Managerial competences in family firms from the service and production sectors

In each organization an important aspect is to maintain balance in terms of resources, processes and systems. Lack of relationship between the various components of the company affects the reduction of efficiency in organization, which in turn affects the effectiveness of action. However, it is also important to maintain effectiveness in the implementation of tasks at the strategic or operational level, and this is particularly influenced by the leader of the organization or team respectively. In the case of family businesses decision- making can be reduced to the leader, who makes decisions independently, without obtaining data or information from the environment. Such actions carry a high level of randomness, which in consequence affects the lowering of economic profitability of the company. In the publication, theoretical and empirical considerations were carried out, which served the authors of the publication, to a limited extent, in juxtaposing the paradigm of the family business functioning in the theory of the subject with the results of the primary study, which was carried out using two qualitative methods, interview and observation. For this purpose, the measurement tool, the interview questionnaire, was developed and the planes of cognitive analysis that was conducted in the studied business entities were identified. The study was conducted on 30 family businesses operating through Poland, the only criterion for qualification for the study was the fact that this was the opinion of the business owners, which is in accordance with the theory of family business proposed by Frishkoff according to which a family business is an enterprise in which the owner admits that it is a family business, i.e. in this case the most important thing is the awareness of being one of the occurring types of family business.

Sports, Executive Functions and Academic Performance: A Comparison between Martial Arts, Team Sports, and Sedentary Children

It is well known that curricular physical activity benefits children’s executive functions and academic performance. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether there is an influence of extracurricular sports on executive functions and academic performance. However, it is less known which specific types of the sport better enhance executive functions in children; to investigate this issue, this study compared the performance on executive functions tasks and academic performance in one hundred and two boys and girls with an average age of 11.84 years recruited from Italian schools and gyms (N = 102), who participated in martial arts or team sports or were sedentary children. Executive functions were measured with the tests: Attenzione e Concentrazione, Digit Span test, Tower of London, IOWA Gambling task BVN 5-11, and BVN 12-18. Results demonstrated that children practicing martial arts showed better executive functioning and higher school marks than those involved in team sports or not involved in any sports. Furthermore, participants aged 12 to 15 years old outperformed in cool and hot executive functions tasks and had a better academic performance. Thus, the present findings supported the view that regular practice of extracurricular sports enhances executive functions development and consequently influences academic performance.

Organizing Entrepreneurial Teams: A Field Experiment on Autonomy over Choosing Teams and Ideas

Scholars have suggested that autonomy can lead to better entrepreneurial team performance. Yet, there are different types of autonomy, and they come at a cost. We shed light on whether two fundamental organizational design choices—granting teams autonomy to (1) choose project ideas to work on and (2) choose team members to work with—affect performance. We run a field experiment involving 939 students in a lean startup entrepreneurship course over 11 weeks. The aim is to disentangle the separate and joint effects of granting autonomy over choosing teams and choosing ideas compared with a baseline treatment with preassigned ideas and team members. We find that teams with autonomy over choosing either ideas or team members outperform teams in the baseline treatment as measured by pitch deck performance. The effect of choosing ideas is significantly stronger than the effect of choosing teams. However, the performance gains vanish for teams that are granted full autonomy over choosing both ideas and teams. This suggests the two forms of autonomy are substitutes. Causal mediation analysis reveals that the main effects of choosing ideas or teams can be partly explained by a better match of ideas with team members’ interests and prior network contacts among team members, respectively. Although homophily and lack of team diversity cannot explain the performance drop among teams with full autonomy, our results suggest that self-selected teams fall prey to overconfidence and complacency too early to fully exploit the potential of their chosen idea. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on organizational design, autonomy, and innovation.

Assessment of the learning curve of video-assisted thoracoscopic sympathectomy in a single neurosurgical trainee: a cumulative summation analysis

Background Video-assisted thoracoscopic sympathectomy (VATS) is a common procedure unusually practiced by neurosurgeons due to lack of training. Objective To evaluate the learning curve for VATS in a young neurosurgeon with no previous experience in open sympathectomy techniques or extracranial endoscopic procedures. Methods This is a retrospective review and analysis of prospectively collected data in 50 consecutive cases admitted to our facility with the diagnosis of essential palmar and axillary hyperhidrosis operated by a neurosurgical trainee under strict supervision of 2 experienced mentors. After an initial training phase, cumulative sum mation (CUSUM) analysis was used to evaluate the surgical performance of the trainee in terms of operating time, blood loss, hospital stay and failures. Results Improvement in operating time was noticed after the first 20 cases with significant affection by changes in OR team. The blood loss was significantly improved after the first 10 cases with less sensitivity to changes in OR team. Hospital stay and failures were steady and within expected values throughout the study. Conclusion An average of 20 cases may be enough for a neurosurgeon with basal knowledge to attain technical competence in VATS sympathectomy. Mentored surgical training on VATS sympathectomy is a safe and effective training method with failures within expected limits. The experience of the OR team plays an important role in the rapid improvement and consistency of performance.

Does Protest “Distract” Athletes From Performing? Evidence From the National Anthem Demonstrations in the National Football League

While there is a long tradition of activism within sport, a popular criticism of athlete protest is that it is a “distraction” that hinders on-field performance. The widespread demonstrations against racial injustice in 2017 among players in the National Football League (NFL) provided an opportunity to test this “distraction hypothesis.” Using data drawn from multiple sources, we first explored which factors predicted player protest, finding that Black players and those playing for underdogs were more likely to protest. Then, using a series of analyses at the player-game level ( n = 19,051) and the team-game level ( n = 512), we tested the assertion that protest is detrimental to individual or team performance, finding no evidence for a distraction effect. The results of this study allow us to better understand social factors that may affect athletic performance or constrain athlete activism.

The development and validation of a graduate leader competency questionnaire: Arguing the need for a graduate leader performance measure

This article deals with the need for the conceptualisation and operationalisation of a modern graduate leader performance construct and the development and psychometric evaluation of a (graduate) leader competency questionnaire. The need for an investigation into the graduate leader performance construct is motivated against the backdrop of the availability of a new generation of leaders given the impending retirement of the world’s most senior management talent. Generation Y is singled out as a critical resource pool whose leadership potential needs to be tapped to enhance organisational performance and improve the economic fortunes of our country. However, it is pointed out that our understanding of this generation, as well as the psychological mechanism that determines how leaders influence various aspects of an organisation, work group or team to bring about optimal performance at a collective level, is fragmented and incomplete. Accordingly, we make suggestions for expanding contemporary conceptualisations of competency models so as to merge an expanded form of a competency model with the notion of a nomological network in providing a comprehensive explanation for the psychological mechanism that regulates graduate leader performance within organisational settings. The explication of such a competency model logically needs to start with the conceptualisation of the graduate leader performance construct. The validation of such a competency model will necessitate in future, amongst others, a measure of the competencies comprising the graduate leader performance construct as well.

Joko Setyoko

The phenomenal victory of the Sukandar-Hamdi pair in the re-election of Tebo district, in fact, cannot be separated from the expertise of a political strategy actor, both in reading opportunities in political momentum and reading trends in voter behavior in the Tebo area. This research was conducted in Tebo Regency, Jambi. The location which became the research location was chosen purposively (intentionally), namely in Tebo Regency, Jambi Province. Because the phenomenon of the Pemilukada in Tebo district which is the only regional head election in Jambi Province whose implementation is repeated, due to demands from the opposing parties participating in the other post-conflict local elections. This research method is a qualitative method. The results of this study found that the political strategy used by the Sukandar-Hamdi pair in winning the post-conflict local election in Tebo Regency was to form a success team or team consisting of community leaders, women, and witnesses at TPS, holding outreach to kecamtan and villages in Tebo Regency. , conducting campaigns by making a vision and mission and bringing in artists in open campaigns, using the mistakes of opponents that have been decided in the Constitutional Court to influence voters, inviting survey institutions to conduct political research.

Online Pivot to Support Students' Learning Amid COVID-19

What problem was addressed? Amid Covid-19 colleges and universities are closed down, reorganization of student education raises concerns about timely graduation. [1] Therefore, there is a radical shift across colleges to remote and online teaching models. The current article shares an experience with online teaching at a Medical College located in western India. What was tried? During Covid-19 lockdown it was decided by faculty of first professional medical course of the medical college, viz; Anatomy, Physiology & Biochemistry to shift to teaching online for a batch of 200 students. Initially, videoconferencing (VC) call applications like zoom or Team Link were utilized and WhatsApp group was created to inform students regarding topics and time. This ran smoothly to start with and 160-170 participants could join. Within few days, internet connectivity and bandwidth issues started erupting from both the sides, hampering quality of teaching. The teachers then decided to record each session via screen recording software and started uploading the same in dedicated Google Drive, sharing the link via WhatsApp group. Additionally, a dedicated YouTube channel was created for students to download videos to watch as per their convenience. This helped to minimize the challenge faced due to internet connectivity and to safeguard against cyber-attack, likely to prop up with apps like Zoom that uses VC.