Individualisation, choice and structure: a discussion of current trends in sociological analysis

In this paper we seek to explore a tendency in current sociological thought to highlight notions of choice and autonomy in writings about contemporary Western societies. We wish to draw attention to some of the consequences of leaving out discussions of the structural aspects of societies and people's lives, for individuals as well as for the development and application of sociological theory and its ability to understand the connection between history and individual biography. Our discussion is based on qualitative research that we have conducted in recent years, and draws on focus groups with young people in Norway and Britain. From this critique we seek to demonstrate how concepts that take account of context and structure as well individual subjectivities can create a better ‘fit’ with complex and diverse realties.     

QMRA for Drinking Water: 2. The Effect of Pathogen Clustering in Single‐Hit Dose‐Response Models

Spatial and/or temporal clustering of pathogens will invalidate the commonly used assumption of Poisson‐distributed pathogen counts (doses) in quantitative microbial risk assessment. In this work, the theoretically predicted effect of spatial clustering in conventional “single‐hit” dose‐response models is investigated by employing the stuttering Poisson distribution, a very general family of count distributions that naturally models pathogen clustering and contains the Poisson and negative binomial distributions as special cases. The analysis is facilitated by formulating the dose‐response models in terms of probability generating functions. It is shown formally that the theoretical single‐hit risk obtained with a stuttering Poisson distribution is lower than that obtained with a Poisson distribution, assuming identical mean doses. A similar result holds for mixed Poisson distributions. Numerical examples indicate that the theoretical single‐hit risk is fairly insensitive to moderate clustering, though the effect tends to be more pronounced for low mean doses. Furthermore, using Jensen's inequality, an upper bound on risk is derived that tends to better approximate the exact theoretical single‐hit risk for highly overdispersed dose distributions. The bound holds with any dose distribution (characterized by its mean and zero inflation index) and any conditional dose‐response model that is concave in the dose variable. Its application is exemplified with published data from Norovirus feeding trials, for which some of the administered doses were prepared from an inoculum of aggregated viruses. The potential implications of clustering for dose‐response assessment as well as practical risk characterization are discussed.     

The Conceptual and Relational Structure of Subjective Well-Being, Neuroticism, and Extraversion: Once Again, Neuroticism Is the Important Predictor of Happiness

The purpose of this study wastwofold: (1) to analyze and explore theconceptual structure of subjective well-being(SWB), neuroticism (N) and extraversion (E);and (2) to compare the effect sizes of N and Eas predictors of SWB. The sample comprised 461participants representative of the adultpopulation in northern Norway. Analyses wereconducted by means of Structural EquationModeling (SEM), and the results on (1)supported the notion of an overall subjectivewell-being construct sustained by the threenested dimensions of life satisfaction,positive affect, and negative affect. A simplefactor structure for N and E was notsupported, and considerable modification wasneeded to provide even a mediocregoodness-of-fit for the trait model. On (2),N explained eight times as much of the SWBvariance as did E. Moreover, throughcomparison of several models it was revealedthat if E is the sole predictor of SWB, theinfluence of E on SWB is overestimated by afactor of seven. Since N and E are stronglyand negatively correlated (r = –0.50), themodel comparison demonstrates the importanceof including both E and N as independentvariables in regression models of SWB.     

Market insurance,social insurance,and education

We show that social disability insurance may better society-wide welfare even when there is a perfect private market for similar insurance. In essence, the public system complements the private. The latter cover risks when personal characteristics are known, whereas the first mitigates effects of unfavorable characteristics. Large social insurance benefits will induce more education among agents with expected good health. These same agents also experience a negative redistributive income effect from social insurance. Incentive effects to redistribution are therefore nonstandard since individuals that are adversely affected by redistribution will respond with more educational vigor.This research has in part been supported by NRC-Ruhrgas. Comments from seminar participants at the German-Norwegian conference on the economics of social insurance in Bergen 1993, and particularly from two referees, whose comments largely improved the presentation, are appreciated.     

Implementing human resource development best practices: Replication or re-creation?

Abstract

Firms increasingly introduce HRD ‘best practices’ developed somewhere else, but results often fall short of expectations. Much of existing theory fails to guide the implementation of HRD best practices because it does not recognize how introduced practices interact with existing practices in the firm. In this paper, we contrast the dominant perspective ‘Implementation as Replication’ with a perspective of ‘Implementation as Re-creation’. Through four stages of the implementation process, we identify and discuss how these contrasting perspectives yield different implications for how firms go about introducing HRD best practices. First, when firms take up a practice, is this a process of adoption or translation? Second, is it assumed that new knowledge can be implanted directly and lead to new behaviour, or is active experimentation a necessary precondition to gain new knowledge? Third, are deviations from the intended plan considered errors to be corrected or sources for learning? Fourth, are introduced best practices treated in isolation or as integral parts of the firm's management system? We argue that implementation efforts guided by the re-creation perspective increase the prospects of HRD best practices succeeding as a useful tool in the receiving firm.     

Searching for analytical concepts in the research process: Learning from children1

This paper addresses some methodological and theoretical issues of the role that concepts and conceptualization play in the process of analysing qualitative data. Studying children as research subjects, and reflecting upon their movement and relational dynamics in day‐care institutions in Norway, led to a critical consideration of the process of conceptualization and the concepts themselves. It is argued that reflexivity and a dialectical relationship between empirical data, theory and relevant literature are vital components in this process. This is illustrated and discussed in relation to two main approaches of analysing empirical data: a top–down approach, where established theoretical concepts are applied; and a bottom–up approach, where theoretical concepts grounded in empirical data are generated. Two concepts from ethnographic research in day‐care centres are introduced to illustrate both approaches and to illustrate the effort of avoiding adult‐centricism.     

A finite mixture approach to joint clustering of individuals and multivariate discrete outcomes

In this work, we modify finite mixtures of factor analysers to provide a method for simultaneous clustering of subjects and multivariate discrete outcomes. The joint clustering is performed through a suitable reparameterization of the outcome (column)-specific parameters. We develop an expectation–maximization-type algorithm for maximum likelihood parameter estimation where the maximization step is divided into orthogonal sub-blocks that refer to row and column-specific parameters, respectively. Model performance is evaluated via a simulation study with varying sample size, number of outcomes and row/column-specific clustering (partitions). We compare the performance of our model with the performance of standard model-based biclustering approaches. The proposed method is also demonstrated on a benchmark data set where a multivariate binary response is considered.     

Penalized image averaging and discrimination with facial and fishery applications

In this paper we use a penalized likelihood approach to image warping in the context of discrimination and averaging. The choice of average image is formulated statistically by minimizing a penalized likelihood, where the likelihood measures the similarity between images after warping and the penalty is a measure of distortion of a warping. The notions of measures of similarity are given in terms of normalized image information. The measures of distortion are landmark based. Thus we use a combination of landmark and normalized image information. The average defined in the paper is also extended by allowing random perturbation of the landmarks. This strategy improves averages for discrimination purposes. We give here real applications from medical and biological areas.     

Trust,commitment and team working: the paradox of virtual organizations

Abstract In this article we take an agent‐centred approach to explore the role of trust and commitment in the virtual organization. The findings of a case study in an international information technology consultancy indicate that multiple relationships arising from the alliance‐based structure require clear commitment to enable the development of trust as a basis for longer‐term partnership. Paradoxically, the perceived low level of commitment from the organization does not engender the high level of trust and commitment required from virtual teams to maximize their performance. However, over time and with extended exchanges, the commitment level and form may evolve, thus necessitating a realignment of existing psychological understanding and trust between the actors. If there is general agreement that an upward shift from short‐term to long‐term commitment is beneficial to all, then the virtual arrangement will continue to be effective.