The role of management attorneys in union organizing campaigns

We examine the role and effect of management attorneys in union organizing campaigns by conducting in-depth interviews with a number of management and union attorneys, union organizers, and NLRB administrators. Hypotheses are developed for future empirical testing.     

Faith‐Based Social Service Organizations and Government Funding: Data from a National Survey*

Objective. The objective of the research reported in this article is to test four hypotheses concerning government funding among faith‐based social service coalitions: that it is positively related to size and organizational professionalism; positively related to attitudes toward government funding; positively related to social activism; and negatively related to organizational religiosity. Method. Our method is the application of OLS and probit analysis to data from a national survey of 656 such organizations. Results. Using three measures of government funding and 12 predictor variables, results are mixed in their support of the size and professionalization hypothesis and generally support the remaining hypotheses. These findings are replicated when we compare coalitions that had and had not applied for government funding. Conclusions. Our findings emphasize that greater religious expressiveness dissuades coalitions from both seeking and receiving government funding, but higher levels of social activism expedite both.     

Cross-cultural variations in predictors of life satisfaction: An historical view of differences among West European countries

Using survey data collected in 1976 from respondents in ten West European countries, we compared four sets of predictors of life satisfaction: job satisfaction, nonwork satisfaction, working conditions and living conditions. Results indicated that, although levels of satisfaction varied somewhat by country, significant predictors of life satisfaction were quite similar among the countries. These results present a picture of relationships among these variables in an historical context.     

Neutralizing the political threat of the marginal woman: Lesbians’ beliefs about bisexual women

One might expect lesbian and bisexual women to form a strong alliance because of their common marginalization in a heterosexist and sexist society. But previous research has shown that tension exists between lesbian and bisexual women and that some segments of the lesbian community consider bisexuality a threat to lesbian politics. In this article I report data on beliefs about bisexual women gathered from 346 self‐identified lesbians via self‐administered questionnaires and discuss the relationship between lesbian and bisexual women as a special case of intergroup relations. Most lesbian respondents believed that bisexual identity is more likely than lesbian identity to be a phase or a way of denying one's true sexuality and that bisexual women are less personally and politically loyal and more willing and able to pass as heterosexual than are lesbians. Lesbians’ beliefs about bisexual women were uncorrelated with demographics, but lesbians who reported having some heterosexual feelings were less inclined to hold derogatory beliefs about bisexual women than were lesbians whose feelings were exclusively homosexual. On the basis of intergroup relations theory, I argue that lesbian‐bisexual relations are in the “amicable consensus” stage of political development (Jackman & Senter, 1983) and that lesbians’ attitudes are likely to change as the nascent bisexual political movement grows in strength. Methodological issues pertaining to the measurement of lesbians’ attitudes toward sexuality, including the reactivity of these attitudes to various measurement strategies, are discussed.     

Chilean Adaptation and Validation of the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale–Short Form

The aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of a short version of the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale (FDAS–SF; Fisher, 1978) in the Chilean context. Participants were 260 individuals who were divorced or separated. The FDAS–SF included 22 of the original 100 items, and its factorial structure was evaluated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Instead of the 6 original subscales proposed by its author, the structure that showed the best fit to the data was composed of 5 subscales: self-worth, disentanglement from the ex-partner, anger, grief, and social trust. The social self-worth subscale was excluded. Reliability analyses revealed good internal consistency of the subscales and adequate convergent validity with depression, anxiety, stress, and life satisfaction. Given the psychometric properties of this short version, it can be concluded that the FDAS–SF can be used in the Chilean context to evaluate the adjustment to divorce and separation.     

Sisters (can’t) unite! Wages as macro‐political and the gendered power orders of corporatism

In addition to political parties and the government, trade union confederations and employer organizations are major power players in the Finnish labour market, policymaking and the wider society. This article analyses the significant role of the Finnish corporatist regime in creating and maintaining the gendered hierarchies of the labour market, including the gender pay gap. Using the case of the Finnish nurses’ industrial action in 2007, our analysis highlights the capacity of the corporatist regime to resist change in current wage relativities and effectively block attempts made to challenge the status quo. This article describes how wages are macro‐political, shaped by political processes, negotiations, power relations and vested interests of central stakeholders within the Finnish corporatist regime. The analysis focuses on the problem representations through which the actors articulate either their attempt to increase wages or to maintain the status quo, which makes their vested interests, as well as politics, visible.     

Schools of Social Work Contribution to Community Partnerships: The Renewal of the Social Compact in Higher Education

ABSTRACT

Embracing the concept that the social compact between university and community can provide a cornerstone for true social change. This article details how partnering with outside organizations in collaborative relationships can help fulfill higher education's obligation to educate for the good of a democratic and learned populace. Often the social conscience of a university, schools of social work can serve as leaders in the development or facilitation of university and community partnerships to address or intervene in areas of social need. One research institution of higher education provides successful examples.     

Urban poverty and labor market dynamics in five Latin American countries: 2003–2008

Latin America experienced a long period of sustained growth since 2003 that positively impacted social and labor market indicators, including poverty. This paper contributes to the understanding of this process as it carries out a comparative study of poverty dynamics in five Latin American countries during 2003–2008. It analyzes the extent to which countries with different levels of poverty incidence diverge in terms of poverty exit and entry rates, identifies the relative importance of the frequency and impact of events associated to poverty transitions and examines how these events affect households with different characteristics. For this, a dynamic analysis of panel data is carried out using regular household surveys. Sizeable rates of poverty movements were observed in all five countries and it was found that a large proportion of household experienced positive events, mainly related to the labor market; however, only a small fraction of them actually exited poverty. Demographic events and public cash transfers proved to be of little relevance; in particular, the latter did not contribute much either to intensify poverty exits or to prevent poverty entries. Households with children experienced more (less) negative (positive) events than those without children. It appeared therefore that even when the economy behaved reasonably well at the aggregate level, high levels of labor turnover and income mobility (even of a negative nature) still prevail, mainly associated to the high level of precariousness and the undeveloped system of social protection that characterize the studied countries.     

Social Enterprise Performance: The Role of Market and Social Entrepreneurship Orientations

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Market orientation has been presented as an important predictor of business performance, and it is presumed to contribute...