The availability of personal and external coping resources: Thier impact on job stress and employee attitudes during organizational restructuring

This study examines the relationships among personal coping resources, social support, external coping resources, job stressors and job strains in a sample of 110 American Telephone and Telegraph employees undergoing a major organizational restructuring. The study expanded on a model suggested by Ashford (1988) by defining another category of coping resources that employees may draw upon to deal with the stressors and strains which occur during major organizational changes. External coping resources were defined as those which provided employees with a sense of 'vicarious control' in stressful situations. Results indicated that personal coping resources, social support and external coping resources had a direct effect upon job stressor and strain levels. No 'buffering' effect of these coplng resources was found. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that external coping resources added to the prediction of job stressors and strains even when pertonal coping resources and social support were entered first into the prediction questions.     

Forced to work and liberated from work

The work-welfare nexus is essential in all social policy regimes. The question is in what situations individuals should be entitled to social welfare benefits and in which situations they should be obliged to work. Social welfare law and administrative practices define mechanisms that separate the deserving poor from people able to work. This article analyses the functions and character of these "separation mechanisms" in Sweden during three periods in history: a) in rural society in the late 19th century; b) in industrial society during the successful years of the Swedish model from World War II until the late 1970s; and c) the present, including the period of welfare retrenchment and reconsideration since the early 1980s. The conclusion is that Swedish social policy has always been strongly work-oriented, but the specific form and content of the work ethic has varied under the influence of different ideologies and handled in different social policy institutions. Under specific conditions the work line has been either generous or restrictive and it has been based on structural attempts to improve the opportunities to work as well as on attempts to strongly pressure the individual to work. The work line of today is seen as an interesting attempt to combine an effort to create good work through improved work conditions and an effort to reinforce elements of work enforcement in the social insurance system.     

A pilot study of the contribution of empathy to burnout in Salvation Army Officers

Although empathy has been found to distinguish effective counsellors from less effective counsellors, human services professionals who continually experience negative emotional reactions to the feelings that clients express in counselling may be at risk of developing burnout. This study examined the hypothesis that emotional empathy rather than cognitive empathy is associated with burnout. The sample of human services professionals consisted of 71 Salvation Army Officers. Multiple regression was used to investigate whether the dimensions of empathy could predict three aspects of burnout: personal accomplishment, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. The first regression analysis indicated that personal distress and empathic concern were significant predictor of personal accomplishment. The second analysis indicated that personal distress was a significant predictor of emotional exhaustion. The third indicated that empathic concern was a significant predictor of depersonalization. Although these results support the hypothesis, personal distress was negatively associated with personal accomplishment, whereas empathic concern was positively associated with personal accomplishment. The small size of the sample may have influenced the reliability of the findings. A multidimensional approach to the role of empathy in counselling may help human services professionals to manage their emotional reactions when they engage in counselling with distressed clients.     

高校大学生社会实践活动功能初探

高校大学生社会实践活动作为一种生动有效的培养人才的重要途径,已经显示出它在大学生的思想教育、专业学习和能力培养等方面的综合效益。其基本功能主要表现在五个方面,即思想教育功能、深化教学功能、实践检验功能、社会服务功能、劳动助学功能。     

论电话监听的合理性及其限度

电话监听是技术侦查手段的一种。适当运用电话监听,能够提高对抗犯罪的效能。然而,电话监听具有对公民隐私权、言论自由权等权利造成侵害的很大的危险性。因此,既要认识到其合理性,又要对其适用确定必要的限度,并在运用过程中,保障犯罪嫌疑人、被告人的基本人权和诉讼权利。     

反向抵押贷款:养老保障新视角

我国正快速步入老龄化社会,养老压力日益突出,传统养老模式已不能满足市场经济条件下人们对养老的需求。作为避免老龄化危机的有效途径,反向抵押贷款在美国取得了巨大的成功。文章分析了在我国实施反向抵押贷款的必要性和可行性,并指出了存在的风险。     

关于有效促进社会公正的几个问题

本文认为:(1)为了顺利地推进改革,为了中国社会经济持续、有效和健康的发展,就必须适应新的历史条件,顺应民意、顺应现代社会的基本趋势,把社会公正放到一个突出的位置。(2)在中国现阶段应当开始建立一个初级的社会公平保障体系。初级社会公平保障体系的基本特征是低水准、广覆盖、有实效。对于国家来说,近期需要做的事情可以分为两大块,一是国家的直接投入,二是国家的立法、监督、执行和引导。(3)有一些根深蒂固的观念在妨碍着我们重视社会公正问题。这些观念主要包括:“原始积累不可避免”,“国家财力不足”,“重视公正便会妨碍效率”,因此我们必须对这些观念进行一番必要的反思。(4)要想构建一个公正而和谐的社会,就必须培育一个庞大的中等收入者人群,形成一个“两头小,中间大”的橄榄型的社会结构,那么社会就会变得越来越稳定了。     

The social responsibility of organizations: Perceptions of organizational morality as a key mechanism explaining the relation between CSR activities and stakeholder support

Prior research on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has documented how specific CSR activities relate to responses of relevant stakeholders, mainly examining employees. However, it is as yet unclear whether these findings generalize to other types of CSR activities or to responses of other stakeholder groups. In fact, results from studies to date also show inconsistent effects in need of further explanation.In this contribution we offer a new perspective on this literature. We extend current insights on organizational CSR activities and stakeholder support, by elaborating on the psychological mechanisms that can explain these relations. We draw together recent developments on organizational anthropomorphism with insights on organizational identification, to argue that the impact of CSR activities on a broad range of stakeholder responses depends on perceptions of organizational morality. We connect prior work on organizational ethics, CSR, and stakeholder support, to social psychological theory and research on impression formation, impression management, and impression updating. This new perspective allows us to broaden the current debate on CSR and stakeholder support.Building on this analysis, we propose a new model that offers a roadmap for future research. We explain the impact of organizational CSR on stakeholder responses, by highlighting perceived organizational morality as a key mediating variable. We then proceed to consider likely moderators of this relation distinguishing between (a) characteristics of the organization, (b) characteristics of (communications about) CSR activities, and (c) characteristics of the perceivers. On the basis of this extended model we develop specific predictions, and review initial evidence supporting these prediction.     

Leveraging middle managers’ brokerage for corporate entrepreneurship: The role of multilevel social capital configurations

Building on recent efforts to bring a socio-political perspective to social capital research, we develop and test a multilevel framework that explains why middle managers who occupy brokerage positions differ in their ability and willingness to engage in entrepreneurial behavior. More specifically, we provide a contextualized understanding of the links among middle managers' brokerage, their political-support ties, and their personal initiative. Results derived from data on 383 middle managers and 72 top managers in 34 business units indicate that political-support ties with top managers strengthen the relationship between middle managers’ brokerage and personal initiative. However, this positive effect depends on the social capital resources available in the focal business unit. It is attenuated in business units with a supportive and trusting social context and amplified in business units with high levels of internal connectedness. By uncovering these incompatibilities and complementarities, our study demonstrates the value of accounting for different social capital configurations and the interplay of their inherent social capital resources when examining the effects of brokerage on corporate entrepreneurship.     

中国粮食物流体系现代化建设策略

粮食物流体系是连接粮食生产和消费的重要一环,加快推进其现代化建设将有力保障我国的粮食安全。基于对现阶段中国粮食物流体系的全面调研,详细分析了我国粮食物流体系现代化建设的发展现状、存在问题和面临形势,并提出推进粮食物流体系现代化的策略。第一,提升粮食物流体系建设系统化水平,增强粮食流通能力;第二,加快粮食流通立法和标准化建设工作,打破要素流通制约;第三,提高粮食物流设施建设专业化水平,提升物流体系效能;第四,积极开展粮食物流体系信息化改革,优化资源配置效率;第五,统筹各地并优化资金配置,推进项目整体布局;第六,构建粮食流通“双循环”格局,培育国际化大粮商。