APPLYNG THE PRINCIPLES OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, THE NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND PARTICULARITIES OF CORPORATE GOVERNING IN THE ROMANIAN ECONOMY

With direct support of the OECD and the World Bank the East-Central European stateshave been encouraged to adopt and implement codes of conduct and corporate governance principlesto minimize risk, boost performance, improve business access on stock markets, strengthening themarket position of firms, professional management, demonstrating transparency and socialresponsibility.corporate governance, governance principles, stakeholders, Romanian companies

Self-directed Support: Personalisation, Choice and Control

Since the late 1990s, there has been a concerted policy drive across social care towards cash based modes of support and strategies to personalise services. Support for this shift was initiated by the disabled peoples’ movement, both in the UK and globally. Policies introducing direct payments in lieu of provided services have been secured gradually as a central plank of the campaign for independent living. Successive governments have promoted a shift towards personalisation as part of a wider focus to develop local care markets and to facilitate enhanced choice and control in service provision. In Scotland, this has been pursued through new legislation for self-directed support. The authors examine some of the key themes and debates emerging from the implementation of this policy. These include a look at the evolution of this concept and its development within the wider personalisation agenda, as well as the changing roles for users, carers, local authorities and service providers. The authors focus on the impact of change for front-line workers and reassess the progress of personalisation across the UK and in Europe during a time of widespread austerity and financial cuts. Written for professional and academic audiences Self-directed Support: Personalisation, Choice & Control will stimulate those wrestling with these themes from policy and professional perspectives and provide essential analysis for those studying health and social policy

Measuring Forecast Uncertainty by Disagreement: The Missing Link

Using a standard decomposition of forecasts errors into common and idiosyncratic shocks, we show that aggregate forecast uncertainty can be expressed as the disagreement among the forecasters plus the perceived variability of future aggregate shocks. Thus, the reliability of disagreement as a proxy for uncertainty will be determined by the stability of the forecasting environment, and the length of the forecast horizon. Using density forecasts from the Survey of Professional Forecasters, we find direct evidence in support of our hypothesis. Our results support the use of GARCH-type models, rather than the ex post squared errors in consensus forecasts, to estimate the ex ante variability of aggregate shocks as a component of aggregate uncertainty.

Measuring Forecast Uncertainty by Disagreement: The Missing Link

Using a standard decomposition of forecasts errors into common and idiosyncratic shocks, we show that aggregate forecast uncertainty can be expressed as the disagreement among the forecasters plus the perceived variability of future aggregate shocks. Thus, the reliability of disagreement as a proxy for uncertainty will be determined by the stability of the forecasting environment, and the length of the forecast horizon. Using density forecasts from the Survey of Professional Forecasters, we find direct evidence in support of our hypothesis. Our results support the use of GARCH-type models, rather than the ex post squared error in consensus forecasts, to estimate the ex ante variability of aggregate shocks as a component of aggregate uncertainty.Aggregate shocks, public information, forecast disagreement, forecast horizon, forecast uncertainty, panel data, private information

Indirect Pathways Into Practice: Philippine Internationally Educated Nurses and Their Entry Into Ontario’s Nursing Profession

Social connectedness to social support systems and communities highly affect the transitioning success of Philippine Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs). These networks are especially critical during the first year upon arrival. The fragmented, indirect pathways to professional practice, (including barriers to foreign credential recognition, lengthy and costly examination, licensing and retraining result in direct devaluation of IENs and the possibility of permanent (de)skilling. Female IENs endured more financial and emotional hardship, compared to their male counterparts, with regard to family obligations and deeper financial burden. While many of the male IENs experienced the same challenges as women, the latter experienced longer unemployment as they stayed home to take care of children, while their husbands found work first. More research on gendered discrepancies among IENs is recommended

Seeking and accessing professional support for child anxiety in a community sample

There is a lack of current data on help-seeking, and barriers to accessing professional support for child anxiety disorders. This study aimed to provide current data on the frequency and type of parental help-seeking, professional support received, and parent-reported barriers/facilitators in the context of child anxiety, and to explore factors associated with help-seeking, and parent-reported barriers among help-seekers and non help-seekers. We conducted a survey of help-seeking in parents of 222 children (aged 7-11) with elevated anxiety symptoms identified through screening in schools, 138 children of whom met diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder. Almost two-thirds (64.5%) of parents of children with an anxiety disorder reported seeking help from a professional; in 38.4% of cases parents reported that their child had received support from a professional to help manage and overcome their anxiety difficulties, and < 3% had received evidence-based treatment (CBT). Frequently reported parental barriers related to difficulties differentiating between developmentally appropriate and clinically significant anxiety, a lack of help-seeking knowledge, perceived negative consequences of help-seeking, and limited service provision. Non-help seekers were more likely than help seekers to report barriers related to thinking a child's anxiety may improve without professional support, and the absence of professional recognition. Findings identify the need for (i) tools for parents and primary school staff to help identify children who may benefit from professional support to overcome difficulties with anxiety; and (ii) increased evidence-based provision for child anxiety disorders, including delivery within schools and direct support for parents

Managing reputation for ‘good works’ while undertaking commercial activities: Communication best practice guidelines for charities

Charities and not-for-profit organisations have traditionally eschewed commercial operations in favour of direct fund-raising from supporters. Competitive pressures, however, are driving charities to take on ‘dual citizenship’ through activity in both profit (commercial) and nonprofit (voluntary) sectors. There has been little scholarly attention or professional focus on the impact that commercial trading by charities has on relations with key stakeholders, such as supporters, and upon the reputation of the community-focused organisations. This paper reports a case study of a UK charity and explores supporters’ perceptions of the impact of commercial trading upon the organisation’s reputation as well as their relationship and level of engagement with the organisation. It found that donors are in support of commercial activities, as long as these are aligned with the charity’s values. The study, however, also found that commercial activities should not deflect the charity from its perceived and announced mission

Working Report #8: Services and Supports (Parent Perspectives)

In this study, differences between accessible settings and centralized settings in terms of the range of services and supports that were reported to be available to clients were investigated. The numbers, types and variety of services described differed, as did the amount of advocacy and support in connecting with services. Also, client satisfaction with the services provided appeared to be somewhat different across models. Number, Types and Variety of Services In accessible settings families were being connected with at least twice as many different services and supports as in the centralized sites. There were a few exceptions to this trend in the accessible settings. Diversity of Service Connections Centralized settings offered a more standardized and narrower range of service options and were focused primarily on professional support. While both models could offer additional supports around food, clothing and shelter, these were more frequently provided in the accessible sites. Both models also used community supports such as recreation for children, however, the accessible sites seemed to offer a broader range with more local, neighbourhood based options. Service Facilitation and Advocacy It was clear that in accessible settings, there was more direct facilitation and assistance from workers when it came to connecting families to services. Examples of advocacy support were found in both types of settings but accessible settings appeared to facilitate advocacy more frequently and in more diverse ways. Satisfaction with Services The nature of comments varied in that positive comments from centralized settings, in regard to services and supports, generally stressed an appreciation for the professional services they were linked to while comments from accessible settings were more generally enthusiastic and suggested that some families felt extremely supported by the child welfare agency. Some of the positive comments about service supports from accessible sites stressed the lengths the agency went to get services as well as the diversity of benefits parents received from some of the service connections. Service Gaps and Criticisms There were more examples of dissatisfaction among parents at centralized sites, compared with accessible sites. The three themes summarizing criticisms that emerged were lack of services, perceived lack of responsiveness from the child welfare agency, and poor service fit or the provision of services that parents did not feel were useful. There were far more parents from centralized sites who were critical about the lack of services in particular. Waiting Lists and Access General satisfaction with the quality of services, supports, connections and referrals is comparable across models, however, there was somewhat more criticism for a lack of services in the centralized settings and a higher level of enthusiasm for the extent of support within the accessible models. Even though centralized models may have been good at connecting families with some useful professional services, accessible settings seemed to offer the added benefit of variety and more extensive service support. As a result, parent enthusiasm and praise for the supports they received appeared to be somewhat greater at accessible sites

The mediating role of professional ethics and career anchors on the causal relationship between psychological well-being and quality of work life for nurses

Background and Aims: Nurses are one of the largest groups delivering health - therapy care in the private and public sectors and their interactions with patients is very high compared with the other employees. This study aimed to investigate the role of intermediary in professional ethics and career anchors on the causal relationship between psychological well-being and quality of work life of nurses. Methods: The statistical population consisted of all nurses working in public hospitals of Urmia (1363 subjects) in 2016 who 300 nurses selected by stratified random sampling method. Data were collected using 4 Standard questionnaires: professional ethics, career anchors, psychological well-being scale and quality of work life questionnaire. Data were analyzed using t-test and structural equation modeling by SPSS and LISREL software. Results: The results showed that the direct effect of variable psychological well-being on professional ethics (r=0.23, P<0.01). The direct effect of psychological well-being variable on career anchors and professional ethics on the quality of working life was significant, respectively (r=0.48, P<0.01), (r=0.39, P<0.01). Also, the direct effect of career anchors on the quality of working life was significant (r=0.31, P<0.01). It was reported a significant and indirect effect of psychological well-being on the quality of working life (P<0.01). Conclusion: Regarding the research results, it is suggested to promote the quality of nurses’ work life, enhancing psychological well-being followed by professional ethics and support employment are taken into consideration

Does Direct Democracy Matters for Political Parties : An Empirical Test in the Swiss Cantons

According to most political scientists and commentators, direct democracy seems to weaken political parties. Our empirical analysis in the 26 Swiss cantons shows that this thesis in its general form cannot be maintained. Political parties in cantons with extensive use of referendums and initiatives are not in all respects weaker than parties in cantons with little use of direct democratic means of participation. On the contrary, direct democracy goes together with more professional and formalized party organizations. Use of direct democracy is associated with more fragmented and volatile party systems, and with greater support for small parties, but causal interpretations of these relationships are difficult