The influence of different game formats on technical actions and playing time parameters – A study with under-7 and under-9 soccer players in a competitive context

Soccer competitions in childhood should ensure a high involvement of all players regardless of their talent. The purpose of the present study was to compare soccer players’ technical actions and playing time parameters in 7v7 in comparison to 3v3 (on mini-goals without goalkeepers; under-7) and 5v5 (on 1.65 × 5 m. goals with goalkeepers; under-9) game formats in a competitive context. Using a quasi-experimental within-subject design, tournaments with under-7 ( n = 42) and under-9 ( n = 43) players were conducted. Technical actions and playing time parameters were rated. Based on the total number of technical actions in 7v7, median splits of the samples were conducted to compare differences between high-involved (dominant) and low-involved (non-dominant) players. No differences in the effective playing time comparing game formats within the age groups were found. In total, 7884 technical actions were rated. In both age groups, the total number of technical actions was higher in the smaller game formats. In under-7, the number of technical actions in all variables was higher in 3v3. In under-9, the number of technical actions was also higher in 5v5 except for unsuccessful passes as well as successful 1v1 situations. More unsuccessful 1v1 situations were found in 7v7. Concerning the total number of technical actions, both dominant and non-dominant players in both age groups performed more technical actions in small-sided games. Due to the higher involvement of the children, better conditions for the acquisition of soccer-specific skills in the smaller game formats compared to 7v7 game formats can be concluded.

Willingness to Pay for Public Benefit Functions of Daecheong Dam Operation: Moderating Effects of Climate Change Perceptions

This study estimates the economic value of the Daecheong Dam for the public function of responding to climate change. It examines the moderating effect of climate change perceptions on value estimates by applying choice experiments (CE). The study specifies three dam function attributes—drought management (DM), flood control (FC), and water quality monitoring (WM)—subdivided into three levels to improve the existing conditions. Survey data from 603 households living in Daejeon, Chungbuk, and Chungnam have been collected to perform the CE. Subsequently, two clusters—high-involvement and low-involvement groups—have been extracted, based on the climate change perception index. The main results of comparing the marginal willingness-to-pay between the two clusters are as follows. The attributes and price variable significantly affected the choice probability to benefit from improvements in the rational signs of the coefficients. This does not violate the independence of the irrelevant alternatives assumption. The improvement values of high-involvement and low-involvement groups are estimated as KRW 21,570 and KRW 14,572 a year per household, respectively. Both show the same value intensities in the order of WM, DM, and FC.

High Involvement Work in the New Zealand Public Service

<p>The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between high involvement work practices (HIWP) and employee outcomes, such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment, in the core New Zealand public service. It also investigates whether certain demographic factors may influence this relationship and proposes a structural model to test this. Information about HIWP and employee outcomes was originally gathered as part of the 2013 Workplace Dynamics Survey conducted by the New Zealand Public Service Association (PSA) and Victoria University of Wellington (Plimmer et al., 2013). Participants, all of whom were PSA members, were asked a variety of questions about their work, workplace and themselves. For the purposes of this current study, the sample was then limited to only those members of the core public sector who reported that they had no managerial responsibilities, which comprised 1,665 unique responses. The data were then analysed in order to generate descriptive statistics and trends regarding opinions, and to conduct inferential analysis. This included exploratory factor analysis to confirm the principal factors, confirmatory factor analysis to test the measurement of the constructs, and structural equation modelling to explicate the relationship between HIWP and employee outcomes. Moderating factors such as age, gender, and level of educational attainment were then introduced to the proposed structural model. The model suggests that HIWP, as measured by items associated with power, information, rewards, and knowledge (PIRK), have a positive effect on employees’ reported job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The model tests the influence of a second-order latent variable that describes the PIRK attributes working collectively, as well as a second-order latent variable, labelled Passion, for employee outcomes, based on the work of Vandenberg, Richardson and Eastman (1999), and Langford (2009), respectively. The findings of this study largely support the relationships proposed in the literature on HIWP, which was used to develop the theoretical model. It finds that employees reporting higher PIRK also experience higher job satisfaction and organisational commitment. It also suggests that age and level of educational attainment individually have some effect on the PIRK-Passion relationship. While gender did not affect this particular causal relationship, the model was different in some respects for men and women, particularly with respect to the effect of length of time spent working for a particular employer. This study contributes to theoretical and practical knowledge by providing evidence of the influence of high involvement practices for people management in the New Zealand public service on employee outcomes, an under-researched area. It also highlights the need for public sector managers and HR professionals to be aware of the different experiences of different demographic groups. This research makes recommendations for further research, including in the data-gathering stage, as well as suggestions for practitioners.</p>

High Involvement Work in the New Zealand Public Service

<p>The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between high involvement work practices (HIWP) and employee outcomes, such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment, in the core New Zealand public service. It also investigates whether certain demographic factors may influence this relationship and proposes a structural model to test this. Information about HIWP and employee outcomes was originally gathered as part of the 2013 Workplace Dynamics Survey conducted by the New Zealand Public Service Association (PSA) and Victoria University of Wellington (Plimmer et al., 2013). Participants, all of whom were PSA members, were asked a variety of questions about their work, workplace and themselves. For the purposes of this current study, the sample was then limited to only those members of the core public sector who reported that they had no managerial responsibilities, which comprised 1,665 unique responses. The data were then analysed in order to generate descriptive statistics and trends regarding opinions, and to conduct inferential analysis. This included exploratory factor analysis to confirm the principal factors, confirmatory factor analysis to test the measurement of the constructs, and structural equation modelling to explicate the relationship between HIWP and employee outcomes. Moderating factors such as age, gender, and level of educational attainment were then introduced to the proposed structural model. The model suggests that HIWP, as measured by items associated with power, information, rewards, and knowledge (PIRK), have a positive effect on employees’ reported job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The model tests the influence of a second-order latent variable that describes the PIRK attributes working collectively, as well as a second-order latent variable, labelled Passion, for employee outcomes, based on the work of Vandenberg, Richardson and Eastman (1999), and Langford (2009), respectively. The findings of this study largely support the relationships proposed in the literature on HIWP, which was used to develop the theoretical model. It finds that employees reporting higher PIRK also experience higher job satisfaction and organisational commitment. It also suggests that age and level of educational attainment individually have some effect on the PIRK-Passion relationship. While gender did not affect this particular causal relationship, the model was different in some respects for men and women, particularly with respect to the effect of length of time spent working for a particular employer. This study contributes to theoretical and practical knowledge by providing evidence of the influence of high involvement practices for people management in the New Zealand public service on employee outcomes, an under-researched area. It also highlights the need for public sector managers and HR professionals to be aware of the different experiences of different demographic groups. This research makes recommendations for further research, including in the data-gathering stage, as well as suggestions for practitioners.</p>

The Mediating Role of Managing the High Involvement Management Between Organizational Power and Negotiation StrategiesAnalytical Research of the Views of a Sample of Leaders of the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Minerals

The research aims to test the relationship and impact of High Involvement Management as an independent variable in negotiation strategies as a response variable, at the headquarters of the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Minerals in Baghdad Governorate, and then trying to come up with a set of recommendations that contribute to strengthening the negotiations carried out by the ministry’s leaders and based on the importance of the topic of research in public organizations and the importance of the surveyed organizations to the society. The descriptive-analytical approach was adopted in the completion of this research, and the research included a sample of (180) leaders of the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Minerals, and data was collected from (120) respondents who represent the research community exclusively and comprehensively, represented by (general managers, directors of departments people managers). By adopting the questionnaire, which included (47) paragraphs, the personal interviews were used during the distribution of the questionnaire and the explanation and clarification of its paragraphs. The research adopted the program Amos V.26, Spss V.26) with the adoption of descriptive statistics methods (linearity test, normal distribution test, confirmatory factor analysis, building models of variables, arithmetic mean, percentages, standard deviation, relative importance, and coefficient of variation, Pearson correlation coefficient, simple regression coefficient, path analysis, Sobel test) to test its hypotheses. As for the most prominent conclusions of the research that showed the validity of the hypotheses, they were embodied in the effect of high inclusion directly in the negotiation process and its strategies, and from it, we conclude that the management of high inclusion affects the negotiation directly and indirectly, and on this basis, these indirect influences contributed to increasing the value of the effect. The research came out with a number of recommendations; the most important of which is the investment of the reciprocal and interactive relationship between the management of high containment and negotiation strategies, directly or indirectly, with the realization that their elements and dimensions and their ability to develop, change and add in a way that coincides with the development and diversity of jobs and changes in the accelerating environment

Task-induced Involvement Load, Vocabulary learning and Reading Comprehension Among Iranian Intermediate English as a Foreign Language Learners

The importance of vocabulary in a second language is so self-axiomatic that it renders learning and teaching a must. The present study aimed to explore whether the manipulation of the task components, as proposed by Laufer and Hulstijn, affected the acquisition of English vocabularies by EFL learners. The present study followed an experimental design in that it used pre-test and post-test to collect data from the participants. The current research included 50 EFL students from two private English language institutions in Yazd, Iran. The study included two distinct reading tasks that placed varying loads on participants. The two reading texts were controlled for their difficulty level: one with the high level of involvement load and the other with lack of involvement load, thus two experimental groups. There was a reading comprehension exam for those who participated in the first experimental group (with a high involvement load). Reading comprehension was assessed using the first Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS1), which measures vocabulary knowledge. The second reading comprehension assignment was simultaneously presented to the second experimental group (the one with a low involvement load). After two weeks, they were administered VKS2, and their results were recorded. Analyzing the data was done by using independent t-tests. Exposure to high levels of involvement load has been shown to impact vocabulary development in English learners. This is despite respondents being able to recall more words from high-involvement vocabulary acquisitions than from low-involvement vocabulary acquisitions. Findings from this study may be used to construct practical tasks of reading with suitable degrees of difficulty for English language learners (EFL/ESL) teachers and vocabulary instructors.

Impacts of high-involvement HRM practices on organizational innovation capability: the mediating mechanism of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing

Purpose Given the important role of knowledge sharing (KS) processes for organizational innovation, the purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating roles of tacit and explicit KS in bridging the relationship between high-involvement human resource management (HRM) practices and specific aspects of innovation capability, namely, product and process innovation. Design/methodology/approach Analysis of moment structures and structural equation modeling are applied to examine the correlation among the constructs based on the survey data collected from 111 manufacturing and service firms. Findings The empirical findings reveal that KS processes positively mediate the relationship between high-involvement HRM practices and innovation capability. It highlights the important role of explicit KS in fostering aspects of innovation capability compared to the effects of tacit KS on aspect of innovation capability. Practical implications Vietnamese firms should pay much attention to high-involvement HRM practices to improve their innovation capabilities. In addition, fostering the willingness of employees for sharing tacit knowledge (e.g. experiences, uncommon understandings and insights) and explicit knowledge (e.g. formal information, official documents and reports and procedures and policies) is one of the most optimal solutions for firms to pursuit product and process innovation capability. Originality/value This paper significantly contributes to increasing knowledge and insights on the correlation between high-involvement HRM practices and specific forms of innovation. The understanding on mediating role of KS processes contributes to advancing the body of knowledge of HRM practices and innovation theory.

Impact of personality factors on purchase and adoption of consumer durables with advanced technology

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify critical personality traits affecting and influencing buying behaviour in high involvement consumer durables. It also intends to guide practitioners in selecting appropriate marketing frameworks, consumer segments and processes considering the characteristics of consumer behaviour in developing economies. Design/methodology/approach It systematically reviews the literature on consumer personality traits, its measurement and related consumer buying behaviour. It uses data collected from potential car buyers at various car showrooms across the Indian subcontinent. The authors have worked with the online survey firm Qualtrics, to gather a data set of 328 car purchase intenders’ responses to their validated survey. The model was tested using the SmartPLS. Findings The personality traits of imagination, agreeableness and social factors positively influenced attitude towards automobiles with advanced technology. Further, in line with the theory of planned behaviour, it is seen that a positive attitude towards advanced technology and design for automobiles makes a person more willing to pay for the same. Research limitations/implications The study is confined to consumers intending to purchase a car, who are Indian residents. Originality/value It adds to the comparatively lesser body of study on the impact of personality traits on intentions and attitudes in high involvement consumer durable purchases. Further, it serves as an empirical examination of the adoption of new technologies, in the context of high involvement consumer durables. For practicing managers, it provides a reference for deciding future development directions and approaches related to the effective market launch strategies and commercialization of advanced technology automobiles in India.