This exploratory study examined potential relationships between a supervisor’s perspective taking within a given supervisor/subordinate dyad and assessments of that supervisor’s leadership style. Specifically, the notion is put forth that elements of leadership style relating to the quality of the interpersonal relationship between a supervisor and subordinate should be related to the degree to which a supervisor takes the perspective of their subordinate. Two subscales of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire were found to correlate with supervisor dyad-specific perspective taking, namely intellectual stimulation and individual consideration.

08-07 April 2008

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This article reviews methodological tradeoffs inherent in developing theory related to core competencies. Integrating the position and resource-based views of strategy, it presents an argument that such theoretical development will occur through researching corporate value provision situations encompassing a nomological network of core competencies, the corporate processes they enable, and the customer value delivered by these processes. Next, it briefly discusses phenomena included within this network. Then, the article reviews the applicability of three classes of methodologies to this nomological approach: 1) Field research, including interviews and observation; 2) Survey research; and 3) Unobtrusive research, including document analysis and analysis of existing statistics. Finally, it identifies issues that arise from using these methodologies to develop competence related theory.

08-06 April 2008

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Graphical displays of business and accounting information are widely used as decision aids. Those who use Excel and other programs with graphics generation capabilities are faced with many options for organizing and displaying information in graphs in a manner that does not result in biased decision making or information extraction. This paper describes four graphs each of which exhibits characteristics associated with a certain known visual illusion. A controlled experiment was carried out to demonstrate the visual illusions resulted in systematically biased decision making. It is also proposed and validated that the bias can be mitigated by including properly formatted gridlines when preparing the graphs. The implication of this research is that that an important addition to the set of generally accepted graph preparation guidelines is to include properly formatted gridlines in graphs.

Keyword: Graphs; visual illusions; bias in decision making; gridlines.

Data Availability: Data are available from the author; however, request for data should specify the intended use.  

08-05 March 2008

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Along with the readily available computer software that performs least squares regressions, comes the proliferation of misuse and misinterpretation of the regression results. We illustrate in the paper that the solutions to the intercept and slope coefficients in a simple linear regression model are dependent on the definition of the loss function used in the optimization problem. Likewise, there is not a universal population linear regression line. If a squared error loss function is used, the population regression line turns out to be the conditional mean function while an absolute loss function yields the conditional median. When the asymmetric loss function defined in Koenker and Bassett (1978) is used, the population regression line becomes the conditional quantile function. Therefore, what the sample regression is estimating and how the estimated intercept and slope coefficients should be interpreted are dependent upon what oss function is being used in the optimization problem.

We illustrated a few mistakes commonly made in interpreting the least squares regression results and discuss some potential misuses of the least square regressions. By pointing out these specific mistakes, we hope that practitioners and educators will have a better understanding of what exactly we are estimating when we perform a least squares regression or any regression for that matter.  

08-04 February 2008

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Freedom of religion has been a key right since the founding of our nation. Over time, the Congress and the courts have modified the interpretation of this key right. This paper looks at the history of the free exercise clause as well as some decisions by Congress and the courts that have confused free exercise jurisprudence as demonstrated by the current dispute related to artificial snow made from reclaimed water. The paper further recommends that the Supreme Court hear the current dispute, correct the mistaken decisions and urge change across the system by requiring Congress to specifically set forth the authority for their actions.  

08-03 February 2008

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