“借身人”信仰：神启现象的社会学分析

自古以来,基于神启现象的民间信仰在中国基层广泛存在,但在理论意义上,却通常被中国宗教研究者所忽视。而且,吊诡的是,诸多西方主流宗教都源自神启,宗教市场理论也对其进行了社会科学的分析。这为跨文化信仰比较提供了新的研究视角。为了充分说明神启现象的理论意义,本文将首先引入宗教市场理论对神启现象的具体分析,辨析与指明既有理论中的隐含假设及其可能的拓展方向。并通过展示“借身人”信仰的微型民族志,从信仰的发生学与动力学等方面,详细呈现不同于西方神启现象的信仰逻辑。最后,在排他性与包容性的比较视野下试图讨论两类信仰的差异,并进一步拓展既有的宗教理论。     

The mediating role of frustration of psychological needs in the relationship between job insecurity and work-related well-being

Abstract

This study aims to test a new process underlying the negative relationship between job insecurity and work-related well-being. Specifically, based on Self-Determination Theory, frustration of the psychological needs for autonomy, belongingness and competence was expected to explain the associations between job insecurity and emotional exhaustion and vigour (i.e. the core energy-related components of burnout and work engagement, respectively). Structural equation modelling using data from a heterogeneous sample of 3185 Flemish employees confirmed that frustration of the three needs mediated the association between job insecurity and both outcomes. These results suggest that job insecurity is related to impaired work-related well-being, because it frustrates employees’ psychological needs. This study contributes to a rather small, but growing body of research on the theoretical explanations of the negative consequences of job insecurity for employees’ work-related well-being.     

Bottleneck management: theory and practice

Advocates of TOC believe that bottleneck resource restricts an operation's ability to make money, and the best way to maximise income is to fully exploit the bottleneck resource. Almost all TOC literature focuses on situations where 100% bottleneck utilisation is applied. Based on the implementation experience, the finding is that the optimal level of bottleneck utilisation should be less than 100% and any attempt to increase utilisation beyond the optimal level brings disastrous results for a door manufacturing plant. In order to improve and maintain the performance of the plant effective bottleneck management is critical. The experience provides a deeper understanding of how to design such plants, which could be beneficial for practising managers and academics working with TOC concepts.     

From imagination to application: Making the case for the general method of theory-building research in applied disciplines

The author examines what factors determine leadership success in UK social enterprises. Despite the attention prompted by the UK government's ‘Big Society’ policies, this remains a relatively unexplored field in the leadership literature. Based on in-depth interviews with successful social enterprise chief executives, carried out between April and December 2010, this article challenges the dominance of competency models, based on purely behaviourist tradition. It examines the impact of personality, values, circumstance and career arc on the way these leaders perform in an attempt to take a fresh look at the interaction of traits, behaviours and situational flexibility in determining successful leadership in this type of organization. A number of key factors are identified and categorized as dimensions of ‘being’, ‘doing’ and ‘style’. Consistent contra-indicators are also identified, providing the basis for an approach to both leadership selection and development in this growing sector of the economy.     

A Cooperative Savings Game Approach to a Time Sensitive Capacity Allocation and Scheduling Problem

We consider a competitive scheduling setting with arbitrary number of agents each having the option to utilize two parallel resources to satisfy its demand: (i) an in‐house resource dedicated to process only the tasks of each specific agent, and (ii) a flexible resource capable of processing all agents' workloads. In a noncooperative setting, each agent would determine how much of its demand it will subcontract to the flexible resource with the objective to deliver its entire demand as quickly as possible subject to the priority rules set by the owner of the flexible resource (i.e., third‐party). In this study, we also allow for agents to coalesce with other agents and update their initial subcontracting decisions to attain rescheduling savings. Evidently, a grand coalition of all agents can coordinate to achieve the maximum savings possible, but the resulting schedule may yield individual losses for a subset of agents (which we refer to as “losers”), thus necessitating a transfer payment scheme to distribute the rescheduling savings among the agents in an equitable way. We model the rescheduling interactions among the agents as a cooperative savings game, and propose savings distribution schemes that invoke the core allocation concept.     

When Knowing You Are Doing Well Hinders Performance

Summary

The effect of two types of verbal consequences, rule-following feedback and task performance feedback, on rule-induced insensitivity to programmed schedules of reinforcement were examined. Rule-following feedback could be either accurate or non-contingently positive. The task involved moving a sign through a grid using telegraph keys operating on a multiple DRL 6/FR 18 schedule of reinforcement in the presence of an initially accurate rule. After acquisition, the multiple schedule was changed without notice to a FR 1/FI Yoked schedule. Accurate rule-following feedback plus feedback on task performance produced striking insensitivity to the DRL 6 to FR 1 schedule change, the opposite of what might be expected by a common sense analysis of task performance feedback, even after controlling for contact with the changed contingency. It is argued that findings such as these can only be understood by considering the mutual verbal relations evoked by the combinations of rules and feedback, rather than treating feedback as a simple consequential event or as a verbal consequence whose effects do not depend on the relations sustained with other events.     

Sustaining the Benefits of a Quality Initiative through Cooperative Values: A Longitudinal Study

Although research has shown that organizational cultural values influence the success of quality initiatives, how and when cultural values are influential is unclear. This longitudinal study asserts that quality management should be viewed from a dynamic perspective to better understand the role of cooperative cultural values in a quality initiative. We use a multilevel model of quality management, and develop time‐oriented hypotheses using a sociotechnical systems perspective to examine the role of cooperative values. Our analysis uses longitudinal data from over 30 U.S. federal government agencies, collected during an enterprise‐wide quality initiative. We find that, over time, the influence of organization‐level quality practices diminishes, but the influence of cooperative values increases; workgroup‐level quality practices remain consistently important. Our findings reveal the unexplored influences of cooperative values to sustain the benefits of quality management.     

Managing Employee Compliance with Information Security Policies: The Critical Role of Top Management and Organizational Culture*

We develop an individual behavioral model that integrates the role of top management and organizational culture into the theory of planned behavior in an attempt to better understand how top management can influence security compliance behavior of employees. Using survey data and structural equation modeling, we test hypotheses on the relationships among top management participation, organizational culture, and key determinants of employee compliance with information security policies. We find that top management participation in information security initiatives has significant direct and indirect influences on employees’ attitudes towards, subjective norm of, and perceived behavioral control over compliance with information security policies. We also find that the top management participation strongly influences organizational culture which in turn impacts employees’ attitudes towards and perceived behavioral control over compliance with information security policies. Furthermore, we find that the effects of top management participation and organizational culture on employee behavioral intentions are fully mediated by employee cognitive beliefs about compliance with information security policies. Our findings extend information security research literature by showing how top management can play a proactive role in shaping employee compliance behavior in addition to the deterrence oriented remedies advocated in the extant literature. Our findings also refine the theories about the role of organizational culture in shaping employee compliance behavior. Significant theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

对马斯洛需要理论的再认识

本文目的在于重新系统介绍和解释马斯洛的需要理论。针对目前学术界对这一理论的批评,提出了一些商榷性的意见,并对马斯洛需要理论做出了一些新的评价。我们认为:马斯洛需要理论的真正缺陷是它把人的需要看作是一种层次分明的结构,而未认识到其是一个复杂的矛盾系统。该理论的贡献则在于革命性地使心理学的研究对象由精神病患者和动物转为正常人,并指出人的普遍本质是自我实现,这使得人的本质渐趋清晰和完整。     

基因与人性——生命科学与社会学理论的分析

基因结构与功能的发现是20世纪自然科学的一项重大成就,它也使得我们能够对人性作进一步的认识与阐释。基因可以说是主宰人性的原动力,其特性具有本性(自私和复制)以及习性(与环境的合作交流)两个层面。这些特性也表现在人类身上:人类的本性即动物性是由天赋决定,通过遗传代代相继;习性即文化性则可随环境改变,为个体后天学习得来。孟子的"性善论"与荀子的"性恶论"各执其一端,而孔子"性相近,习相远"的观点,则更为合理地概括了人性之双重性的善恶两面。