Trends in Domestic and International Social Work Research: A 10-Year Review of American Research Journals

ABSTRACT

This article presents a typology of international social work research and analyzes trends over a 10-year period (1995–2004) based on reviews of 707 articles from three major American social work research journals: Social Work Research, Journal of Social Service Research, and Research on Social Work Practice. The analysis revealed there was a considerable increase (3.5%) in the total amount of research articles, particularly a higher increase in international social work research (2.8%) than national social work research (0.8%). A small decline was detected in transnational comparative research (?0.4%).     

The Costly Business of Trust

This article provides a framework for analysing trust‐based projects which can be used as a diagnostic tool to design more effective policy interventions, particularly addressing the problem of meeting users' needs for which many microfinance schemes have come under criticism. Two microfinance projects in Mexico are used to illustrate how a system of trust is built, the role of trust‐brokers, and the policy of subsidising trust‐building projects. The aim is to provide a tool capable of identifying crucial actors in trust systems and the nature of the linkages between them, so that trust can be effectively operationalised to improve projects' effectiveness and suitability to local conditions.     

The healthcare supply network: current state of the literature and research opportunities

Abstract

This literature review maps recent studies addressing supply chain management (SCM) in the healthcare sector through a systematic approach that synthesises 74 empirical studies (2006–2016). Our approach adopts a network lens to map the literature and offers key contributions to the field. First, we show that there is a lack of network level studies. Second, there is an imbalance of research attention regarding the various types of supply, namely health services, medicines, medical supplies and blood supply. Third, we underline the advantages of the network lens, indicating network actors and flows between those actors that need further research. Fourth, we show an alarming lack of theoretical lens in healthcare SCM studies and draw attention to the fact that even when explicitly adopting a theory, some studies show inconsistencies between theoretical lens and level of analysis. Ultimately, we offer a map of future research for healthcare SCM through a network lens in order to improve the understanding the complexities of the healthcare sector.     

An Integrated Scenario Ensemble-Based Framework for Hurricane Evacuation Modeling: Part 1—Decision Support System

This article introduces a new integrated scenario-based evacuation (ISE) framework to support hurricane evacuation decision making. It explicitly captures the dynamics, uncertainty, and human–natural system interactions that are fundamental to the challenge of hurricane evacuation, but have not been fully captured in previous formal evacuation models. The hazard is represented with an ensemble of probabilistic scenarios, population behavior with a dynamic decision model, and traffic with a dynamic user equilibrium model. The components are integrated in a multistage stochastic programming model that minimizes risk and travel times to provide a tree of evacuation order recommendations and an evaluation of the risk and travel time performance for that solution. The ISE framework recommendations offer an advance in the state of the art because they: (1) are based on an integrated hazard assessment (designed to ultimately include inland flooding), (2) explicitly balance the sometimes competing objectives of minimizing risk and minimizing travel time, (3) offer a well-hedged solution that is robust under the range of ways the hurricane might evolve, and (4) leverage the substantial value of increasing information (or decreasing degree of uncertainty) over the course of a hurricane event. A case study for Hurricane Isabel (2003) in eastern North Carolina is presented to demonstrate how the framework is applied, the type of results it can provide, and how it compares to available methods of a single scenario deterministic analysis and a two-stage stochastic program.     

Editorial Note

Population and Environment -     

Effect of regulatory modes on work performance: the moderating role of job familiarity and job complexity / El efecto del modo de regulación en el rendimiento laboral: el rol moderador de la familiaridad con el trabajo y la complejidad de la tarea

Prior research has shown that the combination of assessment and locomotion regulatory modes leads to the best performance-related outcomes. The aim of the current study was to analyse how familiarity and complexity moderate this relationship between the two regulatory modes and job performance. Participants’ locomotion and assessment tendencies were measured, and they were asked to rate the familiarity and complexity of their daily work tasks, as well as their job performance over the last year. Results showed that when job tasks were unfamiliar and more complex, high locomotion and high assessment were both needed for optimal performance. However, when both familiarity and job complexity were low, high locomotion alone led to the best performance. A similar result was obtained when task familiarity was high: regardless of task complexity, the best performance was shown by employees high in locomotion, no matter the assessment. In conclusion, the present study furnishes useful suggestions for employers who wish to maximize employees’ performance.