Clarifying question meaning in a household telephone survey

This study contrasts two interviewing techniques that reflectdifferent tacit assumptions about communication. In one, strictlystandardized interviewing, interviewers leave the interpretationof questions up to respondents. In the other, conversationalinterviewing, interviewers say whatever it takes to make surethat questions are interpreted uniformly and as intended. Respondentsfrom a national sample were interviewed twice. Each time theywere asked the same factual questions from ongoing governmentsurveys, five about housing and five about recent purchases.The first interview was strictly standardized; the second wasstandardized for half the respondents and conversational forthe others. Respondents in a second conversational interviewanswered differently than in the first interview more often,and for reasons that conformed more closely to official definitions,than respondents in a second standardized interview. This suggeststhat conversational interviewing improved comprehension, althoughit also lengthened interviews. We conclude that respondentsin a national sample may misinterpret certain questions frequentlyenough to compromise data quality and that such misunderstandingscannot easily be eliminated by pretesting and rewording questionsalone. More standardized comprehension may require less standardizedinterviewer behavior.     

特定的文学作品与普遍的社会心理--从《孔雀东南飞》所表现的婆媳矛盾说起

《孔雀东南飞》是一出家庭悲剧 ,但在中国封建社会的土壤中产生的这一悲剧在全世界却具有普遍性。在老年寡妇和她的儿子、儿媳所组成的非完整的扩大家庭中 ,婆婆和儿媳争夺她们共同关心的男子的情感 ,是这个家庭内的永恒难题。家庭内的情感争夺与社会制度和民族传统并无必然联系。     

Welfare analysis of a tax reform for Germany: a comparison of the unitary and collective models of household labour supply

We compare results of a tax reform analysis obtained with the collective and unitary models of household behaviour. We simulate real world micro-data by means of a collective approach, using a compound procedure of estimation and calibration based on the 1998 wave of the German socio-economic panel. We estimate a unitary model on this ‘collective’ data set. Investigating a move from joint to individual taxation on the basis of both models, we obtain important discrepancies between predicted adjustments to labour supply and distortions in the welfare analysis of the reform on the basis of unitary estimates.      

侵权诉讼的膨胀及对策

侵权纠纷是民事诉讼机制解决的主要对象。随着社会的发展,侵权案件逐渐增多,过量的侵权诉讼会带来很多不良后果,不仅是对法律制度本身的损害,更对经济发展产生严重的负面影响。要解决侵权诉讼的膨胀问题,必须找到控制侵权诉讼的正确途径。     

Use of Poset Theory with Big Datasets: A New Proposal Applied to the Analysis of Life Satisfaction in Italy

The aim of this work is to propose a tool for measuring a complex concept, and to apply it to big sets of data measured on ordinal and/or dichotomous scales. An important field of application are subjective data, that are often based on opinions or personal evaluations. Many national and international surveys employ this kind of data, measured among thousand of individuals. Thanks to the use of the “average rank” as a synthetic measure of a complex concept, we believe that poset theory could be a very useful approach for dealing with ordinal data avoiding the use of scaling procedures. Because classic poset approaches are at their best when applied to few data at a time, our idea is based on a procedure for sampling units from a big population using a simple criterion to summarize the resulting values appropriately. Applying the central limit theorem enables a comparison of the results obtained from different groups using statistical tests on the means. We used our Height of Groups by Sampling (HOGS) method to compare the average rank among groups that are defined by one or more socio-demographic variables influencing the level of the complex concept we wish to measure. The application of the HOGS procedure to life satisfaction in Italy generated convincing results, revealing significant differences between regions, genders and levels of formal education. We compared the results given by HOGS with the non linear principal component analysis and obtain an easy readable output with convincing precision and accuracy; we are confident that the HOGS procedure can be applied to many other concepts investigated in the social sciences.     

A literature review and emotion-based model of age and leadership: New directions for the trait approach

Despite renewed interest in traditional trait approaches to leadership and despite recent demographic trends towards an aging workforce, research on leaders' age as a specific demographic trait variable has remained surprisingly sparse and fragmented. This article provides a comprehensive review of the empirical literature on this issue. Although a body of research relating leaders' age with their behaviors and outcomes has emerged, the existing findings exhibit little consistency and lack theoretical coherence. Integrating theories of emotional aging with research on emotions and leadership, we therefore develop a novel, emotion-based framework that explicates key mechanisms and boundary conditions underlying age–leadership linkages. Moreover, we outline opportunities for further theoretical extensions and provide recommendations for future empirical work. Overall, this article paves new ground for contemporary research on leadership traits by highlighting the relevance of leaders' age, summarizing current knowledge on this issue, and providing new theoretical and empirical directions.     

Auswirkungen von Downsizing-Maßnahmen auf das organisationale Commitment der verbleibenden Mitarbeiter: Ein Vorher-Nachher-Vergleich

This study examines the consequences of downsizing efforts on organizational commitment, job satisfaction and work motivation of the remaining workforce (?survivors“) in a middle-sized telecommunication company. Employees were surveyed five months prior to the downsizing process (n=150) and eleven months thereafter (n=160). The assessment of organizational commitment was based on a questionnaire that was developed by Allen and Meyer (1990) within the scope of their three-components-model which includes affective, continuous and normative commitment. Although layoffs — as one part of the whole downsizing process — were not implemented in the investigated company, but only in a sister enterprise, which is part of the same holding, the affective commitment of employees towards their corporation dropped. On the other hand, the normative and the balanced commitment remained constant. Moreover, every second survivor showed reduced job satisfaction and work motivation. It should be noted that although the results of reorganisation and restructuring did not directly affect the employees of the investigated company, the emotional linkage between employees and employer was affected in a negative way. Additional findings from qualitative interviews suggest that restructuring was perceived to cause a crack in the prevailing corporate culture and the psychological contract. In addition, a deterioration of work conditions through work overload resulted.     

Philosophie als Einübung des Perspektivenwechsels am Beispiel von Platon und Nietzsche

Philosophy as exercising the shift of perspectives, exemplified with Plato and NietzscheIn professional counselling a shift of perspectives is useful to develop new options of thinking and of action in the case of seemingly hopeless situations. Philosophy presents a great variety of concepts and also of models of change processes, which may offer a resource to counsellors. With regard to Plato’s “cave metaphor” and to Nietzsche’s “transvaluation of all values” the author presents a structure of change in three stages. Concerning the practice of counsellors some relevant aspects are derived from these discussions.     

The Relationship Between Corporate Volunteering and Employee Civic Engagement Outside the Workplace in Russia

This paper discusses the relationship between corporate volunteering and civic engagement outside the workplace in Russia, proceeding from a mixed-method approach. The quantitative findings are based on a comparison between employees in 37 Russian companies who participated in corporate volunteering (N = 399) and those who did not (N = 402). Using binary logistic regression analysis, we demonstrate that employee participation in corporate volunteering is positively related to four forms of civic engagement outside the workplace: informal volunteering, formal volunteering, formal monetary donation, and informal monetary donation. In addition, we draw on information obtained from interviews with 10 corporate volunteers, as well as with all 37 company corporate volunteering managers, to develop a general explanation for why corporate volunteering might lead to civic engagement. We identify three primary explanations. First, trust in companies can be converted into increased trust in social institutions. Second, corporate volunteering can expose employees to other realities, thereby leading them to rethink their priorities. Third, corporate volunteering socializes employees to volunteering, thus making them more likely to incorporate volunteering into their personal repertoires of activities. Corporate volunteering appears to be an effective mechanism for stimulating civic engagement and volunteering infrastructure in post-communist countries.     

新兴期的云南民俗研究

文章将新兴期的云南民俗研究分为两个阶段,即1949年至1966年;1978年至今.从而指出民俗研究在认识论上的重大改变,在研究方法上的新探索以及新兴期云南民俗研究的主要成果.