Functional testing: Approaches and injury management integration

Functional Capacity Evaluations (FCEs) have become the standard for identifying an individual's physical abilities and/or limitations following injury or illness. While philosophies and approaches differ, the focus of most FCE systems is to identify the individual's maximum capabilities. This article will discuss the usefulness of the FCE information and how FCEs are impacted by multiple factors including APTA guidelines, machine based testing, therapist expertise, medical legal credibility and court testimony, IMEs and FCE, and return to work/return to function.     

Technology and managing people:

conclusion The Information Age has revolutionized the workplace. While it is possible to purchase or copy machines and technology, their very interchangeability means they fail to cre-ate a sustained competitive advantage for an organization (Barney, 1991). The research directions this paper offers are intended to develop firm knowledge that allows creation of inimitable human resources. Importantly, in the rush to embrace new information technologies, organizations must remember the fundamental principle that workers will invest in firm goals in the presence of shared values and a commitment by the firm to make their well-being a priority. We urge continued attention to fulfillment of the psy-chological contract, and to the "people issues" that frequently seem less critical than issues of hardware or technology.     

Knowledge Management Systems in Multinational Corporations: Typology and Transitional Dynamics

Knowledge Management Systems (KMSs) are becoming part of the agenda in many of today's leading firms. Through in-depth case studies of seven multinational companies (MNCs), examined over a period of four years, we identify four distinctive types of KMS - Fragmented, Content-based, Process-based and Capability-based - and their characteristics. These characteristics include both the structure, dimension and flow of the knowledge itself, and the staffing, training and reward systems in place to support the KMS. Relevant organisational factors influencing KMS design and implementation include the level of resource commitment by the headquarters, the structure of the firm, and the distribution of roles between headquarters and subsidiaries. Key external influences include the degree of environmental change and pressures to follow industry norms in technology investment. Our empirical evidence suggests that while some MNCs adopt the same type of KMS for relatively long periods of time, others transit between different KMS types. Moreover, transitions between types may follow either an increased resource commitment and augmented KMS sophistication, or a decreased resource commitment and reduced KMS complexity. Insights from the strategy-structure-process and change management literatures are utilised to examine these transitions between KMS types. Key lessons for MNC managers are provided in relation to both the initial adoption of a KMS and the handling of transitions between different systems.     

Estimating the Structure of Agricultural Investment: A Stochastic- Coefficients Approach

Two approaches, a flexibie-accelerator model and a stochastic-coefficients alternative, are used to estimate the structure of aggregate agricultural investment. Structural estimates of the adjustment rates for each model differ. The stochastic-coefficients model, however, performs better in out-of-sample forecasting.     

Diversity in sociology: Problem or solution?

Some of sociology’s recent internal critics (e.g., Turner and Turner, 1990; Halliday and Janowitz, 1992; Collins, 1986; Gans, 1990; Crane and Small, 1992) suggest that the discipline's diversity of theoretical, methodological and substantive foci leave it in a weakened position for achieving individual and collective ends. Other sociologists (e.g., D'Antonio, 1992; Roos and Jones, 1993; Stacey and Thorne, 1985) argue that substantive diversity has made the discipline attractive to a greater variety of previously underrepresented groups, particularly women, groups that have, in turn, contributed to sociology’s substantive diversity. This paper reports on a content analysis of 2,016 articles from North American sociology journals in 1936, 1956, 1976, and 1996 as well as from chemistry, anthropology, economics, political science, and psychology journals in 1996. The analysis focused on a number of, often contradictory, hypotheses drawn from the competing views of sociology's diversity with respect to its substantive concerns and its gender composition. It finds, for instance, that there is more substantive diversity in today's sociology journal articles than there was earlier, at least when diversity is measured in terms of fields that are reputed to be attractive to women. This may not be surprising, since more women are writing sociology journal articles than ever before. Moreover, the substantive diversity seems to be related to more, not less, funding of sociological research. It is, of course, a trite remark — one made more frequently by sociologists than by their gibing critics — that sociology has not yet come to the development which commands from its adherents wholehearted agreement as to the objectives to be aimed at, the field to he limited, and the methods to be used. Gladys Bryson, 1936     

Introduction: “There Is a Person Here”: An Interview with Judith Butler

In this interview, the coeditors, along with other contributors, ask Judith Butler a variety of questions regarding queer theory, gender identities, scientific and legal discourse, bodily abjection, race and class positioning, and political organizing. This range of subject matter suggests not only the breadth of Butler's work, but also its applicability to any number of people, whose relation to theory ranges from highly politicized to politically indifferent. The interview demonstrates the responsiveness of Butler's work to cultural translation and political action.     

THE PROCESS OF CHANGE IN COUPLES THERAPY: A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION

Open-ended interviews with 24 couples therapy clients regarding their experience of the process of change revealed shifts in clusters of affect, communication, and cognition. Six additional contextual preconditions for change were also identified. The change process within couples was uniformly reported to be gradual.