Social inequalities and parent involvement in children’s education in the early years of school

Strengthening cooperation between schools and parents is critical to improving learning outcomes for children. The chapter focuses on parental engagement in their children’s education in the early years of school. It considers issues of social and cultural capital as important to whether, or not, parents are involved in their children’s schooling. Analyses of data from a national representative sample of children and their families who participate in Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children are presented. Results indicated that higher family socio-economic position was associated with higher levels of parental involvement and higher expectations about children’s future level of education.

Show me a bad kid and I’ll show you a lousy parent : making parents responsible for youth crime in Australian and Canadian Contexts

This article surveys literature bearing on the issue of parental liability and responsibility for the crimes of young offenders, with a particular focus on comparing different approaches to dealing with the issue in Australia and Canada. This comparative analysis of Australian and Canadian legislative and policy approaches is situated within a broader discussion of arguments about the “punitive turn” in youth justice, responsibilisation, and cross-jurisdictional criminal justice policy transfer and convergence. Our findings suggest that there are significant differences in the manner and extent to which Australia and Canada have invoked parental responsibility laws and policies as part of the solution to dealing with youth crime. We conclude by speculating on some of the reasons for these differences and establishing an agenda for additional needed cross-jurisdictional research. In particular, we argue that it would be fruitful to undertake a cross-jurisdictional study that examines the development and effects of parental responsibility laws across a larger number of different Western countries as well as across individual states and provinces within these national jurisdictions.

Customer satisfaction survey of the facilities provided by office building “X” in Surabaya

Many high-rise office buildings have been built in Surabaya. The investors have provided complimentary facilities to satisfy their tenants. However, not all given facilities has satisfied the tenants. The purpose of this study is to find out the level of tenant satisfaction in office “X” to the existing facilities and to suggest additional required facilities. Although office “X” is offered the highest rental rate and has known as a prestigious place in Surabaya, only location and public transport have satisfied the Indonesian tenants. Meanwhile, the multi National companies have not satisfied for any existing facilities. Additional ATM facilities and presentable cafeteria, improvement of service and the security system are required by tenants.

“Show me a bad kid and I’ll show you a lousy parent” : making parents responsible for youth crime in Australian and Canadian contexts

In this article we survey relevant international literature on the issue of parental liability and responsibility for the crimes of young offenders. In addition, as a starting point for needed cross-jurisdictional research, we focus on different approaches that have been taken to making parents responsible for youth crime in Australia and Canada. This comparative analysis of Australian and Canadian legislative and policy approaches is situated within a broader discussion of arguments about parental responsibility, the ‘punitive turn’ in youth justice, and cross-jurisdictional criminal justice policy transfer and convergence. One unexpected finding of our literature survey is the relatively sparse attention given to the issue of parental responsibility for youth crime in legal and criminological literature compared to the attention it receives in the media and popular-public culture. In Part I we examine the different views that have been articulated in the social science literature for and against parental responsibility laws, along with arguments that have been made about why such laws have been enacted in an increasing number of Western countries in recent years. In Part II, we situate our comparative study of Australian and Canadian legislative and policy approaches within a broader discussion of arguments about the ‘punitive turn’ in youth justice, responsibilisation, and cross-jurisdictional criminal justice policy transfer and convergence. In Part III, we identify and examine the scope of different parental responsibility laws that have been enacted in Australia and Canada; noting significant differences in the manner and extent to which parental responsibility laws and policies have been invoked as part of the solution to dealing with youth crime. In our concluding discussion, in Part IV, we try to speculate on some of the reasons for these differences and set an agenda for needed future research on the topic.

Investigating the patterns and determinants of life satisfaction in Germany following reunification

This paper investigates the patterns and determinants of life satisfaction in Germany following reunification. We implement a new fixed-effect estimator for ordinal life satisfaction in the German Socio-Economic Panel and find negative effects on life satisfaction from being recently fired, losing a spouse through either death or separation, and time spent in hospital, while we find strong positive effects from income and marriage. Using a new causal decomposition technique, we find that East Germans experienced a continued improvement in life satisfaction to which increased household incomes contributed around 12 percent. Most of the improvement is explained by better average circumstances, such as greater political freedom. For West Germans, we find little change in average life satisfaction over this period.

An analysis of the determinants of job satisfaction when individuals' baseline satisfaction levels may differ.

A growing literature seeks to explain differences in individuals' self-reported satisfaction with their jobs. The evidence so far has mainly been based on cross-sectional data and when panel data have been used, individual unobserved heterogeneity has been modelled as an ordered probit model with random effects. This article makes use of longitudinal data for Denmark, taken from the waves 1995-1999 of the European Community Household Panel, and estimates fixed effects ordered logit models using the estimation methods proposed by Ferrer-i-Carbonel and Frijters (2004) and Das and van Soest (1999). For comparison and testing purposes a random effects ordered probit is also estimated. Estimations are carried out separately on the samples of men and women for individuals' overall satisfaction with the jobs they hold. We find that using the fixed effects approach (that clearly rejects the random effects specification), considerably reduces the number of key explanatory variables. The impact of central economic factors is the same as in previous studies, though. Moreover, the determinants of job satisfaction differ considerably between the genders, in particular once individual fixed effects are allowed for.

Quantifying the costs of drought : new evidence from life satisfaction data

We estimate the cost of droughts by matching rainfall data with individual life satisfaction. Our context is Australia over the period 2001 to 2004, which included a particularly severe drought. Using fixed-effect models, we find that a drought in spring has a detrimental effect on life satisfaction equivalent to an annual reduction in income of A$18,000. This effect, however, is only found for individuals living in rural areas. Using our estimates, we calculate that the predicted doubling of the frequency of spring droughts will lead to the equivalent loss in life satisfaction of just over 1% of GDP annually.

Developing a conceptual model for measuring the satisfaction levels of Malaysian contractors

The evaluation of satisfaction levels related to performance is an important aspect in increasing market share, improving profitability and enlarging opportunities for repeat business and can lead to the determination of areas to be improved, improving harmonious working relationships and conflict avoidance. In the construction industry, this can also result in improved project quality, enhanced reputation and increased competitiveness. Many conceptual models have been developed to measure satisfaction levels - typically to gauge client satisfaction, customer satisfaction and home buyer satisfaction - but limited empirical research has been carried out, especially in investigating the satisfaction of construction contractors. In addressing this, this paper provides a unique conceptual model or framework for contractor satisfaction based on attributes identified by interviews with practitioners in Malaysia. In addition to progressing research in this topic and being of potential benefit to Malaysian contractors, it is anticipated that the framework will also be useful for other parties - clients, designers, subcontractors and suppliers - in enhancing the quality of products and/or services generally.

A new approach to assessing Malaysian contractor satisfaction levels

The extent of poor project outcomes is a recurring issue for construction industries worldwide. One of the main causes of these and project failure seems to be the inability of contractors to provide a high level of service quality to the project team. In Malaysia, design failures have also been identified as a further contributory factor. To overcome this, different types of subjective performance measurement have been progressively developed. These approaches are typically concerned with client satisfaction, customer satisfaction, home buyer satisfaction and occupant satisfaction, but very seldom consider contractor satisfaction. This paper examines the implications of this, and what is involved in developing satisfaction measures based on contractor perception instead of the typical sole concern with client performance. As a result, other attributes such as participants’ performance, business performance, project performance, external factors and contractor characteristics are also examined. Several potential attributes are derived from interviews among Malaysian contractors, namely: performance (direct attributes) and contractor characteristics (indirect attributes) that possibly influence contractor satisfaction levels. These attributes are then developed to improve the existing conceptual framework. The developed framework is expected to help the project team in performing projects more efficiently, maintaining service quality and improving relationships between participants. In addition, the findings of the paper should assist contractors enhance competitiveness, improve their image and create more job opportunities in the future.

Moderation or mediation? An examination of the role perceived managerial support has on job satisfaction and psychological strain

Employees are vital assets for an enterprise and therefore need to be valued by their employers. Employers can create a safe and reduced stress environment to work; managers thus provide organizational support through their managerial role by caring for their subordinates’ well-being and by providing work advisory. By providing the managerial support to the employees, organizations can reduce costs and increase productivity. Past research has investigated the role of organizational support on stress as a single model either moderating or mediating role. The previous findings were also inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to test both the mediating and the moderating effect of the perceived managerial support on role stressors and psychological outcomes. This study used 380 participants taken from several small firms in Thailand. The results confirmed the mediation role of perceived managerial support, but not the moderation effect.