Organizational-level interventions to reduce occupational stressors

Occupational stress research continues to grow, and is increasingly being used to inform national policy on worker health and well-being. Most models of occupational stress emphasize notions of person-environment fit. Two approaches for intervention to minimize adverse consequences of occupational stress follow from such models. One emphasizes the strengthening and enhancement of indwiduals and their resources, the other emphasizes the reduction ofcommon workplace-based sources ofoccupational stress. This paper reviews 10 organizational-level interventions to reduce stress at work which have been examined in various field studies. These interventions were generally found to have positive effects, and, given the limited success of individual-level interventions in addressing occupational sources of stress, should be encouraged.     

Evidence‐based Management in Practice: Opening up the Decision Process,Decision‐maker and Context

Evidence‐based management (EBM) has been subject to a number of persuasive critiques in recent years. Concerns have been raised that: EBM over‐privileges rationality as a basis for decision‐making; ‘scientific’ evidence is insufficient and incomplete as a basis for management practice; understanding of how EBM actually plays out in practice is limited; and, although ideas were originally taken from evidence‐based medicine, individual‐situated expertise has been forgotten in the transfer. To address these concerns, the authors adopted an approach of ‘opening up’ the decision process, the decision‐maker and the context (Langley et al. ( 1995 ). ‘Opening up decision making: the view from the black stool’, Organization Science, 6, pp. 260–279). The empirical investigation focuses on an EBM decision process involving an operations management problem in a hospital emergency department in Australia. Based on interview and archival research, it describes how an EBM decision process was enacted by a physician manager. It identifies the role of ‘fit’ between the decision‐maker and the organizational context in enabling an evidence‐based process and develops insights for EBM theory and practice.     

“Projecting the Future by Looking Over One's Shoulder at the Past”: The Milken Institute's One-Sided Analysis of California's Future

The first Michael Milken Institute conference on the state of the state of California, held November 5, 1999, identified 21st century opportunities and challenges in light of recent economic and demographic trends. The panelists came from the banking/venture capital, industrial, real estate development, think tank and political spheres. Notably absent were delegates from the environmental community. Optimism reigned: The presenters considered that the shortage and soaring price of housing are major concerns, yet they could not view this as a contra-indication to future population increase. Possibilities of major ethnic clashes in a state where no ethnic group commands a majority went unaddressed. Both the conference materials and those present subscribed to the view that growth is good and bigger is better; no other indicators of quality of life were mentioned. Ecological overload and threats of collapsing eco-systems, the permanent water shortage foreseen by state planners beginning as early as 2015, and the increasing vulnerability to inevitable natural disasters as major earthquakes and droughts should population projections be fulfilled (today's 35 million will grow to 50 million by 2020; carrying capacity level is about 10 million) all went unmentioned. Those present left falsely reassured that for California the 21st century will largely be a replay of the 20^th.     

Managed growth and optimum population: Irreconcilable concepts

Managed growth is a politically popular rallying point which offends no faction by insisting upon nonnegotiable limits. Subscribers to this philosophy focus upon short-run accommodations to growth which apparently mitigate its physical consequences. Managed growthers react to longterm numerical projections with rejection, if not outright hostility. They may be more amenable to quality-of-life rationales for population limitation evolving from the biophilia hypothesis and ecopsychology. These theories claim that our species needs to exist in proximity to untrammelled wilderness and a natural environment for psychic health and creativity.     

Real or imagined - Black women's experiences in the Academy

This is a reflective and reflexive account of the individual and shared work experiences of three Black female Senior Lecturers working in higher education. Through the process of sharing our common experiences we not only make visible the details of the race and gender oppression we face, but also the acts of resistance we engage in within the academic community. We draw on our understanding of Black feminist principles and ideas to explore and analyse our experiences as Black professional women; this exploration is central to the development of the strategies that we propose. These strategies, we believe will enable Black women and others engaged in the process of change to continually challenge and resist the oppressive power relations that characterise academic environments. Ici nous donnons un compte rendu réflexif qui s'agit des expériences non seulement collectives entre trois conférencières Noires universitaires, mais aussi des expériences plutôt privées de cettes chercheuses. Par le processus de partager de cette façon nos expériences nous faisons visible l'oppression raciste et sexiste qui se presente dans la vie quotidienne. En meme temps on essaye de souligner la résistance dans laquelle on s'engage dans la communauté scolaire. Par notre compréhension des principes et des idées féministes nous sommes capables d'explorer et d'analyser nos expériences en tant que femmes Noires professionelles. En plus, cette exploration est centrale au développement des stratégies que nous proposons. Nous croyons que par cettes stratégies les Noires (et les femmes en général qui sont engagées dans les efforts d'effectuer le changement) auront le pouvoir de lancer un défi continuel et de résister l'abus de pouvoir accablant qui existe àchaque moment dans les environnements scolaires.     

Supervisor ideology and organizational response: HIV/AIDS prevention in outpatient substance abuse treatment units

Distinct practice ideologies or ideologies of care are deemed to influence greatly the selection of intervention methods and the mix of services adopted by the providers. Examined here is the relation between clinical supervisor ideology and variation among human service organizations in their provision of HIV/AIDS prevention services. Data were drawn from a 1990 national, representative sample of outpatient substance abuse treatment (OSAT) units. The study affirms that ideology is central to both means and ends in HSOs, helping to define the organization's mission and goals, and establishing guidelines for practice and procedures. Future research on the relationship between ideology and HIV/AIDS education can benefit from efforts to develop alternative strategies for measuring ideologies of care among both managers and staff in substance abuse settings.     

Semiparametric multiparameter regression survival modeling

We consider a log-linear model for survival data, where both the location and scale parameters depend on covariates, and the baseline hazard function is completely unspecified. This model provides the flexibility needed to capture many interesting features of survival data at a relatively low cost in model complexity. Estimation procedures are developed, and asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are derived using empirical process theory. Finally, a resampling procedure is developed to estimate the limiting variances of the estimators. The finite sample properties of the estimators are investigated by way of a simulation study, and a practical application to lung cancer data is illustrated.