Is Job Enrichment Really Enriching?

This study uses a survey of Canadian workers with rich, matched data on job characteristics to examine whether “enriched” job design, with features like quality circles, feedback, suggestion programs, and task teams, affects job satisfaction. We identify two competing hypotheses on the relationship between enriched jobs and job satisfaction. The “motivation hypothesis,” implies that enrichment will generally increase satisfaction and the “intensification hypothesis,” implies that enrichment may decrease satisfaction by increasing the intensity and scope of work. Our results show that several forms of enrichment, specifically suggestion programs, information sharing, task teams, quality circles and training, raise satisfaction. Therefore we argue that the data support the motivation hypothesis. Partitioning the data by education level or union membership further supports this conclusion, while a direct test of the intensification hypothesis does not support the competing hypothesis.Job Satisfaction; Job Enrichment; Human Resource Practices

Workplace Organization and Innovation

This study uses data on Canadian establishments to test whether particular organizational structures are correlated with the likelihood of adopting process and product innovations, controlling for the endogeneity of the predictors. We find that establishments with decentralized decision-making, information-sharing programs, or incentive pay plans are significantly more likely to innovate than other establishments. Larger establishments and those with a high vacancy rate are also more likely to innovate. These findings are consistent with a model in which workers hold information about production inefficiencies or consumer demands that can lead to productive innovations and that workplace organization attributes facilitate the communication and implementation of those ideas.Innovation, Decision-Making, Information-Sharing

Do Citizens Care About Federalism? An Experimental Test

The ongoing debate over the political safeguards of federalism has essentially ignored the role that citizens might play in restraining federal power. Scholars have assumed that citizens care only about policy outcomes and will invariably support congressional legislation that satisfies their substantive policy preferences, no matter the cost to state powers. Scholars thus typically turn to institutions-the courts or institutional features of the political process-to cabin congressional authority. We argue that ignoring citizens is a mistake. We propose a new theory of the political safeguards of federalism in which citizens help to safeguard state authority. We also test our theory using evidence from a nationally representative survey experiment that focuses on the timely issue of physician-assisted suicide. We find that citizens are not single-mindedly interested in policy outcomes; trust in state govern- ments and federalism beliefs, on the urging of political elites, reduce their willingness to support a federal ban on physician-assisted suicide

Making the connection—Linking farms to HRIs

Iowa farmers interested in selling their products locally wanted more information about the institutional-type markets for these foods so they could determine how to work with these markets

Colorado AgrAbility: Enhancing the Effectiveness of Outreach Efforts Targeting Farmers and Ranchers With Disabilities

The Colorado AgrAbility Project (CAP) provides farmers and ranchers who have disabilities with the information and assistive technologies needed to remain successful producers. At present, however, CAP services are underutilized, and the rate of use is declining. This study investigates awareness and attitudinal barriers that might constrain farmers and ranchers with disabilities from seeking assistance. It also identifies preferred outlets for distributing agricultural information in the hope that this will improve the efficacy of outreach efforts. Mail survey research involving 798 randomly selected Colorado farmers and ranchers was conducted in the spring of 2006. Findings suggest that lack of awareness constituted the primary obstacle to increased use of CAP services. Farmers and ranchers were more inclined to refer others in need farmers and ranchers as preferred sources for information and expressed interest in the stories of farmers and ranchers with disabilities who had been helped by CAP. Based on Survey findings, strategies for improving the effectiveness of outreach efforts are proposed, including mobilizing opinion leaders in the farming and ranching communities, recruiting past CAP clients as spokespeople, and placing CAP success stories in agricultural publications

Convergence of numerical schemes for a conservation equation with convection and degenerate diffusion

The approximation of problems with linear convection and degenerate nonlinear diffusion, which arise in the framework of the transport of energy in porous media with thermodynamic transitions, is done using a θ-scheme based on the centred gradient discretisation method. The convergence of the numerical scheme is proved, although the test functions which can be chosen are restricted by the weak regularity hypotheses on the convection field, owing to the application of a discrete Gronwall lemma and a general result for the time translate in the gradient discretisation setting. Some numerical examples, using both the Control Volume Finite Element method and the Vertex Approximate Gradient scheme, show the role of θ for stabilising the scheme

Has the M Word Been Framed? Marijuana, Cannabis and Public Opinion

Over the past two decades, a growing cadre of US states has legalized the drug commonly known as “marijuana.” But even as more states legalize the drug, proponents of reform have begun to shun the term “marijuana” in favor of the term “cannabis.” Arguing that the “M” word has been tainted and may thus dampen public support for legalization, policy advocates have championed “cannabis” as an alternative and more neutral name for the drug. Importantly, however, no one has tested whether calling the drug “cannabis” as opposed to “marijuana” actually has any effect on public opinion. Using an original survey experiment, we examine whether framing the drug as “marijuana” as opposed to “cannabis” shapes public attitudes across a range of related topics: support for legalization of the drug, moral acceptance of its use, tolerance of activities involving the drug, perceptions of the drug’s harms, and stereotypes of its users. Throughout each of our tests, we find no evidence to suggest that the public distinguishes between the terms “marijuana” and “cannabis.” We conclude with implications of our findings for debates over marijuana/cannabis policy and for framing in policy discourse more generally

A Racial Impact Analysis of SB 30: Medicaid Expansion

Virginia is the second worst state in providing Medicaid to its citizens. The focus of this report is to provide a racial equity impact analysis of Senate Bill (SB) 30, the Senate legislative vehicle for the appropriations of the budget submitted by the Governor of Virginia for fiscal years 2015 and 2016. SB 30 included a provision called “Marketplace Virginia” as an alternative to traditional Medicaid expansion in Virginia. This compromise bill would have covered an estimated 430,000 Virginians who fall in the Medicaid coverage gap by assisting them in purchasing private insurance. This report provides a racial equity impact analysis of the failure of the Virginia General Assembly to pass SB 30. The racial and ethnic impact of this proposed, but failed, legislation is important because minorities in Virginia disproportionately face disparities in health care access and quality. This racial impact analysis captures and reports the potential impact of this legislation by race in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The primary recommendation includesraising eligibility requirements to a minimum of 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Virginia’s current eligibility requirements are so strict that although it is ranked 7th in per capita personal income, Virginia ranked 43rd in Medicaid enrollment as a proportion of the state’s population and 47th in per capita Medicaid spending

Early diagenesis of chlorophyll-a in Long Island Sound sediments: A measure of carbon flux and particle reworking

Sedimentary chlorophyll distributions reflect supply from primary production in overlying waters, transport during sedimentation/bioturbation, and alteration due to decomposition/transformation reactions. In Long Island Sound sediments, seasonal depth profiles of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) often decreased exponentially within a few centimeters of the sediment-water interface, implying that initial decomposition rates of Chl-a were faster than surface sediment mixing rates. The highest surface sediment concentrations of Chl-a occurred in early spring, shortly after the spring bloom; the lowest concentrations occurred in summer. Chl-a was more concentrated at the shallow station (∼15 m) than at the deeper station (∼40 m) implying greater water column degradation or generally lower supply to deeper regions. Anoxic incubation experiments revealed that the degradation of Chl-a in fresh sediment apparently involves at least two stages. We operationally defined two pools of Chl-a as free and bound by their ease of extraction using a freeze-thaw technique. Thus, we hypothesized for the sake of a mathematical model that an initial degradation stage exists where Chl-a is released from a bound state, and a second stage where the released Chl-a degrades. These processes can be described by first-order kinetics (kr = 0.14 – 0.19 d–1 and kd = 0.02 – 0.04 d–1). The release rate is larger than the degradation rate, so that the release process dominates initial degradation behavior. Bound Chl-a may also degrade before being released. A simple, one-dimensional transport-reaction model shows that the largest Chl-a fluxes occurred in spring and the smallest in summer, while higher particle mixing rates occurred in summer than spring. Sediment mixing coefficients (DB) calculated using Chl-a profiles are roughly comparable with those estimated from 234Th distributions, and estimated carbon fluxes agree reasonably well with total benthic O2 uptake