From bystander to ally among faculty colleagues: construction and validation of the bystander intervention behavior scale

PurposeBystander intervention mitigates the negative impact of bias incidents in the workplace. However, intervention tends to be viewed as binary: intervention occurred or it did not. Consequently, research has focused on conditions under which witnesses of bias incidents choose to intervene, and less is known about how witnesses may intervene. This paper elucidates the intervention behavior choices available to witnesses of bias incidents and develops a bystander intervention behavior (BIB) scale.Design/methodology/approachTo develop the scale, the authors used the three-phased act frequency methodology. In phase I, the authors surveyed faculty who had both witnessed a bias incident and seen someone intervene to address it. The authors asked these faculties to list the observed bystander intervention behaviors they had personally observed. In Phase II, different survey respondents and subject matter experts assessed the prototypicality of each of the behaviors in relation to the concept of bystander intervention. In phase III, the authors tested the validity and reliability of the resulting 18-item scale and assessed the ability of bystander intervention behavior to mitigate the negative impact of bias incidents on the academic workplace.FindingsThe BIB scale consists of two theoretically derived, empirically validated and reliable dimensions; it can be used as a summary score to evaluate the extent to which colleagues intervene indirectly and directly when a bias incident occurs in the academic workplace.Originality/valueThis scale is valuable in advancing efforts to mitigate the negative effect of bias in the workplace and training colleagues to intervene in various ways when bias occurs.

Behavior Choice of Game Parties under the Interference of Cognition in the Game between Coal Miners and Supervisors

In the game between coal miners and supervisors, the behavior choices of the game parties will be affected by cognitive factors. The analysis of the behavior choices of coal miners and supervisors under the influence of cognitive factors is helpful for the design of violation behavior control strategies. Firstly, a description method of subjective cognition based on the mathematical method of quantum theory is designed. Secondly, taking the subjective cognition of coal miners and supervisors as a random variable, a behavior evolution model with random variables is constructed. Thirdly, the impact of subjective cognition on the behavior choices of coal miners and supervisors is analyzed. Finally, the violation behavior control strategy is designed. It is found that when the violation probability decreases to a certain extent, the probability of supervision will change from the increase to decrease. When the probability of supervision decreases to a certain extent, the violation probability will change from the decrease to increase. Fluctuations in cognitive state can affect the change process of violation probability and supervision probability. The behavior control strategy designed according to the behavior evolution model can control the violation behavior in the situation of cognitive state fluctuation.

Exploring the risk-taking tendency among migrant workers in the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of ontological security

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the social environment of most laborers around the world and has profoundly affected people’s ontological security and behavior choices. Among them, the migrant workers are one of the groups most affected by the pandemic. OBJECTIVE: This study explored the mechanism of the impact of the scarcity of ontological security caused by the pandemic on the risk-taking tendency of migrant workers in China through two studies. METHODS: This study adopts two experimental method, with 514 participants in the first study and 357 participants in the second study. RESULTS: The results show that the pandemic-induced scarcity perception of ontological security promotes their risk-taking tendency, and the migrant workers’ cognitive reflection ability, sense of unfairness and expected benefits play a significant mediating role in this process. The scarcity perception of ontological security promotes migrant workers’ risk-taking tendency by reducing the cognitive reflection ability, triggering the sense of unfairness and overstating expected benefits. CONCLUSIONS: The conclusion of this study can help migrant workers, enterprises and government to avoid potential workplace and social bad behavior.

The Effects of Empathy, Social Structure and Social Environment on Individuals’ Moral Behavior Choices in China

Based on the data of the Survey of Residents’ Living and Psychological Conditions in Jiangsu Province, China in 2016, this article analyzed the influencing mechanism of individuals’ moral behavior choices when facing a conflict between righteousness and self-interest. The binary logistic regression models indicated that individuals’ choices of moral behaviors do not differ among various social classes. Empathy has a remarkable influence, but its impact mechanism is complex. The social environment has a significant effect, where malignant events have a stronger influence than others. Furthermore, social environment has more significant effect on individual moral behavior choices than empathy, so, creating a benevolent and harmonious social environment will allow the individual’s empathy to come into full play.

“Subvurban” as an example of a serious game examining human behavior

Research regarding players’ behavior, choices they make, strategies they employ, and how they communicate with each other during the play is the subject of scientific interest for a long time. This calls for creation of tools that could be used during such a research. Given the increased involvement of serious games in scientific projects, usage of a serious game as a tool for gathering and analyzing a player’s behavioral pattern, appears to be a reasonable choice. This paper describes the development process of a serious game in the form of a two-player strategy, which uses subversive mechanics in order to encourage users to reinterpret their approach to conflict-cooperation strategies. Its further aim is to analyze data regarding players’ choices, gathered by the game, and contents of questionnaires filled by the players participating in the project.

Chinese leader-follower flexible interactions at varying leader distances

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the Chinese leader–follower interaction model in school cases considering followers’ effect at varying social distances. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a case study approach. Findings First, Chinese leader–follower interactions in school cases are flexible in practice. Second, within leader–follower flexible interactions, contradictory perceptions and field-of-work consciousness foster different behavior choices between leaders and followers. Third, perceptions concerning the proximity of leaders to followers are positively influenced in relation to hierarchical distinctions and negatively influenced owing to private connections. Finally, the perceived leader distance of leaders from followers further influences the contradictory perceptions and field-of-work consciousness of leaders and followers and positively influences the degree of flexible leader–follower interaction. Research limitations/implications This study examined a single institution; hence, results may have been influenced by school-specific features and conditions. Future research should study more organizations to explore whether their unique characteristics and contexts could affect leader–follower interactions, thus providing more generalized and universally applicable conclusions. Originality/value First, this study proposed a leader–follower flexible interaction model in school cases and the concepts of field-of-work consciousness and contradictory perceptions, exploring the active effects of followers in the leadership process to offer guidance toward better understanding the leadership process. Second, it was found that private connections between leaders and followers, as well as hierarchical differences, influenced the perceptions of both leaders and followers concerning leader distance in a Chinese context, and the influence of leader distance on leader–follower interactions was also analyzed.

Business and Mobile

This chapter will explore the peculiarities of business applications of mobile technologies, including a short history and a review of the current state of affairs, major trends likely to cause further change over the coming years, key theories and models to help understand and predict these changes, and future directions of research that may provide deeper scientific insight. M-commerce has many aspects from design and usability of the devices to monetization issues of mobile applications. M-enterprise is about drastic changes in internal and external communications and efficiency in the work of each business unit. M-industry reviews the impact of mobile technologies on traditional industries and the development of entirely new industries. M-style is how our everyday lives are changing in behavior, choices and preferences. After reading this chapter you will be able to differentiate m-business in many important areas: why is it important, where it is going, what is the value to consumers.