Crisis,charisma, values,and voting behavior in the 2004 presidential election

This study extends Pillai and Williams [1998, Pillai, R., Williams, E.A., Lowe, K.B., & Jung, D.I. (2003). Personality, transformational leadership, trust, and the 2000 U.S. presidential vote. The Leadership Quarterly, 14, 161–192] and examines leadership in the context of the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Data were collected at two time periods from respondents in three locations across two major regions of the U.S. Our results indicate that respondents' perception of crisis was related to charismatic leadership in the negative direction for the incumbent George W. Bush and in the positive direction for the challenger John Kerry. For Bush and Kerry the relationship between crisis and voting behavior was mediated by charismatic leadership. For Bush, decisiveness was related to charismatic leadership, which in turn predicted voting behavior. For Kerry, decisiveness and charismatic leadership predicted voting behavior. Implications of the findings for leadership research, in particular with respect to an incumbent and the challenger to an incumbent leader, are discussed.     

Analyzing Complicity in Risk

When risks generate anger rather than fear, there is at least someone who regards the imposition of those risks as wrongdoing; and it then makes sense to speak of the involvement in producing those risks as complicity. It is particularly relevant to examine the complicity of risk bearers, because this is likely to have a strong influence on how far other actors should go in providing them with protection. This article makes a case for analyzing complicity explicitly, in parallel with normal processes of risk assessment, and proposes a framework for this analysis. It shows how it can be applied in a case study of maritime transportation, and examines the practical and theoretical difficulties of this kind of analysis. The conclusion is that the analysis has to be formative rather than summative, but that it could provide a useful way of exposing differences in the assumptions of different actors about agency and responsibility.     

A critical evaluation of competing representations of the relationship between formal and informal work

Analysing the extensive literature on informal work reveals multiple, often contradictory, views regarding its relationship with formal work. The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically these competing claims. Evaluating in turn the predominant views of informal work as a residue, by-product, complement and/or alternative to formal work, reveals that universal generalizations are not possible and that all of these articulations only apply in specific contexts. However, rather than simply conclude that these contrasting readings of the relationship between informal and formal work are therefore context-bound generalizations, two features common to all these perspectives are identified that necessitate a more fundamental rethinking of the relationship between formal and informal work. These relate to the way in which all firstly, simplistically attribute one form of work with positive features (e.g. modernization, virtue and progress) and the other with negative attributes (e.g. tradition, backwardness, exploitation) and, secondly, delineate formal and informal work as discrete and separate entities. The paper concludes by setting out a research agenda to not only highlight the political values underpinning each of these representations but also achieve a fuller and finer-grained understanding of the relations between informal and formal work.     

Air Quality in Hamilton: Who is Concerned? Perceptions from Three Neighbourhoods

This study investigates the factors influencing perceptions of air quality in the industrial city of Hamilton, Canada. The research employs data collected via a telephone survey of 1,002 adult residents in three neighbourhoods. Perceptions in the neighbourhoods were examined by individual socio-demographic factors (age, gender, marital and immigrant status, education, etc.) in addition to perceived health status and neighbourhood problems (environmental, social and safety concerns). Neighbourhood variations were found, with those residing in the Southwest Mountain neighbourhood being over 6 times more likely to report a ??good?? perception of air quality than those residing in the Lower City neighbourhood. In addition, factors influencing these perceptions also varied by neighbourhood. Perceived neighbourhood problems strongly influenced perceptions of air quality in the Lower City and Central areas, whereas socio-demographic factors were significant primarily in the Lower City neighbourhood, suggesting the importance of these mediating dimensions; pointing to less of a concern about air quality. There was, however, remarkable consistency in all three neighbourhoods when respondents were asked whether their perception of air quality affected their choice to go outside. Overall, the presence or absence of perceived problems, such as pollution and safety, had a powerful effect on shaping and differentiating neighbourhood responses.     

Sense of Belonging and Mental Health in Hamilton, Ontario: An Intra-Urban Analysis

This paper examines geographic variations in sense of community belonging in Hamilton, Ontario. It also identifies the most significant health and social factors associated with belonging in the city. The research employs data from the 2007/08 Canadian Community Health Survey for respondents aged 18 or over living in the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area. The primary unit of geography is the forward sortation area (FSA), which correspond with the boundaries comprising the first three digits of the postal code. The paper found that, overall, residents of Hamilton enjoy a strong sense of belonging to their community, one of the highest rates in Canada. Consistent with research at the national level, the paper revealed a strong and clear association between lower sense of belonging and lower self-perceived mental health. Age (45?C64) and household type (couples with children) were associated with higher sense of belonging. The mapping analysis revealed that sense of belonging was generally strongest among residents of rural Hamilton and became weaker moving towards the city centre, with particularly low levels evident in the Lower City. The presence of lower sense of belonging and lower mental health was clearly visible in three FSAs comprising the central portion of the Lower City.     

The Wisdom of Eve: On Differentiating the Colours of Emotion that May Be Threats to Good Life

Emotion??s twin roles?C??unite and divide?? our daily life, thus motivating the good and the worst in human behaviour. The way one ??feels?? does influence the way one ??acts?? toward others. If this reasoning is correct, then behaviour can never be without motive or ??motiveless.?? Given the importance of emotions in human communication and decision making, the context of intergroup relations, with its themes of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination against culturally dissimilar was touched on selectively. Using the Differential Emotions Scale and building upon Boyle??s (Personality 56:747?C750, 1984) work, with students, the present study reports a repeated-measure multiple discriminant function analysis for items across raters. The findings further indicate that most of the DES items are sensitive indicators. The correspondence of some of the results with prior research findings makes facial emotions less the holy grail of the social behaviour field. Likely consequences of emotions are considered, and research needs are discussed vis-a-vis uplifting individual happiness, collective identity and sense of connection to others. Perhaps its implications can be extended to the literature, thus revealing how the different lenses through which human emotions are usually viewed are connected by the incipient/concept attitude and self-identification/labelling that run through each of them.     

Stressed by Choice: a Business Model Analysis of the BBC

This paper aims to explain the recent defensive strategy of downsizing at the BBC. The paper rejects the analysis of both industry practitioner and neoclassical economics academic critics who represent the corporation as an all-powerful, abusive player in a market and instead develops an alternative concept of the business model, which focuses the pressures of financial viability and stakeholder credibility to explain the restructuring. We argue that the BBC's business model is stressed because it struggles to deliver what key stakeholders want and expect from the corporation, from a pot of revenue that is limited by regulation. The BBC's problem is compounded by demands for more programming hours following its move into digital and by the increasingly formalized demands of regulators on behalf of an absent consumer. The paper concludes that without reflexive, business-model-centred regulation, it is likely that the BBC's business model will become unsustainable.