Job satisfaction in Cascadia: A comparison of British Columbia,Oregon, and Washington civil servants

Canada and the USA share a common cultural source in the British Empire, yet within shared democratic traditions, very different political structures, policy processes, and values have been identified. Canada is seen as having a more deferential culture more supportive of government while Americans have been argued to be more individualistic and cynical about the role of government in society. Using a political culture framework, this study examines the degree to which Canadian and U.S. civil servants perceive societal respect for their public sector jobs, and the impact of those perceptions on individual job satisfaction. It is argued that if civil servants feel more valued by society, they are more likely to have higher levels of public service motivation, which then contributes to higher levels of individual job satisfaction. This study employs surveys of Oregon, Washington and British Columbian civil servants conducted in 2011 and 2012 to investigate this relationship. Findings suggest that British Columbian civil servants feel more valued by society when compared to Oregon and Washington civil servants, and these perceptions of positive societal support are associated with higher levels of individual job satisfaction.     

Multidimensional Demand Strength of Recreational Activity Programming in Assisted Living: A Conceptual Model and Prototypical Rating Scale

ABSTRACT

This article describes a framework for measuring activity demands and the psychometric properties of a related measurement tool, the Multidimensional Activities Demand Strength for Assisted Living (MADS-AL). Nine experts—three in physical, cognitive, and social domains, respectively—rated demands of 37 common assisted-living activities. Interrater reliability and internal consistency for physical, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC)(2, 3) = .96, Cronbach's α = .97, cognitive, ICC(2, 3) = .71, α = .93, and social, ICC(2, 3) = .80, α = .86, scales give preliminary support for reliability of the MADS-AL tool. Overall, this article moves the field toward considering task demands as a relevant variable to inform future activities research and practice.     

Sex Differences and HIV Risk Behaviors: The Interaction between the Experience of Multiple Types of Abuse and Self-Restraint on HIV Risk Behaviors

Adolescents with abuse histories have been shown to be at increased risk to acquire human immunodeficiency virus and sexually transmitted infections. In addition, teens with lower levels of self-restraint or higher levels of distress, such as those with psychiatric concerns, have also demonstrated increased sexual risk behaviors. This study explored sex differences in sexual risk behaviors among a sample of adolescents in a therapeutic/alternative high school setting. Moderated regression analysis showed that a lower level of self-restraint was associated with sexual risk behaviors in boys but not in girls. Rather, the interaction of self-restraint and multiple types of abuse was associated with greater sex risk within girls in this sample. Results suggest that girls and boys with abuse histories and low levels of self-restraint may have different intervention needs related to sexual risk behaviors.     

Transmen's Health Care Experiences: Ethical Social Work Practice Beyond the Binary

Informed by institutional ethnography approaches, this study includes interviews with 3 young transmen (21–29) about their experiences regarding Canadian health care and the work they perform to access care. Semistructured interviews were used to gather data that were then analyzed to identify key aspects of participants’ experiences and perceptions. Findings describe the extra work transmen perform to compensate for a lack of provider competence in transgender health care. Influences of the dominant gender binary ideology as it shapes the health care experiences of transmen are discussed. This article calls for social workers to challenge the gender binary and use practice frameworks informed by transgender theory.     

Nonparametric bayesian inference for dichotomous response models

A Bayesian least squares approach is taken here to estimate certain parameters in generalized linear models for dichotomous response data. The method requires that only first and second moments of the probability distribution representing prior information be specified* Examples are presented to illustrate situations having direct estimates as well as those which require approximate or iterative solutions.     

Compliance and ethics programs: competitive advantage through the law

This paper aims to address whether deploying compliance and ethics programs will assist US organizations in implementing the internal mechanisms necessary to achieve a competitive advantage from the law. My focus will be on the US legal system, as the corporate compliance and ethics programs examined are based on mitigation provisions contained in the US Federal Sentencing Guidelines. In particular, I propose that organizations can attain a sustainable competitive advantage from the law by considering the following questions: Do compliance and ethics programs assist organizations in achieving a better understanding of the law? Are compliance and ethics programs a cost-effective approach for coping with an organization’s legal issues? Can compliance and ethics programs aid organizations by preventing these legal issues from occurring in the future? Will compliance and ethics programs support organizations in reframing legal issues as business opportunities?     

Properties of two tests for outliers in multivariate data

Mardia's multivariate kurtosis and the generalized distance have desirable properties as multivariate outlier tests. However, extensive critical values have not been published heretofore. A published approximation formula for critical values of the kurtosis is shown to inadequately control the type I error rate, with observed error rates often differing from their intended values by a factor of two or more. Critical values derived from simulations for both tests for up to 25 dimensions and 500 observations are presented. The power curves of both tests are discussed. The generalized distance is the more powerful test when exactly one outlier is present and the contaminant is substantially mean-shifted. However, as the number of outliers increases, the kurtosis becomes the more powerful test. The two tests are compared with respect to power and vulnerability to masking. Recommendations for the use of these tests and interpretation of results are given.