The effects of perceived quality of organizationally provided meal service on employees’ job performance and mediating role of organizational identification

Contemporary managers are developing alternative ways to sustain their competitive advantages. Motivation-enhancing features such as high-quality meal service provided by organizations can be thought of as one of these methods. The effect of the perceived quality of meal service provided by organizations on the job performance of employees and the mediating role of organizational identification during this process is studied. Private security-sector employees working in Turkey (N?=?597) are being focused in this study. As a result of analyses (correlation and regression analyses, structural equation model), the authors find that the perceived quality of meal service provided by organizations improves employees’ job performance significantly and organizational identification has a partial mediating role on this association. The findings of this study will be of interest to key stakeholders such as public or private organizations, labor unions and the media.     

When and How Does Ethnicity Matter? A Cross-National Study of Social Work Responses to Ethnicity in Child Protection Cases

It is an established part of the conventional wisdom of socialwork theory and practice that attention to ethnic differenceis at the core of best practice. This principle is endorsedin welfare legislation or in the training and education of socialworkers in most European countries. Little empirical evidenceexists, however, to demonstrate that this principle guides practitionerdecision making, or to verify the claim that it benefits ethnicminority clients. At a cross-national level, no robust evidenceexists to illustrate similarities or differences in social workresponse to ethnicity. This article reports on aspects of astudy that examines these concerns within the context of childprotection. It demonstrates, perhaps surprisingly given nationalvariations in legislation and professional practice, that overall,country by country, the child’s ethnic affiliation evokeslittle significant response by social workers, confirming alargely universalist approach. However, through a detailed focuson the qualitative data, this paper considers the nature ofthe references to ethnicity that are made by social workersin terms of how they confirm or refute the dominant approachto multiculturalism within social work.     

Women,marriage and family--traditionalism vs. modernity in Albania

"The aim of the article is to illustrate how the transition from traditionalism to modernity in Albanian society is reflected in the fields of decision-making in choosing the marriage partner, arena of choosing the marriage partner, and factors of importance for harmony in the marital relationship. We also outline the changes in women's participation in productive work, in social and policy life, and in education. The empirical material stems from a survey conducted in Albania [in] 1984. The number of respondents was 1,303. We conclude that there is a strong modernistic tendency both with regard to choosing marriage partner and factors important for harmony. The main feature of the development in Albania is the rapidity and explicitness of changes in attitudes towards marriage and family and in women's position."     

Social work research and its dependence on practice

The state of the art in social work research indicates major difficulties concerning the knowledge basis of the discipline. This article aims to contribute to the discourse on the nature of social work research as a scientific activity. The starting-point is the philosophy of science developed within the realist approach. It is argued that knowledge is primarily gained through activity in attempting to change social reality and through communication with other people. Knowledge is also recognized as knowing how to do something. The character of the social work knowledge may particularly be understood within the frame of reference presented by the realist approach. The history of the ideas of social work demonstrates the importance of understanding the interplay between theory and practice in social work. The article attempts to delimit the provisional borders of social work research. A model of social work research fields is presented.