Relationship impact and African American males' responses to health care practitioner recommendations

This phenomenological research study was conducted to explore and identify reasons African American men comply or do not comply with the medical recommendations of their health care practitioner. The research sample was 20 African American men living in Baltimore City, Maryland, who visited their health care practitioner within the past year. Open‐ended, objectively phrased interview questions were used for this study, which allowed participants to respond with their own words to describe their decision making regarding their health care practitioner's advice. Invariant themes were revealed by data mining. Three clusters of themes emerged: relationship, apprehension, and trust. The research revealed participants viewed the doctor‐patient relationship as critical in establishing trust and respect and in building rapport. Participants felt these elements would serve to promote patient compliance to their health care practitioner's recommendations.     

Rural entrepreneurs and institutional assistance: an empirical study from mountainous Italy

Despite the recognition of entrepreneurship as one of the main determinants of rural economic development, empirical research in this field is relatively sparse. Thus, there is little evidence on the role and function of rural entrepreneurs, the driving force behind the birth, survival and growth of rural enterprises. The present work aims at providing a contribution to filling this gap in knowledge. We present and analyse the results emerging from a questionnaire submitted to a sample of 123 rural entrepreneurs and businesses in a mountainous area of central Italy. In particular, we test for six hypotheses concerning the correlation between different factors, reflecting entrepreneur and business-specific characteristics, and the adoption of instruments of institutional assistance. Entrepreneur's and business's variables are related to (1) entrepreneurial human capital; (2) entrepreneur's local knowledge and social capital; (3) firm's size; (4) entrepreneur's age; (5) firm's age; and (6) busines's sector of activity. Empirical results largely support the importance of variables taken into consideration in explaining differences in the adoption of institutional assistance among businesses of the sample. In the light of our empirical findings, we also examine and propose potential policies for fostering entrepreneurship and the development of the rural region under study.     

Hospital efficiency and equity in health care delivery: A study based in China

Hospital efficiency and equity in health care delivery are two enduring research topics. Yet little research has been done to examine the relationship between them. This paper studies the impact of hospital efficiency on equity in health care delivery based on a proprietary dataset of hospital characteristics and 630,000 inpatient records from 149 public hospitals in a representative Chinese city. To measure the hospitals' efficiencies, this study takes the hospitals' operational features and case-mix indexes into account, and computes the efficiency levels using data envelopment analysis with bootstrapping. Through regressions that control for a variety of the patients’ personal characteristics (e.g., age, disease, residence, hospital visit frequency), this study shows that the gap between hospitalization expenses of urban and rural inpatients in more efficient hospitals is smaller than those in less efficient hospitals. Thus efficiency enhances equity in expenditure between urban and rural patients. But the dwindling urban-rural gap in expenditure is achieved by raising the spending of rural patients, thereby undermining their access to health care. This pattern is more conspicuous in large and sophisticated high-tier hospitals. Further analysis shows that hospital efficiency impacts equity of health care delivery by inducing different lengths of stay and uncovered parts of total expenditure for urban and rural groups. The findings imply that an efficiency-oriented health care policy may lead to social benefit loss.     

Pathology Services as a Pilot for the Market-led Control of Health Resources in New Zealand

This article examines the management of New Zealand's publicly funded pathology services throughout the 1990s in the context of the 'more market' radical reshaping of health services that occurred over that time. Because of the extreme market discipline to which they were subjected, pathology services are interpreted in the analysis presented here as a managerial 'pilot experiment' conducted by a health administration pursuing a long-term agenda of full privatization in health care services. Arguing from extensive archive and interview data collected over the last decade, the authors conclude that compromises involved in maintaining market-led resource control, together with unforeseen repercussions, made the strategy untenable in the New Zealand health care environment.     

Closing the Gap Between Research and Practice in Health: Lessons from a clinical effectiveness initiative

Pressure to utilize research evidence in decisions about patient care and population health, so-called evidence-based medicine, has swept the health care systems of most industrial countries. In the UK, the attention of policy makers has recently turned from the production of more 'effectiveness information' to the more fundamental challenge of understanding the factors involved in influencing the attitudes and practices of health care professionals. This article seeks to contribute to this process by reporting the findings of an evaluation of a clinical effectiveness initiative established in Wales between 1996-9 (Locock et al . 1999). The study shows that a number of different factors are involved in improving the implementation of effectiveness information, including the strength of the evidence, and the role of peer influence. However it is the interaction of various elements rather than any single factor, which appears to be crucial. These findings are important not only for health but for informing future interventions across other parts of the public sector.     

Health, Government, and Irving Fisher

A bstract    This paper provides a few historical notes on government involvement in health, followed by a summary of the theoretical arguments that economists offer in its support. Irving Fisher's views and recommendations about health are examined in the light of today's perceptions concerning health, health economics, and health policy. The wide variety of roles that the U.S. and other governments currently play in health is reviewed, and the ability of economics to explain these roles is assessed. The consequences of government involvement for the health of populations, for expenditures on health care, and for political and social stability are examined. The paper concludes with an overview of new worldwide trends in health policy and some probable explanations for these trends.     

浅谈健康体检系统的设计与开发

进入二十一世纪,随着经济社会的发展,人民的生活水平在逐渐的提高,对身体健康也愈发重视,定期体检已成为预防保健的重要方式。为适应这一社会需求,提高体检的工作效率,健康体检系统需紧跟社会需求,本文介绍了健康体检系统的设计流程及相关系统的功能介绍,并对系统做了规划,以确保满足实际需求。     

健康教育在临床护理中的应用

健康教育是临床护理的重要组成部分,护理人员把健康教育知识传授给患者,培养患者的自我保健意识和对公众健康的责任感,纠正不良习惯、排除不良因素,建立健康个人行为习惯和良好的生活方式,增强自我保健和家庭保健的能力。提高人民的健康水平是现代医学护理模式的宗旨。健康不仅仅是指没有疾病或虚弱,而是身体、心理和社会适应能力的完好状态。如何在临床护理中开展健康教育,成了广大护理人员亟待探讨的话题。     

Health and Motivational Factors In Sickness Absence

The influence on sickness absence of both attendance motivation and ill-health is addressed in a national sample of British working people. Three patterns of absence are studied, those suggested to be attributable to differences in ill-health alone, those considered to arise from variations in attendance motivation alone and those thought to be due to variations in both factors. the first pattern is illustrated by the finding that age is positively associated with sickness absence, contrary to suggestions from published meta-analyses. Variations in both ill-health and attendance motivation are implicated in the demonstration that the positive relationship with age is significantly non-linear, with elevated rates of sickness absence at younger as well as at older ages; minimum levels of sickness absence were found to be at 41 years for men and 38 years for women. Motivational (rather than ill-health) differences are suggested to underlie the observed greater sickness absence among employed people in comparison with the self-employed, and among full-time workers in relation to part-timers. Differences associated with gender, socio-economic status, shift-working and chronic health impairment are also reported here.     

Employee health insurance decisions in a flexible benefits environment

This study investigates the factors which influence employees' choices among different health insurance options under a flexible benefits plan. Employee-specific selection and demographic data provided by the former National Cash Register (NCR), were used to analyze the effects of employee and plan characteristics on choice of health care plan. Results suggest that employees' health plan choices are influenced by premium, deductible, and coinsurance amounts, and by employees' age, gender, salary, and marital status. The results are considered within an expected utility maximization model. Implications for the design of flex plans as well as future research and theory are discussed. © 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Reducing Organizational Politics in Performance Appraisal: The Role of Coaching Leaders for Age‐Diverse Employees

We examined whether a supervisor's coaching leadership style predicts the perception of organizational politics in performance appraisal (OPPA) reported by the collaborators. Additionally, we drew on social cognition and motivational life‐span development theories to hypothesize age‐related differences in perceived OPPA and its link with the coaching leadership style. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) on a sample of 576 employees and 112 leaders, we found that coaching leaders are perceived as less manipulative in their performance ratings, especially by older employees. This article includes a discussion of the implications these results have for performance management of an age‐diverse workforce. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Strategic management of worker health,safety, and environmental issues in Mexico's Maquiladora industry

Conflict arising from differences in business practices, standards, values, and norms guiding behavior are inherent in international business. These conflicts are evident in Mexico's maquiladora industry, particularly relating to issues of worker health, safety, and environment. This article extends a model of conflict management; illustrates the model's dimensions with case study examples; discusses strategic human resource management implications of the model's various outcomes; offers recommendations for managing worker health, safety, and environment issues; and identifies directions for future research. © 1993 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Health Care

A bstract . A broad rational national health care insurance policy for the United States , providing for universal financial access to health care for all citizens, has both "meaning" and "validity" in that it would address actual socioeconomic concerns and could be implemented. It is justified by theories of justice of Rawls and Donaldson as well as by Adam Smith's socioeconomic model. Social consensus in this area accepts the principle of solidarity that individual self-interests may be better served through collective action , especially if such action is tied to competitive rules. Health care, therefore, is evolving as a public or quasi public good. The basic question no longer is whether the U.S. should have universal health care insurance but what specific health care policy the country should adopt in order to strengthen the market system and to maximize social welfare as effectively as possible.     

Preventing burnout: the effects of LMX and mentoring on socialization,role stress,and burnout

Halbesleben and Buckley's (2004) review of burnout research suggested a lingering need to examine the relationship between social support and burnout. We address that need by investigating Leader‐Member Exchange (LMX) and mentoring as sources of workplace social support. We used data from 422 employees in a health care setting to test three structural models investigating the direct and indirect effects of LMX, supervisory mentoring, and nonsupervisory mentoring on organizational socialization, role stress, and burnout. Results suggest that high‐LMX supervisors and nonsupervisory mentors serve as resources that minimize emotional exhaustion through increased socialization and decreased role stress. This study advances the literature on burnout by clarifying the effects of different types of social support in reducing burnout. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Do Family Firms Have Better Reputations Than Non‐Family Firms? An Integration of Socioemotional Wealth and Social Identity Theories

We draw from socioemotional wealth and social identity research to develop a theory on reputational differences among family and non‐family firms. We propose that family members identify more strongly with their family firm than non‐family members do with either a family or non‐family firm. Heightened identification motivates family members to pursue a favourable reputation because it allows them to feel good about themselves, thus contributing to their socioemotional wealth. We hypothesize that when the family's name is part of the firm's name, the firm's reputation is higher because family members are particularly motivated for their firm to have a better reputation. Family members also need organizational power to pursue a favourable reputation; thus, we hypothesize that the level of family ownership and family board presence should be associated with more favourable reputations. We find support for our theory in a sample of large firms from eight countries with disparate governance systems and cultures.     

Effects of Care Leave and Family Social Policy: Spotlight on the United States

Consistent with Pope Francis's efforts to eradicate social exclusion, most countries in the world have already adopted care leave policies in an effort to reduce the conflict between being an employee and being a caregiver. Care leave policies allow workers time off for family or for self‐care. Historically, care leave policies such as maternity leave are viewed as an employee benefit akin to short‐term disability leave, providing job‐protected time off for new mothers. This study reviews the literature of the short‐ and long‐run economic and societal effects of care leave policies globally, with a specific focus on care leave policies in the United States. Care leave produces positive labor market and health outcomes, including increases in leave taking, improvement in replacement wages, improvements to profitability and employee morale, increases in female workforce participation and continuity, increases in birth weight, and decreases in infant mortality. Despite positive effects, labor market inequalities such as decreases in female labor market participation rates, gender wage gaps, and occupational segregation are often promoted by care leave policies. The conflicted findings in care leave research muddle the anticipated effects of paid care leave but allow room for alternative policy recommendations.     

Formal and Informal Corruption Environments and Multinational Enterprise Social Irresponsibility

Using an institutional theory framework we theorize, hypothesize, and empirically show that higher levels of formal and informal corruption environments found in a firm's operating portfolio are related to higher levels of corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR). Failing to consider corruption's informal dimension leads to potentially false perceptions about a multinational enterprise's (MNE) operating environment, particularly when the formal dimension is low but the informal corruption dimension is high, as is the case in about one third of our sample. Including the informal corruption environment component provides additional explanatory power over the formal corruption environment alone in predicting CSiR and yields a superior understanding of both the formal and informal dimensions of the corruption institutional environment's influence on corporate social irresponsibility levels of MNEs. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Threat appeals in social marketing: death as a ‘special case’

Death is commonly used as a threat, both by fear-appeal researchers and by social marketing and health promotion practitioners (eg ‘Quit smoking or you'll die’). Fear (or threat) appeal researchers have frequently used death to arouse fear, and particularly in the ‘high’ fear condition. It is argued here that death is a ‘special case’ threat, and that the introduction of death in high fear conditions is a confounder in that death is a qualitatively different negative outcome from the non-death negative outcomes used in low fear conditions. The use of death in threat appeals requires attention in its own right for a number of reasons. First, death will occur eventually regardless of the message recipient's behaviour. Hence, messages that threaten death may arouse defensive responses in the target audience (eg ‘you've got to go sometime’), and unresolvable anxiety in the general population. Secondly, death can vary on a number of attributes (eg age at death, sudden versus prolonged, etc), and, while most threat appeals imply premature death, few studies have made this point explicit. Thirdly, the fear of death is multidimensional and some dimensions are more readily acknowledged as fearful than others. For example, a threat specifying the effect of one's death on loved ones might have more impact than a threat of death to oneself. Fourthly, people may fear death differently, or, for religious or other reasons, may not fear death at all. Furthermore, there may be age and gender differences in response to threat appeals using death. It is concluded that systematic research is required to determine whether and for whom death threats are effective. Copyright © 1999 Henry Stewart Publications     

Entrepreneur political skill and new venture performance: Extending the social competence perspective

Research on the social competence perspective holds that since operating high performing new ventures is dependent on entrepreneurs’ ability to influence stakeholder actions, entrepreneur social competence is likely critically important to new venture performance. Using a sample of 163 entrepreneurs throughout the USA, we extend such research by examining the entrepreneur political skill new venture performance relationship. Our results suggest that political skill, which is the component of social competence which specifically assesses an individual's ability to influence other's actions within the business environment, is positively associated with new venture performance. Study results provide additional support for the social competence perspective.     

Network Updating and Exploratory Learning Environment*

abstract This paper examines how the current relevance of social capital derived from a task‐advice network affects an actor's exploratory learning environment. Building on Burt's (1992 ) structural holes hypothesis that a large, sparse task advice network enhances an actor's exploratory learning environment, I propose that such effects hold only when the direct and indirect network ties are composed of current network contacts (ones that have been updated since the last change in positions of an actor). Analyses of data from a sample of 230 salaried employees of a high‐technology manufacturing corporation support my arguments. In addition to the focus of social capital research on network structure, therefore, this study emphasizes the time‐contingent value of social capital.