How Does Leisure Time Affect Production Efficiency? Evidence from China,Japan, and the US

Labor efficiency is a central concept in economics. Although investigators have studied the influence of some variables (e.g., education time and physical capital) on labor efficiency, most studies overlook the impact of leisure time. This investigation examines the relationship between leisure time and labor efficiency in the world’s three largest economies: China, the US and Japan. Results revealed a significant correlation between leisure time and labor efficiency, and demonstrate that active leisure participation can improve productivity. The findings also demonstrate that, in contrast to the US and Japan, China, as a typical developing country, has seldom seen an apparent positive effect of leisure time on efficiency, which may partially explained by the type of leisure participation (active or passive).     

Career Decisions From the Decider's Perspective

The authors used a phenomenological research method to investigate the career decision‐making experiences of 17 employed adults. Thematic results from interview data analysis were organized within 3 overarching themes: decisions centered on relational life, decisions centered on personal meaning, and decisions centered on economic realities. Study results supported and extended contentions that career decisions are embedded in relational life and have contextual meaning. Belonging and the potential for meaningful engagement were integral to career decisions. Implications for the role of career counselors and career counseling are discussed. Recommendations for counseling that facilitates the consideration of belonging and personal meaning in career decisions are offered.     

Emergency Fund Adequacy of Asian Americans

This study examines the emergency fund adequacy of a sample of 222 Asian Americans, using the 1992–1993 Consumer Expenditure Survey. The emergency fund level is measured by two ratios: quick emergency fund divided by three months' after-tax income, and comprehensive emergency fund divided by three months' after-tax income. For both measures, more Asian Americans are prepared for financial emergencies than non-Hispanic whites, African Americans, and Hispanics. Less than one-third, however, met the level recommended by financial planners and counselors. Earned income, home ownership, multiple earners, and education are positively associated with the emergency fund levels of Asian Americans. Older Asian Americans were found to be less prepared for financial emergencies than the young and middle-aged.     

Serials spoken here: reports of conferences, institutes, and seminars

Reports on the Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians (OVGTSL) Annual Conference, the April 2004 New England Technical Services Librarians (NETSL) Conference, the 2004 Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge, and the 2004 Conference of the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG).Reports are from four conferences held in various parts of the United States and cover a wide range of topics. The Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians program emphasized the relationship between technical and public services. Education, both formal and continuing, was the theme for the New England Technical Services Librarians. Timberline Lodge hosted another Acquisitions Institute featuring sessions on new discoveries. The report on the 2004 North American Serials Group Annual Conference allows Conference Student Grant Award winner Chris Brady to include some personal reflections along with summaries of the sessions he attended.     

Planned telephone support for disadvantaged parents in North Wales: perceptions of service users

This paper draws on the findings of a qualitative evaluation to examine user perceptions of a planned telephone support intervention based in a disadvantaged area in North Wales. Telephone support services are tailored differentially to offer information, advice and/or counselling on a crisis‐led or planned‐intervention basis. Research focusing on telephone support, for the most part (and particularly in the UK) has examined crisis‐led as opposed to planned support services. The findings of our study resonate with earlier research findings about telephone support that suggest provision of non‐visual support in social care can overcome some practical and financial difficulties for users with little discernible loss to their experience of satisfaction with the service. In addition, the paper suggests that planned support may provide a valuable service to users who are most disadvantaged and marginalized and who have found traditional forms of support unsatisfactory. For such users, planned telephone support can offer one‐to‐one communication tailored to specific client needs. Moreover, it can enable the development of user trust in the service which empowers users to operationalize strategies in the context of a reliable, sustained, unthreatening (and thus minimal risk) relationship.     

Further Effects of Lottery Odds on Responding

Lotteries (i.e., probabilistic bonus contingencies) are an established intervention in Organizational Behavior Management. Although common, there are many permutations of lotteries used in literature and they are often combined with other interventions. One key variable that may influence the effectiveness of lotteries are the odds that the lottery will pay out to those who earn entry. The current investigation evaluated a lottery intervention with varied payout chances (25%, 12%, 6%, or 3%). A 6% chance of winning was the lowest odds of winning where responding was reliably maintained across two participants. Implications of these results and future direction for research are discussed below.     

Work hours and well-being: The roles of work-time control and work-family interference

This study focused on mediating and moderating processes underlying the relationship between work hours and well-being. Questionnaire data from 292 female employees in two UK public sector organizations were analysed. Drawing on effort-recovery theory and published empirical findings, it was hypothesized that work-family interference (WIF) would mediate the relationship between work hours and measures of well-being (psychological distress and family satisfaction), and that work-time control would moderate the association between work hours and WIF. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that, after controlling for demographic variables, neuroticism, and job demands, WIF mediated the effect of work hours on family satisfaction, although no evidence of mediation was found for the psychological distress outcome measure. Work-time control moderated the relationship between work hours and WIF; higher control buffered the effect of longer hours on WIF. These findings add to the literature on the role of WIF in the effort-recovery process by showing that longer work hours are not necessarily associated with higher work-family interference, and hence with poor recovery and impaired well-being. Instead, having a degree of control over work hours moderates the first link in this process. Thus, the provision by employers of some flexibility and control over work hours may help to reduce the potential negative impact of long work hours on employees.