The Role of Leader Influence Tactics and Safety Climate in Engaging Employees'' Safety Participation

This study examines the effect of leader influence tactics on employee safety participation in a U.K.-based manufacturing organization, examining the role of safety climate as a mediator. Structural equation modeling showed that leader influence tactics associated with a transformational leadership style had significant relationships with safety participation that were partially mediated by the safety climate (consultation) or fully mediated by the safety climate (inspirational appeals). In addition, leader influence tactics associated with a transactional leadership style had significant relationships with safety participation: rational persuasion (partially mediated by safety climate) and coalition tactics (direct effect). Thus, leaders may encourage safety participation using a combination of influence tactics, based on rational arguments, involvement in decision making, and generating enthusiasm for safety. The influence of building trust in managers is discussed as an underlying mechanism in this relationship. Practical implications are highlighted, including the design of leadership development programs, which may be particularly suited to high-reliability organizations.     

Confidentiality of child and adolescent treatment records

The confidentiality of records of a child or an adolescents who is receiving therapeutic intervention is not an absolute right. There are certain conditions under which the records of a minor who is undergoing treatment can be reviewed by others without prior written consent. This issue will be explored using the application of case laws to various conditions under which other professionals who are not directly involved in the minor's treatment may become privy to the individual's records.She has several years of experience in medical social work and as a chemical dependency counselor.     

A Comparison of Federal Laws Toward Disabled and Racial/Ethnic Groups in the USA

This paper asks if federal legislation for disabled people differs from that for racial/ethnic groups in the United States. It compares the history and content of federal legislation which affects each group, and it compares the ways existing laws for each group handle the issues of employment discrimination, integration in education, access, and equal protection under the law. It shows that there are clear differences in content and coverage for each group in types of discrimination permitted under existing federal laws.     

WOMEN'S MARITAL TIMING AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY:

This article utilizes accelerated failure time models to estimate the effect of immigration, generation, and ethnicity on timing of first marriage among women living in the United States in 1910. Although historical research suggests that family need resulted in marital delay, I argue that family strategies for socioeconomic mobility is a more likely explanation. Second-generation women from groups experiencing substantial socioeconomic mobility across the generations demonstrate the greatest likelihood of marital delay; this is particularly notable for Jewish women. Migration does not have the expected delaying effect on marriage; those arriving as children or single adults marry at younger ages than either those who wed in the country of origin or their second-generation counterparts. Findings are discussed in light of ethnic group stratification and the importance of integrating women into mobility frameworks.     

Social Context at Work: A Multilevel Analysis of Job Satisfaction

Analyzing data on classified employees working in 18 departments in a university, this paper uses hierarchical linear models to explore the effects of social context on workers' job satisfaction. Drawing on organizational demographers' claims that satisfying social relations in the workplace have demographic sources and that workers are more satisfied in demographically homogeneous work units, we examine the effects of department-level sex and race heterogeneity on workers' feelings about their jobs. Our results show that satisfaction levels are lower in more sex- and race-heterogeneous departments, as hypothesized. In addition, we found that satisfaction is higher in departments with higher average levels of job tenure, though the individual-level effect of tenure on job satisfaction was not statistically significant. Our results provide support for a social-relational view of work and demonstrate the usefulness of multilevel models as an analytic strategy for examining these issues.     

Planning—Satisfaction and productivity

The areas of worker satisfaction and productivity have been of continual importance to managers of all types of organizations. Unfortunately, the analysis of these topics have usually been done in a segmented manner. This article attempts to develop a total conceptual scheme for planning to increase worker satisfaction and employee productivity. Both internal work and external environmental components are included in the models which examine social psychological, physical, and environmental components of the worker's life in a total system's approach.     

No going back: A review of the literature on sustaining organizational change

Why do some organizational changes persist, while others decay? The sustainability of change can be defined broadly as the process through which new working methods, performance goals and improvement trajectories are maintained for a period appropriate to a given context. However, sustainability has received limited attention, although the concept reflects Lewin's concern with ‘refreezing’ ( Lewin. K. 1951 . Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers by Kurt Lewin, UK edition published 1952, ed. D. Cartwright, London: Tavistock). In an uncertain environment, working practices that fail to adapt are targets for change, and stability has been regarded not as a condition to be achieved, but as a symptom of inertia, a problem to be solved. This paper reviews the emerging literature, seeking to develop a provisional model of the processes influencing change sustainability and decay, as a platform for further research. This review suggests that sustainability is dependent on multiple factors, at different levels of analysis: substantial, individual, managerial, financial, leadership, organizational, cultural, political, processual, contextual and temporal. The relative significance of those factors cannot be determined a priori, raising questions concerning the properties of the sustainability process with regard to different types of change in different contexts.     

The Power Behind Empowerment: Implications for Research and Practice

The 1990s have been called theempowerment era, yet growing evidencesuggests that empowerment programs often fail to meetthe expectations of both managers and employees. Toprovide a better understanding as to why empowerment programs often fail andto suggest how such failures may be averted, we examinethe power behind empowerment. Ironically, although powerand empowerment are inextricably linked, much of the work on empowerment in the businessliterature has been devoid of any discussion of power.We present a four-dimensional model which shows themultifaceted way in which power works. In it, we observe the similarities and differences in the waysthat different theorists have approached the study ofpower, notably those ascribing to mainstream , critical, and Foucauldian perspectives. We then use this power model as a lens with which to examineempowerment practices in business. This analysissuggests a number of possible reasons for the failure ofbusiness empowerment programs and provides directions for future research and practice which mightaddress these shortcomings.     

Parenting Practices of Resident Fathers: The Role of Marital and Biological Ties

This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,098) to examine differences in the parenting practices of four types of resident fathers, defined by their biological relationship to a focal child and their marital status with regard to the focal child's mother. Regression results suggest that biological and social (i.e., stepfathers or mothers' cohabiting partners) fathers differ significantly, and in some unexpected ways, on most measures of parenting. However, a considerable portion of these differences can be explained by variation in the background characteristics of the individuals and families in each group. Additionally, difference-in-difference analyses reveal a stronger link between marriage and higher quality parenting practices among social fathers than among biological fathers.