bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Assessing Client Change in Individual and Family Counseling
Authors: Fischer Robert L.
Published: May 2004

This article presents outcome data from an ongoing nonintrusive method for evaluating counseling services. Applied to one agency’s delivery of solution-focused brief therapy, the method is brief and easily integrated into clinical practice. Using two scaling questions (one to measure daily functioning and the other to measure emotional coping), clinicians asked clients in every session to rate on a scale of 0 to 10 their present status on two dimensions. Data were collected by 40 professional counselors providing services to 3,920 cases during a 2-year period, averaging three counseling sessions per case. Analyses demonstrated statistically significant findings for both functioning and coping regardless of the number of sessions and client system (i.e., individual or couple and family). The research demonstrates a clinically useful method for assessing counseling services in process and illustrates the improvements in functioning and coping experienced by clients concurrent within their participation in counseling.
Evaluating the Effects of Child Abuse Training on the Attitudes, Knowledge, and Skills of Police Recruits
Authors: Patterson George T.
Published: May 2004

The objective of the current study was to assess the effects of mandatory child abuse training on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward abused children and abusive parents among a sample of police recruits. An experimental pretest-posttest design was used in which 81 participants were randomly assigned to experimental conditions and 101 to comparison conditions. Participants in the experimental group received the mandatory child abuse training while those in the comparison did not. Analysis of covariance results suggest that recruits participating in the experimental group acquired more knowledge, developed more skills, and felt more caring and sympathetic toward abusive parents than recruits in the comparison group. These results are discussed relative to the provision of joint child abuse training as part of a police-social work collaboration model.
Analysis on the Move: Deconstructing Troublesome Health Questions and Troubling Epidemiology
Authors: Lloyd Mike
Published: May 2004

Qualitative research gets close to experiences of pain, illness, and disease; consequently, qualitative researchers often find themselves asked troublesome questions (i.e., laypeople ask for practical, helpful answers to their everyday illness concerns). This is not surprising, but of interest is the fact that academics ask each other such troublesome questions as part of academic discourse. When academics ask such questions, they may sometimes be after practical information, but they may also be using the questioning as an attack on the supposed excessive relativism of social constructionism. Three key analytical moves that offer a useful deconstruction of troublesome health questions are outlined, showing that they are another useful topic of constructionist inquiry. To lessen abstraction, these moves are brought to bear on a case study of a possible connection between pesticide use and birth defects, thus showing how social science and epidemiology can be connected, troubled, and extended in the process.
Participative Observation: Standing in the Shoes of Others?
Authors: Savage Jan
Published: May 2004

This article argues that participant observation is more than mere method and in need of greater theoretical attention. This is particularly true for its more participative forms, which are inseparable from assumptions about the role of the body in the generation of knowledge. Drawing on fieldwork experience, parallels are noted between participative observation and the clinical practice of nursing, for example, their reliance on physical involvement, their claims to experiential knowledge, and the associated theoretical assumptions they share, such as a reciprocity of perspective between subject and object. Such assumptions need to be examined if the knowledge learnt through participation is to carry weight.
Cross-Cultural Comparison of Health Perceptions, Concerns, and Coping Strategies among Asian and Pacific Islander American Elders
Authors: Torsch Vicki L. , Ma Grace Xueqin
Published: May 2004

This article compares the health perceptions, concerns, and coping strategies among elders in two Asian and Pacific Islander American communities. The qualitative comparison is conducted between elder Chamorros of Guam and elder Chinese of the United States, using a focused ethnography for data collection and the grounded theory method for cross-cultural analysis. The health perceptions of these two communities are manifest in two themes: (a) a sense of holism among body, mind, and spirit and (b) an orientation toward others. The health concerns of these two communities include universal experiences of aging, structural elements within the American health care system, and cultural changes impacting health. A significant coping strategy is adaptation to changes while maintaining continuity. Finally, implications for the delivery of culturally appropriate health care services to Asian and Pacific Islander American elders are discussed.
Physician Views on Practicing Professionalism in the Corporate Age
Authors: Castellani Brian , Wear Delese
Published: May 2004

Arnold Relman argues that medical education does not prepare students and residents to practice their profession in today’s corporate health care system. Corporate health care administrators agree: Physicians enter the workforce unskilled in contract negotiation, evidence-based medicine, navigating bureaucratic systems, and so forth. What about practicing physicians? Do they agree as well? According to this study, they do. Feeling like decentered double agents and unprepared, physicians find themselves professionally lost, struggling to balance issues of cost and care and expressing lots of negativity toward the cultures of medicine and managed care. However, physicians are resilient. A group of physicians, who may be called proactive , are meeting the professional demands of corporate health care by becoming sophisticated about its bureaucratic organization and the ways in which their professional and personal commitments fit within the system. Following the lead of proactive physicians, the authors support Relman’s thesis that education for both students and physicians requires a major overhaul.
Buprenorphine: “Field Trials” of a New Drug
Authors: Agar Michael , Bourgois Philippe , French John , Murdoch Owen
Published: May 2004

Buprenorphine is being introduced as a new treatment drug for narcotics addiction in the United States. The authors were asked by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to conduct a field trial to determine if buprenorphine might play a role in street markets. Because no street use of the drug existed in the United States, the authors used three sources of information: (a) “street readings” of clinical studies, (b) Internet discussion lists, and (c) research in other countries. By using an emergent style of analysis that relies on replication of patterns across disparate data sources, it was determined that buprenorphine has desirable characteristics from a street addict point of view. An evaluation of the field trial 5 years later evaluates its accuracy.
Planning and Recruiting the Sample for Focus Groups and In-Depth Interviews
Authors: MacDougall Colin , Fudge Elizabeth
Published: May 2004

In this article, the authors address the importance of sampling and recruiting for focus groups and in-depth interviews. They draw on a synthesis of the literature and their research experience and propose a three-stage checklist summarizing strategies that worked for them and addressed some of the problems described in the literature. The strategies proposed involve the three stages of prepare, contact, and follow-up. The prepare stage involves finding information sources and key contacts or champions, discovering related projects, and drafting alternative samples. The contact stage involves negotiation with key contacts and potential participants, confirmation, and plans for continued involvement. The follow-up stage involves feedback and continuing links in public events, action, and advocacy resulting from the research. The preparation and follow-up stages can require considerable time and resources, which, if not available within grants, can be provided through partnerships with community agencies or by seeking supplementary resources.
Enhancing the Rigor of Grounded Theory: Incorporating Reflexivity and Relationality
Authors: Hall Wendy A. , Callery Peter
Published: May 2004

Some proponents of the grounded theory method appear to treat interview and participant observation data as though they mirror informants’ realities. Others claim that grounded theory incorporates reflexivity. It is claimed in this article that the principal texts on grounded theory do not attend to the effects of interactions between researchers and participants in interview and participant observation contexts. Descriptions of the effects of interactions on interview data and attention to relationships between interviewers and interviewees are necessary for attending to the rigor of grounded theory findings. Therefore, it is argued that reflexivity and relationality, which are defined as attending to the effects of researcher-participant interactions on the construction of data and to power and trust relationships between researchers and participants, should be incorporated into grounded theory.
Ethical Issues in the Documentary Data Analysis of Internet Posts and Archives
Authors: Sixsmith Judith , Murray Craig D.
Published: May 2004

The documentary analysis of email posts and archives for qualitative research has been outlined elsewhere. Although there is an increase in the number of studies being conducted on listserv and newsgroup material in health research, this has not always been accompanied by a careful, in-depth consideration of the concomitant ethical issues. Therefore, this article outlines the ethical considerations surrounding this form of research, including issues of accessing voices, consent, privacy, anonymity, interpretation, and ownership and authorship of research material.
Joint and Individual Interviewing in the Context of Cancer
Authors: Morris Sara M.
Published: May 2004

Joint interviewing lies somewhere between individual in-depth interviews and focus groups in the panoply of qualitative methodology, yet it has been little explored or described in health research. This article sets out to reflect on the process of choosing to combine joint and individual interviews in the context of a study on the needs of cancer patients and their carers. Questions of intrusion, inclusion, power, and difference caused the researchers to refine their research methods and become more responsive to the preferences of their participants. The article goes on to describe the kind of data generated by joint interviewing and to consider questions of analysis. The author concludes by suggesting that in appropriate circumstances, joint interviewing offers a valuable method of enquiry.
Social Constructions of Femaleness in Writing about Cancer
Authors: Hanson Barbara
Published: May 2004

This article uses a qualitative content analysis of writing about cancer since 1900, with numeric summaries from Medline/PubMed searches, to propose that there is an implicit reliance in biomedicine on the idea that femaleness is pathological hence carcinogenic. Numeric summaries of rates of use of search terms for men and women and their sexual attributes are a backdrop for text sources that illustrate a greater tendency to see women in sexual terms and pathologize aspects of femaleness. This even extends into more frequent use of the term estrogen than testosterone in exclusively male cancer sites such as prostate and testicle. The analysis suggests that female focus and pathologization of femaleness come from social sex differentiation, heterosexual bias, and objectification of women as sex objects. This may be detrimental to both women and men because these social constructions may have focused cancer research on social classifications that are not physically relevant.
Frontline Talk: Teachers’ Linguistic Resources when Talking about Mental Health and Illness
Authors: Tuffin Anne , Tuffin Keith , Watson Sue
Published: May 2004

Talk about mental health and mental illness was examined using Potter and Wetherell’s system of discourse analysis. Participants were 8 health coordinators (teachers) from a range of New Zealand secondary schools. They were interviewed on the topics of mental health and mental illness. Verbatim transcripts from the interviews were analyzed, and three mental health and illness linguistic resources were identified: a mental health as illness resource, a mental well-being resource, and a mental illness resource. Each resource was examined, and the practical consequences of this language use was discussed in relation to the role of teachers as frontline mental health professionals.
Validity in Qualitative Research
Authors: Whittemore Robin , Chase Susan K. , Mandle Carol Lynn
Published: May 2004

Much contemporary dialogue has centered on the difficulty of establishing validity criteria in qualitative research. Developing validity standards in qualitative research is challenging because of the necessity to incorporate rigor and subjectivity as well as creativity into the scientific process. This article explores the extant issues related to the science and art of qualitative research and proposes a synthesis of contemporary viewpoints. A distinction between primary and secondary validity criteria in qualitative research is made with credibility, authenticity, criticality, and integrity identified as primary validity criteria and explicitness, vividness, creativity, thoroughness, congruence, and sensitivity identified as secondary validity criteria.
Sex-for-Crack-Cocaine Exchange, Poor Black Women, and Pregnancy
Authors: Sharpe Tanya Telfair
Published: May 2004

A sample of 34 poor Black women who exchanged sex for crack was screened to discover if sex-for-crack exchanges resulted in pregnancies. Ethnographic interviews were conducted with women who became pregnant this way. Out of the 34 women, 18 reported sex-for-crack pregnancies, and more than half of that number became pregnant this way more than once. Twenty-nine pregnancies were reported. Only 2 women chose to have abortions. Interview transcripts were analyzed using qualitative data analytical procedures. The following three issues shaped the women’s responses to sex-for-crack pregnancies: (a) severity of crack use, (b) religious beliefs, and (c) social organization patterns within poor Black communities. The findings have implications for drug treatment and child welfare policy.
Seeking Emirati Women’s Voices: The Use of Focus Groups with an Arab Population
Authors: Winslow Wendy Wilkins , Honein Gladys , Elzubeir Margaret Ann
Published: May 2004

Focus groups have gained increasing acceptability as a data collection technique in qualitative research in recent years. Although used extensively with Western populations, they have been used only in a limited way in cross-cultural research. The authors describe a series of focus groups with women of childbearing age in the United Arab Emirates. The purpose was to identify Emirati women’s health needs as a prelude to planning additional services and programs. Recommendations are outlined, with the appropriate cultural modifications for using this data collection tool. Major considerations that might be relevant to other parts of the Arab world include timing, location, topic, group composition, culture, religion, and selection of a facilitator and translator.
“Outing” the Researcher: The Provenance, Process, and Practice of Reflexivity
Authors: Finlay Linda
Published: May 2004

To increase the integrity and trustworthiness of qualitative research, researchers need to evaluate how intersubjective elements influence data collection and analysis. Reflexivity— where researchers engage in explicit, self-aware analysis of their own role—offers one tool for such evaluation. The process of engaging in reflexive analysis, however, is difficult, and its subjective, ambiguous nature is contested. In the face of challenges, researchers might retreat from engaging in the process. In this article, the author seeks to “out” the researcher’s presence by exploring the theory and practice of reflexivity. Examples from research illustrate its problematic potential.
Who Should Receive Subsidized Psychotherapy?: Analysis of Decision Makers’ Think-Aloud Protocols
Authors: Fredelius Gunilla , Sandell Rolf , Lindqvist Cecilia
Published: May 2004

Three groups of judges representing clinical, political, and laypersons’ perspectives were given the task of prioritizing patients for subsidized psychotherapy within the Swedish health care system. The authors documented the judges’decision-making processes in think-aloud protocols and analyzed them qualitatively, focusing on the conflict between the urgency of a case and its suitability for treatment. In an earlier statistical analysis of the same material, clinicians had seemed to pay more attention to suitability criteria, whereas health care officials and laypersons prioritized based on urgency. The qualitative findings confirmed the centrality of this conflict and contributed to a deeper understanding of decision makers’ways of coping with it. Their conceptions of suitability and urgency were also elucidated by analysis of the think-aloud protocols.
Constructing Compatibility: Managing Breast-Feeding and Weaning from the Mother’s Perspective
Authors: Hauck Yvonne L. , Irurita Vera F.
Published: May 2004

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to analyze the maternal process of managing the later stages of established breast-feeding and, ultimately, weaning the child from the breast within a Western Australian context. Data were analyzed from 33 participants’interview transcripts, field notes, 9 postal questionnaires from fathers, and individual and discussion group interviews with child health nurses. A common social problem of incompatible expectations was revealed. All participants faced a dilemma in the management of their experience when personal expectations were in opposition to others’ expectations. A process of Constructing Compatibility by Adapting Focus was adopted to compensate for this incompatibility.
“Stuck in the Middle with You”: The Ethics and Process of Qualitative Research th Two People in an Intimate Relationship
Authors: Forbat Liz , Henderson Jeanette
Published: May 2004

In this article, the authors discuss their experiences of two separate research projects involving interviews with both partners in care relationships that pushed the ethics of research methods along unfamiliar routes. The desire to understand the relationship from both sides was seen to outweigh the perils of accessing both stories but only when the ethical and procedural elements had been sufficiently worked through. It is those ethical and procedural elements that they share in this article, which is offered as a provocative nudge toward a continued critical appraisal of ethical standards within qualitative research and begins with the authors’reflection on their processes for such research through the examination of a fictionalized vignette.
Advanced Prostate Cancer Patients’ Ways of Coping with the Hormonal Therapy’s Effect on Body, Sexuality, and Spousal Ties
Authors: Navon Liora , Morag Amira
Published: May 2004

The authors examine the coping strategies employed by advanced prostate cancer patients receiving hormonal therapy to learn from their experience about potential solutions to their nonmedical needs. The study was based on in-depth interviews with 15 such patients and data analysis by the constant comparative method. The main psychosocial difficulties detected were patients’ bodily feminization, sexual dysfunction, and disruption of spousal intimacy. Participants contended with these difficulties through disguise, diversion, and avoidance strategies applied in social interactions, and through self-redefining, self-distancing, and self-solacing cognitive tactics. The analysis of these coping techniques clarifies the motives behind their adoption by the participants, their changing patterns over time, their advantages and disadvantages, and the potential that understanding these issues possesses for improving interventions aimed at alleviating patients’ difficulties.
The Structure of Everyday Self-Care Decision Making in Chronic Illness
Authors: Thorne Sally , Paterson Barbara , Russell Cynthia
Published: May 2004

As health care reform strategists increasingly recognize the critically important potential of effective everyday self-care decision making for reducing the burden of illness and the strain on health service systems, wemust find ways to understand and support it. In this study, the authors investigate persons with expertise in self-care management of type 2 diabetes,HIV/AIDS, and multiple sclerosis to understand how everyday self-care decision making is learned and experienced. They used interview, think-aloud, and focus groups to construct an account of how persons affected by these chronic diseases make decisions in relation to the choices in their everyday lives and learn to manage the untoward effects of these conditions accordingto their unique contexts and values. The findings form a conceptual foundation for ongoing inquiry into this complex phenomenon and provide insights that might assist clinicians to understand more fully the responses and attitudes of those they serve.
Fathers’ Experience of Parenting a Child With Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis
Authors: McNeill Ted
Published: May 2004

The author examined the experience of fathers who have a child with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). He used grounded theory methodology, in which 22 fathers participated in semistructured interviews, and developed a substantive theory of fathers’ experience that addresses the impact of their child’s JRA, their adaptational responses, and the meanings they associated with their experiences. Fathers were profoundly affected, perceived their child’s condition as a catalyst for meaningful involvement, experienced many emotions, and sought to adopt a positive approach to making sense of their child’s condition. Fathers’efforts to be strong for others resulted in an overreliance on self-support strategies, particularly during periods of high stress. Given the nature of fathers’ experience and the extent of their involvement, greater attention by health care practitioners to fathers’ adaptation is indicated.
Seniors’ Survival Trajectories and the Illness Connection
Authors: Montbriand Muriel J.
Published: May 2004

In a recent life history research, 100 out of 190 randomly selected seniors from a Canadian prairie city determined that their lives were survival trajectories, many with connections to their present illnesses. Seniors told of surviving the Great Depression and World War II, making hard decisions, and experiencing adversities that changed their life courses and perceptions. Completed in 2003, this 5-year study consisted of two phases. The first phase, an ethnomethod, sought the meaning seniors ascribe to illness and healing. The second phase was a reentry of the initial data. Highlighting seniors’ stories shows how hard decisions evolved and contrasts can be made in seniors’ narratives. Through seniors’ analyses of their own lives, findings in this inquiry demonstrate how the price of survival is embedded in ways of perceiving adverse experiences. Those who avoided facing adversities in making difficult decisions were those who now blame illnesses on life experiences.
Sociocultural Barriers to the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine for HIV
Authors: Foote-Ardah Carrie E.
Published: May 2004

The author investigated sociocultural barriers that constrain use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the lives of people with HIV. Qualitative interviews with 62 persons with HIV revealed that 73% (n = 45) of interviewees were classified as potential users of CAM. These included both users and nonusers who expressed interests in using CAM or specific modalities but did not use. The demand for CAM was constrained to the extent that participants were unable to incorporate CAM into their health strategies. Three main CAM constraints dealt with obstacles stemming from the Culture of Medicine, the Social Organization of Alternative Medicine, and Everyday Life. From these constraints, the author drew conclusions about sociocultural factors that slow the diffusion ofCAMinto mainstream health practices.
Memories of Treatment: The Immediacy of Breast Cancer
Authors: Thomas-MacLean Roanne
Published: May 2004

This article represents one facet of the author’s research on women’s experiences of embodiment after breast cancer. Herein, women’s reliance on and rejection of medicalized understandings of this condition are explored via participants’ descriptions of memories of treatment. Data collection consisted of 24 in-depth interviews with 12 women, using phenomenological and feminist approaches. Five themes emerged: (a) issues of control, (b) suffering, (c) encountering medicine, (d) visible loss, and (e) leaving active treatment. Participants found the medicalization of breast cancer to be problematic, but they were also reluctant to leave the realm of acute care. Although a large volume of breast cancer research now exists, the women’s accounts demonstrate that further research into the experience of breast cancer is necessary.
Social Context and the Experience of a Sample of U.S. Women Taking RU-486 (Mifepristone) for Early Abortion
Authors: Fielding Stephen L. , Schaff Eric A.
Published: May 2004

Of 50 women seeking an abortion in Rochester, New York, between November 1999 and January 2001, 35 went on to complete an in-depth interview from 1 to 6 weeks after their followup clinical visit. Ahigher proportion of women who defined their pregnancy as a baby indicated emotional distress during their in-depth interview compared to those who saw their pregnancy as only having the potential to become a baby. The authors conclude that abortion might be made less difficult through public education about the different views of pregnancy and abortion throughout U.S. history. It might be important for abortion counselors to first ask a woman how she defines her pregnancy. A larger study is warranted.
Dissonance in the Dining Room: A Study of Social Interaction in a Special Care Unit
Authors: Moore Keith Diaz
Published: May 2004

This study is a multi-method, intrinsic case study of social interaction in a special care unit (SCU) for cognitively impaired older persons. It is found that residents are capable of developing a range of social bonds even though the SCU in question is found to have several organizational and physical factors that unwittingly thwart its therapeutic potential. These limitations are illuminated by consideration of the congruence between the conceptualization of the dining areas held by staff and that held by residents as revealed throught the process of negotiation occurring in social interaction. The study adopts an enviornment-behavior perspective following the theoretical development of Lawton (1986) and merges it with the qualitative approach to place pursued by Goffman (1961) and Gubrium (1978). It is suggested that a focus on place as a unit of analysis offers potential for bridging Quality of Life with the cognitively impaired.
In Your Skin You are Different: Women Living with Ovarian Cancer During Childbearing Years
Authors: Schaefer Karen Moore , Ladd Elisabeth Crago , Lammers Stephen E. , Echenberg Robert J.
Published: May 2004

The purpose of this study was to understand what it is like to live with ovarian cancer during childbearing years. The primary researcher (PR) conducted three to four in-depth interviews, lasting 60 to 90 minutes each, with five women living with ovarian cancer for 1 to 10 years. Van Manen’s method of reflection and writing guided the inquiry. The process of existential investigation expanded the inquiry. Trustworthiness was assured through member checking, reflective journaling, coinvestigators checking the logic of the PR’s analysis, and the achievement of consensus through dialogue. Analysis of the data revealed the themes of serendipitous diagnosis, managing treatment, horrible hair experience, hysterectomy violating one’s sense of being, unfairness of menopause, body changes, intimate dreaming, being with others, being normal/different, being vigilant, being heard, and trying to make sense of it. The stories revealed provide us with a window into the experience of women with ovarian cancer.
How Does Grounded Theory Explain?
Authors: Miller Steven I. , Fredericks Marcel
Published: May 2004

This article argues that the concept of grounded theory, widely used in research in the human sciences, has not been adequately analyzed as to its structure as a theory. Analyzing grounded theory from predictionist and accommodationist views, as well as focusing on the issue of inference to the best explanation, it is concluded that this form of theorizing is basically accommodationist. Moreover, grounded theory, in terms of providing explanations, is simply a different version of a standard inductive argument. However, grounded theory’s strength lies in its potential to articulate a unique context and logic of discovery.
Fourth Generation Evaluation of Health Services: Exploring a Methodology That Offers Equal Voice to Consumer and Professional Stakeholders
Authors: King Lindy , Appleton Jane V.
Published: May 2004

This article explores the need for a clear understanding of fourth generation evaluation as a necessary requirement for those hoping to achieve an effective analysis of health services. The weaknesses of the traditional approaches to evaluation are fully examined so that an effective choice of evaluation methodology can be made. Current health service thinking highlights the need to recognize the importance of both consumer and professional stakeholders, allowing each an equal voice. The authors aim to assist evaluators to select a methodology that will be the most effective medium for allowing this to occur.
Breast Cancer Survivors’ Perceptions of Complementary/Alternative Medicine (CAM): Making the Decision to Use or Not to Use
Authors: Boon Heather , Brown Judith Belle , Gavin Alan , Kennard ary Ann , Stewart Moira
Published: May 2004

The study described in this article explored breast cancer survivors’ perceptions and experiences as they decided whether to use a variety of complementary/alternative therapies. Six focus groups were conducted composed of women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Each 2-hour session was audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. In this article, the process by which the participants made the decision to use or not to use complementary/alternative therapies, including their discovery and investigation of complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) and their experiences using or not using CAM, are described. Barriers to using CAM included cost, access, and time. Family and friends generally supported the decision to use CAM; however, the participants described health care practitioners’ reactions as mixed.
Locating the Feminist Scholar: Relational Empowerment and Social Activism
Authors: VanderPlaat Madine
Published: May 2004

Over the past decade, the rhetoric of “empowerment” has permeated the health promotion, education, and social welfare literature. Many scholars and professionals, particularly those active in the field of social intervention and community development, have found themselves struggling for location in the emancipatory process. This struggle often is characterized by a profound self-consciousness of privilege and the fear of being perceived as imposing and manipulative. This article explores the tensions inherent in the role of the scholar/activist using illustrations from the author’s experience as principal investigator of the Atlantic Regional Evaluation of the Community Action Program for Children. In so doing, it discusses the importance of a relational approach to empowerment, one characterized by mutuality. A commitment to mutuality is seen as a key factor in enhancing the emancipatory capacities of empowerment-based research projects.
Pillaging the Tombs of Noncanonical Texts
Authors: Tebeaux Elizabeth
Published: May 2004

Contrary to literary historians, humanist influences did not produce modern English prose style. Instead, technical or utilitarian discourse is inextricable from the development of modern English prose style. Modern English resulted from written text shaped by five factors: (a) brevity induced from accounting/administrative format; (b) aural/oral-based text, written to be heard and seen, that produced conversational style; (c) persistence of indigenous subject-verb-object syntax found in the earliest English documents; (d) a growing Renaissance book market of literate middle-class readers responding to speech-based prose; and (e) English scriptural renditions of the late Renaissance that associated colloquial speech with Protestantism. Of all writing produced before 1700, only a small amount was humanistic; the bulk was utilitarian. The Royal Society’s demand for “plain English” prevailed because the call for precise language by these early scientists reflected the indigenous nature of a plain English that had surfaced as early as 900.
Using Action Research to Address Loss of Personhood in a Continuing Care Setting
Authors: Ashburner Charlotte , Meyer Julienne , Johnson Barbara , Smith Cheran
Published: May 2004

This article describes a three-year action research project, aimed to support staff in recognizing and responding to loss of personhood in a continuing care setting. The context of this study was a U.K. National Health Service (NHS) nursing home for the long-term care of older people. Interventions used to support this development included the collection and sharing of residents' life histories, weekly team supervision meetings for staff, an action learning set for managers, and monthly external supervised meetings for both the action researcher and senior manager. This article reports on the processes and outcomes of change achieved and the learning gained from working in a collaborative way with staff. Given that current policy indicates the need for person-centered care, this study provides a possible mechanism for putting it into practice through a systems and psychodynamically informed approach.
Grief, Self-Awareness, and Psychotherapy following Brain Injury
Authors: Coetzer B. R.
Published: May 2004

Brain injuries result in complex losses for an individual. Impairments of self-awareness are common following brain injury. The losses associated with brain injuries are often difficult for a person to comprehend because of impaired self-awareness. It is likely that there is a dynamic relationship between self-awareness and the grief that follow brain injury. Grief and impaired self-awareness, unless resolved, are likely to hamper rehabilitation efforts. Psychotherapeutic approaches specifically addressing grief and loss following brain injury are discussed. Ideally, attempts to address grief following brain injury should take account of the problem of impaired self-awareness. This article aims to bring together the concepts of both self-awareness and grief following brain injury and the role psychotherapy may have in assisting people adjusting to loss and grief following brain injury.
Salivary Cortisol As Indicators of Pain in Preterm Infants
Authors: Herrington Carolyn J. , Olomu Isoken N. , Geller Sandra M.
Published: May 2004

Assessment and management of pain in preterm infants is critical and complicated. The addition of salivary cortisol measurement may improve the specificity of assessment and guide care to alleviate pain. The purpose of this study was fourfold: (a) assess the feasibility of a method of saliva collection in premature infants, (b) assess reliability of a method of measuring salivary cortisol in response to heelstick, (c) identify relationships between salivary cortisol and a measure of pain behavior (using CRIES) following heelstick, and (d) identify peak response times for elevations of salivary cortisol following heelstick in preterm infants. This was a prospective, descriptive pilot study. Serial saliva samples were collected from eight healthy infants 30 to 36 weeks’ gestational age in a Newborn Intensive Care Unit. Cortisol levels were determined using enzyme-immuneassay. Samples were collected without use of stimulants. Sample means supported peak and trough patterns previously described in the literature. Behavioral measures of pain did not correlate well with peak cortisol levels.
A Patient-Centered Model of Care for Hospital Discharge
Authors: Anthony Mary K. , Hudson-Barr Diane
Published: May 2004

Patient-centered care is a key characteristic of quality health care in the 21st century. Three patient-driven processes of care, characteristic of patient-centered models of care, may be related to improved readiness for discharge: patients’ knowledge of their home-going needs, their relative importance, and their active involvement in the discharge process. Forty-four patients having planned abdominal surgery were interviewed at three time points to determine their information needs and preference for involvement. Patients identified 4.74 needs prior to admission, 5.05 needs prior to discharge, and 5.35 needs after discharge. Using Friedman’s ANOVA for ranks, the importance of each need did not change over time. Patients expressed a desire for information and preference to be involved. These findings provide initial evidence for the efficacy of future interventions in designing care as seen through the eyes of the patient.
The Seduction of Best Practice
Authors: Kaplan Sarah
Published: May 2004

Recent spectacular failures of many companies that had previously been held up as icons to emulate have called into question the use of best practice exemplars in strategic management. In this commentary on Whittington et al.'s “Taking Strategy Seriously,” I suggest that we can reject naïve concepts of excellence without jettisoning case studies. Company cases are essentially stories, and stories are ways of conveying understanding, creating meaning, and justifying action. We can still use these company narratives as part of a process of reflection and dialogue. Stories should be used for their power to provoke learning and change without being turned into rote templates to be followed blindly. An appreciation of the power, productive and seductive, of stories of best practice, may provide some “heedfulness” to work in the strategy field.
Turning Lemons into Lemonade
Authors: Starbuck William H.
Published: May 2004

Authors need to view reviewers’ comments not as judgments about the value of their work, but as good data about potential readers of their articles. The editorial review process does have deficiencies, the most serious being that reviewers should decide what articles warrant publication. “Peer review” should mean that reviewers and authors are indeed peers. However, editors typically act as if reviewers have more competence and more valid opinions than authors, and as if they themselves have the wisdom and knowledge to impose constraints on manuscripts. Empirical evidence indicates that editorial decisions incorporate bias and randomness. However, authors need to persuade potential readers to read their articles and that authors’ ideas and theories are plausible and useful. Authors must adapt their manuscripts to readers’ perceptual frameworks. Nevertheless, authors should remember that editors and reviewers are not superior and that the ultimate decisions about what is right must come from inside themselves.
The Manuscript Review Process
Authors: Bedeian Arthur G.
Published: May 2004

Drawing on a 28-item survey, this article reports the editorial experiences of 173 lead authors of articles published in theAcademy of Management Journal andAcademy of Management Review, over the period 1999 to 2001, to explore some relatively new dynamics that have changed the character of the manuscript review process and given rise to a mounting debate over the proper roles of authors, referees, and editors. Among the survey’s more disturbing findings, more than one third of the responding authors reported that recommended revisions in their manuscripts were based on an editor’s or referee’s personal preferences, and almost 25% indicated that in revising their manuscripts they had actually made changes they felt were incorrect.
Sensemaking and Politics in MNCs
Authors: Geppert Mike
Published: May 2004

This article compares sensemaking processes in multinational corporations (MNCs) situated in the same industrial sector. Our comparative analysis of three MNCs and their subsidiaries in Germany and the United Kingdom aims to shed light on the contextual dimension (institutions, culture, and politics) of the sensemaking process. First, I discuss ideologies related to the discourse about global restructuring of manufacturing. Second, I compare similarities and differences in vocabularies of the (multinational) organizations. Third, I compare cross-national vocabularies of work in German and U.K. subsidiaries. Finally I suggest a political approach of sensemaking referring to stories used to legitimize or delegitimize dominant ideologies about global manufacturing, established decision-premises within the MNC, and specific nationally entrenched work paradigms.
Imperfection, Transfer Failure, and the Replication of Knowledge
Authors: Rerup Claus
Published: May 2004

Virtually all management literature focuses on success stories. Gabriel Szulanski’s work is an exception. In this interview, Szulanski explains why replication and knowledge transfer are difficult and often fail. He discusses strategies to improve the odds of success for these activities and emphasizes that humility and discipline are essential for making them work. Szulanski starts the interview by identifying some challenges that he and other young scholars have faced when entering academia, and the strategy field in particular.
The Americanization of Academic Management Education in Germany
Authors: Kieser Alfred
Published: May 2004

After a conceptualization of Americanization, an overview over the process of Americanization of the German system of higher education in management is provided. This process is characterized by four phases: (a) the almost complete absence of American influences on academic German management education before World War II, (b) the “re-education” of German managers after World War II based on American principles of the free market and management approaches with some assumed effects on academic management education, (c) the increasing acceptance of American approaches to management sciences within academia, starting in the 1950s, (d) the attempts to Americanize (via Europeanizing) the higher management education institutions.
Cracks in the Glass Ceiling
Authors: Goodman Jodi S. , Fields Dail L. , Blum Terry C.
Published: May 2004

This study investigates variables that differentiate work establishments that have women in top management positions from those that do not. Women occupied top management positions in slightly more than half of the 228 medium- to large-sized private sector establishments the authors studied. The authors found that women are more likely to occupy top management ranks in establishments that have more lower level management positions filled by women, have higher management turnover, have lower average management salary levels, place greater emphasis on development and promotion of employees, and operate in nonmanufacturing industries.
Procedural Justice and Personality Testing
Authors: Ambrose Maureen L. , Rosse Joseph G.
Published: May 2004

Research in selection examines how organizational justice principles may influence applicants’ reactions to selection procedures. This article extends this research by examining how two aspects of procedures—interpersonal treatment and social comparison information—affect reactions to a personality testing. The results of two studies demonstrate that interpersonal treatment (expression of concern for applicants’ feelings) and social comparison information (description of testing as either typical or experimental) interact to affect test-takers’ reactions. When concern was expressed and personality testing was described as typical, individuals responded less positively. However, when no concern was expressed, evaluations were more positive when testing was described as typical. The implications for organizational justice research and selection research are discussed.
Stigma and Acceptance of Persons With Disabilities
Authors: McLaughlin Mary E. , Bell Myrtle P. , Stringer Donna Y.
Published: May 2004

Although persons with disabilities compose a growing portion of workers, when compared with other aspects of diversity (e.g., race/ethnicity or gender), disability has received relatively little research attention. In a between-subjects experimental design with more than 600 participants, we evaluated the roles of disability type (AIDS, cerebral palsy, and stroke), stigma, and employee characteristics in acceptance of a coworker with a disability. Stigma largely mediated the relationship between disability type and acceptance. Employee characteristics had direct effects on some aspects of acceptance. Exploratory factor analysis of stigma revealed six factors; however, only a “performance impact” factor was consistently related to acceptance, suggesting that perceived implications of the coworker’s disability for job performance are critical.
Educating a Modern Business Workforce
Authors: Balotsky Edward R. , Christensen Edward W.
Published: May 2004

This article reflects on the intersection of traditional and information technology- (IT-) mediated education and proposes the need to develop a revised teaching pedagogy that better reflects the skills required for success in the 21st-century business environment. Building on the premise that neither a homogeneous traditional nor IT-mediated workplace is prevalent, it is argued that educational institutions should provide both traditional and IT-mediated alternatives, not simply because they make education more accessible to their students but because of workplace demands and therefore student needs for proficiency in the use of these enabling technologies. The implications of this premise are discussed in terms of communication skills, pedagogical and curricular change, tacit knowledge, and outcome measurement.
An Action Learning Perspective on Effective Implementation of Academic Honor Codes
Authors: Dufresne Ronald L.
Published: May 2004

Facing mounting evidence of academic dishonesty on America’s college campuses, many schools in the 1990s implemented academic honor codes to stem the tide. Previous research concerning academic honor codes and other ethics codes highlight the importance of enacting a more ethical organizational culture as well as involving many organizational members in the process. Through the illustrative case of a major public university that struggled to meet this normative goal as it implemented an academic honor code, this article introduces an action learning perspective on how the design and implementation of ethics codes can help effect change in the ethical culture by instilling and reinforcing the values of honesty and integrity. It is argued that codes must be designed with full acknowledgement of the traditions and culture present in the student body, with the involvement of virtuallyall organization members, to elicit a full understanding of the ethical culture system.