Boston College

About: Boston College is a education organization based out in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 9749 authors who have published 25406 publications receiving 1105145 citations. The organization is also known as: BC.

Managerial modes of influence and counterproductivity in organizations: a longitudinal business-unit-level investigation.

Abstract: The authors studied the effect of 3 modes of managerial influence (managerial oversight, ethical leadership, and abusive supervision) on counterproductivity, which was conceptualized as a unit-level outcome that reflects the existence of a variety of intentional and unintentional harmful employee behaviors in the unit Counterproductivity was represented by an objective measure of food loss in a longitudinal study of 265 restaurants After prior food loss and alternative explanations (eg, turnover, training, neighborhood income) were controlled for, results indicated that managerial oversight and abusive supervision significantly influenced counterproductivity in the following periods, whereas ethical leadership did not Counterproductivity was also found to be negatively related to both restaurant profitability and customer satisfaction in the same period and to mediate indirect relationships between managerial influences and distal unit outcomes

Observing Bullying at School: The Mental Health Implications of Witness Status

Abstract: This study explores the impact of bullying on the mental health of students who witness it. A representative sample of 2,002 students aged 12 to 16 years attending 14 schools in the United Kingdom were surveyed using a questionnaire that included measures of bullying at school, substance abuse, and mental health risk. The results suggest that observing bullying at school predicted risks to mental health over and above that predicted for those students who were directly involved in bullying behavior as either a perpetrator or a victim. Observing others was also found to predict higher risk irrespective of whether students were or were not victims themselves. The results are discussed with reference to past research on bystander and witness behavior.

Critiquing Teacher Preparation Research: An Overview of the Field, Part II

Abstract: This is the first of a two-part article that aims to chart the contemporary landscape of research on teacher preparation and certification. It is based on a review of more than 1,500 studies published between 2000 and 2012. Part 1 provides information about how the review was conducted and describes the theoretical/analytic framework the authors developed to guide the review. The framework combines ideas from the sociology of knowledge and research as social practice. This framework situates the research on teacher education within salient economic, intellectual, and demographic developments of the past half century and also examines the practices of researchers who are differently positioned from one another, have divergent purposes and audiences, and who work both inside and outside teacher education. Part 1 also analyzes the first of three major research programs—research on teacher preparation accountability, effectiveness, and policies, identifying strengths and weaknesses in this body of studies.

Disaster Dynamics: Understanding the Role of Quantity in Organizational Collapse

Abstract: This article examines the role that the quantity of nonnovel events plays in precipitating disaster through the development of a formal (mathematical) system-dynamics model. Building on existing case studies of disaster, we develop a general theory of how an organizational system responds to an on-going stream of non-novel interruptions to existing plans and procedures. We show how an overaccumulation of interruptions can shift an organizational system from a resilient, self-regulating regime, which offsets the effects of this accumulation, to a fragile, self-escalating regime that amplifies them. We offer a new characterization of the conditions under which organizations may be prone to major disasters caused by an accumulation of minor interruptions. Our analysis provides both theoretical insights into the causes of organizational crises and practical suggestions for those charged with preventing them.• Major disasters have long interested organization theorists (Perrow, 1984; Shrivastava, 1987; Weick, 1993b; Vaughan, 1996), and their causes continue to be an active area of inquiry. Accidents like the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl or Union Carbide’s gas leak at Bhopal are major social events responsible for immeasurable human suffering and environmental damage. There are few more compelling opportunities for organization theory specifically, and the social sciences in general, to prevent suffering and contribute to humanity. Moreover, major disasters provide a unique opportunity to study organizational processes in situations that are far from equilibrium. Just as the designers of bridges and airplanes test their systems under extreme conditions that are rarely, if ever, experienced during actual use, major catastrophes provide a similar opportunity to learn more about the vulnerability and resilience of human and social systems.

Review of McKinsey report: How the world’s best performing school systems come out on top

Abstract: These are heady times in the world of international survey assessments. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which sponsors the Program in International Student Assessment (PISA) and the International Adult Literacy Strategy (IALS), and the International Education Agency (IEA), which sponsors the Trends In Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study (PIRLS), have achieved substantial, if indirect, influence on education policy in many nations. Over the last two decades, these four assessments have expanded in both scope and coverage. Each successive administration has involved a larger number of jurisdictions and garnered greater coverage in the media when scores are announced. More significantly, in many of these jurisdictions policy makers attend to the outcomes (particularly the so-called league tables) and new governmental policies are enacted as a result. Of course, the interest in education stems largely from an appreciation of the role of human capital development in economic growth (Hanushek et al. 2008). At the same time, education researchers have taken advantage of the treasure trove of data to conduct sophisticated analyses: some focus on the relationships among student performance, student background characteristics and school contexts; others look for connections between student outcomes and classroom practices. More often than not, an important goal is to identify those conditions that account for the success of the ‘‘highflyers,’’ those jurisdictions that top the charts. To this ever-growing corpus, McKinsey and Company has contributed the present report, a study of 25 jurisdictions selected on the basis of their performance on PISA 2003, TIMSS or the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a bi-annual assessment carried out in the United States. Most were either top scoring or displayed clear improvement trajectories over a number of administrations. A few countries in the Middle East and Latin America were included for comparison purposes, although they are not much mentioned in the text. The authors conducted an extensive literature review and a large number of interviews. In the end, they reached a rather unsurprising conclusion;