A Different Time, A Different Place: Breaking Up Telephone Companies in the United States and Japan

Currently, the Japanese government is in the midst of a decision with respect to the future of the now privatized Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) of Japan. The divestiture of AT&T, NTT\u27s United States counterpart, occurred over a decade ago. The Japanese government is contemplating the use of AT&T as a model for the break up of NTT. Because of NTT\u27s history as a monopoly service provider, the central issue confronting Japan is how to create a market that can withstand competition nationally and globally. The Author adopts a comparative approach in seeking to provide guidance to policymakers in Japan. First, the Author highlights some of the fundamental differences between the American and Japanese telecom munications markets, including the different regulatory structures. Ultimately, the Author suggests that if the divestment of NTT mirrors the break up of AT&T, Japan\u27s ability to compete effectively with global counterparts in the near future could be undermined

PEMBERDAYAAN IBU-IBU PKK MELALUI PELATIHAN PEMBUATAN SABUN CUCI PIRING CAIR UNTUK MENINGKATKAN KETERAMPILAN HIDUP

Pelatihan merupakan salah satu upaya untuk meningkatkan sumber daya manusia dan keterampilan hidup masyarakat sehingga lebih kreatif dan produktif. Pemberdayaan Ibu-ibu PKK sebagai warga masyarakat yang masih usia kerja menjadi tenaga kerja yang produktif bertujuan untuk membangun kesadaran dan kemandirian hidup serta dapat membuka peluang lapangan pekerjaan untuk mencapai keluarga yang sehat, bahagia, dan sejahtera. Program pengabdian pelatihan pembuatan sabun cuci piring cair pada Ibu-ibu PKK di Desa Muara Kaman Ilir bertujuan untuk memberdayakan masyarakat sehingga mampu untuk memenuhi kebutuhan sabun cuci piring cair keluarga dan mandiri secara ekonomi dengan membuka peluang usaha. Pelatihan pembuatan sabun cuci piring cairdiikuti oleh 15 peserta. Metode yang digunakan dalam pelatihan ini adalah pemberian materi mengenai bahan-bahan yang digunakan dan manfaatnya kemudian proses pembuatan sabun cuci piring cair hingga siap digunakan maupun untuk dijual. Setelah mengikuti pelatihan, ibu-ibu PKK di Desa Muara Kaman Ilir sudah mampu mengetahui proses pembuatan sabun cuci piring cair dan memiliki keterampilan untuk membuat sabun cuci piring cair yang siap digunakan maupun dijual.Kata Kunci: Pelatihan, Sabun Cuci Piring Cair, Ibu-ibu PKK

"Integrado en el mundo de los seres humanos": Narraciones nacionales en relatos actuales de inmigrantes clandestinos senegaleses en Italia

Current nationalist discourses in Europe are accumulating force and blaming mainly undesired immigrants, especially from Africa. Meanwhile, the latter continue to arrive in boats, often simply hoping for a better future. These two tendencies–the strengthening of nationalist discourse on the one hand, and a growing internationalization on the other hand–are observed by Homi Bhabha in his introduction to Nation and Narration (1990). However, how do these undocumented African immigrants take part in constructing the narration of the nation? Se Dio vuole (2011) by Papa Ngady Faye and Il mio viaggio della speranza (2011) by Bay Mademba relate such a situation. Without an official residency permit, the immigrants represent a double national absence: in Italy an administrative absence, and in Senegal a physical one. Nonetheless, both migrated narrating subjects obtain a narrative and social presence. The present paper examines how the narrations of the Senegalese immigrants in Italy represent a national construction from below and how these narrations address the ambivalence mentioned. We will observe how the subjects present themselves as mediators between the two nations, which corresponds to a former-colony and a former-colonizer dynamics, and how they underline the conceptualization of nation as mainly human.En Europa los discursos nacionalistas van adquiriendo fuerza, arremetiendo ante todo contra los migrantes indeseados, especialmente de África. Mientras tanto, estos últimos siguen llegando en pateras, a menudo simplemente porque desean un futuro mejor. Estas dos tendencias –la de fortalecer un discurso nacionalista, por un lado, y la de una internacionalización creciente de las sociedades industrializadas, por otro– son constatadas por Homi Bhabha en su introducción a Nation and Narration (1990). Ahora bien, ¿cómo participan en moldear la narración de la nación los mencionados inmigrantes clandestinos africanos? Se Dio vuole (2011) de Papa Ngady Faye e Il mio viaggio della speranza (2011) de Bay Mademba relatan tal situación. Como inmigrantes indocumentados, representan una doble ausencia nacional: en Italia, de manera administrativa; en Senegal, de manera física. Aun así, los dos sujetos migrantes y narradores toman una presencia narrativa y social.             El artículo se propone analizar cómo estas narraciones de inmigrantes senegaleses en Italia representan una construcción de la nación desde abajo y cómo dichas narraciones abordan la ambivalencia mencionada. Se observará cómo los sujetos se construyen como mediadores entre dos naciones que representan una antigua colonia y un antiguo colonizador y cómo insisten en una concepción de nación ante todo humana

La place du lecteur dans les fictions épistolaires orientales (1686-1735)

In his «Some Reflections on the Persian Letters» Montesquieu reflects on the success of his work, but also on other examples of “this type of novels” and supposes that it is popular “because the writers are describing their own feelings at the actual moment, which means that emotions are conveyed more powerfully” (transl. Margaret Mauldon). The present paper starts from these considerations in order to analyse such possibilities of reader participation in the genre Montesquieu refers to: oriental epistolary fictions of the early Enlightenment. Thus, the paper examines, next to Montequieu’s Lettres persanes (1721), two further strongly influential texts of the genre: Gian Paolo Marana’s L’Espion du Grand-Seigneur (1686) and the marquis d’Argens’ Lettres chinoises (1735). The three aspects which characterize the genre will be analysed subsequently: first, the epistolary particularities, such as the effect of the real, temporal and affective immediacy and multiperspectivity; secondly, suspense created by the character’s journey; and thirdly, the Oriental’s character, which is not only ‘other’, but equally profoundly human, thus provoking the reader’s empathy and favouring a change of perspective

Consequences of Work–Family Conflict

Most employees are challenged to combine work and family roles. Although both roles can provide self-esteem, self-fulfillment, and happiness, they can also interfere with each other making it more difficult to fulfill work and family demands. Work–family conflict is the construct that captures interference between work and family roles. High work–family conflict has been associated with potential consequences such as low health, high turnover intentions, and low job performance. My main aim in this dissertation is to extend research on work–family conflict and potential consequences. To this end, I conducted three empirical studies. Study 1 examined the relationship between work–family conflict and strain, an umbrella term for constructs such as exhaustion, depression, and somatic symptoms. Specifically, my coauthors and I tried to work toward resolving two debates. The first debate is about the direction of relationships between work–family conflict and strain. We examined whether work–family conflict predicts strain, whether strain predicts work–family conflict, or whether work–family conflict and strain reciprocally predict each other. The second debate is about the pattern of relationships between work–family conflict and domain-specific outcomes. The currently dominant cross-domain perspective suggests that family-to-work conflict (FWC) is mainly related to work-related strain. The less-popular matching perspective, however, suggests that work-to-family conflict (WFC) is mainly related to work-related strain. To address those two debates, we applied meta-analytic path analysis to 33 panel studies (total N = 13,029) that had repeatedly measured work–family conflict and strain. For the direction of relationship, results showed reciprocal relationships for both forms of work–family conflict and strain. More specifically, WFC predicted strain (β = .08) and strain predicted WFC (β = .08). Similarly, FWC predicted strain (β = .03) and strain predicted FWC (β = .05). These findings held for both men and women and for different time lags between the two measurement waves. For the debate on matching versus cross-domain relationships, results showed that WFC had a stronger relationship with work-specific strain than did FWC, supporting the matching hypothesis. Study 2 focused on work–family conflict and turnover intentions. More specifically, it compared two theoretical perspectives that make competing predictions about the relationships between work–family conflict and domain-specific outcomes. The cross-domain perspective predicts that FWC should be more important than WFC in predicting increases in turnover intentions. The matching perspective, however, predicts that WFC should be more important than FWC in predicting increased turnover intentions. We expanded the debate about matching versus cross-domain relationships by testing whether work-family specific social support should stem from the same domain as the conflict as the matching principle would indicate or from the other domain as the cross-domain perspective would indicate. Additionally, we hypothesized that changes in WFC and FWC predict changes in turnover intentions and tested reciprocal relationships between WFC/FWC and turnover intentions. With a time-lag of five months, 665 employees from a large company filled out surveys at two time points. Results revealed that (increases in) WFC predicted increased turnover intentions, whereas (increases in) FWC did not. Work-family specific support from the leader buffered the relationship between WFC and increased turnover intentions, but work-family specific support from family and friends did not. Furthermore, results revealed reverse relationships such that turnover intentions predicted increased WFC and FWC. Taken together, the study results supported the matching principle rather than the cross-domain perspective. The reverse relationships found between work–family conflict and turnover intentions challenge the common view that work–family conflict antecedes turnover intentions unidirectionally. Study 3 examined the cross-domain relationship between work–family conflict and job performance. Overall, Study 3 was intended to better understand work–family conflict as a dynamic construct that changes over short periods, such as from day-to-day. Specifically, we used a within-person daily research paradigm to examine the relationship between daily FWC and daily job performance. On the basis of theory on dynamic behavior, we hypothesized that daily FWC impairs daily job performance through the mechanism of daily concentration. Additionally, we predicted that psychological detachment from work during time off (i.e., mentally switching off) buffers the negative relationship between daily FWC and daily job performance. Over one workweek, 95 employees from a large German company completed two surveys each day. Multilevel modeling results showed that daily FWC was negatively associated with daily job performance and that daily concentration mediated this relationship. Furthermore, general psychological detachment, but not daily psychological detachment, buffered the negative relationship between daily FWC and daily job performance. The findings of Study 3 advance our understanding of dynamic short-term processes at the intersection of work and family by demonstrating that short-term changes in FWC go along with fluctuations in job performance. This dissertation offers several practical implications. For example, Study 2 shows that work-family specific leader support buffers the relationship between high WFC and high turnover intentions. Study 3 shows that psychological detachment from work during time off buffers the relationship between high FWC and low job performance. Thus, organizations should foster leader support and encourage their employees to psychologically detach from work during time off to buffer the relationship between work–family conflict and relevant business outcomes. In sum, this dissertation contributes to research on work–family conflict and its potential consequences by addressing ongoing debates and gaps in the literature

El gracioso como personaje metateatral: funciones y desarrollo a lo largo del Siglo de Oro

Este artículo se propone examinar de qué manera el personaje del gracioso manifiesta elementos metateatrales y cómo estos se desarrollan a lo lar­go del siglo XVII. Basándonos en seis ejemplos particularmente representativos de diferentes tipos de comedias, creados por tres autores en etapas distintas, y apo­yándonos en las categorías analíticas del metateatro según Karin Vieweg-Marks (1989), se destacarán en particular tres funciones metateatrales del gracioso: la observación de la acción, el distanciamiento frente a sí mismo y la dirección de la obra. Cinco categorías analíticas las ilustrarán: primero, el metateatro discursivo, luego el discursivo e intertextual y, por último, el figural y epizante. Veremos cómo el gracioso va distanciándose así cada vez más de una ilusión total y acercándose en cambio a la realidad del espectador

Houses along the Route and Narration as Home: transnational Sense of Belonging in El árbol de la gitana (1997) by Alicia Dujovne Ortiz

El presente artículo se enfoca en la ambivalencia que obtiene la casa en cuanto hogar en El árbol de la gitana (1997) de Alicia Dujovne Ortiz como motor de la búsqueda de un sentido de pertenencia, por tanto del desplazamiento y, en fin, de la narración, que conduce a las rutas que la protagonista emprende para acercarse a sus raíces. Basándose en el concepto de la casa según Gaston Bachelard y el de la topografía transnacional según Federico Besserer, el análisis subraya la importancia que representa la ausencia de casas de infancia para los desplazamientos y los cuentos de la protagonista. Se pondrá en evidencia cómo el motivo de la casa como lugar anhelado, pero irrealizable, está inherentemente vinculado a la actividad de escribir como necesidad existencial, actividad que se convierte en una reconstrucción transnacional de la historia familiar. Se demostrará, además, cómo el árbol al revés sirve de metáfora de la topografía transnacional familiar y por ende del sentido de pertenencia que la propia narradora reconstruye.This article focuses on the ambivalence that the house obtains as a home in El árbol de la gitana (1997) by Alicia Dujovne Ortiz, as the driving force behind the search for a sense of belonging, and thus, displacement, ultimately leading to the narrative that guides the paths undertaken by the protagonist to get closer to her roots. Drawing upon Gaston Bachelard’s concept of the house and Federico Besserer’s notion of transnational topography, the analysis underscores the significance of the absence of childhood homes in the protagonist’s movements and narration. It shows how the motif of the house, as a longed-for yet unattainable place, is inherently linked to the act of writing as an existential necessity, an activity that becomes a transnational reconstruction of family history. Furthermore, it will demonstrate how the upside-down tree serves as a metaphor for the transnational family topography and, consequently, the sense of belonging that the narrator herself constructs

Supply Chain Leaders’ Strategies for Selecting Performance Measures

There is a performance gap between supply chain leaders versus laggards in critical areas such as service and shareholder value. Although research indicates that the reasons for the performance differences are choosing the wrong performance measures and setting goals too low, there remains a lack of knowledge and understanding regarding the decision-making strategies used by supply chain leaders in selecting key performance measures and goals for their respective organizations. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to improve the understanding of the decision-making strategies used by supply chain leaders in their selection of key performance measures and associated goals. The conceptual framework was decision-making theory. The research question concerned the decision-making strategies used by supply chain leaders in choosing the key performance measures and goals for their organizations. Fifteen senior supply chain professionals from organizations recognized in the Gartner Top 25 Supply Chains for 2016 were interviewed. Major findings were that a majority of participants employed multiple decision-making strategies both in choosing performance measures and in determining goals. Naturalistic decision-making strategies were used by all participants in performance measure selection although heuristics decision-making strategies were used most frequently in setting goals. To create positive social change, supply chain leaders should use multiple decision-making strategies with a focus on naturalistic decision-making for performance measure selection and heuristics decision-making strategies for goal setting. Doing so may increase stakeholder value benefitting employees, the company, and the communities in which the company operates