Dynamics between fragmentation and unity: Identity and nonprofit relationship management in the Asian American Community

Focusing on community-based nonprofits with specific missions of serving the Asian American community, this study examined the dynamics between various layers of identity, including ethnicity and panethnicity, and identified how intercultural relationship management contributed to a sense of community and empowerment among minority communities. Interviews from both nonprofit community organizations and community members revealed the following major findings. First, Asian American community nonprofits needed to manage a myriad of identities within their community, particularly the interplay between diverse ethnic identities and the pan-Asian ethnic identity. To help manage these identities, these nonprofits adopted a dual approach using both segmented outreach and coherent advocacy. Second, these community nonprofits used intercultural relationship management to build a sense of community and efficacy, promoting outcomes such as health awareness, communicative activeness, cultural shift, political engagement, and community alliances. This study contributes to relationship management literature through introducing identity-based relationship building strategies.     

The Division of Labor Across the Transition to Parenthood: A Justice Perspective

In a three‐wave longitudinal survey among 293 couples, we studied the determinants of husbands' and wives' fairness judgments regarding the division of labor across the transition to parenthood. We tested predictions derived from the distributive justice framework that perceptions of fairness regarding the division of labor are affected by (a) wants and values, (b) social comparisons, and (c) procedural justice. The model was supported for wives at all waves. For husbands, wants and values and social comparisons were the main predictors of fairness perceptions. In general, the model was consistently supported across the transition to parenthood. Support was also found for the long‐term influence of the variables in the model on husbands' and wives' perceptions of fairness across the transition to parenthood.     

Predicting Spouses’ Perceptions of Their Parenting Alliance

This study used marital‐ and individual‐level variables to predict spouses’ perceived parenting alliance. One hundred married couples completed measures of parenting alliance, marital consensus, marital power, and depression. Analyses revealed that marital consensus was a significant predictor of parenting alliance for both parents, and that depression also was a significant predictor for wives. Analyses using both spouses’ data indicated that wives’ perceptions of consensus and depression significantly predicted both spouses’ parenting alliance, suggesting that wives are the barometer of the marital relationship ( Floyd & Markman, 1983 ) and of the parenting relationship as well. Implications for research are discussed.     

Farmer share and fair distribution in food chains from a consumer’s perspective

Discussions about fair revenue distribution in food supply chains gained importance in 2008 when European milk producers entered a strike against dairy processing companies (EU milk strike). A broad discussion in the media emerged, provoking civil society as well as politics to get involved in a debate over fair prices for farmers. During the milk strike, consumers in Germany were to a large extent sympathetic with the farmers, while food retailers were seen as the main cause of the problem. However, the question what fairness and a fair revenue distribution in food production meant remained unanswered. Hence, this study aims to analyze consumer perceptions of what a fair revenue distribution is in food chains and to determine what factors contribute to fairness perceptions of the farmers’ share. Through an online survey conducted in November 2012, German consumers were asked to estimate the distribution of the food dollar among different supply chain partners and to indicate what a fair distribution should look like. This paper contributes to the literature of the perceived unfair compensation of farmers and provides empirical examples of the concepts of distributive, procedural and interactional fairness. The findings of the survey showed that farmers are mainly perceived as being treated unfairly in supply chains and should get more compensation from a consumer’s point of view. Food retailing should mainly lose shares in this context. A fair distribution of revenues is influenced by distributive considerations, process control and interactional fairness, revealing that non-monetary aspects are also influencing fairness perceptions of revenue distribution in food chains.     

The Subjectivity of Fairness: Managerial Discretion and Work–Life Balance

We use organizational justice theory to examine how perceptions of fairness affect the decision‐making process of line managers. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 35 Irish managers to explore how managers make organizational allocation decisions in cases where it is impractical to offer work–life balance accommodations to all employees. The findings suggest that firstly, managers construct the ‘life’ aspect of work–life balance within a heteronormative framework, where the emphasis is on caregiving and most usually parenting. Secondly, managers actively use their decision‐making powers around both formal and informal work–life balance supports to minimize injustice within their departments. By bringing together ideas about organizational justice and managerial decision‐making, we indicate how managers determine fairness through a decision‐making process narrowed by embedded gender role beliefs. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

State‐Building Taxation for Developing Countries: Principles for Reform

The practical implications of adopting a state‐building approach to tax reform need clarity now that the international community has come to recognise the importance of taxation as a ‘state‐building’ process. This article seeks to address this gap. It identifies seven operating principles (political inclusion; accountability and transparency; perceived fairness; effectiveness; political commitment to shared prosperity; legitimisation of social norms and economic interests; and effective revenue‐raising) as the essential characteristics for state‐building taxation, and offers recommendations on potential reforms to implement them, illustrated by DFID/World Bank tax reforms in Yemen, Sierra Leone and Vietnam.     

Rethinking the Scope of Environmental Injustice: Perceptions of Health Hazards in a Rural Native American Community Exposed to Carbon Black

Abstract We use in‐depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis to examine perceptions of environmental health and justice among Native Americans in a rural Oklahoma community. Residents live near the Continental Carbon Company, which manufactures a rubber compound know as “carbon black.” Ponca tribal members believe their respiratory problems and other health concerns are directly related to the black dust emanating from the facility, but they have been unable to validate their health claims through institutional channels. We examine how Native American respondents interpret the environmental pollution as a threat not only to their health and well‐being but also to their sense of community. We address the perceived pattern of institutional denial and highlight the obstacles facing an impoverished Native American community attempting to validate their environmental health claims.     

Environmentalism: Challenging the societal consensus between labour and capital?

The conflicts between protecting the environment and pursuing conventional political objectives concerned with rising GNP, employment, etc. are increasingly influencing decision‐making processes and scientific debate. For sociology this results in a new area of research that focuses on the consequences and impacts of environmental concerns. One basic aspect of an Environmental Sociology is concerned with the re‐ordering of societal alliances. In order to do so, the article introduces some elements of a cognitive network approach. Environmentalism, advanced by collective actors such as environmental organizations, promotes alternative models to productionist politics. By doing so, these actors are challenging the alliance between labour and capital. In an empirical study of the debate on nuclear energy the paper focuses on the challenge that environmentalism has posed to the consensus between labour and capital in Sweden and Germany. The results show striking differences between both countries. Moreover, the analysis arrives at the conclusion that environmentalism may not only challenge the consensus between labour and capital but may also lead to a new cleavage within the labour movement.     

The Discursive Performance of the Alliance in Family Therapy: A Conversation Analytic Perspective

Following the ‘discursive’ turn in family therapy, the attention of practitioners shifted towards understanding how culture and language shape meaning‐making in therapy. In this article, we demonstrate how conversation analysis (CA) can be used to examine the processes and outcomes of systemic/constructionist practice. We used CA to study collaborative interactions of a renowned constructionist therapist Karl Tomm and one client‐family. Viewing collaboration as a pivotal aspect of the therapeutic alliance, we demonstrate how the ‘split’ within‐system alliances were developed and sustained in the course of therapy and how they were discursively transformed into ‘intact’ alliances. The therapist's efforts to align with perspectives of family members (and subsystems) seemed pivotal in this process.     

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.     

中国农民的公平观念:基于村委会选举调查的实证研究

改革开放以来,中国弥漫着一种以结果,特别是经济发展结果论是非定成败的倾向,民意调查也表明公众认为经济发展优先于政治改革。那么,在于己有利的结果、达到分配公平的结果与程序的公平之间,究竟何者对中国人的公平观更具解释力?本文通过对我们关于农村居民对村委会选举公平性的情景实验调查数据的分析来回答这个问题,发现程序特征和分配公平对公平观的影响力,数倍于于己有利的结果的影响力。这些发现表明,中国的基层政治民主化具有公民政治文化基础。     

Leadership,Gender and Sense‐making

This article examines the nature of sense‐making processes in teams and considers the extent to which leadership as a sense‐making process is impacted by gender. We conducted an in‐depth inquiry into the decision‐making behaviour of two single‐gender teams and a third, mixed gender team, as they worked together to produce gender‐specific leadership schema in an experimental setting. Our research question was, ‘To what extent is leadership as a sense‐making process impacted by gender?’ The article reports on the design, conduct and outcomes of this research project. We found that using a meeting as part of the research method created a specific instance of a gendered organizational context exerting a dominant and directive influence on individual and collective behaviour. The current trend toward team‐based leadership is likely to involve more meetings with increasing numbers of women in senior positions. This suggests to us that men and women need to be alert to the possibility that the gendered nature of meetings may be acting as a barrier to the expression of feminine forms of leadership.     

Resilience and Decision‐Making Strategies as Predictors of Career Decision Difficulties

The purpose of this study was to examine resilience and decision‐making strategies as predictors of difficulties experienced during the career decision‐making process. College students (N = 364) responded to measures of resilience, career decision‐making strategies, and career decision difficulties. Results indicated that resilience and decision‐making strategies accounted for 46% of the variance in career decision difficulties. Resilience had a greater influence on problems encountered during decision making than on problems encountered at the outset of the process. Different decision‐making strategies appeared to be related to difficulties encountered at different stages of the decision‐making process. For example, aspiration for an ideal occupation was positively associated only with lack of readiness. Procrastination was the only strategy related to all three decision difficulties: lack of readiness, lack of information, and inconsistent information. The results indicated the importance of decreasing procrastination at all stages of decision making and the need to promote resilience to deal with decision difficulties.     

Adolescents' Career Decision‐Making Process: Related to Quality of Attachment to Parents?

This longitudinal study examined how adolescents' perceptions of attachment security with parents relate to their process of choosing a major in higher education. The participants were 281 students who were investigated at the beginning, middle, and end of Grade 12. Findings showed that higher perceived security with mother, but not with father, predicted higher levels of coping with the career decisional tasks of orientation, broad and in‐depth environmental exploration, and self‐exploration in the future. However, perceived security did not relate to the degree of change in decisional tasks during Grade 12. Finally, results suggested that the association between perceived security with mother and the decisional tasks of orientation, broad and in‐depth environmental exploration, and self‐exploration was mediated by adolescents' career decision‐making self‐efficacy.     

Decision Making in Voluntary Career Change: An Other‐Than‐Rational Perspective

The authors present a qualitative study of voluntary career change, which highlighted the importance of positive emotions, unplanned action, and building certainty and perceiving continuity in the realization of change. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to broaden theoretical understanding of real‐life career decision making. The accounts of 8 women who had changed careers were explored, and the analysis supported other‐than‐rational perspectives of career decision making. An action‐affect‐cognition framework of decision making is proposed. The framework adds the role of emotion and the importance of self‐regulation to existing theory of career decision making. Implications for career counseling are discussed.     

Cultural Dimensions of Career Decision‐Making Difficulties

This study investigated cultural dimensions of career decision‐making difficulties using the Career Decision‐Making Difficulties Questionnaire. Career decision‐making difficulties were compared among White, African, Hispanic, and Asian American high school and university students at U.S. schools. Results indicated Asian American students perceived significantly more difficulties in career decision making than other groups, whereas White American students perceived the fewest difficulties. Asian American students reported more difficulties than White and Hispanic American students before the process and more difficulties than White and African American students during the process. Findings are discussed based on perspectives of cultural differences.     

From consensus to credibility

The development of consensual science has greatly influenced the international environmental negotiation processes. This is not least the case for the Convention on Long‐range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP). Negotiators as well as regime analysts regard CLRTAP as a successful example of how scientists have succeeded in influencing international policy making through consensus‐building strategies. Drawing on Ulrich Beck's work on reflexive scientization and the concept of ‘stage management’ from the field of the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK), this paper critically analyzes the role of science in the regulation of transboundary air pollution. It discusses the consensus‐building strategies developed by scientists as well as contemporary strategies for making science matter in regulative work. It is argued that scientific credibility is crucial for attracting political and public attention, but that credibility does not necessarily have to be based on scientific consensus. The challenge for science is not so much to create consensus but to strengthen its credibility by elaborating new relations with its stakeholders.     

The Play‐Learning Binary: U.S. Parents’ Perceptions on Preschool Play in a Neoliberal Age

Although many studies have examined parental decision‐making patterns in regard to early childhood care and education, few studies have examined how parents’ perceptions on play influence those patterns. This study explores parental perceptions regarding play in early education and the broader socioeconomic context within which these perceptions emerge. Twenty parents of preschool‐aged children completed questionnaires comprised of ratings and open‐ended questions. Findings indicate that the parents in this study defined play and learning in binary terms as opposed to mutually constitutive processes. Subsequently, while parents rated play as important, they also described it as peripheral to, and less important than, the acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills. This study argues that this binary thinking is an outgrowth of neoliberalism and ultimately undermines child well‐being.     

Perceptions of Stepfathers’ Obligations to Financially Support Stepchildren

The perceived fairness of financial arrangements following divorce and repartnering have significant ramifications for social policy and family well-being, yet relatively little is known about public opinion regarding the extent of stepparents’ financial responsibility towards stepchildren’s living costs. This study investigated perceptions of stepfathers’ obligation to financially support stepchildren using quantitative and qualitative methods, and built on previous research by including contextual variables to explore the processes underpinning judgements of kinship responsibilities using a distributive justice framework. Data from a community sample in Western Australia (N = 200) showed a large amount of variability in responses, however most participants believed stepfathers should contribute financially to some extent. Significant reductions in perceived obligations were associated with both cohabiting relationship status and maternal employment, but not with the presence of prior child support commitments by the stepfather. This study highlights the heterogeneity and complexity of attitudes around this issue and associated social policies.