Facets of narcissism and leadership: A tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Research on narcissism continues to develop at a rapid pace. Yet, researchers from different disciplines are still divided over whether narcissists are good versus bad leaders. On the one hand, narcissists' bright qualities (e.g., charisma) are associated with positive outcomes at different levels of analysis from subordinates, to peers, and the organization as a whole. On the other hand, however, narcissists' dark qualities (e.g., entitlement) are associated with a number of counterproductive work behaviors, causing organizations to falter. The present article adds to and extends the traditional good-versus-bad debate about narcissistic leadership and pursues three goals: (a) to critically review the literature on narcissistic leaders and their behaviors in the workplace, (b) to provide tangible recommendations for how to best assess, select, and develop narcissistic leaders, and (c) to highlight future directions and ongoing challenges ahead in the field of narcissistic leadership.     

Pricing the Chicago Board of Trade T-Bond futures

The aim of this paper is to investigate the pricing of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Treasury-Bond futures. The difficulty in pricing it arises from its multiple inter-dependent embedded delivery options, which can be exercised at various times and dates during the delivery month. We consider a general Markov diffusion process model for stochastic interest rates and propose a pricing algorithm that can handle all the delivery rules embedded in the CBOT T-Bond futures. Our procedure combines dynamic programming, finite-elements approximation, and fixed-point evaluation. Numerical illustrations are provided under the one-factor Vasicek and Cox–Ingesoll–Ross models, and under the time in-homogeneous Hull–White model.     

Provision of Step-Level Public Goods with Uncertain Provision Threshold and Continuous Contribution

Common to most theoretical and empirical research on public goods is the assumption that the parameters of the game are common knowledge. Recent theoretical and empirical studies have questioned this assumption by arguing that many public goods situations are characterized by uncertainty regarding various aspects of the situation. In particular, Suleiman (1997) argued that members of production groups of step-level public goods are often uncertain about the value of the provision threshold. For this type of uncertainty he proposed three distinct models to account for the individual's contribution.The present study reports the results of an experiment designed primarily to test and contrast the predictions derived from two of these models – a subjective expected utility model and a cooperative model – regarding the effects of threshold uncertainty on contribution for the provision of step-level public goods. Other goals of the study were to test the joint effect of the threshold uncertainty level, and its mean (low vs. high), on contribution, and to examine the effect of threshold uncertainty on the individuals' estimates regarding the contributions of other group members.The results show that the effect of threshold uncertainty is moderated by the threshold mean: Contribution to the public good increased as a function of uncertainty for the lower threshold mean, and decreased (though not significantly) for the higher threshold mean. In contrast, for the two threshold means the subjects' estimates of the mean and variability of others' contribution increased with threshold uncertainty.The models' comparison revealed that the cooperative model was superior to the subjective expected utility model. This result adds to a substantial body of research on social dilemmas showing that under conditions of social (strategic) uncertainty, group members tacitly coordinate their choice behavior by anchoring their decisions on rules of fairness.     

Factors affecting the willingness of tourists to visit cultural heritage sites in Jordan

This study examined the factors affecting the willingness of tourists to visit the cultural heritage sites (CHS) located in the Northern Badia of Jordan, and estimated expenditures for their visit to the CHS. A questionnaire was developed to collect demographic and economic information about tourists during their visit to Jordan. Three hundred tourists were included in the survey at nine different sites during the summer of 2010. A logistic regression model was employed in the analyses. Factors that affected tourism at CHS included: education, variety of sites, multiple destinations, cost, and reasons for the visit. These factors had a significant impact on tourists' willingness to travel to CHS in the Northern Badia. This study recommends improving CHS and working closely with local communities to expand training and funding.     

Equilibrium solutions for resource dilemmas

Considered in this article is a class of resource dilemma games designed to study interactive decision behavior in the face of both strategic and environmental uncertainty. Groups of n members are asked to share a common resource pool whose exact size, x, is not known. Rather, x is sampled randomly from a uniform probability distribution which is common knowledge. Each group member j(j=1,...,n) requests r _j units from the random resource pool. Individual decisions are made independently and anonymously. Preplay communication is prohibited. If (r ₁+r ₂+...+r _n ) x, each member j is granted his/her request; otherwise, group members get nothing. We derive the Nash equilibrium solution for this resource dilemma game, and compare it to an expected utility model originally proposed by Suleiman and Rapoport (1988). We then show that the equilibrium solution accounts for the major qualitative features of experimental results reported in two previous studies.     

Teacher perceptions of professional development in the context of national educational reform: the case of Qatar*

In light of nationally mandated educational changes in Qatar, this study investigates in‐service teachers' perceptions of professional development (PD). The aims are to identify challenges facing teachers' PD. The respondents were 40 in‐service teachers from two schools in Doha, Qatar, who had received PD connected with national educational reforms. They supplied data through questionnaires, interviews and concept maps indicating their perceptions of mandated PD. Generally, they expressed a belief in the importance of PD and its role in the improvement of teaching practice, motivation and communication. However, the findings revealed, among other things, that they had only a rudimentary understanding of PD and lacked the awareness that PD evoked any sense of personal growth, collaboration and self‐reflection. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

The turning black tide: energy prices and the Canadian dollar

Abstract.  This paper revisits the relationship between energy prices and the Canadian dollar, using an equation first developed by Amano and van Norden (1995) . They found evidence of a negative relationship between these two variables, such that higher real energy prices led to a depreciation of the Canadian dollar. Based on structural break tests, we find a break point in the sign of this relationship, which changes from negative to positive in the early 1990s. The timing of the break is consistent with major changes in Canada's energy policies and in energy-related cross-border trade and investment.