Field Instructors' Commitment to Student Supervision: Testing the Investment Model

The aim of the study was to examine field instructors' commitment to student supervision, using an adapted form of the Investment Model, which consists of six components related to supervision: rewards (positive aspects of the job), costs (negative aspects of the job), degree of investment in the job, quality of alternative jobs, satisfaction of the job, and commitment to the job. A non‐purposive sample of 178 field instructors of bachelor‐level social work students completed mailed questionnaires. The findings show that the greater the rewards, the greater the field instructors' commitment, investment, and satisfaction. On the other hand, higher job cost was inversely related to commitment, satisfaction, and investment. Job satisfaction mediated between rewards, cost, investment and job commitment. The article helps to illuminate some of the factors associated with field instructors' commitment to undergraduate student supervision and suggests ways of increasing it.     

Adolescent and Young Adult Male-to-Female Transsexuals: Pathways to Prostitution

Correspondence to Dr Ronit D. Leichtentritt or Dr Bilha Davidson Arad, Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. E-mail: ronitl{at}post.tau.ac.il Summary The current study aims to reveal the experiences of young male-to-femaletranssexuals who work as prostitutes in Israel, providing astage where the voice of this marginal group may be heard, aswe believe social workers need to know more about the realityof these young people’s lives before they can offer meaningfulresponses. The study was guided by two main questions: (1) Whataccounts do young male-to-female transsexuals who work as prostitutesprovide for their involvement in the sex industry? and (2) Whatare their experiences as young transsexuals engaged in prostitution?Using the life story interview and thematic analysis, two mainthemes were revealed: (a) what I ran away from or was thrownout of; and (b) why I became a prostitute, how I became professionalizedand why I continue to work as one. The first theme focuses ontranssexualism; the second on prostitution. Yet, these two themesare intertwined: from the respondents’ perspective, prostitutionis a price you must be willing to pay if you want to achievegender transformation at the beginning of the twenty-first centuryin Israel. Practical implications and further research are recommendedto better inform social workers assisting this high-risk population.     

Castor oil for induction of labor in post-date pregnancies: A randomized controlled trial

Background

Castor oil is a substance used for labor induction in an inpatient setting. However, its efficacy as an agent for the induction of labor, for post-date pregnancies in an outpatient setup is unknown.

It takes three to tango: Leadership and hostility in the service encounter

Leadership effectiveness is contingent on the ability to affect followers' emotions. This paper explores a model suggesting that the quality of the relationships between leaders and their followers (LMX) relates negatively to a display of negative emotions by employees during their interactions with customers, and subsequently relates to employees' performance and customers' emotions. The model was tested on a sample of 95 service employees and on 485 interactions between these employees and their customers. The findings show that LMX was negatively related to the display of hostility by employees towards their customers. Employee hostility was negatively related to employees' ability to provide a solution to customers' problems, which was further related to customers' hostility towards employees. We discuss the implications of these findings for both theory and practice.     

Euthanasia: Israeli Social Workers' Experiences, Attitudes and Meanings

Correspondence to Dr Ronit D. Leichtentritt, Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. E-mail: ronitl{at}post.tau.ac.il Summary Sixteen social workers in Israel were interviewed about theirexperiences with and attitudes towards various forms of euthanasia,as well as the meanings they ascribe to them. Using phenomenologicalanalysis, seven themes were identified, emphasizing individual,interpersonal, organizational, social and therapeutic considerations,and suggesting a holistic and integrative structure of the phenomenon.The themes were arrived at by identifying distinctions and similaritiesbetween different forms of euthanasia. Two themes suggestingsimilarities were revealed: ‘diminishing the value oflife’ and ‘a call for help’. Three themeswere found to distinguish between passive euthanasia (withholdingand withdrawing life-sustaining treatment) and active forms(active euthanasia and assisted suicide): ‘legality’,‘social acceptance’ and ‘concern for the sickand dying’. The last two themes distinguished betweenwithholding treatment and assisted suicide, on the one hand,and withdrawing treatment and active euthanasia, on the other:‘the involvement of others as executor’ and ‘thepublicity of the act’. Further research and training isrequired to better inform social workers in this ethical area.Given their unique position, social workers should activelyparticipate in legal, social and therapeutic discussions concerningend-of-life decisions, for the benefit of clients, their familiesand health-care providers.     

Paradox versus dilemma mindset: A theory of how women leaders navigate the tensions between agency and communion

A wealth of literature documents that women leaders can face simultaneous and yet conflictual demands for both agency and communion, due to the incongruence of their leader role and gender role demands. However, we still know little about why some women cope with the tensions between agency and communion better than others and what implications are involved. Using a paradox perspective, we develop a theoretical model to explain how women leaders experience and respond to agency-communion tensions, which impacts their intrapersonal and interpersonal outcomes. Specifically, we propose that in response to experiencing tensions fueled by the dual demands for agency and communion, women leaders can adopt a paradox mindset that simultaneously embraces agency and communion, or a dilemma mindset that dichotomizes agency and communion. The paradox mindset helps women leaders build psychological resilience, identity coexistence, and leadership effectiveness, whereas those who adopt a dilemma mindset experience depleted resilience, identity separation, and lowered leadership effectiveness. Further, our model highlights individual, interpersonal, and organizational conditions that shape women's experience and stimulate a paradox mindset versus a dilemma mindset. We conclude by discussing theoretical and practical implications of our model.     

Effects of Conflict Styles and Conflict Severity on Quality of Life of Men and Women in Family Businesses

Studies show that family businesses need to manage conflict, but there has been little research on different conflict manifestations and their impact on families involved in businesses together. This study investigates the impact of six conflict styles on severity of conflict and quality of life for husbands and wives in 206 farm family businesses. Data analysis was done using structural equation modeling, with independent models for each gender. For men, the assertion style negatively impacted, and aggression positively impacted the severity of conflict; for women, aggression and withdrawal styles positively impacted, and denial negatively impacted severity of conflict. There was a strong negative relationship between severity of conflict and quality of life for both men and women in family businesses.     

Social Networks and Sustained Activism in Local NIMBY Campaigns

This paper compares six NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) movement organizations to explain why some of these social movement organizations expanded their goals while others did not. Analysis of interview and survey (N = 113) data reveals that friendship networks within the movement foster goal expansion (in part because people want to preserve the context for these friendships). External local political networks promoting their own rhetorical and resource agendas will inhibit goal expansion if they establish trusted links to the NIMBY organizations.