, GK-TC-4, Prajwal, Phule Rajani, Local Single, Local Double, Vaibhav, Suhashini and Shringer) were screened against leaf spot caused by A.polyanthi under natural field condition. None of the cultivars were found to be immune or resistant, while three cultivars viz., GK-TC-4, Bidhan Rajani-1 and Arka Nirantara showed moderate resistant reaction with recorded per cent disease incidence of 16.11, 18.17 and 18.71, respectively. Spraying with azoxystrobin, difenoconazole and a combo fungicide consisting of iprodione (25%) + carbendazim (25%), at 0.1% recorded lowest per cent disease incidence of 7.91, 9.83 and 11.85% compared to control (33.62 PDI) with per cent disease reduction of 70.59%, 64.61% and 76.31%, respectively.