Search

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how change leadership activities help bring about employee support for planned organizational change.Design/methodology/approachUsing a non-experimental quantitative research design, and a self-administered Likert-type questionnaire survey, the study sourced data from employees in an organization undergoing significant change. Data analysis was by structural equation modeling (SEM).FindingsChange leadership behaviors bearing on; visioning, communication, participation, support and concern for change participants' interests were found to be of significant importance in ensuring employee buy-in and support for planned change efforts. Although change leadership had no direct effect on employees' behavioral intentions to support change, it was strongly related to employee cognitive appraisal of change. The relationship between change leadership and employee behavioral intentions to support planned change was serially mediated by employee cognitive appraisal and emotional response toward the planned change event.Practical implicationsIn appraising planned organizational change efforts, managers tend to focus on employee behaviors toward the change instead of conditions that drive such behaviors. This study underscores the need to focus on employee attitudes as precursors to desired behavior toward change.Originality/valuePrior research suggests that change leadership behaviors affect employee attitudinal reactions to change but yet lacked empirical validation. By applying a multidimensional approach to attitude and investigating its hierarchy of effects, this study enhanced our accuracy in explaining the influence change leadership has on employee attitudinal support for change.

Assemblages of insect herbivores are structured by plant traits such as nutrient content, secondary metabolites, physical traits, and phenology. Many of these traits are phylogenetically conserved, implying a decrease in trait similarity with increasing phylogenetic distance of the host plant taxa. Thus, a metric of phylogenetic distances and relationships can be considered a proxy for phylogenetically conserved plant traits and used to predict variation in herbivorous insect assemblages among co‐occurring plant species.Using a Holarctic dataset of exposed‐feeding and shelter‐building caterpillars, we aimed at showing how phylogenetic relationships among host plants explain compositional changes and characteristics of herbivore assemblages.Our plant–caterpillar network data derived from plot‐based samplings at three different continents included >28,000 individual caterpillar–plant interactions. We tested whether increasing phylogenetic distance of the host plants leads to a decrease in caterpillar assemblage overlap. We further investigated to what degree phylogenetic isolation of a host tree species within the local community explains abundance, density, richness, and mean specialization of its associated caterpillar assemblage.The overlap of caterpillar assemblages decreased with increasing phylogenetic distance among the host tree species. Phylogenetic isolation of a host plant within the local plant community was correlated with lower richness and mean specialization of the associated caterpillar assemblages. Phylogenetic isolation had no effect on caterpillar abundance or density. The effects of plant phylogeny were consistent across exposed‐feeding and shelter‐building caterpillars.Our study reveals that distance metrics obtained from host plant phylogeny are useful predictors to explain compositional turnover among hosts and host‐specific variations in richness and mean specialization of associated insect herbivore assemblages in temperate broadleaf forests. As phylogenetic information of plant communities is becoming increasingly available, further large‐scale studies are needed to investigate to what degree plant phylogeny structures herbivore assemblages in other biomes and ecosystems., Host plant phylogenetic relationships have been shown to affect community composition and interaction networks of associated insect herbivores. Using a cross‐continental dataset, we showed that phylogenetically isolated hosts harbored less diverse and less specialized caterpillar assemblages. Our results suggest that a combination of phylogenetic information and compositional structure of the host plant community provides useful measures to predict the structure of herbivore assemblages among coexisting plant species.

Seven species of tachinid flies reared from herbivorous lepidopterans collected from the deciduous forest canopy at Hokkaido University Tomakomai Experimental Forest (0.2 ha plot), Hokkaido, Japan, are recorded and described: Blepharomyia brevicornis sp. nov. ex Erannis golda Djakonov (Geometridae), Catocala lara Bremer and Orthosia odiosa (Butler) (both Noctuidae); Ctenophorinia grisea Mesnil ex Himeropteryx miraculosa Staudinger (Notodontidae); Blepharipa carbonata (Mesnil) ex Marumba jankowskii (Oberthür) (Sphingidae); Cyzenis equifacialis sp. nov. ex Faristenia geminisignella Ponomarenko (Gelechiidae), Archips crataegana (Hübner), A. nigricauda Walshingham, Epinotia exquisitana Christoph and Pseudohedya gradana Christo (all Tortricidae); Cyzenis tetrasetosa sp. nov. ex Lomographa simplicior (Butler), Operophtera brunnea Nakajima and O. relegata Prout (Geometridae); Eulasiona zimini Mesnil ex Archips crataegana (Hübner), Pseudohedya gradana (Christoph), Rhopobota naevana (Hübner) and Rhopobota sp. (all Tortricidae); Panzeria sp. (nr. japonica Shima) ex Erannis golda Djakonov (Geometridae). The genus Eulasiona Townsend is moved to the subfamily Tachininae from its present position in the subfamily Dexiinae, and the female and puparium of Eulasiona zimini Mesnil are described for the first time. The parasitization rates and life habits of these tachinids are briefly discussed.

Research on canopy arthropods has progressed from species inventories to the study of their interactions and networks, enhancing our understanding of how hyper-diverse communities are maintained. Previous studies often focused on sampling individual tree species, individual trees or their parts. We argue that such selective sampling is not ideal when analyzing interaction network structure, and may lead to erroneous conclusions. We developed practical and reproducible sampling guidelines for the plot-based analysis of arthropod interaction networks in forest canopies. Our sampling protocol focused on insect herbivores (leaf-chewing insect larvae, miners and gallers) and non-flying invertebrate predators (spiders and ants). We quantitatively sampled the focal arthropods from felled trees, or from trees accessed by canopy cranes or cherry pickers in 53 0.1 ha forest plots in five biogeographic regions, comprising 6,280 trees in total. All three methods required a similar sampling effort and provided good foliage accessibility. Furthermore, we compared interaction networks derived from plot-based data to interaction networks derived from simulated non-plot-based data focusing either on common tree species or a representative selection of tree families. All types of non-plot-based data showed highly biased network structure towards higher connectance, higher web asymmetry, and higher nestedness temperature when compared with plot-based data. Furthermore, some types of non-plot-based data showed biased diversity of the associated herbivore species and specificity of their interactions. Plot-based sampling thus appears to be the most rigorous approach for reconstructing realistic, quantitative plant-arthropod interaction networks that are comparable across sites and regions. Studies of plant interactions have greatly benefited from a plot-based approach and we argue that studies of arthropod interactions would benefit in the same way. We conclude that plot-based studies on canopy arthropods would yield important insights into the processes of interaction network assembly and dynamics, which could be maximised via a coordinated network of plot-based study sites.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the actual condition of coworking spaces in Japan, based on a questionnaire survey. A way of working called “coworking” and a place for such work called “coworking space” have been attracting attention in recent years because they may provide a more flexible work style, diverse members to interact with, and open spaces than are experienced when working in a specific company or corporate office. However, we still have not acquired the whole picture of coworking and coworking spaces because of insufficiency of the comprehensive research. Thus, we attempt to shed some light on the current status of coworking spaces in the following steps. Firstly, we review previous studies about coworking. Secondly, we will present the current status and issues of coworking spaces, based on a questionnaire survey conducted among almost all coworking spaces operating in Japan. Finally, we consider the significance of our findings, comparing with those in previous studies.

This paper aims to shed light on the actual condition of coworking spaces in Japan based on a questionnaire survey. A way of working called “coworking” and a place for such work called “coworking space” have been attracting attention in recent years because they may provide a more flexible work style, diverse members to interact with, and open spaces than are experienced when working in a specific company or corporate office. However, the understanding of this phenomenon is insufficient. Therefore, in this paper we will first review coworking studies with a focus on the annual Global Coworking Survey conducted around the world. Then, we will present the results of the descriptive statistics of a questionnaire survey conducted among almost all coworking spaces operating in Japan from six perspectives: facility, management organization, business strategy, activity, space users, and performance. Based on the results, we will then present and examine the findings of this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze correlations about the actual condition of coworking spaces in Japan, based on a questionnaire survey. A way of working called "coworking" and a place for such work called "coworking space" have been attracting attention in recent years because they may provide a more flexible work style, diverse members to interact with, and open spaces than are experienced when working in a specific company or corporate office. However, the understanding of this phenomenon is insufficient. There is still hardly any empirical research that discusses the actual conditions of coworking and coworking spaces especially in Japan, though we can find some implicative descriptive papers on this phenomenon. Thus, we attempt to shed some light on the current status of coworking spaces in the following steps. Firstly, we review previous studies about coworking, focusing primarily on the annual Global Coworking Survey conducted around the world. Secondly, we show the result of correlation analysis based on a questionnaire survey conducted among almost all coworking spaces operating in Japan from six viewpoints: facility, management organization, business strategy, activity, space users, and performance.

This study investigated the effects of balance exercise combined with whole-body vibration (WBV) on step performance and lower limb muscle activity during simulated forward falls using the tether-release method in older women. Twenty older women were assigned to either a WBV plus balance exercise group (WBV, n=10) or a balance exercise without vibration group (standard balance exercise group [STE], n=10). WBV performed weight-bearing exercises on a WBV platform combined with other balance exercises as a home program, whereas STE performed the same exercises without WBV. The exercise volume was equal in both intervention groups (3×/week for 12 weeks×30 min/session). The EMG and kinematic data of the stepping leg from the balance recovery step were examined before and after the intervention. While both groups extended step length during forward falls after the intervention, only WBV increased step velocity. EMG analysis of the balance recovery step showed that both groups increased peak EMG of knee flexor and extensor muscles after intervention. After intervention, WBV increased peak EMG of the plantar flexors, which are used to exert the push-off forces just before the leg swing. Balance exercise in older women resulted in significant improvements in the balance recovery step after a simulated forward fall. WBV also had the additional benefit of improved step velocity, which was reflected in increased activity of the plantar flexors in the stepping leg.

The effects of ultrasonic vibration on injection molding were investigated. An ultrasonic injection molding (UIM) machine in which the mold resonated under ultrasonic vibration was developed. The resonance in the mold occurred at n wavelengths, where n=0.5N and N is a positive integer. A transducer was placed on the movable mold through a directional converter of vibration. The fluidity of the molding materials and the molecular orientation of products were evaluated by the UIM machine. This evaluation allowed the improvement of the apparent fluidity of the molding materials compared to the case without ultrasonic vibration. Consequently, the molecular orientation caused by the flow was decreased. Wall slip was observed between the resin and wall surface with ultrasonic vibration in flow visualization experiments. It was found that the fluidity was improved by the action of sound pressure and the reduction of apparent friction between the wall surface in a cavity and the molding material by ultrasonic waves.

This study aimed at comparing the patterns of muscle activation used in stepping to regain balance during a forward fall between subjects with and without a history of falling and at identifying the causes of functional deficits in recovery stepping. Elderly women with and without a history of falling (fallers: n = 12, mean age ± SD = 82.8 ± 4.5 years; non-fallers: n = 17, age = 81.4 ± 3.4 years) participated in the study. The subjects were suspended in a forward-leaning position by a lean-control cable with a load of 15 % of body weight and instructed to regain standing balance upon release by taking a single step forward. Electromyography (EMG) data were obtained from five lower extremity muscles on the stepping side, and the muscle activation patterns were compared between fallers and non-fallers. Fallers had a shorter step length and slower step velocity than non-fallers. The EMG time-to-peak for the gastrocnemius muscle, which provides push-off prior to foot lift-off, was slower for fallers than for non-fallers, whereas the EMG onset times of the biceps femoris and gastrocnemius muscles were similar between the groups. The fallers exhibited significantly delayed muscle deactivation of the upper leg and increased co-contraction between the rectus femoris and biceps femoris during the stepping phase than did the non-fallers. These findings suggest that the muscle activation pattern during the regain balance may reflect an inability to step forward rapidly in elderly women with a history of falls.

1.Insects tend to feed on related hosts. The phylogenetic composition of host plant communities thus plays a prominent role in determining insect specialization, food web structure, and diversity. Previous studies showed a high preference of insect herbivores for congeneric and confamilial hosts suggesting that some levels of host plant relationships may play more prominent role that others. 2.We aim to quantify the effects of host phylogeny on the structure of quantitative plant-herbivore food webs. Further, we identify specific patterns in three insect guilds with different life histories and discuss the role of host plant phylogeny in maintaining their diversity. 3.We studied herbivore assemblages in three temperate forests in Japan and the Czech Republic. Sampling from a canopy crane, a cherry picker and felled trees allowed a complete census of plant-herbivore interactions within three 0.1 ha plots for leaf chewing larvae, miners, and gallers. We analyzed the effects of host phylogeny by comparing the observed food webs with randomized models of host selection. 4.Larval leaf chewers exhibited high generality at all three sites, whereas gallers and miners were almost exclusively monophagous. Leaf chewer generality dropped rapidly when older host lineages (5-80 myr) were collated into a single lineage but only decreased slightly when the most closely related congeneric hosts were collated. This shows that leaf chewer generality has been maintained by feeding on confamilial hosts while only a few herbivores were shared between more distant plant lineages and, surprisingly, between some congeneric hosts. In contrast, miner and galler generality was maintained mainly by the terminal nodes of the host phylogeny and dropped immediately after collating congeneric hosts into single lineages. 5.We show that not all levels of host plant phylogeny are equal in their effect on structuring plant-herbivore food webs. In the case of generalist guilds, it is the phylogeny of deeper plant lineages that drives the food web structure whereas the terminal relationships play minor roles. In contrast, the specialization and abundance of monophagous guilds is affected mainly by the terminal parts of the plant phylogeny and does not generally reflect deeper host phylogeny. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.