Search results

This study applies asymmetric rather than conventional symmetric analysis to advance theory in occupational psychology. The study applies systematic case-based analyses to model complex relations among conditions (i.e., configurations of high and low scores for variables) in terms of set memberships of managers. The study uses Boolean algebra to identify configurations (i.e., recipes) reflecting complex conditions sufficient for the occurrence of outcomes of interest (e.g., high versus low financial job stress, job strain, and job satisfaction). The study applies complexity theory tenets to offer a nuanced perspective concerning the occurrence of contrarian cases – for example, in identifying different cases (e.g., managers) with high membership scores in a variable (e.g., core self-evaluation) who have low job satisfaction scores and when different cases with low membership scores in the same variable have high job satisfaction. In a large-scale empirical study of managers (n = 928) in four (contextual) segments of the farm industry in New Zealand, this study tests the fit and predictive validities of set membership configurations for simple and complex antecedent conditions that indicate high/low core self-evaluations, job stress, and high/low job satisfaction. The findings support the conclusion that complexity theory in combination with configural analysis offers useful insights for explaining nuances in the causes and outcomes to high stress as well as low stress among farm managers. Some findings support and some are contrary to symmetric relationship findings (i.e., highly significant correlations that support main effect hypotheses).

The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is considered to be the most important interest rate in finance upon which trillions in financial contracts are decided. In 2008, it was revealed that the LIBOR traders were rigging the interest rates. Yet, there is an unresolved question that regulators and banking officials did not address in their quest to seek answers to the fraud: Were the banks under financial strain when they underreported their LIBOR rates? To answer this question, the article posits that the pressure to meet market expectations led the banks to experience financial strain. Data were gathered from 2004 to 2008 on the banks that were involved in the fraud (fraud banks) and matched with a control group of non-fraud banks. The results from a logistic regression model found sufficient statistical evidence to support the claim that fraud will be greater in banks characterized by a higher level of organizational complexity. Variables such as percent of outside directors, board members on the audit committee, and number of employees were all found to be statistically significant. These variables may offer key insights into detecting and preventing frauds in banks.

Guided by a life course theoretical perspective, this study aimed to examine associations between providing caregiving for a young or adult son or daughter with special needs and multiple dimensions of physical health status among married midlife and older adults, as well as moderation of these associations by gender and marital quality (i.e., marital strain).

Regression models were estimated using data from 1,058 married adults aged 33–83 (National Survey of Midlife in the U.S. (MIDUS), 2005).

Parental caregiving for a young or adult child with special needs (in contrast to no caregiving) was linked to poorer global health and more physical symptoms among both fathers and mothers. Father caregivers reported slightly more chronic conditions than noncaregiving men, regardless of marital quality. By contrast, mother caregivers reported a much higher number of chronic conditions when they also reported a high level of marital strain, but not when they reported a low level of marital strain.

Overall, results provide evidence from a national sample that midlife and older parents providing caregiving for a child with special needs are at risk for poorer health outcomes, and further tentatively suggest that greater marital strain may exacerbate health risks, particularly among married mother caregivers.

In this chapter, the authors consider the role of time for research in occupational stress and well-being. First, temporal issues in studying occupational health longitudinally, focusing in particular on the role of time lags and their implications for observed results (e.g., effect detectability), analyses (e.g., handling unequal durations between measurement occasions), and interpretation (e.g., result generalizability, theoretical revision) were discussed. Then, time-based assumptions when modeling lagged effects in occupational health research, providing a focused review of how research has handled (or ignored) these assumptions in the past, and the relative benefits and drawbacks of these approaches were discussed. Finally, recommendations for readers, an accessible tutorial (including example data and code), and discussion of a new structural equation modeling technique, continuous time structural equation modeling, that can “handle” time in longitudinal studies of occupational health were provided.

Almost every city in America has felt the effects of the current home foreclosure crisis. It has been reported that 94 of the top 100 metropolitan areas reported an increase in home foreclosures in 2008. Yet, some of the varying costs of this ongoing crisis are relatively unknown. This chapter offers a theoretical examination of the influence an increase in vacant homes due to home foreclosure may have on criminal behavior. It does so by first discussing the breadth of the home foreclosure crisis. Next, the chapter covers strain, social disorganization, and disorder theories and addresses their explanations of the potential criminal consequences of vacant homes due to home foreclosure. Then, the chapter discusses if these classic theories actually apply to this crisis. This is done by introducing the concept of suburban insulation. Finally, the conclusion links the key concepts and ideas from the aforementioned theories and how they best relate to this current phenomenon.

Gender-stereotyped organizational expectations compromise outcomes desired from numerically balanced gender representation. Sex-roles allow both men and women to exhibit masculine or feminine behaviors based on their self-construal of “psychological-gender.” Emotional intelligence (EI) is considered “feminine” and rational intelligence “masculine.” So, using Bem sex-role inventory and Emotional Intelligence Appraisal, the current study explored EI in 217 senior Indian managers from masculine/feminine sex-role perspective. There was no difference in EI of men/women. Moreover, EI did not differ in men/women categorized in “same” sex-role. However significant differences emerged across sex-roles with feminine sex-role participants actually scoring significantly lesser than androgynous or masculine sex-role participants although emotional intelligence is considered as a feminine intelligence. Implications of sex-role-driven differences in EI in organizational context are discussed.

For 30 years the series, Research in Organizational Change and Development (ROCD) has provided an extensive range of scholarly research and philosophical reflections on the field of organization development and change (ODC). On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the first volume, this chapter poses the question as to how we might learn about the philosophy of ODC research from the 24 published volumes. Taking the author’s explicit pursuit of the question as a process of interiority, it invites readers to engage with the question themselves and thereby enact interiority within ODC itself.

The chapter discusses the effects of climate change on tourism development in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania by combining these countries into a single Eastern Baltic Sea Region. The chapter explores the current situation and investigates the trends that will affect the economic development if the present climate conditions are situated in historical context. The first part discusses how destinations can be better managed if they are informed by the scholarship on ecological modernization and updated by a coevolutionary approach to climate change. This discussion proceeds with an analysis of the impact climate change has on tourism following different scenarios of current and future climate conditions. The development of tourism in the Baltic countries is then assessed with references to sustainable development. Overall the chapter demonstrates how destinations can cope with the changing preferences of tourists even in the face of highly unpredictable climatic developments.

First, a little background to contextualize my research: Today, through expanding media coverage, most people are at least minimally aware of the plight of children and adolescents in foster care. Here are some of the major trends. Currently, over a half a million children in the United States live in foster care, with 124,000 of them living in my home state of California (Adoption & Foster Care Analysis & Reporting System (AFCARS), 2007). They are placed in foster care for a variety of reasons – mainly child abuse, neglect, and parental substance abuse (American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 2005; Simms, Dubowitz, & Szilagyi, 2000). Nearly half these children are adolescents (AFCARS, 2007); most have been in care for over 2 years, with many spending the duration of childhood in foster care (AFCARS, 2007). And most experience multiple placement transitions which results in numerous caregivers, school changes, and loss of a variety of relationships (Harden, 2004; US General Accounting Office, 1999). Further, there is an overrepresentation of minority children in foster care, especially African Americans (Chibnall et al., 2003).