Media and agenda setting: effects on the public, interest group leaders, policy makers, and policy

Using an experimental design built around a single media event, the authors explored the impact of the media upon the general public, policy makers, interest group leaders, and public policy. The results suggested that the media influenced views about issue importance among the general public and government policy makers. The study suggests, however, that it was not this change in public opinion which led to subsequent policy changes. Instead, policy change resulted from collaboration between journalists and government staff members.     

Adding insult to injury: development and initial validation of the Partner-Directed Insults Scale

Women who are verbally abused by their intimate male partners suffer serious mental health consequences and often experience physical violence in their relationship. Despite the importance of studying verbal abuse, no previous research has investigated the specific content of the insults men use to derogate their partners. We present the development and initial validation of a new measure designed to assess the specific content of insults used by men against their intimate partners. In a preliminary study, we used feedback from battered women, along with a review of the relevant literature, to identify specific insults for inclusion in the Partner-Directed Insults Scale (PDIS). We administered the PDIS to a sample of United States participants (Study 1) and a sample of New Zealand participants (Study 2), allowing for a cross-national investigation of the specific insults that men use to derogate their partners. The results demonstrate the practical need for such a scale and provide evidence for the discriminant validity of the PDIS by documenting that men's use of insults predicts their use of controlling behaviors and physical violence.     

Barriers and Enablers to Safeguarding Children and Adults within a Disability Services Context: Insights from an Australian Delphi Study

Research conducted in the 1990s revealed the tragic irony that exposure to the disability support system, and particularly to its institutional forms, was a major risk factor related to the neglect and abuse of children and adults with a disability. Subsequently, a range of policies have been introduced to minimize risk. However, recurring events of abuse and neglect in the disability services sector in high and middle income countries demonstrate that processes geared to safeguard children and adults with a disability from abuse and neglect remain insufficient. To establish the wider fabric of organizational factors that contribute to effective safeguarding practices within the Australian disability support sector, a modified online Delphi study was conducted, capturing the views of disability services staff and managers (n = 249) regarding barriers and enablers to effective safeguarding. This study identified issues concerning organizational culture, management practice, workforce development, client capacity building and contextual factors. During Round Two of the Delphi, participants were asked to rate the categorized enabler statements according to importance on a 10‐point Likert scale, to ascertain the degree of consensus. A total of 262 of the statements were regarded as important or very important. The Delphi result highlighted the considerable gap between the wider systemic and cultural processes that, in the eyes of disability services staff and management, contribute to good safeguarding practice and the safeguarding measures currently in place. The article calls for a holistic approach to safeguarding that addresses procedural issues and to the transformation of the wider systemic and cultural fabric of an organization.     

The `Game' of Leadership: Exercise, Games, Sports, and Leadership

The relationship between leadership and sports was analyzed. Peer influence was most important, with that of teachers and parents seeming to have a second-order effect as perceived through peers. Each gender benefitted more in leadership when mentored by their own gender, especially so for women. In work settings, men reported more leadership learning and encouragement than did women. Women experienced more frustration in participating in games and sports in school, the encouragement and continued mentoring being insufficient. Harragan's 1977 thesis that the corporate world and the playing field of sports and high-level policy-making have a male schema was borne out.     

Benefits of Model-based Drug Development: A Rigorous,Planned Case Study

Model-based drug development (MBDD) is useful to make better quantitative decisions within drug development. However, rigorous evaluation of the benefits has been scarce in the literature. In this study, we take a completed development program, retrospectively repeat it in a virtual setting using MBDD methodologies, and compare it to the traditional drug development process. The conclusion is that the use of MBDD could have facilitated more efficient use of resources.     

Explaining Self‐Employment Success and Failure: Wal‐Mart Versus Starbucks,or Schumpeter Versus Putnam*

Objectives. Two powerful socioeconomic innovations are sweeping the nation, led by Wal‐Mart Stores, Inc. and Starbucks Corp. These innovations both affect and are driven by profound labor market changes, but exactly how they affect self‐employment or entrepreneurship has not been investigated. We examine the independent effects of these phenomena on the returns to self‐employment, which is itself an underresearched topic in labor economics. Methods. We apply spatial econometric analysis to data from more than 3,000 U.S. counties to analyze how big‐boxes and drinking places that facilitate social networking affect self‐employment earnings. Findings. The presence of Wal‐Mart stores is associated with higher returns to self‐employment, whereas the results for coffee shops and drinking places are mixed. A negative interaction effect on earnings emerges when Wal‐Mart stores and drinking places exist in the same county. Conclusions. We confirm both Schumpeter's and Putnam's assertions about the importance of creative destruction and social networking in raising the productivity of entrepreneurs, although the latter effect is not as clear‐cut as the former.     

Managing organisational change: the "gendered" organisation of space and time

Although the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) maintains a strong commitment to gender equity in its anti-poverty programs, a conservative external environment often impedes efforts to make its organizational structure consistent with this commitment. For example, BRAC's approach to organizing its field operations has been to abolish the distinction between home and office. BRAC's female employees live with male colleagues in their rural offices, travel long distances on bicycles and motorcycles, and reject the sari--practices that are antithetical to the prevailing culture and place tremendous pressure on these field workers. The high work intensity, need to work beyond normal business hours, and lack of on-site child care subjects married female employees to hostility from their husbands and relatives. Single female employees are often regarded as unmarriagable because of their divergent life-styles. Although BRAC makes provisions for employees to take leave for family responsibilities, staff who access this benefit are viewed as more committed to family than their work. The sexual activities of female--but not male--employees are scrutinized. Despite these contradictions, BRAC's innovative arrangements model a new form of gender relations in rural areas. BRAC is enabling its young women employees to postpone marriage and demonstrate a nontraditional role. The extent to which BRAC should take responsibility for compensating for the constraints imposed on women by patriarchy remains problematic. Working conditions could be improved, however, by allowing women to be near their families, domesticating the work environment, and respecting women's personal lives.     

Development of Mathematics Interest in Adolescence: Influences of Gender,Family, and School Context

This study investigated adolescents' developmental trajectories of mathematics interest and explored related effects of gender, family, and school context. Latent growth curve modeling was used to analyze longitudinal data of N=3,193 students (51% female) from grades 5 to 9 from all 3 ability tracks of the German state school system. Annual assessments involved student questionnaires on interest in mathematics, perceptions of classroom characteristics (classroom values for mathematics, mathematics teacher enthusiasm), as well as parent questionnaires regarding family values for mathematics. Results indicated a downward trend of students' mathematics interest that plateaued in later years, with high variability in mean levels, but little variability in the shape of the growth trajectories. Boys reported higher mathematics interest than girls, but similar downward growth trajectories. Students from the lowest ability track showed more favorable interest trajectories than students from the middle and highest tracks. Family values and classroom characteristics were positively related to within‐person levels of interest over time and to average individual levels of interest, but not to growth parameters. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.