instrumentality

Leadership has been defined in various ways with some scholars strongly suggesting that it is a calling or something driven by a trait [1], which is expressed through personal values, integrity and certain qualities [2-5]. Leadership in virtual networks, however, is more of an earned recognition. This article argues that leadership in these virtual networks is about character-building. We approach this study by reviewing the literature around character-building, which we then model as discretionary effort (DE), a construct of expectancy, instrumentality, valence and self-affirmation, which explains the extra effort spent beyond the work-role requirement. Additionally, we review the coaching literature, which, when applied to our DE model, provides a path along which DE can be encouraged. We investigate whether work leverage earned through DE is shaped by process-oriented factors such as 'experience'. 'Gender' and 'profession' are also investigated as other added influencer factors. The study is based on professional networks with a data sample of 1548 managers and specialists in different sectors. Results reveal that process-oriented variables, such as 'experience', significantly explain the variability in the DE build-up process. DE levels are also observed to be different between sectors. 'Gender' did not have any effect on the results, either at unit or inter-unit relations, in clusters of employees who are either virtually-located or co-located.

This study explores the changing nature of public and private spaces and their characteristics in our daily life during the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on the role of the COVID-19 pandemic on the transformation of our physical (i.e., spatial) and social environments. This transformation process of physical and social environments has been primarily driven by implementation the "coercive restrictions" on the use of public spaces. The implementation of coercive restrictions on the use of public spaces has been receiving “mixed reactions” from people in different countries all around the world. The research presented herein studies these observed “mixed reactions” by using the lens of “instrumentality”. The use of concept of instrumentality reveals the subtle operation of the transformation taking place in public and private places all around the world. The findings of this research open up a new perspective to question, analyze, and evaluate the "instrumentality" of imposing coercive restrictions on the transformation of public and private spaces.

This paper examines the nexus of nature conservation, productivity and domination in inclusive conservation approaches. It argues that the turning of subsistence peasants into " stewards and custodians of biodiversity " (CBD) represents a soft form of domination according to the false alternatives of ecological instrumentality in that local development is subordinated to supposed " natural " constraints. The argument draws from critical theories of societal nature relations (Horkheimer & Adorno, 2002; Görg, 2003; Moore, 2015) as well as from extensive research on ecotourism as an instrument to reconcile conservation and development in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. From this angle, conservation is seen as a way to produce " natural " resources building on, perpetuating and creating various social inequities, based on the fiction that " nature " is essentially non-human. This case is made with regard to National Protected Areas in Laos, which are designed explicitly to accommodate local people's needs. Among other things, ecotourism is employed to create a source of income alternative to practices seen as " unsustainable ". Thereby, economic and also moral stakes in untouched resources are to be implanted. In such way, a compromise between (rather than a reconciliation of) conservation and development is imposed which is largely alien to the lived realities of local people, and only accounting partly for their needs and aspirations – an imposition which tends to produce its own countercurrents, again tying into productivity and inequality. This paper thus analyzes the workings of the nature/society dualism underlying ecological instrumentality as experienced in ecotourism as a tool for nature conservation in Laos.

Historically, the flow of management and diversity theory, relating to multinational companies, has been from mainly Western (Anglo, Franco, American) roots to developing/emerging economies. As a result, workplace relations, employee engagement and, in fact, the very notion of human nature has been addressed in terms of an implicit standard that is primarily White, primarily male, and primarily Western. The possibility for employees who are not White, male or Western to be heard in their own way and on their own terms, reflecting their own interests and ways of knowing, learning and engaging, have traditionally been institutionally denied. These conditions do not reflect mere chance, but rather the ability of those in power to create the terms according to which social reality will be encountered (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995), and the manner and forms of engagement which are credible (Rowley et al., 2010). To deny these political aspects of multinational workplaces in Asia is dangerous, in that it denies the Asian employee the possibility to make meaning of his/her world and the ability to deliver his/her best within a team when, for instance, engagement is irrelevant and cannot be self- determined. The latter (lack of choice and voice), we know, is experienced as strange, with fear, with annoyance, and Asian employees implicitly know that they are engaging through, and because of, someone else’s domination or discursive control (that is, being continually thought of, and treated through, an Asian group lens). Contextual sensitivity is important for moral considerations (Miller, 1994), which ultimately aff ects determinism attitudes and can also lead to fatalism orientation, with the locus of control perceived as either inside (Rotter, 1966) or outside (Frazee, 1998) the individual. Personal relevance is the degree to which employees can identify their perspectives and values in their workplace relations, discussions and ways of working. In other words, the ways in which they work and engage others are connected to who they are, their extended families and communities, what they care about, how they perceive and know, what has valency for them, and how they are able to contribute and move forward.

Business method patents require further litigation to answer many lingering questions. The decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group, Inc. eliminated the "business method" exception. The business method exception used a skeptical approach asking "why should a patent be granted." The skepticism inherent in this approach may explain why the doctrine was recognized for so many years.

Since the time of Hotel Security Checking Co. v. Lorraine Co., advances in the field of science and the advent of computers have forced courts to constantly rethink and rework their approaches to patent law. State Street marks the elimination of the business method exception as a per se ban on business method claims, but does not stand for the proposition that all business method claims will now be approved under section 101 of the Patent Act of 1952. Even if a claim clears either the novelty or nonobviousness hurdles to patentability, it still must fall under one of the subject-matter classes. For the time being, it appears that such claims will have higher probabilities of success if expressed through a computer program, which would provide the instrumentality by which the idea or system could reduce something to a different state. The shackles of the business method exception have been removed. How far the courts will now go in allowing business method claims is anyone's guess, but the current trend is definitely more pro-patent.

The Global Hyperorgan is an intercontinental, creative space for acoustic musicking. Existing pipe organs around the world are networked for real-time, geographically-distant performance, with performers utilizing instruments and other input devices to collaborate musically through the voices of the pipes in each location. A pilot study was carried out in January 2021, connecting two large pipe organs in Pitea, Sweden, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. A quartet of performers tested the Global Hyperorgan’s capacities for telematic musicking through a series of pieces. The concept of modularity is useful when considering the artistic challenges and possibilities of the Global Hyperorgan. We observe how the modular system utilized in the pilot study afforded multiple experiences of shared instrumentality from which new, synthetic voices emerge. As a long-term technological, artistic and social research project, the Global Hyperorgan offers a platform for exploring technology, agency, vo...

Abstract: The discussion of the so called „instrumentalisation ‟ of cultural institutions and programmes has been a key focus for the cultural policy, museum and heritage studies literatures over the part few years. This article will challenge the historical accuracy of claims that „instrumentality ‟ is a recent „threat ‟ to the management and funding of culture. Rather I will argue that historically, instrumental cultural policies have been policies of production. Further, through an analysis of the terms of the „instrumentalisation debate ‟ in relation to museums I will show that there is no consensus in the understanding of what constitutes instrumental or intrinsic functions. The „instrumental /intrinsic ‟ dichotomy is too simplistic to allow grounded critical engagement with the real complexities of cultural institutions and programmes. Finally, I argue that in order to work critically with institutions, policies and programmes it is necessary to engage with the practicalities ...

Bu araştırmada, lise öğrencilerinin İngilizce dersleriyle ilgili öz-yeterlik inançlarının, algıladıkları araçsallığın, biliş-ötesi öğrenme stratejilerinin, bilgiye yönelik meraklarının, başarı amaçlarının ve tutumlarının, İngilizce ders başarıları üzerindeki olası etkilerinin bir öğretim yılı süresince incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmada boylamsal tarama yöntemi ve panel deseni kullanılmıştır. Veriler, dört farklı zaman kesiti içerisinde (güz dönemi başı ve sonu, bahar dönemi başı ve sonu) ve 2015-2016 eğitim-öğretim yılında Zonguldak ilinin dört farklı ilçesindeki beş ayrı Anadolu Lisesinde öğrenim gören 1357 öğrenciden elde edilmiştir. Araştırmada, “İngilizceye Yönelik Tutum Ölçeği”, “Yabancı Dil Öz Yeterlik Ölçeği”, “Algılanan Araçsallık Ölçeği”, “2x2 Başarı Amaçları Ölçeği”, “Biliş-ötesi Öğrenme Stratejileri Ölçeği” ve “Bilgiye Yönelik Merak Ölçeği” veri toplama araçları olarak kullanılmıştır. Öğrencilerin İngilizce ders başarıları ise güz ve bahar dönemleri sonundaki not ortalamaları temel alınarak tanımlanmıştır. Veri analizleri SPSS 21 ile AMOS 21 programları kullanılarak gerçekleştirilmiştir. Ön analiz sonuçları, ölçme araçlarının faktör yapılarının araştırmanın örneklemiyle iyi bir uyum gösterdiğini, ölçme araçlarını oluşturan faktörlerin iç tutarlılık güvenirliklerinin yeterli olduğunu ve demografik değişkenlerin (cinsiyet vb.) araştırma değişkenleri üzerindeki etkilerinin zayıf olduğunu göstermiştir.
Yapısal eşitlik modellemesi analizi aracılığıyla elde edilen bulgular; (a) İngilizce dersine yönelik olumlu tutumun, diğer araştırma değişkenlerinin İngilizce ders başarısı üzerindeki doğrudan etkilerini baskıladığını; (b) öğretim yılı başındaki olumlu tutumun öğretim yılı sonundaki ders başarısı üzerindeki doğrudan etkisinin anlamlı düzeyde ve olumsuz yönde, ancak dolaylı etkisinin anlamlı düzeyde ve olumlu yönde olduğunu; (c) bilgiye yönelik merak, algılanan araçsallık, performansa yaklaşma amaçları ile örgütleme ve değerlendirme stratejilerinin ders başarısını değil, ders başarısının bu değişkenleri anlamlı düzeyde etkilediğini; (d) öğretim yılı başındaki yazma öz-yeterliğinin yüksek olmasının, güz dönemi sonundaki ders başarısını anlamlı düzeyde ve olumsuz yönde etkilediğini göstermiştir. Araştırmada, İngilizce derslerine ve gelecekte yapılabilecek araştırmalara yönelik önerilere de yer verilmiştir.

5 Diverse discretionary effort in workplace networks: serving self over community in China Kurt April and Eon Smit Introduction Historically, the flow of management and diversity theory, relating to multinational companies, has been from mainly Western (Anglo, Franco, American) ...