The role of group values in the relationship between group faultlines and performance

This study explores the moderating effects of group values on the relationship between group faultlines and performance. Faultlines occur when group members align along two or more different demographic characteristics causing a group to split into homogeneous subgroups (adapted from Lau and Murnighan, 1998). We theorize and empirically examine three group values variables: career-, change-, and task-specificity. Analyses are performed on 81 work groups from a Fortune 500 information processing firm. Two levels of performance are considered in connection with group faultlines: individual performance (performance ratings) and group performance (bonuses and stock options). Our results provide support for our model of group values, faultiness and performance

Democratic Resilience: Citizens' Evaluation of Democratic Performance during the Great Recession

Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Sociales/ Social Sciences por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Mención InternacionalPresidente: Pedro Riera Sagrera.- Secretario: Guillermo Cordero García.- Vocal: Ruth Dassonnevill

Scaling Up Deliberative Democracy as Dispute Resolution in Healthcare Reform: A Work in Progress

Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) denotes the problem of jointly localizing a moving platform and mapping the environment. This work studies the SLAM problem using a combination of inertial sensors, measuring the platform's accelerations and angular velocities, and a monocular camera observing the environment. We formulate the SLAM problem on a nonlinear least squares (NLS) batch form, whose solution provides a smoothed estimate of the motion and map. The NLS problem is highly nonconvex in practice, so a good initial estimate is required. We propose a multi-stage iterative procedure, that utilises the fact that the SLAM problem is linear if the platform's rotations are known. The map is initialised with camera feature detections only, by utilising feature tracking and clustering of  feature tracks. In this way, loop closures are automatically detected. The initialization method and subsequent NLS refinement is demonstrated on both simulated and real data

Social Policies and Structures: Institutional Frictions and Traps in the Czech Republic After 1989

This paper compares the standard economic and a complementary socio-economic approach to the transition. While the economic approach looks at social problems from the outside and views them as costs of transition, the socio-economic approach looks at these problems from the inside and views them as a part of the changing social structure. Both approaches are used to analyze four frictions which appear in contemporary Czech society. The first friction concerns the pension system which produces direct intergenerational dependence and turns pensioners into a socially needy population. It produces a socio-political redistributional trap, strengthening political support for further redistribution. The second friction concerns the relation between low market wages and a higher guaranteed subsistence minimum. It opens a socio-cultural trap and leads to a benefit dependency. The third friction concerns the impeding development of the middle class. Here, a socio-economic trap appears: a socially polarized society cannot take full advantage of its human capital and entrepreneurial spirit. The fourth friction involves tensions between various sections of the middle class. The socio-structural trap of unbalanced dynamics inside the middle class may cause an autonomous corporatization of individual groups to the detriment of citizenship principles and social integration.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39788/3/wp404.pd

Widening the Divide between Them and Us? The Effects of Populist Communication on Cognitive and Affective Stereotyping in a Comparative European Setting

To explain the global spread and electoral success of populist rhetoric, a growing body of research has investigated the content and effects of populist communication. Extant research has shown that right-wing populist communication can activate negative stereotypical portrayals toward the populist out-group. Yet, we know too little about how exposure to populist ideas can widen the perceived cognitive and affective divide between the people and others in different European regions, although this Manichean view of in- and out-groups is at the core of populist ideology. Against this backdrop, we rely on a comparative experimental study in Western, Eastern, and Southern European regions to investigate how exposure to right-wing populist communication can activate the perceived divide between the ordinary people vis-à-vis the elites and immigrants. Our main findings demonstrate that populist communication in some cases widens the cognitive and emotional divide between the people and the populist out-groups, but the magnitude of the effects is small, and we do not find systematic patterns corresponding to regions. Nevertheless, our results have important implications for understanding the impact of populism on the cultivation of polarized divides in a diversified European region. Populist communication may augment societal divides, but these effects are spread across countries and only triggered by some elements of the ideational core of populism

Development under conditions of inequality and distrust: Social cohesion in Latin America

"This paper analyzes the role of social cohesion in economic and institutional development and, broadly, the creation of welfare in Latin America. The paper defines the concept of social cohesion with reference to the notions of social capital and inequality. Using data and literature on Latin America, the paper argues that low interpersonal trust and entrenched inequality interfere with cohesion. The paper develops and introduces an exploratory index of cohesion structured around the definition proposed. Relying on correlations, and with appropriate caveats, the paper uses this index to explore tentative linkages between levels of cohesion and development outcomes. The paper presents evidence of positive linkages among social cohesion and economic growth, investment and innovation capacity, governmental effectiveness, the quality of public policies, and the predictability of the policy environment. Finally, the paper discusses the significance of these findings and some of the policy implications." from Author's AbstractSocial cohesion, Social capital, Trust, Inequality, Exclusion, Opportunities, Governance, Institutional development, economic growth, Development strategies,

Any space left? Homeless resistance by place-type in Los Angeles County

This study develops a more nuanced concept of homeless resistance, incorporating a range of resistance behaviors (exit, adaptation, persistence, and voice) that bridge the gap between current frameworks that either romanticize or ignore it. We also consider the possibility that different kinds of space may theoretically allow for different kinds of resistance. To this end, we employ an ecological approach to homeless space by classifying Los Angeles County into three place-types (prime, transitional, and marginal). We empirically consider the issue of resistance within the hardening context among a group of 25 homeless informants, focusing on whether and how some of them have exercised their voices and sought to ameliorate one or more aspects of their situation, as well as how resistance may vary by place-type

Paradox as invitation to act in problematic change situations

It has been argued that organizational life typically contains paradoxical situations such as efforts to manage change which nonetheless seem to reinforce inertia. Four logical options for coping with paradox have been explicated, three of which seek resolution and one of which ‘keeps the paradox open’. The purpose of this article is to explore the potential for managerial action where the paradox is held open through the use of theory on ‘serious playfulness’. Our argument is that paradoxes, as intrinsic features in organizational life, cannot always be resolved through cognitive processes. What may be possible, however, is that such paradoxes are transformed, or ‘moved on’ through action and as a result the overall change effort need not be stalled by the existence of embedded paradoxes

Masculinity at work: The experiences of men in female dominated occupations

This paper presents the findings of a research project on the implications of men's non-traditional career choices for their experiences within the organization and for gender identity. The research is based on 40 in-depth interviews with male workers from four occupational groups: librarian-ship, cabin crew, nurses and primary school teachers. Results suggest a typology of male workers in female dominated occupations: seekers (who actively seek the career), finders (who find the occupation in the process of making general career decisions) and settlers (who settle into the career after periods of time in mainly male dominated occupations). Men benefit from their minority status through assumptions of enhanced leadership (the assumed authority effect), by being given differential treatment (the special consideration effect) and being associated with a more careerist attitude to work (the career effect). At the same time, they feel comfortable working with women (the zone of comfort effect). Despite this comfort, men adopt a variety of strategies to re-establish a masculinity that has been undermined by the 'feminine' nature of their work. These include re-labeling, status enhancement and distancing from the feminine. The dynamics of maintaining and reproducing masculinities within the non-traditional work setting are discussed in the light of recent theorising around gender, masculinity and work