Employability skills for future marketing professionals

This study investigates how digital transformation has disrupted the marketing career path by analysing the most in-demand marketing skills and identifying opportunities for future marketing professionals. Through a content analysis of job advertisements and a cross-country survey of marketing professionals, the study proposes a framework defining the skillset required of marketing professionals to start and move forward in their career. The study identifies five employability skill categories and 29 skills and capabilities. The relevance of such categories is also analysed across lowly and highly digitalised firms. This research contributes to the debate on the employability of new graduates and provides useful directions to universities, tertiary education institutions, and companies to support the marketing talents of the future.     

Sociology and Literature: Theoretical Considerations

The authors' discussion of the theoretical issues implied in interdisciplinary studies of sociology and literature is based on their analyses of selected works of sociology, literary theory, and cultural criticism produced during the past twenty years. Attempts to integrate the areas of sociology and literature have resulted in three general approaches: sociology through literature, the sociology of literature, and the study of sociology and literature based on their common dependence on language. The authors analyze the theoretical issues and assumptions that underlie each of these approaches in order to suggest a way to study sociology and literature which retains the richness and complexity of both disciplines.     

MULTI-LEVEL VULNERABILITY OF ADOLESCENT MARRIAGES: AN ECO-SYSTEM MODEL FOR CLINICAL ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION

This paper utilizes the Transitionally Unintegrated-Externally Open family system type derived from Wertheim (1973,1975) to address the multiple factors that may enhance or reduce the vulnerability of the adolescent marriage. Facilitating and constraining factors on the development of marital system autonomy and competence are identified at the individual, marital, familial and extra-familial levels. Guidelines for clinical assessment and intervention are presented.     

Attitudes of Japanese and American Workers: Convergence or Diversity*

Testing an argument of convergence on a sample of employed males in Japan and the United States, this paper compares young: (18–24 years) with older (45–55 years) workers within each country on work-related attitudes, education and employment, mobility, interest in the company, characteristics of superiors, and job satisfaction. Comparisons of these attitudes are also made within age-group cross-nationally. Our general finding, which is upheld when company size, type of job, and educational attainment, are controlled for, is that cultural diversity is (still) a better explanation than convergence when applied to work-related attitudes. Aging per se seems to have some similar effects in both societies, e.g., a positive relationship beween age and work satisfaction. Attitudes affected more by historical changes in work organization, however, exhibit stronger cultural differences than age differences.     

Mentoring adolescent foster youth: promoting resilience during developmental transitions

The current exploratory study used quantitative and qualitative data from an evaluation of the ‘Advocates to Successful Transition to Independence’ programme, a mentoring programme designed to train mentors to assist older adolescent foster youth in acquiring skills and resources needed for successful transition out of foster care and into adulthood. The study was conducted in two phases over 2 years. Quantitative methods were used to describe characteristics of the older adolescent foster youth and advocates, and qualitative methods were used to describe the experiences of youth and advocates in the programme. Results suggest that the use of a mentoring programme for older adolescent foster youth represents a particularly beneficial prevention strategy that may help prevent negative outcomes as youth emancipate from the foster care system and transition into young adulthood. Implications and recommendations for developing mentoring programmes for transition‐aged youth are presented.     

Nonmarital cohabitation

On the basis of a national random sample survey of 2143 men and women, it is estimated that 890,000 couples were living together unmarried in the United States as of January 1976. A comparison of cohabiting and married respondents indicated that cohabitors are younger, less religious, and more likely to be divorced than their married counterparts. Few differences were found between marrieds and cohabitors with regard to decision-making power, division of labor, openness of communication, and satisfaction with the relationship. However, the duration of the cohabiting relationship was found to be significantly shorter than that of marital relationships.     

The putting-out system: Transitional form or recurrent feature of capitalist production?

The putting-out system has frequently been described in accounts of rural domestic industry during the European industrial revolution as a transitional form of production relations accompanying the development of full-fledged capitalism. In this article, the authors argue that the putting-out system is a relatively enduring feature of capitalist production, appearing in various times and places under conditions which can be specified through comparative analysis. To contribute to such specification, we systematically analyze the similarities and differences between the putting-out system in the contemporary hammock industry in Yucatan and in earlier European cases.     

Study Abroad Ghana: An International Experiential Learning

The global nature of social problems indicates how important it is for social workers to be involved in international issues. For example, overseas experience in social work programs is in consonance with the Council on Social Work Education's emphasis on global context of social work practice. In view of this, some schools of social work are facilitating international experience for their students and faculty. This article discusses the experiences of U.S. students who studied abroad in Ghana in summer 2010, under the University Studies Abroad Consortium (USAC). It specifically examines the impact the USAC Ghana program, the people and culture of the host country, intracountry trips/tours, and the social work courses had on the student participants.     

“Once in a Blue Moon … Anything is Possible”

Each of the articles in this volume highlights concerns and issues related to cultural diversity and community development. Together they provide significant guidance for further work in theory construction and curriculum development, and offer direction for effective practice and research. Leadership development, self-help, and empowerment practice approaches are presented for work in communities of color and neo-gemeinschaft communities. Effective methods and strategies for working with diverse populations in changing social and economic times are provided for community practitioners and faculty.