No need to choose: independent regulation of cognitive stability and flexibility challenges the stability-flexibility tradeoff

Adaptive behavior requires the ability to focus on a current task and protect it from distraction (cognitive stability) as well as the ability to rapidly switch to another task in light of changing circumstances (cognitive flexibility). Cognitive stability and flexibility have commonly been conceptualized as opposite endpoints on a stability-flexibility tradeoff continuum, implying an obligatory reciprocity between the two: greater flexibility necessitates less stability, and vice versa. Surprisingly, rigorous empirical tests of this critical assumption are lacking, however. Here, we tested this assumption by acquiring simultaneous measurements of cognitive stability (congruency effects) and flexibility (switch costs) while independently varying contextual demands on these functions with block-wise manipulations of the proportion of incongruent trials and task switches, respectively. If cognitive stability and flexibility are reciprocal, an increase in flexibility in response to higher switch rates should lead to a commensurate decrease in stability, and an increase in stability in response to more frequent incongruent trials should result in decreased flexibility. Across three experiments, using classic cued task switching (Experiments 1 and 3) and attentional set shifting (Experiment 2) protocols, we found robust evidence against an obligatory stability-flexibility tradeoff. Although we observed the expected contextual adaptation of stability and flexibility to changing demands, strategic adjustments in stability had no influence on flexibility, and vice versa. These results refute the long-held assumption of a stability-flexibility tradeoff, documenting instead that the cognitive processes mediating these functions can be regulated independently - it is possible to be both stable and flexible at the same time.

Postmodern approaches to business management and innovative notions for contextual adaptation – A review

PurposeThis article calls for a multi-perspective innovative strategic outlook to examine the matter across its varied managerial and marketing functions and across geographic regions and organizational types.Design/methodology/approachTraversing the typological and geographic spectrum of businesses, one observes an incessantly changing environment, characterized by constant shape-shifting of all macro- and micro-environmental forces. Amidst this ultra-competitive new setting, organizations globally are struggling to evolve in a manner that befits their individual and collective contextual developments. Irrevocably, time-honored strategies and tactics, appear decreasingly capable to deliver the means to increasingly obscure effects, thus, creating a visible gap in extant theoretical knowledge and a definite need for effective contemporary practices. Inescapably, organizations have begun to abandon the habitual road of conventional strategic practices to adopt innovative means to often innovative ends, urged also by the pandemic condition of 2020+.FindingsIt endeavors to implicitly define and communicate a changing organizational spirit and philosophy, infused with innovativeness, and which transcends the limitations of tangible functionality to embrace strategic, managerial and marketing notions pertaining to the wider business environment shifts and developments.Originality/valueThis article endeavors to implicitly define and communicate a changing organizational spirit and philosophy that transcends the limitations of tangible functionality to embrace strategic management and marketing notions pertaining to the wider business environment shifts and developments.

Using Stakeholder Perceptions to Inform Future Efforts to Implement Mental Health First Aid Training in China: A Qualitative Study

Background: The Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training program has been widely implemented in many high-income countries. Evidence on the adaptation of this and other similar programs in resource-constrained settings like China is very limited. This study aimed to explore the views of key stakeholders on the implementation issues and contextual factors relevant to the scale-up of MHFA in China.Methods: Informed by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, five implementation domains of intervention characteristics, characteristics of individuals, contextual adaptation, outer and inner setting, and implementation process were investigated through semi-structured in-depth interviews. Twenty-four stakeholders with diverse expertise in the Chinese mental health system were interviewed. Transcripts were coded using NVivo 12 software and thematically analyzed.Results: Fifteen themes and 52 sub-themes were identified in relation to the five domains. Participants saw MHFA as meeting the need for more evidence-based interventions to improve population mental health. Previous participants in MHFA training were satisfied with the course, but their intentions to help and levels of self-efficacy varied. Contextual adaptation of course content, delivery formats, and financing models, was seen as essential. External health policies and some socioeconomic factors (e.g., improved living conditions) were perceived as potential enablers of scalability. Low levels of engagement in health interventions and lack of supportive social norms were identified as potential barriers while executive support, quality control, and sustainable funding were viewed as facilitators of implementation.Conclusion: MHFA training meets some very important current societal and public health needs in China. To achieve its potential impact, significant contextual adaptation is required, particularly in terms of course content, delivery formats, and financing models. Overcoming low levels of engagement in community-based mental health interventions and combating stigma will also be critical for its scale-up.

Digital Transformation Journeys

Big Data and Digitization are among the most talked about concepts of the last years. Whereas Big Data has more and more concrete outcomes, Digitization is still seen as far away future. Nowadays, however, the question is not anymore how to prepare for the upcoming Digitization. The question companies and organizations have to ask themselves is how to adapt to and in today's Digitizing World. A correct translation of this strategy is equally important. It requires a dynamic silver lining, compatible with interactive work clusters and a hybrid organization. Typically, this results in a new way of working and an appropriate approach to power this way of working. The way of working needs to be adapted to the redefined borders between reactivity and proactivity, the need for real-time service and contextual adaptation. It needs to be designed for agility. To provide value, an organic compromise has to be found that answers the need for creative freedom, and the need for a solid structure where guidance, management, and development of human capabilities is possible in a structured way.

Career counselling with life design in a collectivist cultural context: An action research study

Large-scale macro forces are restructuring forms of work in urban India creating the need for alternative methods of career counselling. This research explores the application of a US-based approach to constructing careers i.e. Life-Design Career Counseling (i. e., LDC) with two mid-career professionals in India. Data consisted of client responses to different narrative career counselling exercises such as a lifeline activity, a career construction interview and semi-structured feedback interviews. Action research's focus on reflexivity helped integrate theory with practice to contribute to knowledge production and meaningful innovations within practice. Findings from this research underscored the importance of relationship, reflection and sense-making and the need for India to utilise a culturally resonant career intervention. The study holds value for career professionals, in India and beyond where LDC is still unexplored. Moreover, LDC practitioners in non-Western countries and collectivist societies will benefit from a contextual adaptation that encourages focus on client learning.

Applying Principles from Prevention and Implementation Sciences to Optimize the Dissemination of Family Feeding Interventions

Because families are the primary food socialization agent for children, they are a key target for nutrition interventions promoting healthy eating development. Although researchers and clinicians have developed and tested successful family nutrition interventions, few have gained widespread dissemination. Prevention and implementation science disciplines can inform the design, testing, and dissemination of feeding interventions to advance the goals of widespread adoption and population health impact. We review concepts and frameworks from prevention science and dissemination and implementation (D&I) research that are useful to consider in designing, implementing, and evaluating feeding interventions. Risk and protective factor frameworks, types of translation processes, and implementation dimensions are explained. Specifically, we address how research–practice partnerships can reduce time to dissemination, how designing for modularity can allow for contextual adaptation, how articulating core components can strengthen fidelity and guide adaptation, and how establishing technical assistance infrastructure supports these processes. Finally, we review strategies for building capacity in D&I research and practice for nutrition professionals. In sum, the research and knowledge bases from prevention and implementation sciences offer guidance on designing and delivering family interventions in ways that maximize the potential for their broad dissemination, reducing time to translation and optimizing interventions for real-world settings.