Using agency data for evidence-based programming: a university-agency collaboration

Agencies providing residential treatment are encouraged, or even mandated, to collect outcomes data and to implement evidence based practices, yet little guidance has been provided on how to do so using agency administrative data that are collected on an ongoing basis. We examined data on Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) scores for 1608 admissions to a residential treatment center from 2002 through 2008. CAFAS scores were measured every 90 days, providing multiple CAFAS scores for each individual. Results demonstrated that on average residents improved in functioning over time. Sensitive to the evolving needs of residents who had been entering the program, the treatment center made significant program changes in 2006 to attempt to better serve residents through a broad array of specialized programming. Compared to the overall results, the analysis suggested that residents who entered the program since October 2006 appeared to have made larger improvements in their CAFAS scores. Results were derived by employing multilevel models appropriate for estimating growth trajectories with repeated measures data. Conversations with agency staff suggested that using administrative data, and advanced statistical models, were extremely helpful for organizational decision making and evidence-based programming.     

Organizational characteristics that foster early adoption of cultural and linguistic competence in outpatient substance abuse treatment in the United States

Recent years have seen an increased interest in developing culturally and linguistically responsive systems of care in substance abuse treatment in the United States. This study examines the extent to which external and internal organizational pressures contributed to the degree of adoption of culturally and linguistically responsive practices in the nation's outpatient substance abuse treatment system early in the period of development of this system of care. Findings show that a higher degree of adoption of culturally competent practices was most likely in treatment programs with high dependence on external funding and regulation. Internally, programs with a larger number of professionals were associated with the lowest degree of adoption, while managers’ cultural sensitivity contributed significantly to a high degree of adoption of these responsive practices. Considering the passage of recent legislation enforcing the use of cultural and linguistic competence in health care, implications of these baseline findings on early adoption patterns are discussed for future research and health care policy evaluation.     

The embeddedness of organizational performance: Multiple Membership Multiple Classification Models for the analysis of multilevel networks

We present a Multiple Membership Multiple Classification (MMMC) model for analysing variation in the performance of organizational sub-units embedded in a multilevel network. The model postulates that the performance of organizational sub-units varies across network levels defined in terms of: (i) direct relations between organizational sub-units; (ii) relations between organizations containing the sub-units, and (iii) cross-level relations between sub-units and organizations. We demonstrate the empirical merits of the model in an analysis of inter-hospital patient mobility within a regional community of health care organizations. In the empirical case study we develop, organizational sub-units are departments of emergency medicine (EDs) located within hospitals (organizations). Networks within and across levels are delineated in terms of patient transfer relations between EDs (lower-level, emergency transfers), hospitals (higher-level, elective transfers), and between EDs and hospitals (cross-level, non-emergency transfers). Our main analytical objective is to examine the association of these interdependent and partially nested levels of action with variation in waiting time among EDs – one of the most commonly adopted and accepted measures of ED performance. We find evidence that variation in ED waiting time is associated with various components of the multilevel network in which the EDs are embedded. Before allowing for various characteristics of EDs and the hospitals in which they are located, we find, for the null models, that most of the network variation is at the hospital level. After adding these characteristics to the model, we find that hospital capacity and ED uncertainty are significantly associated with ED waiting time. We also find that the overall variation in ED waiting time is reduced to less than a half of its estimated value from the null models, and that a greater share of the residual network variation for these models is at the ED level and cross level, rather than the hospital level. This suggests that the covariates explain some of the network variation, and shift the relative share of residual variation away from hospital networks. We discuss further extensions to the model for more general analyses of multilevel network dependencies in variables of interest for the lower level nodes of these social structures.     

The arrival of critical citizens: decline of political trust and shifting public priorities in China

Political trust has been in decline in China. In this article, we capture this decline as reflecting the modernization of Chinese political culture. While the government managed to deliver a sustained period of rapid economic growth, the public's trust in it is diminishing through two mechanisms. On the one hand, Chinese citizens are acquiring stronger liberal democratic values, which make citizens more critical toward government institutions. On the other hand, changing political culture is also shown in the citizens’ shifting of their priorities toward the expansion of freedom and empowerment of citizens. Decades of socioeconomic modernization, therefore, meant that the era of critical citizens has arrived in China.     

现代社会秩序的政治建构:基于信任的民主

现代社会秩序的政治建构受制于民主和信任建设中的交织关系,体现为如何化解委托代理中的"逆向选择"和"道德风险"。这促使政治思想家们不断探索解决路径,形成了维持社会秩序的霍布斯模式、洛克—熊彼特模式、托克维尔—帕特南模式以及蒂利模式等。基于信任的民主不仅需要加强关于政府官员的能力和素质的制度化建设,还需要培育社会资本和加强公民共同体建设,更需要强化政府和民间互动的策略性和有效性,促发信赖确证、条件满足和风险化解,以维护社会秩序。     

Workplace racial composition, perceived discrimination, and organizational attachment

Prior research has devoted considerable attention to the relationship between the racial and ethnic composition of jobs and various indicators of organizational attachment. Fewer studies, however, examine how workplace racial composition affects individuals’ experiences of racial discrimination or how these experiences impact workers’ organizational attachment. To address this lacuna, we first examine the effects of workplace racial composition on perceived racial and ethnic discrimination. Next, we examine whether perceived racial discrimination mediates the association between racial composition and organizational attachment observed in prior studies. Finally, we explore whether these relationships are similar (symmetric) or different (non-symmetric) for non-Whites and Whites. The analyses indicate: (1) working with predominately same-race coworkers tends to diminish perceptions of racial discrimination, (2) perceived racial discrimination mediates some of the effects of racial/ethnic composition on organizational attachment, and (3) some non-symmetric effects between non-Whites and Whites are found. We conclude with implications for future research.     

我国信息披露民事责任制度的完善——以因果关系和信赖推定为中心

信息披露民事责任制度是我国证券法中的重要组成部分,其完善的核心在于因果关系要件,而因果关系的认定与重大性标准和信赖推定原则密切相关,因此,有必要结合法理学及司法实践对两者进行细致解析。本文认为可将重大性标准排除在因果关系认定标准之外,而信赖推定原则以欺诈市场理论为经济学基础,具有诸多可借鉴性。     

中国个人账户养老基金信托运营管理模式探析

近年来,个人账户养老基金运营管理模式、保值增值问题一直是学者们研究的重点,本文从个人账户养老基金的产权属性出发,通过对个人账户养老基金的管理现状和信托运营模式的优势分析,构建了个人账户养老基金信托运营框架,通过成立个人账户基金管理委员会与个人账户基金监督委员会,辅助其他监管,交由信托公司负责运营,保证了个人账户基金保证增值,并认为应从转变政府角色、构建信托运营的市场环境、坚持"资产组合定量"原则和"审慎人"原则、建立个人账户基金信托信息披露制度和完善法律法规体系五个方面保障信托模式的顺利运营。     

论道德之“见”的认识困境——也谈《孟子》“见牛未见羊”

近年来,学界对《孟子》齐宣王"见牛未见羊"现象多有阐发,由此引发了人们对儒家道德之"见"的广泛关注。其实,《孟子》论"见牛未见羊",阐述了因"见牛觳觫"而产生"德性之知"的德性主义认识路线。在这条认识路线中,"见"不仅可以使见者体认本心良知,也使某些无良被见者有了欺骗君子"以方"的可乘之机。"见"在促成德性之知的过程中积极有为,但也隐藏着诚与欺的认识困境。无疑,摆脱这种道德认识困境对当前中国道德文明建设是具有一定积极意义的。     

男性犯罪青少年人际信任与社会支持、应对方式的关系研究

通过对山东省少年管教所189名男性犯罪青少年人际信任的特点以及与其社会支持、应对方式的关系进行研究发现:(1)男性犯罪青少年人际信任水平比同龄男性中学生低,且差异显著;(2)其社会支持与人际信任水平呈正相关;(3)积极应对方式与人际信任水平呈正相关,消极应对方式与人际信任水平呈负相关;(4)人际信任、社会支持和应对方式之间存在复杂的因果关系;(5)各种客观变量对人际信任的影响甚微.