Statewide Implementation of “Reducing Disability in Alzheimer’s Disease”: Impact on Family Caregiver Outcomes

There have been few replications of efficacious evidence-based programs for dementia caregivers offered in community settings. This study highlights the replication of the evidence-based Reducing Disability in Alzheimer’s Disease program and explores the changes in outcomes for participating caregivers and whether those changes are related to level of program utilization. With data from 219 caregivers, regression results indicate that more exercise sessions are associated with a decrease in caregiver strain and more behavior management sessions are associated with a decrease in unmet needs after 3 months. Findings demonstrate how a multicomponent program can have positive benefits for family caregivers.     

Promoting Well-Being Through Relationship Building: The Role of Smartphone Technology in Foster Care

Mindful of the tremendous risk factors that foster youths encounter, a federal demonstration project sought to increase their protective factors and to mitigate their adverse experiences. The ability to form and maintain healthy relationships is a key protective factor as it helps youths navigate life’s challenges, especially those challenges that result from unresolved loss and grief as a result of being in care. The study was guided by a relational competence framework. The youths were issued smartphones, and their social service providers were given a Web-based application designed to increase communication between the foster youths, their providers, and their mentors. Findings reveal several favorable outcomes associated with the use of the smartphones but also several unintended negative consequences. Recommendations for balancing youths’, caregivers’, and providers’ needs, positions, and rights are discussed. Likewise, the authors discuss the study’s implications for program development that utilizes smartphone technology to increase youths’ ability to experience healthy relationships.     

Measuring strategic decision making efficiency in different country contexts: A comparison of British and Turkish firms

This paper compares the relative efficiency of the strategic decision making (SDM) processes of British and Turkish firms. The technique of data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to measure the relative efficiency of these firms. The evidence obtained by the DEA analysis reveals that the Turkish firms tend to be superior to the British firms in terms of their SDM efficiency. There is a significant difference in scale returns with respect to the country of origin of the firms. The analysis of the improvement potential of inputs indicates that Turkish firms place more emphasis on managing environmental turbulence to enhance their SDM efficiency, while British firms tend to overly focus on the design of an appropriate organizational structure. However, no significant difference was noted between the two groups of firms with regard to the level of resources and effort exerted on formal strategic planning practices. The analysis of output deficits reveals that there is a significant difference between British and Turkish firms in the sources of inefficiency.     

Shaped by place? Young people's aspirations in disadvantaged neighbourhoods

This paper aims to better understand the relationship between young people's aspirations towards education and jobs, and the context in which they are formed, especially to understand better the role of disadvantaged places in shaping young people's aspirations. Policy makers maintain that disadvantaged areas are associated with low aspirations and there is support for this position from academic work on neighbourhood effects and local labour markets, but evidence is slim. Using a two-stage survey of young people in disadvantaged settings in three British cities, the paper provides new data on the nature of young peoples’ aspirations, how they change during the teenage years, and how they relate to the places where they are growing up. The findings are that aspirations are very high and, overall, they do not appear to be depressed in relation to the jobs available in the labour market either by the neighbourhood context or by young people's perceptions of local labour markets. However, there are significant differences between the pattern of aspirations and how they change over time in the three locations. The paper then challenges assumptions in policy and in the literature that disadvantaged places equal low aspirations and suggests that understanding how aspirations are formed requires needs a nuanced approach to the nexus of class, ethnicity and institutional influences within local areas.     

Reporting and Justifying the Number of Interview Participants in Organization and Workplace Research

In this paper we examine established practice regarding the reporting, justification and number of interview participants chosen within organization and workplace studies. For such qualitative research there is a paucity of discussion across the social sciences, the topic receiving far less attention than its centrality warrants. We analysed 798 articles published in 2003 and 2013 in ten top and second tier academic journals, identifying 248 studies using at least one type of qualitative interview. Participant numbers were contingent on characteristics of the population from which they were chosen and approach to analysis, but not the journal, its tier, editorial base or publication year, the interview type or its duration. Despite lack of transparency in reporting (23.4% of studies did not state participant numbers) we reveal a median of 32.5 participants, numbers ranging from one to 330, and no justification for participant numbers in over half of studies. We discuss implications and, recognizing that different philosophical commitments are likely to imply differing norms, offer recommendations regarding reporting, justification and number of participants. Acknowledging exceptions, dependent upon study purpose and data saliency, these include an organization and workplace research norm of 15?60 participants, alongside credible numbers for planning interview research.