Academic Orientation as a Function of Moral Fit: The Role of Individualizing Morality

Researchers have studied academic orientation—students’ valuing of and commitment to education—as in part a function of a cultural fit between students’ cultural capital, competencies, identity, and the institutional culture of the education system. Recent research on students’ aspirations and commitment highlights the moral undertones of such cultural fit. Scholars have identified the perceived moral connotations of becoming “an educated person” and illustrated how students’ academic orientation may be intertwined with the unique moral culture of the education system. Neoinstitutional scholars have examined modern education systems’ emphasis on an individualizing type of moral culture, that is, an institutional moral culture emphasizing individual autonomy, rights, and achievement over traditional mores, knowledge, and social hierarchies. Scholars have yet to bridge these streams of research by examining the link between students’ personal moral culture and the institutional moral culture of education systems. In this study, we consider whether students whose moral orientation matches the individualizing moral culture of education systems are more academically oriented. We conceptualize this link as moral fit, and we use moral foundations theory to identify students’ personal moral culture. Analysis of a unique sample of students drawn from all secondary schools in Iceland (N = 10,525) shows (1) individualizing moral intuitions (those that emphasize the individual as the basic moral unit) are associated with a greater academic orientation, net of parental involvement, cultural capital, and other important controls, and (2) this association is only lightly moderated by differences in the school structure.

Values Assessment for Personnel Selection: Comparing Job Applicants to Non-Applicants

Some scholars suggest that organizations could improve their hiring decisions by measuring the personal values of job applicants, arguing that values provide insights into applicants’ cultural fit, retention prospects, and performance outcomes. However, others have expressed concerns about response distortion and faking. The current study provides the first large-scale investigation of the effect of the job applicant context on the psychometric structure and scale means of a self-reported values measure. Participants comprised 7,884 job applicants (41% male; age M = 43.32, SD = 10.76) and a country-, age-, and gender-matched comparison sample of 1,806 non-applicants (41% male; age M = 44.72, SD = 10.97), along with a small repeated-measures, cross-context sample. Respondents completed the 57-item Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) measuring Schwartz’ universal personal values. Compared to matched non-applicants, applicants reported valuing power and self-direction considerably less, and conformity and universalism considerably more. Applicants also reported valuing security, tradition, and benevolence more than non-applicants, and reported valuing stimulation, hedonism, and achievement less than non-applicants. Despite applicants appearing to embellish the degree to which their values aligned with being responsible and considerate workers, invariance testing suggested that the under- lying structure of values assessment is largely preserved in job applicant contexts.

Stakeholders' Perspectives on the Implementation of the Inclusive Education Policy in Samoa: A Cultural Fit

<p>This is a qualitative study designed to investigate how the concept of inclusive education (IE) is understood and applied at a number of levels in the Samoan education system. It aims to identify barriers and facilitators to the implementation of the IE policy in this context. The study seeks an answer to the question: What are the beliefs, experiences, expectations and practises of key stakeholders of IE? The stakeholders include practising teachers in primary education classrooms, policy-makers in education, parents of children who are physically and intellectually challenged, teacher-trainers, and local community leaders. The study uses a phenomenologically oriented approach to gain insight into participants’ perspectives and experiences about IE and the implementation of this policy in Samoa. It draws upon document analysis, individual interviews, and focus group discussions as methods for data collection. The results indicate a paradox in participants’ beliefs and practices of IE. Participants, particularly the policy implementers (teachers), tend to be inclusive in their thinking and behaviour at home. However, in the classroom, although participants seem to operate from an inclusive mindset, the practice tends to be exclusive and thus grounded in the medical model of disability. Rather than creating inclusive environments, IE appears to have created another type of exclusion. A number of implications for practice are detailed and future research ideas are outlined.</p>

Stakeholders' Perspectives on the Implementation of the Inclusive Education Policy in Samoa: A Cultural Fit

<p>This is a qualitative study designed to investigate how the concept of inclusive education (IE) is understood and applied at a number of levels in the Samoan education system. It aims to identify barriers and facilitators to the implementation of the IE policy in this context. The study seeks an answer to the question: What are the beliefs, experiences, expectations and practises of key stakeholders of IE? The stakeholders include practising teachers in primary education classrooms, policy-makers in education, parents of children who are physically and intellectually challenged, teacher-trainers, and local community leaders. The study uses a phenomenologically oriented approach to gain insight into participants’ perspectives and experiences about IE and the implementation of this policy in Samoa. It draws upon document analysis, individual interviews, and focus group discussions as methods for data collection. The results indicate a paradox in participants’ beliefs and practices of IE. Participants, particularly the policy implementers (teachers), tend to be inclusive in their thinking and behaviour at home. However, in the classroom, although participants seem to operate from an inclusive mindset, the practice tends to be exclusive and thus grounded in the medical model of disability. Rather than creating inclusive environments, IE appears to have created another type of exclusion. A number of implications for practice are detailed and future research ideas are outlined.</p>

Indian Perspective on Personality and Behaviour in Organisations

This article explains the steps followed in developing psychometric personality assessment tests from the Indian psychological/Vedic perspective while also mentioning the psychometric properties of the scales. Its numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals are by itself an acceptance of the validity and reliability of the scale, along with the accreditation obtained from concerned certifying authorities in India. Additionally, its use in multiple academic and research organisations both in India and abroad throws up interesting possibilities using Indian psychological concepts can offer solutions to, being relevant to all peoples of the world today, as they were from times immemorial. The article draws attention to the multiple applications that the five-element theory of personality understanding offers and explores how this can used in organisations to provide for higher retention of employees, better employee engagement and higher cohesiveness and cultural fit amongst teams within organisations, especially when they are integrated in the recruitment processes itself.

AN OPERATIONAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE CHANGING PROSTHETICS & ORTHOTICS LANDSCAPE

Leading the growth of a private prosthetic and orthotic (P&O) practice, as clinician and founder, I developed a unique perspective of this rapidly changing profession. Many positive influences from my early career shaped my vison toward an innovative practice model, as well as the need to elevate the standard of care through education and the use of outcome measures. As the practice model expanded, advancements were made in electronic health records (EHR), best-in-class outsource fabrication, and clinical research. To better support clinicians and patients served, an organizational structure with an executive team was built. The practice model achieved operational efficiency through documenting best practices, developing a hiring and onboarding process, and establishing key performance indicators aligned with quality clinical care. As a regional clinical care organization, the practice model seized an opportunity to reach more patients through a partnership that brought the optimal strategic and cultural fit. Bringing our innovative P&O practice model together with expertise in lean facility design, scanning, fabrication, sensor technology, product development and clinical care experience from around the world, we can advance care standards and improve the patient experience in exciting new ways. Article PDF Link: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cpoj/article/view/35996/28414 How To Cite: Brandt JM. An operational perspective of the changing prosthetics & orthotics landscape. Canadian Prosthetics & Orthotics Journal. 2021; Volume 4, Issue 2, No.19. https://doi.org/10.33137/cpoj.v4i2.35996 Corresponding Author: Jeffrey M. Brandt, CPOAbility Prosthetics & Orthotics, 660 West Lincoln Highway, Exton, PA 19341, USA.E-Mail: [email protected] ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7377-9516

Hire the Best Available Candidate; but not Based Solely on “Cultural Fit”

The culture of an organization has a tremendous influence on outcomes. Culture drives strategy, operations, execution, and priorities. However, when it comes to hiring, culture is often prioritized over more objective criteria. There is a perceived need to make certain everyone hired “fits in.” Achieving workplace diversity begins with recruiting broadly. This paper describes why hiring focused predominantly on cultural fit is misguided and short-sighted. We describe why organizations should keep an open mind about what makes someone the “right” candidate, and why it behooves organizations to hire a few “square pegs.”

Bringing Culture Back in. A Concept for the Reintegration of Cultural Fit in (quantitative) Research in (Higher) Education

Cultural fit is often neglected in (quantitative) research in (higher) education. However, there is a need to reintegrate questions of cultural fit – especially when the diversity of the student body increases and hopes for increasing equity of education remain unfulfilled, still. In this article, I propose a concept of cultural fit, closely tied to the works of Bourdieu and social structure research. Additionally, I present some analyses on the effects of cultural fit on students’ motives of self-improvement, routes to university, and performance. Drawing on survey data of 1.073 undergraduate students at a German university, analyses confirm that the proposed concept of cultural fit can be used to distinguish between students who are culturally fit and misfits. Moreover, analyses show that cultural fit does have significant effects on the routes to university and performance. In this way, this article may help to unveil mechanisms of (cultural) closing of institutions of higher education that are invisible to research.

Revisiting the “matching managers to strategy” argument in the context of a firm’s internationalisation strategy

Purpose This paper aims to revisit the long-standing in the management literature argument of “matching managers to strategy” in the new empirical context of the top management team (TMT) and firm internationalisation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the consequences of matching nationalities of the TMT members to the multinational corporations’ (MNC) countries of operation. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on the quantitative methods. The authors use the traditional regression analysis, with the ordinary least squares estimation, in the moderated multiple regression models. Findings The study findings point to the importance of the asset-based exposure to international environments for the benefits of the TMT nationality matching to materialise. They re-affirm the critical remarks on the early “matching managers to strategy” frameworks, which indicated that the effectiveness of matching is underpinned by the detailed specification of the matching contingencies that influence the matching process. Originality/value The measure of matching the TMT foreign nationals to the MNCs’ host countries constitutes a novel way of capturing the TMT internationalisation, as opposed to measuring the incidence of foreigners on the TMTs or the TMT nationality diversity variable. It therefore underlines the aspect of matching in terms of the cultural fit between the TMT nationalities and countries of MNCs’ operations.