Organisational commitment as a predictor of job satisfaction, employee well being, absenteeism and intention to stay in the New Zealand Aged Care Sector : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

This study, one of the first in the New Zealand aged care sector, examined the predictability of organisational commitment on job satisfaction, employee well being, absenteeism and intention to stay. A composite questionnaire incorporating Allen and Meyer's three component organisational commitment questionnaire (1990) was completed by 124 predominately female aged care employees. The results of the questionnaire were compared with overseas literature and showed that organisational commitment is predictive of employee well being, job satisfaction and intention to stay, although job satisfaction proved to be a more significant predictor of intention to stay. Implications of organisational commitment for aged care employees, aged care organisations and patients are discussed. Directions for future research include a call for more New Zealand studies of organisational commitment in the healthcare professions, and the development of human resource strategies, which are sensitive to differences in organisational commitment in a multi-cultural population

The Social Construction of Dreaming in College Culture

Cultural anthropologists have long been interested in the dream-sharing practices of exotic peoples. But what about U.S. college students? Based on research on UNH’s campus, this article shows that “dream talk” is more common—and more important—than we tend to think

Satisfaction with life as an antecedent of fertility

This paper examines the relationships between satisfaction with life in general, particular domains of life, the partner, and parental relationships with existing children, and subsequent fertility. The data are from 2,948 women and 2,622 men aged 15 to 44 years from a longitudinal survey of the household population in Australia. For both sexes a strong positive relationship between prior satisfaction with life and fertility two years later is found. Men’s satisfaction with their partner and with their partner’s relationship with existing children are positively related to fertility. Fertility is also related to age, parity, marital status, education, employment and birthplace.Australia, depression, education, fertility, happiness, life satisfaction, longitudinal data, risk aversion, subjective well-being, women’s employment

The contribution of increases in family benefits to Australia’s early 21st-century fertility increase: An empirical analysis

Between 2001 and 2008 Australia’s total fertility increased from 1.73 to 1.96. This period also saw changes to family benefits, most notably the introduction of a universal, flat-rate at birth payment and an increased subsidisation of child care. This paper analyses individual-level fertility, using data from a large-scale longitudinal survey and focusing on the effects of changes to family benefits, macroeconomic variables, entitlements to family-friendly working conditions, and socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. It finds the effects of the ‘Baby Bonus’ and the Child Care Rebate are slight. The effects of education, income, occupation, marital status, age and parity are significant.Australia, economic conditions, education, family allowances, family benefits, family policy, family size, fertility, maternal age, maternity benefits, pronatalist policy

Agglomeration Economies: Ambiguities and Confusions

The concept of agglomeration economies, first considered in a systematic (though rather restrictive) manner by Weber, has proven to be an important feature in the analysis of industrial location, whether this is of a theoretical or empirical nature. In either case considerable reliance has been placed on the categories of agglomeration economy proposed by Ohlin. These were termed by Hoover scale economies, localisation economies and urbanisation economies, and were later discussed in some detail by Isard. Leaving aside the reasonable concerns of McCann, who argued that attention should be concentrated on the cost issues underlying agglomeration economies, such as tripartite classification is incomplete in several respects, and therefore represents at best a partial summary. It has recently been argued that the agglomeration economies enjoyed by a firm can be divided into those based on internal economies and those based on external economies, and also that each kind of economy can be considered in terms of scale, scope or complexity. A classification organised around these distinctions subsumes the Ohlin-Hoover classification, and also permits a sharpening of his categories. The concern here is to explore certain implications of this classification, and to examine a number of issues that have probably not received adequate attention. These issues include: the residual nature of agglomeration economies; the possibility of agglomeration without agglomeration economies; and the spatial context of agglomeration economies. It will be argued that such issues need to be addressed if the concept of agglomeration is to be employed effectively in the analysis of industrial location.