Bank Loan Officers' Perceptions of Business Owners: The Role of Gender

There is a widely held belief that banks may be discriminating against female business owners. This study was designed to explore the perceptions held by bank loan officers of male and female business owners, using Bourdieu's theory of practice and Kelly's personal construct methodology. The research literature might lead to an expectation that the characteristics of the business owners would be relatively homogenous but that men and women business owners would be construed differently (for example women might be seen to lack drive). However, the results demonstrate heterogeneity in the constructs held by bank loan officers, and a particular concern with the character of the business owner. Significant gender differences were observed in only 20 of the 325 constructs elicited from 35 bank loan officers. Female bank loan officers were as likely as male bank loan officers to draw gender distinctions between business owners. Detailed multivariate analyses confirmed no evidence of systematic gender differences in the constructs held by bank loan officers of business owners.     

Exploring internalized ableism using critical race theory

This paper is an attempt to theorize about the way disabled people live with ableism, in particular internalized ableism. Typically literature within disability studies has concentrated on the practices and production of disablism, examining attitudes and barriers that contribute to the subordination of people with disabilities in society. My exploration occurs through examining the insights of critical race theory (CRT) and the contribution that CRT can further make to thinking through the processes, formation and consequences of ableism. A focal concern is the possible ways that the concept of internalized racism, its deployment in CRT and application to critical disability studies. The paper is interested in working through points of difference between the way internalized racism/ableism are mediated in the processes of subjectification and identifying points of convergence that can benefit dialogue across varied sites of scholarship. The author concludes that the study of ableism instead of disability/disablement may produce different research questions and sites of study.     

RESPONSES TO DEATH IN COMPLEX INDUSTRIAL WORK SITES: THE NEXUS BETWEEN WORKPLACE SAFETY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

This article is concerned with the effect of the current economic, political and regulatory climate on the future of health and safety at work. This climate includes a push for increased efficiency and flexibility through industrial restructuring leading to the growth of the secondary labour market of subcontractors, casual labour in increased self employment. Measured against this is the increased regulatory expectations in the area of health and safety including legislation which places major contractors as primarily responsible for all employees on site, whether their own or not. The sets up a potential conflict between the economic and regulatory imperatives. It is this potential conflict which is the focus of concern. The data used to explore the issue are the responses organisations made to a fatality they experienced on a complex industrial worksite. The nature of their response was related to their ideology concerning business success, which was in turn related to the influence they held at the worksite. While these findings tentatively support legislation to increase the responsibility of major contractors, this should not be seen as a panacea. The growth of the secondary labour market as well as the culture of success which motivates large contractors to comply with such legislation is dependent upon the broader economic climate making the a viable success strategy.     

Moving Beyond Statistical Validity in Economics

Social Indicators Research -     

Multilevel modelling of refusal and non-contact in household surveys: evidence from six UK Government surveys

Summary.  We analyse household unit non-response in six major UK Government surveys by using a multilevel multinomial modelling approach. The models are guided by current conceptual frameworks and theories of survey participation. One key feature of the analysis is the investigation of the extent to which effects of household characteristics are survey specific. The analysis is based on the 2001 UK Census Link Study, which is a unique source of data containing an unusually rich set of auxiliary variables. The study contains the response outcome of six surveys, linked to census data and interviewer observations for both respondents and non-respondents.     

Multilevel models for longitudinal data

Summary.  Repeated measures and repeated events data have a hierarchical structure which can be analysed by using multilevel models. A growth curve model is an example of a multilevel random-coefficients model, whereas a discrete time event history model for recurrent events can be fitted as a multilevel logistic regression model. The paper describes extensions to the basic growth curve model to handle auto-correlated residuals, multiple-indicator latent variables and correlated growth processes, and event history models for correlated event processes. The multilevel approach to the analysis of repeated measures data is contrasted with structural equation modelling. The methods are illustrated in analyses of children's growth, changes in social and political attitudes, and the interrelationship between partnership transitions and childbearing.     

Evaluating the Quality of Social Work Supervision in UK Children’s Services: Comparing Self-Report and Independent Observations

Understanding how different forms of supervision support good social work practice and improve outcomes for people who use services is nearly impossible without reliable and valid evaluative measures. Yet the question of how best to evaluate the quality of supervision in different contexts is a complicated and as-yet-unsolved challenge. In this study, we observed 12 social work supervisors in a simulated supervision session offering support and guidance to an actor playing the part of an inexperienced social worker facing a casework-related crisis. A team of researchers analyzed these sessions using a customized skills-based coding framework. In addition, 19 social workers completed a questionnaire about their supervision experiences as provided by the same 12 supervisors. According to the coding framework, the supervisors demonstrated relatively modest skill levels, and we found low correlations among different skills. In contrast, according to the questionnaire data, supervisors had relatively high skill levels, and we found high correlations among different skills. The findings imply that although self-report remains the simplest way to evaluate supervision quality, other approaches are possible and may provide a different perspective. However, developing a reliable independent measure of supervision quality remains a noteworthy challenge.