Different approaches to measure ego-centered social support networks: a meta-analysis

Survey indicators of social networks usually measure a certain function of social networks, for example exchange of social support. Social support is a multidimensional construct. The most comprehensive definition distinguishes among sources of social support (social support networks), supportive acts and appraisal of given support. Generally, two main hypotheses can be given with regard to the role social support plays in quality of life of individuals: that social support is beneficial as such (main effects), or that social support is beneficial at occasions of stressful events (buffer effect). In this paper we are dealing with survey measurement of ego-centered social support networks. Three methods to social network measurement are compared: the name generator method, the role generator method and the event-related approach. In a meta-analysis of several studies done on convenient quota samples the effects of method, type of calculation, response format and limitation of support providers on network composition indicators are studied.     

Unpacking the Black Box: A realist evaluation of performance management for social services

This study examined how and why performance management works to achieve accountability and improvement among voluntary organizations, through the use of performance information. Applying realist evaluation methodology, initial programme theories of performance management were developed and tested against empirical data gathered from six case studies in the voluntary sector in Singapore. Considerable variation in implementation undermined the success of performance management, leading to the use of performance information primarily for reporting purposes rather than for learning and improvement. Findings highlight the need for greater attention to the contexts necessary to optimize the effective implementation of performance management.     

Follow the trails: A path to systematically designing corporate alumni programs

Organizations today are facing increasing amounts of turnover and evolving labor markets. When employees leave they become corporate alumni, which initial research suggests are an important and valuable part of an organization’s network. Corporate alumni can provide value as brand ambassadors, a source of employee referral, as a return employee (i.e. boomerang), or through knowledge sharing. One way to establish a strong network of alumni and achieve some of these benefits is to establish a corporate alumni program (CAP). Although CAPs are increasingly being recognized as beneficial for organizations, little is known about how to systematically design and implement these programs to enhance the likelihood of success. In this article, we utilize instructional systems design processes to offer guidance for how to strategically develop CAPs. We analyze existing programs to highlight common elements and use this research as a basis for creating the TRAILS typology, a way to designate practices for CAP implementation. We also suggest ways to evaluate and determine whether these programs are successful.     

AHP-based approaches for supplier evaluation: Problems and perspectives

Supplier evaluation has assumed a strategic role in determining competitiveness of large manufacturing companies. An increasing number of researches have been devoted to the development of different kind of methodologies to cope with this problem. Nevertheless, while the number of applications is growing, there is little empirical evidence of the practical usefulness of such tools with a dichotomy between theoretical approaches and empirical applications. Considering this evidence, the goal of this paper is to contribute to understand the above dichotomy by implementing, in a corporate environment, a model for supplier evaluation based on the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP), one of the most prominent methodologies used to address the problem. The analysis of the implementation process of the methodology allows the identification of strengths and weaknesses of using formalized supplier selection models to tackle the supplier evaluation problem, also highlighting potential barriers preventing firms to adopt such methods. Relevant issues arising from the application and managerial implications for both customer and suppliers are discussed.     

Alternative approaches to decreasing maternal anemia: identifying the need for social marketing strategies to promote iron-folic acid supplementation in the Peruvian highlands

• Anemia is the most common health condition affecting women during pregnancy, and leads to adverse health outcomes of both the mother and infant. Despite national fortification and supplementation programs in Peru, 21% of women of reproductive age are anemic. Adherence to iron-folic acid (IFA) supplements in this vulnerable population is low and influenced by side effects of the tablets, such as nausea and vomiting, caused by the generic formula of the tablets. The trust within a patient–provider relationship and the provider's competency at effective counseling increases women's adherence, whereas late entry into prenatal care and government regulations limit early initiation of IFA supplementation. It is important for partners to support women during supplementation and participate in their prenatal care. Social marketing strategies targeting the product, price, place, promotion, and policy of IFA supplements should decrease barriers to women's ability to obtain IFA tablets and adhere to the supplementation regimen and reduce iron deficiency maternal anemia. Public health practitioners implementing supplementation programs should consider different behavioral influences at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and community levels that affect adherence.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A model of employee responses to drug-testing programs

Testing employees for drug use is an increasingly widespread organizational response to the problem of employee drug abuse. Despite this, little attention has been given to its effects on employee attitudes and behavior. This paper reviews the issue of drug testing in industry, provides a theoretical model of employee perceptions of and responses to drug-testing programs, and offers an agenda for future research directions.     

Assessing the social impact of charitable organizations—four alternative approaches

• There is increased societal pressure on charities to improve performance. The questions that they must ask are: (1) Who is our audience? (2) What evaluation measures are important to the organization? and (3) What evaluation measures are best for the organization? There are a number of different approaches available for assessing performance, ranging from social accounting to more informal qualitative assessments of whether the organization's mission is being achieved. This paper draws on the industry and academic discussion of evaluations of nonprofit organizations to develop a four‐category typology of alternative approaches for audiences. It then identifies the benefits and limitations of each. The goal is to identify the steps that charities should use to determine which approach is most suited to their specific circumstances. It is proposed that a collaborative development of evaluation criteria, of whichever type, may be most appropriate as will draw together the experiences and resources of multiple parties, and may have broader appeal than evaluations proposed by individual nonprofits.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A system for evaluating social welfare programs and allocating contributed resources based on citizen input

This paper describes the development and implementation of a social welfare program evaluation system developed by a Community Council to aid the resource allocation decision process of a local United Way. The system assigns a “utility” measure to each program based on how the program satisfies the long-term social welfare goals of the community adjusted for the effect of short range, time dependent criteria affecting the region. Data for the processes described was obtained by quantifying the subjective feelings of the individual members of the Community Council. The results have been accepted by the United Way Organization and are currently being used to assist in the planning and resource allocation functions of the fund.     

Tiered expatriation: A social relations approach to staffing multinationals

This article applies a social relations discourse to examine the use of expatriates in Chinese multinational companies (MNCs). Expatriates are analyzed based on two sets of social relations: the social functions of expatriates (which include the global function of capital and the collective function of labor) and the pathways of expatriation (which include intra‐ and interfirm transfers). In particular, the framework incorporates the collective function of labor into the analysis of expatriation, which has received limited attention in the existing international HRM literature. Conceptually, the social relations discourse allowed us to frame staffing in an open system in which HR practices involving expatriation are shaped by the intersections between the choices of MNCs, the actions of workers, and the mediation of institutional players. Empirically, this article presents three case studies of Chinese MNCs in Europe to illustrate the tiered expatriation of managerial staff, technicians, and operational workers from interchangeable sources of labor. The HR policy implications suggest greater diversity in the formation of international staffing for MNCs.     

Analysis of modern IS security development approaches: towards the next generation of social and adaptable ISS methods

Various modern approaches to Information Systems Security (ISS) development, influenced, e.g., by information systems (IS) development methods, have been presented. While we see these approaches as serious attempts to improve ISS, they have not received much attention in the literature. One reason for this is that these methods have been developed by scholars from different research traditions and disciplines. This article first identifies the disciplines and research communities which underlie the modern ISS approaches. Second, the article reveals the assumptions behind these modern approaches. Finally, the article places these ISS approaches in a five-generational classification. It is argued that the extant ISS methods reside on the first four generations, and future ISS methods should move towards the fifth generation, social and adaptable (empirically grounded) ISS methods.     

Information shocks and the empirical evaluation of training programs during unemployment spells

We study the role of notifications in the evaluation of training programs for unemployed workers. Using a unique administrative data set containing the dates when information is exchanged between job seekers and caseworkers, we address three questions: Do information shocks, such as notification of future training, have an effect on unemployment duration? What is the joint effect of notification and training programs on unemployment? Can ignoring information shocks lead to a large bias in the estimation of the effect of training programs? We discuss these issues through the lens of a job search model and then conduct an empirical analysis following a “random effects” approach to deal with selectivity. We find that notification has a strong positive effect on the training probability but a negative one on the probability of leaving unemployment. This “attraction” effect highlights the importance of accounting for notifications in the evaluation of active labor market policies.     

人才管理的新进路分析——KM模式之介入与融合

20世纪90年代末的"人才争夺战"使得人才管理首次进入到了学界的视野,且人才管理原则应用到特殊的知识密集型环境。随着传统研究进路的不足,KM模式的介入为人才管理提供了新的理论滋养,如"技术守门人"、中枢连接者、跨越边界者以及知识中介者等理论为知识密集环境的人才管理注入了崭新的理论源流。KM模式与TM模式的融汇为人才管理提供新的研究进路,特别关注于知识型人才,知识创造,知识分享与定位,发展知识能力以及知识的保留层次上,指明了知识型人才在知识流动网的角色,推动知识密集型机构充分利用资源,优化创新能力。     

A social procedurial approach to the Pareto optimization problematique

This article applies a variant of game theory to the Pareto multi-value problematique, that is situations where members of a group, community or society are faced with alternative allocations, institutional arrangements, or states of the world and may collectively choose an allocation, institutional arrangement or state of the world if they can agree on it. This type of multiple value decision situation is increasingly prevalent not only on the level of societal and political issues but on the level of many enterprises, particularly those advocating corporate social responsibility. Because actors hold and apply values from different perspectives, there are potential contradictory value judgments and incompatible equilibria. In a world of contradiction, incommensurability, and disequilibrium, to what extent can conflicts be resolved and social equilibrium accomplished? Force works but it is inherently unstable. Drawing on an extension of classical game theory, generalized game theory (GGT), this article addresses the multi-value problematique in terms of collective “resolution procedures.” These regulative procedures—or social algorithms—are applied to problems of conflict and suboptimality in a multiple value world such as Pareto envisioned. This paper (the first of two) outlines key elements of GGT, defines the Pareto multi-value problematique, pointing out several of the critical weaknesses, theoretical as well as empirical, of the Pareto approach. GGT is then applied in defining and analyzing several major procedures to realize improvements in a multi-value world characterized by conflict and sub-optimality. A second article conceptualizes a complex of societal games making up a social system with 2-phase multi-level game processes; it applies the conceptualization to the different societal procedures for multi-value choice under conditions of conflict. Procedures such as democratic voting, adjudication and administrative decision-making, and multi-lateral negotiation are capable of producing outcomes that in many cases are widely accepted as legitimate and become social equilibria (at least within some range of conditions). These procedures and the conditions for their activation and implementation are modelled and explicated through a generalized game approach.     

A benefit/cost model to evaluate educational programs

Essentially, a benefit/cost model provides a procedure to evaluate a project in terms of its economic objectives. The analytic task is to determine the present value of all benefits less the present value of all costs, so that the projects which maximise this difference can be selected. There are private benefits (those appropriated by the persons directly involved in the project), and social benefits (those derived by others because of the project) that should also be taken into account when public policy is involved. Limitations of data preclude us from considering all the benefits, but in the present study of the benefits of an educational program, the following have been incorporated: (1) increases in earnings due to attaining higher levels of education; (2) benefits that accrue to the offspring of the present generation resulting from the influence of the educational attainment of parents on that of their children; and (3) the reduction in juvenile crime.

The model that is used to estimate these benefits includes thirteen separate equations. A major ingredient of all of these equations is represented by equation 4 in the model:

According to this equation, the private benefits of additional education are calculated as the difference between the expected economic returns with the program (designated T) and the expected economic returns without the program. Expected economic returns are estimated by the product of lifetime earnings for each level of education (V_i) times the probability distribution of obtaining the various levels of education (P_i), where i designates a level of education. These benefits will be different for individuals with different characteristics, designated ε.

The parameters of the model have been estimated by the use of Census data for earnings, and various special survey data for the probabilities of educational attainment and committing juvenile crimes. Essentially an educational program changes the probabilities of educational attainment, increasing the probability of graduating from high school and going on to college.

In this study, we applied the model to a Title I ESEA, program in San Francisco, California, during 1966–1967. Since the program was implemented in the elementary grades, we used the mathematics of Markov Chains to estimate the probabilities of eventual grade level attainment. We found that prior to the program, about half of the disadvantaged non-Negro males and considerably more than half of the Negro males could be expected to be dropouts. The model showed, however, that a Title I program in San Francisco costing $220 per child sufficiently raised test scores in elementary grades so that the expected dropout rates were reduced about 3 per cent for non-Negro and 2 per cent for Negro male pupils.     

凤大高速公路社会环境影响后评价

文章根据凤大高速公路的实际情况,从社会发展影响、经济发展影响、资源开发影响、交通环境影响以及对外联系的影响等几个方面,建立了凤大高速公路社会环境影响后评价指标体系,采用模糊层次综合评价法构建后评价模型并进行评价分析,根据评价结果,提出对凤大高速公路社会环境的保护措施及建议。