Personality preferences in laboratory economics experiments

Student volunteers at the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) participated in one of the following one-shot games: a dictator game, an ultimatum game, a trust game, or a prisoner's dilemma game. We find limited support for the importance of personality type for explaining subjects’ decisions. With controls for personality preferences, we find little evidence of behavioral differences between males and females. Furthermore, we conclude that seniority breeds feelings of entitlement—seniors at USNA generally exhibited the least cooperative or other-regarding behavior.     

Vector quantization: clustering and classification trees

An image that is mapped into a bit stream suitable for communication over or storage in a digital medium is said to have been compressed. Using tree-structured vector quantizers (TSVQs) is an approach to image compression in which clustering algorithms are combined with ideas from tree-structured classification to provide code books that can be searched quickly and simply. The overall goal is to optimize the quality of the compressed image subject to a constraint on the communication or storage capacity, i.e. on the allowed bit rate. General goals of image compression and vector quantization are summarized in this paper. There is discussion of methods for code book design, particularly the generalized Lloyd algorithm for clustering, and methods for splitting and pruning that have been extended from the design of classification trees to TSVQs. The resulting codes, called pruned TSVQs, are of variable rate, and yield lower distortion than fixed-rate, full-search vector quantizers for a given average bit rate. They have simple encoders and a natural successive approximation (progressive) property. Applications of pruned TSVQs are discussed, particularly compressing computerized tomography images. In this work, the key issue is not merely the subjective attractiveness of the compressed image but rather whether the diagnostic accuracy is adversely aflected by compression. In recent work, TSVQs have been combined with other types of image processing, including segmentation and enhancement. The relationship between vector quantizer performance and the size of the training sequence used to design the code and other asymptotic properties of the codes are discussed.     

Union survival strategies for the twenty-first century

Clearly, the necessary changes in the law and culture will not come easily or quickly. But, transcending all forms of these labor market segments is a set of concerns that arguably should spur a search for common ground between labor and management. The proliferation of automated technologies, together with the continuing impact of foreign competition with cheap labor markets, has led some to predict that, over the next quarter century, we will witness the elimination of the blue-collar, mass assembly-line worker from the production process.¹⁴ Moreover, the theory that those losing jobs in the manufacturing sector will be generally absorbed into the service sector is losing currency as it is becoming clear that service jobs are, themselves, not invulnerable either to offshore outsourcing (e.g., telephone operators, data processors) or to automated technology (e.g., bank tellers, office secretaries). Nor is it realistic to expect the new “knowledge sector” to absorb more than a fraction of the unemployed and underemployed casualties of this transformation. As a result, the widening gap between the haves and have nots will only continue to grow. As the trend accelerates, certain possibilities for a labor-management accommodation emerge. For one thing, although corporations may be enjoying short-term gains from present wage stagnation, downsizing, outsourcing, and casting off of permanent employees, the longer term effects include a work force with considerably diminished consumer purchasing power. In some industries, corporations are already acknowledging the adverse effects of this trend. Furthermore, as employers are contributing into pension funds on behalf of fewer and fewer “employees,” the forced savings pool that has for many years constituted a primary financing source of capital investments in our economy, will gradually be depleted.¹⁵ At the same time as employers are coming face to face with the disadvantages of the union-free environment they have so long sought, employers are also rediscovering the contributions to productivity, quality, and efficiency that can be gained from a truly empowered work force with an independent voice in the workplace. All of this should lead an enlightened management to place less currency on resisting unionization and other legitimate forms of independent employee representation, and to join labor in advocating strong labor standards and effective labor law for all four of the labor market segments that exist today and will exist tomorrow. The authors wish to convey their deep appreciation for the invaluable contributions to this paper made by David Silberman of Bredhoff & Kaiser and Craig Becker, Associate General Counsel, Service Employees International Union. Another version of this paper was published in Labor Lawyer.     

Linking perceived organizational support with employee work outcomes in a Chinese context: Organizational identification as a mediator

Perceived organizational support (POS) is viewed as an important explanatory framework for understanding the relationship between employees and the workplace, and is regarded by some researchers as central in understanding job-related attitudes and behaviors of employees. However, less research has taken into account the role of organizational identification, which reflects how individuals define the self with respect to their organization, as a potential influence on such relationships. Drawing on a cross-organizational sample of 238 subordinate-supervisor dyads from the People’s Republic of China, we examined whether organizational identification mediates the effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on work outcomes including turnover intentions, work performance, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Results from the current study showed that organizational identification fully mediates the relation of POS to OCB-directed to individuals, and partially mediates relations between POS and other work outcomes (turnover intention, work performance, OCB-directed to organization). Implications for management theory and practice are discussed.     

Engagement: A Critical Aspect of Family Therapy Practice*

Engagement must be appreciated as an integral ongoing aspect of therapy. It can provide therapists with a wealth of information about the structure and functioning of the family. Engagement/counter-engagement, assessment and interventions are essential, interdependent processes which occur throughout treatment. Ways of enhancing the engagement process are discussed.     

From the Editor: Contending with the Power of Words

Sociological Forum -     

Assessing performance in local government

The author outlines the complexity of trying to measure performance in local government and poses the questions: performance review by whom?—elected members, professional officers, outside bodies and management consultants: for whom?—ratepayers, recipients of services, central government: and for what purpose?—to cut costs, to cut services, to improve efficiency. He then outlines the various techniques used to measure and assess performance in local government.     

On uniform approximation of Poisson variates by normal ones

In this paper the accuracy of the normal approximation to the Poisson is treated from the viewpoint of direct approximation of Poisson variables by normal ones. The conclusions that are derived on the accuracy of this approximation lead (among others) to very useful results on confidence limits for the mean of a linear combination of independent Poisson variables; these latter are employed in precise determination of the composition of a mixture of radioactive isotopes by means of a scintillation counter.