Alternatives to merger—Joint ventures and other strategies

Mergers are plagued by organizational upheaval, enormous costs, ‘poison pills’, high turnover and a variety of other ills. Despite these problems, merger activity is increasing. Corporate executives pursue merger as a means to grow, improve profitability, reduce dependence on one industry, invest excess cash and improve the management of acquired companies. This article suggests alternative strategies that accomplish these objectives without the repercussions that accompany merger activity.     

Continuous quality improvement to an electroconvulsive therapy delivery system

1. ECT is known to be highly effective in relieving severe depression; however, there are few published articles focusing on nursing care of patients receiving ECT. 2. Education is an important component of nursing care. Lack of information about ECT can cause a high level of anxiety and reluctance to consent to ECT. 3. Using the Continuous Quality Improvement Model, nurses can improve the quality of a whole system of care delivery.     

How to model an institution

Institutions are linkage mechanisms that bridge across three kinds of social divides—they link micro systems of social interaction to meso (and macro) levels of organization, they connect the symbolic with the material, and the agentic with the structural. Two key analytic principles are identified for empirical research, relationality and duality. These are linked to new research strategies for the study of institutions that draw on network analytic techniques. Two hypotheses are suggested. (1) Institutional resilience is directly correlated to the overall degree of structural linkages that bridge across domains of level, meaning, and agency. (2) Institutional change is related to over-bridging, defined as the sustained juxtaposition of multiple styles within the same institutional site. Case examples are used to test these contentions. Institutional stability is examined in the case of Indian caste systems and American academic science. Institutional change is explored in the case of the rise of the early Christian church and in the origins of rock and roll music.

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Naturally Occurring Preferences and Exogenous Laboratory Experiments: A Case Study of Risk Aversion

Does individual behavior in a laboratory setting provide a reliable indicator of behavior in a naturally occurring setting? We consider this general methodological question in the context of eliciting risk attitudes. The controls that are typically employed in laboratory settings, such as the use of abstract lotteries, could lead subjects to employ behavioral rules that differ from the ones they employ in the field. Because it is field behavior that we are interested in understanding, those controls might be a confound in themselves if they result in differences in behavior. We find that the use of artificial monetary prizes provides a reliable measure of risk attitudes when the natural counterpart outcome has minimal uncertainty, but that it can provide an unreliable measure when the natural counterpart outcome has background risk. Behavior tended to be moderately risk averse when artificial monetary prizes were used or when there was minimal uncertainty in the natural nonmonetary outcome, but subjects drawn from the same population were much more risk averse when their attitudes were elicited using the natural nonmonetary outcome that had some background risk. These results are consistent with conventional expected utility theory for the effects of background risk on attitudes to risk.     

Addressing Psychosocial Barriers to Hospital Discharge: A Social Work Led Model of Care

Australian hospitals regularly care for patients who cannot be discharged routinely due to complex psychosocial needs that manifest as barriers to discharge. These long-stay or “stranded” patients are at risk of detrimental health outcomes resulting from their extended stay while also potentially delaying admission for those who need acute care. This article discusses a new social work led model of care developed at an Australian metropolitan hospital that targets long-stay patients with psychosocial barriers to discharge. The model of care, overseen by a specialist social worker and assistant, demonstrates how the social work profession can take leadership within the psychosocial realm to improve both organisational and patient outcomes.     

The DASH Pilot Project: Developing Community-Based Nutrition Education for Older Adults

ABSTRACT

Nutrition-related chronic health conditions among older adults are a growing concern. In this study, nutrition education materials were created for use in senior centers by graduate nutrition students. After the materials were presented, focus groups were conducted with participants (n = 62) to obtain feedback on the content and presentation. Findings related to the participant’s knowledge of nutrition-related information, strategies to improve future class sessions, and participant recruitment will be discussed. These findings will be useful to program administrators as they develop nutrition programs for older adults who are vulnerable to nutrition-related health problems.     

Swinging high or low? Measuring self-esteem in swingers

This study sought to examine the self-esteem of individuals involved in a consensually non-monogamous relationship, the swinging lifestyle. Utilizing the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the self-esteem of swingers was quantified and compared to a general sample. The results reveal that swingers have higher self-esteem. However, gender differences emerged in post hoc analyses whereby men who engage in swinging have higher self-esteem, but women who engage in swinging have self-esteem comparable to others. Results are discussed in terms of evolutionary and clinical importance. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.     

Solving Resource Allocation Problems When Earning Effects Are Present

Learning effects play an important role in certain resource allocation problems, and several authors have proposed models for these problems that capture the relevant relationships. However, the models may be difficult to implement or have shortcomings in the prescribed solution procedures. In this paper, we selectively review the work to date and present a simple reformulation that facilitates solution by off-the-shelf software.     

Propaganda, Persuasion and Symmetry: Local and Central Government Perspectives on Communicating with the Citizen

The paper gives a brief resumé of the major public relations models and relates these to central and local government communication with the public. It gives central government's perspective on the Citizen's Charter and shows how this translates into a construct of reality based on four perceptions. Next, these four perceptions are subjected to scrutiny from the local government perspective, drawing on the results of a research project undertaken during 1995 on the publication of performance indicators (PIs). The paper concludes by questioning central government's wisdom in trying to prescribe a communications model which does not fit local circumstances.     

PARAMETERIZE!: Notes on Mathematical Modeling for Sociology

Radius is parameter to circles. Mathematical modeling contributes best to sociological theory through parameterizing. Parameters form a seam linking quantitative and qualitative panels of theory. All social construction comes through feedback, and modeling its outcomes requires use of parameters.