IT Governance Characteristics,Electronic Medical Records Sophistication,and Financial Performance in U.S. Hospitals: An Empirical Investigation

As a result of a recent federal government mandate, an increasing number of hospitals have decided to adopt electronic medical record (EMR) systems. This initiative is expected to lead toward more efficient and higher quality health care; however, little is known about governance characteristics and organizational performance for EMR adopters. Our goal is to inform theory and practice by examining hospitals with a sophisticated EMR and comparing those hospitals to similar hospitals (with a less sophisticated EMR) to understand the association between information technology (IT) governance characteristics and the implications on financial performance. Leveraging elements of the upper echelon theory, we posit that hospitals in which the chief information officer (CIO) reports to the chief executive officer, CIO turnover is low, and an IT steering committee is present are more likely to have a sophisticated EMR. We argue that EMR sophistication leads to improved financial performance. Our results underscore the importance of continuity in the CIO position on successful EMR implementations. Results also show that hospital size and financial performance are strongly associated with EMR sophistication. In addition, we find that a sophisticated EMR appears to be a fundamental element in improving hospitals’ revenue cycle management. Moreover, we find that hospitals with a sophisticated EMR appear to be more profitable. Finally, we observe that total payroll expense adjusted by total discharges drops among the sophisticated hospitals, potentially due to an increase in employee productivity. These insights can serve as a basis for tempering expectations relative to the financial impact of EMR adoption.     

Comparisons of Performance and Job Insecurity in Union and Nonunion Sites of a Manufacturing Company

Layoffs and employment changes caused by current economic conditions have significant effects on employee work behavior and emotions as well as organizational outcomes. We examined the relationships between measures of job insecurity, organizational commitment, turnover, absenteeism, and worker performance within a manufacturer in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A positive relationship was found between job insecurity and intentions to turnover, and a small negative correlation was found between measures of job insecurity and organizational commitment. Unobtrusive observations of union and nonunion performance over 4 months showed that nonunion production workers were on-task more frequently, although on-task behavior was high for both. Productivity and quality measures of different factories favored nonunion locations. Although comparisons between sites were constrained by a quasi-experimental design, repeated behavioral and outcome measures within sites showed differential effects when the company announced a plant closing in another state. Job insecurity appeared to be an establishing operation that produced differential effects between union and nonunion sites as well as among individual employees within sites.     

Informal mentoring and young adult employment

This study explores the role of informal mentoring (i.e., developing an important relationship with a non-parental adult) in the transition to full time employment among young adults (age 23–28). Multivariate analysis of the Add Health data reveals that mentoring is positively related to the likelihood of full time employment, and the relationship involves both selection and causation processes. Entrance into the world of work facilitates the development of mentoring relationships, especially among youth who identify work-related mentors after adolescence. These relationships have the potential for promoting attachment to the labor force. Mentoring relationships that develop outside of work settings and during adolescence have a positive impact on the odds of full time employment. The receipt of guidance and advice from mentors, as well as access to weak-tied mentoring relationships, teacher mentors, and friend mentors all contribute to the increased odds of employment in young adulthood. However, adolescent mentoring may be less effective among young women than it is among young men.     

The Role of Ethnic Prejudice in the Modulation of Cradling Lateralization

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior - The left-cradling bias is the tendency to cradle an infant on the left side, regardless of the individuals’ handedness, culture or ethnicity. Many studies...     

Globalization and international adoption from China

Since the mid-1990s, China has become one of the major countries from which children are adopted overseas. This paper examines ways in which globalization has contributed to the development of international adoption from China and explores cultural and historical attitudes to population growth, child abandonment and adoption. How China's social, economic and welfare policies have affected adoption policies and practices are discussed, with reference to ethnographic fieldwork undertaken by the authors between 2001 and 2007. Interviews and group discussions were conducted with UK, Chinese and American adoptive parents, directors of social welfare institutes, Chinese welfare officials and staff of non-government organizations working in the area of adoption and fostering in China. While globalization has affected, and continues to affect inter-country adoption, its influence in China is analysed using Masson's value positions on international adoption – abolitionists, promoters and pragmatists. China's pragmatic approach to international adoption is considered in relation to policies that reflect the best interests of children in China and overseas.     

Testing the Parent–Adolescent Acculturation Discrepancy Hypothesis: A Five‐Wave Longitudinal Study

This 2½‐year, 5‐wave longitudinal study tests the hypothesis that acculturation discrepancies between Hispanic immigrant parents and adolescents would lead to compromised family functioning, which would then lead to problematic adolescent outcomes. Recent‐immigrant Hispanic parent–adolescent dyads (N = 302) completed measures of acculturation and family functioning. Adolescents completed measures of positive youth development, depressive symptoms, problem behavior, and substance use. Results indicated that Time 1 discrepancies in Hispanic culture retention, and linear trajectories in some of these discrepancies, negatively predicted adolescent positive youth development, and positively predicted adolescent depressive symptoms and binge drinking, indirectly through adolescent‐reported family functioning. The vast majority of effects were mediated rather than direct, supporting the acculturation discrepancy hypothesis. Implications for further research and intervention are discussed.     

The ‘isolated ethnics’ and ‘everyday ethnics’: region,identity, and the second-generation Midwest Asian American experience

While studies have documented the Asian American experience in the past two decades, a dearth of research exists on those who grew up in the Midwest. How do Midwest Asian Americans experience their co-ethnic community, culture and pan-ethnic identity? Drawing from in-depth interviews of second-generation Midwest Asian Americans, an analysis of the data reveals two patterns of experiences, including: isolated ethnics and everyday ethnics. The findings are framed around issue of ‘access points’ to the co-ethnic community, and its influence on ethnic identity formation. This research highlights the importance of geographic community context on acculturation of Midwest Asian Americans.     

Gender, power and postindustrialism

Dans cette communication, nous étudions le rôle du sexe dans l'organisation des rapports de production sur le marché du travail post-industriel au Canada. L'article s'appuie d'abord sur les données des recensements de la période de 1941 à 1986 pour décrire les spécificités liées au sexe de la transition au post-industrialisme telle que vécue par les hommes et les femmes. Le post-industrialisme a entraîné un départ d'un grand nombre d'hommes de l'agriculture et les industries du secteur primaire, mais le secteur manufacturier est resté jusqu'à récemment relativement stable. Pour les femmes, le post-industrialisme a surtout provoqué le passage du travail domestique non rémunéré au travail salarié dans les industries de services. Par conséquent, la répartition de l'emploi chez les hommes demeure essentiellement celle d'une économie industrielle traditionnelle; or, dans les industries de services ‘post-industrielles, ce sont les femmes qui prédominent. Done nous analysons les données de l'Enquête sur les structures de classe et démontrons que la prédominance numérique des femmes dans les services n'a strictement rien changéà l'écart entre les sexes en ce qui concerne l'accès aux postes de pouvoir et d'autorité. Dans les secteurs traditionnels, producteurs de marchandises, les hommes commandent généralement aux hommes, tandis que dans le secteur des services, les hommes commandent maintenant aux femmes. Nous terminons par une analyse des données de recensement qui montre en quoi les différences entre hommes et femmes en matière d'accès au pouvoir et à l'autorité ont évolué dans le temps. In this paper we examine the gendered nature of production relations in the context of Canada's postindustrial labour market. We begin by describing gender-specific features of the transition to postindustrialism with census data for the period from 1941–1986. For men, postindustrialism brought considerable movement out of agriculture and other extractive industries but, until recently, relative stability in the manufacturing sector. For women, postindustrialism has mainly meant a shift from unpaid domestic labour to paid employment in the service industries. As a consequence, male employment patterns continue to resemble those of a traditional industrial economy while women predominate in the ‘postindustrial’ service industries. We then use data from the 1982 Class Structure Survey to show that women's numerical dominance in services has in no way altered the gender gap in access to positions of power and authority. In the traditional goods-producing sectors, men mainly rule other men while the service economy is the site where men now rule over women. We end with an analysis of change over time in male-female differences in access to power and authority using census data.