Work, Economy and Organizations Commons^™

Women Working On A Fair Flower Farm In Ecuador: An Ethnographic Study, Corrie Grosse

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Despite a history of worker exploitation and environmental degradation, today, the cut-flower industry is striving for ethical production practices. Ecuador is leading the way in this regard, and one farm, Fairtrade-certified Nevado Roses, appears to be a shining example. In 2012, I set out to conduct ethnographic research centering workers' perspectives about labor conditions and life as Fairtrade rose cultivators at Nevado Roses. I wanted to understand how women, who comprise the majority of flower workers, fare on a farm with socially and environmentally sustainable policies. The research confirmed the benefits of ethical production practices, but also revealed that Fairtrade …

Situational Variables And Sustainability In Multi-Attribute Decision-Making, Bonnie Simpson, Scott Radford

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Purpose

– The purpose of this study is to examine whether consumers demonstrate a multi-dimensional understanding of sustainability in their decision-making and addresses the situational influence of confidence and compromise on sustainable product choices.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using three choice-based conjoint experiments the authors examined the importance of sustainability, compromise and confidence to consumers across two contexts. Two-step cluster analyses were used to segment consumers based on the importance scores.

Findings

– Data indicates that the environmental dimension of sustainability is the most influential followed by economic and social. The responses suggest three distinct segments identified as self-focused, trend motivated and …

The Motivating Role Of Dissociative Outgroups In Encouraging Positive Consumer Behaviors, Katherine White, Bonnie Simpson, Jennifer Argo

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Previous research has found that people tend to avoid products or behaviors that are linked to dissociative reference groups. The present research demonstrates conditions under which consumers exhibit similar behaviors to dissociative out-group members in the domain of positive consumption behaviors. In particular, when a consumer learns that a dissociative out-group performs comparatively well on a positive behavior, the consumer is more likely to respond with positive intentions and actions when the setting is public (vs. private). The authors suggest that this occurs because learning of the successful performance of a dissociative out-group under public conditions threatens the consumer’s group …

Is The Very Notion Of “Representation” Relevant For The Regulation Game Of Video Game Developers?, Marie-Josee Legault, Johanna Weststar

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Using Kelly’s mobilisation theory (1998) to assess their propensity to collective action, this article examines where videogame developers stand regarding the representation of their interests. These workers are good examples of knowledge work in project-based organisations. If Kelly’s model allows in general for projections of unionisation in a given sector, we find this is not the case here. Rather, our study leads us to observe how much the labour market has changed since the elaboration of Kelly’s model, and how much these workers’ needs differ from the options laid out by traditional unions’ action as presented by Kelly. This group …

The Positive Deviance Phenomenon Of Leading Successful Strategic Change, Gail Johnson Morris

2010-2016 Archived Posters

The focus of this phenomenological study was to explore how the positive deviance phenomenon and strategies manifest through the lived experience of successful Canadian financial services strategic change leaders. The 4 leadership dimensions culminate in the Leading Successful Strategic Change: The 4 Factor Formula.

The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And Leadership Styles Of African American Law Enforcement Executives, B. Bernard Ferguson

2010-2016 Archived Posters

Ineffective leadership within police organizations has resulted in worker disengagement, absenteeism, and high turnover. This quantitative study examined the relationship between ethnicity, emotional intelligence (EI) and leadership styles of African American law enforcement executives. Hypotheses were tested using data collected from 130 members of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), and comparing results to data from a prior similar study using Caucasian law enforcement executives. Results indicated that ethnicity had a statistically significant relationship with EI and leadership style factors.

Balika Fact Sheet: Highlight On Livelihoods, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

There are few income-earning opportunities for adolescent girls in the Bangladeshi Association for Life Skills, Income, and Knowledge for Adolescents (BALIKA) study area, and livelihoods opportunities vary considerably by economic status and education. The ability to acquire livelihood-relevant skills, networks, and work experience during adolescence can be an important predictor of productive capacity later in life. However, across the study districts, the proportion of adolescent girls who are working is low. Most girls work as tutors or are engaged in the agricultural and poultry sector. Better-educated girls are more likely to be engaged in paid work. This BALIKA “Highlight on …

The Art Of Collaboration In Academic And Clinical Partnerships, Kelsey Spencer Bennett

Online Theses and Dissertations

Occupational therapists in various settings share a professional identity valuing occupation. Their socialization into a practice setting is context-dependent, in terms of the skills needed and roles to be enacted. Collaboration between occupational therapists in clinical and academic settings benefits each participant, along with presenting challenges given the systems where they work. The purpose of this project was to delve into understanding the culture of the settings (academic and clinical) influencing a community-based research partnership. Through a mini-ethnographic approach, similarities and differences of culture emerged describing the depth of components for the collaboration between research group members. This description may …

The Power Of Workplace Wellness: A Theoretical Model For Social Change Agency, Joshua M. Garrin

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

As millions of individuals face the complex challenge of adopting prohealth behavior as a core lifestyle attribute, there is an ever-increasing need to take an opportunistic approach to practicing and internalizing such behavior. Time constraints, prioritization, and time mismanagement widely contribute to the perceived inability of individuals to adhere to prohealth behavior. Given vocation as a demand that constitutes approximately one third of daily life activity, the organizational setting has emerged as a context that can potentially offer a vast array of viable workplace wellness (WW) opportunities. Such initiatives go beyond framing organizations as vehicles for health behavior promotion—instead, the …

It Staff Turnover Intentions, Job Modification, And The Effects Of Work Recognition At Large Public Higher Education Institutions, Steven C. Burrell

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Information Technology (IT) leaders in public higher education are under increased pressures to leverage innovations in technology to address their institution’s strategic imperatives. CIOs modify jobs by increasing responsibilities or changing the tasks that IT workers perform. IT staff who experience job modification are susceptible to lower job satisfaction and increased turnover intentions. IT leaders in other industries have successfully used work recognition to improve job satisfaction but there is limited research pertaining to these conditions among higher education institutions. This study sought to determine the perceptions and effects of work recognition and job modification on the turnover intentions of …

Gender Composition And Salary Gaps In Association Of Research Libraries (Arl) Institutions, Eleta Exline

Master's Theses and Capstones

While the presence of information technology (IT) work is ubiquitous in libraries, an increase in the number of male-dominated IT jobs has not increased the percentage of men (37%) working in female-dominated research libraries. Instead, the introduction of IT work may have resulted in a reorganization of librarians into gendered areas of specialization, changing the nature and degree of gender segregation within the occupation and potentially widening the overall pay gap between male and female librarians. Using data from the ARL Salary Survey, gender compositions and salary gaps of library positions between 1985 and 2010 were compared. Twelve of 17 …

How Can Professional Membership Associations Provide Meaningful Value For Their Members?: Creating Models Of Affiliation And Engagement, Lisa A. Dicke, Marina Saitgalina

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

What do individual association members think about their association membership? What do they value and what do they want to see associations provide in the future? This case study uses face-to-face interviews and focus groups with 12 international Ph.D. students enrolled in a Public Administration and Management program at a major university in Texas to provide answers to these questions. The research offers an understanding of how people from diverse cultures view professional associations. The Ph.D. students were also asked about the importance of their association as a means for building ties and making connections with others, and about volunteering. …

Enhancing Livelihood Opportunities For Young Women In Rural Upper Egypt: The Neqdar Nesharek Program, Nada Ramadan, Nahla G. Abdel-Tawab, Khaled El Sayed, Rania Roushdy

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

During the 30+ years that the Population Council has been operating in Egypt, Council researchers have examined many facets of young people’s lives, including conducting nationally representative surveys in 1997, 2009, and 2014. This research has documented the marginalization of Egyptian women in the public sphere, including the labor market, as well as gender inequities in mobility and access to schooling. Neqdar Nesharek is a social and economic empowerment program that evolved in response to this research and from the Council’s experience over the last few years working closely with out-of-school girls in Upper Egypt via the Ishraq program. The …

State Agency Promising Practice - Missouri: Using A Regional Technical Assistance Infrastructure To Promote Employment First, Allison Hall, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Case management services in Missouri’s Division of Developmental Disabilities underwent a shift from a state structure to a regional structure. Within this structure, 12 regions each serve approximately 12–15 counties. Each region has a technical assistance (TA) position designed to support each of the designated priority work areas. These include self-determination, family supports, individual supports and services, Employment First, and accessible housing. When the change from a state to regional structure occurred, administrators had to look for staff who could support those priorities. In addition, they created a central technical assistance staff person to act as the state content expert …

Wearing Different Hats: Micro Role Transitions In Two Contexts, Opal Man-Ching Leung

2014

Individuals make transitions between roles everyday as they move from home to work to other settings. This dissertation extends the work of Goffman (1959), Hall & Richer (1988), and Ashforth et al. (2000, 2001) on the topic of micro role transitions, which are the "frequent and usually recurring transitions, such as the commute between home and work" (Ashforth et al., 2000: 472). While the context of most of the research on micro role transitions has typically been focused on the work-home boundary (e.g. Rothbard et al., 2005; Nippert-Eng, 2008; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006; Hall & Richter, 1988), the three studies …

[Introduction To] More Than Shelter: Activism And Community In San Francisco Public Housing, Amy L. Howard

Bookshelf

In the popular imagination, public housing tenants are considered, at best, victims of intractable poverty and, at worst, criminals. More Than Shelter makes clear that such limited perspectives do not capture the rich reality of tenants’ active engagement in shaping public housing into communities. By looking closely at three public housing projects in San Francisco, Amy L. Howard brings to light the dramatic measures tenants have taken to create—and sustain and strengthen—communities that mattered to them.

More Than Shelter opens with the tumultuous institutional history of the San Francisco Housing Authority, from its inception during the New Deal era, through …

Unequal Pay: The Role Of Gender, Kathleen M. Gillespie

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Older Adults’ Contributions To The Tsimane Forager-Farmer Economy, Eric Schniter

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Portfolio of original photographs and an accompanying essay about the role of elders among the Tsimane, an indigenous group living in the Bolivian Amazon.

Animosity And Community Size Correlation In Bilingual Telephonic Interactions Between Customer/Social Service Representatives And Hispanic Clients: Understanding How Hispanic Community Size Affects Hostility Levels In Customer And Social Services From State To State, Scarllet Bautista

Anthós

The purpose of this research is to understand how the Hispanic community size affects the telephonic interactions between FEP (Fluent English Proficient) customer/social service representatives and LEPs (Limited English Proficient). I hypothesize that the larger the Hispanic community in a state, the more tense bilingual telephonic interactions will be. I evaluated a total of 179 English/Spanish consecutive interpreting calls over the course of nine days. I took note and counted various aspects of the interaction: voice, use of profanity, use of sarcasm to express disgust and sudden telephone hung ups from the LEP customer/client and attitude, tone, use of pleasantries, …

Interdisciplinary Perspectives On Corruption, David Jancsics

Publications and Research

Corruption has become one of the most popular topics in the social scientific disciplines. However, there is a lack of interdisciplinary communication about corruption. Models developed by different academic disciplines are often isolated from each other. The purpose of this paper is to review several major approaches to corruption and draw them closer to each other. Most studies of corruption fall into three major categories: (i) rational-actor models where corruption is viewed as resulting from cost/benefit analysis of individual actors; (ii) structural models that focus on external forces that determine corruption; and (iii) relational models that emphasize social interactions and …