The Eurozone Crisis: Institutional Setting, Structural Vulnerability, and Policies

The unfolding of the crisis in the Eurozone can be explained by the interaction of institutional features and policy failures, and by their interconnection with real and financial imbalances. The crisis has shown that internal divergence in the EZ is based on important structural components which are unsustainable in the long run. Indeed, the crisis has magnified the gap between the vulnerable peripheral member countries and a more resilient core. The paper analyses those factors that opened the way to the diffusion of the financial and economic crisis in the Eurozone. It also discusses the structural consequences of these events and critically analyses the institutional and political reforms which the Eurozone is facing in order to enhance its capability to cope with external shocks.Eurozone; European Union; European Monetary Union; euro; Common fiscal parameters; Real convergence; Productivity

Measuring the Business Environment for Entrepreneurship: SMEs, Quality of Institutions and Development

This paper aims to contribute to understand the role of entrepreneurship in fragile states, which despite the practical interest and relevance has been somewhat disregarded in academic research. Given the necessity to support policy formulation with appropriate and relevant measurement of entrepreneurship and the business environment, the primary focus in this paper is to scrutinise existing international indicators, in particular the World Bank Doing Business Indicators (DBIs) and ask whether they are able to capture entrepreneurial dynamics and constructively guide policy making towards entrepreneurship in fragile state. The paper argues that DBIs give a partial picture of the nexus between institutional context, policy reforms, entrepreneurship and economic development. In particular, DBIs analysis fails in addressing three pivotal aspects: first, the process through which individuals become entrepreneurs, second, industrial cooperative and competitive relationships both intersectoral and across different sectors of the economy, and third, the characteristics of workers employed in enterprises. Consequently, DBIs are not able to capture innovation and changing processes, and miss some pivotal features of both the internal and the external environment of the enterprise. The paper maintains that these shortcomings are particularly serious when referred to fragile countries and discusses how and to what extent DBIs lead to adverse-effect policy recommendations, being inadequate for policy planning in fragile areas.

Third-party aggression and emotion work among nurses: Testing a moderated mediation model

Client aggression is increasingly a stressor in the workplace. This study aims to analyze how and why these experiences may trigger burnout. Focusing on health care workers, we tested a moderated mediation model of the relationship between exposure to third-party (patients and/or relatives) verbal aggression and burnout with the goal of assessing the mediation effects of emotion work and the moderating effects of personal resources (i.e., perceived self-efficacy in communication with patients) and job resources (job control, role clarity, social support by colleagues and by supervisors) on this relationship. A purposive sample of 356 nurses was recruited from four hospitals in northern Italy. A structured, self-report questionnaire was used to collect data. Mediated and moderated mediation regression models with PROCESS were used to test the hypotheses. As postulated, emotion work mediated the relationship between patient third-party aggression and nurses’ burnout. Role clarity and supervisors’ support were found to reduce the harmful effects of emotion work triggered by third-party aggression. Unexpectedly, perceived self-efficacy in communication did not have a buffering effect in the tested model. These results offer a novel approach to designing preventive actions aimed at cultivating resources to counter the impact of perceived exposure to client aggression on well-being

Third-party aggression and emotion work among nurses: Testing a moderated mediation model

Client aggression is increasingly a stressor in the workplace. This study aims to analyze how and why these experiences may trigger burnout. Focusing on health care workers, we tested a moderated mediation model of the relationship between exposure to third-party (patients and/or relatives) verbal aggression and burnout with the goal of assessing the mediation effects of emotion work and the moderating effects of personal resources (i.e., perceived self-efficacy in communication with patients) and job resources (job control, role clarity, social support by colleagues and by supervisors) on this relationship. A purposive sample of 356 nurses was recruited from four hospitals in northern Italy. A structured, self-report questionnaire was used to collect data. Mediated and moderated mediation regression models with PROCESS were used to test the hypotheses. As postulated, emotion work mediated the relationship between patient third-party aggression and nurses’ burnout. Role clarity and supervisors’ support were found to reduce the harmful effects of emotion work triggered by third-party aggression. Unexpectedly, perceived self-efficacy in communication did not have a buffering effect in the tested model. These results offer a novel approach to designing preventive actions aimed at cultivating resources to counter the impact of perceived exposure to client aggression on well-being

Changing horses in midstream: sudden changes in plan in dynamic decision-making problems

Motivation - Why and how do expert unexpectedly change from their original plan in dynamic, uncertain settings? Research approach - Critical event interviews of practitioners self-reporting cases of sudden plan changes. Findings - Sudden plan changes developed in much the same manner as an expert's initial plan in recognition-primed decision-making. Limitations - Cases were limited to the healthcare domain; self-reporting distorts some aspects of the events; only cases where the change in plan worked were volunteered. Originality/Value - Many studies have examined persistence in an erroneous plan; fewer have examined sudden switches from bad to good plans. Take away message - Sudden plan changes arise in ways similar to experts' initial plan formulations: appearing as if unbidden, often not preceded by growing awareness of the need for reassessment, and once present seem obviously correct