Prevalence of job strain among Indian foundry shop floor workers

Global competition in manufacturing sector demand higher productivity levels. In this context, workers in this sector are set with high output targets, leading to job strain. In addition to the strain, hazardous conditions also prevail in some of the manufacturing processes like foundry activities. This paper attempts to appraise the prevalence of job strain among foundry shop floor workers in India with the help of Demands-Control model [8]. In this study, data was collected through a survey using 49-item Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) [9], a widely used and well-validated test for job strain. Then the data was subjected to statistical analysis after ascertaining the reliability. This survey has revealed that 25% of workers in foundry were experiencing high job strain. Hazardous working conditions, limited decision making authority, etc. appear to be the main contributing factors for the higher levels of strain.     

Treatment for Hoarding Behaviors: A Review of the Evidence

This article reviews the empirical literature on treating clients with hoarding behaviors, including psychosocial treatments, mainly cognitive behavioral, and pharmacotherapy. Standard treatments used for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) such as medication and/or behavior therapy have been associated with poor treatment response for those with hoarding. Recent prospective pharmacotherapy research suggests that serotonergic medication may be helpful to OCD patients with or without hoarding. A multi-component cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) designed specifically for hoarding has shown promising results especially in trials of individual therapy with periodic home visits. Social work researchers have played a prominent role in the development and testing of this CBT intervention and development of instruments to assess hoarding treatment outcomes. This CBT intervention has demonstrated modest success when delivered individually in an open trial and a waitlist-controlled trial, and in quasi-experimental studies of group treatment modalities, including in-person and web-based groups as well as bibliotherapy-based support groups. Overall, evidence supports the use of specialized CBT methods to improve hoarding symptoms. Future testing may include controlled trials with more diverse samples.     

Lead Time and Price Quotation Mode Selection: Uniform or Differentiated?

Firms in service and make‐to‐order manufacturing industries often quote lead times and prices to customers. We define uniform quotation mode (UQM) as the strategy where a firm offers a single lead time and price quotation, and differentiated quotation mode (DQM) is where a firm offers a menu of lead times and prices for customers to choose from. Both modes are followed in practice. Firms should determine which is more profitable. We classify customers into two groups: lead time sensitive (LS) and price sensitive (PS). LS customers value lead time reduction more than PS customers. We develop mathematical models of both quotation modes and analyze them to determine the most profitable mode under specified situations as well as the best lead time and price quotations within each mode. We find that DQM is dominated by UQM whenever PS customers have positive utilities from UQM or LS customers have positive utilities from DQM. Otherwise, which quotation mode is better depends on multiple factors, such as customer characteristics (including lead time reduction valuation and product valuation of a customer, and the proportion of LS customers) and production characteristics (including the desired service level and service or production cost).     

Essential emotions: The place of passion in a feminist network

Using a case study, the authors argue that emotions play a highly significant part in voluntary organizations, and that present significant part in voluntary organizations, and that present academic approaches to emotions are unhelpful, both theoretically and practically. The distinction between emotional work and emotional labor is unclear in nonprofit organizations using volunteers. More research is needed in this area.     

A comparison of model selection criteria

There has been significant new work published recently on the subject of model selection. Notably Rissanen (1986, 1987, 1988) has introduced new criteria based on the notion of stochastic complexity and Hurvich and Tsai(1989) have introduced a bias corrected version of Akaike's information criterion. In this paper, a Monte Carlo study is conducted to evaluate the relative performance of these new model selection criteria against the commonly used alternatives. In addition, we compare the performance of all the criteria in a number of situations not considered in earlier studies: robustness to distributional assumptions, collinearity among regressors, and non-stationarity in a time series. The evaluation is based on the number of times the correct model is chosen and the out of sample prediction error. The results of this study suggest that Rissanen's criteria are sensitive to the assumptions and choices that need to made in their application, and so are sometimes unreliable. While many of the criteria often perform satisfactorily, across experiments the Schwartz Bayesian Information Criterion (and the related Bayesian Estimation Criterion of Geweke-Meese) seem to consistently outperfom the other alternatives considered.     

Multiproduct cost-volume-profit model with product limits

A multiproduct cost-volume-profit model is extended to incorporate sales or product capacity limits for each product, required rate of return on sales, and the tax rate depending on profit levels as determined by the government. The model also deals with overhead costs that are traceable to a group of products but which cannot be allocated to individual products within the group to any reasonable accuracy. To solve the model, an algorithm is constructed to determine the required volume for each product that will achieve the best possible rate of return on sales revenue. Based upon the dBase Database Management System and the CVP model, a user-friendly menu-driven interactive decision support system is developed. The model algorithm and decision support system is illustrated with an example consisting of five products. Various reports generated by the interactive decision support system are also presented.     

1998 Annual Meeting Plenary Session: Assessing and Managing Risks in a Democratic Society

The theme of one of the plenary sessions held at the 1998 annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis, 'Assessing and Managing Risks in a Democratic Society,' was chosen to reflect the current debate about the best ways to integrate social, political, economic, and technical issues into fair risk management decisions. In the papers presented here, the three plenary speakers provide their perspectives on how environmental risk management decision making is—or should be—informed by democratic processes.
John D. Graham Making Sense of Risk
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Risk, Democracy, and the Environment
Jason Shogren Markets to Master Health and Environmental Risk
Audience Questions and Answers     

The Changing Influence of Societal Culture on Job Satisfaction across Europe

This paper contributes to the growing multidisciplinary body of literature on subjective well‐being by investigating the longitudinal stability and impact of societal cultural values (SCVs) – as opposed to the more common organizational values – on job satisfaction. It is assumed that SCVs evolve slowly; hence, their impact on job satisfaction is likely to remain stable over time. False adherence to this assumption could cause misalignment between organizational policies/practices and expectations formed by societal culture, decreasing job satisfaction and adversely affecting productivity, competiveness and prosperity. Four waves of the European Values Study are used to examine whether SCVs have evolved and their impacts on job satisfaction over a relatively short time: 1981–2008. SCVs are parameterized through reference to traditional vs secular‐rational, and survival vs self‐expression value continuums. Results indicate that the strength of many SCVs has declined, the impacts of traditional societal values on job satisfaction have remained fairly constant, and the impacts of survival societal values on job satisfaction have declined substantially over this sample period. These reductions in SCVs amplify the importance of accounting for such changes when designing new or adjusting existing policies/practices to enhance job satisfaction and stimulate improvements in productivity, competitiveness and prosperity.     

We didnt come here to be poor: The pre- and post-migration experiences of young immigrants

The ongoing debate about U.S. immigration policies and the often uninformed public opinion regarding immigrants and refugees underscore the need for additional research in this area. Much of the existing research and literature focuses on adult immigrants and refugees, indicating a gap regarding the pre- and post-migration experiences of immigrant and refugee children. The goal of this study is to provide insight into this issue. Qualitative evidence was culled from interviews with two teenagers from impoverished backgrounds in Laos and Honduras who immigrated to the U.S. during childhood. Six questions were addressed: 1) What prompted these individuals to immigrate to the U.S. and under what circumstances did they immigrate? 2) What were their pre-migration expectations about the U.S. ?; 3) What were their initial impressions of the U.S.?; 4) How did their socioeconomic status (SES) in their native countries differ from their SES in the U.S.?; 5) How did they adjust to the American public school system?; and 6) What are their future plans? Both teenagers had expected America to solve all of their problems, but they found that their familial conflicts and financial struggles continued after their arrival. Both found that although they no longer lived in abject poverty, their SES in America was not what they had envisioned. Moreover, each had some difficulty adjusting to American culture and the public school system. Since academic success increases the likelihood of financial independence later in life, their stories may contain preliminary insights for educators, social workers and policymakers.     

The importance of Australian national identity to a sense of belonging of Anglo-Celtic and Chinese cultural groups in regional Australia

This study explored the primacy of importance of Australian national identity as underpinning belongingness of Anglo-Celtic and Chinese cultural groups. A mixed-method approach comprised focus groups and interviews was used. Australian national identity did not hold primacy of importance to a sense of belonging in either group, however family identities were of primary importance to both, together with cultural identity of the Chinese. Anglo-Celtic's felt culturally disassociated, whereas Chinese sought majority acceptance through cultural promotion, and bicultural identification. Findings call for further research of Australian national identity of the majority and other minority cultural groups.