Music-Based Intervention Connects Auditory and Reward Systems

Listening to pleasurable music is known to engage the brain’s reward system. This has motivated many cognitive-behavioral interventions for healthy aging, but little is known about the effects of music-based intervention (MBI) on plasticity of the cognitive and reward systems. Here we show preliminary evidence that brain network connectivity can change after receptive MBI in cognitively unimpaired older adults. Using a combination of whole-brain regression, seed-based connectivity analysis, and representational similarity analysis (RSA), we examined fMRI responses during music listening in older adults before and after an eight-week personalized MBI. Participants rated self-selected and researcher-selected musical excerpts on liking and familiarity. Parametric effects of liking, familiarity, and selection showed simultaneous activation in auditory, reward, and default mode network (DMN) areas. Seed-based connectivity comparing pre- and post-intervention showed significant increase in functional connectivity between auditory regions and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC); this auditory-mPFC connectivity was modulated by participant liking and familiarity ratings. RSA showed significant representations of selection and novelty at both time-points, and an increase in striatal representation of musical stimuli following intervention. Taken together, results show how regular music listening can provide an auditory channel towards the mPFC, thus offering a potential neural mechanism for MBI supporting healthy aging.

Towards Sustainable Knowledge Sharing Practices: An Analysis of Organizational Level Enablers

Sustainable management activities focus on creating efficiencies and value for organizations. Scholars advocate that evaluating and enabling appropriate management interventions can pave the way for future competitive advantage and sustainability. Knowledge management is regarded as a key organizational resource and a means of gaining a sustainable competitive advantage. This is especially important in high-tech service organizations, which are under increasing pressure to capture, process and share knowledge efficiently. While much work has been conducted to advance our knowledge on good practices, there is a dearth of empirical evidence relating to organizational level enablers for knowledge sharing. We advocate that creating the conditions conducive to knowledge sharing influences an organization’s ability to sustain a long-term competitive advantage. Therefore, this current study extends the literature on knowledge management by exploring the questions of whether and how key organizational factors impact knowledge sharing, focusing on the role of trust, communication, reward systems and leadership. To do this, we analyzed prior work and generated hypotheses relating to relevant enablers. We then operationalized these constructs via a structured data collection instrument, which consisted of 27 measurable items. Empirical data were collected from 104 team members in a high-tech service organization in Ireland. Data were analyzed using a quantitative approach, and descriptive statistics, correlations and regression analyses are presented. Our research offers a persuasive body of evidence supporting the notion that trust, communication, reward systems, and leadership strongly impact knowledge sharing in organizations. Specifically, the findings reveal that employees are more willing to share their personal knowledge with those they trust, and carefully designed communication systems can enable knowledge sharing. Reward systems play an important role in affecting employees’ motivation to share knowledge, while empowering leadership and participatory leadership are two main drivers in promoting knowledge sharing. This research addresses a relatively unexplored area, has implications for sustainable management practices relating to organizational design and provides ideas for future research studies.

Expert Perspectives on the Inclusion of Students With Significant Disabilities in Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is a framework intended to benefit all students in a school. However, recent research suggests that students with significant disabilities may not fully participate in SWPBIS. Given the complex reasons for varied involvement in SWPBIS (e.g., student educational placement), the purpose of this study was to investigate expert perspectives on the extent to which students with significant disabilities should be included in SWPBIS. Overall, experts agreed students with significant disabilities should be included in all tiers of SWPBIS, receive instruction in schoolwide rules and expectations, and have the opportunity to participate in schoolwide reward systems. Experts shared differing perspectives on the ways behavior violations of students with significant disabilities should be documented.

Expertise and Aesthetic Liking

It has long been observed that experience influences aesthetic evaluations. Psychological research has found multiple examples of experts and nonexperts forming different liking responses to similar stimuli. It remains unclear, though, precisely why experts evaluate objects they are experts on differently from people who are not experts. In the article under discussion, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the authors demonstrated that, compared to non-architects, architects exhibited higher levels of neural activity in the reward systems when tasked with evaluating their liking of buildings but not when tasked with evaluating the attractiveness of faces.

Can Loyalty be extended to Airlines? An Inquisition from Air Passengers

Airlines have always sought to engage with passengers by resorting to customer loyalty programmes. The exigency for this is that customers drive businesses and loyalty constitutes a means to sustainable business. The loyalty programmes by airlines has been a driving force behind customer loyalty since the early 1980s. The study uses a narrative inquiry to explore the extent to which passengers have become acquainted with it. It also examines whether passengers can be loyal to airlines and under what conditions this can prevail. Its findings suggest that although air passengers are prepared to forge closer ties with the airlines, they often see the airlines as reneging on their pledge to offer reciprocal terms of this loyal arrangement. Keywords: customer loyalty, airlines, frequent flyer, passengers, reward systems

Organizational Justice: The Way it Works

Organizational justice has the potential to work in order to extract benefits for organizations and employees alike. If it implemented in full spirit will eventually improve commitment level improved job performance, more helpful citizenship behaviors, improved customer satisfaction, and diminished conflict. We demonstrate the management of organizational justice with some suggestions for building fairness into widely used managerial activities. These include hiring, performance appraisal, reward systems, conflict management, and downsizing.

Employee Engagement and Non-financial Performance of National Treasury, Nairobi City County, Kenya

Performance of the National Treasury is of critical importance since it affects service delivery of other public entities. Low performance levels posted by the National Treasury has drawn a lot of attention from the citizens and corporate stakeholders especially with the ever increasing public debt, challenge in policy formulation and the challenge of adapting to information technology dynamics. Through Employee engagement, both public and private organisations attempt to improve organisational non-financial performance. Employee engagement includes practices such as job design, communication, leadership and rewards. Although many organizations have made efforts to enhance organizational performance, the measures of organizational performance they have adopted have not been appropriate especially for public and non-profit making organizations, for instance; relying on financial performance measures. The general objective of this study therefore was; to establish the effects of employee engagement and non- financial performance of National Treasury in Nairobi, Kenya. The findings of this study would be of great benefit to the National Treasury, Kenya and to all organization in the public. The study was guided by the following specific objectives; to assess the effects of job design, leadership, communication and rewards on organizational performance in the public sector in Kenya. This study was anchored on the Work Adjustment Theory, Stakeholder Theory, Social Exchange Theory and Vroom’s Expectancy Theory. This study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population was made up of 876 staff of the national treasury and using stratified sampling technique, a sample of 269 was included in the study. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire. Analysis of data was done using descriptive analysis and inferential analysis. A positive and significant effect was established between job design, leadership, communication and rewards on performance. The study concludes that the job design specifies the contents and procedures of performing the task in the organization. Hence, it helps in designing organizational structure. Leadership is vital for both in building the strength and power of the organization and in helping to manage relationships and resources. When managers and senior staff are good communicators themselves, they can expect to bring out each individual’s best skills and increase performance and through reward systems the employee will feel more motivated to work harder by having a reward system in place the employee will feel more committed to their work and their productivity will increase. The study recommends that through reward systems the employee will feel more motivated to work harder by having a reward system in place the employee will feel more committed to their work and their productivity will increase. The organization should the organization should establish its leadership standards and define the areas where managers need to excel in terms of directing the work of others. The organizational management should create a job description that eliminates ambiguity by clarifying the responsibilities and expectations for each member of your organization. The management of the organization magnify employee recognition by publicizing employee accomplishments across multiple forums such as company newsletters, dashboards and in team meetings.

Getting along to get ahead: The role of social context in tournament promotion and reward systems

Tournament theory posits that some organizations are modeled after sports tournaments whereby individuals are incentivized to compete and win against other members of the organization. A persistent criticism of tournament theory is that rank-order success of employees is entirely dependent on non-interacting or at least non-cooperating entities. To address what part, if any, cooperation plays in competitive tournaments, this study examines the role of social networks in tournament-style promotion and reward systems. Specifically, we seek to identify the importance of social relationships, such as group dissimilarity, initial tie formation, and tie strength in predicting tournament success. Bringing two largely independent research streams together (one focused on cooperation and one framed around competition), we examine how individuals’ performance interacts with their social relationships—their social networks—to influence their chances of winning a tournament. Using the Survivor television series, we analyze the behaviors of 535 interacting contestants across 30 tournaments. In general, the findings help to illustrate how performance and social networks predict tournament advancement. Interestingly, we find that group dissimilarity based on gender, race, and age, largely does not play a role in advancement in the tournaments. Further, the strength of ties fails to mediate between variables such as group dissimilarity and initial tie formation. We conclude by discussing future directions for theoretical and practical exploration of tournament-style promotion systems. Recommendations include continuing to explore and test the role of social dynamics in compensation and promotion systems.

A Study of the Perception of Indian Employees on Organizational Structure

This paper examines the perception of Indian employees on the role of organizational structure; it also aims to assess the impact of culture on the views of Indian employees regarding their choice of work environment and the feasibility of self-management practices in India. Despite widespread acknowledgment of the challenges presented by flat structures and hierarchical structures, little is known about today's Indian workforce's think and needs. The relationships between various factors on the employees’ orientation of the preferred organizational structure and its effect on their motivation are studied in this paper. The results reveal no great disparity in the views and choices of the employees who have an experience of flat structure and those who do not. However, it does indicate various other relationships between the factors that impact the organizational structure like Control and Capability, Reward-Systems and Organizational Levels, Culture and Reward Systems, Tendency to Explore and Reward Systems, Organizational levels and Motivation and lastly, Organizational Level and Culture. The results also suggest that Indian employees do want to have autonomy and responsibility in their work. However, they do believe that the different organizational levels have their role in managing the organization.