Research & Enterprise Posters

Bridging the gap between organisational behaviour and human resources management: Research informed teaching through writing

Raisa Arvinen-Muondo, Stephen J Perkins
Strategy & HRM Department
Contact: Raisa.Muondo@beds.ac.uk

Our new book examines what the organisational behaviour cannon can contribute to the human resource management rubric, bringing to the foreground intercultural perspectives.

We introduce a collective contribution of colleagues within the Strategy and HRM Department and Centre for Leadership Innovation within the Business School to research informed teaching (RiT) through the production of a book commissioned for publication by Kogan Page. The working book seeks to bridge the gap between organisational behaviour and HRM. It demonstrates through a critical analysis of literature, the use of case studies, and the experiences of relevant authors, the interrelated nature of these fields of study that are more often than not treated separately. Drawing on the authors' research and teaching experiences, the book examines relevant debates from a cross-cultural perspective and within international and UK contexts. It endeavours to prepare the vast number of students from diverse backgrounds studying in UK higher education institutions for the world of work as multi- cultural workforces and international business are fast becoming the norm.

Our book will be published in Spring 2012 by Kogan Page.

Putting the happiness into health: A study investigating the influence of happiness and relationship status on the engagement of health protective behaviours

Angel Chater, Petra Bobalova
Psychology Department
Contact: angel.chater@beds.ac.uk

Following the Prime Minister’s interest in the nation’s subjective wellbeing, are happier people more in control of their life and do they perform more health enhancing behaviours?

We investigated whether happier people, those in a relationship and those more satisfied with life would exhibit higher levels of self-efficacy and health protective behaviours. A cross sectional, quantitative design was used, measuring 120 participants (49 males; 71 females; mean age = 27.14 [SD=9.19]) with standardised measures. Results showed that happiness significantly correlated with life satisfaction (r=.72; p<.001), self-efficacy (r=.66; p<.001), general preventive health behaviours (r=.47; p<.001), physical activity (r=.25; p<.01) and healthy eating (r=.30; p<.01). Happiness was the most significant predictor of health protective behaviours, explaining 22% of the variance, with self-efficacy (R2=.12) and life satisfaction (R2=.04) also being significant contributors. Individuals in a relationship were happier (p<.05) and more satisfied with life (p<.05) than those who were single. These findings add to the literature linking positive emotional state and health enhancing behaviours, concluding with the need to consider these elements when designing health behaviour change interventions.

Visit the Office of National Statistics to find out more about the current national study on wellbeing: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/social_trends/spotlight-on-subjective-wellbeing.pdf

Setting pay levels in UK organisations - 2010/11

Sarah Jones, Qi Wei, Stephen J Perkins
BMRI
Contact: sarah.jones@beds.ac.uk

UK organisations are, with notable exceptions, increasing base pay in the post recession environment. The exceptions reflect sector and occupational group characteristics.

This poster presentation examines the choices made by employers about adjusting employee base pay. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development annual reward management survey was administered in February/March 2011 to organisations within a CIPD database. 276 organisations responded. Among the questions analysed, findings indicated that in 2010 roughly two-thirds of organisations awarded increases in basic pay, while almost a third froze salary levels. In 2011 slightly fewer organisations are increasing or freezing pay. However more than double the 2010 number has decided to delay the 2011 pay review. While this is the general trend there are sectoral differences. In public services, government budget cuts are having a notable effect leading to widespread pay freezes, whereas the private sector appears to be demonstrating confidence in the economic recovery by increasing pay levels. This research contributes to ongoing understanding of how organisations are responding to current economic and political changes.

CIPD Annual Reward Survey 2011 www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/survey-reports/reward-management-2011.aspx (please note to access this resource you may have to register for a website account)

What do leaders do: and what is expected of them?

Konstantinos Kakavelakis, Chinyere Osadebe, Stephen J Perkins
Centre for Leadership Innovation, BMRI
Contact: konstantinos.kakavelakis@beds.ac.uk

What leaders do is a function of the interaction between the structural context they are situated in and their exercise of social agency.

This poster examines 'leadership' as a theoretical concept, tracing the various ideas back to the work of the German social scientist Max Weber. We then discuss the contextual influences within which leadership has been exercised over the preceding quarter century as well as more recent developments centred on the notion of collective or 'distributive' leadership. How we think about leaders affects our expectations of them. If leadership is individualized as something that can be objectively determined, a logical corollary is that exercising the role is one of controller of others. If leadership is a process that is continually 'under construction' and that depends on interpersonal actions of groups/people in purposeful activity, leadership action becomes structured by the willingness of those groups to share responsibility for what takes place. This challenging balancing act becomes the basis on which legitimate leadership may be judged and 'authorized' as a never-ending socially constructed process.

http://www.beds.ac.uk/research/bmri/cli

Knowledge Hub

Nigel Hall, Eamonn Kennan
Knowledge Hub, Research and Enterprise Directorate
Contact: rosie.munro@beds.ac.uk

The Knowledge Hub supports colleagues in university/business collaborations, fostering relationships with the private / public sector to create knowledge transfer, innovation and business opportunities.

The Knowledge Hub works with staff from across the University and actively welcomes ideas and collaborations with colleagues. Areas we can help colleagues with include: developing consultancy opportunities (using the University's policy on external work to reward staff) and other Knowledge Transfer programmes such as KTPs; developing new short courses which will be attractive to employers and employees alike (CPD and Employer Engagement); innovation - advice in developing and exploiting technologies of interest to the commercial and public sector; selling specialist facilities linked with academic expertise to external organisations; supporting research colleagues with access to bidding opportunities and practical assistance during the bidding process; free membership and attendance at the monthly Knowledge Network.

http://www.beds.ac.uk/knowledgehub

Engineering fully functional, integrated skeletal muscle

S Passey, A S T Smith, L Greensmith, V Mudera, K Baar, M Lewis
ISPAR Bedford, UCL Institute of Neurology, UCL Insitute of Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Science, Functional Molecular Biology Lab UC Davis, UCL School of Life Sciences
Contact: Samantha.Passey@beds.ac.uk

Generating physiological skeletal muscle models with functional neuronal input offers potential benefits to neuromuscular and physiology research.

The nerve-muscle interface (the neuromuscular junction, NMJ) is a complex structure arising from the interaction between motoneurons and muscle fibres, and due to this complexity studies into NMJ biology and pathology have largely been conducted in vivo. Using tissue engineering we can generate in vitro 3D models of skeletal muscle that show structural and functional similarities to in vivo muscle. Here we have increased the complexity of established skeletal muscle models through the addition of motoneurons with the goal of generating a more mature muscle model incorporating a functional neuronal input. The addition of motoneurons to the muscle constructs results in upregulation of muscle maturation markers and NMJ genes and the formation of putative NMJ-like structures. These data represent the first steps towards organised NMJ formation in 3D engineered skeletal muscle constructs, and hold great potential for research in the fields of tissue engineering, muscle biology and exercise physiology.

Passey S et al (2011) Stretching skeletal muscle in vitro: does it replicate in vivo physiology? Biotechnology

Replicative ageing of myoblasts in 3-D tissue engineered collagen constructs

Adam P Sharples, Darren J Player, Neil R W Martin, Samantha Passey, Claire E Stewart, Mark P Lewis
Muscle Cellular and Molecular Physiology Group (MCMPRG), Institute for Sport and Physical Activity Research (ISPAR), University of Bedfordshire. UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences. Institute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement and Health (IRM), Manchester Metropolitan University.
Contact: adam.sharples@beds.ac.uk

Artificial ageing (replicative ageing in-vitro) of skeletal muscle cells display poor regenerative capacity vs. un- aged cells in 3-dimensional tissue engineered skeletal muscle constructs.

After the age of 50 humans 'naturally' lose muscle mass at a rate of 1-2% per year (sarcopenia). Preventing muscle wasting with age is therefore of high clinical relevance. Recently, ageing in myoblasts (activated muscle cells that contribute to regeneration) has been investigated in monolayer (2-D) cultures (Bigot et al. 2008; Sharples et al. 2010). Although good models for the cellular/molecular mechanisms underpinning ageing, they lack the 3-D nature of skeletal muscle in the body. C2C12 myoblasts (58 doublings) were compared with un-aged cells and seeded at 4×106 cells/ml in type-1 rat tail collagen (3ml) (Mudera et al. 2011). Collagen/myoblast constructs were grown in medium (20% FBS) for 24hrs prior to transfer into low serum medium (2% HS) to enable differentiation. Myoblasts that had undergone multiple population doublings displayed reduced adhesion and ability to remodel the collagen matrix, underpinned by altered morphology and reduced transcript levels of matrix remodelling metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2). This corresponded with reduced myotube formation confirmed by a reduction in IGF-I and myogenin mRNA.

Sharples A P, Stewart C E (2011) Curr Op Clin Nutr and Metab Care. 14(3): 230-236

Using voting technology to get students' input and engagement in the curriculum and providing direction for further curriculum change (an Action Research project in the curriculum)

Christine Smith, Philip Wright
Careers and Employability Service; Department of Education Studies
Contact: Christine.Smith@beds.ac.uk

Who wants to reflect on their career?

Voting technology encourages student reflection, delivers student engagement and will drive future curriculum change. Academics and careers professionals are increasingly expected to evidence effectiveness as practitioners and impact on the teaching and learning experience and graduate outcomes. We present one aspect of an action research project in a taught and assessed level 2 'employability' section in the curriculum, now updated by embedding SOAR. To collect data easily and engage participants we surveyed students before and after the teaching using voting technology (as in 'Who wants to be a millionaire'), and finally via an end of unit questionnaire, submitted with assignments. Student response was high, demonstrating improved engagement. This new approach to engaging students with employability has been successful. Students reported that they felt more positive about their career path, were more confident that they could achieve their career goals and overall felt that they knew the steps to achieve their aim. Interestingly, related assessments in the unit appear to have been enhanced. Evidence-based unit quality enhancement and further research will continue.

Impact of cryoprotectants on mitochondria of coral oocytes

Emma Spikings, SuJune Tsai, ChiaHsin Lin
LIRANS; UK National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium, Taiwan
Contact: emma.spikings@beds.ac.uk

Of those studied to date, methanol is the most suitable cryoprotectant for freezing coral oocytes.

Coral reefs provide a valuable habitat for many economically valuable fish and invertebrates. However, they are in serious jeopardy, threatened by increasing over-exploitation, pollution, habitat destruction, disease and climate change. Conservation efforts for coral species could be much more efficient if gametes could be cryopreserved, but cryoprotectants are often toxic. In order to determine the least toxic cryoprotectant for coral oocytes, we investigated the impact of exposure to common cryoprotectants (methanol, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), propylene glycol (PG) and ethylene glycol (EG)) on mitochondrial viability in the coral species Junceella juncea and Junceella fragilis. There was no impact observed on either mitochondrial DNA or ATP content following 0.5-2M methanol treatment, although exposure to 3M methanol was toxic. Treatments with DMSO, EG and PG were all toxic at lower concentrations and therefore methanol was the least toxic cryoprotectant studied. Work is now underway to determine whether methanol can be used as a cryoprotectant to produce viable oocytes following cryopreservation.

Young people and poverty in the UK

Muhammad Waqar, Margaret Melrose, Gurch Randhawa
Institute for Health Research, Institute for Applied Social Research
Contact: muhammad.waqar@beds.ac.uk

Poor people don't only live in developing countries… there are lots of poor people in the UK too.

This project was funded by Luton Borough Council (LBC) and was a collaborative research project between the Institute of Health Research and the Institute of Applied Social Science at the University of Bedfordshire. The project wanted to understand the experiences of young people (16-25 years old) living in poverty to inform the development of Luton Borough Council's Anti-Poverty Strategy. Wider literature suggested that young people who are living in poverty (measured as 60% below median income in the UK) often do not consider themselves to be 'poor'. However, the project found that some of the interviewees were indeed struggling to survive when they were out of work and/or single parents. The research findings have recently been discussed (in relation to the likely impact of Government's Welfare Reforms) in LBC's Service Heads meeting. The research findings will influence the upcoming LBC's Anti- Poverty Strategy and will also possibly lead to a feature in The Guardian.