Professionals' supervisor–subordinate relationships,autonomy and commitment in Australia: a leader–member exchange theory perspective

This article used leader–member exchange theory as a lens for comparing the impact of the supervisor–subordinate relationship on two types of professionals' perceptions of autonomy, and in turn upon their affective commitment. The reason for examining autonomy is because a characteristic of being a professional is having autonomy; however, we argued that such perceptions are affected by the quality of the supervisor–subordinate relationship. The findings confirmed this argument, although the trend was stronger for engineers than for nurses. Using the ordinary least square procedure, the goodness of fit of the model identified that supervision and autonomy accounted for approximately a third of the variance for engineers' levels of affective commitment and a fifth of the variance for nurses. That is, the impact of supervision practices was stronger on autonomy and commitment for engineers than for nurses in Australia. Moreover, statistically, the two groups of professionals were similar in their perceptions of the quality of their supervisor–subordinate relationship as well as in their perceptions of autonomy, and the qualitative findings supported similar factors impacting upon their perceptions. The only significant difference between the two groups was in their levels of affective commitment. The implications of these results include the need for those managing professionals to consider ways of improving workplace supervisor–subordinate relationships because of the impact upon perceived autonomy as well as commitment to their organisation, and hence the retention of such professionals.     

Drivers of Autonomy of Public Agencies in Italy

The creation of agencies has been and still is a widespread trend in the public sector: governments in many countries often establish semi‐autonomous single‐purpose organizations to carry out a wide range of functions and tasks. The trend to autonomization is problematic as it affects public sector's governance: several bodies operate partly autonomously from the core elective government, and are sometimes loosely coupled with their ‘parent’ administration. Consequently, analysing the drivers of agencies’ autonomy is a crucial issue for public management. This paper, in the light of some major contributions in organizational science, assumes that agencies’ autonomy is influenced by factors that affect post‐delegation relationships: agencies’ structure, culture and nature of the tasks executed. The study was aimed at testing a range of hypotheses about the autonomy of public agencies, using for this purpose the so‐far not investigated case of Italy–much in the spirit of the accumulation of knowledge in an area of public management. Results do not provide any strikingly counter‐intuitive finding, but a mix of confirmations and disconfirmations of previous findings that allow a finer‐grained analysis on the determinants of agency autonomy.     

Advertising and Deep Autonomy

Concerns about advertising take one of two forms. Some people are worried that advertising threatens autonomous choice. Others are worried not about autonomy but about the values spread by advertising as a powerful institution. I suggest that this bifurcation stems from misunderstanding autonomy. When one turns from autonomous choice to autonomy of persons, or what is often glossed as self-rule, then one has reason to think that advertising poses a moral problem of a sort so far unrecognized. I diagnose this problem using Charles Taylor's work on "strong evaluation". This problem turns out to have political ramifications that have been only dimly recognized in business ethics circles.     

简论跨世纪的日本地方分权改革

进入90年代以来,日本社会政治,经济诸方面发生了深刻变化,对传统的中央集权型行政体制提出了严峻的挑战,面对新形势,日本近几届内阁在行政改革方面均加大了力度,地方分权被日本舆论称为继明治维新,战后改革之后的“第三次革命”,作为一项跨世纪的系统工程,经过近10年的细密研讨,新千年伊始地方分权改革将进入具体实施阶段,一种新型扣央地方关系呼之欲出。     

试析民族自治地方教育财政自治的基本内涵

财政自治与教育财政自治同属于我国民族自治地方依法享有的民族自治权利.由于我国多年来教育财政投入的不足,致使民族自治地方的教育自治权难以得到根本保障.本文主要对财政自治与民族教育财政自治的基本内涵进行阐释,并对教育财政自治与财政自治的关系作了分析,以利于对我国教育财政投入和民族教育财政自治问题作进一步研究.     

论预约定价的民法适用

预约定价作为税法开拓的新领域,尽管起步较晚,但发展却异常迅速。与预约定价实践迅速发展形成鲜明对比的是预约定价的理论研究却异常缓慢,在中国如此,在世界亦如此。通过对预约定价的概念进行界定,建议运用法学多学科的视角对预约定价进行理论分析,并大胆把民法、行政法和公共管理的相关理论援引到预约定价中,来分析预约定价的民法适用问题。     

社会分化和转型背景下的中国村民自治问题

根据民政部2006年在全国实施的问卷抽样调查获得的数据,从不同村民对村民自治的认知和态度以及他们在村民自治中的行动等层面,剖析了村民自治的实践效果.并对村民自治建设中存在的问题以及实践提出的理论问题进行了讨论.     

公共产权资源治理理论的演进与进展

1954年,戈登(Gordon)最先抓住了CPR问题的本质,并对其属性进行了模型化论证,成为该领域的开创性研究。哈丁"公地悲剧"的发表则激起了学界研究CPR问题的热潮。早期学界主张要么通过"利维坦",要么私有化来治理CPR。由于奥斯特罗姆等人的努力,社区自治作为事实上的一种替代性解决方案日益得到认可。拉赫曼(Rahman)等人的研究则表明在特定的宗教和文化背景下,公地不仅不会导致悲剧,而且具有私地所不能比拟的优势。希尔(Hill)对美国野牛的研究发现,即使是经济学家公认的公地悲剧也未必真的就是悲剧。     

It Takes Three to Tango: Exploring the Interplay among Training Intensity,Job Autonomy,and Supervisor Support in Predicting Knowledge Sharing

This study explored whether the relationship between perceived training intensity and knowledge sharing is prone to combined moderating influences. We operationalized perceived training intensity as a challenge stressor, in accordance with the challenge‐hindrance framework of work stressors. The results of a study of 129 employees from three Norwegian service industries revealed a positive relationship between perceived training intensity and supervisor‐rated knowledge sharing for employees reporting high levels of perceived job autonomy and high levels of perceived supervisor support. In contrast, we found a negative relationship between perceived training intensity and supervisor‐rated knowledge sharing for employees reporting high levels of perceived job autonomy and low levels of perceived supervisor support. These findings suggest that supervisors are of vital importance in facilitating knowledge sharing among employees in settings where developmental challenges are prevalent and perceptions of job autonomy are high. Implications for future research and practice are also discussed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Relationship between flow experience and subjective vitality among older adults attending senior centres

ABSTRACT

This study examined relationships between leisure autonomy, leisure competence, leisure social support, and flow experience and subjective vitality among older adults. In total, 257 older adults attending senior centres from New Taipei City, Taiwan were recruited. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews, during which leisure autonomy, leisure competence, leisure social support, flow experience, and subjective vitality were measured. The data were analysed using a hierarchical regression method. Results revealed that leisure autonomy, leisure competence, and leisure social support were significantly and positively correlated with subjective vitality and that flow experience was more significantly and positively correlated with subjective vitality than the three leisure needs were. Practical implications of results in terms of enhancing subjective vitality among older adults are discussed. Considering that flow experience is a strong predictor of subjective vitality among older adults, helping older adults experience flow should considerably enhance their subjective vitality. Flow is experienced when a balance is reached between high levels of challenges and skills. Therefore, leisure with such balance increases the likelihood that older adults can experience flow.