Is Speeding a Form of Gambling in Adolescents?

Speeding is a major contributor to motor vehicle accidents, which are the leading cause of death in adolescents. This study compares the extent to which adolescents with gambling behavior and substance use reported driving over the posted speed limits (“speeding”). Florida adolescents ages 13–17 (n = 1051) were surveyed, and asked about gambling activities, problems related to gambling, substance use, demographic questions, and speeding. Of the 562 respondents who were drivers, the gender distribution was 52.1% male and 47.9% female. Of those respondents, 76.9% were Caucasian, 6.8% were African American, 10.1% were Hispanic, and 6.1% were Native American/Asian/Other. Simple correlation analysis revealed that self-reported speeding is significantly related to gambling behavior and substance use. When a linear regression model was used, four factors showed the most significant influence on self-reported speeding: past year gambling tendency, age, trouble with the police due to drinking, and tranquilizer usage. Gambling behavior and high-risk speeding (driving ≥ 10 mph over speed limit) also were noted to be positively correlated. Our data indicate a relationship between risky driving, gambling, and other risk-taking behaviors in adolescents, and support the hypothesis that speeding may be a form of gambling behavior in this age group.     

From the Nativist's Point of View

Based on my participant observation of the border militia group known as the Minutemen, this article examines what motivates people to participate in social movements. Building on social movements' scholarship, I argue that participation cannot be reduced to the expression of the beliefs which group members hold. However, while previous scholarship has turned toward organizational dynamics and networks to move beyond the ideological foundations of political behavior, I turn to everyday practices. By focusing on practices, ethnography allows us to expand our understanding of movement participation by showing not just the “before” of a movement (understood as a set of ideas or interests people hold) or the “outcomes” of a movement (understood as securing of material interests) but the “during” of a movement. And, as I show through the Minutemen, the “during” of the movement can sometimes be what inspires and sustains participation, and indeed, be the very crux of what the movement is about.     

Ambiguity and risk taking in organizations

Kunreuther, Meszaros, and Hogarth (1993) argue that insurers are risk averse and ambiguity averse, and that they use cognitive reference points and constraints in making pricing decisions. They further claim that insurer ambiguity may be a factor that has a role in market failure at the industry level. Arguably, ambiguity may be an important aspect of decision behavior. In this article, research on managerial risk taking is reviewed with a focus on the relationship between ambiguity and risk taking. In particular, the effects of the organizational and institutional context are highlighted. It is argued that the political aspects of insurer decision behavior should be considered as well. Implications for further study and understanding of decision making are discussed.     

On Mind,Environment, and Simon's Scissors of Rational Behavior

Journal of Management and Governance -     

Will you sign my autograph book? Using autograph books for a sociohistorical study of youth and social frameworks

This paper suggest that autograph books can be used as a tool for the study of attitudes among youth. Content analysis of 4,131 entries of 130 Israeli autograph books, written by 12–14 year-old students, during a 55 year peiod (1925–1980) was conducted. The analysis reveals two major changes: first, a diminishing of collective orientation coupled with an increase in individualism; second, an increase in the salience of schools and teachers coupled with a persistence in the significance of youth movements. Schooling ideology mainly serves the interests of the dominant groups, individualism raises the question of the legitimacy of the role of the state, while the youth movement ideology combines commitment to basic values of the collective with self-confidence and desire for individual careers. The findings are interpreted both in terms of normative changes in Israeli society (from quasi-socialism to advanced capitalism) and in terms of Habermas' theory of a crisis of legitimation. The analysis also reveals a dialectic situation in which contradictory norms and values exist together.We wish to thank S. N. Eisenstadt, W. Gamson, W. Shaffir, and the anonymous readers for valuable comments. The editors helpful editorial work is also acknowledged.     

Communal Decline: The Vanishing of High-Moral Servant Leaders and the Decay of Democratic, High-Trust Kibbutz Cultures

What is the connection between leaders’morality and the output performance of organizations? Can their morality explain, through trust, continuity, and change of organizational cultures? Is periodic rotation of managers the right solution for the distrust caused by self‐serving conservatism due to Michels's “Iron Law of Oligarchy”? An anthropological study of kibbutzim, whose innovative and adaptive cultures declined recently, found that past success was dependent on high‐moral servant leaders who backed democracy and promoted high‐trust cultures that engendered innovation by creative officers in some kibbutzim, which others imitated. However, conservatism of continuous leaders as heads of low‐trust kibbutz federative organizations, which were ignored by customary kibbutz research, engendered oligarchization which rotation enhanced rather than prevented. However, creativity deteriorated only after decades of growing oligarchy, with the vanishing of the high‐moral old guard. Thus, the crux of democratic communal culture sustainability is pinpointed in the superiority of trusted, high‐moral leaders. A preliminary idea for achieving that aim, predicated on officers’continuation in office being conditional on periodic tests of trust, is herein presented.     

A Symbolic Interactionist User's Guide to the Answering Machine: 22 Reflections on Vocal Encounters in an Emerging Social World

This article offers a sociological analysis of a new communication technology—the answering machine. A general semiotic model of “machine talk” is suggested and connected, through the social world perspective, to forms of sociability that involve the fragmentation of time and space. The symbolic meaning given to the answering machine in literature, television, the cinema, and everyday language, as well as its use at home, are examined. Drawing on such disembodied discursive practices as speciality and simulacra, the conclusion provides a Baudrillardian look at “machine talk” as reflecting the postmodern shift from face-to-face interactions to telecommunications.     

Redistributed Manufacturing and the Impact of Big Data: A Consumer Goods Perspective

Abstract

Digitalization and the growth of big data promise greater customization as well as change in how manufacturing is distributed. Yet, challenges arise in applying these new approaches in consumer goods industries that often emphasize mass production and extended supply chains. We build a conceptual framework to explore whether big data combined with new manufacturing technologies can facilitate redistributed manufacturing (RDM). Through analysis of 24 consumer goods industry cases using primary and secondary data, we investigated evolving manufacturing configurations, their underlying drivers, the role of big data applications, and their impact on the redistribution of manufacturing. We find some applications of RDM concepts, although in other cases existing manufacturing configurations are leveraged for high volume consumer goods products through big data analytics and market segmentation. The analysis indicates that the framework put forward in the paper has broader value in organizing thinking about emerging interrelationships between big data and manufacturing.     

Governance in Organizations: A Cognitive Perspective

Governance in organizations according to traditionalagency theory is based on the premise that managersand employees do not have identical goals. As aconsequence, employees need to be monitored andcontrolled. If legal contracts are not sufficient forproper control, incentive contracts should be used. This paper argues that incentive contracts are notsufficient to solve governance issues in organizationsdue to problems in measurability and enforceability ofpresumed contract violations. Such problems arecomplicated by asymmetries in power, perspectives andaspirations between managers and employees. Acognitive argument is advanced suggesting that timeconstraints and bounded rationality render the idea ofmonitoring relatively ineffective. Governance ideasthat focus on communication flow and informationsharing are described. The role that other cognitiveelements such as memory play in a more comprehensiveand interdisciplinary framework for understandinggovernance relations is discussed.     

A Comprehensive Review and a Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Internet-Based Psychotherapeutic Interventions

ABSTRACT

Internet-based psychotherapeutic interventions have been used for more than a decade, but no comprehensive review and no extensive meta-analysis of their effectiveness have been conducted. We have collected all of the empirical articles published up to March 2006 (n = 64) that examine the effectiveness of online therapy of different forms and performed a meta-analysis of all the studies reported in them (n = 92). These studies involved a total of 9,764 clients who were treated through various Internet-based psychological interventions for a variety of problems, whose effectiveness was assessed by different types of measures. The overall mean weighted effect size was found to be 0.53 (medium effect), which is quite similar to the average effect size of traditional, face-to-face therapy. Next, we examined interacting effects of various possible relevant moderators of the effects of online therapy, including type of therapy (self-help web-based therapy versus online communication-based etherapy), type of outcome measure, time of measurement of outcome (post-therapy or follow-up), type of problem treated, therapeutic approach, and communication modality, among others. A comparison between face-to-face and Internet intervention as reported on in 14 of the studies revealed no differences in effectiveness. The findings of this meta-analysis, and review of additional Internet therapy studies not included in the meta-analysis, provide strong support for the adoption of online psychological interventions as a legitimate therapeutic activity and suggest several insights in regard to its application. Limitations of the findings and recommendations concerning Internet-based therapy and future research are discussed.