Women and Sport: Social Issues – Ensuring a Safe Environment for the Female Athlete

Women athletes will only optimise their potential in sport if they are able to train and compete in conditions of complete safety. However, many females in sport endure less than safe conditions. They suffer pain, illness or injury, not as a result of the normal stresses and strains of practice and competition but as a consequence of the violation by others of inter-personal boundaries – in other words through experiencing sexually harassing or abusive behaviour. This papers reviews research on abusive relationships in sport

Governing network evolution in the quest for identity

This paper provides a managerial account of network governance by exploring how initially non-powerful agents, driven by the quest for distinctive identity, shape the governance of their networks over time. The research design is that of a longitudinal comparative case study of the trajectories of three renowned, Oscar-winning Spanish filmmakers. It scrutinizes data coming from original interviews, as well as from multiple secondary data sources, in order to illustrate the propositions advanced. The paper's contribution is sought: 1) in proposing a micro-level framework for systematic thinking about network governance evolution, distinguishing four dimensions (co-governance, structure, strategy, and pace) and their respective sub-categories; 2) in advancing three peculiar identity profiles with different implications for the evolution of network governance (i.e., a maverick, an integrated professional, and a broker); 3) in bringing together two bodies of literature that have not conversed frequently (i.e., network governance and identity) in a largely overlooked cultural and historical context, that of Spain after the transition to democracy in 1975.Network governance; Management

A gender synchronized family planning intervention for married couples in rural India: study protocol for the CHARM2 cluster randomized controlled trial evaluation.

BackgroundPrior research from India demonstrates a need for family planning counseling that engages both women and men, offers complete family planning method mix, and focuses on gender equity and reduces marital sexual violence (MSV) to promote modern contraceptive use. Effectiveness of the three-session (two male-only sessions and one couple session) Counseling Husbands to Achieve Reproductive Health and Marital Equity (CHARM) intervention, which used male health providers to engage and counsel husbands on gender equity and family planning (GE + FP), was demonstrated by increased pill and condom use and a reduction in MSV. However, the intervention had limited reach to women and was therefore unable to expand access to highly effective long acting reversible contraceptives such as the intrauterine device (IUD). We developed a second iteration of the intervention, CHARM2, which retains the three sessions from the original CHARM but adds female provider- delivered counseling to women and offers a broader array of contraceptives including IUDs. This protocol describes the evaluation of CHARM2 in rural Maharashtra.MethodsA two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial will evaluate CHARM2, a gender synchronized GE + FP intervention. Eligible married couples (n = 1200) will be enrolled across 20 clusters in rural Maharashtra, India. Health providers will be gender-matched to deliver two GE + FP sessions to the married couples in parallel, and then a final session will be delivered to the couple together. We will conduct surveys on demographics as well as GE and FP indicators at baseline, 9-month, and 18-month follow-ups with both men and women, and pregnancy tests at each time point from women. In-depth interviews will be conducted with a subsample of couples (n = 50) and providers (n = 20). We will conduct several implementation and monitoring activities for purposes of assuring fidelity to intervention design and quality of implementation, including recruitment and tracking logs, provider evaluation forms, session observation forms, and participant satisfaction surveys.DiscussionWe will complete the recruitment of participants and collection of baseline data by July 2019. Findings from this work will offer important insight for the expansion of the national family planning program and improving quality of care for India and family planning interventions globally.Trial registrationClinicalTrial.gov, NCT03514914

Augmentation of Chinese community relationships (Guanxi) in learning organisations - case study of a private Kunshan (Shanghai) company

The Kunshan factory enjoyed remarkable success over the past 24 months. The quick response, superior teamwork and scouting capability for opportunity and risk on the part of all staff outperformed that of their counterparts in multinational companies. Family ties, community affection, social ‘face’ and personal recommendations co-ordinated company members well. Chinese community relationships had a consolidating and stabilising function in the factory, enabling a convergent corporate movement. This phenomenal practice is explored here to understand quantitatively the roles of Chinese community relationships (guanxi) and learning organisation practice towards corporate performance. In this research, the bricolage method was adopted to cater for the diverse and vibrant nature in the research context. Ethically, this insider research had to ensure that all factory members received fair treatment in the course of the research. Their comments and reflections on learning organisations and Chinese community relationships had to be objectively recorded for examination. An assurance was made that there would be no impact on their job security and access to company caution money remained unchanged during the research, so that they remained in control. Guanxi encourages participation in community activity, at the same time advocating action learning. In research methods, repeated actions, a form of action research, are performed in cycles with input from stakeholders to develop a directed course of further actions. Soft Systems Method, and associated structural tools such as rich pictures and CATWOE, help factory members to dissect the business challenge. Qualitative interviewing was carried out among key managers to devise a master plan for divestment. All employees were recompensed for the disruption caused. New corporate spin-offs were established through the exchange of favours and scouting for opportunities. Later, a focus group was undertaken to evaluate progress in the business units and to examine the contribution of learning organisations and Chinese community relationships. Seven relational outcomes are identified in this research in this Kunshan factory. They are: 1) 360-degree dialogue; 2) group-level exchange of favours; 3) action learning; 4) acculturation; 5) community-prompted foresight capability; 6) personal recommendation; and 7) outside-in mentality. Collectivism on the part of the Chinese community’s participants equalises individual interests through acculturation to establish a common societal and business goal. Sharing a vision and a goal is a pragmatic means of attaining organisational integration and operational excellence. Self-organised vision and mission are attained swiftly through these seven factors to save the effort of initial ice-breaking and team-building activity. A Chinese social system is regarded as a high-context social system – it depends less on precise wording than collective understanding. The Chinese term ‘guanxi’ is used interchangeably in this thesis with ‘Chinese community relationships’ to describe the subtle and delicate interpersonal social interactions perpetuated among ethnic Chinese people in mainland China and overseas in settlements such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and elsewhere. Guanxi comprises two aspects. One is a social construct of Chinese society and the other is the value generated by guanxi in action. In combination these position Chinese community relationships as a mediator of organisational transformation such as the implementation of a learning organisation and improved business performance. Historically, guanxi is perceived as having three characteristics: affection (ganqing, in Chinese), reciprocity (renqing) and credit (xinyong). The learning organisation paradigm describes a continuous process of corporate transformation through collective staff learning, aiming to anticipate and cope with the disruptive commercial challenges of today’s business world. When employees are committed to their organisation, it favours business sustainability. Operational and business risks are mitigated through shared vision and mentality. The attributes of individualism and collectivism substantially influence the implementation of a learning organisation. This research uncovers the mediating effect of Chinese community relationships on learning organisation effectiveness for fast business performance through acculturation and personal recommendation. It reveals the social systems in a Chinese community to empower learning organisation practice. The integrational capability of the seven relational outcomes augments guanxi’s mediating effect in empowering learning organisation practice so as to raise corporate performance substantially

The role of consumer-brand engagement in a digital marketing era

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the role of consumer-brand engagement in a digital marketing era. We explore the consumer-brand engagement construct in relation to consumers as the engagement subjects, and brands (i.e., brand/companies) as the engagement objects. Our intention is to contribute to advancing the theoretical knowledge of this subject and to provide useful insights that can be used by practitioners, particularly companies that use interactive platforms to create consumer-brand relationships.O objetivo desta tese é o de compreender o papel do compromisso entre o consumidor e a marca nesta nova era de marketing digital. Exploramos nesse sentido o constructo do compromisso entre o consumidor e a marca, sendo o consumidor o sujeito do compromisso e a marca (isto é, marcas ou empresas) o objeto desse compromisso. É nosso objetivo contribuir para o avanço teórico do conhecimento sobre esta área do saber, bem como fornecer novos conhecimentos que possam ser úteis e utilizados pelos gestores nas empresas, nomeadamente no que diz respeito a empresas que utilizem plataformas interativas para criar relacionamentos entre os consumidores e as marcas

Work group inclusion : test of a scale and model

We develop a theoretically based 10-item measure of work group inclusion comprised of two components (belongingness and uniqueness) and use this measure to empirically test the nomological network of work group inclusion developed by Shore et al. In Phase 1, we use two samples of full-time employees to develop and refine items as well as establish content validity. In Phase 2, we demonstrate convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity with both conceptually related and unrelated constructs. In Phase 3, we use data from an additional sample of employees and supervisors to test criterion-related validity and mediation by examining the multilevel relationships between inclusion and important antecedents and outcomes. Across the three phases of our study, the results demonstrate support not only for the factor structure, reliability, and validity of our work group inclusion measure but also for a theoretical model in which the construct of inclusion has important implications for individuals and organizations

The Translocal Event and the Polyrhythmic Diagram

This thesis identifies and analyses the key creative protocols in translocal performance practice, and ends with suggestions for new forms of transversal live and mediated performance practice, informed by theory. It argues that ontologies of emergence in dynamic systems nourish contemporary practice in the digital arts. Feedback in self-organised, recursive systems and organisms elicit change, and change transforms. The arguments trace concepts from chaos and complexity theory to virtual multiplicity, relationality, intuition and individuation (in the work of Bergson, Deleuze, Guattari, Simondon, Massumi, and other process theorists). It then examines the intersection of methodologies in philosophy, science and art and the radical contingencies implicit in the technicity of real-time, collaborative composition. Simultaneous forces or tendencies such as perception/memory, content/ expression and instinct/intellect produce composites (experience, meaning, and intuition- respectively) that affect the sensation of interplay. The translocal event is itself a diagram - an interstice between the forces of the local and the global, between the tendencies of the individual and the collective. The translocal is a point of reference for exploring the distribution of affect, parameters of control and emergent aesthetics. Translocal interplay, enabled by digital technologies and network protocols, is ontogenetic and autopoietic; diagrammatic and synaesthetic; intuitive and transductive. KeyWorx is a software application developed for realtime, distributed, multimodal media processing. As a technological tool created by artists, KeyWorx supports this intuitive type of creative experience: a real-time, translocal “jamming” that transduces the lived experience of a “biogram,” a synaesthetic hinge-dimension. The emerging aesthetics are processual – intuitive, diagrammatic and transversal

The Alexander House Apostolate Marital Relationship Education results: a quantitative study

According to existing literature, 27 components contribute to the concept of couple’s relationship satisfaction. Some of these components are included in non-religious and religious marital relationship education (MRE) programs. Research on nonreligious MREs spans decades; however, research on Catholic MRE programs is limited and not widely published. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of one Catholic, faith-based, couples’ MRE on impacting relationship satisfaction, and determine if specific religious and behavioral practices contributed to relationship satisfaction. The study was conducted with archival data collected from a population of mostly Catholic Latino and White couples in south central Texas. This research used a quantitative paradigm and a correlational research design to answer the study’s purpose. The Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMSS) and Marital Adjustment Test were used to evaluate relationship satisfaction. A series of nonparametric analyses were conducted to address the research questions. Results indicated the number of KMSS total scores for a subset of participants in the nondistressed range increased from preworkshop to postworkshop. Two religious practices—praying daily together and asking for forgiveness—as well as eight behavioral practices were significantly related to nondistressed KMSS scores. Keywords: MRE, couples, couple workshop, marital satisfaction, marital happiness, Catholic, KMSS, Marital Adjustment Test, Locke Wallace, The Alexander House Apostolat

Interplay of Chinese Guanxi with Western job role system in private Chinese IT firms

This doctoral research project was designed to understand how Chinese interpersonal relationships, Guanxi, and Western job role system interplay to affect the coordination of work in Chinese firms. While Chinese firms have extensively introduced Western management practices, which rely on the use of formal organisational systems as formal coordination mechanisms, the cultural practices of Guanxi have constraint the management transfer. On the other hand, Guanxi often works as a relational coordination mechanism for Chinese organisations. There is a potential to integrate the Chinese relational and Western formal mechanisms for an enhanced outcome of organisational coordination. Nonetheless, there is limited empirical literature on the dynamic interplay between Chinese Guanxi and Western management practices and between the relational and formal coordination mechanisms. To reduce the literature gaps, the research conducted three case studies in private Chinese IT firms with 35 in-depth, semi-structured interviews. It was found that the intertwining of Guanxi relationships with the formal role relations results in the formation of dense, closed within-team social networks and relatively loose cross-team social networks and the formation of a relational structure consisting of team-based Guanxi groups, Paternalistic Leadership and Senior-junior Guanxi. Moreover, it was indicated that the intra-organisational social networks, the relational structure and some particularistic rules of Guanxi interplay with the formal job role system, creating both positive and negative coordination outcomes. Finally, it was demonstrated that the three case studies achieve different coordination outcomes, which depends on whether the formal job role system curbs the negative outcomes of Guanxi or reinforces the benefits of Guanxi. Consequently, the research contributes to cross-cultural management literature with the empirical understanding on the coevolution of Chinese Guanxi and Western management practices in Chinese organisations and extend coordination literature with the empirical insights on the interplay between relational and formal coordination mechanisms

PHENOMENON-STRUCTURAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY APPLIED TO PERIPATETIC GROUP THERAPY

Peripatetic therapy, also known as therapeutic accompaniment, emerged as a form of supplementary secondary support for psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis patients that did not adapt to conventional clinical and hospital care modalities. The practice was notable for its non-stationary therapeutic setting, which went beyond the doctor's office or health care institution, and peripatetic group therapy has emerged as one of the ramifications of its evolutionary process. After maturing over the decades, it has now become an independent therapeutic alternative whose results often differ significantly from those of conventional psychotherapy by integrating the territorial element into therapeutic care. The study discusses a peripatetic group therapy project carried out with patients of a mental health day hospital in Brasilia, Brazil. Results are presented based on qualitative records of action research aimed at understanding the genesis and group dynamics processes involved and the application of phenomenon-structural psychopathology to the activity participants’ individual understanding of their lived experience of time and space, as well as of their own illness. The therapeutic activity, offered by the day hospital on a weekly basis (four hours per session), was observed over a period of six months. It was possible to identify that the transference relationships established between patients and therapists were a crucial element in allowing the activity to take place and participants to cope with the stress of being outdoors, far from the institutional therapeutic setting they were accustomed with. The group sessions also helped some patients exercise greater autonomy than in their households, including by providing care to other patients with less autonomy. It was also possible to note that working physically outside of conventional clinical settings makes it possible to acquire unique insights into patients and the different ways through which they experience the world. The positive results of patient interactions within and outside the group while carrying outdoor activities, their increased autonomy and the better understanding we have acquired of them allowed us to clearly envisage the importance of continuing research on what is still a little-explored topic