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The purpose of this research is to understand how low-income, ethnically diverse, Medicaid recipients read, interpret and use culturally tailored health communications, specifically health plan report cards and health intervention/wellness program recruitment materials.

The paper reports two exploratory studies on message design. Researchers considered 12 focus groups for Study 1, consisting of 51 African-American, Hispanic and non-Hispanic White men and women who were enrolled in Medicaid and had a behavioral health diagnosis and a chronic disease. Researchers considered 22 focus groups for Study 2, consisting of 102 Hispanic, African-American and non-Hispanic White women enrolled in Medicaid.

The paper provides qualitative insights into how underserved populations interpret the visual and verbal aspects of health communications. Key findings include problems with cultural tailoring and monetary incentives for health improvement program participation, message components that show respect and are more likely to be read, how visuals can expand verbal messages and provide symbolic models and specifics on the desired image content.

Because of the qualitative approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Thus, researchers suggest conducting quantitative studies to test these findings.

The paper includes implications for the development of powerful verbal and visual messaging for underserved populations. Additionally, the findings suggest a need to include emotional response in health communication theories and to incorporate visual communication theories in message design studies.

Research on health communication with underserved populations is limited, yet these populations have higher incidences of death and disability from disease. This paper fulfills a need to discover best health communication practices with underserved populations.

This paper investigates the impact of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) merger in Australia on existing and potential clients of the new merged firm. From prior theory it is expected that some existing clients may have an incentive to switch away from a newly merged firm as the same larger firm now audits close competitors once audited by separate firms. Prior theory also suggests that another group of potential clients should be attracted to the newly merged firm where the merger enhances or creates industry specializations. The expectation is that in both of these instances there will be increased switching activity associated with the newly merged audit firm. Contrary to expectations, a significantly lower level of switching behaviour was observed for the newly merged firm compared with that of the other Big 5 firms, suggesting that an advantage of enhanced specialization may not be the attraction of new clients but the retention of existing clients. When comparing the nature of the switches, some support was found for the view that the switches to the new firm were likely to be in enhanced areas of specialization, but no evidence was found to suggest that close competitors would switch away from this firm. The greater rate of retention of clients compared with other Big 5 firms was not associated with a more competitive audit pricing policy.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

The focus of the study was to explore the understanding of family among homeless adults in Southeast Texas. We incorporated both qualitative and quantitative methods by interviewing two key groups (short-term homeless, long-term homeless) over a 16-week period. Thirty homeless participants were interviewed using 18 questions designed to explore their understanding of family and the social supports that lead to resiliency. Participant ages ranged from 19 to 56 with an average of 44 years. Twenty-six participants were male and four were female. Half of all homeless participants claimed to lack familial support from either biological family or close friends. Among short-term homeless individuals, five of seventeen identified their biological family as fulfilling the role of a traditional family, while among long-term homeless adults, five of thirteen identified their friends as fulfilling the role of a familial unit. A recurring theme emerged in which participants defined family as those individuals who were consistently accessible for support, whether biological relations or non-related friends and companions. As we seek to improve our programs of assistance and advocacy, these findings become important as a step toward honoring our clients and recognizing the validity of their perceived realities as we reconstruct the models by which we facilitate interaction and intervention.

Suggests that female funeral service practitioners (FSPs), in particular, may be exposed to a combination of classic healthcare stressors (e.g. shift work, work/family balance), unique funeral industry stressors, and stresses associated with working in non‐traditional occupations. Explores the relationships betweeen the stressors, perceived stress and two m ental health outcomes: anxiety and depression. Suggests that there needs to be both direct and indirect relationships between these. Expands the knowledge regarding the types of work and non‐work stressor that can affect mental health outcomes among women working in onn‐traditional occupations. Comments that this information should be particularly useful as women are increasingly entering historically male‐dominated fields.

The purpose of this paper is to promote narrative inquiry as a legitimate research approach for artists undertaking postgraduate research higher degrees.

This paper takes the form of a literature review describing practice-led research. It draws heavily on theories of art to support its claims.

In creative arts postgraduate research degrees, where the thesis is delivered in the form of artifacts and an exegesis, new knowledge and understandings are produced in two fields. In the first of these two fields, new theoretical knowledge detailing the conceptual basis for the creative work may contribute to the understanding of the purpose and nature of art. The second field of new knowledge involves artifacts as they can enlarge knowledge about what the author feel and know through images that illuminate experiences and understandings of life. The development and delivery of these forms of new knowledge occur in an interdependent manner.

The original contribution of this paper is the manner in which artifacts are shown to demonstrate the theoretical knowledge claims articulated in the exegesis Furthermore, this paper highlights the significance and value of new knowledge and the manner in which this knowledge is effectively shared.

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and psychopathy are similar, but distinct, psychiatric conditions that are common in male and female inmates; a segment of the population with high rates of trauma exposure. It is unclear whether specific types of lifetime trauma are associated with ASPD and psychopathy in incarcerated women and men. Furthermore, the unique roles of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity and trauma victimization in antisocial personality disturbance are not well-understood. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study investigated associations between trauma variables (different kinds of traumatic experiences and PTSD) and antisocial personality variables (ASPD and psychopathy) in a sample of incarcerated women and men who participated in a randomized clinical trial for major depressive disorder. In total, 88 incarcerated men and women were assessed for ASPD diagnosis, psychopathy severity, PTSD symptom severity, and history of physical, sexual, and crime-related trauma. Regression analyses predicted ASPD or psychopathy from trauma variables, controlling for gender.

Physical trauma was the only form of trauma that was significantly related to psychopathy. Physical trauma and crime-related trauma were associated with ASPD. PTSD symptom severity was not associated with psychopathy or ASPD.

There are associations between some kinds of lifetime trauma exposure and current ASPD/psychopathy in the target sample, but these associations do not appear to be mediated through current PTSD symptoms.

The current paper seeks to bring the political perspective to gender differences in promotion decisions, a phenomenon with great longevity in research and practice. Specifically, the degree to which gender role‐congruent and counterstereotypical influence behavior is related to liking as moderated by political skill.

Using a sample of n=136, these hypotheses were tested in retail organizations in the Northeast and Southwest.

Political skill significantly moderates the relationship between ingratiation and liking, such that use of ingratiation was positively related to liking when women were high in political skill. However, the relationship between assertiveness and liking was unchanged by political skill level and was unrelated to liking. Liking was consistently found to be positively related to promotability ratings.

Questionnaire data collection is used exclusively; however, the subordinate and supervisor data were collected at two different times.

The results are relevant for employees in that they imply a need for them to be cognizant of their behavior as it relates to social role expectations and for supervisors to understand the factors that could contribute to lower ratings.

The current results suggest that gender role‐congruent influence behavior is positively related to socially relevant evaluations (i.e. liking); thus, women whose behavior is consistent with social expectations may be more positively evaluated.

This study provides a political explanation for differences in women's promotability and also investigates mechanisms that may be related to reducing promotability disparity.

The study aims to explore the theoretical bases justifying the use of performance-based financing (PBF) in the health sector in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The authors conducted a scoping review of the literature on PBF so as to identify the theories utilized to underpin it and analyzed its theoretical justifications.

Sixty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. Economic theories were predominant, with the principal-agent theory being the most commonly-used theory, explicitly referred to by two-thirds of included studies. Psychological theories were also common, with a wide array of motivation theories. Other disciplines in the form of management or organizational science, political and social science and systems approaches also contributed. However, some of the theories referred to contradicted each other. Many of the studies included only casually alluded to one or more theories, and very few used these theories to justify or support PBF. No theory emerged as a dominant, consistent and credible justification of PBF, perhaps except for the principal-agent theory, which was often inappropriately applied in the included studies, and when it included additional assumptions reflecting the contexts of the health sector in LMICs, might actually warn against adopting PBF.

Overall, this review has not been able to identify a comprehensive, credible, consistent, theoretical justification for using PBF rather than alternative approaches to health system reforms and healthcare providers' motivation in LMICs.

The theoretical justifications of PBF in the health sector in LMICs are under-documented. This review is the first of this kind and should encourage further debate and theoretical exploration of the justifications of PBF.