Using a Consultant Workshop Model to Improve Performance Management in Chinese Autism Agencies: A Preliminary Study

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the outcomes of using a consultant workshop model to help implement performance management (PM) methods in selected Chinese autism agencies. A need for improvement of educational services in Chinese autism agencies was identified. However, the theory and methods of organizational behavior management (OBM) in general and PM in particular are still foreign in the Chinese autism community. The primary research question of the current study was whether first-line teacher performance in Chinese autism agencies could be improved by the use of a consultant workshop model to train management staff to implement a PM system. Four autism agencies in different Chinese provinces participated in this study. Results demonstrated that after the implementation of the PM system through a consultant workshop model in the participating agencies, the performance of first-line teachers in these agencies improved in several important areas. The intervention appeared modestly effective. Implications of the outcome data and future directions for practitioners and researchers are discussed.     

Confidence to be given findings derived from fixed-period definitions of migration

Some of the errors in measurement of migration and its determinants that occur with the use of fixed-period data are identified. Consideration of this issue yields a typology of studies based on the nature of the determinants related to migration. Sources of distortion are numerated. The logical severity of each distortion is detailed. Use of the typology permits an appraisal of the potential confidence to be given to the validity of findings associated with classes of migration research which use fixed-period data. A test case is examined to illustrate the usefulness of the typology.This research was supported in part by the NSF Grant No. SOC76-81767, for the study, "A Test of Competing Explanations for Migration Differentials." Funds for computer time and technical assistance were also provided by the Department of Sociology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.     

Measurement of negative affectivity: A comparison of self-reports and observer ratings

Both self-report and non-self-report measures (co-worker ratings) of negative affectivity (NA) were obtained. Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that these two measures of NA would be moderately correlated. It was also expected that self-report measure of NA would be more strongly correlated with self-reported stressors and strains than would the co-worker measure. Finally, it was predicted that statistically controlling for self-reported NA would attenuate stressor-strain correlations more than would controlling for co-worker ratings of NA. A sample of 121 full-time employees who were pursuing graduate degrees completed self-report measures of stressors, strains, and negative affectivity. These individuals also asked two co-workers to assess their level of negative affectivity. Results supported all three hypotheses. Specifically, there was modest convergence between self-reported and co-worker NA. In addition, self-reported NA was more strongly correlated with self-reported stressors and strains than was the co-worker NA measure. Finally, statistically controlling for self-reported NA attenuated stressor-strain correlations much more than controlling for co-worker NA. These results suggest that observer ratings may be of some use in future NA research. Other implications of these findings are discussed.     

EXPLODING THE MYTH: DO ALL QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES CONTRIBUTE TO SUPERIOR QUALITY PERFORMANCE?

In his landmark article on total quality management, Powell (1995) lamented the lack of large scale studies investigating quality management practices and performance. This study begins to fill that void using a large, random sample of manufacturing sites. The results show that quality practices can be categorized into nine dimensions. However, not all of them contribute to superior quality outcomes. “Employee commitment,” “shared vision,” and “customer focus” combine to yield a positive correlation with quality outcomes. Conversely, other “hard” quality practices, such as “benchmarking,” “cellular work teams,” “advanced manufacturing technologies,” and “close supplier relations” do not contribute to superior quality outcomes.     

Cooperation and Knowledge Transfer within Buyer–Supplier Relationships: The Moderating Properties of Trust,Relationship Duration and Supplier Performance*

This paper examines the effect of relational factors on knowledge transfer within strategic buyer–supplier exchange. Prior research examining inter‐firm knowledge transfer has focused almost exclusively on horizontal forms of governance such as strategic alliances and joint ventures, whilst research on vertical forms, such as buyer–supplier relationships, is limited. We test the effect of four important relational properties: cooperation, trust, relationship duration and supplier performance. Quantitative data, gathered from 104 UK manufacturing firms in eight industry sectors, are used to analyse the hypothesized relationships through a moderated hierarchical regression model. Our study provides support for the importance of considering relational factors in the transfer of knowledge at the inter‐organizational level. In particular, the results indicate that knowledge transfer is positively influenced by the extent of cooperation, but that this relationship is moderated by the level of trust and the performance of the supplier firm. Managerial implications for these findings and future directions for research are then offered.     

Governing Sleepiness: Somnolent Bodies, Discourse, and Liquid Modernity

This paper is an inquiry into how a new truth about sleepiness is being produced in a society increasingly organized around the primacy of expertise and its representation in print and visual media. Sleepiness originally described a benign, naturally occurring corporeal moment, a precursor to sleep. Increasingly, however, a new and disturbing meaning of somnolence is found in a juncture of medical and epidemiological research, social movements, and popular culture. Alongside the idea that sleepiness is a tranquil promise of repose is another, emerging truth. Sleepiness, we are told, is hazardous to self and others, and, importantly, it is each person's responsibility to resist this seductive call of the body. How, we ask, is a private, routinely occurring state of partial consciousness deprivatized, linked to public health vernaculars, and transformed into a reprobate condition? This alternative, disturbing truth about sleepiness is shown to be emerging from several disparate, seemingly unrelated caches of scientific studies, social movement literatures, magazines and newspapers, and web sites. The ideas of Michel Foucault, who pioneered the contemporary study of discourse, are shown to be particularly apropos to this inquiry, though not without some modification to make them more amenable to a contemporary society shaped increasingly by what Zygmunt Bauman calls “liquid modernity.”     

Empirical Research into White Racialized Identities in Britain

The intellectual project of using whiteness as an explicit tool of analysis is not one that has taken root in Britain. However, there are a number of empirical studies that investigate the racialization of white identities. In this article, I look at some empirical sociological fieldwork carried out on white identities in Britain since the early 1990s and identify the key themes arising. These themes are (in)visibility, norms and values, cultural capital and integration, contingent hierarchies and Empire in the present. In Britain, a pertinent distinction is between rural and urban settings for the enactment of white identities vis-à-vis those of minorities, and there is an exploration of some of the contingency that draws the boundary between 'white' and 'Other' in different places. Areas of commonality and distinctiveness are noted in terms of the American work. In the last section, I argue that there are a number of issues to resolve around continuing such studies, including linking the micro-level to the macro-level analysis, and expanding to international comparative work.     

Linguistic Labels and Categorization in Infancy: Do Labels Facilitate or Hinder?

Although it is generally accepted that labels facilitate categorization in infancy, recent evidence suggests that infants and young children are more likely to process visual input when presented in isolation than when paired with nonlinguistic sounds or linguistic labels. These findings suggest that auditory input (when compared to a no‐auditory baseline) may hinder rather than facilitate categorization. This study assessed 8‐month‐olds' (n = 191) and 12‐month‐olds' (n = 81) abilities to form categories when images were paired with nonlinguistic sounds, linguistic labels, and when presented in isolation. Overall, infants accumulated more looking when visual stimuli were accompanied by sounds or labels; however, infants were more likely to categorize when the visual images were presented without an auditory stimulus.