UNDERSTANDING MAIL SURVEY RESPONSE BEHAVIOR A META-ANALYSIS

A meta-analysis of prior studies of techniques designed to inducemail survey response rates was conducted. Research encompassing184 effects (study outcomes) in 115 studies (articles) for 17predictors of response rate was examined. The average effectsize across all manipulations was r=.065, indicating an averageincrease of about 6.5 percent in response rates for manipulations.Effect sizes for specific predictors and two potential moderatorsof effects were examined. Results indicated that repeated contactsin the form of preliminary notification and follow-ups, appeals,inclusion of a return envelope, postage, and monetary incentives,were effective in increasing survey response rates. Significanteffect sizes for the predictors ranged from an increase in responseof 2 percent to 31 percent. Implications of the results forthe conduct of mail surveys and future research on mail surveyresponse behavior are discussed.     

THE SPECIAL INTEREST AUTO AS AN APPRECIATING ASSET

This paper examines the price behavior over time of a particular make of special interest automobile. A model is developed to explain both interyear and intrayear behavior of this auto's used price.     

Primary care teams

SUMMARY. Northern Ireland has a health and social services structure which should lead to the easier establishment of effective primary care teams. Following an analysis of constraints on interprofessional collaboration, various models of practice in Northern Ireland and in England and Wales are discussed to demonstrate potential solutions. Child abuse in particular is used to identify both problems and ways forward, especially concerning the general practitioner's key role in the primary care team     

Which Children are Registered at Case Conferences?

Correspondence to Terry Fisher, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, Heslington, York YO1 5DD. Summary A postal questionnaire to social workers was used to describethe characteristics of situations where children were the subjectsof child protection case conferences, to identify factors distinguishingthose registered from those not registered and to describe theaccounts given by social workers of the reasons for registration.The paper reports and analyses this information and raises somebasic issues about the relative importance in registration decisionsof evidence of physical or sexual abuse, characteristics ofthe adults involved, and a child's feelings and emotional state.     

Sustainability and Business in a Complex World

Sustainability is a topic of growing importance today in all aspects of organizational life. Businesses and managers are increasingly considering ways to incorporate a balance among economic, ecological, social, and cultural value creation into their business models. At the same time, the world is becoming exponentially more complex. Indeed, complexity theory and thinking are now apparent in academic and practice accounts of sustainability in business, as scholars and practitioners recognize the limitations of traditional reductionist approaches to systemic problems. To date, however, a more theoretical framing of sustainability lags behind accumulating practical evidence. The purpose of this article is to address this gap by developing a complexity‐based framework for understanding and managing sustainability in complex adaptive systems. We aim for simplicity, wholeness, and practicality in our approach, taking a qualitative rather than quantitative perspective on complex systems. Using several contemporary case examples, the article describes the important qualities of complex systems and develops them into a working framework that integrates principles and parameters of sustainability. In doing so, we create an approach to sustainability issues and dilemmas called “sustainability thinking.” The article concludes with more generalized sustainability action strategies for managers and recommendations for future researchers.     

The Iconography of the Durham Miners' Gala

Abstract The Durham Miners Gala has taken place annually for over a hundred years. In its heyday it was an immensely popular occasion. In the post-war period it became an established part of the British Labour calendar, being attended regularly by Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers and foreign ambassadors. The Gala can be understood as a ceremony which links twentieth century class politics with the more spontaneous and religious forms of political activity in the nineteenth century. This historical continuity is rooted in the culture of mining and mining villages, developed by the social isolation of miners and their particular legal status and adapted periodically by the formal structures of the mining union.     

Teachers' Work Intensification and Educational Contradictions in Aboriginal Communities

L'auteur se penche sur l'évolution de la nature professionnelle de l'enseignement en relation avec les initiatives pour améliorer l'éducation chez les autochtones. Il examine les répercussions de plusieurs courants potentiellement contradictoires de réforme éducationnelle. Ceux‐ci contiennent en particulier des préoccupations concernant l'augmentation de la tâche des enseignants, la restauration professionnelle de l'enseignement, afin de satisfaire les besoins des sociétés fondées sur le savoir, et leurs conséquences pour les apprenants autochtones et leurs collectivités. Des résultats de sondages sur des enseignants travaillant dans des collectivités autochtones en Saskatchewan et au Manitoba soulignent l'émergence d'un professionnalisme fragmenté dans l'enseignement. Malgré que les enseignants aient exprimé leur engagement envers la réforme, des changements substantiels sont nécessaires pour que les intérêts professionnels des enseignants et les pratiques du système scolaire s'accordent entièrement pour assurer le genre de succès en éducation désiré par les collectivités autochtones. L'absence de mécanismes d'intégration forts pour lier les besoins professionnels des enseignants aux intérêts des autochtones et le manque d'engagement clair de la part du système envers l'équité en éducation pour les autochtones contribuent à créer des inégalités et des problèmes éducationnels potentiellement dommageables chez les élèves qui ont le plus besoin de soutien. This paper explores the changing occupational nature of teaching in relation to initiatives to improve education for Aboriginal people. It examines the impact of multiple, potentially contradictory streams of educational reform. These include, in particular, concerns about the intensification of teachers' work, the professional reconstitution of teaching to meet the needs of knowledge‐based societies, and consequences for Aboriginal learners and communities. Results from surveys of teachers working in Aboriginal communities in Saskatchewan and Manitoba highlight the emergence of a fragmented professionalism within teaching. Despite teachers' expressed commitment to reform, substantial changes are required if teachers' professional interests and school system practice are to become fully aligned to produce the kinds of educational success desired by Aboriginal communities. The absence of strong integrative mechanisms to link teachers' professional needs, Aboriginal community interests, and clear system commitments to education equity for Aboriginal people contributes to uneven and potentially harmful educational consequences for students who are most in need of support.     

THE PROBLEM OF INSTREAM FLOWS

To obtain a surface water right in the arid American West, private appropriators have been required to undertake actual physical diversion of the water. That requirement largely negates the role of private contacting to preserve or enhance water flows for recreational, wildlife and aesthetic purposes. In this paper a model is developed and used to examine the courts' rationale for denying private claims to instream flows. The ways in which such claims can be made amenable to the prior appropriation system are explored. The paper is motivated by the failure of public agencies to achieve an approximately optimal solution.