OUTSIDE OWNERSHIP AND WORKERS' EARNINGS AND TENURE

Increasing aggregate concentration in the economy has increased attention to the issues surrounding the outside ownership of enterprises. Outside ownership entails both industrial diversification and various forms of conglomerate ownership and represents an important new direction for studies of economic sociology and labor market segmentation. The article shows that the influence of four measures of outside ownership on worker's earnings and tenure is largely, though not universally, negative. Outside ownership tends to suppress earnings otherwise accruing to workers in companies with high levels of unionization, rapid growth, and high profits. Workers' tenure is influenced negatively by some types of outside ownership but positively by others. Tenure is reduced in subsidiary firms and in industries predominately owned by other industries due to reduced union influence on job tenure in these settings. Average tenure is increased in companies that are spread across several industries. These findings provide little support for dual labor market theories and other economic theories that argue that workers benefit from the market power of their employing organizations. Instead, the findings provide support for theories that stress the dangers to workers' fates arising from the increasing dominance of financial management in economic decision making.     

The Measurement of Fear of Crime*

The volume of research on fear of crime in the United States is substantial and continues to regularly appear in sociology and criminology journals. Despite the amount of research on the subject, the measurement procedures most frequently used are suspect because of theoretical and methodological shortcomings. We present a conceptual definition of fear of crime and then systematically review the way it has been measured in research over the last fifteen years. The review indicates that whik omnibus fear of crime and risk of crime measures are only moderately correlated, a substantial number of studies have used risk measures and generalized to fear. Suggestions for future research are offered.     

Smoothing spline estimation in varying-coefficient models

Summary.  Smoothing spline estimators are considered for inference in varying-coefficient models with one effect modifying covariate. Bayesian 'confidence intervals' are developed for the coefficient curves and efficient computational methods are derived for computing the curve estimators, fitted values, posterior variances and data-adaptive methods for selecting the levels of smoothing. The efficacy and utility of the methodology proposed are demonstrated through a small simulation study and the analysis of a real data set.     

Engaging physicians in cost savings initiatives. Eliminating medication cost bias in the selection of inpatient medications

Higher cost medications pose a serious question for physician executives. Learn how common administrative databases can provide clinical resource utilization and identify success factors and barriers to devising cost-effective medical management strategies.     

An Integrated Scenario Ensemble-Based Framework for Hurricane Evacuation Modeling: Part 2—Hazard Modeling

Hurricane track and intensity can change rapidly in unexpected ways, thus making predictions of hurricanes and related hazards uncertain. This inherent uncertainty often translates into suboptimal decision-making outcomes, such as unnecessary evacuation. Representing this uncertainty is thus critical in evacuation planning and related activities. We describe a physics-based hazard modeling approach that (1) dynamically accounts for the physical interactions among hazard components and (2) captures hurricane evolution uncertainty using an ensemble method. This loosely coupled model system provides a framework for probabilistic water inundation and wind speed levels for a new, risk-based approach to evacuation modeling, described in a companion article in this issue. It combines the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) meteorological model, the Coupled Routing and Excess STorage (CREST) hydrologic model, and the ADvanced CIRCulation (ADCIRC) storm surge, tide, and wind-wave model to compute inundation levels and wind speeds for an ensemble of hurricane predictions. Perturbations to WRF's initial and boundary conditions and different model physics/parameterizations generate an ensemble of storm solutions, which are then used to drive the coupled hydrologic + hydrodynamic models. Hurricane Isabel (2003) is used as a case study to illustrate the ensemble-based approach. The inundation, river runoff, and wind hazard results are strongly dependent on the accuracy of the mesoscale meteorological simulations, which improves with decreasing lead time to hurricane landfall. The ensemble envelope brackets the observed behavior while providing “best-case” and “worst-case” scenarios for the subsequent risk-based evacuation model.     

Pride in task completion and organizational citizenship behaviour: Evidence from the ethnographic literature

Abstract

Pride in task completion has been observed to be consistently important to workers, although these self-conscious emotions have received little attention as a construct worthy of investigation in the workplace. Organizational ethnographies provide a unique opportunity for an in-depth look at pride and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB), An analysis of the existing set of published book-length workplace ethnographies (n = 108) reveals that both job satisfaction and pride in task completion are significantly associated with OCB. Associations between pride and OCB appear to be stronger than associations between job satisfaction and OCB. Workers' characteristic mood states, such as the pleasurable emotions created by pride in work and unpleasant feelings of shame from perceptions of chronic failure, appear to be highly relevant to the promotion of desirable outcomes for organizations. The results of this study illustrate the value of ethnographic data in the study of workplace emotions, cognitions, and their potential behavioural sequelae     

The Influence of Ethnicity on Listening,Communication Competence,Approach, and Avoidance

The purpose of study reported in this article was to examine differences in communication and listening predispositions and communication competence across ethnicity, as well as contribute to the discussion of the growing cultural diversity in the educational and work contexts of the United States. Subjects were 275 undergraduates enrolled in a basic “Introduction to Communication Studies” course. Results were that Whites are perceived as more “approaching” and communicatively competent and African Americans are perceived as less expressive and communicatively competent. Hispanics and Asian Americans rank somewhere in between Whites and African Americans. However, what must be kept in mind is what one perceives as characteristics of a “good listener” or a “good communicator” is often determined by subtle, yet powerful influences and rules characteristic of one's own ethnic background.