Conditioning effect of prior reputation on perception of corporate giving

Prior corporate reputation, one responsibility of a public relations department, affects public perceptions toward corporate philanthropic messages and ultimately affects public attitudes toward the company. Using an experiment that emulates the sort of news consumption individuals normally undertake, participants inferred corporate charitable giving as a mutually beneficial activity when a company had a good reputation (H1a). Participants inferred corporate charitable giving as a self-interested activity when the company had a bad reputation (H1b). Also, public inference (suspicion) successfully mediated corporate prior reputation on public attitude toward the company (H2). Participants showed positive attitude toward the company when they inferred the company had an altruistic motive for charitable giving (H3a). However, participants showed negative attitude toward the company when they inferred the company had a self-interested motive for charitable giving (H3b).     

Gender differences in the use of high-variance strategies in tournament competition

We report on a series of experiments in which participants first completed a simple game of chance and then competed in a tournament based on a multiple cue probability learning task. The results show that men made riskier choices in the simple game of chance, but women adopted the high-variance strategy more frequently in the tournament. However, after controlling for differences in forecasting skill, we find no significant differences in the rates at which men and women adopted a high-variance strategy. Although altering the difficulty of the forecasting task produces differences in the rate at which participants selected the high-variance strategy, it did not produce a significant difference in the rate at which men and women selected the strategy. Thus, this paper suggests that although women are more risk-averse than men, women are no less likely to adopt a high-variance strategy in a tournament competition.     

An application of the Impact Evaluation Process for designing a performance measurement and evaluation framework in K-12 environments

This article illustrates the application of the Impact Evaluation Process for the design of a performance measurement and evaluation framework for an urban high school. One of the key aims of this framework is to enhance decision-making by providing timely feedback about the effectiveness of various performance improvement interventions. The framework design process is guided by the Impact Evaluation Process, and included the participation of key stakeholders including administrative and teaching staff who all contributed to the performance measurement and evaluation framework design process. Key performance indicators at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels were derived from the school vision, and linked to specific interventions to facilitate the continuous evaluation and improvement process.     

An application of the Impact Evaluation Process for designing a performance measurement and evaluation framework in K-12 environments

This article illustrates the application of the Impact Evaluation Process for the design of a performance measurement and evaluation framework for an urban high school. One of the key aims of this framework is to enhance decision-making by providing timely feedback about the effectiveness of various performance improvement interventions. The framework design process is guided by the Impact Evaluation Process, and included the participation of key stakeholders including administrative and teaching staff who all contributed to the performance measurement and evaluation framework design process. Key performance indicators at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels were derived from the school vision, and linked to specific interventions to facilitate the continuous evaluation and improvement process.     

Assessing the Effects of Observational Conditioning and Response-Contingent Pairing on the Vocalizations of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display impairments in communication, such as limited echoic behavior, few vocal-verbal responses, and a lack of functional communication. One potential way to foster the acquisition of vocal responses in individuals with disabilities is by conditioning vocalizations as reinforcers. Conditioning procedures include stimulus–stimulus pairing, response-contingent pairing (RCP), operant discrimination training, and observational conditioning (OC). However, previous research has not evaluated whether OC can be used to condition vocalizations as reinforcers. The current study assessed whether two conditioning procedures, RCP and OC, were effective in conditioning vocalizations as a reinforcer and also evaluated their effect on the rate of vocalizations. Participants included three children with ASD, ages 5–10 years old. During the conditioning phase, rates of vocalizations during the RCP and OC conditions and a control condition were compared within an adapted alternating-treatments design. Reinforcer assessments were completed in a multielement design, pre- and postconditioning, to assess whether the target vocalizations acquired reinforcing properties. A conditioning effect and an increase in the rate of vocalizations were observed for two of the three participants; however, the conditioning effect was minor for one participant. Overall, the results of this study indicate both the RCP and OC procedures may be beneficial in increasing vocalizations for some children and could be incorporated into clinical programs and further explored in future research.     

Mixed-methods library evaluation integrating the patron,library, and external perspectives: The case of Namibia regional libraries

The article presents a mixed-methods evaluation of regional libraries in Namibia, which incorporates three perspectives: the patron perspective (library users), the library perspective (library staff, management, and related officials), and the external perspective (including evaluators and monitoring data). Seven data collection methods were used: patron surveys, patron panel studies, focus group discussions, key informant and staff interviews, secondary data analysis, media analysis, and observations. The goal of the evaluation was to assess library performance for both formative and summative purposes by addressing evaluation questions on areas such as library services, use, and operations. Building upon the literature review of how mixed-methods approaches can contribute to library evaluation, the aim of this article is to show how a mixed-methods evaluation can be designed to examine multi-faceted library performance and to illustrate how the evaluation design allows information complementarity and can be utilized to present diverse viewpoints of the above three perspectives. The evaluation design, analysis process, and lessons learned from this study may be useful to evaluators engaged in evaluation of public services or programs (including public libraries) that examine multiple aspects of service performance and involve a variety of stakeholders.     

浅谈文化对建筑的影响

建筑作为人类生产活动过程中的一种物质产品,具有鲜明的文化特征,因此应从人类发展和文化进化的高度去审视建筑作为一种物态文化的内在价值和意义。早期人类为了遮风避雨和躲避野兽攻击找到了天然洞穴,开始了穴居生活,满足了生存的最低要求。     

The effect of the interview on the interviewee

This paper is concerned with the effects of participating in semistructured interviews on the interviewees. It is based on evidence supplied by young adult women who were interviewed a number of times and asked about their previous interviews. While most claimed to have little recall of these earlier events, they did remember them as interesting and/or enjoyable. This was because the interview focused on them with the guaranteed but detached interest of the interviewer. Informants' reflections on previous interviews showed that there was a range of impact on women's views from (a)recording information; (b)clarification of views; (c)review of position; and (d)discovery of something new. Beyond interviews interacting with the informant's views there is also evidence that some interviewees' actions outside the interview were influenced by their participation. The fact that interviews involve the interaction of participants is now recognized in a number of intellectual approaches but the variability of this has not been documented.     

Measuring the effect of matching problems on unemployment

This article shows how matching problems reduce employment figures – and hence also raise those for unemployment – by creating a gap between labour demand and employment. It also shows how this gap can be measured by unfilled jobs (unmet demand) as distinct from job vacancies (recruitment processes) and reports results from the Swedish vacancy survey which measures both. In fact, while a shift of the matching function indicating longer recruitment times suggests increasing matching problems, this can only be verified by measuring unfilled jobs, which also quantifies the effect on unemployment.     

The Influence of Perceptions of Fairness on Performance Appraisal Reactions

The success of appraisal systems may well depend on ratees’ perceptions of fairness and reactions to important aspects of the appraisal process. My primary purpose is to integrate the literatures on fairness perceptions and appraisal reactions to test specific, heretofore untested, hypotheses. Consistent with predictions of Sweeney and McFarlin’s (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 55:23–40, 1993) two-factor model, results of structural equation modeling indicated that distributive justice influenced satisfaction with performance ratings and procedural justice influenced satisfaction with the appraisal system. Results indicated mixed support for Bies and Moag’s (Lewicki, Blair, Bazerman (eds) Research on Negotiation in Organization, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, pp. 43–55, 1986) agent-system model as procedural justice (and distributive justice) had more influence on satisfaction with appraisal feedback than components of interactional justice perceptions. The implications of my results are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Decomposing the age effect on risk tolerance

The importance of investment portfolio allocation has become more apparent since the onset of the late 2000s Great Recession. Individual willingness to take financial risks affects portfolio decisions and investment returns among other factors. Previous research found that people of different ages have dissimilar levels of risk tolerance but the effects of generation, period, and aging were confounded. Using the 1998–2007 Survey of Consumer Finances cross-sectional datasets, this study uses an analytical method to separate such effects on financial risk tolerance. Aging and period effects on financial risk tolerance were statistically significant. Implications for researchers and financial planning practitioners and educators are provided.     

The new squirearchy and emergent cultures of the new middle classes in rural areas

In part prompted by a recent spate of media reports this paper explores the emergence of a ‘new squirearchy’ in the English countryside. In doing so, it aims to both illuminate a particular facet of rural social life and help reignite interest in the cultures of rural class. Whilst relationships between rural class and culture were a source of excitement during the 1990s, much of this interest has apparently spluttered if not died, despite class itself remaining very much a live issue for rural dwellers. The paper draws on the findings of an in-depth ethnographic study to highlight the significance of performance and symbolic boundary-marking in the construction and reproduction of social identity. The focus is the activities and sites of ‘the pub’, ‘the hunt’ and ‘the shoot’, which have been key in the emergence of the new squirearchy in the study area. The paper shows the importance of lay classifications based on evaluations of cultural (in)competence and morality, and suggests that the performance and boundary-marking of the new squirearchy in tandem with other identities is evidence of a more extensive, complex and ambiguous ‘culture of middle-classness’ in rural areas.     

The effect of androgen supplementation therapy on the prostate

With the recent availability of transdermal formulations, androgen supplementation therapy is increasingly being prescribed for men in their 50s and 60s. With the growing use of testosterone products, there is concern about the long-term risks of androgen supplementation therapy, particularly on the prostate. This article reviews what is known about the safety of testosterone replacement therapy in terms of the potential risks for development of symptomatic benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and prostate cancer. Androgens are undoubtedly involved in the growth of benign prostatic nodules, as a permissive factor in the etiology of prostate carcinoma and in the enhancement of the growth of active prostate cancer. Their role in the initiation of either disease is less clear. Available data support the safety of such treatment in the short term. Caution is still advised in the interpretation of these findings, as the studies producing the data have involved relatively small numbers of participants. Until large, long-term, placebo-controlled studies have been conducted and analyzed, questions about the long-term safety of testosterone supplementation therapy in older men will remain.     

War outside, ceasefire inside: An analysis of the performance appraisal system of a public hospital in a zone of conflict

Our study examines the use of the performance appraisal system at Hebron Public Hospital (Palestine) during the second intifada, started in 2000. The aim of the article is to shed light on the reasons behind the use of performance appraisal systems in organizations operating in zones of conflicts, an area relatively neglected by HR scholars. To create the theoretical fundament we draw on mainstream literature on performance appraisal, contextualizing it to the Middle-Eastern context. From the literature analysis, we identify five guiding logics for the implementation and use of performance appraisal systems (Appendix A). We use a multi-method approach, qualitative and quantitative, to analyze the longitudinal performance evaluation data over the period 2000-2002 for about 250 individuals. These data are complemented with interviews and observations in the field.Our analysis shows that the trends evidenced in the quantitative analysis are similar to trends evident in Western contexts. However, these trends were not the consequence of the same five Western logics found in the literature. The qualitative study allows us to identify two additional logics for making sense of the performance appraisal system at Hebron Public Hospital: the need to find peace within the organization (organizational peacefulness logic); and the need to maintain order through the acceptance of the status quo (dominance logic). These results allow us to draw conclusions for theory and practice of HR management and to identify useful criteria for doing research in areas of conflicts.     

Mobility closure in the upper class: assessing time and forms of capital

Most understandings of the ways classes become social groupings centre on processes of mobility closure whereby mutual appreciation and recognition within classes arise from homogenous experiences over time. The mapping of such structured biographies, however, remains understudied. This paper explores intra‐ and intergenerational mobility patterns in the upper strata of the Norwegian class structure and aims to include temporal processes and multiple forms of capital in the quantification of class trajectories. By combining multiple correspondence analysis and social sequence analysis, two important but often neglected aspects of recruitment to the upper class are emphasized: first, by introducing multiple forms of capital, different ways of maintaining mobility closure are demonstrated; second, different pathways to power are highlighted by distinguishing between divergent class careers. A key aim of the analysis is to explore internal divisions within the upper class in forms of parental capital (an ‘origin space’) and link these divisions to a typology of ‘destination careers’ in adulthood. The analysis suggests that individuals from modest origins are more likely to have careers that feature a biographically late arrival and/or short‐term affiliations to upper‐class positions whereas individuals from families rich in capital are more likely to have stable careers in the upper‐class fractions from which they originate. The analysis thus reveals important divisions in the trajectories of Norwegians who reach the upper class; not only are there differences in their upbringing in terms of the availability of different amounts and types of capital but such divisions also seem linked to their own class careers later in adulthood.     

Hispanic Immigration and Black Violence at the Macro‐Level: Examining the Conditioning Effect of Victim Race/Ethnicity

Much attention has been devoted to the relationship between Hispanic immigration and violent offending at the macro‐level, including how it varies across racial and ethnic groups. Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to the conditioning effect of the race/ethnicity of the victim, or how Hispanic immigration is associated with crime by one racial/ethnic group against members of the same or different groups. Using National Incident‐Based Reporting System offending estimates and American Community Survey data, we examine the association between Hispanic immigration and black intra‐ and intergroup (black‐on‐white and black‐on‐Hispanic) homicide, robbery, and serious index violence in over 350 U.S. communities. We employ advanced imputation methods to address missing data that have constrained much prior research, as well as utilize crime measures adjusted for the likelihood of random contact between groups. Findings suggest that (1) Hispanic immigration has a positive association with black violence on the whole, but that (2) this association is conditioned by the race/ethnicity of the victim. Our results reinforce the importance of distinguishing across offender–victim dyads in research on the immigration–crime nexus, particularly in light of competing theoretical expectations. Directions for future research and policy are discussed.