Are Female Executives Over‐represented in Precarious Leadership Positions?

We use a sample of CEO appointments at US corporations over the years 1992–2004 to test the 'glass cliff' hypothesis, which posits that females are appointed to leadership positions at firms that are in a precarious financial condition. Our analysis utilizes three measures of stock-price-based financial performance and two distinct control samples of appointments of males to the CEO position. We find that corporate performance preceding CEO appointments tends to favor females, implying that females (males) are appointed to the CEO position largely at times when the firm is in relatively better (worse) financial health. Disaggregating the data by appointments in up versus down markets, at high-risk versus low-risk firms, and by calendar time yield similar conclusions. There appears to be no glass cliff facing female CEOs at US firms. Our findings suggest a need for additional research to identify where and for what types of positions this phenomenon is prevalent.     

Essay: The Role of Participatory Listening in Collaborative Discourse: Insights from Studies of Engineering Design Teams

In this article, we summarize evidence from observations of engineering teams for the importance of active listening in collaborative design problem solving. We focus on the way speakers use freehand sketching to convey complex design ideas, and how listeners support them whilst they do this. We argue that listeners temporarily redistribute the shared cognitive load of discourse production and comprehension within design teams: whilst speakers are engaged in sketch construction they are unable to take account of listener understanding, and listeners respond intuitively by anticipating and avoiding difficulties in this process. We conclude that this cooperativeness emerges naturally from the operation of effort conserving principles underlying collaborative social interaction, and show that by focusing on the contribution of the listener to the production of creative engineering discourse, this principle can be thrown into sharp relief.     

‘We’re Civil Servants’: The Status of Trauma-Informed Care in the Community

ABSTRACT

Trauma-informed care (TIC) in social service organizations means that the organizations operate with the understanding that everyone involved has possibly experienced trauma in their lifetime. This qualitative study examined local service organizations’ usage of the 5 main principles of TIC: safety, trustworthiness, collaboration, empowerment, and choice (as developed by Fallot & Harris, 2006). Ten focus groups (n = 69) and 6 individual interviews (n = 6) with employees from administration through management were interviewed such that almost all facets of each agency were represented. The participants were asked about their agencies’ policies and practices for utilizing the 5 principles of TIC. The results suggest that the vast majority of organizations in this study implemented many of the principles of TIC with clients, though they had not labeled their practices as “trauma-informed.” However, although clients were receiving TIC, some of the principles were neglected as they pertain to staff, such as choice and empowerment. The findings of this study suggest that agencies are unaware of the relevance of TIC as it relates to staff. It is recommended that future research examine whether the use of TIC in agencies prevents “burnout,” high turnover rates, and vicarious traumatization of staff.     

European‐American and African‐American Mothers' Emotion Socialization Practices Relate Differently to Their Children's Academic and Social‐emotional Competence

The current study examines whether the relation between mothers' responses to their children's negative emotions and teachers' reports of children's academic performance and social‐emotional competence are similar or different for European‐American and African‐American families. Two hundred mothers (137 European‐American, 63 African‐American) reported on their responses to their five‐year‐old children's negative emotions and 150 kindergarten teachers reported on these children's current academic standing and skillfulness with peers. Problem‐focused responses to children's negative emotions, which have traditionally been considered a supportive response, were positively associated with children's school competence for European‐American children, but expressive encouragement, another response considered supportive, was negatively associated with children's competence for African‐American children. The findings highlight the need to examine parental socialization practices from a culturally specific lens.     

There is no place like home: Complexities in exploring home and place attachment

Home is a key aspect of place attachment literature and research. However, research on place attachment and home often becomes problematic due to the complexities of home as a concept and, particularly, the conflation of home ownership and home. This paper attempts to disentangle the relationship between home ownership and place attachment drawing on a unique data set. Qualitative data are drawn from in-depth interviews with participants from communes in Southern Colorado. The results highlight how place attachment, particularly feelings of at-homeness, is not synonymous with home ownership. Therefore researchers should be cautious of equating home, home ownership, and place attachment.     

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

Abstract

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.