Women’s Timing of Receipt of Social Security Retirement Benefits

The 2000–2006 waves of Health and Retirement Study data were used to estimate the effects of human capital characteristics and income sources on women’s timing of receipt of Social Security retirement benefits. Using logistic regression, the likelihood of early election of benefits was increased by earnings regardless of marital status; and, for married women, by husband’s age being greater than wife’s, and by other income. For married women, education decreased the likelihood of electing early benefits. For unmarried women, IRA/annuity income reduced the likelihood of early receipt of benefits. Using multinomial logistic regression, the likelihood of combinations of expected and actual benefit receipt options were estimated. A greater percentage of married, compared to unmarried, women expected and elected early benefits.     

Nothing Matters

This essay reads Miller reading literature and zero, zero in literature, tracing how a doubling at the heart of zero is echoed in Miller's work. Miller's fascination and engagement with literature as otherness invokes the ambiguity of the sign O, sharing its figure with a figure that isn't a figure, impossibly at once letter and numeral, now converging in Miller's text on zero in literature. Literature, like zero, like the lover, like the Other, incessantly invites analysis only to elude understanding. Nothing matters because it is a place of slippage, playfully unsettling our most deeply ingrained beliefs.     

Crawling is Associated with Mental Rotation Ability by 9‐Month‐Old Infants

The present experiment examined whether 9‐month‐old infants’ mental rotation ability was related to their crawling ability. Forty‐eight 9‐month‐old infants were tested; half of them crawled for 7.1 weeks on average. Infants were habituated to a video of a simplified Shepard–Metzler object rotating back and forth through a 240° angle around the longitudinal axis of the object. Infants were tested with videos of the same object rotating through the previously unseen 120° angle and with the mirror image of that display. The results showed that the crawlers looked significantly longer at the mirror object than at the familiar object. The results support the interpretation that crawling experience is associated with 9‐month‐old infants’ mental rotation ability.     

Balance in leader and follower perceptions of leader–member exchange: Relationships with performance and work attitudes

Using a sample of 285 matched pairs of employees and supervisors, we explore the extent to which congruence in leader and follower ratings of LMX quality is related to follower job performance and work attitudes. An original conceptual model is introduced that identifies four combinations of leader and follower LMX ratings: balanced/low LMX (low leader and follower LMX), balanced/high LMX (high leader and follower LMX), follower overestimation (low leader LMX/high follower LMX), and follower underestimation (high leader LMX/low follower LMX). As expected, balanced/low (high) LMX relationships were associated with relatively low (high) levels of follower job performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction, while the incongruent combinations generally yielded intermediate levels of follower outcomes. However, follower underestimation was also related to high levels of follower job performance, whereas follower overestimation was associated with high levels of follower satisfaction and organizational commitment. Implications of these findings for future LMX research are considered.     

The intersection of leadership and entrepreneurship: Mutual lessons to be learned

Leadership scholars are quite familiar with the often convoluted and problematic path that leadership theory has taken. Despite these challenges, leadership is currently considered a “mature field” [Hunt, J.G., & Dodge, G.E. (2000). Leader Deja Vu all over again. The Leadership Quarterly, 11 (4), 453–458] even though this maturity has not been achieved without considerable growing pains. Similar to the path that leadership scholars have taken, those who study entrepreneurship also struggle with issues associated with a field in its early stages. This review examines the intersection between the fields of leadership and entrepreneurship with an emphasis on how the path taken by leadership research can inform entrepreneurship and possibly lessen this young field's growing pains. We first identify several areas where these fields theoretically converge (both in the models employed and the research questions addressed). Next, we take a historical perspective of leadership and entrepreneurship by identifying the life cycle stage of each construct or domain. Finally, we conclude with some thoughts on how the entrepreneurship field may avoid (or is avoiding) the pitfalls experienced by those who study leadership.     

Islamic death rituals in a small town context in The Netherlands: explorations of a common praxis for professionals

Islamic tradition tends to present death rituals in a quite univocal way, as the actual ritual practice shows to be far more diverse and flexible. This study focuses on the particular ritual of the cleansing of the deceased as it is practiced by a variety of Muslims in a small town context in The Netherlands. The presented vignettes are drawn on qualitative research data from interviews and (participant) observations. They are presented to draw attention to the different contexts that shape the religious and ritual practice of a variety of Muslims in The Netherlands. To develop an eye for this common praxis, it is important not only to be aware of the religious dimensions but also of the social dimensions. By offering insights into the actual practices it aims to offer tangible leads to professionals for a more tailor-made care for Muslim patients and their relatives.     

‘NOTHING POWERFUL LIKE WORDS SPOKEN’

This article examines the rhetorical techniques black British female rap artists appropriate and manipulate when they compose and perform their songs. To this end, this work probes how they explore female agency and respond to political, race, class and gender inequity in their compositions. In all, this discussion corrects the virtual absence of black British female rap emcees from transatlantic discourses by offering a close reading of the hip-hop narratives written and/or performed by Shystie, Tor Cesay, Speech Debelle and Ms. Dynamite.