Showing papers on "Judgement published in 1998"

The State of the Notion: Knowledge Management in Practice

Abstract: To a growing number of companies, knowledge management is more than just a buzzword or a sales pitch, it is an approach to adding or creating value by more actively leveraging the know-how, experience, and judgement resident within and, in many cases, outside of an organization. Based primarily upon the results of a study of 431 U.S. and European organizations, this article describes what firms are actually doing to manage knowledge, what else they think they could be or should be doing, and what they feel are the greatest barriers they face in their efforts.

Studying the Clinician: Judgment Research and Psychological Assessment

Abstract: Assessment of Personality and Psychopathology: Psychodiagnosis Case Formulation Behavioural Predication Treatment Planning Neuropsychological Assessment Methods and Recommendations for Making Judgements Clinical Judgement Computers and Judgement Improving Psychological Assessment.

Is the National Numeracy Strategy Research-based?

Abstract: The British Government has recently agreed proposals for a National Numeracy Strategy which claims to be based on evidence concerning ‘hat works’. This article reviews the literature in each key area in which recommendations are made, and makes a judgement of whether the claim is justified. In some areas (e.g. calculators) the recommendations run counter to the evidence.

Decision Analysis for Management Judgement (2nd Edn)

Abstract: Decision Analysis for Management Judgment is unique in its breadth of coverage of decision analysis methods. It covers both the psychological problems that are associated with unaided managerial decision making and the decision analysis methods designed to overcome them. It is presented and explained in a clear, straightforward manner without using mathematical notation. This latest edition has been fully revised and updated and includes a number of changes to reflect the latest developments in the field.

Implicit knowledge, explicit knowledge and general language proficiency:

Abstract: This paper explores ways of measuring implicit and explicit second language (L2) knowledge and examines the relationship between these measures and measures of general language proficiency. Scores were obtained from a timed oral production test, a timed grammaticality judgement test (administered twice), a delayed grammaticality judgement test and an interview designed to tap metalingual knowledge, all of which focused on learners’ knowledge of verb complementation in English. A factor analysis revealed a two-factor solution, reflecting a clear distinction between those measures that incorporated a time constraint (hypothesized to reflect implicit knowledge) and those that did not (hypothesized to tap explicit knowledge). Both factors were found to correlate with scores on the Secondary Level English Proficiency Test (SLEP). However, only one measure of explicit knowledge (the Delayed Grammaticality Judgement Test) was found to be significantly related to scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The significance of these results for language teaching and testing is considered.

The Question of the Limit: Desecuritisation and the Aesthetics of Horror in Political Realism:

Abstract: Desecuritisation-or, the unmaking of the securitisation-of migration, is a critical strategy which should make it possible to relocate the question of migration to a context of ethico-political judgement in wh ich one does not seek to found the political on the basis of an existential threat. This article contributes to a better understanding of the ethico-political problematique this 'relocation' addresses by rendering explicit the central ethico-political issue which is born out of the securitisation of migration. More specifically, I look at this question by interpreting the political significance of an existential threat in a Schmittean rendering of the political. The key ethico-political question which arises from this interpretations is whether one wa,lts to integrate free individuals into a political community on the basis of a passage to the limit and the political aesthetics of horror it implies.

Feminism and citizenship

Abstract: Introduction PART ONE: BACKGROUND Debates on Feminism and Citizenship Feminism Social-Liberal Citizenship PART TWO: SUB-THEMES OF CITIZENSHIP Liberty Rights Social Equality Political Subjectivity Political Representation Political Judgement PART THREE: EVALUATION Evaluating Feminist and Other Citizenship Conceptions Active and Sex-Equal Citizenship

Thinking Like an Engineer: Studies in the Ethics of a Profession

Abstract: Michael Davis, a leading figure in the study of professional ethics, offers here both a compelling exploration of engineering ethics and a philosophical analysis of engineering as a profession. After putting engineering in historical perspective, Davis turns to the Challenger space shuttle disaster to consider the complex relationship between engineering ideals and contemporary engineering practice. Here, Davis examines how social organization and technical requirements define how engineers should (and presumably do) think. Later chapters test his analysis of engineering judgement and autonomy empirically, engaging a range of social science research including a study of how engineers and managers work together in ten different companies.

The Chief, the Mine Captain and the Politician: Legitimating Power in Northern Ghana

Abstract: This article explores the strategies of acquiring and legitimating power in Ghana, taking the example of three ‘big men’ from the north, a paramount chief, a mine captain and a politician in the making. After offering some observations on the recent public debate on the (im)morality of power and ‘bigness’, it outlines the biographies of these three ‘big men’ and analyses how they skilfully combine different registers of power and legitimacy. It then analyses the strategies of legitimation and grounds of moral judgement which depend, at least to a certain degree, on the particular relationship of the ‘judge’ with the ‘big man’ in question. The article concludes by discussing the common ‘grammar’ that seems to regulate the debates on ‘bigness’, morality and interest.

What is a Central City in the United States? Applying a Statistical Technique for Developing Taxonomies

Abstract: We test the null hypothesis that municipalities defined as central cities by the US Bureau of the Census in 1990 are homogeneous-a hypothesis we reject. Rather, we find that US central cities consist of 2 distinct subsets of municipalities that are aggregated from 13 cluster groupings. The article has two purposes. The first is methodological. We develop a method that uses cluster analysis to group US central cities; then we employ discriminant analysis to establish the statistical validity of those groups. We also develop techniques to minimise the role of judgement in selecting the appropriate cluster solution. The second purpose of the article is to test the substantive null hypothesis. Our rejection of the homogeneity assumption raises the spectre of specification error in research and public policies that assume homogeneity among central cities.

The Origins of the First World War

Abstract: Covering popular topics and containing sharply focused material, Longman History in Depth is ideal for AS/A Level or higher Still students of all abilities. * Introduces students to each topis through a narrative supported by charts, maps, timelines, picture galleries. * Covers core objectives, with clear and relevant illustration to support the text. * Contains activities which develop study skills and examination techniques. * Encourages in-depth investigation and lads students toward stronger, personal judgement. * Provides guidence on making notes, completing essays and answering questions. * Allows for easy reference and revision with a structured layout that highlights key terms clearly.

Objectivity and subjectivity in the decision making process

Abstract: Classical Operations Research assumed objectivity. Operations researchers hardly bothered to ask the decision maker about his or her preferences, assuming that a well-defined single objective function was an adequate representation of the decision problem. Many multicriteria decision methods began in response to this failure of Operations Research. Other methods took a totally different and more subjective point of view. In this paper, we discuss objective and subjective descriptions, their interpretation and use in decision making. In the center of the ability to distinguish between these objective and subjective components stand scientific methods and scientists. We argue that it is possible and necessary to understand where and how objective measures should be replaced by subjective measures and judgement in the decision making process.

Dispute Processes: ADR and the Primary Forms of Decision Making

Abstract: This wide-ranging study considers the primary forms of decision-making - negotiation, mediation, and umpiring - in the context of rapidly changing discourses and practices of civil justice across many jurisdictions. Much contemporary discussion in this field, and associated projects of institutional design, are taking place under the wide ranging but imprecise label of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). If a common linking theme is sought, the authors argue that this must lie in a general shift of priorities as between judgement and settlement in ideological terms. This new edition brings together and analyses a wide range of materials dealing with dispute processes and the current debates on civil justice. With the help of a selection of texts beyond those ordinarily found in the emerging alternative dispute resolution literature it provides a broad, comparative perspective on modes of handling civil disputes, with the principal focus on the central processes of negotiation and mediation.

Evidence in medicine: invited commentary

Abstract: In the practice of medicine, evidence pertains to “gnosis” — diagnosis, etiognosis and prognosis. Specific, ad hoc evidence is constituted by the patient profile in known, gnosis-relevant respects, and this is interpreted — translated to gnostic probability — in the light of general, ideally scientific, evidence specific to the profile. The scientific evidence is about rates in defined domains and, ultimately, their profiledefining subdomains. Scientific evidence expressly relevant to diagnosis and etiognosis is almost nonexistent today, and intervention-prognostic research, while already appreciable in quantity, tends to lack relevance to practice mainly on account of relative inattention to the pivotal element in all practice-oriented research — express, principlesguided and detailed design of the object of study with a view to its relevance for practice, this in lieu of just an aprioristic and loose definition of it. Reporting of intervention-prognostic studies and syntheses of their results, too, remain underdeveloped. The current deficiencies in the scientific evidence for, and consequently in the scientific knowledge-base of, the practice of medicine constitute a challenge that clinical academia must, and increasingly will, meet — in partnership with editors of medical journals. It speaks to the enlightenment of the editors of the Canadian Medical Association Journal that they, in their letter to me, have expressed concern about the prevailing understanding of the issues surrounding scientific evidence as an input to the practice of medicine. These issues are important beyond any question, richly deserving of a textbook. But as none yet exists, the editors asked for an orientational overview as a succedaneum, for now. I feel honoured by their directing such a request to me. Specific versus general evidence In the legal profession, conclusions are made about guilt (criminal) or liability (civil), and they are based on evidence specific to the case at issue. Each conclusion from such evidence rests on a judgement of probability. This judgement is made informally — intuitively, subjectively — and not on the basis of general evidence from “legal science” addressing the frequency (probability) of guilt or liability as it depends on the particulars of the evidence. The conclusion itself is implicit in the level of probability; it is of the categorical, yes–no type; and it, in and of itself, implies the decision about whether some punitive or compensatory action is to ensue. The legal profession’s outlook meets medicine most notably in workers’ compensation decisions: if, in informal medical opinion, it is more probable than not that work was causal to the worker’s illness, then work was “liable” for the worker’s illness and full compensation is due, whereas otherwise no compensation is accorded. (An alternative worthy of consideration would be that if the probability of occupational etiology is P, then proportion P of the full compensation is allowed.) In medical diagnosis, the ultimate question is whether a particular illness is at the root of the patient’s felt problems; and were the legal paradigm to be followed, the evidence would be taken to consist solely of “specific” evidence: “direct” evidence in the sense of symptoms, signs and test results, together with “circumstantial” evidence in the sense of the patient’s profile in respect to indicators of risk (cf. Fig. 1). Both the manifestational (direct) and risk (circumstantial) aspects of the specific evidence are relevant to the ultimate question only insofar as they are discriminating between the illness at issue and its differential-diagnostic alternatives as the possible “culprits” for the production of the patient’s predicament. This differential-diagnostic outlook is different from the legal one: in a court of law there is no line-up of all the possible culprits coupled with the challenge of evidence-based identification of the true culprit among them. In the context of medical diagnosis, different from law, evidence takes on an added Editorial Editorial Dr. Miettinen is with the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Que.

The ethical school

Abstract: Table of Contents. 1. Introduction 2. Beyond Power 3. Ends ands Means 4. Equity and the Construction of Difference 5. What is a Right? 6. Maximising Good 7. Community and Loyalty 8. Censorship and Curriculum 9. Omissions and Commissions 10. Making Progress in Ethical Judgement Appendix A. Appendix B. Glossary. Bibliography

Signal versus noise in the evidence base for medicine: an alternative to hierarchies of evidence?

Abstract: Clinical practice frequently generates questions that are not easily answered by randomized trials. On conventional hierarchies of evidence, 'weaker' study designs are often more feasible. Also, much research is not well designed. Yet we still need to make best use of the available evidence. Systematic reviews must therefore address the danger of underestimating the evidence from relevant literature if it includes only that of a certain methodological quality. This would run the risk of missing or distorting the true message that the review is trying to identify. We propose a classification of research which does not reject studies on the basis of design alone, but recognizes the importance of assessing the message or 'signal' within each piece of research. It explicitly introduces judgement into the appraisal and synthesis of evidence, and affords more flexibility in attaching weight to evidence that might otherwise be lost. It includes an assessment of methodological quality, balancing this against the weight of its message, rather than rejecting studies which are below a certain threshold for quality. Fundamentally flawed research will still be rejected, but more commonly papers can still be used, tempering the importance that we attach to their signal by the amount of 'noise' around that signal. The balance of these two elements may be termed the 'signal to noise ratio'.

Sensitive Judgement: an inquiry into the foundations of nursing ethics

Abstract: This article considers the foundation of nursing as a moral practice. Its basic claim is that all nursing knowledge and action reside on a moral foundation. The clinical gaze meets vulnerability in the patient's human condition. To see a patient's wound is to see his or her hurt and discomfort; it is a concerned observation. To see the factual and pathophysiological is at the same time to see the ethical: the moral realities of suffering, pain and discomfort. A nurse's emotional sensitivities are central to understanding a patient's experiences of illness. Emotions reveal value and ascribe moral importance to certain situations; they are addressed centrally by vulnerability and the moral realities of illness. Hence, the essence of nursing knowledge and nursing performance cannot be understood merely as ontology (i.e., as being-with-the-other). Nursing is basically being-for-the-other; it is responsibility; it is ethics.

IMC - A UK Ad' Agency Perspective

Abstract: This paper concerns Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) in terms of its theoretical background, and by providing initial findings from an exploratory study of IMC within a judgement sample of UK advertising agencies (total estimated billings - £3.5billion). We consider arguments put forward by academics and practitioners in relation to what IMC is perceived to be, and whether it offers significant value to ad agencies and their clients in the dynamic marcoms marketspace leading toward the next century. Research findings show that IMC is not a short-term managerial fad, nor is it just a re-formulation of existent praxis. Instead, IMC offers a clear response by advertising agencies and their clients driven by a constellation of factors: new forms of information technology (including development and usage of databases), media fragmentation, client desires for interaction/synergy, and global and regional coordination. The paper concludes by stating that IMC is a fundamental, probably irreversible, shift...

Historical methodology and sustainability: An 800-year-old festival From China

Abstract: While much has been written in tourism literature about what is tourism as sustainable development, particularly in the context of planning, management and best practice, there has been little focus on methodologies designed to assess that sustainability. It is suggested that too often we are presented with a snapshot of a given situation at a particular point in time which does not reveal the processes at work over time; and a judgement about sustainability in the absence of the historical perspective and/or a longitudinal study must therefore be treated with caution. This paper examines the value of historical methodology for determining the sustainability of tourism development. It then applies this approach to an examination of a festival which has survived in China for about 800 years. The dynamics and interrelationships between political, sociocultural and economic forces, essential to an understanding of tourism in a holistic way, may thus be related to the sustainability of a tourism development.

Representing the Last Judgement: Social Hierarchy, Gender and Sin

Abstract: This article analyses painted representations of the Last Judgement in medieval Italian art. These large frescoes provided religious education to viewers and furnished a set of rules and norms governing social conduct. Verdicts imposed on recognisable groups of persons are examined to uncover ways in which political, social and gender hierarchies were prescribed and reaffirmed. In contrast to earlier representations, the depiction of Hell in this art focuses on the consequences of the verdict. Female sexuality in general and certain forms of male sexual offences such as the transgression of the vows of asceticism by monks, or sodomy are central to punishments. The spoken and unspoken norms of late medieval urban life were legitimised as divine verdicts in these representations, now endowed with a powerful normative significance.

Judgement Day: Cyborganization, Humanism and Postmodern Ethics:

Abstract: This paper attempts to make connections between a post-foundational epistemology, science fiction films and `critical management' Relying loosely on actor-network theory and the concept of cyborganization I attempt to examine how modes of organizing might be judged I suggest that the condition of possibility of any acts of ethical-political judgement must be a humanist ontology and epistemology If these foundations are thrown into question then acts of judgement are necessarily also made suspect The paper concludes with no new foundations, merely the injunction that judgement, of organizations as of anything else, will and must continue but that it should always be recognized as contingent and local

Visitation: policy versus practice.

Abstract: Few topics have generated as much controversy as visitation policies in critical care units. This national survey of nurses caring for acute myocardial infarction patients reveals that the number of nurses working in units with an open visiting policy has increased substantially. Open-ended responses reveal the complex judgement that goes into nurses' decisions about whether or not to allow visitors. This article offers managers, educators, advanced practice nurses, and bedside clinicians insight into the factors that nurses consider when making these decisions.

The Green Crusade: Rethinking the Roots of Environmentalism

Abstract: Chapter 1 Introduction: Green in Judgement Chapter 2 Brightest Heaven of Invention Chapter 3 We Happy Few Chapter 4 Small-Knowing Souls Chapter 5 The Mind O'erthrown Chapter 6 Something More Than Natural Chapter 7 Notes Chapter 8 Index

Virtual Reality vs. Virtual Body: The Use of Virtual Environments in the Treatment of Body Experience Disturbances

Abstract: The disturbances of body image associated with the eating disorders can be considered as a complex judgement bias strictly linked to attentional and memory biases for body related information. This...

What is quality in English language teacher education

Abstract: The concept of quality, although much discussed in commerce and in mainstream education, has received little attention in the ELT literature, least of all in teacher education. This article considers the problem of defining quality, given the diversity of interests and stakeholders involved in English language teacher education, and the range of definitions of teaching. It is especially important for all parties concerned to clarify their educational positions as a basis for defining objectives and for establishing the criteria by which quality is to be judged. Ultimately, quality can by achieved and sustained by attending to process in training, and developing professional skills and judgement, rather than by the acquisition of craft skills alone.

Markets as Predictors of Election Outcomes: Campaign Events and Judgement Bias in the 1993 UBC Election Stock Market

Abstract: Economists believe that markets are efficient aggregators of information. The 1993 UBC Election Stock Market was designed to use this ability to predict the outcome of the 1993 Canadian federal election. The final market predictions of vote shares going to the various parties were very close to the actual results. The market also generated a large body of data on the standings of the parties at every point in time during the campaign. This paper makes use of some of these data to study two sets of questions about trader behaviour. First, according to the traders and the Market, what were the significant events of the 1993 election campaign? Second, did UBC-ESM traders exhibit judgement bias in their trading activity? That is, did they tend to hold shares in parties that they wanted to be successful?