From classroom to conscription. Leadership emergence in childhood and early adulthood

Academic optimism, capital indicators as predictors of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning outcome among students in secondary school. Hierarchical regression approach (HRA)

Background

Studies that were carried out previously on learning outcomes focused mainly on the student's cognitive domain while identifying factors that predicted it. More so, most of the learner's assessments in school are largely dependent on the score obtained from specific subjects by the learner, and efforts to address other domains of instruction such as affective and psychomotor domains have been minimal or absent in regard to the variables selected for the study. This study therefore sought to address that gap by finding out the relative and composite contribution of academic optimism and capital indicators to the learning outcomes (of students.

Methods

The study adopted a correlational design with a multistage sampling technique to select a total of 534 senior secondary class II students. Two research instruments, the Academic Optimism and Capital Indicators Scale (AOCIS) and the Learning Outcomes Scale (LOS), were used for data collection. Exploratory and confirmatory factors analysis were used to assess the dimensionality of the items and factor structure of the scales. The psychometric properties obtained for scale were adequate for the instrument to be adjudged valid and reliable.The collected data were analysed using the hierarchical regression approach (HRA).

Results

The findings of the study revealed that academic emphasis, collective efficacy, faculty trust, social capital, economic capital, and cultural capital, relatively and jointly, predict overall learning outcomes (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor construct). The result showed that there was an increased proportion of variance with each addition of a predictor to the model. Social capital reduced the percentage change at the initial time, but with the addition of economic capital, the proportion of change increased among others in the subsequent model examination.

Conclusion

/implication: The study provides knowledge and empirical evidence that academic optimism and capital indicators, with their dimensions, affect composite learning outcomes among students. This study will help school ministries, policymakers, and curriculum planners make sure that the educational objectives, philosophies, and programmes are planned to reflect the total learner in order to produce the total learner that will effect changes in the society. This study has provided evidence that academic inputs and capital indicators are crucial indices of their learning outcomes in the three area of learning. The ability of the school to emphasise academics, ensure that all school agents are committed to instructional delivery, and gain the trust of parents is crucial for adequate support to enhance students learning outcomes. The outcome has implication for policy development and providing a climate that can stimulate equity, trust and motivation.

Understanding the Leaders of Tomorrow: The Need to Study Leadership in Adolescence

Leadership traits and behaviors are observed early in human development, and although an improved understanding of youth leadership would usefully inform many real-world contexts (e.g., education, parenting, policy), most empirical work on leadership has been limited to adult populations. The purpose of the current article is to add a developmental perspective to leadership research that has so far been absent. Here, we (a) highlight adolescence as a critical developmental period for leadership emergence and development, (b) argue that leadership among youths is poorly understood and critically understudied, (c) provide exemplars of synergy between research on leadership and adolescent development that are ripe for focused inquiry, and (d) underscore some of the positive consequences of accelerating empirical research on leadership in adolescence, including implications for a deeper understanding of leadership in adult working populations.

Innate ability, health, motivation, and social capital as predictors of students’ cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning outcomes in secondary schools

Background

Previous studies assessing students’ learning outcomes and identifying contributing factors have often dwelt on the cognitive domain. Furthermore, school evaluation decisions are often made using scores from cognitive-based tests to rank students. This practice often skews evaluation results, given that education aims to improve the three learning domains. This study addresses this gap by assessing the contributions of four students’ input to their cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills (CAPs).

Methods

A cross-section of senior secondary class II students (n = 870), sampled through the multistage procedure, participated in a physical survey. Students’ Inputs Questionnaire (STIQ) and Learning Outcomes Questionnaire (LOQ) were used for data collection. Based on data obtained from a pilot sample (n = 412), principal axis factoring (PAF) was performed to assess the internal structure of the instruments following an oblique rotation. The KMO value of sampling adequacy were 0.88 and 0.94, while the Bartlett’s test of sphericity were significant χ2(253) = 5,010; p < 0.001 and χ2(105) = 3693.38, p < 0.001 for the STIQ and LOQ, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the models’ acceptability based on the maximum likelihood estimation technique. The main study used hierarchical linear regression for data analysis.

Results

Findings indicated that innate ability, health, motivation and social capital relatively and cumulatively predicted students’ overall, cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning outcomes. The proportion of variance explained by the predictors increased at different levels of the models with the addition of new variables. Students’ social capital reduced the effect of students’ innate ability regardless of their motivation and health status.

Conclusion/implication

This study has provided evidence that the four students’ inputs are crucial predictors of their learning outcomes in the three domains. This result is helpful for school management to provide services aimed at improving the school climate for students’ motivation and social capital. The result can provide policymakers with a proper understanding of the constituents of learning outcomes and how policies can be aligned to secure quality student inputs for maximum productivity in education.

How to avoid others and influence people: Attachment orientations predict leader prototypicality in ad hoc teams

The existing literature has explored the role and importance of personality traits in leader prototypicality. However, limited research exists concerning the link between personality traits and leader emergence or prototypicality in ad hoc teams. Based on the relational leadership and attachment literature, we examine whether leader attachment orientations can serve as antecedents of leader prototypicality in ad hoc teams. Utilizing an ad hoc problem-solving task featuring a round-robin design in a sample of 197 participants, we find that individuals with a dominant avoidant attachment orientation were more likely to be perceived as leader-like or leader prototypical. In comparison, individuals with a dominant anxious attachment orientation were much less likely to emerge as leader prototypical. We interpret these findings in alignment with attachment theory and relational leadership and discuss the role of relational personality traits in ad hoc teams with no formally appointed leader.

Differences in Power Acquisition Between Only and Non-only Children: The Effects of Cooperative Orientation, Competitive Orientation, and Dependency on Parents

Drawing upon a developmental perspective, we investigated the differences in power acquisition (i.e., rank at work and leader role occupancy in university) between only and non-only children as well as the mediating role of cooperative and competitive orientations and the moderating role of dependency on parents. To test our hypotheses, we conducted two field studies in 155 part-time Master of Business Administration (MBA) students (Study 1) and 375 senior students (Study 2). Results showed that: (1) non-only children were more likely to achieve higher rank at work than only children; (2) only children were less likely than non-only children to acquire power in organizations because they scored lower in cooperative orientation; however, the mediating effect of competitive orientation was not significant; (3) the difference in cooperative orientation between only and non-only children was smaller when dependency on parents was high, whereas it became larger when dependency on parents was low. Our research contributes to the understanding of how family structure influences individual power acquisition.

Birth order revelations about managers

Purpose

This paper aims to reveal the effects of birth order in decision-making style, conflict handling style and propensity for participative decision-making. The intention is to open the perspective of birth order research in organizational studies, as an important individual difference of managers.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was conducted with 230 managers from different industries in Kosovo. Self-report measures were used for decision-making style, conflict handling style and participatory decision-making constructs.

Findings

Results indicate that only children are more avoidant and spontaneous decision-makers. Firstborns are rational in decision-making and prefer problem-solving in conflict handling. Middleborns are intuitive decision-makers and use compromising in conflict handling. Lastborns make decisions rationally and use both compromising and problem-solving in conflicting situations. In addition, lastborns appeared to have a more positive attitude toward participative decision-making, followed by middleborns, firstborns and only children.

Research limitations/implications

Birth order affects managers’ behaviors in decision-making and conflict situations. Relationship dynamics in sibships are reflected in organizational settings, affecting how people behave in decision-making and conflict handling.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to attest how birth order influences the ways managers make decisions, handle conflicts and involve others in decision-making. As birth order cannot be changed, such knowledge is critical.

Can You Ever Be Too Smart for Your Own Good? Comparing Linear and Nonlinear Effects of Cognitive Ability on Life Outcomes

Despite a long-standing expert consensus about the importance of cognitive ability for life outcomes, contrary views continue to proliferate in scholarly and popular literature. This divergence of beliefs presents an obstacle for evidence-based policymaking and decision-making in a variety of settings. One commonly held idea is that greater cognitive ability does not matter or is actually harmful beyond a certain point (sometimes stated as > 100 or 120 IQ points). We empirically tested these notions using data from four longitudinal, representative cohort studies comprising 48,558 participants in the United States and United Kingdom from 1957 to the present. We found that ability measured in youth has a positive association with most occupational, educational, health, and social outcomes later in life. Most effects were characterized by a moderate to strong linear trend or a practically null effect (mean R² range = .002-.256). Nearly all nonlinear effects were practically insignificant in magnitude (mean incremental R² = .001) or were not replicated across cohorts or survey waves. We found no support for any downside to higher ability and no evidence for a threshold beyond which greater scores cease to be beneficial. Thus, greater cognitive ability is generally advantageous-and virtually never detrimental.

The Relationship between Eco-Innovation and Smart Working as Support for Sustainable Management

Nowadays, firms have to face challenging economical cirses, like the one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, where volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity are manifested. Strategic management is seen as one of the key approaches that firms can choose to implement sustainable smart working (on the support of Internet of Things and smart technologies) and to face global competition. In this article, as a response to the current crisis, we study the influence of Smart Working on Eco-innovation within EU 28 countries. Specifically, we evaluate the relationship between Eco-innovation index for EU 28 countries and Smart Working, by using a clustering analysis. The results show that the increased labor productivity and employees’ eco-innovation are associated, to a higher extent, with the companies agreeing to a flexible and comfortable environment. These companies agree with the introduction of special programs such as working from home. We also prove that Smart Working is implemented by innovative leaders gaining economic sustainability. This study also provides several theoretical and practical contributions. We provide (i) an overview of sustainable management, including the diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives; and (ii) the recommendation of an innovation model through the bilateral collaboration for the constructs of performant sustainable strategies.