The role of international human resource in leading a company from a domestic to a global corporate culture

One of the biggest challenges facing HR is to help a company move from a domestic corporate orientation to working in a global business environment. Using the international human resource department as an example of where this transformation must occur first, the global paradigm shift is explored from the theoretical (international human resource management models) and practical (global HR competencies) perspectives. The discussion is supplemented with a cross-cultural HR development plan necessary to accomplish this cultural transformation.     

Modeling the ECU Against the U.S. Dollar: A Structural Monetary Interpretation

The proposal that a reformed international monetary system be designed around currency blocs has gained some popularity of late. In Europe, the formation of the Euro formalizes the existence of a DM-based currency block. Little academic research has been conducted, however, on the properties of composite currencies such as the Euro. In this article, we examine the properties of the precursor to the Euro—namely, the ECU—against the U.S. dollar using a monetary framework. The article has several novel features: Our modeling strategy involves starting with underlying equilibrium conditions rather than a final reduced form; uses divisia money rather than the more conventional simple-sum money; interprets, in an economic sense, the long-run relationships; and produces an appealing forecasting performance.     

A critical exploration of the school context for young adolescents completing primary education

Many schools have adopted relational approaches to attend to the social context in which learning transpires. More recently however, such approaches and their supporters have been criticized for not examining the school context in its entirety and the student experience within this context. The current research sought to critically explore young adolescents’ experiences within the context of their school. Fifteen year seven students in an Australian primary school were interviewed about their experiences of their school context. The data were analysed using a thematic analysis and a question-ordered matrix was constructed to aid the detection of themes and sub-themes from the data. Three major themes were identified as a result. These included: the people within the school context, the social roles of the adolescents’, and the values the school espouses. These findings suggest that there are a number of factors in addition to relational aspects within the school context that impact on young adolescents. This exploratory qualitative study offers a ‘counter adult-centric’ view of young adolescents’ experiences within their school. It also illustrates the potential value in transforming the school context to provide opportunities to experience influence, responsibility, self-determination, meaningful participation and community within the school.     

Inferring Australian children's sense of community: A critical exploration

Sense of community (SOC) has been found to be a predictor of adult well-being and psychological health. Recent research has begun to explore adolescents' SOC. However, there is a dearth of research on the meaning children attach to their community and the development of their SOC, despite its potential for providing an understanding of important aspects of children's lives. Conversational interviews were conducted in schools with 46 children aged from 9 to 12 years. The results were analysed using an unfolding strategy. The findings indicate that for children, understandings of community focus on the relationships shared with the significant others central to their experience of childhood--family, friends, and neighbours, consistent with Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework. Children also described community in terms of environment, both built and natural. Further exploration of the children's understanding of community yielded insights into the role of activities, interactions, good and bad aspects of community and problem solving in their understanding of community. The implications of the research are discussed in terms of programme planning at the individual and systemic levels. Le sentiment d'appartenance àune communauté est un indicateur qui nous permet de prévoir la santé psychologique et le bien-être chez les adultes. Les chercheurs ont commencé récemment à explorer le sentiment d'appartenance à une communauté par les adolescents. Cependant peu de recherche a étéfaite sur le sens que les enfants donnent àla communauté à laquelle ils appartiennent et au développement de leur esprit communautaire. Ceci est important pour comprendre certains aspects essentiels de la vie des enfants. Nous avons conduit dans quelques écoles des entretiens non dirigés avec 46 enfants âgés de 9 à 12 ans. Les résultats ont été analysés étape par étape. Ils nous ont indiqué que la prise de conscience par les enfants de leur communauté proche dépendait de rapports-clés associés à leur expérience--en famille, avec leurs amis et leurs voisins, selon le modèle écologique de Bronfenbrenner. Les enfants décrivent également leur communauté en faisant des liens avec leur environnement (la nature et les bâtiments). D'autres études sur la manière dont les enfants assimilent la notion de communauté ont aidé à comprendre le rôle jouépar leurs activités, leurs interactions, les aspects positifs et négatifs de la vie de groupe et par la résolution des problèmes. Nous présenterons des applications de cette recherche à l'élaboration de programmes au niveau individuel et systémique.     

Does care matter? Care capital and mothers’ time to paid employment

The aim of this study is to introduce the concept of care capital and provide an example of its application in the context of childcare and maternal employment using the currently most suitable American data. We define care capital as the nexus of available, accessible, and experienced resources for care. The American setting is an ideal context to investigate the linkages between child care capital and maternal employment as the patterns of child care use tend to be more diverse compared to other national contexts. In the presented application of care capital, we examine mothers’ entry to paid employment during the first 36 weeks following a birth, and its association with the experience of non-parental child care use before labour force entry. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey—Birth Cohort (N = 10,400 mothers), results from discrete-time hazard models show that use of non-parental child care prior to employment is independently and positively associated with entry into maternal employment. This finding applies both to first-time mothers (n = 3,800) and to mothers of multiple children (n = 6,600). Although data currently available for investigating child care capital are limited with regard to care availability and access, our results suggests that childcare availability, access, and use, understood as a form of capital alongside economic and human capital, should be considered in future studies of maternal employment.     

How do immigrant parents of children with complex health needs manage to cope in their daily lives?

Daily life with children who have complex health needs can be stressful for parents. Immigrant parents are vulnerable to stress because they may lack language skills and knowledge about the health care system and have limited social networks. In this study, we focus on how immigrant parents of children with complex health needs use emotion‐focused and problem‐focused coping strategies to manage their daily life, and how their self‐efficacy and the immigration process may affect their coping. This qualitative study had an exploratory design with individual and focus group interviews. The sample comprised 27 parents—18 mothers and 9 fathers—from Pakistan, Poland, and Vietnam. The findings indicated that the parents' love for their child helps them to cope in their daily life. Newly arrived migrants, single mothers with a severely ill child who lacked support and migrant parents with language difficulties struggle to cope. Some of the stress is related to personal, social and structural problems, and to the insufficient resources available to meet the child's needs. The parents used both emotion‐focused and problem‐focused coping strategies. The parents noted that access to both universal and selective welfare services is an important factor that contributed to their self‐efficacy and coping.     

Ethical issues in fundraising

The Ethics of Asking: Dilemmas in Higher Education Fund Raising, edited by Deni Elliott. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. 236 pp., $29.95 cloth. Ethics for Fundraisers, by Albert Anderson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996. 150 pp., $29.95 cloth, $12.95 paper.     

The Role of Religion and Stress in Sexual Identity and Mental Health Among Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Youth

This study investigated religious stress, gay‐related stress, sexual identity, and mental health outcomes in lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents and emerging adults. The model examined negative LGB identity as a mediator of the relationships between (1) religious stress and mental health, and (2) gay‐related stress and mental health. The data indicated that negative LGB identity fully accounted for both relationships. Findings suggest that a negative sense of sexual identity for LGB youth helps explain the links between religious and gay‐related stressors and mental health. As LGB youth may have limited control over these stressors, the importance of helping LGB youth maintain a positive LGB identity, despite homonegative messages from others, is discussed.     

A comparison of family and neighborhood effects on grades, test scores, educational attainment and income��evidence from Sweden

This paper compares sibling and neighborhood correlations in school performance, educational attainment and income as a way to learn whether the neighborhood where a child grows up in might explain parts of the sibling similarities found in previous sibling correlation studies. The data are based on a cohort of nearly 13,000 individuals born in 1953 and their siblings, all of whom grew up in the Stockholm area. The results show that neighborhood correlations are in general very small and in particular they are much smaller than the sibling correlations. Living in the same neighborhood does not seem to add much to the sibling similarities.