The determinants of organizations’ usage of employee dismissal: Evidence from Australia

Substantial variation exists across organizations in their use of dismissal. While it has been suggested that this variation reflects organizational-level factors relating to disciplinary issues, little evidence exists regarding the effect of these factors. Using data from 1,596 workplaces in the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, we examine how organizational-level factors that reflect the incidence of disciplinary problems as well as the expected costs and benefits of dismissal are related to dismissal usage. For each organization, data were collected on organizational characteristics and practices in interviews with the employee relations manager and the senior line manager. Data were also collected on whether or not dismissal was used by the firm and on the number of employees dismissed. Using both logistic regression and tobit analysis, our results suggest that dismissal is affected by procedural and institutional restrictions on the use of discipline, interactions among those restrictions, compensation level, labor market factors, workforce human capital, operating capacity, work group influence, the use of incentive pay, workforce size, and industry classification. Copies of the AWIRS Data set are available for purchase from the Australian Government Publishing Service, Commonwealth Department of Industrial Relations, Canaberra, Australia. The authors thank Alan Morris and Lindsay Turner for their assistance in managing the AWIRS data set. Michelle Brown is now at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI 53201.     

Predicting case conviction and domestic violence recidivism: measuring the deterrent effects of conviction and protection order violations

Previous research offered little guidance on sentencing outcomes for protection order (PO) violations in cases of domestic assault and whether PO violation charges affected offender recidivism rates. Using data from local court records, this study examined the effect of PO violation charges on the odds of case conviction relative to dismissal, and whether case conviction or a PO violation charge results in lower domestic violence rearrest rates compared to offenders not receiving these sanctions. The models indicate that PO violation charges has no significant effect on the odds of conviction or recidivism rates, and these trends were not significantly different for convicted versus dismissed offenders. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research with recommendations for future areas of study.     

How race affects dismissals of college football coaches

We employ a discretetime hazard model and a Blinder-decomposition approach to explore the possibility of racial discrimination in the dismissal and retention of college football coaches by university administrations. A rich data set consisting of 81 institutions over an 11-year period (1990–2000) that contains, in addition to a coach's race, variables on cumulative winning records, annual on-the-field improvements, and pre-/post-season game participation by institutions and their coaches is employed. Our study finds that black coaches, on average, face a dismissal probability that is 9.6 percentage points below that of their nonblack counterparts, ceteris paribus, suggesting that black head coaches may be the beneficiaries of favorable treatment by university administrators. Such a result likely stems from universities ' approach to social concerns involving race and gender issues. This finding also fits a construct that considers workplace discrimination as multi-dimensional. For example, black representation in the college football coaching ranks may be disproportionately low, possibly as a result of discrimination. However, once hired, black coaches are given more time to succeed than nonblacks, other things constant.     

Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis: History and reflections, 1906–1989

Decisions, such as the one to abolish the sociology department at Washington University, do not happen over night. In this article, we trace the fine, if at times fraught, history of sociology at WU, from 1906 to 1989. The department has been home to two presidents of the ASA and location for exciting work in both theory and research. We note that the demise of the department has been a long time in the making, although the death blow was struck as if it constituted the necessary slaughter of the weak. A conservative university has eliminated a once-stellar department and, in so doing, dismissed the relevance of social thought in this modern era.     

Before the Professional Project: Success and Failure at Creating an Organizational Representative for English Doctors

Theories of the professions do not sufficiently explain how individuals with different and often ill-defined interests can organize themselves into a group coherent enough to undertake a “professional project.” I suggest that concepts from institutional and organizational theory can help fill this gap and apply such concepts to one of the first professional projects, that of English doctors. In the early nineteenth century, two groups sought to become the organizational representative of the incipient profession. The first rapidly organized a sizeable fraction of practitioners and achieved some legislative success, but could not transform its early accomplishments into a position as the doctors' representative. The second had only moderate impact in its early years and was dismissed as politically irrelevant, but eventually united the profession and continues to this day as the British Medical Association. The professions literature, most of which is pitched at a broader level of analysis, does not provide theoretical tools to explain these divergent outcomes. I argue that they can be accounted for by analyzing English medicine as an institutional field. The groups' different structural locations within the field affected their trajectories, and a novel organizational model borrowed from an adjacent field helped the latter group keep doctors mobilized and achieve legitimacy. As a result, an unlikely–looking group of outsiders with limited resources was eventually able to lead a successful professional project, while an initially promising group fell by the wayside.Elizabeth Popp Berman is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is completing a dissertation titled “Creating the Market University: Science, the State, and the Economy, 1965–1985.” Her areas of interest include organizations, economic sociology, science, the professions, and historical sociology.     

Effects of migration on family structure in the receiving country

The recognition of the right to family reunification in 1976 brought far-reaching changes in the characteristics of the foreign population in France. Today, France's immigrant population has the following characteristics: 1) 42.6% are female, 2) 40% are under 25 years of age, and 3) foreigners are increasingly dispersed throughout France. Those with residents' cards may automatically obtain residents' cards for their spouses and children. France's reception policy calls for a social worker to visit a recently arrived family, to assess their need for and to promote social services. Problems of adaptation include 1) wives' social isolation and 2) changes in relations between father and children. The integration policy conducted by public authorities has 4 main aspects: 1) socio-educational activities, 2) cultural activities, 3) vocational training, and 4) activities connected with housing and lifestyle. In 1975, France began offering assisted return procedures to dismissed unskilled workers. In 1984, the authorities introduced public assistance in reintegration for workers under threat of dismissal or who had already been dismissed. The number of foreigners resident in France should remain stable over the next few years, making the integration of immigrant communities within French society a vital task.     

The Infirmary as a Short-Term Psychiatric Facility

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the role of the Oregon State University Infirmary (inpatient unit) in the provision of crisis intervention services for students with emotional problems. The focus was on the working assumptions of the infirmary program, the patient population which utilized the infirmary, the dimensions of treatment, and treatment outcomes.

Data were collected for a three year span on all patients who had contact with the infirmary for problems of an emotional nature. Records were reviewed for demographic variables, presenting symptomatology, diagnosis, treatment, disposition, and outcomes. Comparisons were made between these patients and those who received outpatient services through the Oregon State University Mental Health Clinic.

Demographic data indicated that patients who were treated in the infirmary differed only slightly from either the general student population of the university or from students receiving outpatient services. Presenting symptoms reflected a wide range of emotional problems. The severity of psychopathology was demonstrated by the finding that one-quarter of the patients manifested symptoms of acute psychosis, suicidal preoccupation, acute drug reaction, or toxic alcohol reaction. Consistent with the working assumptions of the program, the focus of treatment was short-term, intensive, and symptom directed. Treatment outcomes as determined by followup data were generally positive.

It was concluded that the infirmary provided an important treatment option which extended rather than duplicated outpatient services. The need for such an option was clearly demonstrated. The study was supportive of the concept that a university infirmary has the potential for utilization as a multipurpose facility.     

Sociological gains and losses: The case of the national health care use and expenditure surveys

This article reflects on the role of sociological concepts and of sociologists in a series of national surveys that have proved important to national health policy in financing and access to health care. The development of the early surveys in a university setting and their migration to the government is discussed, as is the relative influence of sociologists and economists. The changing focus of health policy from access to care through expanded government programs, to cost containment and utilization control, provides an important context for understanding these developments. Areas are identified where sociologists can make significant contributions to health policy in financing and access to care. She received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Chicago. She spent six years as a Senior Sociologist at NCHSR working on all aspects of the NMCES, and three years as an analyst in the Office of Research at the Health Care Financing Administration. He received his PhD in Sociology from New York University. He joined NCHSR to conduct analyses of the NMCES data and has had major responsibilities in the design of NMES.     

Sorokin as Lifelong Russian Intellectual: The Enactment of an Historically Rooted Sensibility

Prior to his 1922 emigration to Europe and thence to the United States, Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin had an exceptional intellectual and political career in Russia and the Soviet Union (Sorokin 1924, 1963a; Johnston 1995; Krotov 2005). Indeed, he was among the early founders of the science of sociology in his native land, where, according to a relatively recent bibliography (Sorokin 2000), he produced 162 Russian-language publications between the ages of 21 and 33. This listing includes not only book reviews and journal articles, but also substantial monographs and a two-volume theoretical treatise. While still a relatively young man, Sorokin had thus gained widespread recognition as a scholar of the first rank. He was also the initial chairperson (from 1919 to 1922) of a fledgling department of sociology at the University of Petrograd (St. Petersburg), an elected member of the national Constituent Assembly and an appointed staff member of the 1917 Provisional Government, the first democratic regime in Russia. This much would have sufficed for an entry in a sociological encyclopedia, and Sorokin’s political career has few parallels in the history of the field, other than the involvement of Emile Durkheim in French educational policy and the participation of Max Weber in creating the Weimar Republic in Germany. Nevertheless sociologists in the United States and most western historians of the field have not yet appreciated the full influence of the formative period, especially from 1905 to 1922. Lacking familiarity with Russian culture of that era and knowing little about the larger Russian socio-historical milieu, its intellectual discourse and collective memory, they have not been able to comprehend Sorokin’s outlook, behavior and professional output in the United States in relation to these earlier contextual factors. This is arguably a fundamental reason why many U.S. sociologists have tended to see Sorokin, especially since 1937, as a marginal figure and to regard his works largely as deviations from accepted social scientific practice. This paper will argue that a more adequate appreciation of Sorokin’s background and early adult life illumines both stylistic features of his works in America and also places into proper perspective several of his substantive foci that did not accord with contemporary “normal science” (Kuhn 1962). In short, despite his overall assimilation into American society and higher education, including his appointment at Harvard University and his election as president of the American Sociological Association, Sorokin should be understood in large measure as a life-long Russian intellectual. His was a Russian-born sensibility and consciousness—indeed a “Russian soul”—so deeply ingrained that it stamped his entire professional career in the United States, including his published researches, his popular sociology and his university teaching.     

Gender in the Midst of Reforms: Attitudes to Work and Family Roles among University Students in Urban Indonesia

ABSTRACT

The onset of the Reform era in 1998 after the fall of Suharto bears interesting prospects on gender relations among youth in Indonesia. Using a survey of 1,761 university students from 12 universities in two contrasting urban settings, this article explores attitudes to work and family roles among senior university students in 2004: this is the year when people were preparing to elect a president directly for the first time in history, with the incumbent president the first woman in the role. Results determined that women were less traditional than their male counterparts in their attitudes toward gender roles. This article further explores correlates of gender role attitudes, offering insights on the role of sex, sample sites, gender ratio in faculty, parental role models, religion, and ethno-cultural background.     

Financial management in stepfamilies

This study is an investigation of the financial management practices of 105 remarried couples who have at least one child from a previous marriage. The majority of the couples pool their financial resources and share equally in decisions made about their finances. Financial management practices tend to be different from those of prior marriages. Remarried women experience more changes than remarried men. In general, remarried people are satisfied with how they are handling their finances. The data from this study partially supports Fishman's hypothesis that remarried families who pool resources are closer. Marital relationships are not affected by the method of pooling, but adult-child relationships are closer when resources are pooled than when they are not.This study was funded by the University of Missouri Weldon Springs Research Fund.Marilyn Coleman is Professor and Chair of Human Development and Family Studies, 28 Stanley Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211. She received her Ed.D. from the University of Missouri.Lawrence H. Ganong is Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies/Nursing, 313 School of Nursing, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211. Dr. Ganong received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. Both he and Dr. Coleman are currently doing research on stepfamily dynamics as well as sex roles.     

Woman,man, lady,horse: Jane Stewart,public relations executive

Public relations scholars know very little about the women who participated in formal public relations before the 1970s, not even about such women as Jane Stewart, who served as vice president and then president of Group Attitudes Corporation, an independent consulting firm that became a subsidiary of Hill and Knowlton of New York in 1956. Because she was virtually alone among women at the top consulting firms, Stewart was forced to perform a delicate balancing act.Jane Stewart prospered in the man's world of a Manhattan agency by accepting the conservative values of the field and the era. But she also developed a collaborative management style and maintained a female, if not feminist, perspective that at times gave her clients a different outlook on public relations problems. This article describes Stewart's career in the context of women's participation in formal public relations.The author is an assistant professor in the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.     

The cool welcome and the responses to it: Australian-Hungarians negotiate social reality in Hungary after 1989

This article examines the social aspects of Australian-Hungarians’ return to Hungary after the collapse of communism. I suggest that one of the most disillusioning aspects of homecoming for this group of Australian-Hungarians was the cold welcome they received from those who had stayed behind. The main task of this article is to analyse how returnees grappled with the negative attitudes of the stayees. Three major strategies are identified by means of which returnees facilitated their feeling of belonging: contestation, acceptance or dismissal of stayees’ perspectives. Returnees’ efforts to achieve a sense of belonging suggest that the nature of national membership is fundamentally fragile and porous and underlines that self-definitions are far from being either unconditional or ascribed. By placing contrasting narratives side by side, this article draws attention to the intersubjective elements involved in defining belonging.     

Time-management strategies used by households with home-based work

A sample of 899 households in which at least one member is engaged in home-based work is used to analyze two time-management strategies used to respond to the demands of home-based work. Analyses reveal that, first, personal time is reallocated more than additional help is obtained for either the home-based work or household production and, second, that different strategies are used depending on whether the household manager is also the home-based worker. Respondents holding both roles report reallocating personal time more often than respondents who are not home-based workers; the reverse holds for obtaining additional help. The results suggest that households generating higher incomes in which home-based work is a full-time occupation are more likely to use time-management strategies than those in which incomes are lower and the home-based work is part-time.Journal Paper Number J-14861 Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Project Number 2857. This article reports results from the Cooperative Regional Research Project, NE-167, entitled, At-Home Income Generation: Impact on Management, Productivity and Stability in Rural and Urban Families, partially supported by the Cooperative States Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and the Experiment Stations at the University of Hawaii, Iowa State University, Lincoln University (Missouri), Michigan State University, Cornell University (New York), The Ohio State University, The Pennsylvania State University, Utah State University, and the University of Vermont. This article was accepted in 1992 under the editorship of Charles B. Hennon.Her current research work includes an analysis of family resource management in Mexico and of housing conditions in rural areas. She is also involved in the study of household members who work at home for pay and their associated management practices and coping strategies. She received her Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University in 1970.She received her M.S. from Iowa State University in May 1992. This paper is based on her M.S. thesis.Her current research interests include household asset and debt formation, working families and employers' benefits, and home-based employment. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1978.Her current research work includes such topics as divorce settlements, at-home income generation, and management practices of households engaged in home-based employment. Her Ph.D. degree was received from Cornell University in 1978.     

Drug Peddlers: How Four Presidents Attempted to Influence Media and Public Concern on the Drug Issue

This agenda-building study examined the presidencies of Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush to determine to what degree they influenced media and public concern for the drug issue. This study found a complex reciprocal relation between the president, the public, and the press, with results differing depending what president and newspapers were studied. However, when the data are examined across the various presidents rather than on individual leaders, the agenda-setting process is especially powerful with 8 of the 9 predicted paths proving significant. This study discovered that the president plays an equal or greater role than the media in the agenda-building process. The path between presidential statements and public approval was higher than the one between the media and the public. Although public approval polls drove both media coverage and presidential statements, the polls had a greater effect on the media. Finally, the path from presidential statements to subsequent media coverage was just as strong as the one from media coverage to subsequent presidential statements. Agenda-setting researchers, then, should not ignore the effects of the president and other officials on the agenda-setting process.     

An accidental journey: Becoming a sociologist

This sketch describes how I accidentally became a sociologist. More importantly, it describes undergraduate sociology training at a private liberal arts university during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The University of Maryland began a Ph.D. program in sociology just before World War II began. I report on graduate training there, as well as the social and intellectual life of the department. C. Wright Mills began his academic career at Maryland. I consider his place in the department, my experiences with him as my dissertation director, and how he influenced my lifelong study on the bearing of social stratification to politics.     

Social Desirability Effects and Support for a Female American President

Public opinion polls show consistently that a substantial portionof the American public would vote for a qualified female presidentialcandidate. Because of the controversial nature of such questions,however, the responses may suffer from social desirability effects.In other words, respondents may be purposely giving false answersas not to violate societal norms. Using an unobtrusive measurecalled the "list experiment," we find that public opinion pollsare indeed exaggerating support for a female president. Roughly26 percent of the public is "angry or upset" about the prospectof a female president. Moreover, this level of dissatisfactionis constant across several demographic groups. Received for publication June 5, 2006. Revision received September 11, 2006. Accepted for publication October 25, 2006.     

A quick reference guide to mental health on university campus: a brief rhetorical analysis of fear

I was teaching rhetoric at the University of Victoria when I received the ‘Quick Reference Guide: Assisting Students in Distress’, part of the university’s initiative to address the increasing problem of mental illness on university campuses. I immediately read a rhetoric that presented mental health as Madness, as something to be feared, a threat to the university, class and the individual. This short article is a brief rhetorical analysis of this Guide, and suggests that we must move beyond fear if we are to begin to address the mental health crisis on university campuses.     

Time Spent in Household Management: Evidence and Implications

This study investigates time spent in household management, an important “missing ingredient” in time use studies, using data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). These data indicate that adults spend an average of just over 1.5 h per week in this function. This figure likely underestimates total management time because (1) management is often done in small blocks, and hence, may be missed; and (2) the ATUS generally fails to capture secondary activities. Thus, efforts to value time spent in household management using these data will similarly produce a low valuation of the household manager role. Notably, measured management time is found to be much more equally distributed among spouses than time spent in core housework tasks.