Communal Decline: The Vanishing of High-Moral Servant Leaders and the Decay of Democratic, High-Trust Kibbutz Cultures

What is the connection between leaders’morality and the output performance of organizations? Can their morality explain, through trust, continuity, and change of organizational cultures? Is periodic rotation of managers the right solution for the distrust caused by self‐serving conservatism due to Michels's “Iron Law of Oligarchy”? An anthropological study of kibbutzim, whose innovative and adaptive cultures declined recently, found that past success was dependent on high‐moral servant leaders who backed democracy and promoted high‐trust cultures that engendered innovation by creative officers in some kibbutzim, which others imitated. However, conservatism of continuous leaders as heads of low‐trust kibbutz federative organizations, which were ignored by customary kibbutz research, engendered oligarchization which rotation enhanced rather than prevented. However, creativity deteriorated only after decades of growing oligarchy, with the vanishing of the high‐moral old guard. Thus, the crux of democratic communal culture sustainability is pinpointed in the superiority of trusted, high‐moral leaders. A preliminary idea for achieving that aim, predicated on officers’continuation in office being conditional on periodic tests of trust, is herein presented.     

Am I My Brother's Keeper: Adult Siblings Raising Younger Siblings

Adult siblings raising their younger siblings is a family configuration that rarely comes to mind; yet, in the United States adult siblings are the third largest relative caregiver group. The experiences of a sample of 77 adult siblings raising 154 younger siblings are described. The findings revealed that adult sibling caregivers may have multiple unmet service needs but they have a relatively high degree of parenting ability, which is increased by the availability of religious-based services, availability of friends and neighbors, and the ability to network with other caregivers. Additionally, adult siblings who are parenting a younger sibling who has special needs are more likely to commit to adopting that sibling. Social work practice strategies that can be used to address the service needs of adult sibling caregivers are provided.     

What determines exit from social assistance in Spain?

The aim of this article is two-fold. Firstly, we try to identify the main socioeconomic characteristics that explain the dynamics of social assistance in Spain. Secondly, we carry out a number of tests to assess to what extent individual characteristics accounting for duration differ in the different types of exit from social assistance. Analysis of periods on social assistance shows that belonging to an ethnic minority and employability are the two main determining factors leading to prolonged spells of social assistance. The results also show a striking similarity between the profiles of exits from the programmes due to 'successful reasons' and due to fraud. Exits from the programmes for other reasons occur in a clearly different way.     

A Symbolic Interactionist User's Guide to the Answering Machine: 22 Reflections on Vocal Encounters in an Emerging Social World

This article offers a sociological analysis of a new communication technology—the answering machine. A general semiotic model of “machine talk” is suggested and connected, through the social world perspective, to forms of sociability that involve the fragmentation of time and space. The symbolic meaning given to the answering machine in literature, television, the cinema, and everyday language, as well as its use at home, are examined. Drawing on such disembodied discursive practices as speciality and simulacra, the conclusion provides a Baudrillardian look at “machine talk” as reflecting the postmodern shift from face-to-face interactions to telecommunications.     

Sexual Orientation and Sexual Behavior among Latino and Asian Americans: Implications for Unfair Treatment and Psychological Distress

Research on the sexuality of Asians and Latinos in the United States has been sparse, and the studies that have been done suffer from a number of limitations. Using data from the National Latino and Asian American Study (2002–2003), this study examined self-identified sexual orientation and self-reported sexual behavior among Latinos (n = 2,554; age: M = 38.1, SE = 0.5) and Asians (n = 2,095; age: M = 41.5, SE = 0.8). This study also investigated implications for unfair treatment and psychological distress among sexual minorities identified in the sample. Results indicated heterogeneity in responses to items assessing sexual orientation and sexual behavior including differences in the adoption of lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) identity by gender, ethnicity, nativity, and socioeconomic status. LGB sexual minorities reported higher levels of unfair treatment and psychological distress compared to their non-LGB-identified sexual minority counterparts, and unfair treatment was positively associated with psychological distress. Results highlight the need to consider multiple demographic factors in assessing sexuality, and also suggest that measures of both self-identified sexual orientation and sexual behavior should be collected. In addition, findings provide support for the deleterious influence of unfair treatment among Asians and Latinos in the United States.     

Professional Commitment in Novice Social Work Students: Socio-Demographic Characteristics,Motives and Perceptions of the Profession

The article attempts to define the characteristics of students at the beginning of their social work studies in institutes of higher education in Israel, including demographic characteristics, motives for choosing the profession, perceptions about the profession, and commitment to the profession. The study was conducted among a sample of 450 students, all beginning their first academic year, at four social work schools in Israel. Study findings show a demographic range, such as: nationality, level of religiosity, and political attitudes. Findings indicate that three of these socio-demographic variables predict commitment to the profession at the onset of academic studies: psychometric score, level of religiosity, and previous academic learning experience.

Findings indicate two profiles of novice students: students who choose to study social work out of a desire to bring about social change; and students who choose to engage only in clinical social work. The latter are not committed to the profession in its essence, but rather recognize the importance of its professional individual activities only. The article discusses these findings and implications with regard to both the social work profession and social work training.     

Polyfidelity

Kerista Village is an equalitarian, nonmonogamous, utopian community in San Francisco whose members claim to have eliminated sexual jealousy. Responses of 15 Keristans to a specially designed “Sexual Jealousy Inventory” were compared to responses given by 87 Americans and 17 Israelis. Results indicate that Keristans indeed report significantly less sexual jealousy than the other two groups. Various interpretations of these results are offered, all within a social psychological perspective.     

Psychometric properties of an adapted version of the parental sense of competence (PSOC) scale for Portuguese at‐risk parents

Parental sense of competence is one of the central dimensions targeted on psychosocial interventions aimed at supporting at‐risk families. Researchers and practitioners need reliable instruments to assess the parental role adapted for these families. Although the parental sense of competence (PSOC) scale has been frequently used to assess this construct, there is still no adapted version for Portuguese parents. In this study, the reliability, validity and factor structure of the PSOC scale is examined with a clinical sample of 146 mothers from at‐risk families receiving psychosocial interventions for family preservation from Child Protective Services. Results show that the Portuguese version of the PSOC measures three distinct constructs with acceptable psychometric properties: efficacy, dissatisfaction and controllability. As expected, the obtained factors were significantly and positively related to parenting alliance and family cohesion, and negatively associated with parenting stress. In sum, the proposed Portuguese version shows reliability and validity evidences to measure three relevant dimensions of parental self‐evaluation, and it constitutes a cost‐ and time‐effective instrument suited for at‐risk mothers.     

Redistributed Manufacturing and the Impact of Big Data: A Consumer Goods Perspective

Abstract

Digitalization and the growth of big data promise greater customization as well as change in how manufacturing is distributed. Yet, challenges arise in applying these new approaches in consumer goods industries that often emphasize mass production and extended supply chains. We build a conceptual framework to explore whether big data combined with new manufacturing technologies can facilitate redistributed manufacturing (RDM). Through analysis of 24 consumer goods industry cases using primary and secondary data, we investigated evolving manufacturing configurations, their underlying drivers, the role of big data applications, and their impact on the redistribution of manufacturing. We find some applications of RDM concepts, although in other cases existing manufacturing configurations are leveraged for high volume consumer goods products through big data analytics and market segmentation. The analysis indicates that the framework put forward in the paper has broader value in organizing thinking about emerging interrelationships between big data and manufacturing.     

Governance in Organizations: A Cognitive Perspective

Governance in organizations according to traditionalagency theory is based on the premise that managersand employees do not have identical goals. As aconsequence, employees need to be monitored andcontrolled. If legal contracts are not sufficient forproper control, incentive contracts should be used. This paper argues that incentive contracts are notsufficient to solve governance issues in organizationsdue to problems in measurability and enforceability ofpresumed contract violations. Such problems arecomplicated by asymmetries in power, perspectives andaspirations between managers and employees. Acognitive argument is advanced suggesting that timeconstraints and bounded rationality render the idea ofmonitoring relatively ineffective. Governance ideasthat focus on communication flow and informationsharing are described. The role that other cognitiveelements such as memory play in a more comprehensiveand interdisciplinary framework for understandinggovernance relations is discussed.