Standardisation—the end of professional discretion?†

This article analyses and discusses standardisation in human service organisations and its implications for professionals and for professionalism in social work. The theoretical framework derives from neo-institutional theory and theories regarding professionalism. By highlighting the role of professionals within a field influenced by organisational demands and market endeavour, this article contributes to the understanding of increased standardisation as a way to reduce uncertainty and enhance legitimacy for human service organisations, but at the expense of traditional professional discretion. This development has been interpreted as de-professionalisation and as an adjustment to organisational demands. It could also be seen as a professional strategy to strengthen professional trust and provide a sense of certainty for professionals. It can also lead to professional uncertainty about how to handle the discretion in the light of standardised tools. This development might, depending on the organisational context and the individual professional's choices, result in a manual-mental specialised professionalism as well as a strictly mechanical form of work. Standardisation thus puts high demands on professionals and how they use the professional discretion, since professionalism requires professionals capable of handling a mix of logics without totally yielding discretionary power and making professional judgement.     

Asymptotic properties of a stochastic EM algorithm for mixtures with censored data

Weak consistency and asymptotic normality is shown for a stochastic EM algorithm for censored data from a mixture of distributions under lognormal assumptions. The asymptotic properties hold for all parameters of the distributions, including the mixing parameter. In order to make parameter estimation meaningful it is necessary to know that the censored mixture distribution is identifiable. General conditions under which this is the case are given. The stochastic EM algorithm addressed in this paper is used for estimation of wood fibre length distributions based on optically measured data from cylindric wood samples (increment cores).     

Time Consistency of Fiscal and Monetary Policy: A Solution

This paper demonstrates how time consistency of the Ramsey policy—the optimal fiscal and monetary policy under commitment—can be achieved. Each government should leave its successor with a unique maturity structure for nominal and indexed debt, such that the marginal benefit of a surprise inflation exactly balances the marginal cost. Unlike in earlier papers on the topic, the result holds for quite general Ramsey policies, including time‐varying polices with positive inflation and positive nominal interest rates. We compare our results with those in Persson, Persson, and Svensson (1987), Calvo and Obstfeld (1990), and Alvarez, Kehoe, and Neumeyer (2004).     

Towards an actor-oriented approach to social exclusion: a critical review of contemporary exclusion research in a Swedish social work context

Social exclusion has emerged as a key concept within Swedish social work research during the last decade. Yet, despite the plethora of conceptualisations put forward there is a dearth of critical discussion on potential pitfalls and limitations following this fragmentation. This article investigates the deployment of social exclusion in national social work research during the period 1999–2016. Three separate but linked research strands are identified: (1) a policy-absorbed approach, characterised by conceptual and analytical closeness to the Swedish policy discourse on exclusion, (2) a diluted approach, characterised by conceptual confusion and conflation and (3) an autonomous approach, distinguished by its conceptual and analytical distance from the official policy discourse on exclusion. Based on presented findings, we argue that there is need for an actor-oriented approach to social exclusion within social work research. We conclude with proposing a multi-level analytical framework that involves studying the sequence of events leading up to people being denied access to social, economic, material, cultural and/or political resources.     

Organizational capacity and entrepreneurial behavior

In this research note, we examine the relationship between organizational capacity and entrepreneurial behavior in a global sample of 165 nonprofit organizations operating in a single, rapidly growing field of nonprofit activity. Our findings show a strong relationship between organizations' entrepreneurial behavior and levels of organizational capacity. We discuss our results relative to the importance of both organizational capacity and entrepreneurial behavior in a rapidly growing nonprofit subsector. The results contribute to the continued development and refinement of theoretical and empirical work on the causal links between organizational capacity and entrepreneurial behavior more generally.     

Is Pathological Gambling Moderated by Age?

The age of a patient is a strong moderator of both the course and the evolution of disorders/diseases. However, the effects of current age in pathological gambling (PG) have rarely been examined. The aim of this study is to explore the moderating effects of the patients’ current age in relation to personality traits and clinical outcomes of PG. A total sample of 2,309 treatment-seeking patients for PG, diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria, participated in this study and were assessed with the Diagnostic Questionnaire for Pathological Gambling according to DSM-IV criteria, the South Oaks Gambling Screen, the Symptom Checklist, the Temperament and Character Inventory-R, and other clinical and psychopathological measures. Orthogonal polynomial contrasts showed linear trends in the relationship between age and PG: the older the patient, the more comorbid health problems were visible. The presence of additional quadratic trends also suggests that age plays a significant role in moderating the possibility of existing PG problems and general psychopathology. No interaction term was found between age and sex, but it was present for age and some personality traits: self-transcendence and reward dependence (these two traits were only relevant to the level of impairment due to PG at specific ages). This study suggests that the patients’ age influences psychopathological and clinical aspects associated to PG. Intervention in the earliest manifestations of this complex problem is essential in order to better address the need of successful treatment planning.     

Sleep patterns and sleepiness of working college students

The double journey (work and study) may result or aggravate health problems, including sleep disturbances, as observed in previous studies with high school students. The aim of this study is to analyze the sleep-wake cycle and perceived sleepiness of working college students during weekdays. Twenty-three healthy college male students, 21-24 years old, working during the day and attending classes in the evening, participated in this study. During five consecutive days, the students filled out daily activities logs and wore actigraphs. Mean sleeping time was lower than 6 hours per night. No significant differences were observed in the sleep-wake cycle during the weekdays. The observed lack of changes in the sleepwake cycle of these college students might occur as participants were not on a free schedule, but exposed to social constraints, as was the regular attendance to evening college and day work activities. Sleepiness worsened over the evening school hours. Those results show the burden carried by College students who perform double activities - work and study.     

Quality of diet of working college students

Considering the scarcity of studies with young workers and the role of diet in the prevention of chronic diseases, the objective of the study was to assess the quality of diet of working college students. The present study investigated 43 university students, aged between 18 and 25 years old who had systematically being involved in a working activity in the past 6 months, paid or unpaid, at least 6 hours daily, five days a week. Dietary intake measured by seven dietary records covering every day of the week was used to calculate the Brazilian Healthy Eating Index Revised (B-HEIR). It was observed a low B-HEIR score (53.43,±7.81) indicating a risk of a poor quality of diet, with high intake of sodium and sugar and low consumption of fruits and whole grains. This poor quality of diet can result in an inadequate nutritional status that may increase the risk of obesity and chronic diseases.