The certainty of misery is preferable to the misery of uncertainty

Today I have been looking for the provenance of a quote. It is supposedly by Virginia Satir, a psychotherapist from Menlo Park in California, who founded the Avanta movement. It reads "The certainty of misery is preferable to the misery of uncertainty".

I read this quote in an article about David Bowie in Forbes magazine today. The writer, Justin Wasserman, in his article "Bowie Leadership: Turn And Face The Strange", talked about how David Bowie created his own unique niche in music and fashion by somehow remaining unclassifiable and timeless in genre, style and appeal. He said "The late psychotherapist Virginia Satir has been quoted as saying that 'most people prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty.' Let that notion sink in for a moment. The majority of humanity would prefer to be miserable than to step into an uncertain window in the future – a future that could be wretched or, quite the contrary, infinitely superior to the present" (16 February 2016, Wasserman).

I was intrigued by the quote, mainly because I wondered if second 'misery' was a typo. To me, this quote felt like it should have read "most people prefer the certainty of misery to the mystery of uncertainty". While I realise that the certainty and uncertainty form a type of couplet, the mystery of uncertainty felt more 'right' to my ear.

So I went hunting to find the source of the quote.

After a quick trawl online, I found my earliest item: a 2003 Google Answers reply, but that provided no source document references. Wikiquote was also silent on this quote.

The US Open Library service is usually one of my first ports of call for source documents, so I went there. I trawled the OL index, and borrowed those Virginia Satir books which were available:"Making Contact", "Self-esteem", "Helping Families to Change" and "Peoplemaking". Unfortunately, none of these books contained the quote I was looking for.

There are another couple of checked out books ("The new peoplemaking", and "Conjoint family therapy") which I need to look at yet. I have added myself to the waiting list for those. However, I am not hopeful of finding the quote.

Which brought me to wondering why I was not hopeful. When searching for 'who said what', after a while, I think we get a feel for whether stated author is the actual author. I wonder if it is the same 'ring of truthfulness' - or 'jar of falseness' - that investigators and police feel when they are trying to solve something.

I am not sure where this feeling comes from, but I think it sometimes stems from a sense that the answer is a little too pat, or that what we are seeking does not match the pattern of the author's previous writing.

After pondering this, I reflected on why I need to find the provenance of quotes. I wonder if, after our curiosity is initially sparked, it is because as we are on the trail we sense a lack of congruence, which then drives - spurs - us to find the REAL answer.

So I have turned to the Quote Investigator - Garson O'Toole (actually the pseudonym for Professor Gregory F. Sullivan) - and asked him on his Facebook page if he can shed any light on whether or not Virginia Satir was the author of the quote... and from there, whether misery should be mystery:

Dear Quote Investigator, I was just reading a Forbes article at http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2016/02/16/bowie-leadership-turn-and-face-the-strange/#7d64376e25bc which quoted psychotherapist Virginia Satir saying “most people prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty”, but not giving a reference for this. Do you happen to know the source document for the quote? And, if you do, is the repetition of misery correct, or is the second instance supposed to be 'mystery'...?

I will report back when Garson comes back to me.


Sam

References:

• Google Answers (2003). Virginia Satir Quote: The certainty of misery is preferable to the misery of uncertainty. Retrieved 17 February 2016 from http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=176219
• O'Toole, Garson (n.d.) The Quote Investigator. Retrieved 17 February 2016 from https://www.facebook.com/QuoteInvestigator/?fref=ts
• Wasserman, Justin (16 February 2016). Bowie Leadership: Turn And Face The Strange. USA: Forbes. Retrieved 17 February 2016 from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2016/02/16/bowie-leadership-turn-and-face-the-strange/%237d64376e25bc&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=b-3DVr6TKMnwjwPGsKu4Dg

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Lostness

It's funny (funny-strange), but I get a sense of when students are derailing from their research projects. However, that is only when they are close to actual derailment.

You see, they go dark on me.

They stop sending email enquiries.

They stop asking to meet with me to discuss their project. I only see them in class, and they disappear at the end without stopping to have the normal chat.

They stop - or cut back on - contributing in class.

When I see them on campus, they say "Everything is going fine!" and then hurriedly rush away.

The worst thing is, the pattern start so small, but by the time I see it, it is usually quite a large problem. And some students are much better than others at hiding it.

But the pattern is the same, year after year.

Like I say, they go dark.

So why does that happen?

Research projects are very tricky beasts. When researching, we are creating something entirely new, that is never existed before. There is no real 'plan', because everything is uncharted territory. While we have guidelines, and we research other researcher's work, we have to create our own structure, our own method of working and research, curate our own materials, determine how we will manage and how we will communicate, and build our entire piece of work from nothing.

We make something new out of whole cloth.

This feeling of ‘lostness' is daunting when you're post-graduate, let alone when you're an undergraduate. But it is a really normal part of a research project. The trouble is, undergraduates have few tools to deal with it.

They have often not been this lost before, because undergraduate papers have a lot of structure.

Their sense of 'lostness' is quite profound and all-encompassing. They stop working, and that adds to their burden. Then they think they can never complete anyway, so they might as well drop out of the course.

On reflection, I think there are three main things that happen - possibly in order, maybe as a process - to students. They are all related to confidence, decision-making, and clarity.

1. Decision-making & Clarity. They get stuck at a pivot point, and cannot go forward until the 'stuckness' is passed.
2. Confidence & Decision-making. They loose confidence in their ability to make the 'right' choices.
3. Clarity & Confidence. The very scale of the project itself overwhelms them, and they can't see what the next move should be.

This is where a clear and detailed project plan can save a student project from derailing.

With coaching, the student can fall back on their project plan, and just plod through the steps that they have charted, until they get out of the doldrums.

Sam

• Reference: Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1834). The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in H. Gardiner (Ed, 1985), The New Oxford Book of English Verse. UK: Oxford University Press (p. 529)

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What are Assumptions, Limiters and Delimiters?

My students often struggle with the difference between assumptions, limitations, and delimitations. So I decided to turn to some business research dictionaries and encyclopaedias in order to get a definition for each of these research aspects.

That was a bonus, as I ran into an excellent resource from Oxford Reference, called "A Dictionary of Business Research Methods". Unfortunately, while this lists almost everything else, it does not contain 'limitations' or 'delimitations' in a business research context (it does have legal definitions).

I gave up on hard copies, encyclopaedias and dictionaries, and went online, reverting to a normal Google search.

The resulting definitions are, for undergraduate business research general methodology purposes:

• Assumptions are things that are accepted as 'true' by other scholars, given, eg, your population, statistical tests, research design, or other delimitations.
• Limiters are potential research weaknesses that are mostly out of your control, impacting the interpretation of your research findings, because of, eg, research design, statistical constraints, access to audiences or data, etc.
• Delimiters are the scope that you set on your research project so it is not too large to complete; eg, why you chose your aims, operationalisation, target populations, etc.

However, when writing or conclusions chapter, limiters and delimiters and assumptions need a little more focus, and that will be grist to the mill for another article.


Sam

References:

• Laerd dissertation (2012). STRUCTURE: How to structure the Research Limitations section of your dissertation. Retrieved 28 April 2016 from http://dissertation.laerd.com/how-to-structure-the-research-limitations-section-of-your-dissertation.php
• Oxford Reference (2016). A Dictionary of Business Research Methods. Retrieved 28 April 2016 from http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191792236.001.0001/acref-9780191792236
• PhD Student (n.d.). Stating the Obvious: Writing Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations. Retrieved 28 April 2016 from http://www.phdstudent.com/Choosing-a-Research-Design/stating-the-obvious-writing-assumptions-limitations-and-delimitations
• Simon, Marilyn K. & Goes, Jim (2012). Scope, Limitations, and Delimitations. Retrieved 28 April 2016 from http://dissertationrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/limitationscopedelimitation1.pdf
• USC Library (2016). Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Limitations of the Study. Retrieved 28 April 2016 from http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/limitations

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Five conditions for learning

I recently read this tweet on the web by David Gurin, the Teaching Professor: "Classrooms don't need tech geeks who can teach; we need teaching geeks who can use tech".

A good point. What is good teaching?

Benjamin Bloom, a eminent educational researcher said toward the end of his career that “After 40 years of intensive research [...] my major conclusion is: What any person in the world can learn, almost all persons can learn if provided with the appropriate prior and current conditions for learning.” The education guru felt "conditions for learning" were of prime importance.

So what are 'learning conditions'? How do we know when they are 'right'?

My mentor, when I started teaching, said that students need structure, so that they understand where they will go. I think of this structure - my topic outlines and mindmaps - as our itinerary, which frames up our walk together through each semester's material.

My focus over the years has been to clarify the structures and provide meta-structures where possible so that students who start at the detail AND those who start with the big-picture have their needs met.

I am just starting to think about this, but - as a first cut - my conditions for learning are:

1. Structure: I think of myself as a net mender. I create, repair, and reinforce the links in the mesh that holds the learning together and guides learners as they move forward. It is my job to be alert for weaknesses, and reinforce before a failure appears.
2. Openness: learning will come from anywhere in the room, as we share discovery. I encourage students to bring new learning every day so I too learn. This openness means that students can bring challenging ideas to class and we can approach them safely together that allows us all to learn fairly and equally.
3. Questions: I try to be an asker of questions, not a provider of answers. Together we work through problems, situations, and personalities in case work and real-life questions that students bring into the classroom.
4. 6 Billion Solutions: We talk often complexity and the range of ideas, skills, insights, self-knowledge and tools that students will take with them in their toolkit to solve their first graduate problems. I try to diffuse the idea that there is 'one best way', and to show them the shades of grey that is the sum of us on the planet.
5. Fun: learning should be fun for all of us. It is my job to build an environment that is passionate, entertaining, enlightening and electric.

I am not sure if these are 'right' yet. I will have to reflect quite a bit first.

Interestingly, to return to the Teaching Professor's tweet, teaching technology has not made my list. It is not - in my view - a condition for learning. I think tech is simply a delivery channel: part of the many different ways to approach material, the many teaching tools that can be used, many ways to communicate that teachers can use.

Because what we use to teach does not equal how we learn.


Sam

References:

• Bloom, Dr Benjamin Samuel & Sosniak, ‎Lauren A. (1985). Developing Talent in Young People. USA: Ballantine Books
• Gurin, David (11 November 2015). Classrooms don't need tech geeks who can teach. Retrieved 26 April 2016 from https://twitter.com/teachprof/status/664564071837118464 [Tweet]

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Meta-analysis write up versus the literature review

My students get a bit confused between literature reviews and meta-analyses.

A literature review is a "Detailed and justified analysis and commentary of the merits and faults of the literature within a chosen area, which demonstrates familiarity with what is already known about your research topic" (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007, p. 595), "to uncover new insights on a topic by reviewing the literature in a systematic way" (Aveyard, 2007, p. 18).

Meta-analysis has its roots in medicine, and is generally empirical in nature. Crombie and Davies outline it by first exploring systematic review:

"Systematic review methodology is at the heart of meta-analysis. This stresses the need to take great care to find all the relevant studies (published and unpublished), and to assess the methodological quality of the design and execution of each study. The objective of systematic reviews is to present a balanced and impartial summary of the existing research, enabling decisions on effectiveness to be based on all relevant studies of adequate quality. Frequently, such systematic reviews provide a quantitative (statistical) estimate of net benefit aggregated over all the included studies. Such an approach is termed meta-analysis" (2009, p. 2).

Further, The Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library (2011) proposed it is:

"A subset of systematic reviews; a method for systematically combining pertinent qualitative and quantitative study data from several selected studies to develop a single conclusion that has greater statistical power. This conclusion is statistically stronger than the analysis of any single study, due to increased numbers of subjects, greater diversity among subjects, or accumulated effects and results."

Dr Heather Gray posed an interesting question on the LinkedIn Higher Education Teaching and Learning group recently: "A meta analysis of the literature or a literature review. What is the difference? What do you prefer for your PhD candidates?".

While many posters did not realise the difference in approach between the two methods, there was a general consensus that (a) a literature review was the most useful for a PhD thesis: the 'normal' approach, and (b) a meta-analysis was a lot more work, so a method better left for post-doctoral researchers.


Elton J. Crim preferred the "literature review albeit a robust one which demonstrates [students'] ability to synthesize. A meta analysis is a great skill and project for a paper or book. Most likely undertaken either with their professor/advisor or later in their career".

However, we need to be aware that the literature itself will shape the method. While Vishwanath Baba would normally "ask for a traditional literature review of my doctoral students in preparation of the thesis. I encourage a meta-analysis if a specific relationship is hypothesized and there is some ambiguity in the empirical literature about the relationship. I encourage it further if it is going to lead to some theorizing about the relationship among the variables."

Jennifer Gerow further defined the difference between the two approaches: "Traditional, narrative literature reviews are important because they should capture all the relevant literature (not just empirical studies from the meta-analysis), but they may be limited by human information processing since it is difficult to address conflicting findings across many studies (Hunter and Schmidt 2004)", whereas "A meta-analysis is a statistical technique for systematically combining the results from empirical studies on the same construct/topic (Gerow et al. 2014; Glass 1981; Hunter and Schmidt 2004; Lipsey and Wilson 2001)."

I think that clarifies things nicely :-)


Sam

References:

• Aveyard, Helen (2007). Doing a Literature Review in Heath and Social Care: A practical guide. UK: Open University Press.
• Borenstein, Michael, Hedges, Larry V., Higgins, Julian P. T. & Rothstein, Hannah R. (2009). Introduction to Meta-Analysis. UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
• Crombie, Iain K. & Davies, Huw T.O. (2009). What is a Meta-Analysis. Retrieved 27 April 2016 from http://www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/painres/download/whatis/meta-an.pdf
• Gray, Dr Heather (12 April 2016). A meta analysis of the literature or a literature review. Retrieved 24 April 2016 from https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2774663/2774663-6123303560869400577
• Saunders, Mark, Lewis, Philip & Thornhill, Adrian (2007). Research Methods for Business Students (Fourth Edition). UK: Pearson Education Limited
• The Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library (2011). Study Design 101: Meta-Analysis. Retrieved 27 April 2016 from https://himmelfarb.gwu.edu/tutorials/studydesign101/metaanalyses.html

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Tip from a Dad to his sons

Recently on Medium (an online blogging platform), Rufus Griscom decided to write a piece that gave some unsolicited advice to his sons.

A few pieces of his advice resonated with me:

Collect words the way other people collect stray cats, tropical birds, or Pokemon Cards. Words are pixels, they are units of thought; just as you can render more precise images with more pixels, you can communicate ideas more powerfully — and maybe even think more efficiently — with more words. This is why vocabulary is among the metrics most highly correlated with success. But don’t be pedantic — use big words sparingly, only when they are the perfect fit.

Respect science. It’s not an ideology; it’s a system for limiting our crazy human inclinations towards bias and misperception, borne out of humility. Every time you get in a commercial airplane, you are betting your life on the scientific method. If a collection of science skeptics build an airplane and offer you a ride, don’t get in.

When you are young, poverty = freedom; when you are older, if you have kids, money = freedom. It makes it possible to do things you used to take for granted like sleep, read the newspaper and see a little bit of the world. I am not saying money should drive your career decisions, quite the contrary, it’s not what matters in life. But it’s good to understand that your relationship to it will change.

Always tell the truth. Not because it’s written on a stone tablet, but because it’s a better practice. I used to occasionally find myself bending the truth, but I decided to stop about twenty years ago for four reasons: humans have highly evolved abilities to detect dishonesty, even when they don’t understand how; sharing vulnerability and imperfection connects you to people; the truth is generally good for people even if it’s hard to say; and as it turns out, it’s less work— if you always tell the truth it’s easier to remember what you have said.

Lead with your weaknesses. Make fun of yourself. Not compulsively — this reads as insecurity — but in an honest, playful, friendly way. This makes people comfortable, creates trust, and counter-intuitively, it comes across as confidence.

Failure — whether it’s a failed jump shot, a failed relationship, a bankrupt company, or a scoop of ice cream falling off the cone — is a data point. Aspire to love data the way a father loves his sometimes obstreperous three boys: because of, not in spite of, imperfections.

Nice work, Rufus.

To that list I would add:

• Don't worry about your appearance: because in the long run, what you miss out on is more important. Wear the platform shoes, the swimsuit, the Serenity trenchcoat, get the mohawk, dye your hair lime green. Even when you feel too fat/too thin/too pregnant/too old, go swimming with the crowd and don't let self-shame limit you.
• Don't points score off others. Being right is not important in the long run - in a 100 years no one is going to give a crap about whether you were right or not. No one alive will remember. But getting along, by being part of a supportive community is important, and will probably be remembered.

Sam
Reference:

• Griscom, Rufus (18 April 2016). Unsolicited Advice for My Three Sons, In No Particular Order. Retrieved 24 April 2016 from https://medium.com/@rufybaby/unsolicited-advice-for-my-three-boys-in-no-particular-order-9f31c0394404#.9g3882991

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator quizzes

Personality is made up of unseen characteristics and processes in our environment. Personality underpins our relatively stable behaviour patterns as we respond to ideas, objects, and others (Daft & Pirola-Merlo, 2009).

Others can see our personality by the way we act & speak, the way we present ourselves, our attitude towards others, and in the expression of our values.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality test which attempts to measure how we differ in collecting and analysing data for problem-solving and decision-making.

Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, during World War II extrapolated four continua from Jung's typological theories, in the belief that personality understanding would help war service women who were entering the workforce for the first time to identify their "most comfortable and effective" war-time role. By 1962, the initial questionnaire had become MBTI, normalised for the US population.

The four continua - roughly outlined - are:

• Where do you prefer to focus your attention – and get your energy Extraversion (I like to talk to people) – Introversion (I like to read a book)
• How do you prefer to take in information? Sensing (I like to learn the facts) – Intuition (I like to imagine possibilities)
• How do you make decisions? Thinking (I like to decide logically) – Feeling (I like to consider people)
• How do you deal with the outer world? Judging (I like to organize my schedule) – Perceiving (I like to adapt to changes)

The result is a four letter personality 'type'. For example: ENTJ or ISFP. There are 16 personalities.

Ideally you should go to a trained consultant to see what your MBTI type is. This is likely to cost around $200, and involve a test battery of around 200 questions.

However, if you are not sure if this should be one of your 360 degrees of tests, you can get a rough idea on the web. There are lots of tests available online that will give you a fast and dirty idea as to whether you are.

However, the most roughly reliable test I have found is this one, prepared by a colleague of mine many years ago. The downloadable pdf test form is here (which auto-sums for you). You can then look up your type and read the more in-depth information that my colleague collected here.

If this feels useful to you, get a professional test done to find out more detail.


Sam

References:

• Daft, R. L. & Pirola-Merlo, A.  (2009). The Leadership Experience (Asia-Pacific Edition 1). Cengage.
• McNeill, G. (2004). Myers-Briggs Personality Types Workbook. Career Services New Zealand (CNZ).
• The Myers Briggs Foundation (n.d.). Isabel Briggs Myers. http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/isabel-briggs-myers.htm

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What'd'ya know about Systems of Power?

Daft (2007) defines power as an intangible force within organisations, which is shown in the ability of one to influence another, in order to bring about desired outcomes. Power is the capacity to cause a change.

A system of power usually refers to how that influence plays out in larger groups, such as large organisations, or in society. Peterson said that "social hierarchies such as race, physical ability, gender, class, age, and sexual preference constitute interlocking systems of power" (1994, p. 719). The implication is dominance, oppression, and control. 

Kritzer suggests that our societies are "structured through systems of power, some of which operate almost invisibly" in her work about political theatre, where activism as shown through "exposing these systems of power by bringing them to conscious attention" and by examining "forms of power in socio-historical contexts" (2008, p. 123).

Tolbert and Hall describe organizational systems of power as "an interconnected system of order-givers and order followers" (2015, p. 68). Systems of power can be what keep minority or marginalised groups from power: can maintain the status quo. 

Organisations and society have a number of mechanisms which can help to ensure that oppressive systems of power continue. A few examples are: expertise (ie, I am an expert and you are not, so don't question me); patriarchy or matriarchy (I know what is best for you because you are the child and I am the responsible adult); position (when you have got to where I am, then you will see things differently).

I recently read a piece on the Guardian about contract (aka, casual or adjunct) academic staff and the line they have to walk between tenured staff and unemployment. The anonymous writer said (22 April 2016):

I play two roles [...]: teacher and casual. As teacher, I am confident, assured and authoritative. I am expert in my tiny slice of the pie. I demonstrate sound academic, interpersonal and communication skills for my students. I think on my feet, handle complaints, answer unexpected questions – I even keep the back row quiet and off Facebook. As teacher, I have power. It’s fun, I love it and I want to keep doing it. That’s just how it is.

I am also a casual member of staff. As casual, I am disempowered, silenced and compliant. I am expert in navigating the systems, on clawing my way to some work and juggling the admin to stay in that work. I cannot apply for internal positions, I don’t get to participate in the “culture of lifelong learning”. I have no job security, no fixed office space, no permanent email address, no phone number. I am invisible, with no name on a door or profile on the web.

I beg for work from semester to semester, and constantly have to watch my words, actions and body language to avoid a career-ending slip-up. I’m not allowed to get angry, question decisions, or argue back. If I want to keep being teacher, I have to keep saying yes. That’s just how it is.

Wow. That's quite an insightful illustration of someone who teaches others is shut out of a system of power.

This marginalisation of voices in tertiary education is a growing global phenomenon. I feel that our educational systems of power have somehow got out of whack. Somehow education has started becoming more elite again, to those who hold the power in it: but now the voiceless person is the one who curates the coursework. As usual, the fat cats are getting fatter. 

Something needs to change: though I must confess I am baffled as to how we do that. 



Sam

References:

• Jones, C. P. (2014). Systems of power, axes of inequity: parallels, intersections, braiding the strands. Medical care, 52, S71-S75.
• Jones, Robert (30 May 2010). Organizations as a system of power. Retrieved 23 April 2016 from http://mannyboo.blogspot.co.nz/2010/05/organizations-as-system-of-power.html 
• Kritzer, A. H. (2008). Chapter 4: Systems of Power. In Political Theatre in Post-Thatcher Britain. UK: Palgrave Macmillan UK. (pp. 123-153)
• Peterson, V. S. (1994). Social hierarchies as systems of power. PS: Political Science & Politics, 27(04), 719-720.
• The Guardian (22 April 2016). Academics Aynonymous: Working as a casual? Zip your lip and do as you're told. Retrieved 23 April 2016 from http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2016/apr/22/working-as-a-casual-zip-your-lip-and-do-as-youre-told?CMP=new_1194&CMP=
• Tolbert, Pamela S. & Hall, Richard H. (2015). Organizations: Structures, processes and outcomes (Tenth Edition). UK: Routledge.

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Facecrooks fight Facebook like farming

Who knew that there was a Facebook watchdog?

Well, there is, and it is called Facecrooks. They look out for Facebook posts containing known scams, clickbait and "like farming" which leaves the ordinary punter vulnerable.

In general, they are flagging those emotional posts which tug at our hearts. Those posts about young children with cancer, siblings who are looking for their long-lost brother, the click "Like" to beat ISIS, and all the other saccharin-sweet memes and images which get circulated.

All your likes get aggregated onto the post page. Then the person who has created the page strips out the original information and reposts something else, which you appear to have personally endorsed, and passed on to your entire network.

Not all posts may be directly harmful to you. Some may use graphics stolen from other sites, to build an image that may be more about the poster's self-esteem. 

Some may simply provide Facebook with more information so that Fb can better target their ads at you. If you want to know how much Fb knows about you, Facecrooks tells you how: "go to your Facebook News Feed and look for an ad to come up in the stream. Then click the arrow icon in the upper-right-hand corner of the ad and select “Why am I seeing this?” That will take you to the Ad Preferences page, where you can tell Facebook to stop showing you content from specific advertisers. You can also dive deeper by clicking 'Manage Your Ad Preferences.' There you’ll find everything Facebook knows" (11 January 2016). Handy.

So check before you repost those pathos shares. You can check at Facecrooks, or on Snopes (a fantastic urban legends debunking site).

Let's be careful out there.


 Sam

References:

• Gross, Doug (22 January 2014). On Facebook, clicking 'like' can help scammers. Retrieved 3 February 2016 from http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/21/tech/social-media/facebook-like-farming/index.html
• Facecrooks (11 January 2016).How Much Does Facebook Know About You? Here’s How To Find Out.  Retrieved 3 February 2016 from http://facecrooks.com/Internet-Safety-Privacy/How-Much-Does-Facebook-Know-About-You-Here%E2%80%99s-How-To-Find-Out.html/

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Arrogance: a Barrier to Leadership

Marshall Goldsmith, life-long leadership development coach and commentator, suggested in a LinkedIn post this year that the "number one sign that someone isn’t a great leader" is leader arrogance.

Whereas support from your boss will help your department build leaders (or CEO support will build organisational leadership), leader arrogance does the reverse. It undermines leadership: it shuts people down.

So when organisational leaders act as if they are "perfect and tells everyone else they need to improve[,] this is a sure sign that the leader isn’t great. Worse yet, this behavior can be copied at every level of management. Every level then points out how the level below it needs to change. The end result: No one gets much better" (Goldsmith, 2016). 

The reason this is so bad? 

Because it means the leader is the only one with 'the answers'. Probably with ALL 'the answers'. Arrogance consolidates power, critical thinking, solutions and expertise in one person: the boss.

In the boss's eyes, everyone other than themselves delivers shades of wrong.

That's how we build mediocre organisations which either fail, or which don't reach their potential. They are full of get group think and 'Yes men'. 

And that leads to shut down: passive followers (Daft, 2008).


Sam

References:

• Daft, Richard L (2008). The Leadership Experience (Fourth Edition). USA: Thomson South-Western.
• Marshall Goldsmith, Marshall (11 April 2016). #1 Sign Someone Isn’t a Great Leader. Retrieved 19 April 2016 from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/1-sign-someone-isnt-great-leader-marshall-goldsmith?trk=eml-b2_content_ecosystem_digest-recommended_articles-133-null&midToken=AQGAxGsctAQ4_g&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=0uPW2UFau3znc1

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TurnItIn: a tool for academic writing

My institution uses the plagiarism webware TurnItIn (TII), and the Business School I work in limits students' allowable TII score to 9%. That means that up to 9% of their work may have been 'copied' from other sources. This allows for headings to be reused, and short word strings to be similar to source documents they have used.

Students have coaching on appropriate APA citing and allowable - honourable - use of other's work by library staff, by mentors, and in first year papers. This means they are able develop sound academic writing skills over the course of their degrees. 

When using TII, students can review their own submissions any number of times before they submit their work (so they self-lead). I also work hard to model the way to students by always citing on my lecture materials appropriately to show where my ideas have come from, and providing a complete bibliography.

We should lead the way in showing students how to demonstrate their understanding by paraphrasing more than 90% of others' work. They can then season that with a maximum of 10% of others' exact words by using quote marks for key, salient points that they couldn't put better themselves. 

In TurnItIn, when our students get between a 10-24% similarity, they are penalised whatever their score is, which is subtracted from their assignment mark.

If their work reaches 25%, they (a) zero graded and (b) are in the Head of School's office having a plagiarism review meeting which is then reported on at the Academic Committee, and is (c) entered on the student's academic record. Very high similarities may see them (after a hearing) fired from the course, or expelled from the programme, depending on seriousness.

I recently read a LinkedIn post on the Higher Education Teaching and Learning group, where the poster asked about plagiarism services, and "I'm curious about the views of other higher education professionals on the ethics of using these services, and whether others have found particular services to be useful" (13 April 2016).

One poster said that they allow students a 25% similarity score! That means that their institution accepts that up to a quarter of the student's work doesn't have to be their own creation. I was astounded by that level of 'acceptability'.

I work in a business school: a sector in which - according to McCabe, Butterfield & Trevino (2006) - there is apparently the greatest level of dishonesty of all tertiary study. While following up on dishonesty takes time, I liken it to puppy training. Easy at the beginning: MUCH harder if ignored, and it then moves into the work environment... and we end up with another Enron.

Like many other commenters on that LinkedIn post, the lecturers in the school that I teach in get to know our learner's voices, and we go looking if something doesn't ring true. TII doesn't always flag similarity, and we should not assume that a clean score means that a student has not purchased a paper from a paper mill (this is sometimes called 'ghosting' - as in ghost-writing). 

If we spot this, we will commence a viva process where students have to defend their work orally, to be sure that what they have submitted is their work. Our institution is apparently getting quite a reputation for not being an 'easy' pass. 

And I am happy about that. That means our graduates know their job, and can deliver for their future employers.

I feel that an academic's job is to clearly show what is acceptable, and what is not: and be able to explain WHY.  

We must show students how to honour the contribution that others' make to their work by clearly showing an understandable and HONEST map back to their sources.
  

Sam

References:

• McCabe, D. L., Butterfield, K. D., & Trevino, L. K. (2006). Academic dishonesty in graduate business programs: Prevalence, causes, and proposed action. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5(3), 294-305.
• Slack, Kristen (13 April 2016). An updated conversation on services that check for plagiarism. Retrieved 18 April 2016 from https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2774663/2774663-6125379859104481280 

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