Preposterous Histories

This article explores maternal desire, loss, and control by reading Carolee Schneemann's performance Interior Scroll (1975) through Tracey Emin's photographic print I've Got It All (2000). More specifically, I consider Schneemann's work on the energy of female sexuality and maternal desire through Emin's recurrent visualizations of sexuality and maternal loss. The artists' refusal to disengage with the commodified (dis)pleasures of femininity leads me to consider the differently contextualized handling of these issues in each artwork. I explore the mediation of the body of each artist by positioning Emin's work as a “source” for my reading of Schneemann's performance. Invoking the notion of “preposterous history” (Bal 1999), I argue that the concepts of the “live” and the “mediated” are differently intensified by operating outside of the constraints of chronology. Hence the inter-generational dialogue between these particular female artists, whose work has been produced at different historical moments, is itself generative of thoughts and ideas that are irreducible to the individual works.     

The Effects of Task Clarification and Group Graphic Feedback on Early Punch-In Times

Task clarification in the form of workplace policy guidelines coupled with weekly graphic feedback of group punch-in times on the staff clock were presented to waitstaff, cooks, cash register clerks, dishwashers, buffet attendants, and hourly assistant managers in a restaurant sub-franchise. Clocking in early dropped from 130 min during baseline to 62 min per week during intervention. A 1-week return to baseline resulted in 189 min of clocking in early by restaurant personnel. The use of task clarification and group feedback reduced company expenses without reductions in job satisfaction or increased stress.     

Considerations in Feedback Delivery: The Role of Accuracy and Type of Evaluation

Performance feedback remains a commonly implemented and successful intervention within organizational behavior management, but a comprehensive understanding of the components that influence the effectiveness of feedback tends to be lacking. The present study sought to contribute by analyzing the variables of accuracy (contingent on or independent of performance) and evaluation type (supportive or critical judgments) on performance using a simulated work environment. A total of 75 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental conditions: (a) contingent and supportive feedback, (b) contingent and critical feedback, (c) independent and supportive feedback, or (d) independent and critical feedback. Outcomes suggested that contingent feedback improved performance relative to independent feedback, however, no differences were found between supportive and critical types of feedback. The need for additional research into the functional and formal elements of effective feedback is also discussed.     

Employee-of-the-Month Programs: Do They Really Work?

This article investigates Employee-of-the-Month as a technique for sustaining improved performance on a data entry task in two experiments. In both experiments, participants competed as members of a fabricated team for a “Check Processor of the Week” incentive. The first experiment assessed the impact of receiving this incentive. In the second experiment, the incentive was enhanced to include a $50 bonus for the winner. Participants always placed between 2nd and 5th place in order to assess the impact of being an unrewarded runner-up. Overall, results suggest that Employee-of-the-Month programs do not sustain improved performance and may even have detrimental effects.     

Reciprocal interactions between group perceptions of leader charisma and group mood through mood contagion

Departing from the static perspective of leader charisma that prevails in the literature, we propose a dynamic perspective of charismatic leadership in which group perceptions of leader charisma influence and are influenced by group mood. Based on a longitudinal experimental study conducted for 3 weeks involving 116 intact, self-managing student groups, we found that T1 group perceptions of leader charisma mediate the effect of leader trait expressivity on T2 positive and negative group moods. T2 positive and negative group moods influence T3 distal charisma perceptions by affecting T2 proximal perceptions of leader effectiveness. The current findings offer critical insights into (a) the reciprocal relationship between group perceptions of leader charisma and group mood, (b) the dynamic and transient nature of group perceptions of leader charisma, (c) the importance of understanding negative mood in charismatic leadership, and (d) the mechanism through which charismatic leadership perceptions can be formed and sustained over time.     

A necessary dialogue: a South African case study exploring the role of national HRD in HIV/AIDS non-government organizations

This article makes the case for a coordinated and multi-faceted national level response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa from the field of human resource development (HRD), arguing that national policy debate on this issue must include the development of human resources in HIV/AIDS non-governmental organizations (NGOs). An exploration of potential connections between HIV/AIDS and HRD was conducted with a qualitative case study in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Through this study, four major thematic categories emerged in connection to the work of NGOs involved in the management of HIV/AIDS, government policy, and the emerging theory and practice of national human resource development (NHRD). In addition, findings pointed to the need for HRD research to be conducted in HIV/AIDS related NGOs given their front-line roles in both policy and practice. Initial suggestions for dialogue between NGOs involved with managing HIV/AIDS and the HRD research and practice community are made along with recommendations for stronger linkages between NHRD and HIV/AIDs.     

Drug markets,violence, and the need to incorporate the role of race

While race has proven to be a critical variable in the sociological understanding of multiple social outcomes, scholars have yet to fully appreciate the nature by which it shapes drug‐related violence. Empirical responses to the 1980s urban proliferation of illicit drugs generally relied on systemic explanations of drug market violence and how participants, by virtue of social positioning, are unable to use the criminal justice system to address grievances. Contrarily, the contingent causation hypothesis suggests that drug markets engender violence in settings where socioeconomic conditions are already favorable for violence. In spite of the contributions of these two themes, we argue that both represent oversimplifications of the complex ways by which race structures drug‐related violence. To truly understand drug market violence, the dominant narrative of emerging research must contextualize the proliferation of illicit drugs within the socio‐historical context of race and institutional racism. Only if and when that happens will the field move towards realistic solutions to ameliorate this social problem.     

Public Perceptions of Regulatory Costs,Their Uncertainty and Interindividual Distribution

Public perceptions of both risks and regulatory costs shape rational regulatory choices. Despite decades of risk perception studies, this article is the first on regulatory cost perceptions. A survey of 744 U.S. residents probed: (1) How knowledgeable are laypeople about regulatory costs incurred to reduce risks? (2) Do laypeople see official estimates of cost and benefit (lives saved) as accurate? (3) (How) do preferences for hypothetical regulations change when mean‐preserving spreads of uncertainty replace certain cost or benefit? and (4) (How) do preferences change when unequal interindividual distributions of hypothetical regulatory costs replace equal distributions? Respondents overestimated costs of regulatory compliance, while assuming agencies underestimate costs. Most assumed agency estimates of benefits are accurate; a third believed both cost and benefit estimates are accurate. Cost and benefit estimates presented without uncertainty were slightly preferred to those surrounded by “narrow uncertainty” (a range of costs or lives entirely within a personally‐calibrated zone without clear acceptance or rejection of tradeoffs). Certain estimates were more preferred than “wide uncertainty” (a range of agency estimates extending beyond these personal bounds, thus posing a gamble between favored and unacceptable tradeoffs), particularly for costs as opposed to benefits (but even for costs a quarter of respondents preferred wide uncertainty to certainty). Agency‐acknowledged uncertainty in general elicited mixed judgments of honesty and trustworthiness. People preferred egalitarian distributions of regulatory costs, despite skewed actual cost distributions, and preferred progressive cost distributions (the rich pay a greater than proportional share) to regressive ones. Efficient and socially responsive regulations require disclosure of much more information about regulatory costs and risks.