A longitudinal study of newcomer role adjustment in US organizations

This paper examines the socialization and adjustment experiences of newcomers to organizations from a role stress perspective. A longitudinal field study is reported which tested a three-stage socialization model using physiological and psychological distress symptoms, general satisfaction, and intention to leave the organization as indicators of newcomer adjustment. Data were collected from newcomers (the focal role) (N = 91) at three times during me study and also from their supervisors (the role senders) (N = 41). While the data confirmed the general utility of the model, it also suggested some revisions by way of new and altered pathways between some of the variables.     

Prevalence studies and the development of services for problem gamblers and their families

Where funded by government, prevalence studies have typically led to the development of services for problem gamblers and their families. Such assessments of the need for services have been seen as the appropriate political response to growing expressions of concern about problem gambling that often follow moves to legislate for an increasing range of gambling products. This theme is apparent for Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. In this paper, initiatives in these different jurisdictions are briefly summarized and tabulated.     

Problem behaviors,substance abuse and sexual abuse in psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents with bulimia nervosa

Twenty-eight adolescent bulimics were compared to 201 psychiatrically hospitalized non-eating disordered patients. Non-eating disordered patients were found to be reliably more aggressive, delinquent, and under-controlled than patients with bulimia nervosa. Sexual abuse was found to be less prevalent among bulimic adolescents than comparison adolescents. No significant between group differences were achieved on any measure of alcohol/drug abuse. The behavioral profiles of substance abusing bulimics were highly similar to those of non-eating disordered patients. Three months follow-up of bulimic patients found that they were less depressed, had less somatization, and were less overcontrolled; however, they showed no reliable improvements in eating attitudes/behaviours or drug/alcohol use.     

Strategy,Technology, and Social Processes With in Professional Cultures: A Negotiated Order,Ethnographic Perspective

As an element of formal organizational structure, strategy has arisen as an icon of an increasingly organization-based society, while the application of technology to perform organizational functions has become an accepted aspect of contemporary life. Combined, strategy and technology suggest organizational orderliness, rationality, and efficiency. A variety of literatures has recognized the symbolic role of strategy and technology, as well as professional endeavor, in legitimating organizational functioning and change, wherein the vested political interests of an organization's strategic apex may be veiled by a rhetoric of objectivity and professionalism. However, this literature has remained largely theoretical in nature. An ethnographic field study of the Big 6 public accounting firms examined the interpenetration of strategy, technology, and internal social processes. It found, for example, that audit technologies were developed and unilaterally implemented by the strategic apex of the firms to achieve such stated objectives as enhancing auditor “efficiency.” However, the implemented technologies were frequently resisted, transformed, and redirected to serve the ends of the operating core, or practitioner subculture, of the firms. Thus, strategy, technology, and social process are seen as interpenetrated within the active political-social milieu that is public accounting.     

Recycling in multi-family dwellings: Increasing participation and decreasing contamination

This study explored the promotion of recycling in multi-family dwellings. An experimental design investigated four behavior change techniques: biweekly postcards giving specific feedback to each dwelling unit as to quantity and contamination of the recyclables, newsletters giving general information on recycling and the amount recycled by the city as a whole, written pledges committing households to recycle for a specified period, and volunteer coordinators who distributed information and answered questions from residents. The effectiveness of these techniques was compared against that of a control group. The findings suggest that volunteer coordinators are not an effective intervention technique in multi-family dwellings, and that feedback and commitment techniques are useful mainly for managing contamination in medium sized complexes. The data also suggest that the size of a multi-family dwelling complex significantly affects the amount of recyclables collected and the level of contamination. Smaller complexes with less than ten units recycled up to three times the amount on a per unit basis as complexes with more units. Smaller units also had fewer problems with contamination in their recyclables. Several explanations are offered for the poor participation and performance in larger complexes.     

HOW EDUCATION AFFECTS ATTITUDE TO PROTEST:

In a previous study, the authors found that among whites education affected attitude to protest in four ways: by raising commitment to civil liberties; by reducing support for violence; by increasing knowledge of protest justifications; and by altering a person's position in society, hence one's interests and identifications. This study shows that the same set of forces accounts for the variability of correlations between education and protest attitudes among samples of black respondents. Differences in the results among blacks as compared to whites chiefly relate to issue-specific protests. Here results diverge because black experience serves as an alternative to formal education for increasing awareness of protest justifications and identification with protestors.     

The Regular Education Initiative: Strategy for Denial of Handicap and the Perpetuation of Difference

In the USA, some advocates of the Regular Education Initiative (REI) claim that separate special education reinforces socially constructed notions of difference. They further assert that most children, with very few exceptions, are capable of equally effective learning within the regular class setting. They further argue that, because all children are unique in many ways, there are no grounds for labelling handicapped children as is presently done by Public Law 94-142. The author maintains that the REI reflects a collective denial of the differences which profoundly affect children with handicaps who are placed in the regular classroom. This denial is undergirded by several assumptions which must be accepted if the REI is to be seen as valid. The author argues further that some proponents of the REI themselves clearly emphasize difference, especially by labelling those who oppose the tenets of the REI. Detractors are viewed as outcasts in need of conversion to the radical REI agenda.