Theory of continuum percolation III. Low density expansion

We use a previously introduced mapping between the continuum percolation model and the Potts fluid (a system of interacting s-states spins which are free to move in the continuum) to derive the low density expansion of the pair connectedness and the mean cluster size. We prove that given an adequate identification of functions, the result is equivalent to the density expansion derived from a completely different point of view by Coniglio et al. [J. Phys A 10, 1123 (1977)] to describe physical clustering in a gas. We then apply our expansion to a system of hypercubes with a hard core interaction. The calculated critical density is within approximately 5% of the results of simulations, and is thus much more precise than previous theoretical results which were based on integral equations. We suggest that this is because integral equations smooth out overly the partition function (i.e., they describe predominantly its analytical part), while our method targets instead the part which describes the phase transition (i.e., the singular part).Comment: 42 pages, Revtex, includes 5 EncapsulatedPostscript figures, submitted to Phys Rev

Working conditions and Work-Family Conflict in German hospital physicians: psychosocial and organisational predictors and consequences

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Germany currently experiences a situation of major physician attrition. The incompatibility between work and family has been discussed as one of the major reasons for the increasing departure of German physicians for non-clinical occupations or abroad. This study investigates predictors for one particular direction of Work-Family Conflict – namely work interfering with family conflict (WIF) – which are located within the psychosocial work environment or work organisation of hospital physicians. Furthermore, effects of WIF on the individual physicians' physical and mental health were examined. Analyses were performed with an emphasis on gender differences. Comparisons with the general German population were made.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data were collected by questionnaires as part of a study on <it>Psychosocial work hazards and strains of German hospital physicians </it>during April–July 2005. Two hundred and ninety-six hospital physicians (response rate 38.9%) participated in the survey. The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), work interfering with family conflict scale (WIF), and hospital-specific single items on work organisation were used to assess WIF, its predictors, and consequences.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>German hospital physicians reported elevated levels of WIF (mean = 74) compared to the general German population (mean = 45, <it>p </it>< .01). No significant gender difference was found. Predictors for the WIF were lower age, high quantitative demands at work, elevated number of days at work despite own illness, and consequences of short-notice changes in the duty roster. Good sense of community at work was a protective factor. Compared to the general German population, we observed a significant higher level of quantitative work demands among hospital physicians (mean = 73 vs. mean = 57, <it>p </it>< .01). High values of WIF were significantly correlated to higher rates of personal burnout, behavioural and cognitive stress symptoms, and the intention to leave the job. In contrast, low levels of WIF predicted higher job satisfaction, better self-judged general health status, better work ability, and higher satisfaction with life in general. Compared to the German general population, physicians showed significantly higher levels of individual stress and quality of life as well as lower levels for well-being. This has to be judged as an alerting finding regarding the state of physicians' health.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In our study, work interfering with family conflict (WIF) as part of Work-Family Conflict (WFC) was highly prevalent among German hospital physicians. Factors of work organisation as well as factors of interpersonal relations at work were identified as significant predictors for WIF. Some of these predictors are accessible to alteration by improving work organisation in hospitals.</p

How Do Employees Perceive Corporate Responsibility? Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Corporate Stakeholder Responsibility Scale

Recent research on the microfoundations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has highlighted the need for improved measures to evaluate how stakeholders perceive and subsequently react to CSR initiatives. Drawing on stakeholder theory and data from five samples of employees (N = 3,772), the authors develop and validate a new measure of corporate stakeholder responsibility (CStR), which refers to an organization’s context-specific actions and policies designed to enhance the welfare of various stakeholder groups by accounting for the triple bottom line of economic, social, and environmental performance; it is conceptualized as a superordinate, multidimensional construct. Results from exploratory factor analyses, first- and second-order confirmatory factor analyses, and structural equation modeling provide strong evidence of the convergent, discriminant, incremental, and criterion-related validities of the proposed CStR scale. Two-wave longitudinal studies further extend prior theory by demonstrating that the higher-order CStR construct relates positively and directly to organizational pride and perceived organizational support, as well as positively and indirectly to organizational identification, job satisfaction, and affective commitment, beyond the contribution of overall organizational justice, ethical climate, and prior measures of perceived CSR

Public, private and personal: Qualitative research on policymakers' opinions on smokefree interventions to protect children in 'private' spaces

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Governments use law to constrain aspects of private activities for purposes of protecting health and social wellbeing. Policymakers have a range of perceptions and beliefs about what is public or private. An understanding of the possible drivers of policymaker decisions about where government can or should intervene for health is important, as one way to better guide appropriate policy formation. Our aim was to identify obstacles to, and opportunities for, government smokefree regulation of private and public spaces to protect children. In particular, to seek policymaker opinions on the regulation of smoking in homes, cars and public parks and playgrounds in a country with incomplete smokefree laws (New Zealand).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Case study, using structured interviews to ask policymakers (62 politicians and senior officials) about their opinions on new smokefree legislation for public and private places. Supplementary data was obtained from the Factiva media database, on the views of New Zealand local authority councillors about policies for smokefree outdoor public places.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall, interviewees thought that government regulation of smoking in private places was impractical and unwise. However, there were some differences on what <it>was </it>defined as 'private', particularly for cars. Even in public parks, smoking was seen by some as a 'personal' decision, and unlikely to be amenable to regulation. Most participants believed that educative, supportive and community-based measures were better and more practical means of reducing smoking in private places, compared to regulation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The constrained view of the role of regulation of smoking in public and private domains may be in keeping with current political discourse in New Zealand and similar Anglo-American countries. Policy and advocacy options to promote additional smokefree measures include providing a better voice for childrens' views, increasing information to policymakers about the harms to children from secondhand smoke and the example of adult smoking, and changing the culture for smoking around children.</p

A statistical approach to quantitative data validation focused on the assessment of students' perceptions about biotechnology

Student awareness levels are frequently used to evaluate the effectiveness of educational policies to promote scientific literacy. Over the last years several studies have been developed to assess students' perceptions towards science and technology, which usually rely on quantitative methods to achieve broad characterizations, and obtain quantifiable and comparable data. Although the usefulness of this information depends on its validity and reliability, validation is frequently neglected by researchers with limited background in statistics. In this context, we propose a guideline to implement a statistical approach to questionnaire validation, combining exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis. The work focuses on the psychometric analysis of data provided by a questionnaire assessing 1196 elementary and high school students' perceptions about biotechnology. Procedural guidelines to enhance the efficiency of quantitative inquiry surveys are given, by discussing essential methodological aspects and relevant criteria to integrate theory into practice.The authors are grateful to all the participant teachers and students that contributed to gather the data presented and to Catarina L. Santos for useful comments and suggestions on the manuscript. Maria Joao Fonseca was supported by the FCT fellowship SFRH/BD/37389/2007 and this work was sponsored by a research grant (PTDC/AGR-PRO/111857/2009) from Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal)

E-commerce ethics and its impact on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty: an empirical study of small and medium Egyptian businesses

The theoretical understanding of e-commerce has received much attention over the years; however, relatively little focus has been directed towards e-commerce ethics, especially the SMEs B2B e-commerce aspect. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a framework that explains the impact of SMEs B2B e-commerce ethics on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. Using SEM to analyse the data collected from a sample of SME e-commerce firms in Egypt, the results indicate that buyers’ perceptions of supplier ethics construct is composed of six dimensions (security, non-deception, fulfilment/reliability, service recovery, shared value, and communication) and strongly predictive of online buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. Furthermore, our results also show that reliability/fulfilment and non-deception are the most effective relationship-building dimensions. In addition, relationship quality has a positive effect on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. The results offer important implications for B2B e-commerce and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of relationship marketing

Sukob radnih i obiteljskih uloga i zadovoljstva u medicinskih sestara u Hrvatskoj s različitim sustavima smjenskoga rada

The objective of this study was to examine the perception of conflict between work and family roles and job, family, and life satisfaction among nurses in Croatia. One hundred and twenty-nine nurses (married mothers) working in hospitals in Zadar, Šibenik, and Split were divided in four groups according to their worktime schedule. The participants completed a survey, which included a set of sociodemographic-type questions, questions about the level and allocation of family responsibilities between spouses, and scales measuring the perceived negative effects of worktime, psychological demands of the work, work-family conflict, and semantic differential scales for measuring the affective and cognitive-evaluative component of job, family, and life satisfaction. This was the first study in Croatia to deal with work-family conflict among nurses or workers with different shift systems. The results of this study indicate that nurses working morning shifts only experienced less conflict between work and family than other groups of nurses, who worked the morning, afternoon, and the night shift. The cognitive-evaluative component of job satisfaction was the highest among morning shift nurses and the lowest in nurses who worked 12-hour shifts, while the affective component of life satisfaction was the lowest in nurses working irregular and backward rotated shifts. These results confi rm that shiftwork makes the work-family role conflict even worse. They also support the view that the type of shift rotation matters.Cilj je ovoga istraživanja bio ispitati percepciju sukoba između radnih i obiteljskih uloga i radno, obiteljsko i životno zadovoljstvo kod medicinskih sestara s obzirom na različite vrste organizacije radnoga vremena. 129 udatih medicinskih sestara majki koje rade u bolnicama u Zadru, Šibeniku i Splitu podijeljeno je u 4 skupine s obzirom na vrstu organizacije radnoga vremena. Sudionice su ispunile upitnik koji je uključivao set pitanja sociodemografskoga tipa, pitanja o količini i raspodjeli obiteljskih odgovornosti među supružnicima i skale koje mjere percipirane negativne efekte radnoga vremena, psihološke zahtjeve posla, sukob između radne i obiteljske uloge te skale semantičkoga diferencijala za mjerenje afektivne i kognitivnoevaluativne komponente radnog i obiteljskog zadovoljstva i života općenito. Ovo je prvo istraživanje provedeno u Hrvatskoj u kojem je ispitivan sukob radne i obiteljske uloge kod medicinskih sestara ili općenito radnika s različitim sustavima smjenskoga rada. Rezultati pokazuju da sestre koje rade u stalnim jutarnjim smjenama doživljavaju manje sukoba zbog ometajućih utjecaja rada na obitelj od grupe medicinskih sestara koje su radile u tri smjene (u koje je uključena noćna smjena). Kognitivno-evaluativna komponenta zadovoljstva poslom bila je najviša kod medicinskih sestara s jutarnjim smjenama, a najniža kod onih koje su radile u 12-satnim smjenama. Afektivna komponenta zadovoljstva životom bila je najniža kod medicinskih sestara koje su radile u iregularnim i unatrag rotiranim smjenama. Ovi su rezultati dodatan pokazatelj različitih i više ili manje negativnih efekata smjenskoga rada na sukob između radnih i obiteljskih uloga te dodatno upozoravaju na važnost uzimanja u obzir vrste rotacije smjena

Is it really all about money? A study on incentives in elite team sports

Research question: A key task for sports managers of elite sports clubs is to create an ideal environment that enables athletes to perform at their best. Therefore, we investigate the relationship among monetary incentives, organizational support, and athletic performance in elite team sports. Research methods: This study is the first in sports management to calculate the relative effects of non-monetary incentives of organizational support and monetary incentives on individual performance through job satisfaction. Furthermore, we apply an innovative measurement approach of player performance by using individual performance ratings of coaches. We collect questionnaires from 315 athletes and 34 coaches of 19 professional football, ice hockey, and handball clubs in Germany. Results and findings: Two variables of organizational support—namely, integration of family and private problem support—show strong positive effects on athletes’ job satisfaction. Whereas prior studies have focused mainly on monetary incentives, this study reveals a strong relevance of organizational support. Furthermore, the results confirm a strong relationship between player satisfaction and individual performance. Implications: Sports managers need to recognize the relevance of non-monetary incentives of organizational support and integrate them into their management repertoire to improve job satisfaction and, consequently, facilitate top performance of their players. Further research should focus on the effects of non-monetary incentives and other aspects of organizational support. In addition, researchers should use individual performance ratings of coaches, rather than other measures, to evaluate player performance because of their expertise and superior background information