A pilot qualitative study of the under-representation of Hispanics in public relations

This pilot study explored the under-representation of Hispanics/Latinos in the public relations profession by conducting focused interviews with Hispanic practitioners. The study found that public relations was not the Latinos’ initial career choice, identified three barriers to Hispanics entering the profession, elicited practical suggestions to attract more Hispanics, and also revealed opportunities for future scholarly research to address the under-representation of Hispanics in public relations.     

Culture Change in Aged-Care Facilities: A Café's Contribution to Transforming the Physical and Social Environment

Objective: To discuss the potential of a café on the premises of an aged-care facility as a vehicle for culture change. Method: Secondary analysis of primary qualitative data that explored the value of a café in an aged-care facility, compared with culture-change principles established from a literature review. Results: Secondary analysis established congruence between culture-change principles and the themes established in the primary qualitative data. A café, in one aged-care facility, has facilitated the following dimensions of culture change for residents: individualized care, facilitation of meaningful relationships, opportunities for participation in life roles, and creation of a sense of belonging. Conclusion: Culture change can be achieved through environmental innovations, such as a café, where food and dining maximize social opportunities and create a homelike environment that facilitates continuation of residents' identity.     

Competitive compensation and subjective well-being: The effect of culture and gender

This paper uses a controlled experiment to investigate how subjects exposed to competition in the workplace react in terms of well-being, and how this translates into productivity. The experiment was performed in Korea, a country with an interdependent culture, and France, a country with an independent culture. Exposure to the tournament slightly improves well-being in the Korean sample and decreases it in France. This different response is driven primarily by the opposite response of female subjects, with Korean women liking and French women disliking to compete. Finally, an improvement in well-being is associated with ex-post higher productivity in France, and this positive effect is most salient in the French male population; in Korea, a similar positive effect can be observed only in the female population.     

Thumbs up for privacy?: Differences in online self-disclosure behavior across national cultures

This study investigates relationships between national-level culture and online self-disclosure behavior. We operationalize culture through the GLOBE dimensions, a set of nine variables measuring cultural practices and another nine measuring values. Our observations of self-disclosure come from the privacy settings of approximately 200,000 randomly sampled Facebook users who designated a geographical network in 2009. We model privacy awareness as a function of one or more GLOBE variables with demographic covariates, evaluating the relative influence of each factor. In the top-performing models, we find that the majority of the cultural dimensions are significantly related to privacy awareness behavior. We also find that the hypothesized directions of several of these relationships, based largely on cultural attitudes towards threat mitigation, are confirmed.     

Hypothesis Testing of CNA Perceptions of Organizational Culture in Long Term Care

This commentary for the special issue on research that went wrong describes a study that explored factors that contribute to variability within Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) on organizational safety culture. We know from previous research that CNAs provide most direct care in nursing homes and that direct care workers often experience agency culture differently from agency management (Wolf et al., 2014). We were looking for factors that nursing homes could alter to improve the culture for CNAs, and thus, residents. We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected via a multi-component paper survey of CNAs employed in long term care. We used results from the Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture and primary shift, type of unit, and years as a CNA to identify modifiable characteristics that would explain variability in the perceptions of patient safety culture. The final sample included n = 106 from three nursing homes. Dimension scores were compared using bivariate tests appropriate to the scale and ordinal logistic regression. Despite support in the literature for the hypothesis, we found few significant differences on the total scale within groups. Differences in perceptions have implications for quality of care and the experiences of residents within nursing homes.     

关于“草原文化与草原丝绸之路研究”专题的几点思考

“草原文化与草原丝绸之路研究”专题,重点以“草原文化研究”“草原丝绸之路研究”“蒙古与北方民族医药历史文化研究”为主要内容,旨在开展综合研究与理论研究的基础上,既有宏观基础理论研究,也有微观个案研究,有所侧重、有的放矢。     

以红色文化推进马克思主义大众化的基本路径探析

推广红色文化是推进马克思主义大众化的重要隐性教育方式,当前以红色文化推进马克思主义大众化,需要进一步加大红色文化资源的宣传营销力度,不断提高其马克思主义大众化载体的现实影响力;努力建立红色文化精神产品体系,不断强化马克思主义理论的市场渗透力和感染力;着力开发红色旅游资源,不断增强大众对马克思主义理论的体验性认同。     

Competing Values Framework: A useful tool to define the predominant culture in a maternity setting in Australia

Objective

To identify the predominant culture of an organisation which could then assess readiness for change.

Social Work Studies at a Haredi Women's College: Difficulties and Dilemmas

This paper examines the challenges faced by female Ultra-Orthodox students in a social work program designed for the Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel. Findings were obtained from four focus groups with a total of 32 students. The participants reported being exposed to contents that were inconsistent with the perspectives of their community, fieldwork expectations and requirements that violated strict rules of gender separation, and inconvenient scheduling of exams and field trips that did not take their religious observances into consideration. Despite the considerable distress that these matters caused, most of the students made determined efforts to cope, to learn the course material, to carry out their fieldwork assignments, and to reconcile the discrepancies between some of the contents they learned and behaviors that were expected of them and their deeply held values and ways. Implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations made.