The political dimension of effective nonprofit executive leadership

Recent research by the authors adds to their evolving model of the leadership provided by effective chief executive officers of nonprofit organizations. Effective chief executives understand the centrality of their leadership role and accept responsibility as initiators of action—with their boards—to find resources and revitalize the missions of their organizations. These actions are carried out as part of the political dimension of effective executives. The importance of this criterion of leadership practice is examined in light of the hesitance of chief executives to espouse or advocate political action. Implications for chief executive training and development are discussed.     

A Bayesian approach to Markov modelling in cost-effectiveness analyses: application to taxane use in advanced breast cancer

Summary. The paper demonstrates how cost-effectiveness decision analysis may be implemented from a Bayesian perspective, using Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation methods for both the synthesis of relevant evidence input into the model and the evaluation of the model itself. The desirable aspects of a Bayesian approach for this type of analysis include the incorporation of full parameter uncertainty, the ability to perform all the analysis, including each meta-analysis, in a single coherent model and the incorporation of expert opinion either directly or regarding the relative credibility of different data sources. The method is described, and its ease of implementation demonstrated, through a practical example to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of using taxanes for the second-line treatment of advanced breast cancer compared with conventional treatment. For completeness, the results from the Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation model are compared and contrasted with those from a classical Monte Carlo simulation model.     

The relationship between newcomer expectations of job stressors and adjustment to the new job

This study examined the relationship between unrealistic expectations of organizational newcomers regarding job stressors and subsequent adjustment to the new job. Using a sample of 91 new employees, measures of expected stressors (gathered prior to the first day of work) were compared with stressors reported after six months on the job. The study examined the relationship between the accuracy of expected stressors (demands) and three indicators of job adjustment: job satisfaction; job involvement; and distress symptoms. The results provided partial support for the hypothesis that newcomers who underestimate job stressors have more difficulty adjusting on the new job than do newcomers who overestimate job stressors.     

Estimating marital fertility rates by educational attainment using a survey of new mothers

Marital fertility rates by educational attainment of mother are estimated for the United States for 1963. These calculations are based upon information collected in a probability sample survey of women having births in 1963 and are prepared by relating birth estimates for educational attainment groups to estimates of married women in corresponding groups.The rates do not display a negative association between educational attainment and the annual level of fertility, thus differing from the pattern observed in other measures of period fertility. Women who completed some high school but did not graduate and women with one or more years of college had higher annual fertility rates than women in other attainment classes.Alternative estimation procedures are discussed which illustrate difficulties in obtaining satisfactory correspondence between two independent surveys which are used to obtain the rate calculation components.     

Face-to-Face Contact Post Adoption: Views from the Triangles

The importance of ongoing contact for children with membersof their birth families is currently a matter of great concernto both practitioners and academics and there is ongoing debateabout the merits or otherwise of the different forms of postadoption contact. Research evidence remains largely inconclusiveand the Prime Minister in his review of adoption highlightedthe urgent need for more research evidence to assist professionalsin making decisions about adoption and contact. To date, muchof the research does not adequately differentiate between typesand frequency of contact, the conditions under which contactis arranged and members of birth families who are involved.Whilst the needs of the child should be at the forefront ofany decision about contact, it is also important to considerthe repercussions for others involved in contact arrangements.This paper reports the findings from a sample of eleven adoptivekinship networks. Adoptive parents, children and birth relativesfrom the same kinship networks who were sharing direct, face-to-facecontact were interviewed. We were able to explore the developmentof relationships between adults and the ways in which theirinteraction affected the experience of contact as reported tous by the children. By focusing on issues associated with theconvergence or divergence of attitudes, feelings and perceptionswe identify factors that facilitate or impede beneficial contactand contribute to its maintenance. Understanding similaritiesand differences between participants in the adoption triangleprovides important information for adults and children involvedin face-to-face contact and for those professionals attemptingto facilitate the openness process.     

Returning to Normality: Substance Users' Work Histories and Perceptions of Work During and After Recovery

Correspondence to Andreas Cebulla, National Centre for Social Research, 35 Northampton Square, London EC1V 0AX, UK. E-mail: a.cebulla{at}natcen.ac.uk Summary New service provisions designed to improve the employment prospectsof former substance users will enhance the roles and responsibilitiesof Drug Action Teams (DATs), Jobcentre Plus offices and otherproviders and co-ordinators of support services for substanceusers. This paper discusses the findings of a study of 30 currentand former drug and alcohol users, exploring past substanceuse histories and current employment aspirations. The researchinforms new policy initiatives designed to assist substanceusers’ entry or return to work. Differences in presentperceptions of work-readiness were observed, which reflectedusers’ perceptions of the nature of their addiction. Theattribution of blame for the substance dependency to either‘the drug’ or the individual’s psychologywas a critical influence on users’ work-readiness assessments.Work was perceived to benefit recovery from substance dependency.The evidence suggests that substance users’ return towork might be helped by their staged (re-) introduction to thelabour market as well as encouraging the primary labour marketto employ (more) recovering substance users. The research highlightedthe need for joint working between employment services and DATsto help substance users into work and to support their recovery.It also highlighted the need for mutual understanding and recognitionof each collaborator’s expertise.     

What is child protection? Historical and methodological issues in comparative research on lastensuojelu/child protection

This article addresses comparative research on what has come to be called, in (British) English, 'child protection' or, rather differently, in Finnish ' lastensuojelu '. In developing a cross-national research project on lastensuojelu /child protection practices in England and Finland, we found it necessary to go back a few steps, to address what might usually be considered as 'background issues'. This article discusses the welfare state traditions in both countries, especially with respect to families and children, in order to contextualise the focus of ongoing qualitative research on micro comparisons. When comparing the mundane practices of child protection and the ways problems and clienthoods are constructed, as in this study, historical, social, cultural and linguistic issues matter. Indeed, very basic concepts such as 'child protection' and 'child protection case' become problematic in the comparison.     

Changes and Continuities in the Use of Diagrams <Emphasis Type="Italic">Tu</Emphasis> in Chinese Mathematical Writings (Third Century to Fourteenth Century) [I]

This article aims at highlighting a radical change in the materiality of tu 圖 between the time when they were first mentioned in Chinese mathematical texts in the third century commentaries on Canons and the thirteenth century, from which there are abundant illustrations in treatises. Moreover, it intends to highlight that the meaning of the word tu 圖, as used in mathematical writings, greatly changed over the same time span. It argues that third century tu 圖 were material objects, cut in paper with squared-grid, and worked out in specific ways. They probably always displayed particular dimensions and only represented objects for plane geometry. Their areas, and not their points, were marked, and they were marked by characters or colors. Areas were cut into pieces and rearranged. Such is the contribution mathematical texts can offer for capturing the nature of tu for these early periods. In contrast to this, thirteenth century tu 圖 to which mathematical texts refer were included in the texts themselves and hence articulated with the discourse on the surface of the page. Moreover, the extension of what could be represented in a tu 圖 increased tremendously. However, as I show in part II of this paper, in the thirteenth century, several traditions must be distinguished, regarding the nature of tu 圖 and the way in which they were integrated into the text. Moreover, part II shows that despite this break in the nature of tu 圖, some thirteenth century mathematicians inherited ways of working with tu 圖 from earlier times. I argue that this occurred within the framework of a specific mathematical domain, that is, a given subtradition. The mathematicians operating within this framework brought into play the same markers (colors, characters) for areas and adapted the operations onto paper. However, what is most interesting is that they made use of these traditional ways of working with figures while bestowing new mathematical meanings upon them. This thus presents an interesting case of continuity and rupture within a given tradition. All these uses of figures, in their variety, are specific to China and differ from the way in which other traditions used figures in mathematics.     

Fire-fighters' perspectives of the accuracy of the Physical Aptitude Test (P.A.T) as a pre-employment assessment

Pre-employment assessments must accurately simulate job tasks and demands and select appropriate personnel to be considered effective. This study focussed on the perception of NSW fire-fighters in relation to the validity of the NSW Fire Brigade's pre-employment assessment, the Physical Aptitude Test. A qualitative method was used to gain a precise understanding of fire fighters' opinions of the accuracy of the Physical Aptitude Test. Information letters and consent forms were sent to an urban fire station with interested participants replying via the university. Six participants, who met the inclusion criteria were randomly selected for the study and in-depth, ethnographic, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The fire fighters believed in order for the Physical Aptitude Test to accurately simulate job demands and select the most capable fire fighters', it needed to be more physically demanding. However, participants believed that the "work-simulating" nature of the Physical Aptitude Test provided an accurate indication of the job tasks.