Correction locale de l'estimateur à noyau de la densité d'une loi de probabilité

The standard Parzen-Rosenblatt kernel density estimator is known to systematically deviate from the true value near critical points of the density curve. To overcome this difficulty, we extend the Rao-Blackwell method by using locally sufficient statistics: we define a new estimator and study its asymptotic behaviour. The interest of the method is shown by means of simulations.     

Total quality management: care dealers vs. car dealers

Let's turn our "flawed system into the Toyota City of world health care," proposes Fortune magazine. I shudder at the thought. Deming-Juran-type TQM procedures can help to ensure that cars and their drivers do not die on the road. Skillfully adapted for health care, these same procedures can help keep patients from dying on the operating table. These procedures can also respond to Fortune's indictment that the "U.S. medical system is as wasteful and managerially backward as Detroit before Henry Ford." However, people are not cars, and care dealers are not car dealers.     

Operant leadership and employee citizenship: A question of trust?

The present study replicates and extends previous research examining the relationship between operant leader behavior and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Drawing on recent theory proffering trust as an important explanatory mechanism, we hypothesized that employee trust mediates the relationship between operant leader behaviors and OCB. Further, we argue that the valences associated with reward and punishments augment the effects of both contingent and non-contingently administered behaviors. Using data collected from 475 employees of a United States manufacturing firm, results indicate that trust fully mediates the relationship between operant leadership and OCB. Further, results confirmed that contingently based reward and punishment leader behaviors are more constructive in engendering trust and citizenship than non-contingent leader behaviors.     

The Pervasive Impact of War-Related Loss and Bereavement in Israel

The study of loss as a result of war and conflict has been a mainstay of the bereavement field in Israel. The present article provides a brief background of Israel and its literature relating to loss and bereavement. A series of research studies based on the Two-track Model of Bereavement and covering both military and other losses are reviewed from the vantage point of their impact on and contributions to changing conceptualizations of loss. The article concludes with a review and analysis of the sociocultural trends that have shaped the approach to military bereavement in Israel.     

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.     

Examination of Interest Inventories Based on Roe's Classification

This article describes the adaptation of two interest inventories translated into English, based on Roe's (1956) classification of occupations. In an analysis based on the responses of 181 participants, the items followed the 6 rules for interest inventory items formulated by Meir and Gati (1981). The Cronbach alpha reliability of the 8 field scores in the 2 inventories ranged between .73 and .91. A Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) on 8 field scores on the Ramak, 8 field scores on the Courses and 6 personality type scores on Holland's (1973) Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) supported the construct validity of the inventories.     

The brain drain.

The adult human brain weights around three pounds. Yet it is capable of feats that dwarf those of the most sophisticated computers. The sad fact is, those brains are largely wasted in modern organizations. Instead of tapping the full capacity of the human brains that could make our organizations more efficient and effective, we allow them to lapse into an inexcusably large amount of wasted activity. What is needed by the health care field, in a time that demands more with less, is more sensible use not only of its manpower but also of its brainpower.     

Report on the First FTM Conference of the Americas: A Vision of Community

The author reports on the first ever conference (held in San Francisco last summer) devoted entirely to the subject of female-to-male transsexualism (biological females who live as men). Having thrown off the notion that transsexualism refers only to biological males who live as women (MTFs), the newly formed female-to-male transsexual (FTM) community addressed a wide range of topics from “Living Long Term in Transsexual Bodies” to “Gay/Straight Issues” A full day was devoted to presentations of the medical technologies designed to accomplish a transition from female to male. Notably the conference participants began to challenge a disease model of transsexualism and acknowledged the development of “transgender studies” in academia.