Leadership in Social Work Education and the Social Change Model of Leadership

Leadership is a topic of international debate in both social work education and practice. Questions remain, however, regarding what specific models of leadership should be emphasized and how leadership content should be infused within the social work curriculum. This paper seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion about the infusion of leadership within social work education. Specifically, this paper shares the design and development of a graduate-level social work course in program evaluation that infused education around the social change model of leadership (SCM) and then explores qualitatively how 39 graduate students interpreted and applied this model of leadership through an experiential community-based evaluation project. Findings of this study suggest that students utilized the values identified in the SCM in a range of ways to understand and interpret their leadership experience both in their collaborative groups and in their partnerships with community-based organizations. Community organizations also reported benefiting from the experience in partnership with the students. Implications are discussed in relation to the potential value and impact of this model for social work education.     

Different groups,different threats: public attitudes towards immigrants‡

Research on attitudes towards immigrants devotes much attention to the relative effects of economic and social-psychological factors for understanding sentiment towards immigrants, conceived in general terms. In this article, we advance this work by arguing that the context framing immigration concerns leads publics to associate different types of immigrants with different threats. An issue context that diminishes support for one ‘type’ can boost it for another. Evidence from an original survey experiment in Britain supports this claim. Security fears affect attitudes towards Muslim immigrants but economic concerns bear on views towards Eastern Europeans. While concern about crime adversely affects sentiment for East Europeans but casts Muslims more positively, cultural threats have the opposite effect. By shifting the focus onto the qualities of different types of immigrants, we highlight the importance of the target immigrant group for understanding public attitudes.     

Bacterial communities in peat swamps reflect changes associated with catchment urbanisation

Urban Ecosystems - Like many peat wetlands around the world, Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone (THPSS), located in the Sydney Basin, Australia, have been impacted by urban development. In...     

A new dimension to nonparametric tests

It is demonstrated that a statistician can take a preliminary peek- at the data in a special vay in order to select an appropriate nonparametric test statistic without spoiling the distribution-free property. This process (adaptive selection and then testing) generally improves zhe paver over a vide range of underlying distributions and is the nev -dimension to nonparametric tests. Several illustrations are given using standard nonparametric techniques involving the usual one-sample, tvo-sample, k-sample, and independence testing situations. More recent (and not standard) applications to regression and classification problems are then considered. Finally one 'difficulty concerning this adapting process is noted, but a corrective action is suggested.     

Polytope samplers for network tomography

Network tomography is concerned with reconstruction and estimation of properties of traffic flow that are linked to the observed data through an underdetermined linear system. The likelihood function for such problems can be expressed only as the sum over integer‐valued points in a convex polytope. Typically this set is too large to enumerate, so that statistical inference must proceed by sampling from the polytope. Recent progress has seen the development of polytope sampling algorithms that operate well when the network link‐path incidence matrix is totally unimodular. In this paper we examine whether this property is likely to hold in practical applications. We find that total unimodularity is assured for certain simple networks, but that it can fail in more complex cases. We show that when it does fail, the existing polytope samplers may not generate the requisite irreducible Markov chain. As a remedy, a modified algorithm is proposed in which the basis for the polytope adapts to ensure adequate mixing over the entire polytope. The operation of this algorithm is illustrated by a numerical example.     

The bright and dark sides of leader traits: A review and theoretical extension of the leader trait paradigm

The leader trait perspective is perhaps the most venerable intellectual tradition in leadership research. Despite its early prominence in leadership research, it quickly fell out of favor among leadership scholars. Thus, despite recent empirical support for the perspective, conceptual work in the area lags behind other theoretical perspectives. Accordingly, the present review attempts to place the leader trait perspective in the context of supporting intellectual traditions, including evolutionary psychology and behavioral genetics. We present a conceptual model that considers the source of leader traits, mediators and moderators of their effects on leader emergence and leadership effectiveness, and distinguish between perceived and actual leadership effectiveness. We consider both the positive and negative effects of specific “bright side” personality traits: the Big Five traits, core self-evaluations, intelligence, and charisma. We also consider the positive and negative effects of “dark side” leader traits: Narcissism, hubris, dominance, and Machiavellianism.     

Do leaders reap what they sow? Leader and employee outcomes of leader organizational cynicism about change

Despite increased attention given to the attitude of organizational cynicism, few studies have examined the impact of leader cynicism in organizations. The present study sought to investigate relationships between leader cynicism about organizational change (CAOC) and outcomes relevant to both the leader (performance and organizational citizenship behavior ratings) and his/her employees (employee organizational commitment and CAOC). Using data from 106 manufacturing managers, leader CAOC was found to negatively influence both leader and employee outcomes. Of particular importance, transformational leader behavior was found to fully mediate these relationships and thus served as an important explanatory mechanism. A discussion concerning the potential consequences of these findings for organizations is provided.     

Characterizing the Risk of Infection from Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Commercial Passenger Aircraft Using Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment

Quantitative microbial risk assessment was used to predict the likelihood and spatial organization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( Mtb ) transmission in a commercial aircraft. Passenger exposure was predicted via a multizone Markov model in four scenarios: seated or moving infectious passengers and with or without filtration of recirculated cabin air. The traditional exponential ( k  = 1) and a new exponential ( k  = 0.0218) dose-response function were used to compute infection risk. Emission variability was included by Monte Carlo simulation. Infection risks were higher nearer and aft of the source; steady state airborne concentration levels were not attained. Expected incidence was low to moderate, with the central 95% ranging from 10⁻⁶ to 10⁻¹ per 169 passengers in the four scenarios. Emission rates used were low compared to measurements from active TB patients in wards, thus a superspreader emitting 44 quanta/h could produce 6.2 cases or more under these scenarios. Use of respiratory protection by the infectious source and/or susceptible passengers reduced infection incidence up to one order of magnitude.