Utilizing job resources: Qualitative evidence of the roles of job control and social support in problem solving

Abstract

In resource-based models of job design, job resources, such as control and social support, are thought to help workers to solve problems. Few studies have examined this assumption. We analyzed 80 qualitative diary entries (N=29) and interviews (N=37) concerned with the in-role requirements of medical technology designers in the UK for problem solving. Four themes linked to using the resources of job control and social support for problem solving emerged. These were: (1) eliciting social support to solve problems; (2) exercising job control to solve problems; (3) co-dependence between eliciting social support and exercising job control to solve problems; and (4) using job resources to regulate affect. The results were largely supportive of the assumptions underpinning resource-based models of job design. They also indicated that the explanatory power of resource-based models of job design may be enhanced by considering interdependencies between various factors: how different job resources are used, workers' motivation to use resources, workers' knowledge of how to use resources and the use of resources from across organizational boundaries. The study provides qualitative support for the assumption that social support and job control are used to cope with demands.     

The Risk of MTBE Relative to Other VOCs in Public Drinking Water in California

Ongoing publicity about methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) suggests that this chemical is of greater concern than other contaminants commonly found in drinking water. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the available MTBE data in context with other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are detected in public drinking water sources in California. We find that of the 28 VOCs with a primary maximum contaminant level (MCL) in California, 21 were found in 50 or more drinking water sources from 1985 to 2002. Over the last 10 years, the most frequently detected VOCs were chloroform, tetrachloroethylene (PCE), and trichloroethylene (TCE), which were found in about 9-15% of all sampled drinking water sources. These same chemicals were found to have the highest mean detected concentrations over the last 5 years, ranging from 13 to 15 microg/L. Many VOCs were also found to routinely exceed state and federal drinking water standards, including benzene and carbon tetrachloride. By comparison, MTBE was found in approximately 1% of sampled drinking water sources for most years, and of those drinking water sources found to contain MTBE from 1998 to 2002, over 90% had detected concentrations below California's primary MCL of 13 microg/L. Relative to the other VOCs evaluated, MTBE has the lowest estimated California cancer potency value, and was found to pose one of the least cancer risks from household exposures to contaminated drinking water. These findings suggest that MTBE poses an insignificant threat to public drinking water supplies and public health in California, particularly when compared to other common drinking water contaminants.     

Turning Social Return on Investment on Its Head

This article undertakes a critique of social return on investment (SROI), combining the existing research literature with an analysis of six case studies of supported social enterprises employing people with disabilities and other challenges that affect their access to the conventional labor market. The critique of SROI focuses on its positivist roots and its emphasis on one number, the SROI ratio. It also discusses the technical challenges in producing that number, including concerns about its reliability. The article presents the stakeholder impact statement, an approach that is rooted in interpretivism and attempts to understand the impact of enterprises through the eyes of multiple stakeholders. Unlike SROI, which is a supplement to conventional accounting statements, the stakeholder impact statement integrates financial and social impact data, thereby placing them on the same level of importance.     

Coital debut: The role of religiosity and sex attitudes in the add health survey

Recent reviews suggest that religiosity is associated with the delay of adolescent coital debut (Rostosky, Wilcox, Wright, & Randall, in press; Wilcox, Rostosky, Randall, & Wright, 2001). Few studies, however, have examined this association using longitudinal data to test theoretically driven models. We analyzed data from 3,691 adolescents (ages 15–21), testing the hypothesis that adolescent religiosity and sex attitudes (at Wave 1) predict later coital debut (at Wave 2) and that these predictive relationships vary by gender. Findings indicated that beyond demographic factors and number of romantic partners, religiosity reduced the likelihood of coital debut for both males and females. After accounting for the effects of religiosity, anticipation of negative emotions after coital debut (sex attitude factor 1) further reduced its likelihood for females and males. Finally, adolescent girls—but not boys—who anticipated positive emotions following sexual intercourse (sex attitude factor 2) were more likely to debut. While virginity pledge status was associated with coital debut for boys and girls, more conservative beliefs about sex appeared to mediate its effect. Finally, a significant interaction between race and religiosity indicated that African American adolescent males who had either signed a virginity pledge or were more religious were significantly more likely to debut than both White non‐Hispanic males and African American males who were less religious and/orwho had not signed a pledge. The implications of these results for adolescent pregnancy prevention programming are discussed.     

National Narratives and Migration: Discursive Strategies of Inclusion and Exclusion in Jordan and Lebanon

National narratives play a key role in state consolidation and identity construction. This article proposes four factors that may affect how a regime chooses to portray the role of migrants and migration in official historical narratives: the relationship of emigrants to the colonial versus the post-independence state; the relationship between migration and sending state economic development; and the relationship between migrants and the home state elite – either benign neglect or instrumentalization. Taking Jordan and Lebanon as cases, the presentation examines school textbooks as key sources of the national narrative to discern their treatment of major population movements. It concludes with an evaluation of the four factors, finding greatest support for that of instrumentalization.     

Does Female Disadvantage Mean Lower Access to Food?

The literature on gender differentials in nutrition demonstrates that the calorie intake of females is generally as adequate as that of males at all ages. Female disadvantage in micronutrient intake is, however, frequent. Pregnant and lactating women are disadvantaged relative to both men and other women. In South Asia there is evidence that boys are advantaged over girls in food intake at some ages, but the evidence for male advantage in access to health care is far stronger. The authors argue that nutrition interventions are best targeted when the incidence of female disadvantage is better understood and, similarly, that interventions to improve women's status should be focused on objectives other than calorie intake in most communities. However, standards for measuring adequacy incorporate norms for female body size and physical activity that may uncritically accept the notion that females are more physically passive. Maintaining adequacy by these standards could perpetuate low levels of female functioning.     

Management in/as Comic Relief: Queer Theory and Gender Performativity in The Office

Our discussion here focuses on gender performativity — the evocation of gender through stylized modes of interaction and the recitation of particular cultural norms — in the BBC comedy series The Office. We suggest that The Office can be read as a cultural text that brings sedimented ways of thinking about and enacting gender into relief, a technique that effectively ‘queers’ management and organization as gendered phenomena. In doing so, we argue that not only does The Office parody the ways in which management is configured according to the terms of what Judith Butler has described as the ‘heterosexual matrix’, but that it also represents a parodic critique of the gendered ways in which this configuration is enacted in everyday organizational encounters. We also suggest that, in addition to its capacity to be read as a parody of gender performativity, The Office reflects queer theory's concern, particularly as the latter has been articulated in Butler's writing, to reveal something of the pathos inherent in the desire for recognition that underpins the hegemonic performance of gender. In this respect, our reading of The Office emphasizes that, as a popular cultural text, it throws into (comic) relief the extent to which the desire for recognition underpins the organizational performance and management of gender in accordance with the terms of the heterosexual matrix.     

Addressing the Needs of Adults and Children with Disabilities through Emergency Preparedness and Organizational Improvisation

The purpose of this qualitative study is to describe the experiences of fifteen organizational leaders and staff members who were responsible for caring for adults and children with disabilities during a 2014 winter storm. This study integrates the literature bases of emergency management and organizational improvisation. In response to this severe unexpected winter weather event, organizational leaders and staff members demonstrated creativity and flexibility in addressing the needs of clients, students, and patients, including adults and children with disabilities. The study concludes with reflections about emergency planning and organizational improvisation, practical implications, and a call to action to learn from these events and provide additional training and resources to individuals who may be in similar situations in the future.     

Perceptions of diversity and attitudes of tolerance in the ‘fragmented’ U.K.

ABSTRACT

Relying on a quantitative survey (n = 1497) and semi-structured interviews (n = 30) conducted in the U.K., we explore British nationals’, Romanian and Turkish migrants’ attitudes of tolerance and the factors influencing them in the current socio-political context in the U.K. The quantitative data reveal the role of younger age, diverse networks, higher education, attachment to city/region and supranational identifications in more open attitudes towards diversity. The qualitative findings illustrate how diverse these three groups’ attitudes of tolerance can be and how they are affected by their position and status in the U.K. The British’ attitudes show their tolerance can reflect diverse forms of acceptance of ethnic and cultural differences but can also draw lines in terms of civic values opposing ‘those who contribute to society’ versus those who ‘live as parasites’. The Turks are in favour of diversity with the expectation of receiving more civic rights and facing less prejudice. The Romanians tend to have a more ambiguous relation to diversity given their position of stigmatised migrants in the U.K. Our analysis reveal how inclusive or exclusive people’s (sub- and supra-)national identities can be and how these frame their attitudes of tolerance.