Browsing by Author "Schmaltz, Rodney"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    A juggler's manifesto: elevating creativity to stay productive amid uncertainty
    (2023) Enstroem, Rickard; Schmaltz, Rodney
    Purpose The Industry 4.0 environment is characterized by fast data, vertically and horizontally interconnected systems, and human–machine interfaces. In the middle stands the manager, whose sustained performance is critical to the organization's success. Business disturbances—such as supply chain disruptions during the pandemic—can quickly test the manager's resiliency. While creativity and flexibility are critical for success in these situations, these skills are often not promoted directly. This paper will discuss strategies for enhancing managers' creativity and resiliency and give suggestions for improving professional development training and post-secondary business education. Design/methodology/approach A synthesis of the literature in business and psychology provides a foundation for creating a conceptual model incorporating strategies to promote managerial creativity and resiliency. While the model focuses on managerial performance under adverse conditions, the tenets of the model also apply during times of relative stability. Findings Findings based on a synthesis of the literature on creativity in business and psychology provide the foundation for a conceptual model to identify potential elements in training and curriculum design to further managers' creativity and resiliency. This model recommends clear, actionable training and program-level curriculum design suggestions for improved managerial performance. Originality/value This paper identifies a conceptual model to enhance managerial creativity leading to increased resiliency through professional development programs and suggestions for educators in post-secondary business education. This model provides tools for managers to deal with adverse and rapidly changing conditions flexibly, promoting employee productivity and satisfaction.
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    A walk on the wild side: the impact of music on risk-taking likelihood
    (2017) Enstroem, Rickard; Schmaltz, Rodney
    From a marketing perspective, there has been substantial interest in on the role of risk perception on consumer behavior. Specific ‘problem music’ like rap and heavy metal has long been associated with delinquent behavior, including violence, drug use, and promiscuous sex. Although individuals’ risk preferences have been investigated across a range of decision-making situations, there has been little empirical work demonstrating the direct role music may have on the likelihood of engaging in risky activities. In the exploratory study reported here, we assessed the impact of listening to different styles of music while assessing risk-taking likelihood through a psychometric scale. Risk-taking likelihood was measured across ethical, financial, health and safety, recreational and social domains. Through the means of a canonical correlation analysis, the multivariate relationship between different music styles and individual risk-taking likelihood across the different domains is discussed. Our results indicate that listening to different types of music does influence risk-taking likelihood, though not in areas of health and safety.
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    Buying peudoscience: does regulatory focus have anything to do with it?
    (2020) Plante, Maureen; Schmaltz, Rodney
    Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice that is perceived as scientific, but does not meet the rigorous standard of scientific testing. Distinguishing pseudoscience from science can be difficult, especially with the influence of aggressive marketing tactics in the media that promote dubious health claims. This study examined the relationship between belief in pseudoscience and motivation using the framework of regulatory focus theory. Individuals who are promotion focused are motivated by advancement, accomplishment, and opportunities to grow; while others who are prevention focused are motivated by safety and security. Regulatory focus theory explains why some messages may be more persuasive than others. If a message has regulatory fit, it will elicit a more positive response. This two-part study explored the impact of regulatory focus on belief in pseudoscience. While previous research has explored the role of regulatory focus in a variety of different forms of persuasion, there has yet to be an investigation of regulatory focus on the acceptance of pseudoscience.
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    Death to weak PowerPoint: strategies to create effective visual presentations
    (2014) Schmaltz, Rodney; Enstroem, Rickard
    Strong PowerPoint presentations enhance student engagement and help students retain information (e.g., Susskind, 2005), while weak PowerPoint slides can lead to distraction, boredom, and impeded learning (Savoy et al., 2009). The authors of this paper became interested in improving their PowerPoint slides after observing several presentations that badly misused PowerPoint, and realizing that they made many of the same mistakes.
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    The thinking person’s music: heavy metal and the need for cognition
    (2021) Schmaltz, Rodney; Watson, David; Johnson, Adrian
    Past research indicates that music preference is correlated with the need for cognition (NFC). Specifically, heavy metal fans have been found to score lower on NFC than fans of other genres. In this study, a large sample of music fans completed measures of NFC well as the Short Dark Triad scale, which measures Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy. Contrary to previous findings, fans of heavy metal scored significantly higher on NFC than fans of other genres. Consistent with previous research, fans of “problem music” (i.e., heavy metal and rap) scored higher on the Dark Triad. As the original work on NFC and music preference was conducted over 30 years ago, we speculate that a change in the style of heavy metal may correlate with a change in the need for cognition.
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    Unbreakable resolutions as an effective tactic for self-control: lessons from Mahatma Gandhi and a 19th-century Prussian prince
    (2021) Powell, Russell A.; Schmaltz, Rodney; Radke, Jade
    Despite the relative consensus in the self-management literature that personal resolutions are not an effective stand-alone tactic for self-control, some individuals seem capable of using them to exert a remarkable level of control over their behavior. One such individual was Mahatma Gandhi, the famous Indian statesman. Gandhi often used personal resolutions—or “vows”—to commit himself to a range of challenging behaviors, such as extreme diets, sexual abstinence, and fasting. Similarly, Prince Pückler-Muskau, a celebrated 19th-Century adventurer, landscape designer and travel author, described using personal resolutions to unfailingly accomplish numerous tasks in his everyday life. In this article, we examine the historical writings of Gandhi and Pückler-Muskau concerning their use of resolutions. We describe three defining characteristics of their resolutions, which we will refer to as unbreakable resolutions, and outline Gandhi’s advice for making and keeping such resolutions. Our analysis suggests that the effectiveness of unbreakable resolutions may be primarily due to the temporally extended contingencies of reinforcement associated with their use, and can be usefully interpreted from the perspective of delay-discounting and say-do correspondence models of self-control. The implications of this examination for understanding the concept of willpower and for enhancing modern research into self-control training are also discussed. Based on this analysis, we additionally offer a tentative set of guidelines on how to make and keep unbreakable resolutions.
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    Vinyl as fine wine: the role of expectation on the perception of music format
    (2022) Enstroem, Rickard; Schmaltz, Rodney
    While vinyl, compact discs, and even eight-track tapes were traditionally promoted to consumers as producing superior sound, the introduction of compressed digital music, such as mp3s, was markedly different. Initially, one of the primary selling features of digital music was convenience and portability rather than sound quality. Recently, vinyl music sales have experienced a substantial resurgence. Waveforms from vinyl represent recorded music more accurately than compressed digital formats and have the potential to produce better sound. Even so, most music listeners do not reliably listen to music on audiophile quality high-end equipment. For this reason, we believe one aspect of vinyl sales is the expectation that vinyl quality is superior. In this study, we sought to isolate the contribution of expectation to perceived sound quality. Participants were asked to listen to a selection of music on either vinyl or mp3. Some participants were told that they were listening to vinyl when the musical selection was an mp3, while others were told they were listening to an mp3 while actually listening to vinyl. A multivariate analysis through a Canonical Correlation Analysis established that expectation of music format quality drove post-listening evaluations.
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    Zebrafish aversion to infrasound in an open field test
    (2023) Scatterty, Kale R.; Pitman, Taylor; Eckersley, Tristan; Schmaltz, Rodney; Hamilton, Trevor
    Aquatic species are capable of detecting infrasound (sub-20 Hz frequencies) which may be a source of anthropogenic pollution and have a detrimental impact on the environmental fitness of fish. Infrasound is generated by infrastructure, producing acoustic frequency peaks that are not discernible by humans. The presence of these frequencies may therefore impact the environmental wellbeing of aquatic laboratory animals, which are often housed in spaces adjacent to facilities producing infrasound. To investigate the potential impact of infrasound, we used wild-type zebrafish (Danio rerio) and exposed them to short periods of infrasound at either 5, 10, 15, or 20 Hz, or 0 Hz as a control group. A motion-tracking software system was used to monitor fish movement in an open field test and arena location, distance moved, and immobility were quantified. There was a significant effect of 15 Hz which caused the fish to spend more time away from the infrasound source. The 20 Hz group also spent significantly less time in the zone closest to the speaker. There were no differences in distance moved or immobility between infrasound and control groups. These findings demonstrate that 15 Hz infrasound has aversive effects on zebrafish, causing them to move away from the sound source. To enhance environmental enrichment and wellbeing of aquatic laboratory animals, sources of infrasound pollution should be investigated and mitigated.