An organizational learning approach to expatriate cross-cultural adjustment, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between organizational learning and expatriation in overseas subsidiaries as well as in organizations as a whole. In doing so, two issues were addressed--(i) the use of expatriation as firms internationalize, and (ii) the significance of various factors to expatriate success as firms gain international experience. The sample of companies for this study was drawn from U.S. Fortune 500 multinational corporations (MNCs) in two sets of related industries--computers/electronics and petroleum/chemicals. Based on the learning that takes place within organizations as they increase their involvement overseas, a positive relationship was expected between international experience and expatriation when internationalization was low, and a negative relationship was expected when internationalization was high. Results indicate a significant positive relationship between country experience and the proportion of expatriates in that subsidiary when subsidiaries were relatively young, and a negative relationship, however not significant, for more mature subsidiaries. The relationship between overall firm degree of internationalization (DOI) and the proportion of expatriates in the firm as a whole was negative regardless of stage of internationalization, but this relationship was significant only for highly internationalized firms. It was further suspected that individual, environmental, and family-related characteristics would have a significant effect on the success of expatriates whose firms were low on internationalization, and that organizational characteristics would play a significant role in highly internationalized firms. Support for these hypotheses was received with respect to certain outcomes and some determinants of success. The preponderance of support was found for those addressing the effects of both environmental and family-related characteristics on the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates in firms with little international experience. Considerable support was also found for those hypotheses addressing the impact of organizational characteristics on the job satisfaction levels of expatriates assigned to mature subsidiaries. The relevant literatures on organizational learning and expatriation are reviewed, and a model is developed underlying the logic of the hypotheses. Research methods are then described in full detail, results are reported, and implications for theory and for management are discussed. ^

Attitudes towards the marine environment and implications for marine resource management in Seward, Alaska

This research, conducted in 2006-2008, examines the ways in which various groups involved with the marine resources of Seward, Alaska construct attitudes towards the environment. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews are used to assess how commercial halibut fishers, tour boat operators, local residents and government officials understand the marine environment based on their previous experiences. This study also explores how ideologies relate to the current practices of each group. Two theories orient the analyses: The first, cultural modeling provided a theoretical and methodological framework for pursuing a more comprehensive analysis of resource management. The second, Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980), guided the analysis of the ways in which each participant’s ideology towards the marine environment relates to their practice. Aside from contributing to a better understanding of a coastal community’s ideologies and practices, this dissertation sought to better understand the role of ecological ideologies and behaviors in fisheries management. The research illustrates certain domains where ideologies and practices concerning Pacific halibut and the marine environment differ among commercial fishers, government, and management officials, tour boat operators and residents of Seward, AK. These differences offer insights into how future collaborative efforts between government officials, managers and local marine resource users might better incorporate local ideology into management, and provide ecological information to local marine resource users in culturally appropriate ways.

Epiphyte loads on seagrasses and microphytobenthos abundance are not reliable indicators of nutrient availability in oligotrophic coastal ecosystems

Despite marked gradients in nutrient availability that control the abundance and species composition of seagrasses in south Florida, and the importance of nutrient availability in controlling abundance and composition of epiphytes on seagrasses in other locations, we did not find that epiphyte load on the dominant seagrass, Thalassia testudinum, or that the relative contribution of algal epiphytes to the epiphyte community, was positively correlated with nutrient availability in the water column or the sediment in oligotrophic seagrass beds. Further, the abundance of microphytobenthos, as indicated by Chlorophyll-aconcentration in the sediments, was not directly correlated with concentrations of nutrients in the sediments. Our results suggest that epiphyte and microphytobenthos abundance are not unambiguous indicators of nutrient availability in relatively pristine seagrass environments, and therefore would make poor candidates for indicators of the status and trends of seagrass ecosystems in relatively low-nutrient environments like the Florida Keys.

Responses of seagrass communities to fertilization along a gradient of relative availability of nitrogen and phosphorus in a carbonate environment

Patterns of relative nutrient availability in south Florida suggest spatial differences regarding the importance of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) to benthic primary producers. We did a 14-month in situ fertilization experiment to test predictions of N and P limitation in the subtropical nearshore marine waters of the upper Florida Keys. Six sites were divided into two groups (nearshore, offshore) representing the endpoints of an N: P stoichiometric gradient. Twenty-four plots were established at each site with six replicates of each treatment (1N, 1P, 1N1P, control), for a total of 144 experimental plots. The responses of benthic communities to N and P enrichment varied appreciably between nearshore and offshore habitats. Offshore seagrass beds were strongly limited by nitrogen, and nearshore beds were affected by nitrogen and phosphorus. Nutrient addition at offshore sites increased the length and aboveground standing crop of the two seagrasses, Thalassia testudinum and Syringodium filiforme, and growth rates of T. testudinum. Nutrient addition at nearshore sites increased the relative abundance of macroalgae, epiphytes, and sediment microalgae. N limitation of seagrass in this carbonate system was clearly demonstrated. However, added phosphorus was retained in the system more effectively than N, suggesting that phosphorus might have important long-term effects on these benthic communities. The observed species-specific responses to nutrient enrichment underscores the need to monitor all primary producers when addressing questions of nutrient limitation and eutrophication in seagrass communities.

Ecological Homogenization of Urban USA

A visually apparent but scientifically untested outcome of land-use change is homogenization across urban areas, where neighborhoods in different parts of the country have similar patterns of roads, residential lots, commercial areas, and aquatic features. We hypothesize that this homogenization extends to ecological structure and also to ecosystem functions such as carbon dynamics and microclimate, with continental-scale implications. Further, we suggest that understanding urban homogenization will provide the basis for understanding the impacts of urban land-use change from local to continental scales. Here, we show how multi-scale, multi-disciplinary datasets from six metropolitan areas that cover the major climatic regions of the US (Phoenix, AZ; Miami, FL; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Minneapolis–St Paul, MN; and Los Angeles, CA) can be used to determine how household and neighborhood characteristics correlate with land-management practices, land-cover composition, and landscape structure and ecosystem functions at local, regional, and continental scales.

Attitudes towards the Marine Environment and Implications for Marine Resource Management in Seward, Alaska

This research, conducted in 2006-2008, examines the ways in which various groups involved with the marine resources of Seward, Alaska construct attitudes towards the environment. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews are used to assess how commercial halibut fishers, tour boat operators, local residents and government officials understand the marine environment based on their previous experiences. This study also explores how ideologies relate to the current practices of each group. Two theories orient the analyses: The first, cultural modeling provided a theoretical and methodological framework for pursuing a more comprehensive analysis of resource management. The second, Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980), guided the analysis of the ways in which each participant’s ideology towards the marine environment relates to their practice. Aside from contributing to a better understanding of a coastal community’s ideologies and practices, this dissertation sought to better understand the role of ecological ideologies and behaviors in fisheries management. The research illustrates certain domains where ideologies and practices concerning Pacific halibut and the marine environment differ among commercial fishers, government, and management officials, tour boat operators and residents of Seward, AK. These differences offer insights into how future collaborative efforts between government officials, managers and local marine resource users might better incorporate local ideology into management, and provide ecological information to local marine resource users in culturally appropriate ways.

Straight but not Narrow; Within-Gender Variation in the Gender-Specificity of Women's Sexual Response

Gender differences in the specificity of sexual response have been a primary focus in sexual psychophysiology research, however, within-gender variability suggests sexual orientation moderates category-specific responding among women; only heterosexual women show gender-nonspecific genital responses to sexual stimuli depicting men and women. But heterosexually-identified or “straight” women are heterogeneous in their sexual attractions and include women who are exclusively androphilic (sexually attracted to men) and women who are predominantly androphilic with concurrent gynephilia (sexually attracted to women). It is therefore unclear if gender-nonspecific responding is found in both exclusively and predominantly androphilic women. The current studies investigated within-gender variability in the gender-specificity of women’s sexual response. Two samples of women reporting concurrent andro/gynephilia viewed (Study 1, n = 29) or listened (Study 2, n = 30) to erotic stimuli varying by gender of sexual partner depicted while their genital and subjective sexual responses were assessed. Data were combined with larger datasets of predominantly gyne- and androphilic women (total N = 78 for both studies). In both studies, women reporting any degree of gynephilia, including those who self-identified as heterosexual, showed significantly greater genital response to female stimuli, similar to predominantly gynephilic women; gender-nonspecific genital response was observed for exclusively androphilic women only. Subjective sexual arousal patterns were more variable with respect to sexual attractions, likely reflecting stimulus intensity effects. Heterosexually-identified women are therefore not a homogenous group with respect to sexual responses to gender cues. Implications for within-gender variation in women’s sexual orientation and sexual responses are discussed.

Understandings of transnational families in debates on Migration and development

International migration sets in motion a range of significant transnational processes that connect countries and people. How migration interacts with development and how policies might promote and enhance such interactions have, since the turn of the millennium, gained attention on the international agenda. The recognition that transnational practices connect migrants and their families across sending and receiving societies forms part of this debate. The ways in which policy debate employs and understands transnational family ties nevertheless remain underexplored. This article sets out to discern the understandings of the family in two (often intermingled) debates concerned with transnational interactions: The largely state and policydriven discourse on the potential benefits of migration on economic development, and the largely academic transnational family literature focusing on issues of care and the micro-politics of gender and generation. Emphasizing the relation between diverse migration-development dynamics and specific family positions, we ask whether an analytical point of departure in respective transnational motherhood, fatherhood or childhood is linked to emphasizing certain outcomes. We conclude by sketching important strands of inclusions and exclusions of family matters in policy discourse and suggest ways to better integrate a transnational family perspective in global migration-development policy.

The Standard ISO 15489-1 in German and Spanish: an Interlinguistic Comparison

The aim of this paper is to deepen in the terminology of Records Management established by ISO standards, through a concrete example such as an interlinguistic comparison between UNE ISO 15489-1 and DIN ISO 15489-1, that is, between the Spanish and German versions of the ISO 15489-1. For that, the text is divided into two major and complementary parts, which are similar to both analytical perspectives adopted: the semantic one and the pragmatic one. The first one compares the words per se, taking into account the significant or word form as well as the significance or meaning. In the second part, examples of use from both languages are discussed, concerning the three terms considered essential in the text (Record, Records Management System and Records Management). The main conclusion lies in understanding how important the language is as a discrete tool of work for all information scientists, specially concerning to the standards, where the translators must show their best linguistic strategies to go unnoticed.

Respiratory virus-associated severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) and viral clustering in Malawian children in a setting with a high prevalence of HIV, malaria and malnutrition

BACKGROUND:  We used four years of paediatric severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) sentinel surveillance in Blantyre, Malawi to identify factors associated with clinical severity and co-viral clustering.

METHODS:  From January 2011 to December 2014, 2363 children aged 3 months to 14 years presenting to hospital with SARI were enrolled. Nasopharyngeal aspirates were tested for influenza and other respiratory viruses. We assessed risk factors for clinical severity and conducted clustering analysis to identify viral clusters in children with co-viral detection.

RESULTS:  Hospital-attended influenza-positive SARI incidence was 2.0 cases per 10,000 children annually; it was highest children aged under 1 year (6.3 cases per 10,000), and HIV-infected children aged 5 to 9 years (6.0 cases per 10,000). 605 (26.8%) SARI cases had warning signs, which were positively associated with HIV infection (adjusted risk ratio [aRR]: 2.4, 95% CI: 1.4, 3.9), RSV infection (aRR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.3, 3.0) and rainy season (aRR: 2.4, 95% CI: 1.6, 3.8). We identified six co-viral clusters; one cluster was associated with SARI with warning signs.

CONCLUSIONS:  Influenza vaccination may benefit young children and HIV infected children in this setting. Viral clustering may be associated with SARI severity; its assessment should be included in routine SARI surveillance.

Still Life

'Still Life'is a six page feature in Frieze Magazine on Sarah Jones's practice which took the form of a conversation between the New York based fiction writer A.M.Homes and Jones. This was a conversation that had begun when A.M. Homes invited Jones to spend some time at Yaddo Artist's Colony in upstate New York firstly in 2006 and secondly as The Meredith Moody Fellow in 2008. Homes also wrote a short story in response to Jones' photographs for The National Media Museum's Archive publication (2007/8). This text was commissioned by the museum as part of Jones' solo exhibition at the conclusion of her tenure as the museum's Photography Felllow. Jones and Homes were invited by Frieze to formalise their correspondence for publication. The interview in Frieze magazine was edited by Jennifer Higgie from a taped conversation between Jones and Homes, made during a visit by Jones to New York to meet Homes in early 2008. The feature includes several full colour reproductions of Jones' work alongside the conversation.

King of the Renaissance: Art and Politics at the Neapolitan Court of Ferrante I, 1458-1494

In the second half of the fifteenth century, King Ferrante I of Naples (r. 1458-1494) dominated the political and cultural life of the Mediterranean world. His court was home to artists, writers, musicians, and ambassadors from England to Egypt and everywhere in between. Yet, despite its historical importance, Ferrante’s court has been neglected in the scholarship. This dissertation provides a long-overdue analysis of Ferrante’s artistic patronage and attempts to explicate the king’s specific role in the process of art production at the Neapolitan court, as well as the experiences of artists employed therein. By situating Ferrante and the material culture of his court within the broader discourse of Early Modern art history for the first time, my project broadens our understanding of the function of art in Early Modern Europe. I demonstrate that, contrary to traditional assumptions, King Ferrante was a sophisticated patron of the visual arts whose political circumstances and shifting alliances were the most influential factors contributing to his artistic patronage. Unlike his father, Alfonso the Magnanimous, whose court was dominated by artists and courtiers from Spain, France, and elsewhere, Ferrante differentiated himself as a truly Neapolitan king. Yet Ferrante’s court was by no means provincial. His residence, the Castel Nuovo in Naples, became the physical embodiment of his commercial and political network, revealing the accretion of local and foreign visual vocabularies that characterizes Neapolitan visual culture.