Leading beyond the bottom line: organizational assets for the new economy. 2

Organizations are created to aggregate resources to accomplish some purpose, be it to provide health care, raise a family, or build cars. These resources are assets. A manager has a fiduciary responsibility, by practice, and, in many cases, by law, to make the best use of those assets. Traditionally, we've evaluated the use of assets through financial statements. The troublesome aspect of these financial statements is that they were designed to measure only those things that can be counted simply--financial and physical assets. But our world has moved from an industrial, manufacturing age to an information, service economy and we are learning that intangible assets are as powerful--potentially more powerful--in creating value as are tangible assets. Recognizing the intangible asset value of employees, customers, and the community is the challenge in this new service economy. Effective health care leaders need to leverage and manage all of an organization's assets.     

TOWARD A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING PROGRESS TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY

Through the past half-century, much effort in a variety of disciplines, has been put to developing an approach to assessing change that pushes beyond an emphasis on economic signals to include a more complete treatment of human and ecosystem wellbeing. This challenge lies at the very heart of reporting on progress toward sustainability. Key to addressing this challenge is developing an effective conceptualization of the human-ecosystem relationship. The results of a review of 29 conceptual models that address the human-ecosystem relationship are presented. These results are used to develop a conceptual approach to assessing progress toward sustainability that: (1) builds on a number of common features drawn from these models; (2) is founded on a value set that insists on parallel care and respect for people and the ecosystem together; and (3) is consistent with systems ideas.     

How Does Separability Affect The Desirability Of Referendum Election Outcomes?

Recent research has shown that in referendum elections, the presence of interdependence within voter preferences can lead to election outcomes that are undesirable and even paradoxical. However, most of the examples leading to these undesirable outcomes involve contrived voting situations that would be unlikely to occur in actual elections. In this paper, we use computer simulations to investigate the desirability of referendum election outcomes. We show that highly undesirable election outcomes occur not only in contrived examples, but also in randomly generated elections. Our data suggest that the presence of interdependent preferences significantly increases the likelihood of such undesirable outcomes, and that certain alternative voting methods, such as sequential voting and setwise aggregation, hold the potential to produce outcomes that more accurately reflect the will of the electorate.     

Utilizing spiritual ecograms with Native American families and children to promote cultural competence in family therapy

This study signifies an initial step at giving family therapists an important assessment tool as they seek to increase cultural competence with Native American families and children. To determine the relevancy and consistency of utilizing a spiritual ecogram assessment tool with Native Americans, 50 Native American participants, with extensive experience with this population, reviewed, rated, and gave feedback on its use. Although some limitations were noted, results showed that spiritual ecograms were moderately consistent with Native American culture and, if used properly, can help family therapists develop culturally appropriate interventions with Native American families and children.     

Problematising parent–professional partnerships in education

The value of, and need for, parent–professional partnerships is an unchallenged mantra within policy relating to ‘special educational needs’. In spite of this, partnerships continue to be experienced as problematic by both parents and professionals. This paper brings together the different perspectives of two disability researchers: one a parent of a disabled child while the other was a teacher for 20 years of children with the label autism. The paper deconstructs the concept of partnership and then, drawing on the expertise of parents, suggests how enabling and empowering parent–professional relationships might be achieved.     

Multiple objective optimization of bluetooth scatternets

Bluetooth technology permits wireless interconnection for local area communication. While the specification defines how up to eight devices can connect using the same radio channel to form a piconet, piconets may overlap, permitting the formation of much larger networks called scatternets. To create connected scatternets, a wide range of decentralized protocols (algorithms) have been proposed. In this paper we address the centralized optimization of topological characteristics that affect scatternet performance. Knowledge of optimized scatternet topology is useful when comparing decentralized protocols and the scatternets they produce. This paper introduces the first multiple objective optimization framework for scatternets, which operates by optimizing node sequencings that represent scatternets. Using NSGA-II, the framework is described, tuned and applied to determine the trade-offs between competing optimization objectives. Finally, the results are used to benchmark the performance and characteristics of four existing protocols from the literature. This research is supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (GR/S23155/01).     

Social and economic factors in Hong Kong's fertility decline

Abstract In both developed and underdeveloped areas, many attempts have been made to alter the course of fertility through family planning intervention. Doubtless the availability of such services facilitates birth control for those who already desire to use it. Whether or not such exogenous interventions have any independent effect upon the operation of endogenous forces in the economy and society is, however, more problematical. Where fertility declines have been observed, family planning services have often been made widely available only after the decline in fertility had already set in. Nonetheless, observers have often attempted to attribute some fraction of the continuing decline in fertility to the operation of family planning activities. One especially notable case is that of Hong Kong, which provides some of the more persuasive evidence about the independent effects of family planning intervention.     

Spiritual assessment in marital and family therapy: a methodological framework for selecting from among six qualitative assessment tools

Emerging professional and cultural developments underscore the importance of spiritual assessment. Most marriage and family therapists, however, appear to have received little training on the topic. Consequently, this article overviews a complementary family of six recently developed qualitative assessment approaches or tools, an initial brief assessment tool and five comprehensive assessment tools, and presents a methodological framework for using the six tools. To help decide whether or not a comprehensive assessment is warranted after conducting an initial brief assessment, two general guidelines are offered. Suggestions for selecting the appropriate comprehensive assessment tool are also presented, and summarized graphically in the form of a decision tree. The overall methodological framework is designed to be congruent with the recent spiritual assessments recommendations issued by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the largest healthcare accrediting organization in the United States.