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Consumer choice theory (CCT) and the law of diminishing marginal utility help to explain shoppers that value less and prioritize needs. Additional units provide a marginal return on investment. Buying more does not mean equivalent gains for additional money spent. The researchers developed and validated the necessity shopper scale (NSS) to study need-focused shoppers.

The researchers followed standard psychometric practices to create and validate the NSS. The researchers performed item development, data collection, exploratory analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and predictive validity analysis using survey data (N = 1,266).

Discriminant and convergent validity analyses demonstrated that the measure was distinct from existing measures. Predictive validity analysis found necessity shoppers (NS) are more likely to buy one over buy one get one half off (BOGOHO). NS were associated with a higher connection to community/group (CTCG). Higher hyperopia (i.e. disinclination to indulgence) with necessity shopping beliefs heightened this CTCG. A higher CTCG was associated with a greater likelihood to select BOGOHO.

NS (more connected to others) buy more to share with others, while buying just enough for themselves. Social connections are long-term investments involving more people and more needs to fulfill. Brands marketed with communal values and able to enhance social connections are discussed as implications to encourage NS to buy more.

During the early SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated masks “may not protect the wearer, but it may keep the wearer from spreading the virus to others”. Health officials revised mask guidelines to include both the wearer and others, but contradiction became a focal point for online debate and credibility. While revised policies eventually became adopted by the public, there was loss time and lives during this critical stage. This study investigates collectivist messaging on public policy support.

COVID-19 public policy hypocrisy was defined as the gap between supporting community policies while rejecting policies more likely to impact the individual. United States participants (N = 1,605) completed questionnaires. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted using SPSS PROCESS.

Those high on collectivism and high on global personal impact associated with lower COVID-19 public policy hypocrisy. These individuals indicated consistent support for community and individual policies, likely requiring personal sacrifices. Indirect conditional effects of lower conscientiousness associated with higher hypocrisy among those collectivistic.

Participants evaluated preference to original public safety ads, representative of basic societal and individual benefits. Those higher on collectivism preferred societal “we” versus individual “me” public safety ads. Implications discuss benefits of personal and communal public health messaging in an individualistic society so businesses can reopen. Entrepreneurs experienced major economic setbacks that effective public health policies could have mitigated.

In all, 218 business/psychology working students contributed to the validation of the 20-item Mentor Expectations Measure (MEM). Mentors expected outcomes of mentoring protégés based on protégé race and mentors’ level of social dominance orientation (SDO) were established. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Study 1: to better understand the structure of the newly created MEM, (and to take the first step toward establishing a model) the authors conducted an exploratory factor analysis, using principle axis factoring procedure for extraction with direct oblimin rotation. The factor analysis yielded four viable factors. Study 2: participants were the same 218 working undergraduate students from a mid-sized university located on the west coast of the USA. SDO and social desirability were collected and survey participants were presented a stimulus story written so that the reader would take on the perspective of a mentor within a formal organizational mentorship program. Participants were randomly assigned stories in which they, as the mentor, receive a new protégé (the manipulated variable – perceived ethnicity). Other than the names of the protégés, the stimulus stories and questionnaires were exactly the same. The survey consisted of 63 questions in total.

Given evidence of discriminatory behavior toward those that threaten hierarchical norms, the authors anticipated worse expectations for the mentorship to be found in the African American protégé manipulation. Based on the literature, the authors also anticipated stronger interactions between SDO and the mentorship expectations based on the discipline of the mentor. Participant-mentors estimated expected mentor outcome rewards from mentoring a Black or White protégé. No interactions were established, but SDO was a significant predictor of lessened expectations across several elements of the mentorship. This suggests that high levels of SDO in workplace hierarchies manifest poor expectations toward mentorship outcomes no matter the race/ethnicity or disciplinary back ground of the mentor.

While the subjects in the study represent realistic entry level managers and the sample size is acceptable, the authors would like to replicate using larger sample sizes in the future.

The development of the MEM reflects a step forward in the psychometric matching of mentors with protégé. The authors recommend utilizing the MEM to evaluate mentors before establishing a relationship and making sure that the relationship is based on clear expectations, knowledge and balanced interpersonal relationships. Importantly, understanding the impact of individual differences like SDO will facilitate more productive relationships than matching on just ethnic and gender-based commonality.

As significant negative correlations (at the 0.01 level) were found between SDO and mentor commitment, mentor tangible rewards, as well as mentor intrinsic rewards. The negative relationships suggests that as SDO levels increase, participants level of commitment to the protégé lessens, their expectation of tangible rewards based on the mentor ship lessen, and their own levels of intrinsic rewards will diminish. This paints a picture of low expectations for the protégé based on one’s level of SDO, which surprisingly does not seem to interact with race of protégé.

First, the MEM can facilitate the matching of mentors and protégés’. Second, researchers (Klauss, 1981; Kram, 1985) have pointed out that formal mentorship relationships may suffer due to the lack of initiative and commitment which the MEM clarifies. Third, the MEM can be used to examine and existing mentorship relations. Fourth, established use of the MEM or mentorship assessment would signal a “culture of mentoring, with organizations broadcasting the seriousness with which they take mentorship. Finally, the authors establish the impact of SDO on mixed race mentorships.

Purpose – David Gordon (1996) contended that the size of the managerial/administrative class has expanded in recent decades and that this has contributed to growing earnings inequality. This argument, however, has received insufficient attention despite its potential to explain some of the growth of earnings inequality in recent decades. We assess whether managerial intensity contributes to earnings inequality in affluent democracies, and thus evaluate his argument and extend it with a comparative perspective.

Methodology/approach – Our analyses are based on panel analyses of 17 affluent democracies from 1973 to 2004. Utilizing random- and fixed-effects models, we include three different measures of earnings inequality and an original measure of managerial intensity.

Findings: We show that managerial intensity is positively associated with all three measures of earnings inequality in random-effects models. As well, managerial intensity is positively associated with earnings inequality in the fixed-effects models for the 90/50 ratio of earnings inequality, but is not significant for the other two measures.

Originality/value – This study provides one of the few tests of Gordon's argument. We demonstrate that growing managerial intensity has contributed to rising earnings inequality in affluent democracies. In contrast to previous research, we argue that much of the rise of earnings inequality is due to political/institutional factors rather than labor market and demographic change. One of the reasons for Europe's relatively lower level of and slower increase in earnings inequality is its lower managerial intensity.

Current practice, reified through typical IRB guidelines, has its roots in traditional positivist frameworks about research. The positivist research paradigm is traceable back to Enlightenment epistemologies, which emphasized the fact-based, value-free nature of knowledge (Christians, 2000; Cunningham & Fitzgerald, 1996; Howe & Moses, 1999; Muchmore, 2000). Christians (2000) suggests that researchers who were grounded in positivist approaches used utilitarian perspectives on research ethics. The utilitarian approach suggested that a single set of moral considerations could guide all inquiry; these considerations were outlined in a generally accepted code of ethics that emphasized informed consent, privacy/confidentiality, and accuracy, and that opposed deception in research. Many of these conventions were codified in national legislation in the USA beginning in 1974, in response to several experiments that had mistreated research participants (Hecht, 1995; UCRIHS, 2004). According to Christians (2000), ‘Three principles, published in what became known as the Belmont Report, were said to constitute the moral standards for research involving human subjects: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice’ (p. 140). These principles were intended to ensure that people participated in research voluntarily and anonymously; that researchers protected the well-being of their participants; and that both the benefits and the burdens of research be distributed equitably (Christians, 2000). This legislation established requirements for IRBs that would review and monitor federally funded research conducted by universities and other institutions. Most universities and other research-conducting institutions have since expanded the purview of their IRBs to monitor all institutional research – not just that which is federally funded (Hecht, 1995).

The topic of whistleblowing is achieving prominence as a question of social policy. Some influential voices are suggesting that far from whistleblowing — informing on organisations —, being socially undesirable, it may in certain circumstances be an activity deserving high praise. Inevitably it entails huge risks to the activist, and these risks need to be personally and carefully considered. John Banham, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, wrote in support of the Social Audit report on the subject (Winfield 1990), and a committee established by the Speaker of the House of Commons has suggested the possibility of honouring whistleblowers in the British Honours system for their good corporate citizenship. There have also been landmark reports in America, Australia and Canada (Leahy 1978, Electoral and Administrative Review Commission 1990, Ontario Law Reform Commission 1986).

Civic engagement means more than formal participation in the political process. Students can experience civic life across campus in ways that may not jump off the page as being relevant on first reading. Whether in the classroom through intentionally designed curricular experiences or through participating in a student organization focused on civic engagement, higher education should be helping develop students as active, participatory citizens. This chapter aims to provide the first look at how students across the United States are organizing on college campuses to participate in the political process.