Crisis communication plans: Poor predictors of excellent crisis public relations

Public relations is an important element in almost all successful crisis mana ment efforts. Newly developed theory in crisis public relations, though, suggests a shift is necessary in the way practitioners view crises. The well-accepted tactics and techniques advocated by practitioners need to be replaced with strategies and beliefs from a new perspective—a perspective or paradigm that defines excellent crisis public relations practice very differently from the literature of the past 20 years.     

Social movement as civic education: communication activities and understanding of civil disobedience in the Umbrella Movement

Occupy Central, which would later evolve into the Umbrella Movement, was conceived as a civil disobedience campaign when it was first proposed in early 2013. Although the history of civil disobedience in Hong Kong arguably spans decades, the concept was seldom discussed in the public arena, and the practice was not well established in the society's repertoire of contentious actions. The years 2013 and 2014 thus constituted a “critical discourse moment” in which the concept of civil disobedience was intensively discussed and debated. This study seeks to determine whether the Occupy Central campaign and the Umbrella Movement had an educational function that led to increased levels of the public's understanding of civil disobedience. The analysis of the responses to two surveys conducted in September 2013 and October 2014 showed that the public's understanding of civil disobedience increased substantially over the year. After the Umbrella Movement started, attitudinal support for and actual participation in the movement, the political use of social media, and discussions with disagreeing others significantly predicted the understanding of civil disobedience. The theoretical and social implications of the findings are discussed.     

Family Phone Therapy in University Counseling and Psychological Service Centers: A Family Systems Approach

Abstract

This paper offers family phone therapy as a method for student mental health practitioners to overcome the obstacle of geographic distance between students and their families when family therapy is the treatment of choice. The issues of confidentiality, triangulation, diversionary conversation, and mixed communication, which present unique concerns when engaging in family phone therapy, are introduced and strategies to deal with them are discussed. A case example is presented to demonstrate the utility of family phone therapy in dealing with problems that students who use university mental health services can typically experience. Finally, implications of dealing with students' developmental tasks from an individual or family systems perspective are discussed.     

The Care of the Patient

Abstract

The author recently became aware of many MBA students who expressed feelings of not belonging, of being different from others in their program. At the same time, articles began appearing in the press about changing the MBA curricula to include more consideration of morals and ethics. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the conflict aroused in many students who choose a business career for economic reasons and find it difficult to reconcile the societal stereotypes and expectations of the business world with their own values and self-concepts. Much has been written about career choice and identity consolidation, of the ways in which ideals are incorporated into a professional identity in, for example, medicine, law, humanities, and science. A literature search revealed little related to business, where most of the articles concern gender differences. Some of the issues noted here seem more akin to the way in which creative artists struggle with producing commercial forms of their art to survive. In psychodynamic terms, the ambivalence seems to be related to the incapacity of some students to internalize certain concepts and goals in such a way that they can proceed, in the more usual way, to employ the imitative processes that facilitate learning and promote meaningful identifications. Anecdotal case material is included to illustrate the author's belief that a brief therapeutic contact may be useful toward helping such students remedy a temporary imbalance by regaining a sense of self-esteem which permits greater resolution of integration.     

Evidence for the use of an algorithm in resolving inconsistent and missing Indigenous status in administrative data collections

Measures of the gap in living standards, life expectancy, education, health and employment between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians are primarily derived from administrative data sources. However, Indigenous identification in these data sources is affected by administrative practices, missing data, inconsistency, and error. As these factors have changed over time, assessing whether the gap between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians has changed over time, based on data unadjusted for these sources of error can potentially lead to misguided conclusions. Combining administrative data on the same individuals collected from different sources provides a method by which a more consistent derived Indigenous status can be applied across all records for an individual within a linked data environment. We used the Western Australian Data Linkage system to produce derived Indigenous statuses for individuals using a range of algorithms. We found that these algorithms reduced the amount of missing data and improved within‐individual consistency. Based on these findings, we recommend our Multi‐Stage Median algorithm be used as the standard indicator of Indigenous status for any reporting based on administrative datasets when multiple datasets are available for linkage, and that algorithmic approaches also be considered for improving the quality of other demographic variables from administrative data sources.     

Barriers to Sexual and Reproductive Health Programming for Adolescents Living with HIV in Uganda

Despite revising their reproductive health policies in line with the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, a major challenge facing many developing countries is the inability to fully implement the policies owing to lack of funds, bureaucratic delays, and limited awareness among various stakeholders. In some countries, the policies fail to adequately address sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of vulnerable groups. This study examines the barriers to SRH programming for adolescents living with HIV from the perspectives of key stakeholders involved in SRH issues in Uganda. The data are from qualitative interviews conducted in 2007 with 23 key informants from bilateral institutions, government ministries, and civil society organizations. The study findings confirm that policy and programmatic gaps exist in addressing the SRH needs of HIV-positive adolescents. This is attributable to: (1) lack of clear guidelines on how to address the SRH of HIV-positive adolescents; (2) challenges of dealing with adolescent SRH in general; (3) HIV/AIDS treatment, care, and support services that are either pediatric- or adult-oriented; and (4) limited institutional and provider capacity to offer SRH services to HIV-positive adolescents despite recognizing that this is an emerging area that requires intervention. These results suggest the need for: (1) clear guidelines on dealing with SRH of HIV-positive adolescents; (2) establishing transition clinics or youth-friendly corners to cater for the needs of adolescents who cannot fit in either pediatric or adult clinics; and (3) providing training and reorientation on SRH of HIV-positive adolescents to service providers/counsellors.     

Gender conformity,self-objectification,and body image for sorority and nonsorority women: A closer look

Sororities have been identified as placing young women at risk for body image concerns due to a focus on traditional gender role norms and objectification of women. Objective: This study assessed the relationship between conformity to feminine gender role norms, self-objectification, and body image surveillance among undergraduate women. Participants: In a random sample of undergraduates, the authors examined data from sorority and nonsorority women. Methods: In a random sample of undergraduate women, the authors assessed the impact of traditional feminine gender role norms on self-objectification, body image, and feedback regarding physical appearance for sorority and nonsorority undergraduate women. Results: Three linear regressions were conducted, and only conformity to feminine gender role norms contributed significantly in each regression model. Conclusions: Regardless of sorority membership, conformity to feminine gender role norms was found to significantly contribute to increased body consciousness, negative body image, and feedback on physical appearance.     

Assassination and leadership: Traditional approaches and historiometric methods

Research on the assassinations and attempted assassinations of leaders seems warranted, as leaders and their interactions with extreme followers (e.g., fanatics) and non-followers (e.g., assassins) can have tremendous consequences not only for the leaders but also their larger collectives (e.g., nations, social movements). Based on the traditional and established leadership approaches of power orientation and outstanding leadership, we explored whether particular types of leaders were more likely victims of assassinations and targets of assassination attempts. Using historiometric methods, we found that socialized as well as pragmatic and ideological leaders were the most frequent victims of assassinations; but personalized as well as pragmatic and ideological leaders were the most frequent targets of assassination attempts; and for U.S. Presidents, socialized charismatics were the most frequent victims of assassinations and targets of assassination attempts. Results regarding leader paranoia, regions of the world, and assassins operating alone or as a group in relation to assassinations and leadership approaches also are presented. Implications of these findings for future leadership research involving leaders and their extreme followers, non-followers, and larger collectives are discussed.