Book Reviews

Abstract

Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr., Asterie Baker Provenzo, Peter A. Zorn, Jr., Pursuing the Past: Oral History, Photographs, Family History, Cemeteries, Cemeteries Company (Menlo Park, California) Publisher: Addison-Wesley Publishing Publication date: 1904 Price: 317.05 (includes teacher's guide) Audience: elementary and secondary students, as well as general audience Reviewed by S. Rex Morrow.

John Anthony Scott, The Story of America: A National Geographic Picture Atlas National Geographic Society (Washington, D.C.) 1984 $19.95 Audience: elementary, secondary, and general audience Reviewed by S. Rex Morrow.     

The Unmaking of Management? Change and Continuity in British Management in the 1990s

In the late 1980s, a series of reports —notably, The Making of Managers by CharlesHandy-outlined a development path for management in theU.K. This was to be based on the development of aneducation and training base and the model set by leadingcorporations. A decade later, this paper reviews currenttrends in managerial work and employment against theexpectations of the late 1980s. In doing so, it distinguishes between the objectivecondition of British management and itsinstitutionalized meaning within wider British society.It argues that recent accounts of changes in managerialwork and employment have focused solely on incremental changes inthe empirical domain and have neglected importantdiscursive shifts in the way management is understoodand enacted within organizations. These shifts have been catalyzed by the emergence of a series oforganizational initiatives-first, Total QualityManagement (TQM) and, latterly, lean production andBusiness Process Reengineering (BPR)-which aim tosystematically deconstruct management by emphasizing workerempowerment, delayering, downsizing, and theredistribution of managerial functions. In short,initiatives such as these are contributing to theunmaking of management. Managerial groups aresubject to intensification and polarization, whilemanagerial practices are diffused throughout the workprocess.     

Risk Analysis of Terrorist Attacks

A quantitative probabilistic/systems analysis model is described which is useful for allocating resources to safeguard valuable documents or materials in either a fixed-site facility or a moving convoy against an overt terrorist attack. The model is also useful for ranking the sensitive areas at a site according to their survivability of a given hypothesized terrorist attempt. To compare various defense strategies and security configurations, the probability of a successful terrorist activity is computed based on event tree models of the site/security configuration. This calculation incorporates a realistic engagement model (in the event a guard force engages the terrorists prior to completion of their objective) and information on barrier penetration times (for example, distribution of the time to defeat a chain link fence or vault door, traverse an open area, and so forth). Two security analyses are described to illustrate the methodology. One example considers a terrorist attack on a convoy transporting a missile from a storage to a launch facility. The second example involves an attack on a munitions storage facility.     

Social capital and women's reduced vulnerability to HIV infection in rural Zimbabwe

Social capital—especially through its “network” dimension (high levels of participation in local community groups)—is thought to be an important determinant of health in many contexts. We investigate its effect on HIV prevention, using prospective data from a general population cohort in eastern Zimbabwe spanning a period of extensive behavior change (1998–2003). Almost half of the initially uninfected women interviewed were members of at least one community group. In an analysis of 88 communities, individuals with higher levels of community group participation had lower incidence of new HIV infections and more of them had adopted safer behaviors, although these effects were largely accounted for by differences in socio-demographic composition. Individual women in community groups had lower HIV incidence and more extensive behavior change, even after controlling for confounding factors. Community group membership was not associated with lower HIV incidence in men, possibly refecting a propensity among men to participate in groups that allow them to develop and demonstrate their masculine identities—often at the expense of their health. Support for women's community groups could be an effective HIV prevention strategy in countries with large-scale HIV epidemics.     

Tightening the leash after a threat: A multi-level event study on leadership behavior following the financial crisis

This paper presents the results of a multi-level event study of the effects of the 2008 financial crisis on leadership behavior. Following assumptions from the threat-rigidity hypothesis, we expect that across firms and countries, this crisis led to an increase in directive leadership. In line with this hypothesis, we also anticipate that this change is context-specific. The impact of the 2008 financial crisis on the change in directive leadership is analyzed for over 20,000 managers in 980 organizations across 36 countries. We find that the financial crisis went along with a significant increase in directive leadership, and that this effect was stronger in the manufacturing sector, and in countries with a high degree of power distance. Our results support the threat-rigidity hypothesis, and contribute to leadership research by showing that the context is not only a moderator but actually shapes leadership behavior. This opens up a new avenue of leadership research where context is an antecedent of leadership behavior more generally, and where the methodological set-up allows for causal inference.     

Natural Disasters and the Rhetorical Construction of American Values: Community Exceptionalism as Representative Anecdote

This study examines the rhetoric of U.S. senators and representatives regarding natural disasters in their home states. Using Kenneth Burke’s dramatism, we examine four model speeches by members of Congress and identify the representative anecdote of community exceptionalism. This anecdote portrays disaster-affected communities as exemplars of rugged individualism, patriotism, and faith, and thus worthy of national praise and federal aid. In this anecdote, aid becomes partly contingent upon the exhibition of a set of values rather than simply upon the material conditions of the disaster. Moreover, the term community exceptionalism—like any term—creates both unity and division, as linguistic concepts cannot be understood without contrasting dialectical terms. Thus, following Burke’s conceptions of order, hierarchy, and perfection, the representative anecdote points toward American exceptionalism, where conceptions of American uniqueness and moral superiority are sustained and renewed by the subtle themes within speeches that are ostensibly about comforting disaster victims and securing federal aid for devastated communities.     

Age cohort differences in the developmental milestones of gay men

As the social context in which gay men live changes due to greater visibility, greater acceptance, and easier access to gay subculture, gay males may self-identify and take part in gay social activities at earlier ages than in the past. This study examined whether developmental milestones associated with sexual orientation for gay men have changed over the past several decades. A large and diverse sample of 2,402 gay men who responded to a 1994 survey published in a national magazine provided retrospective information on the age at which they reached individual psychological, social, and sexual behavior developmental milestones. We found evidence that individual psychological and sexual behavior milestones (e.g., awareness of attraction to males, having an orgasm with other male) are slowly moving toward earlier chronological ages (by 1 year of age every 8-25 years, p < 0.05), whereas social milestones (e.g., coming out) are moving more rapidly in a similar direction (by 1 year of age every 2-5 years, p < 0.001). The authors perform an innovative sensitivity test to demonstrate the persistence of the finding after correcting for the bias attributable to underrepresentation of those who have not yet self-identified as gay in such samples.