Congruence and Coherence as Predictors of Congruent Employment Outcomes

Four diagnostic signs derived from Holland's (1985a) theory of vocational personalities and occupational environments were evaluated for their ability to predict personality-environment congruence in a sample of 87 employed persons with special needs. Participants, 40% of whom were female, had an average age of 35.6 years. The diagnostic signs were employment congruence, aspirational congruence, employment coherence, and aspirational coherence, all measured during an initial assessment. The outcome was personality-environment congruence in a job held 15 months after the initial assessment. Employment congruence was found to be the best predictor of future personality-environment congruence. Employment coherence was also predictive of future personality-environment congruence, and aspirational congruence was correlated with the latter. The clinical and research implications of the findings were discussed.     

High tech and high performance: Managing appraisal in the information age

Conclusion Information technology leaders recognize that the greatest impediments to success are often people related rather than information, technology, and systems related (Roepke et al., 2000). Obviously, the human component is a central concern when organizations introduce technology to the performance-management process. After all, combining people and technology successfully is critically important to firms. While the potential for accelerating positive HRM outcomes through various technology applications clearly exists, implementation that fails to consider trust, fairness, system factors, objectivity, personality, or computer literacy and training (among other concepts) has negative implications for an organization’s distinct and inimitable human component. Possible gains in efficiency, objectivity, or accuracy that a high technology approach to performance management produces could turn out to be costly for firms if they bring about user dissatisfaction leading to diminished job attitudes, poor performance, or increased turnover.     

Competing for tots: operating objectives and characteristics of for-profit and not-for-profit child care centres in the Pacific Northwest

Child care services are provided by profit-oriented businesses, not-forprofit agencies and governmental units. This paper compares goal priorities and operating characteristics of not-for-profit and for-profit child care centres in parts of Canada and the United States. Directors of 292 Pacific Northwest centres responded to a survey about their financial and non-financial operating objectives. The relative rankings of objectives were similar for not-for-profit and for-profit centres, and for centres in both countries. Non-financial objectives were rated higher than financial objectives. Satisfying the developmental and educational needs of children was the single most important operating objective. Providing access to eligible children was the next most important objective, particularly for not-for-profit centres and for those with government-subsidised children. The remaining objectives, in order of importance, were minimising costs, maximising utilisation, maximising revenues and maximising profits. Profit maximisation was ranked low by both not-for-profit and for-profit respondents. Not-for-profit and for-profit centres exhibited differences on a number of operating characteristics, services provided and employee benefits. Such characteristics were found to be associated with auspices (not-for-profit or for-profit) and location (US or Canada). Results suggest that centres operating under both auspices are capable of altruistic behaviour. Differences in motivation between organisational forms were very small. However, variations in operating characteristics and services suggest that the objectives are achieved in dissimilar ways.     

A comparison of agglomerative clustering methods with respect to noise

This article delineates the important considerations in any extensive, systematic comparison of clustering methods, and then it presents an empirical investigation of the effect of correlated variables on the “retrieval” ability of a particular class of agglomerative clustering methods. The empirical investigation re- sulted in two major observations; namely, that there are many agglomerative clustering methods, which have never been applied, that are “better” than any of the commonly used agglomerative clus- tering methods, and that correlated variables affect the “retrieval” ability of different agglomerative clustering methods differ- ently.     

Development and Initial Validation of the Children's Sadness Management Scale

Although sadness in children is a normal and transient experience, research has not investigated how children manage sadness. Understanding normative sadness management has important implications for helping children who exhibit maladaptive forms of emotional expression. The Children's Sadness Management Scale (CSMS) was developed to assess children's inhibition, dysregulated-expression, and coping with sadness experience and expression. Using multiple informants, reliability and validity were established based on a community sample of 227 fourth- and fifth-grade children's self-report, maternal report (N = 171), and peer ratings of behavior (N = 227). A three-factor solution was supported with strong internal consistency for the Inhibition scale and moderately strong internal consistency for the Emotion Regulation Coping and Dysregulated-Expression scales. Findings indicate that the CSMS provides a reliable and valid measure of normative sadness management.     

Factors Predicting Relocation Among Older Adults

Having a greater understanding of what influences the older adults decisions to move and the characteristics of older adults who are more likely to move is valuable to help plan for the housing needs of the expanding older adult population. The authors examined how contextual, push and pull factors influence preferences of older adults to relocate. A total of 1,015 community-dwelling older adults completed a survey. Results of logistic regression analysis indicated the following variables as significantly related to relocation: gender, age, household income, province resided in, driving status, whether the current home met the older adult's needs, and unmet heavy cleaning needs. Policies and services need to focus on identification of those at most risk of relocation and support them either in their preference to age in place or through the relocation process.     

Incorporating self‐determination into substance abuse prevention programming for youth transitioning from foster care to adulthood

Youth transitioning from foster care to adulthood are at higher risk for alcohol and substance abuse disorders than general population youth. At the same time, these youths are often recipients of strong clinical intervention, often at levels considered unnecessary, for other mental health or behavioural challenges. Because of this, there is sometimes resistance from providers to offer services such as substance abuse prevention programming as it may be seen as contributing to youths' overclinicalization, stigmatization, or retraumatization. Using thematic content analysis, this qualitative study analysed focus groups with community stakeholders providing recommendations on support services for youth transitioning from foster care to adulthood to derive strategies for delivering substance abuse prevention programming in a way that enhances youth self‐determination. Findings were organized by self‐determination theory's 3 key psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. All three needs were represented in stakeholder recommendations, which were translated into strategies for bolstering youths' achievement of each need. Strategies include a mix of those already present in motivational interviewing‐based brief substance abuse prevention interventions as well as more unique strategies that are much less frequently employed but that may better meet the needs of youth with foster care experience.     

Sourcing Decisions with Stochastic Supplier Reliability and Stochastic Demand

Supplier sourcing strategies are a crucial factor driving supply chain success. In this paper, we investigate the implications of uncertain supplier reliability on a firm's sourcing decisions in an environment with stochastic demand. In particular, we characterize specific conditions under which a firm should choose a single versus multiple supplier sourcing strategy. In an environment with both uncertain demand and supply, we characterize the total order quantity, the number of suppliers selected for order placement, and the allocation of the total order quantity among these selected suppliers. For deeper managerial insight, we also examine the sensitivity of the optimal sourcing decisions to interactions between uncertainties in product demand and supply reliability. We show that sourcing from a single supplier is an optimal strategy for environments characterized by high levels of demand uncertainty or high salvage values. A numerical analysis based on data obtained from an office products retailer further reinforces our analytical results. In addition, we also find that when minimal order quantities are imposed, there are situations where it is not optimal to place an order with the lowest cost supplier.