The Role and Implications of Values-based Leadership

This paper aims at analysing conceptually spiritual leadership in the organizational field. First, we identify if a relation between spirituality and leadership can exist and then if and how this influences employer/employees reciprocal behaviour. In the early years, the focus has changed, trying to deepen the differences between religion and spirituality and emphasizing the last one as a source of success for leaders. We focused on the understanding of the effects that spirituality has on the system of values and the role of values and emotions in determining a successful leader. Finally, we emphasize the role of values-based leadership capabilities within strategic management, aiming at highlighting the importance of a shared system of values in leading employees.     

Distance sampling as an effective method for monitoring feral pigeon (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Columba livia</Emphasis> f. <Emphasis Type="Italic">domestica</Emphasis>) urban populations

Current methods for estimating feral pigeon (Columba livia f. domestica) population size and for monitoring population trends are mainly based on indices, which according to the current literature on wildlife census methods often produce biased results. Distance Sampling techniques have never been used in this context, even though they could theoretically produce absolute abundance estimates at relatively low costs. The aim of this paper was to investigate the performance of Distance Sampling to census feral pigeons, and to compare these results with those obtained by using Quadrate Counts, a widespread method for monitoring these birds. Surveys were performed in Pisa (Italy) in two different periods of the year 2004 (end of January–beginning of February, and November), which correspond to minimum (January–February) and maximum (November) numbers for pigeon populations. We considered 40 line transects each about 250 m long for Distance Sampling, and 40 250 × 250 m cells for Quadrate Counts. In both cases, sampling units were randomized in a stratified design. In contrast to Quadrate Counts, Distance Sampling detected the predicted increase of abundance from January–February to November with an acceptable precision and no increase of costs per survey. Even though the possible biases (due to the not rigorously random distribution of transects and to the spiked nature of collected distance data) should be further investigated, results suggest that Distance Sampling is a viable and efficient alternative to the traditional methods used to estimate feral pigeons population size and to monitor trends.     

Helping each other: a peer supervision group with facilitators of mutual aid groups

ABSTRACT

Mutual aid groups can help people cope with life’s problems. A peer supervision group can help facilitators to better understand their role and improve their facilitating skills in mutual aid groups. Peer supervision groups aim to support facilitators ability to reflect on their difficulties in working with groups, deepen their methodological questions, and improve their understanding regarding how to best proceed as facilitators. This paper studied a peer supervision group of experts-by-experience facilitators to demonstrate the dynamics of mutual aid that characterized the group’s functioning.     

Factor Structure and Convergent Validity of the Long and Abbreviated Versions of the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale in an Italian Sample

We examined the psychometric characteristics of the long and abbreviated versions of the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS) in the Italian contexts. In study 1 we assessed the factorial validity and reliability of the long and abbreviated versions of the MSLSS among Italian adolescents, while in study 2 we assessed the convergent validity of the abbreviated Italian version of the MSLSS by examining the associations between life satisfaction and well-established measures of adjustment. Furthermore, we explored the effect of adolescent gender and age on life satisfaction. Participants in the study 1 were 996 adolescents (48 % males) from 14 to 18 years of age (M = 16.06; SD = 1.51). Participants in study 2 were 380 adolescents (52 % males) from 14 to 19 years of age (M = 15.76; SD = 1.65). Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the hypothesized five-factor solution of the MSLSS, with a better goodness of fit for the abbreviated version of MSLSS. Moreover, indices of internal consistency revealed acceptable reliability coefficients across the five domains. Convergent validity was confirmed by the expected associations between the domains of the MSLSS and indexes of adjustment. Finally, results evidenced age differences, with oldest adolescents showing the highest levels of satisfaction on most of the domains.     

A Generalization of the Skew-Normal Distribution: The Beta Skew-Normal

We consider a new generalization of the skew-normal distribution introduced by Azzalini (1985 Azzalini , A. ( 1985 ). A class of distributions which includes the normal ones . Scand. J. Statis. 12 ( 2 ): 171 – 178 .[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We denote this distribution Beta skew-normal (BSN) since it is a special case of the Beta generated distribution (Jones, 2004 Jones , M. C. ( 2004 ). Families of distributions of order statistics . Test 13 ( 1 ): 1 – 43 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Some properties of the BSN are studied. We pay attention to some generalizations of the skew-normal distribution (Bahrami et al., 2009 Bahrami , W. , Agahi , H. , Rangin , H. ( 2009 ). A two-parameter Balakrishnan skew-normal distribution . J. Statist. Res. Iran 6 : 231 – 242 . [Google Scholar]; Sharafi and Behboodian, 2008 Sharafi , M. , Behboodian , J. ( 2008 ). The Balakrishnan skew-normal density . Statist. Pap. 49 : 769 – 778 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Yadegari et al., 2008 Yadegari , I. , Gerami , A. , Khaledi , M. J. ( 2008 ). A generalization of the Balakrishnan skew-normal distribution . Statist. Probab. Lett. 78 : 1165 – 1167 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and to their relations with the BSN.     

Large sample confidence intervals for the skewness parameter of the skew-normal distribution based on Fisher's transformation

The skew-normal model is a class of distributions that extends the Gaussian family by including a skewness parameter. This model presents some inferential problems linked to the estimation of the skewness parameter. In particular its maximum likelihood estimator can be infinite especially for moderate sample sizes and is not clear how to calculate confidence intervals for this parameter. In this work, we show how these inferential problems can be solved if we are interested in the distribution of extreme statistics of two random variables with joint normal distribution. Such situations are not uncommon in applications, especially in medical and environmental contexts, where it can be relevant to estimate the distribution of extreme statistics. A theoretical result, found by Loperfido [7 Loperfido, N. 2002. Statistical implications of selectively reported inferential results. Statist. Probab. Lett., 56: 13–22. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]], proves that such extreme statistics have a skew-normal distribution with skewness parameter that can be expressed as a function of the correlation coefficient between the two initial variables. It is then possible, using some theoretical results involving the correlation coefficient, to find approximate confidence intervals for the parameter of skewness. These theoretical intervals are then compared with parametric bootstrap intervals by means of a simulation study. Two applications are given using real data.     

Motivations and Family Functioning of Foster Families in Italy

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper was to investigate foster family care to better understand this unique care-giving context. The research objective was to understand motivation, family functioning, and individual attachment styles in foster families. Participants were 33 foster parents who completed a questionnaire that included the motivations for choosing foster care, the relationship with the birth family and with social service workers, a measure of family functioning and adult attachment. The motivations for becoming a foster family were very different between families with a birth child and families without a birth child. The results showed that for the foster mother, the relationship with the birth family constituted a very critical element of the fostering experience. The same trend emerged in the relationship with the minor. The results showed that foster families were cohesive and expressive. With respect to attachment style, foster parents had lower scores than a normative sample on the discomfort with closeness, the tendency to consider relationships as secondary and the need for approval subscales. These results have implications for the practices of social work for foster family support and developing a shared commitment to the needs of the foster family in terms of both resources and weaknesses.     

Testing for state dependence in binary panel data with individual covariates by a modified quadratic exponential model

We propose a test for state dependence in binary panel data with individual covariates. For this aim, we rely on a quadratic exponential model in which the association between the response variables is accounted for in a different way with respect to more standard formulations. The level of association is measured by a single parameter that may be estimated by a Conditional Maximum Likelihood (CML) approach. Under the dynamic logit model, the conditional estimator of this parameter converges to zero when the hypothesis of absence of state dependence is true. Therefore, it is possible to implement a t-test for this hypothesis which may be very simply performed and attains the nominal significance level under several structures of the individual covariates. Through an extensive simulation study, we find that our test has good finite sample properties and it is more robust to the presence of (autocorrelated) covariates in the model specification in comparison with other existing testing procedures for state dependence. The proposed approach is illustrated by two empirical applications: the first is based on data coming from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and concerns employment and fertility; the second is based on the Health and Retirement Study and concerns the self reported health status.