An innovative approach to selecting an executive director

As a guide for how to select a new executive director, a family agency adopted the search committee process from higher education. The approach included clarifying agency goals and the director's qualifications, a board-staff screening, and interviews held jointly with public representatives before final board selection.     

Parental survival data: Some results of the application of Ledermann's model life tables

Summary Ledermann's one- and two-parameter model life tables are used in order to summarize and compare adult mortality estimates derived from parental survival data, and also to link parental survival with child survival data. The Ledermann models provide an alternative to the logit model used by Brass and Hill. Examination of life tables derived from actual child and adult mortality estimates reveals that although the two types of models yield similar overall levels of mortality, they show marked differences in the estimated patterns by sex and age. It has not been possible to disentangle completely how much of this divergence is due to the models themselves and how much to inadequacies in the data available. Finally, we question whether it is always wise to establish a full life table from child and adult mortality estimates when these are based on data which refer to different periods of exposure to the risk of dying, without allowance for possible distortions resulting from mortality change.     

Reducing Refusal Rates for Telephone Interviews

In two experiments, refusal rates to telephone interviews werenot affected by substantial changes in the introductory remarksof the interviewer. A prior letter significantly lowered refusalrates in a third experiment. In all three, interviewer sex hadno effect.     

Multiproblem families: A social-psychological perspective

Summary It is generally conceded that our allied mental health professions have fallen short in our attempts to provide adequate services to those people whose need is most desperate, those individuals and families ambiguously and condescendingly designated multiproblem. It could be said that we, the caregivers, have been unwilling or unable to be good enough mothers to these, our motherless children. In fact, the early, formative experience of the people with whom we are concerned has invariably been marked by gross discontinuities in mothering; the consequent defects in controlling, regulatory psychic structure (ego defects) are most prominently manifested in the chaotic life-style which characterizes these individuals and families. Our task as caregivers, when viewed from this perspective, is clear: we must somehow bring order out of disorder. But, with tragic regularity, disorder prevails; the provider of service succumbs to the same painful feelings of disorganization, bewilderment, frustration, and helplessness with which his client struggles, and, eventually, both give up in despair. What is more, this sense of fragmentation and futility pervades the institutions responsible for provision of services. Client, caregiver, and institution, all are trapped in the same tortuous maze. How, then, are we to extricate ourselves? Certainly not by drafting yet another master plan which promises everything and delivers nothing. Both realistic and humanistic considerations dictate more modest goals: We might not be able to rescue everyone who needs assistance, but we can help a few. And, whatever approach we may adopt, the service we offer can only be effective if it is based upon a sustained and sustaining (in essence, maternal) relationship.Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child     

Priority Setting for the Distribution of Localized Hazard Protection

We address the problem of distributing safety-enhancing devices across a region, where each identical device provides for only local protection of the population. The devices protect nonidentical sectors of the population. The sectors of population are exposed to nonidentical intensities of hazard. A method for the screening and prioritizing of needs for the protective devices is described. An approach of risk-benefit-cost analysis under uncertainty is recommended as follows. Measures of hazard intensity and population exposure are identified. Exogenous parameters that influence assessments of risks, benefits, and costs are identified. Uncertainties of the exogenous parameters are propagated by interval analysis. Several tiers of the plausibility of need for protection are identified. The tiers are useful in setting priorities for the distribution of the safety devices. The method is demonstrated in an engineering application to roadway lighting, but has implications for disaster preparedness, anti-terrorism, transportation safety, and other arenas of public safety.     

The Big Five personality factors and team performance: implications for selecting successful product design teams

In the pursuit of faster product development, product design teams are a growing phenomenon in many organizations. In order to be successful, these teams must be composed of people who work well together. However, despite the benefit of selecting the optimal combination of team members, this topic has received little attention. Personality has been identified as a potentially helpful selection variable in the determination of optimal team composition. This study examines the relationships between the ‘Big Five’ personality factors (Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Openness to Experience) and objective team performance for three-member product design teams. In addition to this, the potential incremental contribution of personality to the variance in team performance over that accounted for by established selection measures such as general cognitive ability was investigated. In the short duration of the study, it became apparent that some teams were capable of success, and some were not. Successful teams were characterized by higher levels of general cognitive ability, higher extraversion, higher agreeableness, and lower neuroticism than their unsuccessful counterparts. In successful teams, the heterogeneity of conscientiousness was negatively related to increments in product performance. Implications for the selection of product design teams and future directions for research are discussed.