The will to sanction: How sensitive are caseworkers to recipients’ responsibility when imposing sanctions on non-compliance in a welfare-to-work programme?

The activation trend in social policy entails that caseworkers on the frontlines of the welfare state are expected to decide ‘reasonable’ activation requirements for clients and when and how non-compliance should be sanctioned. This study investigates how caseworkers form judgements about their clients’ personal responsibility when activation requirements are violated and how their judgements about responsibility matter for the sanctions they impose. We find that caseworkers are sensitive to personal responsibility, varying the motivation for not fulfilling the activation requirement from a case where the client has less control (circumstances) to one with more control (choice) more than doubles sanctions.     

Leadership Styles as Predictors of Self‐reported and Observed Workplace Bullying

The connection between leadership or management style, on the one hand, and perceptions of bullying, on the other, has received little attention within bullying research. Hence, the aim of this study is to examine the relationship between subordinates' ratings of their immediate superiors' behaviours, and both perceived exposure and claims of observations of bullying at work. Based on a sampling process which emphasized randomness and representativeness, the responses from 5288 respondents in Great Britain taking part in a nationwide study on psychosocial issues at work were included in the analysis. Bullying correlated with all four leadership styles measured. Yet, ‘non‐contingent punishment’ emerged as the strongest predictor of self‐perceived exposure to bullying, while autocratic leadership was the strongest predictor of observed bullying. Hence, while observers particularly associate bullying with autocratic or tyrannical leader behaviour, targets relate bullying more to non‐contingent punishment, i.e. an unpredictable style of leadership, where punishment is meted out or delivered on leaders' own terms, independent of the behaviour of subordinates. In addition, laissez‐faire leadership emerged as a predictor of self‐reported as well as observed bullying. Thus, leadership styles seem to play an important but complex role in the bullying process.     

A structured procedure for materials planning during production transfer

This paper explores materials planning procedures to ensure the materials’ availability during production transfers. The paper defines a production transfer as the preparation, physical transfer and start-up of relocated production. A structured procedure of materials planning during production transfer is developed based on theory, and then validated and refined based on the analysis of four case studies. The paper shows that there is a need for a structured procedure of materials planning during production transfers. It also explains the importance of activities that create prerequisites for the materials’ availability during production transfer, such as updating and adapting documentation, planning and control systems, and describes the activities that ensure the materials’ availability, such as preventive and corrective actions. A valid estimation of the time needed to reach a steady state and a combination of several preventive actions improves the ability to ensure that materials are available. The cases showed differences across company size, because large companies took more and farther-reaching preventive actions.     

Financial issues in strategic planning

In this article the author considers a variety of financial issues which have an important bearing on strategic planning. Mr. Zettergren develops a financial model in the article with the objectives of making it easy to comprehend yet detailed enough to account for most pertinent factors.     

Coalitional strategy-proof and resource-monotonic solutions for multiple assignment problems

We consider the problem of allocating indivisible objects when agents may desire to consume more than one object and monetary transfers are not possible. Each agent receives a set of objects and free disposal is allowed. We are interested in allocation rules that satisfy appealing properties from an economic and social point of view. Our main result shows that sequential dictatorships are the only efficient and coalitional strategy-proof solutions to the multiple assignment problem. Adding resource-monotonicity narrows this class down to serial dictatorships.We thank Francois Maniquet, two anonymous referees, and the participants of the GREBE-FRANCQUI Summer School on Axiomatic Resource Allocation Theory, held in Namur, Belgium, for their comments.     

The Probabilistic Final Standing Calculator: a fair stochastic tool to handle abruptly stopped football seasons

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis - The COVID-19 pandemic has left its marks in the sports world, forcing the full stop of all sports-related activities in the first half of 2020. Football...     

Fathers' employment in a father-friendly welfare state: does fatherhood affect men's working hours?

An important aim of Norwegian work–family policies is to enhance the family role of fathers. Time-use surveys show a slight increase in fathers’ family work, but we still know little about the relationship between men's family circumstances and working hours. On the one hand, policy measures encourage the greater involvement of fathers in family life. On the other hand, men are the main providers in most couples and employment and breadwinning are still important components of men's fathering identity. In this paper, we examine the relationship between fatherhood and working time, with a particular focus on the possible effects of the number and ages of children. Utilizing the Norwegian Labour Force Survey 2005, we find that men's contractual working hours are not significantly affected by their parental status, but men do curtail their actual working hours when they have young children, and particularly if there is only one child in the household. However, men with school-aged children actually work longer hours than non-fathers and men with young children.     

The Effects of Ethnic Minority Adolescents' Ethnic Self‐Identification on Friendship Selection

This study investigated the effects of ethnic minority adolescents' ethnic self‐identification (host country, dual, or heritage country) on friendship choices among ethnic majority and minority peers. Hypotheses were derived from similarity–attraction and social identity theory and tested using longitudinal social network data from 1,004 middle school students (five schools) in Germany. Results showed that ethnic minority adolescents' ethnic self‐identification affected friendship selection beyond ethnic homophily. While host country and dual identification was beneficial with respect to friendships with both ethnic majority and minority peers, heritage country identification was detrimental to relations with both of them.     

What's the problem? A problem-based approach to the reform of the Norwegian drug rehabilitation sector

This article explores how the scope of solutions to complex problems is determined by the way in which the problem is formulated. We inquire into this by means of a theory-driven case study of the reform in the Norwegian drug rehabilitation sector and the Tyrili facility. We analyze divergent approaches to drug rehabilitation by means of a problem formulation framework, which distinguishes between (1) the value dimensions of given problems, and (2) the phases of problem solving activities. Based on this inquiry, we arrive at a set of propositions, in which we propose that the two approaches differ in their inclusion of various value dimensions. Moreover, we suggest that the reform pursued increased efficiency as a solution to a reductionist formulation of the problem, which challenged Tyrili's opportunity to solve the problem in the multidimensional manner they conceive of it. This is an argument against a one-dimensional maximization of efficiency as a pursuit of quality in social services.