Constructing Critical Conversations in Social Work Supervision: Creating Change

Clinical social work supervision is not immune to enactments of racial and social injustice, prejudice, power and privilege rampant in our social environment and institutions. These dynamics are active in all social interactions. Most often felt on impact, these remain underground and unevenly experienced—though predominantly by people representing intersecting marginalized identities. Such real enactments can be misunderstood or avoided in social work supervision. Negative consequences not only impede learning for the supervisee and supervisor, and affect clinical understanding of client care they also perpetuate injustice based on power and social locations. Social work supervision provides space for critical analysis to identify and alter dynamics of power, privilege, and social oppression. The critical conversations (CC) model provides a framework to illuminate and examine power dynamics in order to produce change with parallel insight and action—supervisee, supervisor, and client care. Supervisee and supervisor gain capacity to engage in reflection, examine personal and professional values, hold tension and tolerate ambiguity, use one self critically, articulate ideas and insights thoughtfully and effectively, as well as inform clinical understanding of clients. The need for critical dialogue in social work supervision regarding dynamics of sameness, differences, intersectional identities, power and privilege is emphasized. Theoretical grounding is offered to elucidate how complex structural forces of oppression and privilege, cultural patterns and narratives are internalized. A definition of CC, its theoretical underpinnings and the CC model are presented with a case scenario to illuminate the application of the CC model in clinical supervision.     

Perseverance and passion for achieving long-term goals: transcultural adaptation and validation of the Grit-S scale / Perseverancia y pasión por la consecución de objetivos a largo plazo: adaptación transcultural y validación de la escala Grit-S

The objective of this study was to undertake the transcultural adaptation and validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) to measure university students’ levels of perseverance and passion for achieving long-term goals. To accomplish this, the Grit-S scale was linguistically and culturally adapted from English to Spanish via the Translation, Review, Adjudication, Pre-testing and Documentation method. After that, the adapted scale was administered to a convenience sample of 1,129 university students comprised of 29.6% males and 70.4% females with a mean age of 21, and finally, its psychometric properties were analysed and compared to the original version. The results reveal acceptable values for the internal consistency of the total scale (α = .71) and outstanding fit indexes for the proposed two-factor structural model (i.e., Consistency of Interest and Perseverance of Effort) (RMSEA = .041, CFI = .96), and the parameters of transcultural adaptation were similar to those in its original version.     

Quality of diet of working college students

Considering the scarcity of studies with young workers and the role of diet in the prevention of chronic diseases, the objective of the study was to assess the quality of diet of working college students. The present study investigated 43 university students, aged between 18 and 25 years old who had systematically being involved in a working activity in the past 6 months, paid or unpaid, at least 6 hours daily, five days a week. Dietary intake measured by seven dietary records covering every day of the week was used to calculate the Brazilian Healthy Eating Index Revised (B-HEIR). It was observed a low B-HEIR score (53.43,±7.81) indicating a risk of a poor quality of diet, with high intake of sodium and sugar and low consumption of fruits and whole grains. This poor quality of diet can result in an inadequate nutritional status that may increase the risk of obesity and chronic diseases.     

Measuring organizational effectiveness in information and communication technology companies using item response theory

The aim of this paper is to measure the effectiveness of the organizations Information and Communication Technology (ICT) from the point of view of the manager, using Item Response Theory (IRT). There is a need to verify the effectiveness of these organizations which are normally associated to complex, dynamic, and competitive environments. In academic literature, there is disagreement surrounding the concept of organizational effectiveness and its measurement. A construct was elaborated based on dimensions of effectiveness towards the construction of the items of the questionnaire which submitted to specialists for evaluation. It demonstrated itself to be viable in measuring organizational effectiveness of ICT companies under the point of view of a manager through using Two-Parameter Logistic Model (2PLM) of the IRT. This modeling permits us to evaluate the quality and property of each item placed within a single scale: items and respondents, which is not possible when using other similar tools.     

An exploratory study on the conditions of health, safety and environmental affairs of very small and small-size enterprises in Brazil

This paper focuses on the reality of very small and small enterprises (VSSEs) in Brazil, concerning health and safety management of their workers. These companies tend to operate in a few administrative levels. The owners' health and safety culture is fundamental for the implementation of preventive measures. The VSSEs end up adopting merely reactive and under-the-law actions. In order to understand such reality, a questionnaire was elaborated especially for the research made. Fifty-five very small and small enterprises of the industrial, commercial and service sectors were selected. The research confirmed the reactive attitude shown by the VSSEs, thus demonstrating that none of the companies involved presented policies of safety and health. Even though not holding policies, programs or scopes of their activities, 22% of them revealed to have a clear definition of the responsibilities of their high level administration. Nevertheless, 10% had financial resources allocated to this sector. Such companies do not count on a frequent safety and health support. The ignorance on it leads them to take a reactive action. This study reaches its objective on contributing to the debate, besides indicating that the way to improvement is on the strict cooperation between governments, companies, workers and society.     

Software development for the evaluation of the ergonomic compatibility on the selection of advanced manufacturing technology

Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) is one of the most relevant resources that companies have to achieve competitiveness and best performance. The selection of AMT is a complex problem which involves significant amount of information and uncertainty when multiple aspects must be taken into consideration. Actual models for the selection of AMT are found scarce of the Human Factors and Ergonomics perspective which can lead to a more complete and reliable decision. This paper presents the development of software that enhances the application of an Ergonomic Compatibility Evaluation Model that supports decision making processes taking into consideration ergonomic attributes of designs. Ergonomic Compatibility is a construct used in this model and it is mainly based in the concept of human-artifact compatibility on human compatible systems. Also, an Axiomatic Design approach by the use of the Information Axiom was evolved under a fuzzy environment to obtain the Ergonomic Incompatibility Content. The extension of this axiom for the evaluation of ergonomic compatibility requirements was the theoretical framework of this research. An incremental methodology of four stages was used to design and develop the software that enables to compare AMT alternatives by the evaluation of Ergonomic Compatibility Attributes.     

Openability of soft drinks PET packagings

Studies on packaging accessibility are still incipient in Brazil. Many of these packagings can represent a challenge to users, whether due to non-informative labels, tricky tabs or seals, or even those that need strength to open. This paper brings a simple test to determine the necessary torque force to open PET bottles, and to predict the amount of users that could not open it. The findings suggest that a considerable amount of users could not open it or would have some difficulties to exert the necessary force.     

Ergonomic risks in mining companies: a study in Paraiba/Brazil

The growing concern for the welfare of workers in the work environment, the importance of widespread use of ergonomics in the different sectors of industry. Yet most corporate practices that work with rudimentary or great need for human handling of materials is not fully in line with the ergonomic aspects. Given this, this article aims to identify ergonomic hazards in mining to later propose improvements in the process. After a series conducted plant visits, found that workers are exposed to various ergonomic risks, which entails the need for new healthy practices in the workplace. Finally, a series of proposals are submitted in order to avoid possible occupational diseases.     

Effects of strength and power training on neuromuscular variables in older adults

The purpose of this study was to compare the neuromuscular adaptations produced by strength-training (ST) and power-training (PT) regimens in older individuals. Participants were balanced by quadriceps cross-sectional area (CSA) and leg-press 1-repetition maximum and randomly assigned to an ST group (n = 14; 63.6 ± 4.0 yr, 79.7 ± 17.2 kg, and 163.9 ± 9.8 cm), a PT group (n = 16; 64.9 ± 3.9 yr, 63.9 ± 11.9 kg, and 157.4 ± 7.7 cm), or a control group (n = 13; 63.0 ± 4.0 yr, 67.2 ± 10.8 kg, and 159.8 ± 6.8 cm). ST and PT were equally effective in increasing (a) maximum dynamic and isometric strength (p < .05), (b) increasing quadriceps muscle CSA (p < .05), and (c) decreasing electrical mechanical delay of the vastus lateralis muscle (p < .05). There were no significant changes in neuromuscular activation after training. The novel finding of the current study is that PT seems to be an attractive alternative to regular ST to maintain and improve muscle mass.     

Unauthorized Migrants and the (Il)Logic of “Crime Control”: A Human Rights Perspective on US Federal and Local State Immigration Policies

Immigration control, widely regarded the sovereign right of nation states, has often been pursued at the expense of civil and human rights. More than a century ago, nativists legitimated a punitive approach to immigration control that treated migrants’ rights as secondary by branding millions of newcomers to the United States as a “dangerous class”. In many ways, recent policies similarly criminalize immigrants and deploy crime control strategies in response. This article reviews the most significant of these policies at the federal and local state level, including: border security measures, detention and deportation, the 287(g) program, anti‐immigrant city ordinances, and the Arizona law (SB1070). Each initiative has been framed as necessary to protect American citizens from serious crime. We focus on four ways in which these policies violate human rights: first, border security measures that result in migrant deaths violate the right to life; second, detention and deportation violate the right to liberty; third, detention and deportation punish unlawful residents as though they were guilty of criminal rather than civil violations of the law, imposing penalties that are arbitrary and disproportionately harsh; and fourth, local state policies to counter illegal immigration encourage racial profiling, a practice that violates the right to freedom from discrimination.