The Third Way Reconfigured: How and Why Nonprofit Organizations are Shifting Their Human Resource Management

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are facing increasing demands to become more efficient and effective, especially given increasing financial cutbacks, the rising demand for services and the push toward performance-related management. Human resource management (HRM) is claimed to play an important role in coping with these challenges. Yet, within the field of nonprofit management, little is known about the configuration of HR architectures in NPOs, let alone their impact on performance. To bridge this gap, we conduct an exploratory multiple case study in ten health and social services NPOs. The case study data indicates a shift toward a dominant strategic orientation in the configuration of HRM. Our article makes a central contribution by uncovering a third way in which NPOs seek a specific configuration of HRM to confront the challenges they face in their internal and external environments.     

Stress management for pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers: A pilot study

A five week stress management program for pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers emphasizing deep muscle relaxation and cognitive control methods was pilot tested with 23 experimental and 12 control subjects. The experimental group demonstrated a significantly greater reduction in cognitive and affective manifestations of stress and an increased belief in their ability to deal with stress. While the differences between the groups did not reach statistical significance with respect to changes in overall stress levels or use of specific coping strategies, a consistent trend was demonstrated in the data for more positive changes in the experimental group. Recommendations were made for an expanded program, the inclusion of incentives, and the program's inclusion in the school schedule.     

Workplace Flexibility Practices and Corporate Performance: Evidence from the British Private Sector

This paper investigates the relationship between workplace flexibility practices (WFPs) and corporate performance using data from the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004. Disaggregating WFPs into numerical, functional and cost aspects enables the analysis of their relationships to an objective measure of corporate performance, namely workplace financial turnover. Furthermore separate analyses are presented for different types of workplace: differentiated by workforce size; ownership; age; wage level; and unionization. Results show that different types of workplaces need to pay attention to the mix of WFPs they adopt. We find that certain cost WFPs (profit‐related pay, merit pay and payment‐by‐results) have strong positive relationships with corporate performance. However, training delivers mixed corporate performance results, while the extent of job autonomy and the proportion of part‐time employees in a workplace have an inverse association with corporate performance. Given the limited existing research examining disaggregated measures of WFPs and objectively measured corporate performance, this paper offers useful insights for firms, policy makers and the overall economy.     

Competitiveness in Southeastern Europe: from sources to future trends

We examine the issue of regional competitiveness by taking as a discussion example the region of Southeastern Europe. The paper begins with the concepts of national and regional competitiveness and finishes with the results of a survey on the region’s competitiveness.     

Evaluating ICT Implementations within the Romanian Business Environment

The impact of Internet services in the economic field is huge and has generated new forms of performing typical activities in the new e-way: e-commerce,e-banking, and so on. The paper focuses on the impact of these electronic facilities and, more generally, of ICT (information and communication technology) facilities, upon the activity of some Romanian firms, mainly small and medium enterprises. We sustain our statements by administering and analyzing a questionnaire which enabled us to perform a quantitative and qualitative study in the field we concentrated on. We can generally conclude that Internet services and IT facilities emerge as a new and dynamic way of being profitable on the Romanian market and of building up the “global e-economy”.     

Peer support and food security in deaf college students

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of the study was to investigate whether peer support and demographic characteristics predicted food security among deaf college students. Participants: The sample included 166 deaf college students at Gallaudet University. Methods: Participants completed a bilingual online survey in American Sign Language (ASL) and English. This survey included USDA’s 6-item food security survey, questions about peer support and socio-demographic characteristics. Results: Out of 166 students (mean age =23; SD?=?6), 60.7% were food secure. About 26.4% were at-risk for low food security and another 12.9% had very low food security. The sample included respondents who identified as people of color (54%) and women (52%). Binary logistic regression revealed that compared to people who reported always receiving peer support, people who never received peer support were 16.3 times more likely to experience food insecurity (adj OR: 16.325, 95% CI 1.824–146.107). Conclusions: This study demonstrates a strong relationship between peer support and deaf college students' food security experiences.     

Principles for Conduct of Pest Risk Analyses: Report of an Expert Workshop

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) have focused attention on risk assessment of potential insect, weed, and animal pests and diseases of livestock. These risks have traditionally been addressed through quarantine protocols ranging from limits on the geographical areas from which a product may originate, postharvest disinfestation procedures like fumigation, and inspections at points of export and import, to outright bans. To ensure that plant and animal protection measures are not used as nontariff trade barriers, GATT and NAFTA require pest risk analysis (PRA) to support quarantine decisions. The increased emphasis on PRA has spurred multiple efforts at the national and international level to design frameworks for the conduct of these analyses. As approaches to pest risk analysis proliferate, and the importance of the analyses grows, concerns have arisen about the scientific and technical conduct of pest risk analysis. In January of 1997, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA) held an invitation-only workshop in Washington, D.C. to bring experts in risk analysis and pest characterization together to develop general principles for pest risk analysis. Workshop participants examined current frameworks for PRA, discussed strengths and weaknesses of the approaches, and formulated principles, based on years of experience with risk analysis in other setting and knowledge of the issues specific to analysis of pests. The principles developed highlight the both the similarities of pest risk analysis to other forms of risk analysis, and its unique attributes.     

Die Bedeutung des Mentalisierungskonzepts für Coaching

For executives it is essential to interact and resolve conflicts in order to gain or maintain a high level of functioning within the organizational structures. Therefore they must be able to understand the intentional mental states of themselves and their interaction partners to ascribe an adequate meaning that allow to react and respond in an appropriate way. This ability is called mantalization. With the help of mentalization-based therapy (MBT) the improvement of mentalization can be accomplished. For this reason the department of Theory and Methodology of Counseling at the university of Kassel explored whether a mentalization-based Coaching inspired by MBT would be useful.     

Discrimination Experienced by Immigrants,Racialized Individuals,and Indigenous Peoples in Small- and Mid-Sized Communities in Southwestern Ontario

We investigate discrimination experiences of (1) immigrants and racialized individuals, (2) Indigenous peoples, and (3) comparison White non-immigrants in nine regions of Southwestern Ontario containing small- and mid-sized communities. For each region, representative samples of the three groups were recruited to complete online surveys. In most regions, over 80 percent of Indigenous peoples reported experiencing discrimination in the past 3 years, and in more than half of the regions, over 60 percent of immigrants and racialized individuals did so. Indigenous peoples, immigrants and racialized individuals were most likely to experience discrimination in employment settings and in a variety of public settings, and were most likely to attribute this discrimination to racial and ethnocultural factors, and for Indigenous peoples also their Indigenous identity. Immigrants and racialized individuals who had experienced discrimination generally reported a lower sense of belonging and welcome in their communities. This association was weaker for Indigenous peoples. The findings provide new insight into discrimination experienced by Indigenous peoples, immigrants and racialized individuals in small and mid-sized Canadian communities, and are critical to creating and implementing effective anti-racism and anti-discrimination strategies.     

Between the military government and the minority affairs ministry: The construction of the Palestinian minority as a security threat during the first years of the existence of Israel

This study examines correspondence and documents on various matters handled by Israel's Ministry of Minority Affairs during its brief period of operation. The extensive correspondence illuminates aspects relating to the distress faced by Palestinian citizens as a result of the 1948 War and the restrictions imposed on them by the military government, as well as the nature of the emerging relationship between the State and the minority population during the crucial first year following the establishment of Israel. We argue that the construction of the Palestinian minority as a security threat was not a product of the war circumstances, but rather an outcome of interests and political considerations. This construction grew gradually, along with the developing of practices of supervision and means of control, peaking with the subjugation of the Arab population to military government.