Wichita State University

About: Wichita State University is a education organization based out in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 4988 authors who have published 9563 publications receiving 253824 citations. The organization is also known as: WSU & Fairmount College.

Do Insiders Make Better CEOs than Outsiders

Abstract: Each year, 10%-15% of major U.S. corporations change their chief executive officers. The majority of these corporations (80% -85%) select their new CEOs from outside their organizations. Why do they prefer outsiders? Do insiders make better CEOs than do outsiders? Some of the nation's most respected companies-including GE, GM, IBM, and CocaCola-seem to think so. In his book Theory Z, William Ouchi asserts that promoting executives from inside is a characteristic of well managed companies in both Japan and the United States; the policy provides employees with opportunities to advance within the company and thus creates a sense of loyalty and stability.' Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, in In Search of Excellence, echo this sentiment.2 According to them, successful American companies motivate their employees by providing job security and creating a "feeling of family." These organizations rarely hire managers from the outside. The most convincing argument for hiring insiders has been advanced by John Kotter.3 He asserts that successful managers acquire expertise through long tenure with one company (or companies in one industry). According to Kotter, insiders have advantage over outsiders for two reasons. First, insiders are more knowledgeable than outsiders about a firm's specific products, competitors, markets, customers, and employees. This knowledge helps managers understand a large, complex, and diverse sets of activities and make appropriate decisions. Second, insiders have established social networks-including superiors, subordinates, peers, and others-through which they gain the information and support needed to perform their job. Outsiders must devote a considerable amount of time to establishing such networks. While most companies replace their CEOs with insiders, a small number of companies hire insiders. Why? Researchers agree that troubled companies often need to hire outside CEOs because they are more likely than insiders to be able to alter existing strategies and values that caused the current problems.4 Outsiders are likely to take decisive action to turn around a bad situation, while insiders are likely to be slow in recognizing the urgency of current problems and may pursue the old strategies that are no longer effective. Chrysler and International Harvester recently replaced their CEOs with outsiders in the hope that the new CEO would turn aound their ailing operations. Given the above observations, experts generally suggest that troubled firms hire outsiders to turn around their operations and successful firms select insiders to sustain their superb performance. Although this view has been widely held in management literature, it has not been empirically tested. The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to investigate the differential effects of outsiders and outsiders on corporate performance (as measured by profitability and stock price), and (2) to discern actual CEO hiring practices.

Child impulsiveness-inattention, early peer experiences, and the development of early onset conduct problems

Abstract: The conjoint influence of child impulsiveness-inattention (I/I) and peer relationships on growth trajectories of conduct problems was assessed in a community sample of 267 boys and girls. I/I reliably predicted teacher- and parent-reported conduct problems at kindergarten entry and growth in those problems over the next 2 years for boys and girls. The relation of boys' I/I to conduct problems was mediated, in part, by peer rejection and involvement in coercive exchanges with peers. The relation of girls' I/I to conduct problems was less clearly mediated by peer processes, but peer difficulties had additive effects. The impact of peer relationships on trajectories of conduct problems was apparent to parents as well as to teachers. Although I/I increments risk for early and persisting conduct problems in concert with poor peer relationships, it does so in complex and gender-specific ways.

Depending on my mood: Mood-driven influences on text comprehension.

Abstract: Reading comprehension is a critical component of success in educational settings. To date, research on text processing in educational and cognitive psychological domains has focused predominantly on cognitive influences on comprehension and, in particular, those influences that might be derived from particular tasks or strategies. However, there is growing interest in documenting the influences of emotional factors on the processes and products of text comprehension, because these factors are less likely to be associated with explicit reading strategies. The present study examines this issue by evaluating the degree to which mood can influence readers' processing of text. Participants in control, happy-induced, or sad-induced groups thought aloud while reading expository texts. Happy, sad, and neutral moods influenced the degree to which readers engaged in particular types of coherence-building processes in the service of comprehension. Although reading strategies clearly influence processing, understudied factors that are less explicitly goal-driven, such as mood, can similarly impact comprehension activity. These findings have important implications for the role of mood on reading instruction and evaluation