“I'm in this world for a reason”: Resilience and recovery among American Indian and Alaska Native two-spirit women

ABSTRACT

American Indian and Alaska Native sexual minority (two-spirit) women are vulnerable to substance misuse and mental health challenges due to multiple minority oppressed status and exposure to stress and trauma. Yet, these women find pathways toward healing and wellness. We conducted a qualitative data analysis of interviews derived from a national health study and gained an understanding of 11 two-spirit women's resilience and recovery patterns. Emergent from the data, a braided resiliency framework was developed which elucidates multilayered abilities, processes, and resources involved in their resiliency. We recommend that resilience-promoting strategies be incorporated into substance misuse and mental health interventions.     

Gender Gaps in Care Work: Evidences from Argentina,Chile, Spain and Uruguay

This paper is a comparative analysis of the gender gaps in the non-paid domestic and care work (NPDCW) undertaken in homes in Argentina, Chile, Spain and Uruguay. The explanatory factors of this gap in two-income households and their magnitude and impact on the distribution of NPDCW are analyzed using data from national time use surveys. The weakness of micro-sociological approaches and the variables related to relative resources and time availability is demonstrated using the estimation of a regression model, while the importance of approximations of gender roles and analyses that incorporate macro-sociological factors is shown. Furthermore, the findings show that NPDCW is done by women in 70% of cases with women’s incomes and time availability among the individual variables that drive change within the couple. The results show that the equalizing effects of time availability and gender ideology are stronger for women in more egalitarian countries; women in less egalitarian countries benefit less from their individual-level assets. Additional comparative analysis shows that other macro-level factors (economic development, female labor-force participation, gender norms and welfare systems) may also influence the division of this work. The results suggest that changes in individual-level factors alone may not be enough to achieve an equal division of labor in the household without a parallel reduction in macro-level gender inequality.

     

Exploring Public Network’s Operation from a Cultural Approach: The Case of an Inter-Local Association in Chile

Public Organization Review - The study of collaborative networks in the public sector has been mostly approached from structural and managerial perspectives. Cultural dimensions, however, have not...     

Organizational interventions: A research-based framework for the evaluation of both process and effects

Abstract

Organizational interventions are often recommended when organizations want to improve employee psychological health and well-being. Research, however, has revealed inconsistent results and reviewers have called for research on why interventions either bring about desired change or fail to do so. Answering the “how” and “why” of intervention outcomes requires a close examination of the elements that hinder or facilitate desired outcomes, thus moving beyond evaluation of only the overall effects. In this paper, we present an evaluation framework based on recent intervention research and process-oriented organization theory. The framework offers suggestions for which elements to include when evaluating organizational interventions. Within the framework, elements crucial to intervention evaluation are grouped into four overarching categories that we argue are crucial to evaluation over the five phases of an intervention programme. These categories are: the organizational “actors”; the mental models of those actors; the context of the intervention; and intervention design and process. Evaluation during the process as well as of the overall effects, as recommended by this framework, should throw light on what works for whom, why, how and under which circumstances.     

Constructing nation: national narratives of history teachers in Ukraine

This paper scrutinizes history narratives as a practice of a specific kind of nation-building and analyzes the role of history teachers in this process. Based on 60 semi-structural interviews with history teachers in Ukraine, this paper analyzes three major national narratives used by history teachers to produce specific meaning of social identity among school pupils. This paper shows how history teachers reproduce national identity in their classrooms by altering the teaching program and textbook narratives and by promoting their vision of a nation, rights of specific groups to participate in nation-building process and defining enemies and allies.     

The importance of employee participation and perceptions of changes in procedures in a teamworking intervention

The powerful positive results of implementing teamwork are not always achieved. It has been suggested that attempts to implement theories regarding teamwork do not always lead to those theories being put into practice, and as a result positive outcomes are not always found. The participation of employees in the development and implementation of an intervention may help to ensure that changes take place. In this longitudinal study (N = 583) of teamwork implementation in Denmark we examined the links between pre-intervention working conditions and well-being, levels of participation in planning and implementation, employees' reports of changes in procedures, and intervention outcomes. Pre-intervention levels of autonomy and job satisfaction predicted the degree of employee participation in the planning and implementation of the intervention. Pre-intervention well-being and social support were linked directly to the degree to which employees reported changes in existing work practices concerning teamwork. In addition, participation and changes in work procedures were significantly associated with post-intervention autonomy, social support and well-being. The results indicate that employee participation in intervention processes is crucial in what appears to be an important association with perceived changes in procedures and, therefore, in intervention outcomes.     

Out of mind,out of sight? Leading distributed workers to ensure health and safety

ABSTRACT

Current frameworks of leadership are based on face-to-face interaction. A growing number of workers work away from their main location of work; this makes it challenging for leaders to ensure the health and safety of distributed workers. In the present study, we explore the relationship between line managers’ health and safety leadership and distributed workers’ health and safety behaviours. We also explore the organisational procedures and practices that may enhance the impact of health and safety leadership. We included a broad range of distributed workers (in analyses, minimum N?=?626) from 11 organisations. We found that health-and-safety-specific leadership was positively related to distributed workers’ self-rated health, safety compliance and safety proactivity. These relationships were augmented by distributed workers’ sense of being included in the workplace. Knowledge sharing among colleagues was associated with safety compliance when health-and-safety-specific leadership was low. Our results indicate that one way of addressing the challenges of distributed working may be through line managers putting health and safety on the agenda.     

Work–Family Conflict and Fertility Intentions: Does Gender Matter?

Fertility among employed women remains far below their desired preferences. Although research has shown that fertility intentions significantly predict subsequent behavior, little is known about the factors that contribute to intentions. We assess the impacts of perceived self and partner work-to-family and family-to-work conflict on the fertility intentions of both women and men. Using a national probability sample of men and women in dual-earner families (N = 630), we find that men’s perceptions of their wives’ work–family conflict significantly predict men’s fertility intentions, even though men’s own work–family conflict does not. Neither women’s own work–family conflict nor their perceptions of their husbands’ work–family conflict predicts women’s fertility intentions.     

Recognition of Emotions in Gait Patterns by Means of Artificial Neural Nets

This paper describes an application of emotion recognition in human gait by means of kinetic and kinematic data using artificial neural nets. Two experiments were undertaken, one attempting to identify participants’ emotional states from gait patterns, and the second analyzing effects on gait patterns of listening to music while walking. In the first experiment gait was analyzed as participants attempted to simulate four distinct emotional states (normal, happy, sad, angry). In the second experiment, participants were asked to listen to different types of music (excitatory, calming, no music) before and during gait analysis. Derived data were fed into different types of artificial neural nets. Results showed not only a clear distinction between individuals, but also revealed clear indications of emotion recognition in nets.