Manager Characteristics and Employee Job Insecurity around a Merger Announcement: The Role of Status and Crossover

Most existing research theorizes individual factors as predictors of perceived job insecurity. Incorporating contextual and organizational factors at an information technology organization where a merger was announced during data collection, we draw on status expectations and crossover theories to investigate whether managers' characteristics and insecurity shape their employees' job insecurity. We find having an Asian as opposed to a White manager is associated with lower job insecurity, whereas managers' own insecurity positively predicts employees' insecurity. Also contingent on the organizational climate, managers' own tenure buffers, and managers' perceived job insecurity magnifies insecurity of employees interviewed after a merger announcement, further specifying status expectations theory by considering context.     

The Development of the Law of Matrimonial Property—A Historical Perspective

This article outlines briefly the development of matrimonial property law from earliest times to the present day. The issue of central concern throughout is the changing status of women and the bearing that this has had on development of the law. A historical, social and economic perspective is adopted in an effort to explain why particular developments occurred when they did. Finally, attention is drawn to the inadequacies of legal solutions to what is perceived as basically an economic issue.     

缺乏机械化的现代性：鸦片战争前夕小说形态的改变

在19世纪晚期技术革命发生前,中国出版业的类型出现了重大变化,时间上主要是乾隆晚期、嘉庆和道光年间(1796-1850),即19世纪上半叶。在19世纪晚期"古腾堡式的机械印刷"传入上海时,机械化出现了,而在此之前正发生四种变化,它们导向的正是所谓文学现代性的后期标志。这四种变化包括小说的产量、发行方式、小说中表现的国际意识以及小说预期的读者构成。这些趋势的出现早于 19世纪晚期印刷技术革命,也早于 20世纪初期教育和文学生活中的变化。这表明在试图定义文学现代性时,必须既关注突然的外部影响或内部革命造成的因果变化的力量,也要关注连续性。     

Videotaped Life Review: Its Personal and Intergenerational Impact

While the literature reports therapeutic benefits of life review in the elderly, systematic involvement of family members and extensive use of video recording are uncommon. Outcomes of videotaped life reviews with 30 individuals in the general population, conducted in collaboration with family members, are described. Mutually enhanced sense of self and self-esteem were observed. Interviewees felt less fearful of traumatic events after reviewing them in the context of their entire lives. For family members afraid to ask their parents directly about painful events, the camera created safe transitional space and opportunity for more genuine connection. Using examples from popular media and the author’s videotaped work, this paper will define life review, describe the heightened need for life review in the latter stage of life, the value of systematically involving family members, and implications for including life review methods in psychotherapy.     

Involvement of Ministries of Health in Health Service Coverage Decisions: Is England an Aberrant Case?

This article examines the involvement of ministries of health in making health service coverage decisions in Denmark, England, France and Germany. The study aims to inform debate in England about the feasibility of reducing perceived ministerial and bureaucratic ‘interference’ in decisions affecting the National Health Service, based on interviews with senior government officials and other health system stakeholders. Ministries of health differ in their involvement in health system governance and coverage decisions (‘the benefits package’), reflecting differences in institutional arrangements. In all four countries, organizations at arm's length or independent from government are either involved in providing technical advice to the ministry of health or have been mandated to take these decisions themselves. However, ministries of health occasionally intervene in the decision‐making process or ignore the advice of these organizations. The Department of Health in England is not an aberrant case, at least in relation to coverage decisions. Indeed, ministries of health in Denmark and France play a larger role in making these decisions. Public pressure, often amplified by the media, is a shared reason for ministerial and ministry involvement in all four countries. This dynamic may thus limit the feasibility of attempts to further separate the NHS from both the Department of Health and wider political pressures.     

Leader political support: Reconsidering leader political behavior

Historically, organizational politics and political leader behavior have been framed and characterized negatively, as self-serving and counter-productive. However, scholars have noted that political acts can achieve positive ends, and have called for further discussions of positive forms of political leadership. Continuing in this recent stream of research on positive perspectives on organizational politics, a framework of leader political support is proposed, suggesting that the positive features of leader political behavior, and testable propositions are developed. The leader political support construct is defined and its antecedents are explicated utilizing a social capital perspective. Additionally, social exchange theory is used to explain the consequences of leader political support. Contributions to both leadership and organizational politics literatures and directions for future research are discussed.     

Bridging the work-family policy and productivity gap: A literature review

This paper uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the relationship between work-family conflict and six work outcomes: performance, turnover, absenteeism, organizational commitment, job involvement, and burnout. Also reviewed are studies on the effects of employer (work-family) policies aimed at reducing such conflict. Policies to aid employees in managing work and family roles can be expensive, and studies show that they are often marginally effective. The review shows that relationships between work-family policies and organizational effectiveness is mixed and their connection to work-family conflict often under-examined. Work-family conflict is a critical link that may shed light on policy impacts. Suggestions on how future studies can build bridges between practitioners and academics and more clearly examine organizational effectiveness links are provided.