Organisation als Freiraum und Zwang

Organisations are marked by contradictions: change and continuity, health and sickness, men and women, creativity and linearity, past and future and freedom and restriction are only a few poles in which these contradictions are made visible. Organisations try to give answers to these contradictions and give space for both: freedom and restriction. Here, systems and individuals are related in mutual challenge and in permanent negotiation. It is therefore important for management and employee to reflect on the preconditions for the chance of freedom and restriction. The organisation has to provide the possibility to legitimize the ‘Management of Paradox’ in order to generate answers which are necessary to guide change and contradiction.     

Book Review: Measuring Behavioral Health Outcomes: A Practical Guide. By Robett P. Hawkins,Judith R. Mathews; and Laureen Hamdan

Sociological Practice -     

First Person Accounts and Sociological Explanations of Delinquency*

Cinquante‐six garçons du secondaire ont expliqué pourquoi ils avaient perpétré ou non certains actes de délinquance (combat, vandalisme, vol à l'étalage, usage de drogues). Ils ont aussi ciblé des théories sociologiques de la délinquance qui s'appliquent à leur comportement. Leurs réponses montrent que les deux types de données se recoupent beaucoup. L'effort, la théorie gánérate, les pairs, le contrôle social, les techniques de neutralisation et la prévention sont importants, mais non l'étiquetage ni l'imitation des médias. Une théorie de contingence de la délinquance est proposée. Fifty‐six high school boys were asked to explain in their own words why they had engaged in or refrained from certain delinquencies: fighting, vandalism, petty theft, truancy and drug use. They were also given the opportunity, via a checklist, to tell whether selected sociological theories applied to their behaviour. Their responses revealed considerable overlap in the two forms of data. Strain, general theory, peers, social control, techniques of neutralization and deterrence are important in varying combinations. Labelling and media imitation are not. A contingency theory of delinquency is proposed.     

Systematic analysis of multiple voting rules

For a class of voting rules, which includes Approval and Cumulative Voting, it is shown how to find and analyze all possible outcomes that arise with a specified profile, and, conversely, how to start with a potential region and determine whether there exist supporting profiles. The geometry of these regions is determined by the “Reversal symmetry” portion of a profile; i.e., components of the Asucc Bsucc C, Csucc Bsucc A{Asucc Bsucc C, Csucc Bsucc A} type.     

Visual Dominance and Visual Egalitarianism: Individual and Group-Level Influences of Sex and Status in Group Interactions

This study investigated visual dominance and visual egalitarianism of men and women (N = 94; 17 teams) in team meetings at diverse workplaces. Two novel gaze-related measures were developed: (a) a group visual dominance ratio (group-VDR) assessing each member’s visual dominance vis-à-vis all other members, and (b) a gaze distribution index (GDI) assessing each member’s visual egalitarianism to all group members. Multilevel analyses were conducted to account for influences of the team members’ sex and status on the individual level and for influences of sex and status composition of the teams, and the team leaders’ sex on the group level. Results suggested that high-status individuals displayed more visual dominance than low-status individuals. The significant interaction of individuals’ sex and status indicated that the positive relationship of status and visual dominance applied particularly to women. The more women in a team, the more visual dominance was displayed. The team leader’s sex significantly influenced visual egalitarianism: Gaze distribution was less egalitarian when the team leader was male.     

Impact of Empowerment Training on the Professional Work of Family Peer Advocates

A pilot study using a prospective design examined the impact of a collaboratively developed training model, called the Parent Empowerment Program (PEP), for professionally-employed family peer advocates who work with caregivers of children with mental health needs. This training used a combination of didactic, practice exercises, and group discussion. It targeted specific mental health knowledge content and collaborative skills to facilitate the work of family peer advocates in empowering caregivers. Co-delivered by a family peer advocate and clinician, the training consisted of a 40-hour face-to-face training, followed by six monthly face-to-face booster sessions. A total of 15 advocates participated in assessments conducted at baseline and post-training. This group of experienced family peer advocates showed no significant increase in knowledge about mental health content, but post-training assessments indicated increased collaborative skills and mental health services self-efficacy. This initial evaluation has implications for expanding training and support for the emergent workforce of professionally-employed family peer advocates in children's mental health.     

Habitat selection by an avian top predator in the tropical megacity of Delhi: human activities and socio-religious practices as prey-facilitating tools

Research in urban ecology is growing rapidly in response to the exponential growth of the urban environment. However, few studies have focused on tropical megacities, and on the interplay between predators’ habitat selection and human socio-economic aspects, which may mediate their resilience and coexistence with humans. We examined mechanisms of breeding habitat selection by a synanthropic raptor, the Black Kite Milvus migrans, in Delhi (India) where kites mainly subsist on: (1) human refuse and its associated prey-fauna, and (2) ritualised feeding of kites, particularly practised by Muslims. We used mixed effects models to test the effect of urban habitat configuration and human practices on habitat selection, site occupancy and breeding success. Kite habitat decisions, territory occupancy and breeding success were tightly enmeshed with human activities: kites preferred areas with high human density, poor waste management and a road configuration that facilitated better access to resources provided by humans, in particular to Muslim colonies that provided ritual subsidies. Furthermore, kites bred at ‘clean’ sites with less human refuse only when close to Muslim colonies, suggesting that the proximity to ritual-feeding sites modulated the suitability of other habitats. Rather than a nuisance to avoid, as previously portrayed, humans were a keenly-targeted foraging resource, which tied a predator’s distribution to human activities, politics, history, socio-economics and urban planning at multiple spatio-temporal scales. Many synurbic species may exploit humans in more subtle and direct ways than was previously assumed, but uncovering them will require greater integration of human socio-cultural estimates in urban ecological research.

     

A population sample registry for public health survey investigations: methods,lessons, and successes

Public health relies on sample surveys to monitor the health of populations and investigate factors that contribute to population health and illness. Such investigations require surveying individuals who are selected in ways that support statistical inference to the population. Faced with rising costs and declining participation, survey researchers are exploring economical ways to recruit samples that validly represent larger populations. The current report describes an innovative resource, the Colorado Adult Population Sample–Survey Research Registry, which maintains survey access to respondents from a probability-based state health survey. We describe recruitment and retention strategies, explore representativeness, report several studies that used the registry, and discuss future directions.     

Geo-sampling in developing nations

RTI International created a geospatial grid-based sampling methodology that: achieved a probability-based household sample and unbiased estimates; was comparable across countries; used simple frame data available from the in-country census; and was efficient with minimal training to local field staff. The methodology used 1 km² LandScan world population data, which was further subdivided to smaller grid cells ranging from 50 to 150 m². To guide fieldwork, georeferenced maps were generated and viewed without an Internet connection using a third-party app and the tablet’s internal global positioning systems receiver. The field staff’s location was displayed in real time as a blue dot enabling field staff to determine household inclusivity. This methodology was successfully implemented for household surveys Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The design is transferable, adaptable, scalable, and can be used anywhere in the world.