Unsafe driving behaviour and four wheel drive vehicles: observational study

Objective To assess the level of compliance with the new law in the United Kingdom mandating penalties for rising a hand held mobile phone while driving, to compare compliance with this law with the one on the use of seat belts, and to compare compliance with these laws between drivers of four wheel drive vehicles and drivers of normal cars. Design Observational study with two phases-one within the grace period, the other starting one week after penalties were imposed on drivers using such telephones. Setting Three busy sites in London. Participants Drivers of 38 182 normal cars and 2944 four wheel drive vehicles. Main outcome measures Proportions of drivers seen to be using hand held mobile phones and not using seat belts. Results Drivers of four wheel drive vehicles were more likely than drivers of other cars to be seen using hand held mobile phones (8.2% v 2.0%) and not complying with the law on seat belts (19.5% v 15.0%). Levels of non-compliance with both laws were slightly higher in the penalty phase of observation, and breaking one law was associated with increased likelihood of breaking the other. Conclusions The level of non-compliance with the law on the use of hand held mobile phones by drivers in London is high, as is non-compliance with the law on seat belts. Drivers of four wheel drive vehicles were four times more likely than drivers of other cars to be seen using hand held mobile phones and slightly more likely not to comply with the law on seat belts.

Signal detection theory in applied tasks: The case of hazard perception in driving

Fuzzy signal detection analysis can be a useful complementary technique to traditional signal detection theory analysis methods, particularly in applied settings. For example, traffic situations are better conceived as being on a continuum from no potential for hazard to high potential, rather than either having potential or not having potential. This study examined the relative contribution of sensitivity and response bias to explaining differences in the hazard perception performance of novices and experienced drivers, and the effect of a training manipulation. Novice drivers and experienced drivers were compared (N = 64). Half the novices received training, while the experienced drivers and half the novices remained untrained. Participants completed a hazard perception test and rated potential for hazard in occluded scenes. The response latency of participants to the hazard perception test replicated previous findings of experienced/novice differences and trained/untrained differences. Fuzzy signal detection analysis of both the hazard perception task and the occluded rating task suggested that response bias may be more central to hazard perception test performance than sensitivity, with trained and experienced drivers responding faster and with a more liberal bias than untrained novices. Implications for driver training and the hazard perception test are discussed.

Organizations driving positive social change:a review and an integrative framework of change processes

Academic and practitioner interest in how market-based organizations can drive positive social change (PSC) is steadily growing. This paper helps to recast how organizations relate to society. It integrates research on projects stimulating PSC – the transformational processes to advance societal well-being – which is fragmented across different streams of research in management and related disciplines. Focusing on the mechanisms at play in how organizations and their projects affect change in targets outside of organizational boundaries, we 1) clarify the nature of PSC as a process, 2) develop an integrative framework that specifies two distinct PSC strategies, 3) take stock of and offer a categorization scheme for change mechanisms and enabling organizational practices, and 4) outline opportunities for future research. Our conceptual framework differentiates between surface- and deep-level PSC strategies understood as distinct combinations of change mechanisms and enabling organizational practices. These strategies differ in the nature and speed of transformation experienced by the targets of change projects and the resulting quality (pervasiveness and durability), timing, and reach of social impact. Our findings provide a solid base for integrating and advancing knowledge across the largely disparate streams of management research on Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship, and Base of the Pyramid, and open up important new avenues for future research on organizing for PSC and on unpacking PSC processes.

Dangerous brown men:exploiting sex, violence and feminism in the 'war on terror'

Why is the public presentation of the war on terror suffused with sexualised racism? What does this tell us about ideas of gender, sexuality, religious and political identity and the role of the state in the Western powers? Can we diffuse inter-ethnic conflicts and change the way the West pursues its security agenda by understanding the role of sexualised racism in the war on terror? In asking such questions, Gargi Bhattacharyya considers how the concepts of imperialism, feminism, terror and security can be applied, in order to build on the influential debates about the sexualised character of colonialism. She examines the way in which western imperial violence has been associated with the rhetoric of rights and democracy - a project of bombing for freedom that has called into question the validity of western conceptions of democracy, rights and feminism. Such rhetoric has given rise to actions that go beyond simply protecting western interests or securing access to scarce resources and appear to be beyond instrumental reason. The articulations of racism that appear with the war on terror are animated by fears and sexual fantasies inexplicable by rational interest alone. There can be no resolution to this seemingly endless conflict without understanding the highly sexualised racism that animates it. Such an understanding threatens to pierce the heart of imperial relations, revealing their intense contradictions and uncovering attempts to normalise violent expropriation.

Differential moderating effect of locus of control on effect of driving experience in young male and female drivers

Investigations of relationships between the specific personality variable, locus of control (LOC, Rotter, 1966) and driver behaviour or accidents have returned contrasting results. Review suggests dependence on gender or experience characteristics of participants, suggesting these factors interact with LOC to influence driving. Relationships were investigated in terms of influence on the eight driving styles of the Multidimensional Driving Style Inventory (MDSI, Taubman-Ben-Ari, Mikulincer & Gillarth, 2004) in young drivers (18-29 years). Gender and LOC differences in driving styles previously related to accidents were proposed. It was also proposed that driving experience influences driving style, and LOC influences effect of driving experience. Gender differences were found for dissociative, anxious, patient, risky, angry and high velocity styles. Women had more external LOC than men, and driver stress styles increased with more external LOC, but reduced with increased driving experience, but so did patient style. High velocity style increased with experience. Controlling for LOC revealed important gender differences in effect of experience: positive effects for men (reducing angry and high velocity, increasing carefulness) and negative effects for women (increasing angry and higher velocity, reducing carefulness). Findings suggest negative influence of high internal LOC on young men in terms of its interaction with experience.