Updating Rurality Index for Small Areas in Spain

Nowadays, there is a wide debate about what rural means. An operational definition of rural concept is essential in order to measure health problems, optimize resource allocation and facilitate decision making aimed at closing the gap on inequity between areas. In 2005, the rurality index for Small Areas in Spain (IRAP) was developed using the 1991 Census of Population data. Nevertheless, the concept and definition of rurality may evolve through time. In order to capture these changes, the variables used to make up the rurality index should be reviewed and updated periodically. Along these lines, and within the context of the rural–urban continuum, the aim of this paper is to replicate and update the IRAP using the data provided by the 2001 Census of Population, as well as to describe the changes in rurality observed in each municipality between 1991 and 2001. The index was updated on a Principal Components Factor Analysis, giving rise to a single factor that is correlated to the aging of the population, economic dependency, farming, livestock or fishing-related employment, self-employment, second dwelling ratio, population density, immigration and perception of noises and atmospheric pollution in the surroundings of the residential area. Most variables that made up the 1991 IRAP remain as important components of the 2001 index, indicating the robust nature of the measure. Only 10% of the Spanish municipalities have changed their rurality status between the two Censuses. The 2001 rurality index can be considered a good updated approach to the concept of rurality in Spain as well as an important criterion to social policies.     

On the trail of line managers as talent spotters

The deliberate identification of talent is a critical process in most organizations. Performance ratings and senior management recommendations are its main sources, revealing the importance of line managers in the process. Nevertheless, some managers do have a talent for talent spotting and little is known about their behaviours as effective talent spotters. We explore, through social cognition, as part of the social psychology framework, the practices required to execute the talent identification process (TIP). An exploratory and qualitative method was adopted for this study; 21 line managers of an Argentine holding describe their experiences as talent spotters through semi-structured interviews. Findings show that the identification process is a complex and iterative one, in which several behaviours come into play, interrelated among each other. This interaction involves talent identification and talent development behaviours, deployed in a synergetic way. The relationship building behaviours set the foundations for the identification process to bear fruit. Distinct skills are necessary at different stages of the identification process for line managers to fulfil the talent spotter role. Finally, a model of the TIP is proposed.     

Do ‘soft law’ board gender quotas work? Evidence from a natural experiment

In a new era of “open governance”, in which societal and corporate change is taking place, 15 predominantly European countries, including Spain, enacted board gender quotas to increase the share of women on boards. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of the European Union’s first “soft” quota – the 2007 Spanish Gender Equality Act recommending all large public and private Spanish firms to appoint a target of 40 percent of each gender to serve as board directors by 2015. The Act provides an incentive in that quota compliant firms may receive a preference for the tendering of public contracts. We draw on institutional and resource dependency theories to motivate the first empirical test of a “soft” quota which is distinct from Norway’s “hard law” board gender quota, and more similar to the proposed EU-wide quota. Using a large novel panel of 767 Spanish firms and 2786 firm-year observations from 2005 to 2014, we exploit the Spanish Act as a natural experiment and employ a difference-in-differences model. We find that less than nine percent of targeted firms fully comply with the quota. Firms that depend on public contracts are significantly more likely to increase female representation, although quota compliant firms do not actually benefit from the Act’s potential incentive. The results highlight the Spanish government’s lack of commitment to the quota, and that the quota’s normative obligations did not trigger the adoption of gender-balanced boards.     

The inclusion of the other in ourselves: reception and comprehension of refugees in Portugal

Abstract

The intensification of different types of migration movements during the last decades is an expression of growing interconnections at the global level. The so called ‘refugee crisis’ is the most visible sign of this intensification. It currently challenges societies to rethink the processes of integrating those fleeing from humanitarian crises and wars. Portuguese civil society has pioneered the creation of a Refugee Support Platform, aimed to address the challenges associated with the arrival of refugee families. Within this platform, an e-learning course was created to help institutions and host families prepare for this task. In the article we first describe this course, focusing our analysis on the relevance of this initiative for institutions, families, and private citizens that wish to welcome refugees in Portugal. We then briefly reflect on the literature pertaining to intercultural dialogue and social tensions. In the final section we analyse the voices of those who attended the course. We conclude with an analysis of the contents of the course modules and the participation of the trainees as a contribution to their self-transformation.     

The struggle for the state and the politics of belonging in contemporary Angola, 1975–2015

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Angola’s independence, this essay revisits key dimensions of the country’s postcolonial trajectory through the prism of the complex politics of the nationalist struggle and the first decades of self-rule. Its goal is to provide a series of reflections, mostly centred on the MPLA regime, rather than a comprehensive treatment of all political actors in Angolan politics of recent decades. It argues, firstly, that Angola’s trajectory from independence to the end of the country’s long civil war in 2002 was powerfully conditioned by the structural legacies of late colonialism, the associated intra-nationalist politics and the particular circumstances of the end of empire in 1975. To these legacies, the essay adds the (constrained, but real) choices made by Angolan decision-makers in terms of institutional consolidation, the management of the economy and state–society relations. Secondly, the essay outlines the extent to which the MPLA’s 2002 victory against UNITA in the country’s civil war did away with the fragmentation that had characterised Angolan politics since the 1960s. The clashing, indeed mutually exclusionary, nationalist projects that had jostled for control of the Angolan state were replaced by a would-be hegemonic political force with a strong sense of legitimacy and a self-defined project of postwar nation building. The key question for the contemporary study of Angola – and one that the oil-fuelled politics of the national reconstruction era provided plenty of reflection on – is the extent to which the MPLA’s postwar vision can supersede the country’s historical divisions and provide the population with both the material prosperity it yearns for and a shared understanding of belonging.     

Corporate responsibility in U.S. corporate websites: A pilot study

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an essential component in the management of companies around the globe. Any key strategy used for CSR administration must reflect strong and effective communication channels to show CSR efforts. This study analyzes how the top 50 American profitable corporations from the Fortune 500 of 2009 communicate their CSR initiatives to different stakeholders through their corporate websites. To do this, an evaluation framework has been designed to examine features presented in CSR corporate websites.     

LACK OF COMMITMENT AND THE LEVEL OF DEBT

The tendency of countries to accumulate public debt has been rationalized in models of political disagreement and lack of commitment. We analyze in a benchmark model how the evolution of public debt is affected by lack of commitment per se. While commitment introduces indeterminacy in the level of debt, lack of commitment creates incentives for debt to converge to specific levels. One of the levels that debt often converges to implies no debt accumulation at all. In a simple example we prove analytically that debt converges to zero, and we analyze numerically more complex models. We also show in an imperfect credibility setting that a small deviation from full‐commitment is enough to obtain these results.     

Human resource development,organization development,organizational learning,and organizational effectiveness: all needed more than ever

In this study the Job Demand-Control model was used to study the quality of working life of Dutch secondary teachers. The Job Demand-Control model of Karasek is a theoretical model in which stress and learning are both considered as dependent variables which are influenced by three different task characteristics: job demands, job control, and social support. This model was tested for Dutch secondary teachers (n = 542). Results shed light on the relationship between stress and learning, on the one hand, and the effects of task characteristics on work stress and on work-based learning, on the other hand. It is concluded that the relationship between stress and learning is mediated by the amount of job control as the model predicts. However, the results also reveal that the Karasek model is better suited for explaining stress than for explaining learning. To explain work-based learning variables other than task characteristics have to be taken into account.     

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