Is there an Expectations Gap in the Roles of Independent Directors? An Explorative Study of Listed Chinese Companies

This paper investigates whether an expectations gap exists in the control, strategic and resource provision roles that independent directors play in the corporate governance of listed Chinese firms and the factors that affect their performance of these roles. For this purpose, we interviewed Chinese executive directors, independent directors, institutional investors and stock exchange regulators. We find a performance gap but no reasonableness gap with respect to the control and strategic roles. The results suggest that the performance gap may be attributed to such factors as the ill‐defined roles, independent directors' limited amount of time commitment and their lack of competence and objectivity. Interestingly, there is disagreement over the protection of minority interest as the objective of the control role. We find no consensus on the desirability, reasonableness and effectiveness of independent directors' resource provision role, perhaps because of a pejorative interpretation of this role as an exercise of guanxi.     

Foster parent perceptions of placement breakdown

The purpose of the study was to describe the perceived causes of placement breakdown by foster parents. Sixty-three foster parents from fifty families were asked to describe their challenges in response to the following question: “What would make you consider ending a foster placement”? The responses to this question were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, to yield nine themes. Foster parents indicated that they would consider ending a placement if there was a danger to their family, if the child could not adapt to the home or if they could not handle the child's behavior. Participants reported that the complex health needs of a foster child, problems dealing with the foster agency, and several unsuccessful attempts to make the placement work would cause a placement to breakdown. Foster parents also indicated that they would consider ending a placement if their personal circumstances changed, their own health deteriorated, or there was a lack of appropriate external support in place. The results of the study point to gaps in the research on violence in general foster care, foster parent perceptions of contributions to a foster child's transition back to his or her birth family, and the process of foster parent decision-making in cases of placement breakdown.     

Carrières et contradictions en sciences de la vie : réponses du corps académique aux transformations de la connaissance et de ses utilisations

Drawing on interviews with more than 80 scientists on two university campuses, we create a typology that offers insights into how transformations in the nature and locus of life science innovation influence academic careers and work practices. Our analyses suggest that a strong outcome of increased academic concern with research commercialization is the appearance of new fault lines among faculty, between faculty and students, and even between scientists' interests and those of their institutions. We argue that life science commercialization is driven by a mix of new funding opportunities, changing institutional mandates for universities, and novel research technologies that bring basic research and product development into much closer contact. The rise of patenting and commercially motivated technology transfer on U.S. campuses is altering faculty work practices and relationships, while transforming the criteria by which success is determined and rewards are allocated. Through close analysis of interviews with four researchers who typify a range of academic responses to commercialism, we demonstrate emerging patterns of conflict and agreement in faculty responses to commercial opportunities in the life sciences.     

Attributional Retraining Increases Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy

This study examined whether 60 college students (41 women and 19 men), grouped according to their career locus of control, were differentially affected by a videotaped career intervention. The intervention was an attributional retraining procedure designed to persuade students to attribute low levels of confidence in making career decisions and career-related failures to a lack of effort. Results indicated that the career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE) of students who initially exhibited an external career locus of control significantly increased after the attributional retraining procedure (p < .05), whereas the students who initially exhibited an internal career locus of control demonstrated no significant increase in CDMSE after attributional retraining.     

Female harassment after ending a relationship: A preliminary study

While dramatic instances of male aggression directed toward women, such as rape and wife battering, have been frequently studied, a more subtle form of male aggression—female harassment—has been investigated less often. In the present study, 50 women who had terminated relationships with males and then were harassed were interviewed. In general, the harassment lasted for about a year, and episodes which occurred on a daily basis consisted of calls, letters, visits to home or work, being followed, verbal threats, and physical aggression. For the most part, these aggressive actions were perceived as both threatening and disturbing. Findings indicated that assertive female strategies were not more effective in reducing harassment than more sex-role stereotyped passive and nonassertive responses to male aggression. In the second phase of this study a sample of college undergraduates was interviewed on the topic of harassment. Fifty-six percent of the women indicated that they had been harassed by men.My thanks to Lyn De Amicis and LaVome Robinson for their instructive and helpful comments.     

Severe self-neglect: an epidemiological and historical perspective

Older adults with severe self-neglect have multiple deficits in various social, functional and physical domains, and often live insqualor. These individuals often present with poor personal hygiene, domestic squalor and hoarding which results in a threat to their own health as well as personal and public safety. Severe self-neglect occurs along a continuum with older adults often having cognitive and affective disorders compared with younger individuals presenting with psychiatric illnesses. In cases of severe self-neglect with hoarding, evidence has shown this behavior occurs in diverse social strata and not among the wealthy and professionals alone as believed earlier. Due to the multiple conditions associated with severe self-neglect, this population will require an interdisciplinary, multidimensional approach to reduce morbidity and mortality rates including nursing home placement. Research on this group has been limited and is rarely described in the medical and nursing literature. Future research is needed to provide practitioners with effective screening instruments and interventions on cases of severe self-neglect.     

Muscle-power quality: does sex or race affect movement velocity in older adults?

To determine sex and race differences in muscle power per unit of muscle contraction, knee-extensor muscle power normalized for knee-extensor muscle volume was measured in 79 middle-aged and older adults (30 men and 49 women, age range 50-85 years). Results revealed that women displayed a 38% faster peak movement velocity than men and African Americans had a 14% lower peak movement velocity than Whites of a similar age when expressed per unit of involved muscle (p < .001). As expected, men exhibited greater knee-extensor strength and peak power per unit of muscle than women, but women had a faster knee- extension movement velocity per unit of muscle than men at the same relative strength level. Moreover, African Americans had greater knee-extensor muscle volume than Whites but exhibited lower knee-extensor strength and lower movement velocity per unit of muscle when tested at the same relative strength levels.