A generalized framework of sampling inspections by attributes

This paper tries to establish a framework for sampling inspections by attributes based on soft quality standards to pay more attention to some shortcomings in classical modelling concerning the acceptability of inspection lots. As a suggestion, such sampling inspections are described in terms of a statistical test with fuzzy hypothesis and fuzzy data, extending the classical framework of sampling inspections by attributes. Furthermore, the operating characteristics will be explored, and single sampling plans of given strength are investigated.     

Editorial statement: Stress and work compensation

Shift work has been reported to predict health problems, and a possible explanation is that shift work may lead to poorer health habits, thereby increasing a person's vulnerability to illness. This study examined the association between shift work and health habits, as indicated by smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity and by being overweight. A questionnaire was sent to all 2795 female nurses working in the 10 hospitals of two Finnish health care districts. From the 2299 respondents, we selected those 506 shift workers who reported having always done shift work and those 183 day workers who had never done shift work. Shift workers were found to smoke more and to be overweight more often than day workers. These differences gradually increased in each successive age group, being 1.94 pack-years in smoking and 0.9 kg m^-2 in body mass index among nurses over 45 years of age. Shift work was not associated with alcohol intake or sedentary lifestyle. This evidence is compatible with the possibility that shift work in nurses increases smoking and being overweight to a degree that contributes to health problems, including coronary heart disease.     

The weakest link and the commodification of subjectivity by the means of play

Abstract

This article considers the process of commodification (the extension of the realm of money, the spread of typically capitalist mechanisms like competition and consumption) as a cultural means of the reproduction of subjectivity. The particular aim is to highlight the psychic processes that are tempted by commodification. Thus, at the background of this essay, there is a psychoanalytical notion of the self that has been developed in an examination of subjectivity and play, a notion based especially on the thinking of D.W. Winnicott and Jessica Benjamin. These analysts see an ambivalent self‐destructiveness of the self reformulated in relation to the ‘potential space’ of play. In relation to this analysis, the influence of advanced capitalism on the self is discussed in some of its more competitive scenes of consumptions. The quiz show The Weakest Link, for example, is considered as a pale, commodified form of play. It is argued that the main seduction of the show is the dwindled and distorted potential space offered by its ultimate, destructive, and in the last analysis sado‐masochistic logic of exchange. In addition to The Weakest Link, a couple of relevant thematisations of commodified culture by contemporary Finnish literature are brought out. Moreover, the commodification of subjectivity by the means of play is loosely related to some general characterisations concerning the prevailing cultural situation (see Jameson 1999 and Rifkin, 2000).     

Communicating Cultural Dimensions of Gender-related Identity in Female Austrian and Finnish Business Students' Responses to Joanna Kramer (and to each other)

This paper discusses aspects of Austrian and Finnish female business students' responses to the acts and speech of Joanna Kramer in the Oscar winning American film Kramer vs. Kramer. Of special interest are their distinctive conceptions of "equality", "responsibility", "independence" and "choice" in response to the gender-related identity crisis that is the main plot of the film. The cultural meanings of these conceptions were revealed as the following conceptions were played with, or against, each other: "equally divided" and "equally shared" responsibility, "mother" and "father" roles, "family" and "society/day-care centers" in socializing children, and "social partnership" (Austrian) and " sisu " (Finnish) in societal as well as wife-husband relationships. At one level, these conceptions are analyzed as revealing cultural conceptions of personhood and sociation, each of which positions social identities of gender differently. At another level, introduction to a discovery process suggests how perplexity among interlocutors, students and teachers alike, can lead towards pedagogical development, improvement in intercultural communication competence and awareness of ways of talking and living in different cultural landscapes. Reflection on the ways identities are constituted also opens the door to challenging those identities.     

Stories and the Rhetoric of Contrariety: Subtexts of Organizing (Change)

Stories are an important part of organizational life that scholars have studied from many different perspectives. In this paper, we contribute a new way of exploring the meaning of stories. We use a concept from classical rhetoric, the enthymeme, to help reveal the particular underlying "logic" contained in the story form, and we show that the construction of this logic accounts, in part, for the engaging nature of the stories. We show that storytellers use enthymemes in the construction of their stories and also that scholars can use enthymemes to analyze stories. Understanding the enthymeme and its use in the story form enables interpreters to disentangle the argument often embedded in a story and to surface meanings that are implicit and powerful. In this paper, we focus attention on and examine such implicit meanings in four organizational stories of change in two city administrations, in order to illustrate the role of enthymeme in organizational rhetoric.     

Towards a More Social Orientation in Gerontechnology: Case Study of the “Reminiscence Stick”

The purpose of this article is to investigate, through a case study, how social orientation can be realized in gerontechnology's objectives. The focus is on user-driven development process of an “mStick,” which is a tool for storing various biographical material: photographs, texts, audio and video clips, and using it in elderly care services. Qualitative data were collected in 11 pilot cases. The content analysis was used to investigate how the “Gerontechnology's Five Ways”: prevention, enhancement, compensation, care, and research, were applicable especially from the perspective of social implications. The mStick acts as a prevention by offering meaningful contents to life, as enhancement by offering a possibility to utilize elderly person's resources. It compensates weakening abilities by preventing the world from becoming narrower. In care, it helps to see patients as whole human beings with unique biography. In addition, mStick offers potential for, for example, applications in memory research. The implication of this study is to pay attention to gerontechnology's role in supporting the social nature of the human being. This may contribute to renewing caring culture towards a more social and biographical orientation. Limitations of this study include focusing on the early development and implementation process with no long-term use data.     

Reproducing Gendered Hierarchies in Everyday Work: Contradictions in an Employment Office

This paper is concerned with the dynamics of producing gendered hierarchies in the workplace. While the focus is on the present day, developments over the past ten years are also examined. The term ‘doing gender’ is adopted as a method of outlining these dynamics within seemingly static gendered hierarchies. Within the case study organization, a Finnish employment office, the ways of doing gender have shifted from maintaining gendered hierarchic harmony towards women? s and men's separate but invisible cultures. However, men's practices are linked in a more direct way to the textual and official goals of the organization, whereas women's working methods show some implicit opposition to the organizational logic. Throughout gendered contradictions are emphasized: between inequality and equal opportunities; informal sociability and formal rules; and the invisibility and visibility of gender.     

Correction to: Vertical and Horizontal Inequality in Ecuador: The Lack of Sustainability

Social Indicators Research - The article Vertical and Horizontal Inequality in Ecuador: The Lack of Sustainability, written Ivan Gachet, Diego F. Grijalva, Paúl A. Ponce and Damián...