Estimation of Nonlinear Models in the Presence of Measurement Error*

Techniques used in decision sciences and business research to estimate interactions between latent variables are limited in controlling for measurement error. This article uses a latent structure modeling approach that substantially controls for measurement error in nonlinear relationships. The results of this technique are compared to the results obtained applying hierarchical regression analysis and the impact of measurement error is assessed. The paper provides a unique assessment of the validity of the multi-attribute attitude model. The validity of the multiplicative rule in the model is supported.     

A survey of disabled children and young people’s views about their quality of life

This study aimed to explore disabled children and young people’s perspectives about their quality of life, in terms of physical, mental and social well-being. Ninety-one disabled children, recruited through voluntary organisations in Scotland, completed KIDSCREEN-27, a validated measure of health-related quality of life for children. Findings were compared with those from a European study of predominantly non-disabled children. The children gave largely positive reports about school, family relationships and their physical health. However, one in three reported often feeling ‘sad’ and many were excluded from social activities with their peers. Expectations of achieving academic qualifications, and moving into further or higher education, were generally low. The children’s perceived quality of life was lower than their European counterparts, less so in relation to school but particularly for friendships and peer support. The findings are discussed in the light of the social relational understanding of disability. Policy and practice implications are identified.     

Coping With Overload and Stress: Men and Women in Dual‐Earner Families

This study tested gender differences in a model positing relationships between work and family demands, overload, 4 coping mechanisms, and stress. The coping mechanisms were hypothesized to moderate the relationship between overload and stress. The sample consisted of 1,404 men and 1,623 women in dual‐earner families. Respondents relied on 2 coping strategies: scaling back and restructuring family roles. Men were more likely than women to respond to overload by scaling back and less likely to respond by work‐role restructuring. Coping by family‐role restructuring moderated the relationship between role overload and stress for both groups; however, the gender difference was not significant. Coping by work‐role restructuring moderated the relationship between overload and stress only for men.     

Planning models in the UK: A survey

This paper presents the results of a survey on the use of computer-based models in the broad areas of planning and strategy formulation in UK companies. This survey updates and complements other recent surveys, which exclusively considered the use of corporate models, and shows a continued increase in the numbers of these models in use. In particular, models in the following broad categories were examined: forecasting, marketing, personnel, production and models of ‘one-off’ situations, as well as corporate and financial models. For such models the paper includes details of: frequencies of occurrence and relationship to company size; professional roles of the model-builders and users respectively; frequencies of use. In these and more subjective ways, the survey attempts to assess the place and value of computers in planning.     

Secular Trends in Substance Use: The Conflict and Young People in Northern Ireland

The resolution of political conflict has led some to suggest that Northern Ireland will now face a range of social problems that have been ignored or suppressed by the Troubles. One such area is adolescent drug use. In this article, a review of a range of data sources shows that drug use, with few exceptions, has increased since the emergence of the ongoing peace process. Social and political changes and enhanced paramilitary involvement in the drugs trade appear to have somehow created an environment where drug use has flourished. In reviewing current drug policy and practice, the article highlights the lack of prevention, treatment, and harm reduction services established in Northern Ireland as a cause for concern .     

Some trends in corporate modelling

This paper reviews the evidence of a number of surveys and case studies of corporate modelling in the U.K. Some general conclusions as to trends are drawn. Thus corporate models will display increasing modularity; will be more likely to include probabilistic elements; will more often incorporate physical flows; and will be generally linked to a greater number of other models in organisations. Micros are making a substantial impact as tools for running decision support systems both of the corporate model and the ad hoc model variety. Forecasting techniques are still greatly underutilised in many organisations. Although most corporate models are currently of the deterministic financial simulation type, the influence of management education will help the adoption of more advanced models by more numerate senior managers and accountants. Indeed there is already evidence that this is happening in some organisations.     

How limited is reformism?

Conclusion According to the reformist limitations thesis, a labor movement that organizes around a reformist program can never mount a challenge to capitalism itself. This program can be implemented without touching the sides, as it were, of the reigning system. Our own interpretation of the post-war history of the British and Swedish labor movements suggests the opposite. Unless the dominant political element in a reformist labor movement can be deflected from its program, and the internal cohesion of the movement thereby destroyed, a challenge to capitalism is inevitable.In the British case, the labor party remained the politically dominant component in the labor movement, and it turned its back on its own reformist commitments and espoused the defense of profits and managerial prerogatives. For historical reasons, the British trade-union movement never escaped from this dubious political guardianship and hence never developed the resources to continue a reformist political struggle in spite of the labor party.The Swedish social-democratic party shared throughout the post-war period the same focus on stabilization on the terms of an ongoing capitalist system as its British counterpart. But its escape from its reformist commitments was only partial, as its egalitarian traditions and ties to LO were stronger. To the extent to which it kept its political faith and went beyond mere welfarism, it saved itself from the disintegration and marginality of the British labor party and sustained the outward unity of the labor movement. To the extent to which the party fell from reformist grace, the trade-union movement displaced it as the political leading edge of the organized working class. The measure of reformism's compatibility with capitalism is thus the relationship between LO's (and increasingly also TCO's) policies and organization on the one hand, and the vital institutions of capital on the other.The dynamics of class conflict under capitalism point to two institutions the integrity of which must be defended if the system is to survive as such. The first of these is private property coupled to a market mechanism that gives private managements exclusive power over the allocation of productive resources. The social power of private property is exercised impersonally by market forces on the capital market, and personally in managerial prerogatives in the firm. The second vital institution of capitalism is its labor market under-pinned by the bourgeoisie's power to create unemployment and thus subvert opposition to its rule through deflation and failures of business confidence. Here lie the clues to what a progressive - cumulative - transition to socialism looks like. The normal mechanisms and règles du jeu of these two markets give way to political resource allocation, and corporate management yields up more and more of its prerogatives to the mobilized collective will of the workforce. Labor is de-commodified, and the investment function is enmeshed in a net of direct and indirect social controls.To project these changes in a written manifesto would presumably be revolutionary. The development of Swedish trade unionism suggests that, to go on pursuing the basic social justice and job security that reformists have always plodded after, meant implementing these changes anyway - piecemeal and as a matter of pragmatic necessity. The difference between revolution and reform thus boils down to their relative effectiveness in working-class mobilization and thus their historical potential.     

Attitudes Towards Food Safety and the Environment: A Comparison of Conswners in Japan and the U.S.1

Abstract Numerous studies have demonstrated dwindling consumer confidence in the safety of the food supply and growing interest in purchasing "safe" foods. However, this research has painted no consistent picture of those concerned about food safety, nor has it investigated the relationship between environmental and food safety attitudes. A mail survey of Japanese and the United States consumers is used to evalulate whether selected environmental attitudes can explain food safety concerns and behavior. Findings indicate high concern about food safety in both countries, but income, age, education, and attitudes about the impacts of fossil fuel use explain little of the variance. Instead, that concern appears to be prompted largely by an interest in obtaining a healthy diet. It is also noted that Japanese consumers are more concerned about both food safety and the impacts of fossil fuel use, perhaps because of Japan's lack of natural resources and high food import levels.     

Measurement of Perceived Organizational Readiness for Change in the Public Sector

Using the act frequency approach we developed and operationalized two constructs: perceived organizational readiness for change and perceived organizational unreadiness for change. Using a sample drawn from five Canadian public sector organizations, it was found that perceived readiness for change can be conceptualized with three sub-constructs: commitment of senior managers to the change, competence of change agents, and support of the immediate manager. Perceived unreadiness for change had two sub-constructs: poor communication of change and adverse impact of change on work. Using structural equation modelling techniques, the measurement scales of all these constructs were tested for reliability and validity using job stress and perceived organizational support as outcome variables.