Effects of Spouse Support and Hostility on Trajectories of Czech Couples' Marital Satisfaction and Instability

This article examines differences in the role of spouses' hostile and supportive behaviors in predicting level and change in marital satisfaction and marital instability. We propose 2 competing hypotheses. The first hypothesis proposes that hostility is relatively volatile and support is relatively stable, and that change in hostility affects change in marital outcomes over the course of the study, whereas the overall level of support functions to maintain the level of marital outcomes. The second hypothesis argues that change in marital satisfaction is a function of change in support, whereas change in marital instability is a function of change in hostility. We tested the hypotheses by fitting growth curves to 3 waves of panel data collected from 436 Czech couples between 1994 and 1996. The results offer some support for the first hypothesis. However, the dominant pattern was for level and change in spouses' reports of their hostility to affect both wives' and husbands' level and change in marital instability, respectively, and for the level and change in husbands' reports of their support to predict level and change in wives' marital satisfaction. Other variables suggested by previous research in the United States and by the Czech transition to a market economy are examined.     

Tactics for successful organizational change in a youth and family services agency

There is a vast body of literature on organizational change, but much of it includes only case studies or surveys with a limited number of variables. Organizational change tactics, key aspects of planned change, are not often studied. One purpose of this study was to add to this literature by assessing the use of a questionnaire regarding the use of organizational change tactics as seen by staff who had experienced an organizational change initiative. This study is particularly notable in that it uses perceptions of staff in assessing the success of the change intervention. A second purpose was to learn about specific tactics which were associated with the success of change processes in a youth and family service agency. Findings showed that eighteen of the tactics were observed and seen as helpful in goal accomplishment. These findings can help change leaders choose appropriate change tactics. This method, including a survey of all levels of staff regarding generic change tactics, an interview with an executive, and a focus group, shows promise for further study.     

Organizational change tactics in a homeless services agency

There is a vast literature on organizational change, but research on a key aspect of organizational change, the tactics used by change leaders, is limited. To address this gap, a questionnaire assessing the use of organizational change tactics has been used to allow an organization's staff to describe an organizational change initiative they had experienced. This study also included an interview with the agency's director of programs, an interview with two other staff, document analysis, and pre–post client outcome data. Findings showed the extent to which these tactics were observed and were seen as useful in achieving the change goal, offering guidance for change leaders considering organizational change tactics, and for researchers by advancing methods for studying organizational change. Results were also contrasted with those of an earlier study to identify common themes.     

Culture Change in Skilled Nursing: An Exploratory Comparison of a Traditional Home to a New Model

Abstract

The culture change movement has pushed for reform for more than two decades to align policy, the long-term care industry, and resident preferences with regard to care. Evidence from research indicates that culture change has the potential to improve quality in nursing homes. There is no one-size-fits-all way to implement culture change; however, there are key elements and associated concepts and models. A common thread is that they run counter to the medical model, typically found in nursing homes, where care is provided in a hospital-like setting according to the schedules and routines of physicians and staff with little resident input. This qualitative study looks for evidence of culture change in a traditional model of care compared to a newer culture change model, by describing the differences in practices associated with the medical model, person-centered care, and person-directed care between the two settings. Our results indicate that there is evidence of person-directed care in one model of culture change—the Green House home—but not in the traditional nursing home. Future studies should examine other culture change models to compare the differences in the utilization of person-directed care. This information will help to clarify the definitions and concepts of culture change, along with developing best practices for future culture change models.     

Restaurant tipping in a field experiment: How do customers tip when they receive too much change?

Tipping behavior is analyzed in a field experiment where restaurant customers received excessive change, either 10 or 40 Shekels (about $3 versus $12). One third of the tables reported the extra change to the server and returned it. Tips were higher with the higher level of extra change. Returning the extra change was negatively correlated with tips. The interaction between the level of extra change and whether it was returned had no effect. Possible explanations that tips are higher when the excessive change is not returned due to a positive income effect or perceiving paying a tip out of excessive change as less costly because it is a forgone gain and not a loss, are not supported by the data. Subjects may have exhibited moral licensing and moral cleansing effects. These effects, however, were possibly mitigated by a self-selection effect going in the opposite direction: those who are more generous or altruistic by their nature are more likely to return the extra change and also more likely to tip generously. Receiving the larger amount of extra change may result in feelings of good mood, perceived luckiness, or individuation and unconscious fear of being observed, which increase tips. Interestingly, these feelings seem to remain even if the extra change was returned.     

Personal histories and social restructuring: the transformation of a peasant society

Using the capacity of linked census data to combine two levels, individual and aggregate, and two dimensions, longitudinal and cross-sectional, the process of structural change is explored to reveal aspects of change which are usually hidden. North Troms, in North Norway, which still had a peasant economy at the end of the Second World War is used as an example. The trajectories of those economically active in 1960 and 1970 are disentangled then reassembled to show how they combined as structural change. Only a minority of personal histories paralleled the change in society as a whole. Much more structural change resulted from succession of cohorts leaving and entering the labour force. By joining the study of individuals to that of structures, it is possible to see how change occurs in the spaces between people, out of the effects of many contradictions.     

Processes of countryside change in lowland England

After a period in which academic interest has been confined to documenting the pattern of countryside change, interest is beginning to focus on understanding the decision-making processes which underlie it. This comes at a time of potentially rapid policy change for European agriculture and rural land use, when it is essential that the behaviour of farmers as change agents and policy operatives is fully understood. However, a lack of empirical work means that the process of change ‘from below’ is still under-researched. This paper reports on a farm survey conducted in lowland England which examines farmers' investment decisions in land improvement and landscape maintenance. Countryside change is found to be both ‘determined’ by policy, institutional and family influences and ‘intentioned’ by the farmer acting as a problem-solving individual. The survey discriminates different investment styles which can usefully express this interactive relationship.     

Social transformation,collective categories,and identity change

Changes in collective categories of identity are at the core of social transformation. The causal linkages among identity change, institutional change, and change in modes of practice are, however, complex. Developing and adapting ideas from Pierre Bourdieu's work, this article shows the coexistence in tension of a plurality of elements within each collective identity category. On this basis, it proposes a typology of responses at the level of identity to socio-political change. This allows an explanation of patterns of identity change in terms of wider social processes and resource distribution, while remaining open to the sense and complexity of the individual's experience and the moments of intentionality that arise when individuals face choices as to the direction of change. The worth of the model is shown by analysis of modes of identity change in a society now experiencing radical change in socio-political structures, namely post-1998 Northern Ireland.     

Rural change in Prince Edward Island,Canada: an interactive of directive economy?

Galeski's work on rural social change and organisation provides the framework for an examination of recent change in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. The Island is a classic rural community, with its agriculture dominated by the potato. A variety of forces are promoting rural change, particularly those of an economic, political and social nature. The processes of change common to all developed capitalist rural economies — urbanisation, autonomous change, and agribusiness — are present, but there is also the PEI Development Plan, a fifteen-year federal-provincial program for the comprehensive economic and social advancement of the Province. The Plan has highlighted the obstacles to rural change. The family farm is central to the traditional Island way of life, but it is seen as being threatened by the growth of agribusiness and the increasing land purchases by non-residents. Other threats to the Island way of life are seen in the growth of tourism and the centralised school system. Paralleling these changes is the increasing level of direction in the Island's economy, particularly from the federal government and agribusiness. The response is seen in political change at the Provincial level, opposition to the Plan, and the tightest restrictions on non-resident and corporate land ownership in Canada. Rural change per se is not opposed, but there is a growing desire to preserve what is best in PEI and its traditional way of life.     

The Gestalt of Organizational Downsizing: Downsizing Strategies as Packages of Change

This paper develops and examines a framework ofdownsizing processes at the organizational level. Itbuilds on previous frameworks and literature byintroducing new variables found to be important in a field study and by bringing empirical evidenceto bear on conceptual underpinnings related toorganizational downsizing and change. The frameworkdeveloped identifies two general approaches thatorganizations use when undergoing downsizing and redesign, aswell as patterns of activities and changes thataccompany them. Downsizing driving redesign involvesincremental and low-level change, and is associated with less communication and systematic analysis,narrow participation in change efforts, and lowermagnitude change in other organizational attributes.Redesign driving downsizing involves more fundamentalorganizational change, and is associated with high-levelchanges that involve restructuring, more communication,broad participation in change efforts, advancesystematic analysis, and the use of interorganizationalrelationships to further downsizing efforts.     

Organizational Change: A Conceptual Framework to Advance the Evidence Base

There is a vast literature on organizational change, but much of it has a weak evidence base, often using only case studies or axioms based on authors' experiences. Quantitative studies are less common and typically address a limited number of variables. Implementation science research is more advanced but typically addresses only program-level change. This paper presents a comprehensive framework of relevant variables and perspectives from which to view organizational change and offers a research agenda, with particular attention to preconditions for change (e.g., change capacity) and organizational change tactics, and their relationships with change outcomes—promising areas for research.     

The Impact of Behavioral Couple Therapy on Attachment in Distressed Couples

Emotion‐focused therapy (EFT; Greenberg & Johnson, 1988 Emotionally focused therapy for couples. New York: Guilford Press) is anchored in attachment theory (Johnson, 2003 Attachment processes in couples and families. New York: Guilford) and considers change in attachment schemas essential in the process of improving satisfaction in relationships (Johnson, 1999, Research and couples therapy: Where do we go from here? American Family Therapy Academy Newsletter). However, there are little data on how measures of attachment change over the course of EFT or any other couple therapy. The current study examines whether increases in attachment security predict improvements in marital satisfaction during behavioral couple therapy, which would suggest that change in attachment style is a key process variable even for a non‐attachment‐focused treatment. Multilevel models of data from 134 couples participating in a randomized clinical trial of integrative behavioral couple therapy and traditional behavioral couple therapy (Christensen et al. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72, 2004, 176) indicate that although there is a trend for early change in attachment‐related anxiety and avoidance to predict later change in marital satisfaction, early change in marital satisfaction strongly predicts change in attachment‐related anxiety through the end of treatment and 2‐year follow‐up. These findings suggest that changes in satisfaction may lead to changes in attachment rather than the reverse and that change in attachment may not be the mechanism of change in all efficacious couple therapy.     

Voluntary Midlife Career Change: Integrating the Transtheoretical Model and the Life‐Span,Life‐Space Approach

Frequent career change is the predicted experience of workers in the global economy. Self‐initiating career changers are a substantial subset of the total population of career changers. There is currently a dearth of theory and research to help career counselors conceptualize the career change process for the application of appropriate interventions. The authors present an integration of a well‐researched behavior change theory, the transtheoretical model of change, with Super's (1990) life‐span, life‐space approach. The corresponding stages of the 2 models are discussed along with theoretically appropriate interventions. The integrated model provides the basis for future research on the change process for voluntary midlife career changers.     

Assessing parental capacity to change: The missing jigsaw piece in the assessment of a child's welfare?

This paper presents a framework for assessing parental capacity to change, for use by social workers when a child is experiencing significant harm or maltreatment. It reports on part of the work of a knowledge exchange project involving the University of Bristol and three local authorities in South West England. The availability of assessment models addressing capacity to change, in both social work practice and the academic literature, was found to be limited. At the same time, the importance of such an assessment is significant, in terms of the lives of children affected. Two particular approaches were examined, the assessment of actual attempts to change parenting behaviour, and how behaviour change theory can help understand barriers or facilitators to change such as individual motivation, or habits and automatic responses. The development of an assessment approach is outlined, based on these two key features. It is argued that this type of assessment helps fill an important gap in social work theory and practice.     

Planned change at The Center on Philanthropy: The CLER model

This article examines the creation of The Center on Philanthropy as an example of organizational change using the Configurational, Linkages, Environments, Resources (CLER) Model. In a case study, the CLER Model is used as a tool for analyzing planned change. Applying the model aided the rapid identification of the environment as favorable and able to provide necessary support. CLER determined that linkages were key in this change, due to the numerous formal and informal linkages that were positive and favorable toward the change. The importance of resources for implementing this change also became apparent in the analysis.     

Health behavior change among office workers: an exploratory study to prevent repetitive strain injuries

The purpose of this evidence-based study is to investigate the impact of a multi-component intervention on health behavior change among office/computer workers in preventing repetitive strain injuries. Forty office workers employed in an administrative office in Michigan participated in this project. The subjects completed a comprehensive questionnaire at three different times in 1994 and 1995. The intervention took place between time 2 and time 3 and included posters, e-mail tips, mini-workshops, and activities of a Wellness Ergonomic Team. A theoretical model was tested to identify factors influencing healthy behaviors. Study findings revealed positive behavior change for 62% of the participants. The factors most strongly related to health behavior change appear to be self-efficacy, the intention to change one's behavior, and perceived health status. Better understanding of health behavior change coupled with ergonomic modifications is a significant step toward the prevention of repetitive strain injuries resulting from computer use.     

Internal communication as power management in change processes: Study on the possibilities and the reality of change communications

Literature on change management has changed over the years. Under the umbrella of change management today frequently holistic approaches are discussed. The special significance of soft factors results from the area of tension of subjective/personal risk assessment of certain groups of actors, which entail comprehensive changes. As change projects depend on implementation by executives and employees, change communications is a form of (internal) strategic stakeholder management. Change communications can be identified as the single part of change management, which focuses on the soft factors that are activated through the change of hard factors. With the management of soft factors the aim is to make a contribution to the enforcement of change goals, i.e. to secure or to regain the management's power. For this purpose 60 PR-agencies in Germany have been polled, as to how they assess the possibilities and reality of change communications. The result illustrates a torn of the agency scene between service and consulting claims, which emphasizes the question, if (internal) communication means the organization of messages and its delivery or also becomes part of behavioral economics with the idea to control the power of management.     

What is the Point of Change? Change Point Detection in Relational Event Models

This paper presents an extension to the relational event model with change points (REM-CP) to study abrupt changes to social interaction behavior in temporal networks. A change point detection algorithm is proposed for exploring when and which network effects abruptly change, and a confirmatory approach to test the presence of a change point at a given moment. The effectiveness of the methodology was assessed with numerical simulations and NASA’s Apollo 13 mission data. The latter revealed dynamic communication behavior and identified time zones where most change points occurred, including around the time of the famous quote “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”     

Der Change Explorer — ein Instrumentarium zur Exploration und Beratung von Veränderungen in Organisationen

The Change Explorer is a multimethod tool for the evaluation of and improvement in the change management process. It has been developed based on an integrative systemic change management theory. The contribution describes the theoretical background and different modules, like the interview with card and structure analysis techniques, questionnaires, and results workshop, performed with the key persons involved in the changes. Flexible application possibilities, high practice acceptance and typical results are shown by three project examples. The first is a scientific research study on changes at the police; the second is an applied evaluation and improvement project of the change management at all important changes of a group of companies, and the third is an explorative study of change management in bicultural teams. The tool promotes common self-reflection under consideration of the different perspectives of the key persons involved. This allows developing improvements in the change management in a workshop of the interview partners, better supported by common experience. Important is here particularly the recording of concrete qualitative information on evaluation criteria and success factors by the interviews besides the assessment of quantitative data.