An Explorative Study of the Place of the Ethics of Care and Reflective Practice in Social Work Education and Practice

The moral development and identity of social work students have been shown to be enhanced by education in caring. Important aspects of this education are training in reflective practice and learning to have a perspective focused on professional loving care. In this study, we have explored how reflective processes can be implemented in both educational settings and working practice from an ethical point of view. Elaborating upon reflective practice from an ethical perspective focuses on reciprocity in relationships and relational capacity in institutional contexts. The study took the form of interviews with social work teachers and health care professionals. Interview and focus group data were analysed, three main topics were identified and statements were coded with relation to these topics. Use of both educators and practitioners in this study showed the importance of not neglecting the transition from education to practice. Responses also showed the value placed upon continuous education and development over the course of a health care professional's career.     

Examining the Impact of Interorganizational Systems on Process Efficiency and Sourcing Leverage in Buyer–Supplier Dyads

Manufacturing firms are increasingly seeking cost and other competitive advantages by tightly coupling and managing their relationship with suppliers. Among other mechanisms, interorganizational systems (IOS) that facilitate boundary‐spanning activities of a firm enable them to effectively manage different types of buyer–supplier relationships. This study integrates literature from the operations and information systems fields to create a joint perspective in understanding the linkages between the nature of the IOS, buyer–supplier relationships, and manufacturing performance at the dyadic level. External integration, breadth, and initiation are used to capture IOS functionality, and their effect on process efficiency and sourcing leverage is examined. The study also explores the differences in how manufacturing firms use IOS when operating under varying levels of competitive intensity and product standardization. In order to test the research models and related hypothesis, empirical data on buyer–supplier dyads is collected from manufacturing firms. The results show that only higher levels of external integration that go beyond simple procurement systems, as well as who initiates the IOS, allow manufacturing firms to enhance process efficiency. In contrast, IOS breadth and IOS initiation enable manufacturing firms to enhance sourcing leverage over their suppliers. In addition, firms making standardized products in highly competitive environments tend to achieve higher process efficiencies and have higher levels of external integration. The study shows how specific IOS decisions allow manufacturing firms to better manage their dependence on the supplier for resources and thereby select system functionalities that are consistent with their own operating environments and the desired supply chain design.     

Alcohol-Influenced Nonverbal Behaviors During Discussions About a Relationship Problem

We examined the effect of alcohol intoxication on the display of nonverbal behaviors during discussions with dating partners about a relationship problem. Forty-four heterosexual dyads engaged in a 7-min conversation about a hypothetical infidelity. Males were randomly assigned to drinking condition (sober or .08 g/dl) and their behaviors were coded for behavioral expressivity, verbal expressivity, positive affect, and anxiety at 30 s and 3 min into the interaction. A series of 2 (drinking condition) × 2 (time) repeated measures analyses indicated that as time passed, drinkers nonverbally conveyed more agitation and less positivity, and consequently less pro-relational behavior. Further, drinkers showed more behavioral variability over time compared to their sober counterparts. The implications of these results for understanding alcohol-influenced communication in close relationships are discussed.

高校思想政治理论课须正确处理四个关系

本文以广东培正学院为例,论述了高校思想政治理论课须正确处理四个关系,即课堂导向与社会现实,教学理论与学习兴趣,思想塑造与行为固化、素质评价与知识评价之间的关系,更加有效地发挥思想政治理论课的主渠道作用。     

台湾“日本情结”的形成及其对两岸关系的影响

日据时期日本对台湾疯狂的文化侵略是日本情结形成和膨胀 的根源,蒋介石本人的日本情结又在一定程度上助长了台湾的日本情结,现今台湾当局所谓 的“新台湾文化”的重建及李登辉本人浓重的亲日情结进一步促成了日本情结的膨胀,日本 情结的膨胀对两岸关系有着深刻的影响。     

“Those people” and troubles talk: Social typing and community construction in senior public housing

Community has developed as an increasingly important research topic in gerontology. As we search for the ever elusive sense of community and social integration among the aged, gerontologists have strangely left aside, for the most part, the interactional formation of community as a phenomenon. How do elders actually achieve this thing in their daily lives? By what interactional mechanisms is it constructed? Using data gathered from an ethnography of a senior public housing complex, I argue that in this particular neighborhood, community is accomplished by residents through “troubles talk.” An important component of this shared talk are social types indigenous to the complex. The act of social typing allows the residents to organize, categorize, and classify each other, providing recognizable and commonly held knowledge of each other, a vital component of community.     

Healthy relationship education for dating violence prevention among high-risk youth

A federal grant was awarded to provide the Love U2 healthy relationship curriculum to low-income, high-risk youth. This research sought to examine the relative effectiveness of a brief intervention with this curriculum compared to the much more intensive relationship education programs that have been previously provided to high-risk youth. Data were collected from 233 participants through measures of training and relationship outcomes pre- and post-training. Participants experienced high levels of training satisfaction, significant increases in relationship knowledge and self-efficacy related to conflict resolution. They also experienced a significant improvement in attitudes toward couple violence in the desired direction. Implications of these findings for promoting healthy relationships and reducing dating violence among high-risk youth are discussed.     

Reverse Auctions to Innovate Procurement Processes: Effects of Bid Information Presentation Design on a Supplier's Bidding Outcome

Information technologies (ITs) are being used to innovate various procurement processes. This research study focuses on the supplier‐side effects of IT design choices to conduct reverse auctions, which are increasingly used to procure a wide range of products and services. IT–enabled reverse auctions enhance supplier participation across geographical boundaries, leading to more efficient pricing. However, there are growing concerns about the adverse effects of IT–enabled reverse auctions on a supplier's performance. Supplier‐side issues are gaining prominence in the reverse auction literature and are critical for the long‐term success of reverse auctions. Therefore, we focus on suppliers’ bidding outcomes and assess how the design of an IT–enabled reverse auction facilitates the auction bidding outcomes of participating suppliers. Specifically, we examine the effects of two types of bid information presentation design—full price visibility and partial price visibility—on supplier's auction bidding outcomes, across auctions with different cost certainty and suppliers bargaining power vis‐à‐vis the buyer. The results of this study contribute new knowledge about the ways to use IT for creating effective auction designs and innovating procurement through auctions to enhance both the buyer's and suppliers’ performance. We present the detailed theoretical contributions of our study and discuss the managerial implications for designers of reverse auctions.      

试论清代前期科举回避制度

清代前期有空前严密的科举回避制度。其中 ,地区回避主要是 :某省籍贯官员回避该省乡试 ;官员籍贯在邻省三百里以内区域者要回避邻省乡试。江苏 (或安徽 )知府等以上官员籍隶安徽 (或江苏 )者 ,如下属主持江南乡试或阅卷 ,其子弟、亲族回避江南乡试。陕西与甘肃亦照此办理。顺天乡试同考官 ,南方人一律回避南方考生的试卷 ,以此类推。亲族回避规定 :和考官有某些血缘关系和姻亲关系的人回避乡试。在工作回避中 ,内、外帘官之间互相回避 ;关于考官子弟是否回避该次考试 ,在雍乾之际制度出现了一些变化。清前期科举回避制度极大地减少了科场积弊 ,这是封建科举制度的进一步完善与发展 ,但仍然有着难以避免的漏洞和不可逾越的历史局限性     

Relationships as organizational resources: Examining public relations impact through its connection with organizational strategies

This study empirically examined the oft-ignored link between public relations and strategy by incorporating the resource-based view (RBV) from management literature. Thirty-three interviews with public relations managers and strategy managers in China were conducted to explore relationships as organizational resources and their contribution to strategy implementation. Within the major theoretical framework, this study found that relationships possessed these key features for resources that could lead to competitive advantages: valuable, rare, difficult to imitate, and hard to be substituted. Relationships contributed to strategy implementation in general and were used also to achieve a fit with different strategies.