The Community Well-Being Questionnaire: Theoretical Context and Initial Assessment of Its Reliability and Validity

The article presents the theoretical contextand the elements that underlie the developmentof the community well-being questionnaire. Italso discusses the reliability and validity ofthe questionnaire's scales by presentingresults from two studies carried out in urbanareas in the U.K., Ireland and Greece. Thescales assess satisfaction with the builtenvironment, environmental quality and services and facilities. They also measure personal safety, informal interaction,community spirit, income sufficiency, decisionmaking process and place attachment. Analysesshowed that they have high internal and goodtest-retest reliability. They also performwell, when subjected to factorial validity andconstruct validity assessments.     

Information sharing between the child welfare and behavioral health systems: Perspectives from four stakeholder groups

This qualitative study articulates the challenges, best practices, and facilitators to information sharing when addressing the behavioral health needs of children in out-of-home care. 13 interviews and nine focus groups were conducted to illuminate the perspectives of foster parents, mental health clinicians, provider agency social workers, and city-employed child welfare professionals. In total, 65 individuals participated in this qualitative study and data were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach. Results indicate that challenges and best practices in cross-system information sharing articulated across the four stakeholder groups are attributed to variation in information accessibility, clarity in roles and protocols, ability in obtaining signatures for consent/release forms, and attitudinal differences towards collaboration. Implications to improve policy and practice are discussed.     

Keeping rail on track: preliminary findings on safety culture in Australian rail

'Safety culture' is identified in the literature as a critical element of healthy and safe workplaces. How can rail organizations ensure that consistently effective work health and safety cultures are maintained across the diversity of their operations? This paper reports on research that is currently underway in the Australian rail industry aimed at producing a Model of Best Practice in Safety Culture for the industry. Located in rail organizations dedicated to the mining industry as well as urban rail and national freight operations, the research examines the constructs of organizational culture that impact on the development and maintenance of healthy and safe workplaces. The research uses a multi-method approach incorporating quantitative (survey) and qualitative (focus groups, interviews and document analysis) methods along with a participative process to identify interventions to improve the organization and develop plans for their implementation. The research uses as its analytical framework the 10 Platinum Rules, from the findings of earlier research in the New South Wales (Australia) mining industry, Digging Deeper. Data collection is underway at the time of writing and preliminary findings are presented at this stage. The research method may be adapted for use as a form of organizational review of safety and health in organizational culture.     

Changing Meanings of Authority in Contemporary Rural India

The article explores political meanings in the context of recent economic and political changes in a village in south India. Cultural constructions of political relations emerged in conversations between the author and village informants in Andhra Pradesh. Informants perceived decline in the power and authority of former village lords and talked about the establishment of authority in the new setting. In processes of democratization which had taken place, showing and receiving honor and respect continued as political and social preoccupations. However, deserving honor and respect has become less a statement about political superiority and domination and more about individual moral qualities.

Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

A busy time for librarians was late May through early July 2008 with the Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians meeting May 14–16, the North American Serials Interest Group meeting June 5–8, and an American Library Association preconference Electronic Serials 101: What I Wished I’d Known Before I Got in Over My Head, June 27.     

Retirement for women: the impact of employment

This study compares the retirement experiences of professional and nonprofessional women. The analysis is based on 48 interviews with women ranging in age from 63-83 years. Participants provided personal and occupational histories and described their retirement decisions, transitions, and lives in retirement. The women's retirement experiences differed in five areas: (1) attachment to work, (2) professional identity, (3) social contacts, (4) family roles/obligations, and (5) community involvement. Findings indicate investment in the work role does affect how women transition to retirement as well as how they structure their time in retirement.     

Recruitment strategies for conducting research on women's retirement

Currently, little information is available to inform new or returning researchers about designing and conducting research on the topic of women and retirement. Few published studies describe how to access non-probability samples of retired women, yet preliminary evidence suggests women possess distinctive characteristics that affect their retirement as well as complicate the recruitment process. In this article, certain challenges and benefits of conducting research with women in retirement are presented. Next, important issues to consider prior to sampling retired women are described. Finally, specific strategies for identifying and recruiting community-dwelling retired women are presented and discussed.     

The Study of Organizational Effectiveness*

This paper reviews the goal approach and the system resource approach to the study of organizational effectiveness. First, the goal approach is defended with respect to criticisms made by the users of the system resource approach. Next it is criticized for its failure to develop general measures of effectiveness. The system resource approach is then criticized because optimization is not measured, few general measures are used, and the basic rule of mutual exclusiveness is seriously violated. Finally, a general measure of effectiveness is suggested, based on Georgopoulos and Mann's (1962) study of community general hospitals.