Production Teams and Producing Racial Diversity in Workplace Relationships

Production teams have become a dominant form of work organization as labor markets have become increasingly diverse. This transition likely affects coworker networks—possibly undermining entrenched patterns of workplace segregation. Contact theory suggests that teams can foster network diversity when workers cooperate and share values emphasizing mutual respect. Yet variants of conflict theory, including the critical teams literature, contend that the benefits of teamwork may be eroded by associated factors, including peer discipline, work intensification, and job insecurity. This study uses 2006 General Social Survey data to assess whether and how teamwork affects the racial diversity of worker acquaintance networks, contrasting worker‐ and manager‐directed teams. We find a positive relationship between teams and diversity, but only when teams are worker directed. Despite countervailing tendencies highlighted in the literature, teams foster greater cooperation between workers, which in turn promotes cross‐racial friendships. African Americans tend to receive the greatest diversity payoffs from teams. These findings suggest that teamwork can undermine segregation, though only with certain implementations and with variation across groups.     

Survivor Feedback on a Safety Decision Aid Smartphone Application for College-Age Women in Abusive Relationships

College-age women are at high risk for dating violence and tend to seek services at rates lower than older adults. Young women are more likely to look to their peers or to technology as a forum for accessing safety resources. This study explores a prototype smart phone application (“app”) that is a safety decision aid for female survivors of dating violence. The app is intended to assist young women to assess the danger in their abusive relationship, set priorities for safety, and develop a personalized safety plan. Through focus group sessions and individual interviews, 38 female college students in 4 states (Arizona, Maryland, Missouri, and Oregon) who self-identified as survivors of abusive relationships reviewed and provided feedback on the usefulness, understandability, appropriateness, and comprehensiveness of the app. The focus group sessions and interviews were transcribed and analyzed. Participants were positive about the potential of the app to provide personalized information about abusive dating relationships and appropriate resources in a private, safe, and nonjudgmental manner. Detailed feedback from survivors and recommendations for further development of the app are discussed.     

An analysis of the relationship between parenting self-efficacy,the quality of parenting,and parental and child emotional health

ABSTRACT

The relationship between parenting self-efficacy, the quality of parenting, and parental and child emotional health has been conducted with Caucasian families and young children. The purpose of this study was to examine these relationships in ethnically diverse and impoverished families with children who have behavior problems. We examined the relationships between parenting self-efficacy, parenting practices, child externalizing problems, and caregiver depression. Participants included 213 caregivers of children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), who rated their parenting self-efficacy and completed questionnaires on parenting practices (APQ and FAD); child externalizing behaviors (Iowa Connors Inattention and ODD subscales); and caregiver depression (CESD). Data were examined using Chi-Square tests, a Linear Regression, and a One-Way ANOVA. Results demonstrate parenting self-efficacy was positively associated with positive parenting and inversely associated with inconsistent discipline. Among parents who perceived themselves as being a “better than average parent,” there was a greater percentage of youth who met cutoff for inattention problems as compared to youth who did not meet this cutoff. Lastly, depression scores were lowest for caregivers identifying as below average parents. This study underscores the need for involving parents and enhancing parenting self-efficacy in interventions targeting Disruptive Behavior Disorders.     

Research in practice: Promoting the dialogue

This paper describes and discusses a research dissemination project undertaken by participants in the Leicester University School of Social Work Child Protection Studies programme. The initiative was designed to enable experienced social workers to share with others findings from their recently completed research projects, to encourage other health and social care practitioners to engage in research activities, and to promote links with employers. Past and current students worked with staff to mount a successful national conference attended by eighty people which promoted discussion of a number of important child protection topics. It encouraged participants to continue with further research and dissemination activities. It also promoted the setting up of a partnership between the course team and local employers to run a programme of day events to bring relevant recent research findings to the attention of social work practitioners and first line managers.     

Research Note: Babies Born After Census Day: How the Census Bureau Addressed Dates of Birth After Census Day in the 2010 Census

The fundamental purpose of the decennial Census is an enumeration of the U.S. population at a particular “Census moment” for the purpose of apportionment. The “Census moment” for the 2010 Census occurred at 11:59 p.m. on April 1, 2010. This means that, ideally, all persons alive and living in the United States at that moment are included in the Census count, while any person not alive at that moment is excluded. In reality, this goal is challenging to achieve. Since the actual date of data collection often varies widely, it is possible that individuals are included, or excluded, in the count due to this discrepancy between the Census Day and the date of data collection. In this paper, I explore how the Census Bureau addresses this issue specifically when dates of birth after Census Day are encountered. First, I describe the three methods of data collection (Self-administered questionnaires, enumerator-administered questionnaires, and Telephone Questionnaire Assistance/Coverage Follow-Up operator-administered questionnaires), and how dates of birth after Census Day are addressed in each of these methods. Next, I explore related findings from the 2010 Census, including how many dates of birth after Census Day were found in the 2010 Census data, how they were processed according to data collection method, and how this impacted the final Census count. Finally, I discuss the performance of the new procedures related to dates of birth after Census Day that were implemented in the 2010 Census, along with implications for moving forward into future Censuses.     

The arguments of utility: Preference reversals in expected utility of income models

There is a debate in the literature about the arguments of utility in expected utility theory. Some implicitly assume utility is defined on final wealth whereas others argue it may be defined on initial wealth and income separately. I argue that making income and wealth separate arguments of utility has important implications that may not be widely recognized. A framework is presented that allows the unified treatment of expected utility models and anomalies. I show that expected utility of income models can predict framing induced preference reversals, a willingness to pay-willingness to accept gap for lotteries, and choice-value preference reversals. The main contribution is a theorem. It is proved that for all utility functions where initial wealth and income enter separately, either there will be preference reversals or preferences can be represented by a utility function defined on final wealth alone.     

Conceptualizing social-ecological drivers of change in urban forest patches

Urban Ecosystems - We introduce a conceptual model of the urban forest patch as a complex social-ecological system, incorporating cross-scale interactions. We developed this model through an...     

New Governance and the Case of Activation Policies: Comparing Experiences in Denmark and the Netherlands

This article explores the importance of new forms of governance in active labour market policies (activation) in two countries: Denmark and the Netherlands. Drawing on research with key stakeholders in these countries, we analyse how new governance, and particularly processes of contracting-out and localization, have found expression in recent reforms to activation. We conclude that localization and contracting-out may have a future role to play in the development of more locally responsive and individually focused services. But both countries have encountered problems in promoting joined-up services through local jobcentres, while contracting-out has not always led to the tailored, individually focused services envisaged by policy-makers. In both countries, there are also concerns that the restriction of the Public Employment Service to a 'gatekeeping and signposting' role will lead to inconsistencies in the quality of services, exposing the most disadvantaged to greater social risk.     

Operationalising lean in healthcare: the impact of professionalism

Abstract

Lean is endorsed as policy in practice in the UK but the challenges and complexities affecting Lean in healthcare are still to be adequately assessed. Through a qualitative single case study of an NHS organisation implementing Lean, 43 interviews with multi-disciplinary team members involved in Lean were conducted. The progress of Lean is found to be inhibited as medical professionals have failed to engage or provide clinical leadership in supporting the trajectory of Lean. This resulted in limited outcomes, sustainability implications, and failed projects. Lean is challenged by complexity and this is evident in conflicts between professional identity, corresponding status and clinical/managerial relationships. Medical professionals as a group have received a limited focus in papers assessing the progress of Lean in Healthcare from an operational perspective. Going forward, strategies for mitigating the negative impact of this can be developed to support operational managers in the healthcare domain.     

Gender consciousness at work: modification of the male breadwinner norm among steelworkers and their spouses

Nous analysons ici la recherche, assez mince jusqu'à maintenant, sur la conscience de sexe, selon les perspectives libérate, radicale et socialiste féministe. Nous esquissons une approche qui reconnaît que les identityés de sexe ainsi que des formes sociales plus large de consience de sexe sont construites socialement par les hommes et les femmes, dans des pratiques spécifiques à leur classe et à leur race, au travail, à la maison et dans leurs communautès. Nous appliquons ensuite cette approche à une étude de couples de Hamilton, principalement des travailleurs de l'acier et leurs conjoints. Notre attention se porte en particulier sur une dimension centrale de l'identité de sexe, la norme de l'homme comme ‘soutien de famille,’ telle qu'exprimée chez les travailleurs de l'acier dans la culture ouvrière et dans les attitudes des deux conjoints dans leurs families. Nous tentons de montrer comment le stéréotype de ‘l'homme comme soutien de famille’ est présentement à la fois reproduit et modifié, en réponse à la participation croissante des femmes au marche du travail, et en particulier à l'arrivée de travailleuses de l'acier dans ce qu'on croyait être un bastion de la masculinité ouvrière. This paper reviews the limited research to date on gender consciousness from liberal, radical and socialist feminist perspectives. An emergent approach that recognizes both gender identities and broader social forms of gender consciousness as continually constructed by men and women in class and race-specific practices within paid workplace, household and community spheres is outlined. This approach is applied to a study of Hamilton couples, especially steelworkers and their spouses. We focus on assessing expressions of one central aspect of gender identity - the male breadwinner norm - through steelworkers' shop floor culture and the attitudes of both spouses in steelworker households. We attempt to show how the male breadwinner stereotype is currently being both reproduced and modified in response to women's growing participation in paid employment and particularly the recent presence of women steelworkers within a presumed bastion of traditional working class masculinity.