Psychometric properties of the Spanish adaptation of the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised

Background: The assessment of attitudes toward school with the objective of identifying adolescents who may be at risk of underachievement has become an important area of research in educational psychology, although few specific tools for their evaluation have been designed to date. One of the instruments available is the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R). Method: The objective of the current research is to test the construct validity and to analyze the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the SAAS-R. Data were collected from 1,398 students attending different high schools. Students completed the SAAS-R along with measures of the g factor, and academic achievement was obtained from school records. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis, multivariate analysis of variance and analysis of variance tests supported the validity evidence. Conclusions: The results indicate that the Spanish version of the SAAS-R is a useful measure that contributes to identification of underachieving students. Lastly, the results obtained and their implications for education are discussed.

Structures, Systems and Organizational Communication Processes in Franchises in times of crisis: the Spanish case

Current economic crisis together with the Internet revolution has had direct impacts on the franchise sector of Spain: in particular on its unique communication network. The aim of this research is to analyse how Spanish franchise companies have adapted to these changes through its corporate communications management. We want to determine whether the management of communications is ideal to the growth and consolidation of companies in the market. Corporate communications plans and organizational structures were analyzed to verify whether or not information technology (i.e. the use of the Internet) is maximized: the communications aspect being a critical area of company growth. We found that most franchise companies surveyed had adapted well to the changes in information technology, despite economic challenges. The Internet as a communications tool has been limited to its utility as a “bulletin board” for information. The marketing advantage of Internet communication, or its use as an avenue for customer exchange and exchange of goods and services has yet to be maximized. Future research may look into the details of how companies are able to maximize the communications-marketing advantage that Online/Internet can contribute to the franchise sector.

La relación médico-paciente en las organizaciones sanitarias de atención primaria españolas. Una aproximación cualitativa

Antecedentes. La relación médico-paciente es aquella que se produce durante la interacción entre el usuario y el profesional. Esta ha ido cambiando a lo largo de la historia. En la actualidad, el paradigma emergente es el que autonomiza y empodera al usuario, en contraposición al tradicional paradigma paternalista. Objetivo. El objetivo de este trabajo es averiguar el estado del fenómeno sociológico del empoderamiento del paciente en España, desde el punto de vista de los profesionales sanitarios. Metodología. Se realizó un estudio exploratorio mediante una metodología cualitativa. La recolección de datos se basó en entrevistas estructuradas no estandarizadas. Se procedió al análisis del contenido a través de un proceso circular simultáneamente a la recolección de datos. Se complementó con un estudio de fuentes documentales bibliográficas a propósito de la temática abordada. Resultados. Los profesionales muestran una actitud positiva hacia el fenómeno del empoderamiento del paciente. Todavía se muestran escépticos ante la fiabilidad de la información sobre salud que se encuentra en internet y del criterio de los propios pacientes. Aun así, el máximo de autonomía del paciente, el consentimiento informado, sigue siendo considerado como una herramienta de protección del profesional. Discusión. Tras este estudio exploratorio se ha podido observar un cambio de actitud en el profesional respecto a la percepción que tiene sobre la evolución en la relación con el paciente. Se empieza a constatar que el fenómeno social se encuentra en un estado en el que los actores adquieren posturas más simétricas jerárquicamente.

Quality Management, Environmental Management and Organizational Design in the Hotel Industry: A Qualitative Study

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the paper analyzes the relationship between quality management and environmental management and their effects on hotel performance. Second, the article examines the relationship between these two management systems and organizational design. The paper uses an exploratory, qualitative approach based on interviews with managers and experts in the hotel industry. Based on a content analysis of interviews, the results lead to several propositions. Specifically, quality and environmental management influence hotel performance through mediating variables. Moreover, the implementation of quality management facilitates the implementation of environmental management. Furthermore, the implementation of these two management systems is associated with an increase of formalization and decentralization. The paper contributes to the analysis of quality management, environmental management, organizational design and performance in a joint manner, which has not been attempted before in the hotel industry. In addition, it helps extend the findings about these links in manufacturing and service organizations to the hotel industry.

Organizational design, quality management and competitive advantage in hotels

Purpose – The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between practices of quality management (QM) and the characteristics of organizational design, and QM and competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a partial least squares approach to test these relationships in 350 hotels in Spain. Findings – The findings show that QM influences specialization, formalization and interdepartmental interactions, and that QM practices influence both cost and differentiation competitive advantage. The results also indicate the importance of QM strategic and operational systems as practices that have a key impact on the characteristics of organizational design. Similarly, the QM operational system is key in the relationship between QM and cost competitive advantage. Finally, the QM operational, information and strategic systems positively influence differentiation competitive advantage. Practical implications – When hotels adopt QM practices, there will be significant changes in a number of organizational variables, including specialization, formalization and interdepartmental interactions. This paper provides empirical evidence that QM practices improve both cost and differentiation competitive advantage in the hotel industry. Originality/value – There has been little research on the effects of QM on organizational design in the hotel industry. The contribution of this paper is that analyze the effects of QM on organizational design and competitive advantage, extending knowledge about these issues in a specific sector.

Fashion opinion leadership, innovativeness and attitude toward advertising among Portuguese consumers

In the context of the fashion market, this study aims to analyze opinion leadership and, specifically, to verify the correlation that may exist between opinion leadership, fashion innovativeness and attitude towards fashion advertising. It is also intended to identify two different consumer groups: opinion leaders and fashion followers based on “opinion leadership” construct. Data collection was done through a self-administered questionnaire with a convenience sample of 203 graduate and postgraduate students of two universities of Porto, the second major city of Portugal. Results show a positive correlation between fashion innovativeness, fashion opinion leadership, and attitude towards fashion advertising. It was possible to identify two groups of consumers: fashion influencers, who exhibit a moderate sense of innovativeness and a positive attitude towards fashion advertising; and fashion followers who don’t consider themselves neither innovators nor opinion leaders, but have a moderate positive attitude towards fashion advertising.