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Autumn.2013Final_layout 8/1/13 12:48 PM Page 25 To combat the factors leading to nonresponse, the researchers made several recommendations. First, warnings should come from multiple sources, as a single source of information rarely prompts people to take appropriate action, according to Sharman. In addition to a community's traditional emergency signal, such as a siren, warnings should be posted through traditional and/or social media. The professors' research shows that text messages, Facebook and Twitter can be trusted sources of information, especially if messages are sent from a trustworthy source, such as a close friend or local police. "Text messaging is now clearly preferred among younger age groups than other modes of communication such as phone and email," Sharman says. "Younger people are in constant connection with social media, so these channels have more effective reach." Also, since text messages remain in a queue, they do not need to be retransmitted and are more likely to be seen. Second, warnings should include more descriptive language, using words such as "unsurvivable" and "catastrophic" and urging citizens to take "immediate, life-saving action" to motivate the public in the event of imminent and extreme severe weather. Finally, communities should take advantage of technological advances to make warnings more specific. GPS technology can allow for more tightly targeted geographic alerts, which may help motivate people to take action because they can see the threat to their particular area. The research was published as a white paper for Federal Signal Corp. and was partially funded by the National Science Foundation. It included information from Federal Signal's 2012 public safety survey, conducted by Zogby International. x New center to create more effective leaders and organizations A new center in the School of Management opening this fall will aim to create more effective leaders and organizations. The Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (CLOE) will significantly advance research and teaching in the area of leadership and its impact on organizational effectiveness. It also will support UB 2020's goals of accelerating academic excellence, translating scholarship and devel- oping leadership capabilities in UB students and business leaders. "We plan to focus on three discrete areas: leadership development, education and research in organizational change and leadership effectiveness," says Paul Tesluk, the Donald S. Carmichael Professor of Organizational Behavior and chair of the Department of Organization and Human Resources. "We're planning programs and projects to help organizations in rapidly growing industries such as the life sciences and health care." Among those plans is a research and education initiative to assist UB's Academic Health Center (School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the schools of Dental Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Public Health and Health Professions). A new nondegree program, Leading Transformation and Change in Health Care, will fall under the executive leadership programs of the center. The program will give participants a strategic understanding of the trends and transformations taking place in the health care industry through a series of presentations and discussions with noted health care leaders and experts. Arjang A. Assad, dean of the School of Management, says CLOE will be a means for building a top-tier faculty of leadership scholars and will provide ways to work with the business community, as well as with other units across campus. "Western New York is in a time of critical growth and transformation," says Assad. "CLOE will play a pivotal function in supporting UB's role as an anchor institution for economic engagement in the region, while producing world-class research and instruction." x Autumn 2013 Buffalo Business 25