The power of the family: kinship and intra-household decision making in rural Burundi

In this paper we show that in rural Burundi the characteristics of the female’s kinship are highly correlated with her decision-making power. First, a female whose own immediate family is at least as rich as her husband’s counterpart enjoys a greater say over children- and asset-related decision-making. Second, the size, relative wealth and proximity of the extended family also matter. Third, kinship characteristics prove to be more important than (standard) individual and household characteristics. Finally, we also show that the female’s say over asset-related decision-making is positively associated with males’ education, more than with female’s education per se. All these correlation patterns can inform policies aiming at empowering women or targeting children through women’s empowerment.     

Dimensions of work–home culture and their relations with the use of work–home arrangements and work–home interaction

Abstract

This study examined the associations of work–home culture with (a) demographic and organizational characteristics, (b) the use of work–home arrangements, and (c) negative and positive work–home interaction, among 1,179 employees from one public and two private organizations. Substantial support was found for a 2-factor structure of a work–home culture measure differentiating between “support” (employees’ perceptions of organization's, supervisors’, and colleagues’ responsiveness to work–family issues and to the use of work–home arrangements) and “hindrance” (employees’ perceptions of career consequences and time demands that may prevent them from using work–home arrangements). This 2-factor structure appeared to be invariant across organizations, gender, and parental status. Significant relationships with organizational characteristics, the use of work–home arrangements, and work–home interaction supported the validity of these two cultural dimensions. It is concluded that if employers want to minimize work–home interference, to optimize positive work–home interaction, and to boost the use of work–home arrangements, they should create a work–home culture that is characterized by high support and low hindrance.     

Determinants and Consequences of Perceived Complexity in Human-Computer Interaction*

A number of recently published studies on human-computer interface variables report contradictory results. A lack of underlying theory may be the cause. This study investigates the usefulness of employing an intermediate variable–perceived complexity–in examining the impact of two information system (IS) variables on performance: the mode of presentation, which has been extensively studied; and the number of windows, which has scarcely been studied. The study demonstrates the usefulness of understanding the role of perceived complexity in human-computer interaction. The specific results support past findings with regard to graphs vs. tables and reveal new findings on the role of windows. Most interesting is the interaction between the two IS variables. The use of more windows is significantly more beneficial for tabular, rather than graphical, presentation. The realization that perceived complexity is affected by task complexity and by IS variables has important implications for the design of flexible information systems. These implications are discussed.     

Violence,fear of crime,and Islam scepticism

Many authors have raised the question whether Islam scepticism is different from more general expressions of xenophobia. This paper argues that in order to give the thesis of a differentiation between these attitudes a fair chance (1) it should be tested among the more highly educated part of the population, and (2) the analysis should include controls for determinants that might be specific to Islam scepticism. Therefore this contribution researches the specificity of Islam scepticism among first-year university students. Five forms of prejudice are distinguished, alongside Islam scepticism. It is observed: (1) that Islam scepticism is empirically distinct from those forms of prejudice; (2) that there are nonetheless very strong relationships between the different forms of prejudice and Islam scepticism, and the latter is to a large extent determined by more general forms of prejudice; (3) yet, even when such influences are taken into account, the latter attitude is still additionally influenced by feelings of insecurity.     

Co-production: The State of the Art in Research and the Future Agenda

In this introductory article to the thematic issue, our aim is to discuss the state of the art in research on co-production of public services. We define co-production, for the purpose of this article rather narrowly, as the involvement of individual citizens and groups in public service delivery. We discuss the concept along three main research lines that emerge from the literature: what are the motives for co-production? How can co-production be organized effectively? What are the effects of co-production? Secondly, we also critically assess the state of the art and discuss some conceptual and methodological issues that are still open to debate. Thirdly, we propose some directions for future research: greater methodological diversity and the need for empirical and comparative research with a specific attention for theoretical advancement in co-production research.     

The trickle‐down effect of ethical leadership in nonprofit soccer clubs

Nonprofit soccer clubs are currently facing many ethical challenges, such as abuse, doping and match fixing. While research suggests that organizational (board) ethical leadership may be effective to tackle these ethical issues, empirical support in the context of sport remains limited. Drawing on the perceptions of a sample of nonprofit soccer players (n = 438) and coaches (n = 106), we indicate that the coaches play an important mediating role regarding the associations between board ethical leadership and ethical climate. The theoretical underpinnings of ethical leadership—formed by social learning theory and social exchange theory—and the social distance between the board and the players in nonprofit soccer clubs provide support in this regard. In sum, our results demonstrate that the influence of board ethical leadership in nonprofit soccer clubs partly trickles down to the players via coach ethical leadership. Finally, practical implications for nonprofit soccer club management are discussed.     

Examining the influence of organizational characteristics on nonprofit commercialization

A growing body of literature discusses the (dis)advantages of nonprofit organizations becoming commercial by engaging in the sale of organizational services and products. However, when explaining this phenomenon, scholars tend to focus on resource uncertainty, thereby disregarding the organizational ability to commercialize. Complementing resource dependency theory with insights from contingency theory, this study presents arguments drawn from a comparative case study of six sociocultural nonprofits in Belgium. We find that, when resource uncertainty is similar, organizational differences in terms of commercial income can be explained by differences in (a) organizational origins, (b) professional capacity, and (c) types of tasks. We conclude that organizational characteristics can either enable or disable the ability of nonprofits to commercialize and consequently their ability to self‐sustain in an increasing challenging resource environment.     

The Presence of Others and Overreporting of Voting in American National Elections

This study uses the 1978 and 1980 vote validation studies conductedby the University of Michigan Survey Research Center to testthe extent to which false claims about voting are affected bythe presence of third parties during the interview. The presenceof third parties during interviews is far more frequent thanis commonly assumed. But the tendency of respondents to givesocially approved answers is not affected by the presence ofothers during the interview. Thus, additional efforts to avoidcontamination of interviews by eliminating third parties arenot likely to reduce the exaggeration of self-reported vote.The analysis suggests that the declared intention to vote isa far more important factor in whether people falsely reportvoting than is the presence of others. Additional effort tounderstand the motivational basis of voting and nonvoting couldhelp to account for variation in voting overreports.