Refinement and validation of a comprehensive scale for measuring HR practices aimed at performance-enhancement and employee-support

The purpose of this paper is to refine and validate a Human Resource practices (HRP) scale to measure employees' perceptions and test a two-tier model structured in eight practices and two bundles. In a sample of 554 employees, an EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) offered six factors that explained about 70% of the variance. Then, with 1647 employees (from 41 Spanish organizations), first- and second-order models were tested with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The former encompasses eight practices. The latter grouped the practices in two bundles, one on enhancing performance and the other on supporting employees. The Cronbach's alpha, Rho coefficient (Composite Reliability Coefficient), Omega coefficient, and Spearman-Brown split half coefficient showed good reliability. Validity evidence was found for construct, criterion, convergent, content, discriminant, and predictive validity. Moreover, the paper integrates different ways of approaching the study of HR management based on employees' perceptions, using a two-tier approach. The two-bundle model showed better fit, pointing out the importance of paying attention to multiple outcomes for employees and organizations. The study makes a relevant theoretical contribution about the role and aims of HRM practices for organizational success and employees' performance and well-being.     

Urban cultivation in Accra: an examination of the nature, practices, problems, potentials and urban planning implications

The literature on urban farming in Sub-Saharan African cities reveals that most studies have been conducted in Eastern, Southern and Central African cities. A few have focused on West Africa, including Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, and Cameroon. In Ghana there is a paucity of information on urban farming. The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of urban cultivation in Accra, Ghana's capital, reviewing existing research, and to present new empirical findings on urban cultivation emphasizing on its history, nature, practices, problems, potentials and urban planning implications.     

三代领导人城市布局思想与政策绩效分析

城市作为社会、经济、文化活动空间集聚面形成了社会景观, 其产生和发展是各种社会经济要素的空间流动和地理集中的结果。城市不但是人口集聚地, 而且成为各种产业的集聚中心。本文所及的城市布局、规范的范围始于新中国建立。20世纪50年来, 三代领导人在城市布局理论、方法和实践上的特色有许多值得总结的东西     

美国城市化经验对江苏城市化战略的启示

美国城市化经历了发生、发展、成熟的完整过程 ,具体表现为集中和分散两个显著特征 ;我国江苏城市化进程中的独特现象与美国城市化形成鲜明对比 ,通过比较、借鉴 ,江苏必须走出一条符合省情的城市化道路。     

特许经营:未来的选择——兼议电子商务与特许经营之互补关系

特许经营在世界各地强劲的发展着 ,它既是市场高度化的结果 ,又是促使市场进一步发展的重要条件。它的主要优势在于 :1 对中小投资者来说具有低风险和低门槛进入的便利。 2 对主导企业来说是实现低成本扩张、规模效益以及加大无形资本边际回报的途径。 3 对这种经营方式本身来说它能随着IT行业的迅猛发展 ,可以与电子商务形成优势互补 ,所以特许经营将成为经营方式未来的选择     

Urban Housing as an Issue of Redistribution through Planning? The Case of Dhaka City

The rapid growth of population, the mushrooming of poor settlements and unplanned urbanization have crucial implications for the efficiency and equity of urban services. The resultant infringements of critical human rights throw into focus the importance of housing as a social policy issue. Urban services are strained in Dhaka city. Urban management has been disrupted as a result of spatial encroachment and environmental degradation. In addition to land scarcity, land speculation and endemic corruption, the high price of land is also a product of the system of land registration. The dearth of valuable urban land, together with delays in urban planning and its implementation, have made the acquisition of land for housing prohibitively expensive for middle and low‐income households. Consequently, the quality of the housing environment is deteriorating. The problem of housing finance is intrinsically linked to its affordability, being currently the prerogative only of the affluent. This article delineates the inherent lack of integrated urban planning, the lacunae within institutions responsible for urban management – and, contextually, the nature of housing as a social policy issue, where reinforced, coordinated planning and administration could ensure distributive benefits even to the poor.     

Estimating household structure in ancient China by using historical data: a latent class analysis of partially missing patterns

Summary.  Social data often contain missing information. The problem is inevitably severe when analysing historical data. Conventionally, researchers analyse complete records only. Listwise deletion not only reduces the effective sample size but also may result in biased estimation, depending on the missingness mechanism. We analyse household types by using population registers from ancient China (618–907 AD) by comparing a simple classification, a latent class model of the complete data and a latent class model of the complete and partially missing data assuming four types of ignorable and non-ignorable missingness mechanisms. The findings show that either a frequency classification or a latent class analysis using the complete records only yielded biased estimates and incorrect conclusions in the presence of partially missing data of a non-ignorable mechanism. Although simply assuming ignorable or non-ignorable missing data produced consistently similarly higher estimates of the proportion of complex households, a specification of the relationship between the latent variable and the degree of missingness by a row effect uniform association model helped to capture the missingness mechanism better and improved the model fit.     

一种求解双目标线性规划的方法及其在上海市土地使用和交通方面的应用

本文介绍了一种求解双目标线性规划(SBLP)的方法.根据上海市土地使用与交通的现状建立了一个拟动态的模型(BOLT),并用该方法加以求解。根据得到的解对上海市土地使用与交通相互作用的情况进行了分析。     

基于层次分析法的职务绩效定量分析

针对企业绩效评价中存在的问题,引用管理决策的层次分析法,从系统论的角度,对企业职务绩效指标进行整体分析和比较,更为科学地确定了绩效体系中各指标的权重。     

Development of the Mental Illness and Disorder Understanding Scale

Abstract: Although administrative bodies such as community health centers have implemented various awareness campaigns to promote community understanding of mental health and to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and disorder, there have been few reports that have quantitatively analyzed the effects of these campaigns in Japan. Therefore, this study was conducted for the purpose of developing the evaluative “Mental Illness and Disorder Understanding Scale (MIDUS)” for awareness campaigns and assessing its reliability and validity. A survey was conducted on 1 004 community residents using a self‐administered questionnaire. An assessment of the reliability and validity of the scale was then conducted. The Cronbach a coefficient of the MIDUS was 0.78, thus indicating adequate reliability. Factor analysis of the MIDUS revealed three factors: “Treatability of illness”, “Efficacy of medication” and “Social recognition of illness”. In addition, a significant correlation was observed between the MIDUS and existing scales, and fixed criterion‐based validity was demonstrated. The MIDUS utilizes items worded in the form of affirmative expressions so as to avoid promoting new bias. It was confirmed to be both reliable and valid, thereby suggesting its usefulness as an evaluative scale of awareness campaigns.