bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Effect of State Appropriations on Export-Related Employment in Manufacturing
Authors: Wilkinson Timothy J.
Published: March 2007

State governments use economic development programs to strengthen the economic bases of their states, increase tax revenues, and preserve and increase job opportunities. Export promotion organizations are a key element of these programs. This article attempts to partially address the lack of evaluative literature regarding the effectiveness of export promotion programs by providing an analysis of the relationship between state appropriations and export-related employment in manufacturing. The findings support the suggestion that state appropriations for export promotion result in higher employment for firms that are directly involved in exporting their products overseas. No evidence is found of a relationship between appropriations and employment in firms that produce the components of export products.
Are Poor People Really Excluded from Jobs Located in their Own Neighborhoods? Comments on Reingold and Some Additional Evidence from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality
Authors: Ihlanfeldt Keith R.
Published: March 2007

Interviews with employers located in poor inner-city neighborhoods reveal that they view nearby workers as unproductive and frequently troublesome. This suggests that these employers may exclude poor people from jobs located in their own neighborhood. Some rare quantitative evidence is provided by Reingold based on data from the Urban Poverty and Family Study’s survey of Chicago-area employers. His results are cause for optimism because they suggest that exclusion does not occur. However, his analysis treats all poor neighborhoods the same, regardless of their racial composition. I provide evidence from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality Survey of Employers that suggests that poor people are excluded from jobs in their own neighborhood if the neighborhood contains a plurality of Blacks, but exclusion does not occur if the neighborhood has a plurality of either Whites or Hispanics.
OPTING INTO MOTHERHOOD
Authors: DUNNE GILLIAN A.
Published: March 2007

This article focuses on the experiences of becoming and being mothers for lesbian co-parents who have children via donor insemination. Rather than the presence of children incorporating lesbians into the mainstream as “honorary heterosexuals,” the author argues that lesbian parenting represents a radical and radicalizing challenge to heterosexual norms that govern parenting roles and identities. It undermines traditional notions of the family and the heterosexual monopoly of reproduction. The same-sex context together with successful collaboration with donors supports the refashioning of kinship relationships. An attentiveness to the gender dynamics of sexuality illuminates further contestations. The author argues that their structural similarities as women place them in contradiction with dominant gender practices enacted in heterosexual relationships. This facilitates the evaluation and negotiation of more egalitarian approaches to work and parenting, and through their operationalization, much of the logic supporting conventional divisions of labor is undermined.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS AMONG ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN
Authors: CHOW ESTHER NGAN-LING
Published: March 2007

This article examines the social circumstances, both current and past, that have affected the development and transformation of feminist consciousness among Asian American women. Gender, race, class, and culture all influenced the relative lack of participation of Asian American women in the mainstream feminist movement in the United States. It concludes that Asian American women have to come to terms with their multiple identities and define feminist issues from multiple dimensions. By incorporating race, class, and cultural issues along with gender concerns, a transcendent feminist consciousness that goes beyond these boundaries may develop.
ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN'S FAMILIAL ROLES:
Authors: MASON KAREN OPPENHEIM , LU YU-HSIA
Published: March 2007

Changes between 1977 and 1985 in women's and men's attitudes toward women's familial roles were examined using National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey data. Despite speculation that a backlash against feminism occurred during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and evidence from past studies of a possible slowdown in gender-role attitude change, the data show a significant increase in profeminist views of the wife and mother roles among both women and men. More of this change occurred within cohorts than through cohort succession. With the exception of college-graduate women, whose support for gender equality was high at both periods, the profeminist trend occurred about equally in all sociodemographic subgroups of the population, although even in 1985, men were less feminist in orientation than women.
CONFLICTING IDEOLOGIES AND THE POLITICS OF PORNOGRAPHY
Authors: COTTLE CHARLES E. , SEARLES PATRICIA , BERGER RONALD J. , PIERCE BETH ANN
Published: March 2007

This article analyzes positions on pornography using Q-methodology. Eighty-five respondents sorted a sample of 86 opinion statements on definitions of pornography, personal reactions to it, its causes and effects, and social policy recommendations. Factor analysis was used to identify clusters of individuals in the United States who share common subjectively defined points of view on pornography. The three patterns of responses that emerged from the analysis were labeled Religious-Conservative, Liberal, and Antipornography Feminist. Using the empirical data, we examine the logical and ethical structures of these points of view and their political and legal implications. We conclude that the viewpoints are too incompatible to sustain stable and effective political alignments among the adherents.
GENDER AND PUBLISHING IN SOCIOLOGY
Authors: GRANT LINDA , WARD KATHRYN B.
Published: March 2007

As in other fields, scholarly publication in sociology is not only the key to career success but also the route by which feminist analyses and perspectives become known to others in the discipline. A growing literature has analyzed women's and men's rates of publication, but the gender politics of the prepublication production of research and gender differences in reputation building after publication remain underexplored. This report reviews the current state of knowledge about sociological publishing at three phases: prepublication, the publication-seeking phase, and postpublication. It concludes with critical questions to be addressed in developing a comprehensive model of gender effects on sociological publishing.
STRUCTURE AND AGENCY IN SOCIALIST-FEMINIST THEORY
Authors: WHARTON AMY S.
Published: March 2007

A long-standing debate in social theory concerns the relative merits of structural approaches versus those that highlight the social actor. This article examines how various feminist approaches to gender inequality have incorporated assumptions about structure and agency, and suggests that existing perspectives could be improved by linking gender as a structural property of social organization and as a property of actors. Suggestions for an alternative conception of gender that acknowledges both dimensions of social life are discussed.
FEMINIST SCIENCE:
Authors: CANCIAN FRANCESCA M.
Published: March 2007

The feminist goal of challenging inequality requires distinctive methods such as combining social action with research and using participatory approaches. These methods strengthen scientific standards of good evidence and open debate, but they conflict with elitism and careerism in academia and hence are rarely used. Nonhierarchical structures must be created.
WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT AS A GIFT OR BURDEN?
Authors: PYKE KAREN D.
Published: March 2007

Based on interviews with a random sample of white women who are in a second marriage, this article examines changes in women's marital power across marriage, divorce, and remarriage. In some marriages, women's market work is not considered a resource and hence does not have a positive effect on marital power, particularly when husbands are employed in low-status occupations. Conversely, women who are domestically oriented do not necessarily suffer a loss of power. Hochschild's concept of “economy of gratitude” illuminates the way that marital power is affected by the meanings couples assign to women's paid and unpaid labor. Furthermore, women's previous market work and marital and divorce experiences affect the meaning of their paid and unpaid labor upon remarriage, as well as their desire for each.
MEN, WOMEN, AND FRIENDSHIP:
Authors: WALKER KAREN
Published: March 2007

Using data from 52 in-depth interviews with working-class and professional men and women, I examine gender differences in friendships. Men and women respond to global questions about friendship in culturally specific ways. Men focus on shared activities, and women focus on shared feelings. Responses to questions about specific friends, however, reveal more variation in same-sex friendships than the literature indicates. Men share feelings more, whereas women share feelings less; furthermore, the extent to which they do so varies by class. I argue that conceptualizing gender as an ongoing social construction explains the data better than do psychoanalytic or socialization accounts.
“I'M HERE, BUT I'M THERE”
Authors: HONDAGNEU-SOTELO PIERRETTE , AVILA ERNESTINE
Published: March 2007

Latina immigrant women who work as nannies or housekeepers and reside in Los Angeles while their children remain in their countries of origin constitute one variation in the organizational arrangements of motherhood. The authors call this arrangement “transnational motherhood.” On the basis of a survey, in-depth interviews, and ethnographic materials gathered in Los Angeles, they examine how Latina immigrant domestic workers transform the meanings of motherhood to accommodate these spatial and temporal separations. The article examines the emergent meanings of motherhood and alternative child-rearing arrangements. It also discusses how the women view motherhood in relation to their employment, as well as their strategies for selectively developing emotional ties with their employers' children and for creating new rhetorics of mothering standards on the basis of what they view in their employers' homes.
“WHAT IS INDIAN ABOUT YOU?”
Authors: GUPTA MONISHA DAS
Published: March 2007

This study offers a feminist analysis of the dominant sociological theories of ethnicity that restrict understandings of immigrant identity formation within the boundaries of the United States. These scholars have, for the most part, been preoccupied with the loss or persistence of ethnicity. By using a transnational approach to interpret data, this article argues that questions of identity have to be linked to what gets designated as ethnic culture and tradition by immigrant communities. These designations often hierarchically reorganize difference, with immigrant women bearing the weight of signifying their communities' ethnic identity. An examination of what counts as culture is necessary if feminist scholarship on immigrant identities is to pose an alternative to depoliticized notions of multiculturalism.
WORTHY WIDOWS, WELFARE CHEATS
Authors: BRUSH LISA D.
Published: March 2007

Single mothers spark what Nancy Fraser calls “needs talk,” the language for translating daily life into professional practice and social policy. The author analyzes expert needs talk in 709 case vignettes, published in the United States between 1900 and 1988, in which experts turn single mothers into “file persons,” the basic unit of bureaucratic welfare management. The author shows how expert needs talk in these sources determines single mothers' worthiness for philanthropic or government support according to their conformity with historically specific notions of proper womanhood. Demographic, political, institutional, and especially professional changes help explain the observed shifts in expert needs talk and the social construction of single motherhood.
BLACK ACTIVIST MOTHERING
Authors: McDONALD KATRINA BELL
Published: March 2007

The prevalence of poor health among young disadvantaged Black mothers and their children has prompted a revival of maternal activism among Black middle-class urban women. A study of the California-based “Birthing Project,” founded in 1988, reveals that such activism is best understood as a modern-day version of Black activist mothering practiced by African American clubwomen from the time of slavery to the early 1940s. This article demonstrates the legacy of “normative empathy” as a significant motivator for middle-class maternal activism and as a basis for a middle-class critique of Black mothering among the disadvantaged.
GENDERED CITIZENSHIP
Authors: SEIDMAN GAY W.
Published: March 2007

The tendency for abstract theorists of democratization to overlook gender dynamics is perhaps exacerbated in the South African case, where racial inequality is obviously key. Yet, attention to the processes through which South African activists inserted gender issues into discussions about how to construct new institutions provides an unusual prism through which to explore the gendered character of citizenship. After providing an explanation for the unusual prominence of gender concerns in South Africa's democratization, the article argues that during the drawn-out democratic transition, South African activists, often influenced by international feminist discussions, developed a collective definition of gender interests and began to build those interests into the structure of democratic institutions, in ways that will affect politics and the definition of “women's interests” in the future.
Etiologic and Outcome Profiles in Hypoactive and Hyperactive Subtypes of Delirium
Authors: Camus Vincent , Gonthier Regis , Dubos Gerard , Schwed Pierre , Simeone Italo
Published: March 2007

The existence of hyperactive, hypoactive, or mixed clinical subtypes of delirium is widely accepted. But relationships between these motor profiles and etiology or outcome remain unclear. The aim of this study was to compare etiologic and outcome profiles in a case series of 183 elderly patients (mean age = 84.1 years, SD = 5.9) consecutively admitted into the geriatric wards of two French university hospitals or referred to a geriatric psychiatry consultation-liaison unit within a Swiss university hospital. All patients met DSM-III-R criteria for delirium and were classified into clinical subtypes according to the results of a previous factor analysis of scores on a 19-item checklist rating a wide range of delirium symptoms. The hyperactive subtype was more frequent (n = 85, 46.5%) than the unspecified (n = 50, 27.3%) and hypoactive subtypes (n = 48, 26.2%). There was no significant difference in terms of etiologic or outcome profile between clinical subtype groups. The presence of acute metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, and hyperthermia as etiologic factors was significantly associated with full recovery of the episode at 3 weeks follow-up, whereas probable preexisting dementia was significantly associated with partial recovery or failure to recover. ( J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 2000; 13:38-42).
Perioperative Temporal Profile of Cognitive Function in Elderly Patients Undergoing Hip Surgery
Authors: Sato Nobuyoshi , Sanuki Mikako , Matsumoto Chikako , Inoue Keisuke , Yuge Osafumi
Published: March 2007

To test the hypothesis that elderly patients who have surgery for femoral neck fractures may have delirium not only after surgery but before surgery, we prospectively investigated the perioperative temporal profile of cognitive function in such patients. We performed the Abbreviated Mental Test (AMT) six times in each patient (on the day of admission, 3 days after admission, on the day before surgery, 2 days after surgery, 7 days after surgery, and on the day of discharge). Patients were given no premedication and were anesthetized with spinal anesthesia using 0.2% hypobaric tetracaine. Of the 68 patients who were admitted because of a diagnosis of fractured neck of the femur and were scheduled to have surgery, 27 patients were subjected to analysis. Four and three patients showed a significant decrease (3 or more points) in AMT score 2 and 7 days after surgery, respectively. We conclude that surgery may have a stronger impact on cognitive function than environmental change shortly after admission in elderly patients with femoral neck fractures. (J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 2000; 13:206-209).
Prevalence and Recognition of Depressive Symptoms Among Homebound Older Adults with Urinary Incontinence
Authors: Engberg Sandra , Sereika Susan , Weber Elizabeth , Engberg Richard , McDowell B. Joan , Reynolds Charles F.
Published: March 2007

Within a group of homebound elders with urinary incontinence, the objectives of this study were to (1) examine the prevalence of depressive symptoms, (2) examine the extent to which depression had previously been recognized by health care providers, (3) describe the type and intensity of antidepressant treatment prescribed for subjects, and (4) identify the demographic and functional characteristics associated with depressive symptomatology. A descrip tive correlational design was used. The 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) was administered to 345 homebound adults age 60 years and over referred to a study examining the effectiveness of behavioral therapy for urinary incontinence. Individuals were referred to the study by home care nurses from two large Medicare-approved home health agencies in a large metropolitan county in Pennsylvania. Data were collected during in-home assess ments and by chart review. Measures included the GDS-15, structured medical history, in-home review of medications, Older Americans Research and Service Center Physical and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scales, Mini- Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clock Drawing Test, Performance-Based Toileting Assessment, and bladder diaries. One half of the participants (n = 173; 50.1%) had significant depressive symptomatology, with 35.7% having scores suggesting mild depression and 14.5% severe depression. Only 26.4% and 34.7% of those with mild and severe depressive symptoms, respectively, had a previous diagnosis of depression and only 21.7% and 34.0%, respectively, had been prescribed an antidepressant. The most commonly prescribed class of antidepressants was tricyclic anti depressants, being taken by 9.0% (n = 31) of the total sample, 14 (11.4%) of those with mild symptoms and 4 (8.0%) of those with severe depressive symptomatology. A little over half (60.0%) of subjects being treated with antide pressants continued to exhibit significant depressive symptomatology. Greater dependence in physical activities of daily living, the need for assistance during ambulation, higher MMSE scores, and higher levels of comorbidity were associated (P < .05) with a GDS-15 score of 5 or higher. Depression symptoms are common in homebound older adults with urinary incontinence, but clinical recognition and treatment are limited. (J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 2001; 14:130-139).
Inter-rater Reliability of the STEP Protocol
Authors: Edman Åke , Mahnfeldt Martin , Wallin Anders
Published: March 2007

An inter-rater reliability test of the Stepwise Comparative Status Analysis (STEP) is presented. The STEP is a pro tocol for the clinical examination of patients with dementia, within the scope of a neuropsychiatric investigation. It combines psychiatric and neurologic bedside examination methods. The analysis is made in three steps where primary, observable symptom variables are successively aggregated via compound variables to the final determi nation of one of seven possible dominant regional brain syndromes (global, frontal, subcortical, parietal, frontosubcortical, frontoparietal, other), here also called complex variables. In the present study, two senior physi cians assessed 50 patients independently and simultaneously. None of the patients was known to both physicians. In 42 patients (84%), the same dominant brain syndrome was determined by the two clinicians. The probability (P value) of this (or better) agreement was calculated at 2.0 × 10-12. Kappa coefficients were calculated as a measure of assessment agreement regarding the 50 STEP variables. For 20 variables, the coefficient was 0.75 or above, indi cating excellent agreement; for 22 variables, the coefficient was below 0.75 and above 0.40, indicating moderate agreement; and for 4 variables, the value was 0.40 or below, indicating poor agreement. Kappa calculations regard ing the assessments of four variables were either not possible or were considered inappropriate. (J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 2001; 14:140-144).
Inhibition of MAO by Fractions and Constituents of Hypericum Extract
Authors: Bladt S. , Wagner H.
Published: March 2007

The inhibition of monoamine oxidase (MAO) by six fractions from hypericum extract and three characteristic constituents (as pure substances) were analyzed in vitro and ex vivo to study the antidepressive mechanism of action. Rat brain homogenates were used as the in vitro model, while the ex vivo analysis was performed after intraperitoneal application of the test substances to albino rats. Massive inhibition of MAO-A could be shown with the total extract and all fractions only at the concentration of 10-3 mol/L. At 10-4 mol/L, one fraction rich in flavonoides showed an inhibition of 39%, and all other fractions demonstrated less than 25% inhibition. Using pure hypericin as well as in all ex vivo experiments, no relevant inhibiting effects could be shown. From the results it can be concluded that the clinically proven antidepressive effect of hypericum extract cannot be explained in terms of MAO inhibition.
Anticonvulsant and Other Non-neuroleptic Treatment of Agitation in Dementia
Authors: Tariot Pierre N. , Schneider Lon S. , Katz Ira R.
Published: March 2007

Studies have shown that the vast majority of patients with dementia experience some psychopathologic symptoms during the course of their illness. Symptoms of this nature, which can include frightening hallucinations or anxiety of phobic proportions, are subjectively distressing and can lead both to unsafe or violent situations as well as to the preventable use of inappropriate medication, physical restraint, and frequently to institutionalization. These psychopathologic manifestations of dementia often prove to be a burden on family, caregivers, and the health care system as well. This article presents an overview of the assessment and management of agitation as it relates to the severity of dementia symptoms and cognitive deterioration. Specifically, the use of anticonvulsant and other non-neuroleptic therapies is examined. ( J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 1995; 8(suppl 1):S28-S39).
High Performance Thermoplastic Matrix Composites
Authors: Bigg D.M. , Hiscock D.F. , Preston J.R. , Bradbury E.J.
Published: March 2007

Most high performance composites utilize thermosetting polymers as the matrix material. These low viscosity liquid prepolymers are easily impregnated into reinforcing fibers and then crosslinked to form a solid structure. Polymers which have a low viscosity at room temperature are ideally suited for low production runs because a wide variety of individualized shapes can be manufactured without a high degree of automation. As the demand for composites increases the need for high volume production techmques has developed. Thermoplastic polymers are more appropriately suited for automated produc tion than thermosets because they require only the application of heat and pressure to form parts. No chemical reaction is required with thermoplastic composites. Thermoplastic matrix composites are not appropriate for low volume production runs because the high temperatures and pressures required to process the composites utilizes equipment which is appropriate for large production runs. In addition to high volume processing advantages, thermoplastic matrix composites exhibit improved impact strength and chemical resis tance over most thermset based composites. The composites produced in this investigation had tensile strengths as high as 270 MPa, tensile moduli of 16.2 GPa, and notched Izod impact strengths of 11.1 J/cm.
A Predictive Model for Heat Flow During Crystallization of Semi-Crystalline Polymers
Authors: Erhun Mehmet , Advani Suresh G.
Published: March 2007

Crystallization plays an important role in polymer processes such as fiber spinning, injection molding and extrusion. The morphology of the crystalline phase ob tained influences the mechanical and physical properties of the material. The energy or the heat flow at the liquid-solid interface during crystallization plays a key role in controlling the kinetics and subsequently influencing the morphology of the transforming material. However, formulating the problem using Stefan's approach with constant interface temper ature is not sufficient for semi-crystalline matenals. In this paper, a numerical approach is taken to investigate the influence of crystallization kmetics, processing conditions and varying thermo-physical properties on the movement of the crystallization front. The change in crystallinity is modeled by modifying the crystallization temperature by relating it to the overall cooling rate of a hypothetical control volume in the crystalline domain. The results are compared with the analytical solutions and experimental studies reported in the literature.
Polystyrene-Newspaper Composites Part I. Degradation of Polymer during Processing
Authors: Hon David N.-S. , Sean Sy T.
Published: March 2007

Newsprint reinforced polystyrene was prepared, and the effect of process ing conditions on viscosity (in terms of torque) and molecular weight of polystyrene was studied. Polystyrene was melted in an intensive mixer. The influence of processing tem perature, time, and roller speed was evaluated. Subsequently, newsprint fiber was added to the polymer melt, and the effect of fiber concentration on viscosity and molecular weight of polystyrene was evaluated. A significant decrease in torque and molecular weight was observed when the processing time was longer than 40 minutes. The process ing temperature exhibited discernible effects on torque, specific energy, and degradation of polymer. Torque increased slightly as the roller speed increased from 10 to 20 rpm and then decreased thereafter. However, roller speed appeared to have little effect on polymer properties. Drastic changes in torque, specific energy and polymer degradation were observed with increase of fiber concentration.
Recycling Cured Phenolic Material
Authors: Olson Barbara A. , De Keyser Hendrik
Published: March 2007

The need to reduce solid waste continues to increase as landfills continue to close. OEMs, molders, and material suppliers need to address the issue of recycling molded scrap, including sprues, runners and used parts. Additional responsibility has been placed on suppliers of thermosetting materials, such as phenolics, because of the miscon ception that cured thermosetting materials are not recyclable.
The Influence of Ply Waviness with Nonlinear Shear on the Stiffness and Strength Reduction of Composite Laminates
Authors: Bogetti Travis A. , Gillespie John W. , Lamontia Mark A.
Published: March 2007

The influence of ply waviness with nonlinear shear material response on the mechanical performance of composite laminates is studied. An analytic model, based on a three-dimensional laminated media analysis, is developed to predict the effective nonlinear laminate behavior associated with ply waviness. An undulating [0] ply in a [90/0/90] sublaminate configuration and undulating [±β] plies in a [90/±β/90] sub laminate configuration are two types of ply waviness considered. An incremental loading strategy is employed wherein piece-wise linear solutions are superimposed to obtain the overall nonlinear stress/strain response of composite laminates with wavy plies. The anal ysis also predicts individual ply stress and strain distributions within the wavy ply con figuration. The maximum stress failure criterion is used to predict ply failure in local re gions within the wavy ply configuration and a progressive failure methodology is adopted to permit local load redistribution. Results are presented that offer fundamental insight into the dominant mechanisms for stiffness and strength reduction in composite laminates exhibiting ply waviness and nonlinear shear material behavior.
Constructing Knowledge in an Organization
Authors: Schneider Barbara
Published: March 2007

In this study, the author takes a discourse-analytic approach to study the research that two managers carried out in an educational institution to produce and legitimate knowledge that would be used for decision making in the institution. The author suggests that the various steps of any research and writing process can be understood as a system of genres, some written, some spoken, that must be produced in a particular relationship to each other for the final written report of the research to be accepted as a legitimate research report. The author focuses on one aspect of the research process, the production of data through the writing and reading of notes taken by the managers during interviews conducted as part of their research. The author shows that the writing and reading of these notes was a crucial step in the construction of the knowledge on which the decision making was based.
Corporate Stories as Cultural Communications in the Organizational Setting
Authors: Myrsiades Linda Suny
Published: March 2007

Corporate stories represent a rich resource for the study of organizational communication, a resource that, since 1979, has received some serious attention. It is useful to be able to discuss corporate stories as organizational development interventions, as aids to culture change, and as behavioral monitors and controls. To do this, we must first understand model story forms, the process of composition, the nature of variants and invariants, story transformations, and the balance of tradition and change in story development. Toward this objective, this article recommends the anthropological-ethnographic perspective, in particular, that of oral traditional literature, as an appropriate context for the study of organizational stories. Such a perspective better enables us to understand the creation, transformation, maintenance, and transmission of these symbolic artifacts of organizational culture.
Measuring and Interpreting Organizational Culture
Authors: Glaser Susan R. , Zamanou Sonia , Hacker Kenneth
Published: March 2007

This article offers a triangulation approach to the study of organizational culture by employing reliably coded interviews to help interpret and place in context the results of statistical analyses from a standardized survey questionnaire. Subjects were 195 government employees representing every level and division in their department. All 195 subjects completed the Organizational Culture Survey and 91 subjects participated in 45-minute critical incident interviews designed to elicit subjects' interpretations of organizational events. From the analyses of these data emerges a description of the organization's culture.
Survivor Sense Making and Reactions to Organizational Decline
Authors: Greenhalgh Leonard , Jick Todd D.
Published: March 2007

Major organizational upheavals, such as mergers or restructuring of declining organizations, present employees with considerable ambiguity about their future employment, which presents a serious challenge for management communication. Not all employees are perplexed by this uncertainty, however. Those who are averse to ambiguity and insecurity tend to deny the ambiguity regarding their future. Such individual differences also affect reactions to whatever ambiguity they do perceive. This study uses data from a merger of two declining organizations to investigate the relationship between work environment and worker reactions.
Basic Skills Impediments to Communication Between Management and Hourly Employees
Authors: Mikulecky Larry
Published: March 2007

Print-communication demands in most businesses have increased. At the same time, demographic and economic trends are forcing employers to hire employees with lower skill levels. These trends will continue well into the next decade. Increasingly, businesses are recognizing the economic consequences of print communication problems. A first step is realizing that there are a variety of problems that call for differing solutions. A few workers need long-term support to move from virtual illiteracy to productive skill levels. Many more workers need to have basic skills training integrated with regular job training if training is to be effective. Finally, industries are increasingly focusing upon areas where mistakes are made or promotion is blocked. In such areas, solutions range from short-term targeted training to redesigned documents and job performance aids.
Linear and Nonlinear Career Models
Authors: Buzzanell Patrice M. , Goldzwig Steven R.
Published: March 2007

The communicative dimensions of career models have been insufficiently explored in contemporary career literature. Linear or bureaucratic career models dominate career research, metaphors, paradigms, and ideologies while maintaining career myths. These myths suggest the possibility of flexibility and individualized routes to “success” in organizational systems incapable of offering such versatility. Nonlinear career models offer suggestive metaphors for re-visioning careers and the promise of personalized definitions of success, control, and growth. Nonlinear approaches reconfigure career concepts to incorporate acceptance of individual needs and communal values consonant with demographic and structural societal changes.
Persuading Subordinates Who Communicate in Attractive and Unattractive Styles
Authors: Garko Michael G.
Published: March 2007

This investigation examines managers' choices of compliance-gaining strategies when seeking to influence attractive and unattractive subordinates. Attraction between people is more contingent on what they say and do to each other than it is on such personal and psychological factors as attitude similarity. Hence attraction is conceptualized in terms of the way a person communicates, that is, his or her communicator style. Research using Norton's theory of communicator style was used to operationalize the concepts of attractive (attentive, friendly, and relaxed) and unattractive (inattentive, unfriendly, and unrelaxed) communicator styles. Based on the theory of pragmatics, the way a subordinate communicates indicates how the subordinate perceives the relationship with his or her manager, thereby influencing the manager's persuasive strategy choices. An adaptation of Kipnis and Schmidt's Profiles of Organizational Influence (POIS) instrument was administered to 248 managers. The results showed that managers were (a) significantly more likely to invoke the strategies of assertiveness, coalition, higher authority, and sanctions with a subordinate who communicates in an unattractive than an attractive style, (b) significantly more likely to use the strategy of friendliness with an attractive than an unattractive subordinate, and (c) equally likely to rely on reason and bargaining when seeking to persuade a subordinate with an attractive or unattractive style of communication.
Person/Job Fit Model of Communication Apprehension in Organizations
Authors: Harville Donald L.
Published: March 2007

To expand the communication apprehension (CA) literature and to examine the occupational behavior of individuals, a model of CA, job level held, communication requirements of jobs, and job satisfaction was developed. A total of 601 employees who had attended a career planning workshop were sent a questionnaire designed, among other purposes, to investigate the model. All but one of the relevant LISREL path weights were significant and in the predicted direction. Implications for practice and for theory were discussed, along with areas for future research.
Uncertainty Reduction During Job Transitions
Authors: Kramer Michael W.
Published: March 2007

Uncertainty reduction theory suggests that employees request more information during job transitions, and that increased levels of communication lead to positive adjustment through reduced stress and role ambiguity, and more task knowledge. Due to differences in experience, employees with different tenure are expected to use different communication strategies to gain information. This longitudinal study compares the communication experiences of newcomers and geographic transferees facing new positions in one organization. As expected, both types of employees increased their requests for information from peers and supervisors. Additional feedback and closer communication relationships led to positive adjustment. Possibly due to the small sample size, only limited differences in strategies were apparent for the two types of employees. Results indicate that organizations need to develop communication programs to assist newcomers, and other employees involved in job transitions, in gaining information to reduce uncertainty.
The Development and Validation of the Workforce Diversity Questionnaire
Authors: Larkey Linda Kathryn
Published: March 2007

This research developed an original instrument, the Workforce Diversity Questionnaire, to assess interactions in diverse workgroups. A set of proposed dimensions was developed theoretically from literature on cultural diversity, discrimination, and intergroup processes. Results of open-ended interviews affirmed the dimensions and also indicated that cultural, gender, and more general types of diversity generate similar interactions. Items for the Workforce Diversity Questionnaire were written based on interview comments and included cultural, gender, and general diversity issues. The validity of the instrument was tested through confirmatory factor analysis and correlations with outside constructs. The resulting instrument provides a set of internally consistent scales that demonstrate strong content validity and indicate a second-order factor, “diversity climate.” These scales include inclusion, ideation, understanding, and treatment. One of the dimensions derived from theory and supported in interviews, adjustment, was not confirmed as a valid measurement scale.
Preferred Strategies for Responding to Hostile Questions in Environmental Public Meetings
Authors: Campbell Kim Sydow , Follender Saroya I. , Shane Guy
Published: March 2007

Current guidance for organizational spokespersons lacks a clear theoretical and empirical foundation. This article describes a study designed to rank preferences for five previously identified rhetorical strategies for responding to hostile questions in environmental public meetings based on speech act theory. Responses based on the timing strategy (i.e., claiming that the questioner's request already has been addressed) were most preferred, whereas those based on the agency strategy (i.e., claiming that some other agent is responsible) were least preferred. In addition, some responses based on the desirability strategy (i.e., providing reasons that the questioner actually does not want his or her request fulfilled) were as preferred as those based on the timing strategy.
A Framework for the Study of Emotions in Organizational Contexts
Authors: Fiebig Greg V. , Kramer Michael W.
Published: March 2007

This research takes a holistic approach to the study of emotions in organizations based on a proposed framework. Emotions are related to expectations or goals. Some event serves as a catalyst by inhibiting or accelerating these expectations. This discrepancy from expectations results in cognitive and physiological awareness of felt emotions. Emotion management decisions are made to express or disguise the felt emotions. The resulting communication behaviors then affect future expectations. Content analysis of questionnaire data provided descriptive data that suggests the presence of the framework's major elements. Future examination of emotions based on this framework should assist in understanding this aspect of organizational life that is frequently ignored in a rational paradigm.
“Everybody Identitiefies with Smokey the Bear”
Authors: DiSanza James R. , Bullis Connie
Published: March 2007

This article is a study of employee responses to identification inducements in a newsletter at the U.S. Forest Service. A systematic analysis indicates that the Forest Service attempts to induce identification through strategies and tactics embedded in the newsletter. The data revealed four employee responses to the newsletter content. Nonidentification responses do not produce feelings of identification. Textual identification responses manifest feelings of identification, as readers link themselves to the organization through newsletter depictions. Contextual identification requires evoking memories of past organizational participation if the person is to manifest feelings of membership in response to the newsletter. Finally, disidentification responses are associated with feelings of separateness from the organization. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Practice Applications
Authors: Mitchell Gail J. , Jensen-Wunder Laurie , Gantalao Maria Rizalina M. , Papendick Janene K.
Published: March 2007

This practice column features the works of three graduate nursing students who developed community practice models during their studies at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The nurses worked in communities with Native Americans, older persons in long-term care, and persons struggling with limited resources. Each of the nurses developed a practice model consistent with the human becoming nursing theory, and each shows here how nursing practice is different from traditional nursing care when it is guided by a knowledge base consistent with the human science paradigm. The work described in the column contributes to understanding nursing as a discipline with a practice that makes meaningful contributions to human health and quality of life.
Recovering in Depressed Women: Research With Peplau's Theory
Authors: Peden Ann R.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this research was to describe the process of recovering in women who have been depressed. The descriptive research design for this study was guided by Peplau's interpersonal theory of nursing. The sample consisted of seven women who had at one time been hospitalized with a diagnosis of depression and who now considered themselves to be recovering. Audiotaped interviews were conducted in the women's homes. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using content analysis. The analysis revealed that the process of recovering as described by the seven depressed women consisted of eight categories which comprised three phases. Recovering was initiated by a crisis or turning point experience. Phase I consists of the turning point and professional support; phase II consists of determination, work-overtime, support of family and friends, and successes; and phase m consists of self-esteem and maintaining balance. The process of recovering is internal and ongoing. Further research is suggested.
King's Theory: A Critique of the Critiques
Authors: Carter Kimberly F. , Dufour Linda T.
Published: March 2007

This article describes Imogene M. King's conceptual framework and theory of goal attainment. The critiques of various nursing scholars reflect a misunderstanding of the intent of the theory and conceptual framework. Major areas of concern of the critics include cultural limitations, patient competence, and lack of specific guidelines to work within the nursing process. These critiques are discussed and examples supporting the use of King's work in practice are presented.
Theory for Nursing Practice
Authors: Newman Margaret A.
Published: March 2007

This article chronicles the development of nursing theory and research over the past 30 years as it parallels the author's own development as a theorist-researcher. Dorothy Johnson and Martha Rogers are considered the contemporary forerunners of a shift from an emphasis on medical knowledge to an emphasis on distinctly nursing knowledge. The paradigm shift Rogers called for was largely misunderstood at the time of its inception, resulting in attempts to force holistic thinking into reductionistic methods of research. The epistemology of nursing research lagged behind the ontology of the discipline. Moreover, the absence of an agreed-upon focus of the discipline created a void in the development of theory specific to nursing practice. The author asserts that the focus and paradigm of the discipline of nursing are now clear. The core, purpose, and societal commitment of nursing as a practice discipline are captured in the phrase, caring in the human health experience. Research methods that reflect a unitary, transformative paradigm make it possible to develop theory that structures practice.
The Lived Experience of Staying Healthy in Rural African American Families
Authors: Smith Carol A.
Published: March 2007

Decreased government spending for public health programs and increased government expectations that consumers should take responsibility for self-care and health promotion activities are current trends (Lee & Estes, 1990; Naisbitt, 1984). The purpose of this study was to reveal through phenomenological analysis the meaning of staying healthy for the participants. Staying healthy emerged as a dynamic response to life events that involved activity and relatedness in synchrony with life's rules and emotional tranquility. The findings confirm that phenomenological research can reveal the meaning of health within the context of culture and support the conceptualization of health as a developmental process for African American families.
Developing Nursing Knowledge: Practice Issues Raised from Four Philosophical Perspectives
Authors: Roy Callista L.
Published: March 2007

Analysis and comparison of emerging perspectives in nursing on some of the key issues of practice theory can create an enhanced vision of the discipline. Four philosophy-of-science perspectives — realism, relativism, interpretivism, and humanism — are catalysts for fruitful insights about practice. However, together they generate more questions than they answer, both from each perspective and from the intersection of the assumptions of the four philosophies about the nature of knowledge. The nature of knowledge for practice emerges from examining how the philosophical basis and the derived practice theories address such issues as the phenomena of the discipline, environment, teleology, and nursing theoretical frameworks. This is the time for good debate and collaborative knowledge-building among scholars of various persuasions within a milieu of ethos, pathos, and logic.
Joy-Sorrow: A Study Using the Parse Research Method
Authors: Parse Rosemarie Rizzo
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this research was to uncover a structure of the-lived experience of joy-sorrow using the Parse research method. Eleven women over 65 years of age volunteered to participate in the study by engaging in audio- and videotaped dialogues with the researcher about the phenomenon. The structure of the lived experience of joy-sorrow was found to be pleasure amid adversity emerging in the cherished contentment of benevolent engagements. Recommendations for further research and practice are specified.
Expanding the Dialogue on Praxis in Nursing Research and Practice
Authors: Connor Margaret J.
Published: March 2007

The intent of this article is twofold: to expand the dialogue on research as praxisin nursing as articulated by Newman and to support the concept of praxis as a catalyst for extending nursing knowledge. The article revisits the concept of research as praxis through examining critiques by other writers. It explores the notion of praxis as practicewithin the methodology and research protocol developed by Newman and extended by other researcher-practitioners including the author.