Employees in Canada may have more freedom to display political behaviours and gain recognition in the workplace than their counterparts in India, a University of Windsor professor has concluded.

Ashish Mahajan, associate professor of management at the Odette School of Business, and Soo Min Toh, associate professor of organizational behaviour and HR management at the University of Toronto, had their research paper “Group Cultural Values and Political Skills: A Situationist Perspective on Interpersonal Citizenship Behaviors” published in the Journal of International Business Studies in January.

The paper examines how a person’s political behaviour — the ability to understand social situations and adapt accordingly to gain visibility in the workplace — hinges on the culture of that workplace.

Drs. Mahajan and Toh spent two years collecting survey data from 328 employees and 82 immediate supervisors in Canada and India.

“There are people who are politically skilled and would act in ways that may lead to their increased visibility,” Mahajan said.

The research concluded that in egalitarian cultures like those found in Canadian companies, where all people are given equal rights and opportunities, employees have greater latitude to exhibit political behaviours and gain favourable attention from supervisors.

In India, Mahajan said, employees more often accept the supervisor’s authority and are less inclined to question it, which provides less incentive to the politically skilled to display these behaviours as a means to gain visibility.

“People in different cultures, even though they may be politically skilled, may not display the same behaviours because the culture would prevent them from doing so,” Mahajan said.

When the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a study last year ranking Windsor the worst city in the country to be a woman, students in professor Marty Gervais’ documentary film class set out to hear what the city’s women had to say.

The students interviewed a diverse selection of women, providing perspectives on economic and personal security, education, health and leadership.

The resulting film, Her Windsor, will enjoy a free public screening at 6 p.m. Friday, March 31, at the Pitt-Ferry Building, 167 Ferry Street.

A team of fourth-year environmental engineering students will present their approach to managing storm water at Toronto’s Exhibition Place at the Water Environment Association of Ontario’s annual Student Design Competition, Sunday in Ottawa.

Christina Ure, Shannon Deehan, James Park and Lina Florian were tasked with designing a storm water management system the mixed-use district, located by the shore of Lake Ontario. The team will have 15 minutes to present its design proposal to representatives of the association, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, and the City of Toronto.

The students’ design focuses on enhancing and retrofitting problem areas within the site, like parking lots and rooftops.

“Incorporating engineered green spaces will improve the quality of water being discharged into Lake Ontario and reduce the effects of large storm events associated with on-site flooding,” Ure said. “In addition to these changes, our proposed design will feature value added components like streetscapes and outdoor art galleries that the local community can enjoy.”

The Student Design Competition gives post-secondary student teams from Ontario a chance to work on a real-world problem in the water industry. The winning team will represent Ontario on an international stage at the Water Environment Federation’s Student Design Competition.

The SoCA Fridays series of student recitals continues today — Friday, March 31 — with performances at noon in the Music Building’s Recital Hall.

The program features:

• Percussionist Justin Skalaa performing “Autumn Portrait” by Nicholas Papador;
• Mezzo-soprano Andrea Obeid performing “Va! Laisse couler mes larmes” by Jules Massenet, and “Where in the World Is My Prince?” by Jerry Herman — accompanied by pianist Yvonne Chittle;
• Flutist Holly Charron performing the Hornpipe, Menuet and Comic Song movements from “Six Pastiches” by Cecilia McDowall — accompanied by pianist Monique Simone;
• Trombonist Nathan Duczman performing “Five O’Clock Drag” and “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me” by Duke Ellington — accompanied by pianist Mark Calcott;
• Trumpeter Niklas Pizzolitto performing “Fantasie, Theme and Variations on the Carnival of Venice” by Jean Baptiste Arban — accompanied by pianist Alde Calongcagong;
• Guitarist Colin Cooper performing “Cello Suite No. 1” by Johann Sebastian Bach and “Julia Florida” by Agustin Barrios;
• Pianist Konrad Jarecki performing “Novelette, Op.21, No.7” by Robert Schumann;
• Pianist Sarah Sundac performing “Prelude in D Minor, Op.23, No. 3” by Sergei Rachmaninoff;
• Pianist Courtney Menard performing “Sonata in E Major, Op. 14, No. 1” by Ludwig van Beethoven;
• Pianist Allison Knight performing Beethoven’s “Rondo in C Major, Op. 51, No. 1.”

Admission to this event is free and open to the public.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne participated in a roundtable discussion with local business leaders, educators and politicians at the University of Windsor on Thursday.

The meeting was held at the Windsor Essex Economic Development Corporation’s office in the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation and included Wynne, Minister of Economic Development and Growth Brad Duguid, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens and Essex County Warden Tom Bain.

Stephen MacKenzie, CEO of the development corporation, said the discussion focused around the pending renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“We put together a group of thought leaders and industry participants related to the automotive sector and … discussed what issues are important for Ontario to address as we prepare for the negotiations.”

Wynne addressed a crowd in the Centre for Engineering Innovation’s Industrial Courtyard following the discussion.

“It was a great opportunity to hear from some business leaders who are on the front lines, some folks from the academic community and Minister Duguid and I really appreciated the opportunity to have that conversation,” she told students, faculty and community leaders.

Earlier in the day, Wynne attended an announcement at the Ford Essex Engine Plant with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau where the provincial government, federal government and Ford announced a $1.2-billion investment in the automaker’s Ontario operations. Part of that investment will go to the Powertrain Engineering Research and Development Centre which works in collaboration with UWindsor graduate students and research engineers in the area of electric vehicles.

A public meeting Wednesday, April 5, at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research will update the community on the progress of a project to monitor the sanitary conditions of Essex County’s recreational beaches.

A research team led by the institute’s director, Daniel Heath, and post-doctoral fellow Subba Rao Chaganti received a half-million dollar grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) last year to determine possible contamination sources, and identify environmental factors that could contribute to harmful bacteria outbreaks.

Using a new technique called next-generation DNA sequencing, the team has been analyzing DNA from water samples to precisely identify the presence of potentially harmful bacteria. DNA sequencing can filter for such pathogens as streptococcus, and identify the danger level to human health, which dictates beach closures. Pathogens are anything that can produce illness or spread disease.

The team is also studying environmental factors that can drive beach contamination variation from day to day, or even hour to hour, and is combining this information with spatial mapping to build a model for predicting and preventing future outbreaks.

The event will begin with lunch at noon before the presentation at 1 p.m. in the conference room of the London Life Great Lakes Environmental Research Centre, 2990 Riverside Drive West.

The Centre for Teaching and Learning is calling for nominations for this year’s GATA Awards, recognizing the contributions made by graduate and teaching assistants to the University’s learning environment.

The categories for nomination are:

• the GA and TA Awards for Educational Practice and
• the GA/TA Award for Educational Leadership.

The impact of the awards extends beyond the recipients, says teaching and learning specialist Michael Potter.

“These awards are a means of inspiring those who may have thought such excellence was beyond their reach and those who may not have known that such achievements were a possibility for ‘mere’ GAs and TAs,” he says.

Details — including criteria, eligibility, and the nomination process and forms — are available on the centre’s website. The deadline for nominations is 5 p.m. May 22. Direct questions and comments to Pierre Boulos at boulos@uwindsor.ca.