ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AS CONTESTED GROUND IN AN ERA OF GLOBALIZATION: WORKER PERCEPTIONS AND SATISFACTION IN THE USPS

Many prior efforts have examined the personal characteristics of workers or the structural features of an organization that impact job satisfaction. By contrast, we examine organizational culture in the context of "high-performance work systems." We analyze the organizational culture of the United States Postal System, as it is presented in key organizational documents and perceived by workers. It is argued that a viable theory of job satisfaction in the modern workplace must treat worker perceptions, which spring from an organizational culture that is both prescribed and lived.     

Estimation of the finite population distribution function using a global penalized calibration method

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis - Auxiliary information $${\varvec{x}}$$ is commonly used in survey sampling at the estimation stage. We propose an estimator of the finite population...     

Operational Research changes: tales from a parallel universe

Operational research and statistics share many common features. A review of the historical development and of some current dilemmas in operational research is given, in the belief that the narrative will fulfil a wider purpose by causing statisticians to reflect on related aspects of the evolution of their own subject in a rapidly changing environment.     

Occupational mobility and trust: Reconsidering mobility effects

This paper hypothesizes that a hierarchy of types of mobility and immobility may be used as an interaction term to determine whether there is evidence of mobility effects beyond those contributed by origin and destination. The dependent variable is a trust scale constructed from responses to three questions that have repeatedly appeared on the General Social Survey. The analysis of data from the GSS, 1972–1994, reveals that some categories of the mobility dummy variable are significant for the 1970s and 1980s, but not for the 1990s. Although the dummy variables for occupational mobility contribute to a model constructed to explain the respondents’ trust of others, father's occupation and respondent's current occupation generally do not. The discussion considers the limitations of a reliance on census occupational categories to study the effects of occupational mobility, and suggests the potential benefits of examining occupational mobility within industries.     

THE CONCEPT OF COMPETITION IN ROBERT PARK'S SOCIOLOGY*

This article examines Robert Park's concept of competition and the way in which it appears in his analysis of civilization and social change. Conventional interpretations of his writings have tended to emphasize that he radically separated presocial, ecological processes from interaction based on communication. Although Park does attempt such a separation, I argue that his thoughts on social change reflect an ambivalence about the relative degree of autonomy of social and cultural processes. Consequently, Park's evaluation of these processes reflects the judgment that contemporary forms of competition are instrumental for societal progress.     

An Interview with Margaret Topham

When asked to interview Margaret Topham for the Journal, my initial resolve was to avoid the “tell me the story of your life” approach. Further reflection, however, led me to start the interview with the more traditional discussion of Margaret's early career and the story of her initial involvement in family therapy. Margaret is part of the history of family therapy in Australia and New Zealand, and the story needs to be told and recorded. To fail to do so would be unfair to Margaret and to the Antipodean family therapy movement. There are a number of ways an interview can be written up for publication. I have chosen to transcribe the tape of our discussion, and then to stick as closely as possible to a verbatim account of what Margaret had to say.