Are Listeners Perceived as Leaders?

Listening is known to strongly correlate with leadership perception. As leadership theories distinguish between people-oriented (consideration) and task-oriented (initiating structure) leaders, we sought to identify parallel listening behaviors: person-oriented listening versus fact-oriented listening. A survey of employees from multiple organizations (N?=?238) suggested that both person-oriented listening and considerate leadership are better measured with subscales differentiating constructive and destructive listening and considerate and inconsiderate leadership. Second, results suggested that the highest correlations for each leadership scale were (a) leadership consideration with person-oriented listening (r = .71), (b) leadership inconsideration with destructive listening (r = .67), and (c) initiating-structure leadership with fact-oriented listening (r = .23). The pattern of relationships was further explored with a path analysis. Based on the data, it appears that measuring listening could benefit from using separate scales for constructive versus destructive listening, and that key aspects of leadership perception are highly correlated with listening behaviors.     

Solar energy: Where policy-makers and conservationists disagree

Solar energy policy-makers and solar energy advocates use significantly different scenarios upon which they perceive and evaluate the adoption of solar technologies. The differences between the two groups seem to be rooted in different hierarchies of values relating to solar energy policy. Policy-makers emphasize the economic and national security values of solar energy. On the other hand, solar energy advocates stress environmental, ethical and social values. Aside from understanding the different groups in the on-going energy debate better, the findings of the study have important implications for planners both in government and industry as they may help increase the effectiveness of their plans.     

Tracking rural-to-urban migration in China: Lessons from the 2005 inter-census population survey

We examined migration in China using the 2005 inter-census population survey, in which migrants were registered at both their place of original (hukou) residence and at their destination. We find evidence that the estimated number of internal migrants in China is extremely sensitive to the enumeration method. We estimate that the traditional destination-based survey method fails to account for more than a third of migrants found using comparable origin-based methods. The ‘missing’ migrants are disproportionately young, male, and holders of rural hukou. We find that origin-based methods are more effective at capturing migrants who travel short distances for short periods, whereas destination-based methods are more effective when entire households have migrated and no remaining family members are located at the hukou location. We conclude with a set of policy recommendations for the design of population surveys in countries with large migrant populations.     

Religious Identity and Psychological Well-Being Among Newly Orthodox Jewish Women

This article explores the phenomenon of returning to Orthodoxy among Jewish women who have immigrated to Israel. The focus of the article is the effect of this return on their self-identity as they assume a new social position. The sample consists of 72 respondents to an exhaustive questionnaire. The results reported here suggest the difficulty of maintaining prior relationships, resulting in the marginalization of some of these women. This increase in marginality may lead to heightened states of anxiety.     

Son Preference and Access to Social Insurance: Evidence from China's Rural Pension Program

Many scholars argue that the persistence of son preference in China is driven by greater anticipated old‐age support from sons than from daughters and the absence of formal financial mechanisms for families to save for retirement. The introduction of a voluntary old‐age pension program in rural China in the 1990s presents the opportunity to examine (1) whether parents with sons are less likely to participate in pension plans and (2) whether providing access to pension plans affects parental sex‐selection decisions. Consistent with the first hypothesis, we find that parents with sons are less likely to participate in the pension program and have less financial savings for retirement. Consistent with the second hypothesis, we find that an increase in county‐level pension program availability is associated with a slower increase in the sex ratio at birth.     

Mapping the organization a methodological approach to organizational change initiation

facturers have realized that in order to survive in this market a new way of doing business is required. Initiating and planning changes is the focus of this paper, which describes a new methodology developed with the Israeli Military Industries. The methodology is designed to promote and initiate change in operations by defining a well-structured approach to Abstract. The defence industry is facing a shrinking market and tough competition. Most defence contractors and manu     

On the behaviour of tests based on sample spacings for moderatesamples

We revisit the question about optimal performance of goodness-of-fit tests based on sample spacings. We reveal the importance of centering of the test-statistic and of the sample size when choosing a suitable test-statistic from a family of statistics based on power transformations of sample spacings. In particular, we find that a test-statistic based on empirical estimation of the Hellinger distance between hypothetical and data-supported distribution does possess some optimality properties for moderate sample sizes. These findings confirm earlier statements about the robust behaviour of the test-statistic based on the Hellinger distance and are in contrast to findings about the asymptotic (when sample size approaches infinity) of statistics such as Moran's and/or Greenwood's statistic. We include simulation results that support our findings.     

NEW TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS IN MULTISTAGE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

The introduction of new technologies in production and manufacturing (such as robotics, flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), and computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM)) frequently motivates capital investment decisions. Traditionally, the need for additional capacity has motivated the evaluation of investment decisions which were undertaken based on financial factors such as the net present value (NPV), internal rate of return, taxation, and depreciation. This research integrates investment decisions with operational decisions for the case of multistage production assembly systems. We show that for such systems investment decisions affect not only the financial structure but also production scheduling and material flow in the system.