A meta-analytic review of leadership impact research: Experimental and quasi-experimental studies

In this study we set out to conduct a comprehensive quantitative research analysis of literature reporting results on the causal impact of leadership by focusing on examining what we refer to as ‘leadership interventions.’ We defined leadership interventions as those studies where the researcher overtly manipulated leadership as the independent variable through training, assignment, scenario or other means. Our focus included both examining experimental and quasi-experimental as well as lab and field studies conducted in public and private organizations. Our goal was to address a simple question: do leadership interventions have the intended impact and if so to what degree? We conducted a comprehensive review of the published and unpublished literature and uncovered 200 lab and field studies that met our criterion as leadership intervention studies. We report here the findings of a series of meta-analyzed effects comparing the relative impact of leadership interventions across intervention types, leadership theories, and several common dependent variables. Overall, leadership interventions produced a 66% probability of achieving a positive outcome versus a 50–50 random effect for treatment participants, but this effect varied significantly when assessing moderators such as type of leadership theory.     

Ecological Risk Assessment Framework for Low-Altitude Aircraft Overflights: I. Planning the Analysis and Estimating Exposure

An ecological risk assessment framework for low-altitude aircraft overflights was developed, with special emphasis on military applications. The problem formulation and exposure analysis phases are presented in this article; an analysis of effects and risk characterization is presented in a companion article. The intent of this article is threefold: (1) to illustrate the development of a generic framework for the ecological risk assessment of an activity, (2) to show how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ecological risk assessment paradigm can be applied to an activity other than the release of a chemical, and (3) to provide guidance for the assessment of ecological risks from low-altitude aircraft overflights. The key stressor for low-altitude aircraft overflights is usually sound, although visual and physical (collision) stressors may also be significant. Susceptible and regulated wildlife populations are the major assessment endpoint entities, although plant communities may be impacted by takeoffs and landings. The exposure analysis utilizes measurements of wildlife locations, measurements of sound levels at the wildlife locations, measurements of slant distances from aircraft to wildlife, models that extrapolate sound from the source aircraft to the ground, and bird-strike probability models. Some of the challenges to conducting a risk assessment for aircraft overflights include prioritizing potential stressors and endpoints, choosing exposure metrics that relate to wildlife responses, obtaining good estimates of sound or distance, and estimating wildlife locations.     

Gender Inequality and Economic Growth in Rural China

This article joins the debate over the effect of market-driven economic development on women's work opportunities and household gender inequalities. It assesses women's opportunities for off-farm employment, the relative contributions of female off-farm workers to household income, and the distribution of power in families whose male members have left for off-farm jobs, leaving women behind in agricultural work. We find that women are not uniformly excluded from opportunities for off-farm employment and that economic development does not uniformly increase gender inequalities within Chinese households. Although men are more likely than women to obtain off-farm employment in China, women's opportunities for off-farm work improve significantly when the coexistence of local and regional marketization creates a shortage of male workers and compels employers to hire women. The relative size of contributions to household income for male and female nonfarm workers also narrows incrementally with increased marketization. In addition, women who are left in agricultural work are more likely to become heads of household, a position which brings greater household decision-making power to female family members.     

Resignation or Dismissal?: When a CEO and a President Clash

In the executive director's opinion, Bluehills Family Services' board of directors had serious problems with their organizational governance. These difficulties came to a head in an apparently unresolvable clash between the executive director and the board president. Given the preexisting board and organization perceptions, could an emergency board meeting produce a positive outcome, and would the executive director's participation be counterproductive?     

Regenerating the Inner City: Lessons from the UK's City Challenge Experience

This paper uses the findings of the evaluation of Stratford City Challenge (SCC) to critically examine the effectiveness of the City Challenge policy and to question the extent to which it was an innovation in urban policy, with lessons which have been incorporated into subsequent policies. It examines the particular characteristics of the policy which contributed to its innovative status, many of which have been incorporated into policies such as New Deal and the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB). What local evaluations such as the one which has been carried out in Stratford suggest is that many of these distinctive characteristics actually constrained the capacity of local programmes to be effective and achieve their aims, as to some extent they dictated the types of projects most likely to succeed. The author suggests that there are lessons which could be drawn from the City Challenge experience, but that many of these were overlooked or not fully considered by policy makers when they introduced subsequent policies such as the SRB and New Deal. Thus these policies may encounter similar problems in achieving their aims, and an opportunity to learn from these evaluations and build on past experiences has not been fully maximized. This paper uses SCC as a case study to draw out some of the wider implications of the experience for national policy.     

Living in poverty: a qualitative inquiry of emaciated adolescents and young women coming from low-income families in a Chinese context

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is no longer a disease of the rich in the West. Hitherto, no study has been carried out in the West or in the Chinese context that documents the experiences of poor people suffering from AN. This qualitative study aims to identify the subjective experiences of seven Chinese emaciated adolescents and young women coming from low‐income families, their family difficulties and needs, and resilience in coping. The results of the study have shown that family poverty has significantly triggered the onset of AN for two emaciated adolescents, while factors such as parents’ marital discord and relentless pursuit of thinness have also been reported. Family difficulties experienced included problems in parenting, inadequate financial resources, and insufficient information and access to health and social services. Strong family motivation and filial piety are found to be important cultural assets conducive to recovery. Implications of this study for social work practice are discussed.