Are the costs worth the benefits? Shared perception and the aggregation of organizational climate ratings

A definitional component of organizational climate is the focus on employees' shared perceptions of the focal climate domain. To operationalize the notion of sharedness, researchers typically aggregate employees' domain‐specific climate perceptions to a higher level and justify this aggregation using quantitative indices of agreement. In the current paper, I argue that although accounting for sharedness among employees can provide some valuable insight, our overreliance on sharedness obscures some of the very organizational phenomena of interest. I discuss this issue by focusing on four costs of making unfounded assumptions regarding sharedness: (a) Aggregation assumes individual differences are a function of random error; (b) aggregation assumes that social situations are uniform across employees; (c) aggregation assumes that the unit of analysis is clear‐cut; and (d) aggregation assumes the group mean is meaningful. I argue that researchers carefully need to weigh the costs of violating these assumptions against the expected benefits of aggregating employees' climate perceptions, recognizing that sometimes employees' perceptions (i.e., psychological climate) might provide greater insight into phenomena of interest. Although I discuss these costs within the context of organizational climate research, these arguments apply to other research areas where individual perceptions are aggregated (e.g., research on leadership and teams).     

Reducing ammonia emissions from laying-hen houses through dietary manipulation

Feed additives can change the microbiological environment of the animal digestive track, nutrient composition of feces, and its gaseous emissions. This 2-yr field study involving commercial laying-hen houses in central Iowa was conducted to assess the effects of feeding diets containing EcoCal and corn-dried distillers grain with solubles (DDGS) on ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and greenhouse gas (CO2, CH4, and N2O) emissions. Three high-rise layer houses (256,600 W-36 hens per house) received standard industry diet (Control), a diet containing 7% EcoCal (EcoCal) or a diet containing 10% DDGS (DDGS). Gaseous emissions were continuously monitored during the period of December 2007 to December 2009, covering the full production cycle. The 24-month test results revealed that mean NH3 emission rates were 0.58 +/- 0.05, 0.82 +/- 0.04, and 0.96 +/- 0.05 g/hen/day for the EcoCal, DDGS, and Control diet, respectively. Namely, compared to the Control diet, the EcoCal and DDGS diets reduced NH3 emission by an average of 39.2% and 14.3%, respectively. The concurrent H2S emission rates were 5.39 +/- 0.46, 1.91 +/- 0.13, and 1.79 +/- 0.16 mg/ hen/day for the EcoCal, DDGS, and Control diet, respectively. CO2 emission rates were similar for the three diets, 87.3 +/- 1.37, 87.4 +/- 1.26, and 89.6 +/- 1.6 g/hen/day for EcoCal, DDGS, and Control, respectively (P = 0.45). The DDGS and EcoCal houses tended to emit less CH4 than the Control house (0.16 and 0.12 vs. 0.20 g/hen/day) during the monitored summer season. The efficacy of NH3 emission reduction by the EcoCal diet decreased with increasing outside temperature, varying from 72.2% in February 2009 to -7.10% in September 2008. Manure of the EcoCal diet contained 68% higher ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) and 4.7 times higher sulfur content than that of the Control diet. Manure pH values were 8.0, 8.9, and 9.3 for EcoCal, DDGS, and Control diets, respectively. This extensive field study verifies that dietary manipulation provides a viable means to reduce NH3 emissions from modern laying-hen houses.     

A Question of Boundaries: The Importance of “Revenuesheds” for Watershed Protection1

Patterson, Lauren A., Jeffrey Hughes, Glenn Barnes, and Stacey I. Berahzer, 2012. A Question of Boundaries: The Importance of “Revenuesheds” for Watershed Protection. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(4): 838‐848. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2012.00655.x Abstract: Watersheds transcend jurisdictional boundaries; raising important questions of who should pay for watershed protection, and how can watershed governance be funded? The responsibility and cost for watershed protection has progressively devolved to local governments, resulting in additional negative externalities and financing challenges. Watershed governance structures have formed at the scale of the watershed, but they often lack the financing mechanisms needed to achieve policy goals. Financing mechanisms via local governments provide a reliable source of revenue and the flexibility to address watershed specific issues. We develop a “revenueshed” approach to access the initial challenges local governments face when seeking to finance trans‐jurisdictional watershed governance. The revenueshed approach engages local governments into discussion and implementation of financial strategies for collaborative watershed governance. Legislation places water quality regulations primarily on local governments inside the watershed. The revenueshed approach extends the financial and stewardship discussion to include local governments outside the watershed that benefit from the watershed. We applied the revenueshed approach to the Mills River and Upper Neuse watersheds in North Carolina. Mills River had a partnership governance seeking revenue for specific projects, whereas the Upper Neuse sought long‐term financial stability to meet new water quality legislation.     

Teaching adolescents safe driving and passenger behaviors: effectiveness of the You Hold the Key Teen Driving Countermeasure

PROBLEM: Unsafe driving and passenger behaviors place teens at increased risk for fatal and nonfatal crashes. This study evaluated the short-and long-term efficacy of the You Hold the Key (YHTK) Teen Driving Countermeasure. METHOD: A two-page survey was completed by high school students at pretest, posttest, and long-term (6-month) posttest. RESULTS: YHTK was associated with significant immediate and long-term improvements in teen seatbelt use, safe driving, and perceived confidence in preventing drunk driving. Compared to pretests, students at immediate and long-term posttest more frequently wore seatbelts when driving or riding, required passengers to wear seatbelts, and limited the number of passengers to the number of seatbelts in the vehicle. Students were more likely at both posttests to avoid drinking and driving and to say no to riding with a friend who had been drinking. SUMMARY: YHTK was associated with increases in safe teen driving and passenger behaviors. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Success of YHTK is most notably due to its comprehensive nature. Future programs should consider comprehensive strategies when attempting to modify teen behaviors.     

Shared paternity in the acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus)

Summary We investigated multiple paternity in acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) from central New Mexico by starch-gel electrophoresis. Seven of thirty-one presumptive genetic loci were polymorphic. Multiple paternity was revealed in one of three multi-male groups sampled on the basis of offspring and adult electrophoretic phendtypes, and was suggested in the two other groups. This study provides the first documentation of multiple paternity for any avian cooperative breeder.     

Group size and foraging efficiency in yellow baboons

Summary I studied the foraging behaviour of adults in three different-sized groups of yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) at Amboseli National Park in Kenya to assess the relationship between group size and foraging efficiency in this species. Study groups ranged in size from 8 to 44 members; within each group, I collected feeding data for the dominant adult male, the highest ranking pregnant female, and the highest ranking female with a young infant. There were no significant differences between groups during the study in either the mean estimated energy value of the food ingested per day for each individual (385±27 kJ kg^-1 day^-1) or in the estimated energy expended to obtain that food (114±3 kJ kg^-1 day^-1). Mean foraging efficiency ratios, which reflect net energy gain per unit of foraging time, also did not vary as a function of the size of the group in which the baboons were living. There was substantial variation between days in the efficiency ratios of all animals; this was the result of large differences in energy intake rather than in the energy expended during foraging itself. The members of the smallest group spent on the average only one-half as much time feeding each day as did individuals in the two larger groups. However, they obtained almost as much energy while foraging, primarily because their rate of food intake while actually eating tended to be higher than the rate in the other groups. The baboons in the small group were observed closer to trees that they could climb to escape ground predators, and they also were more likely to sit in locations elevated above the ground while resting. Such differences would be expected if the members of the small group were less able to detect approaching predators than individuals that lived in the larger groups. The results of this study suggest that predator detection or avoidance, rather than increased foraging efficiency, may be the primary benefit of living in larger groups in this population.     

西安夏季大气亚微米颗粒物化学组成与来源的在线观测研究

西安作为汾渭平原地区最大的城市,大气颗粒物污染形势严峻.2017年夏季期间,在西安市浐灞生态园区运用气溶胶化学组分监测仪,对大气亚微米颗粒物中的非难挥发性组分(NR-PM1)进行了在线监测.观测期间NR-PM1的平均质量浓度为(30.1?±?15.4)μg???m?3.其中有机物含量最高,占NR-PM1总质量浓度的63％,其次为硫酸盐(18％)、铵盐(10％)和硝酸盐(9％).运用正交矩阵因子分析法共解析出两个主要因子,包括烃类有机组分(HOA)和含氧有机组分(OOA),分别占有机物总质量浓度的43％和55％.HOA主要由机动车排放贡献,而OOA主要由气态污染物的二次反应生成.气象因素对NR-PM1的浓度与化学组分的影响较为显著.高硝酸盐阶段发生在高湿、低温条件,可能是由氮氧化物的液相反应产生的.高硫酸盐阶段发生在低湿、高温条件,主要来自于大气光化学反应的贡献.该研究结果为西安及周边地区的空气污染治理决策提供重要的理论依据.