Character-Based Determinants of Trust in Leaders

Trust is a prominent determinant of effective interpersonal relationships, group process, and organizational development. However, for leaders and managers, trust building is often problematic. The aim of this article is to contribute to a growing understanding of the way in which individual managers can develop trust in organizations, particularly those defined by medium to high risk. The article presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the nature of trust at work. Building on the results of an earlier study, use is made of the facet-theoretical approach to generate a definitional framework of trust, which focuses on the characteristics of the trusted person that contribute to the development of trust. Using items developed on the basis of a mapping sentence, hypotheses regarding the relations between the definitional framework and empirical observations were tested through smallest space analysis (SSA) of data collected from a sample of 398 bank and hospital employees. The results demonstrate strong support for the definitional system and show a clear association with results of prior research that identify perceptions of ability, integrity, fairness, and openness as key determinants of trust. The empirical structure clearly reflects the attitudinal nature of interpersonal trust at work and the items empirically distinguish distinct character-based components of trust.     

Explaining the causes of poverty in the West Indies: A cross-cultural comparison

Research into attitudes towards the poor and lay explanations for poverty have heen primarily concerned with the structure and determinants of these attitudes and explanations. Whereas a number of variables — education, religion, ethnic group — have been shown to relate to explanations for poverty, there have only been a few cross-cultural studies. This study set out to compare the explanations adolescents gave for poverty in two West Indian islands — the relatively wealthy island of Barbados and the relatively poor island of Dominica. The overall economic development/prosperity of the two islands, and the extent and visibility of economic inequality between the two islands appeared to account for the numerous national differences. These results are discussed in terms of the social, political and historical differences between the two islands.     

The Role and Achievements of a Professional Association in the Late Twentieth Century: The British Association of Social Workers 1970-2000

Correspondence to Malcolm Payne, Manchester Metropolitan University, Didsbury, Manchester Summary The formation in 1970, in concert with wider policy trends,and the work of BASW during its first 30 years are reportedand assessed. The structure, internal issues, finances, personnel,professional and social policy work and publishing operationsare considered together with contemporaneous commentary on itsachievements. Conflict around membership policies and its professionalassociation role in relation to trade union activities wereinherent in its formation. Professional achievements includedwork on accreditation of social workers, a code of ethics andthe ‘new professionalism’, including client participationand case recording. Policy achievements included work on reformof mental health and child-care legislation and campaigns onpoverty and social security and constraints on social servicesexpenditure. Internal conflict and financial insecurity havelimited BASW's impact. However, as a small professional associationin a developing field with other powerful stakeholders, it hasachievements where alliances with other stakeholders and commercialoperators are established and when internal finance and personnelare stable. Professionalization in relation to community activismand trade unionism remains an issue.     

Size doesn't matter: The fallacy of class-differential fertility in social mobility analysis

One of the key methodological and conceptual constraints in social mobility analysis has been how to differentiate between the 'core' pattern connecting social origins and destinations, and the effect of different distributions of origins and destinations across nations and time points. Conventional sociological wisdom has held that class differentials in family size (and occupational change) impose a significant constraint on the marginal distributions in a mobility table. Due to the logic of the random sampling process, middle class fathers with smaller families are under-represented in mobility tables. It is therefore necessary to approach mobility via the randomly sampled social destinations, rather than as a process moving chronologically from origins to destinations. However, a re-working of the Nuffield Mobility Study data-set is used to show that class differentials in fertility have virtually no effect. The explanation of this surprising finding is shown to lie in class size and the actual distribution of large and small families. The finding implies that if occupational change is left as the only process modifying marginal distributions, it deserves greater attention.     

Efficacy of programmes for the unemployed: discrete time modelling of duration data from a matched-comparison study

An evaluation is described of two UK Government programmes for the long-term unemployed in Great Britain, Employment Training and Employment Action, using discrete time hazard modelling of event histories. The study design employed a closely matched comparison group and carefully chosen control variables to minimize the effect of selection bias on conclusions. The effect of unobserved heterogeneity is investigated by using some standard random effect model formulations.     

A Two-Dimensional Person-Environment Fit Analysis of the Performance, Effort and Satisfaction of Research Scientists

SUMMARY This study questions traditional assumptions in the person-environment fit models. Previous research has regarded any kind of fit as positive and any kind of misfit as negative. In the present study, this thinking is refined. It is proposed that consideration of the nature of the fit or misfit matters and that different dependent variables, including performance, may be affected differently. The proposal is tested with a sample of 212 research scientists. The findings demonstrate modest support for the differing effects of type of fit on the dependent variables.     

Differentiating self-neglect as a type of elder mistreatment: how do these cases compare to traditional types of elder mistreatment?

Official estimates suggest that self-neglect is the most common type of elder mistreatment. Interestingly, very few researchers have empirically assessed self-neglect as a type of elder mistreatment. In the current study, attention is given to how self-neglect cases handled by adult protective services agencies compare to other types of elder mistreatment. Comparisons are made between the needs of self-neglect clients and other protective services clients as well as the role of stress in the different types of abuse. Findings suggest that self-neglect clients are less likely to need help with certain functional activities. In addition, those who are married and those who have completed fewer years of education are less likely to be labeled as experiencing self-neglect. City differences in rates of self-neglect were also found. Not surprisingly, self-neglect clients were more likely than other protective services clients to refuse services. Implications are provided.