Employee and Volunteer

The purpose of this research is to analyze the different factors that determine the level of time devoted to volunteer activity involving employed people. To this end, we applied a logistic regression model to a sample of 5,067 employees, considering four categories of factors: family and personal, on the one hand, and contextual factors, on the other. This second group involves three factor categories: occupational, organizational, and community involvement factors. The findings of this work are especially relevant to two areas: first, to design a policy of corporate social responsibility that effectively integrates the figure of corporate volunteering, considering its pertinent factors; and second, to broaden the perspective of the third‐sector organizations beyond the traditional profile with which volunteers are commonly associated.     

The work–family challenge and mental health

The work–family literature is dominated by studies of white middle-class workers. In this study, we sought to expand this focus by examining work–family issues from the perspective of Mexicans who have immigrated to the USA within the past five years. Using data from qualitative in-depth interviews (N?=?22) and quantitative structured interviews (N?=?150), we documented the work–family experiences associated with immigration, and we examined the extent to which these experiences differed by gender as well as their mental health effects. The in-depth interviews clearly indicated that separation from family and community was a common and poignant strain experienced by Mexican immigrants who came to the USA to find work, and that these experiences did not differ between women and men. Quantitative analyses corroborated the qualitative findings by indicating women and men had similar levels of work–family strain. Analyses also indicated that higher levels of work–family strain were associated with more perceived stress, anxiety and depression, and that these associations did not differ between women and men. Finally, modest evidence suggested that the effects of work–family strain on mental health may be lower when the realities experienced by immigrants in finding employment and sending money home matched their expectations. This study adds a new voice to the work–family literature and the context and results make clear the tension between work and family: families frequently benefit from adults’ paid work, but this paid work is not without costs.     

The Rise of Social Cooperatives in Italy

This paper reports how a new model of social enterprise—the social cooperative (SCs)—has become instrumental, in the Italian context, in the expansion of the social economy. It underlines the contribution these associations have made toward broadening the concept and standard parameters of volunteer organizations, providing basic social welfare services, and integrating the disadvantaged into the mainstream of society. The paper focuses on some SCs organizational aspects, highlighting the many traditional and advantageous business features, the ease with which they have access to financial instruments, and their ability to activate wider social projects. Given their recent spreading in Italy, where the Third Sector is less developed than in other Western countries, SCs incorporate working modalities that could also be of interest and relevance to other countries. To adopt this type of organization, however, calls for adequate competencies and protection under specific laws because they are, on the whole, still small-sized and somewhat fragile.     

Communication,Modernity, and Democracy in Habermas and Dewey

The political culture of the Federal Republic [of Germany] would be worse today if it had not adopted impulses from American political culture during the first postwar decades. The Federal Republic opened itself for the first time to the West without reservations: we adopted the political theory of the Enlightenment, we grasped the pluralism which, first carried by religious sects, molded the political mentality, and we became acquainted with the radical democratic spirit of the American pragmatism of Peirce, Mead, and Dewey. (Jiirgen Habermas 1985a, p. 93)     

Classifying Speech Sonority Functional Data using a Projected Kolmogorov-Smirnov Approach

This paper addresses a linguistically motivated question of classification of functional data, namely the statistical classification of languages according to their rhythmic features. This is an important open problem in phonology. The analysis is based on the information provided by the sonority, which is an index of local regularity of the speech signal. Our main tool is the projected Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. This is a new goodness of fit test for functional data. The result obtained supports the linguistic conjecture of the existence of three rhythmic classes.     

Exploring the link between human resource practices and turnover in multi-brand companies: The role of brand units’ images

Using exploratory qualitative research undertaken in a multi-brand fashion company, this article investigates the role that brand units’ images play in the link between human resources management (HRM) practices and employee internal and external turnover. Our results suggest that the existence of imbalanced and differently attractive brand units’ images might weaken or remove the effectiveness of corporate HRM practices in keeping internal and external turnover rates low. This because employees may be interested in transferring to the most appealing brand(s) or, if not possible to do so, leaving the company. This article contributes to the debate regarding the use of HRM practices in multi-brand companies, especially in industries where both the brand and the product have a highly-symbolic content. Based on our conclusions, we recommend that brand units with less prestigious images compensate for their lower attractiveness with specific brand unit HRM practices to attract and retain their employees. Theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Validation of the OMNI-cycle scale of perceived exertion in the elderly

This study examined the concurrent and construct validity of the OMNI-Cycle Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scale, using elderly men and women. Seventy-six participants performed a load-incremented cycle-ergometer exercise test. Concurrent validity was determined by correlating OMNI-RPE responses with oxygen uptake, relative peak oxygen uptake, pulmonary ventilation, heart rate, respiratory rate, and respiratory-exchange ratio during a load-incremented cycle-ergometer protocol. Construct validity was established by correlating RPE derived from the OMNI-Cycle Scale with RPE from the Borg (6-20) Scale. Multilevel, mixed linear-regression models indicated that OMNI-RPE distributed as a significant (p < .05) positive linear function (r = .81-.92) for all physiological measures. OMNI-RPE was positively (p < .01) and linearly related to Borg-RPE in elderly men (r = .97) and women (r = .96). This study demonstrates both concurrent and construct validity of the OMNI-Cycle RPE Scale. These findings support the use of this scaling metric with elderly men and women to estimate RPE during cycle-ergometer exercise.     

Home sweet home: The emotional construction of places

The social sciences have recently shown a revival of interest in space and place. In this “spatial turn” the place is seen as a “place-in-process” (Thrift, 2008) and as the emergent result of constant re-involvement processes based on the continuous re-definition and re-construction of its meaning. Moreover, elderly people's homes have acquired a renewed importance in the wake of an aging in place strategy in social and health policies. This study describes the processes of situatedness of place that occur during the widowhood. Involving ten older widows, our analysis identifies four distinct processes in the construction of the situated meaning of a place: ‘Heart displacement’, ‘The showcase of the self’, ‘Refuge’ and ‘Introjection of external spaces’.     

Multilateralism under threat: Causes,impact, and the policy debate on government intervention in trade

Several forces fostered trade liberalization since the end of World War II. Production and trade interacted quite favorably during the period. In the past quarter century real income in the OECD economies grew at almost 4% yearly, while the volume of export increased by almost 7 percent. However, in the first half of the 1980s, the chemistry of the situation seems to have changed as protectionist tendencies developed almost everywhere in the world. The very same multilateral nature of the world trading system is under threat, as illiberal discriminatory practices are being implemented bilaterally and, even more often, unilaterally. What are the forces at play to increase the pressure towards government intervention in trade? The paper reviews (i) macroeconomic issues and policy situations, as well as (ii) structural issues concerning the working of the economic systems of industrial countries. The pressure for trade intervention in the U.S. is addressed separately with respect to Europe, given the structural and cyclical differences between the two economies The case of Japan is dealt with with reference to the alleged interrelation between Japan's international competitiveness and its macroeconomic policies. Matters of more direct concern to the LDCs are covered at the end of the paper, with emphasis placed on the restructuring process under way in response to, and as a consequence of, the external debt. The paper ends with a recommendation to all countries to make efforts to preserve and strengthen the multilateral and liberal foundations of the international trading system.     

Postmodern society and the individual: The structural characteristics of postmodern society and how they shape who we think we are

The notion that personality is pluralistic and not a rigid construct is widely acknowledged within the social sciences. However, factors affecting multiplicity outside of clinical enquiry are still poorly understood. The idea that postmodern society has influenced how the individual conceives of their self-concept is frequently discussed, however, seldom theorized and empirically inspected. This study tests a number of psycho-sociological hypotheses that being immersed within consumption and part of a technology-based culture are contributing factors to self-pluralism. Data is collected from 201 individuals living in postmodern societies. Results indicate that technology exposure and materialistic beliefs are related to levels of self-pluralism and that materialism plays a partial mediatory role in technology's influence on multiplicity. These findings add support to postmodern understandings of the self and society and show everyday experiences associated with modern living influence how one conceives of their identity.