Unconscious Processes of Organizing: Intergroup Conflict in Mental Health Care

A critical but overlooked issue in Weick’s seminal work, The Social Psychology of Organizing (1969/1979), concerns ‘the heat’ of organizing processes, namely, the underground emotional processes underpinning the organizing of conflictual work relationships. We present a qualitative case study of psychiatric agencies mandated by public policy to collaborate but instead engaged in persistent conflict despite its deleterious effects on their working relationship and on the wellbeing of the clients they intended to serve. To explain these conflictual features of organizing, we integrate Weick’s organizing theory with systems psychodynamics to deepen the understanding of emotions in organizing, specifically the motivational forces underpinning sensemaking and actions between interacting psychiatric agencies. This integration of theories reveals a critical feature of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious organizing processes: When a threat is involved, sensemaking and action are overtaken by social defences, resulting in dysfunctional organizing of the primary task. Drawing on these findings, we enrich Weick’s seminal work by developing a model that portrays organizing as the ritualized interaction of emotions, sensemaking and behavioural responses.     

Is There a Causal Effect of Working Part‐Time on Current and Future Wages?

In this paper, I study the causal effects of part‐time work on current and future wages. To estimate these effects, I use a random effects model with a wage equation capturing the employment history and a dynamic multinomial probit component for the choice of employment status. Exclusion restrictions from the institutional context are exploited to support identification. The results suggest that working part‐time with few hours has a large causal effect on current wages, but more extensive part‐time work does not reduce current wages. However, both types of part‐time work lead to negative long‐term wage effects.     

Optimizing suicide and trespass prevention on railways: a problem-solving model from the RESTRAIL project

Suicides and trespassing accidents result in more than 3800 fatalities in Europe, representing 88% of all fatalities occurring within the EU railway system. This paper presents a problem-solving model, which consists of a multistep approach structuring the analysis of a suicide or trespass-related problem on the railways. First, we present the method used to design, evaluate and improve the problem-solving model. Then we describe the model in detail: it comprises six steps with several subsequent actions, and each action is approached through a checklist of prompting questions and possible answers. At the end, we discuss the added value of this model for decision makers and its usability in the selection of optimal prevention measures.     

Happily Ever After: How Ending Valence Influences Narrative Persuasion in Cautionary Stories

Narratives are a persuasive platform that evokes processing distinct from other message formats. Story-ending valence is a component common to all stories and can influence how individuals respond to and are persuaded by the story. The current work examines how ending valence of a cautionary story, a popular type of narrative that delivers a warning to the audience, influences story-consistent beliefs through a process of global reflection or understanding of the overall story message. Across three studies, we find a positive story ending enhances reflection on the message meaning and, subsequently, enhances story-consistent beliefs.     

Turning values concrete: the role and ways of business selection in local currency schemes

Alternative consumption schemes require the selection of producers and traders according to criteria and through processes that should make alternative values concrete. The way values turn concrete is crucial for the effectiveness of such projects. This paper investigates the ways criteria and processes are defined and their real meanings and uses through the case of associative local currencies. Drawing on the framework of proximities, it analyses local currency schemes as combining proximities (geographical and non-geographical) and selection processes set up for providers wishing to join. Selection processes may be based on a charter, an approval committee and screening criteria. The objectives of the selection, its measures in principle, the way in which it is applied as well as the practical consequences are discussed. Even when charters and formal participatory schemes for selecting providers are established, proximities appear as the keystone of selection and trust.     

Nontraditional student withdrawal from undergraduate accounting programmes: a holistic perspective

A collaborative project of several Quebec universities, this study investigates nontraditional student withdrawal from undergraduate accounting programmes. A nontraditional student is older than 24, or is a commuter or a part-time student, or combines some of these characteristics. Univariate and multivariate analyses of student dropout factors were performed. A logistic regression for full-time students indicates several significant determinants of student withdrawal: returning to school after working for some time, enrolment in a non-first choice programme, dissatisfaction with programme choice and courses, and low grade point average (GPA). For part-time students, low GPA is the main explanatory factor for student withdrawal. Other factors appear to be instrumental in withdrawal decisions, such as management of external resources (time and family responsibilities) for women. The results suggest that students would benefit from university support services to acquire learning strategies that improve perseverance. Lastly, in-class learning activities that help bolster grades could decrease student withdrawal rates.     

The Gravity Model and Trade Efficiency: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis of Eastern European Countries' Potential Trade

The opening up process of the eastern European countries is characterised by an increasing degree of trade integration with their Western neighbouring countries. Typically, the degree of East–West trade integration is assessed by comparing actual trade volumes with potential trade volumes projected from the gravity model parameters estimated for a group of countries that best represent normal trade relations. This approach, however, does not compare trade levels against a maximum level of trade feasible for the group of eastern European countries. This paper using a stochastic frontier specification of the gravity model is able to identify the efficiency of trade integration relative to maximum potential levels. The findings, based on a panel data set of bilateral exports from 17 Western European countries to the 10 new member states over the 1994–2007 period, indicate a high degree of East–West trade integration close to two‐thirds of frontier estimates, suggesting a low degree of trade resistances.     

Hyperinflation in a small open economy with a fixed exchange rate: A post Keynesian view

This paper examines the emergence of hyperinflation in a small open economy with a fixed exchange rate from a post Keynesian perspective. Three variables play key roles: distributive conflict, external debt, and expectations about the exchange rate. First, we propose a short-run Kaleckian macro model. Then, we study the long-run behavior of the model by endogenizing the price level and foreign indebtedness. We conclude that the existence of expectations about the nominal exchange rate is crucial to explaining the emergence of hyperinflation.     

The transfer of HRM policies and practices to a transitional business system: the case of performance management practices in the US and Japanese MNEs operating in Vietnam

This paper focuses on employee performance management (PM) to explore how multinational enterprises (MNEs) localise their human resources within their subsidiaries in a developing country. It uses qualitative research methods to examine four US and four Japanese MNEs operating in Vietnam. The paper identifies both home and host country effects as significant factors in the transfer of MNEs' PM policies and practices. The US firms emphasised financial and non-financial measurements and utilised a wide range of PM management tools and techniques. These techniques, despite being unfamiliar in Vietnam and possibly considered incompatible with Vietnamese culture, were transferred successfully to the Vietnamese subsidiaries. The Japanese firms' PM approach was characterised by a more informal form of regular performance review, within a strictly top-down process and which suffered from accusations of bias and lack of transparency by Vietnamese respondents. This paper argues that the transitional period in Vietnam from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented one has made the national business system more receptive to new and seemingly contrasting practices. It provides no evidence to support the argument that transfer of practices is more likely, where the cultures of the countries involved are relatively similar.     

The Status of Econometrics in the Economics Major: A Survey

In this article, the authors describe the place of econometrics in undergraduate economics curricula in all American colleges and universities that offer economics majors as listed in the U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges 2010” guide (U.S. News & World Report 2009). Data come from online catalogs, departmental Web sites, and online course syllabi. About one-third of the schools require econometrics of all students majoring in economics, about half require it of none, and a sixth require it of some, but not all, economics majors. Among universities with economics PhD programs and liberal arts colleges, almost all those ranked in the top 10 require it. Below the top 10, there is little correlation between ranking and econometrics requirements. Liberal arts econometrics classes are much more likely to require research projects than their counterparts in universities.