Employee Satisfaction With Work‐life Balance Policies And Organizational Commitment: A Philippine Study

This study investigates the relationship between public employees' satisfaction with work‐life balance policies (WLBPs) and organizational commitment in the relatively unexplored Philippine context. Our findings show that (i) employees' overall satisfaction with WLBPs is positively related to organizational commitment, (ii) when specific WLBPs are examined, only satisfaction with health and wellness programs are positively associated with organizational commitment, and (iii) when accounting for employees' preferences for WLBPs, compensatory time‐off, childcare policy, health insurance benefits, and paid sick leave are positively related to organizational commitment. The findings indicate that understanding which WLBPs employees prefer is important before implementing WLBPs. The article discusses the theoretical and practical implications of this study in the developing country context. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Security, nationalism and the pursuit of nuclear weapons and missiles: The South Korean case, 1970-82

South Korea decided to develop nuclear weapons and surface-to-surface missiles in the early 1970s. The Park Chung-hee administration made the decision because of its concern about a complete withdrawal of US forces from Korea following the Nixon Doctrine. Simultaneously, increasing nationalism within the administration, caused by its tumultuous relations with the United States, further strengthened such pursuits. Later, when faced with the US threat to withdraw security and economic assistance, the administration slowed down active development of nuclear weapons in 1976, but it continued missile development. However, the Chun Doo-hwan administration, inaugurated in 1980 after military coup and massacre, froze all weapons-related nuclear research and the missile programme. The Chun regime made such a change because it needed the support of the US to make up for its weakness in legitimacy and because the Reagan administration provided a solid defence commitment to South Korea.     

Explicating Acculturation Strategies among Asian American Youth: Subtypes and Correlates across Filipino and Korean Americans

Acculturation strategy, a varying combination of heritage and mainstream cultural orientations and one of the significant determinants of youth development, has been understudied with Asian American youth and particularly at a subgroup-specific level. This study used person-oriented latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify acculturation strategy subtypes among Filipino American and Korean American adolescents living in the Midwest. Associations between the subtypes and numerous correlates including demographics, family process and youth outcomes were also examined. Using large scale survey data (N?=?1580; 379 Filipino American youth and 377 parents, and 410 Korean American youth and 414 parents; M_AGE of youth?=?15.01), the study found three acculturation subtypes for Filipino American youth: High Assimilation with Ethnic Identity, Integrated Bicultural with Strongest Ethnic Identity, and Modest Bicultural with Strong Ethnic Identity; and three acculturation subtypes for Korean American youth: Separation, Integrated Bicultural, and Modest Bicultural with Strong Ethnic Identity. Both Filipino American and Korean American youth exhibited immersion in the host culture while retaining a strong heritage identity. Although bicultural strategies appear most favorable, the results varied by gender and ethnicity, e.g., integrated bicultural Filipino Americans, comprised of more girls, might do well at school but were at risk of poor mental health. Korean American separation, comprised of more boys, demonstrated a small but significant risk in family process and substance use behaviors that merits in-depth examination. The findings deepen the understanding of heterogeneous acculturation strategies among Asian American youth and provide implications for future research.     

Public Service Motivation,Organizational Social Capital,and Knowledge Sharing in the Korean Public Sector

This article investigates whether public service motivation (PSM) and organizational social capital predict knowledge sharing in the public sector. The hypothesized relationships in the proposed model are verified with the online survey data of 506 public employees in Korea. The test results show that the two dimensions of PSM (attraction to public service and commitment to public values) and the trust component of organizational social capital are both positively related to knowledge sharing in the Korean public sector, and that the associability component of organizational social capital is indirectly associated with knowledge sharing through its influence on PSM. The article discusses the ways that PSM and organizational social capital may contribute to overcome the social dilemma of knowledge sharing in public organizations. It also suggests that there is need for further research on the individual dimensions of the PSM construct.     

Local elected administrators’ career characteristics and revenue diversification as a managerial strategy

Local governments have endeavoured to be fiscally better prepared against adverse economic downturns, and revenue diversification (RD) is considered one of such efforts. This study examines how Korean local governments have utilised diversification as a managerial strategy between 2007 and 2010. Focusing on local elected administrators’ (LEAs’) previous career, it reports that local governments with administrators with business experiences diversify revenues more than those with politics-turned administrators. It further finds that the effects of socio-economic and institutional factors are moderated by administrators’ career characteristics. Based on such evidence, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Why Do Nonprofit Performing Arts Organizations Offer Free Public Access?

A number of studies have shown that arts and cultural programs offer multifarious benefits to individuals and communities. However, there has been little discussion in the public management literature regarding access to cultural programs for people with limited disposable income. Although the arts industry is increasingly emphasizing the importance of expanding cultural access for all, we know little about what drives individual nonprofit organizations’ strategies. This article draws on benefits theory and resource dependence theory to explore the relationships between different types of revenue and the extent to which performing arts nonprofits offer free access. The authors use a unique data set compiled by DataArts to test how various types of revenue influence accessibility to the arts and find that performing arts nonprofits receiving grants from local governments, foundations, and corporations offer more free access. The article concludes with a discussion of study implications and an application of benefits theory to other types of nonprofits.     

“Use words. Not your body”: The hunger that has no name

This essay examines the competing readings of food refusal that emerged from a student hunger strike held at Columbia University in fall 2007. The invisibility of the act of food refusal forces hunger strikers to adopt performance strategies that make their (non)action visible as protest. To make the politics of their food refusal legible, advocates for the hunger strike promoted their actions as part of a 40 year tradition of student protest. However, that same invisibility allowed the protest's detractors to deride the hunger strikers as anorexic. At the center of the protest and the commentary about it was a wasting female body that confused for spectators the line between the political and the pathological. Attention to this body raises questions of how community is created and disciplined through performative acts, how easily female protest is evacuated of political meaning and the uneasy role of whiteness in popular attention to anorexia.     

Changes in Teachers’ Involvement Versus Rejection and Links with Academic Motivation During the First Year of Secondary Education: A Multilevel Growth Curve Analysis

Research consistently shows that the learning environment plays an important role for early adolescents’ learning and outcomes and suggests that good teacher–student relationships can serve as a protective factor for maintaining young adolescents’ interest and active engagement in learning. However, less is known about the dynamic nature of teacher–student relationships and how they link with academic motivation development. Furthermore, little is known about the nature and the effects of teacher–student relationships in a cross-national context. The present study investigated changes in two components of teacher–student relationships (teachers’ involvement vs. rejection) and examined links with students’ academic motivation during the first grade of secondary school. Ten Dutch and ten Indonesian teachers (65 % female) from 24 classes were videoed 12 times across the school year, and four videos for each class were selected randomly and coded on teachers’ involvement versus rejection. A total of 713 students (52 % girls) completed four-wave measures of their academic motivation after each video observation. Multilevel growth curve modeling revealed that the teacher’s involvement changed in a curvilinear way and decreased across the first year of secondary education, while changes in the teacher’s rejection did not follow a linear time function. Academic motivation changed in an undesirable way: controlled motivation increased, while autonomous motivation decreased over time. Teachers’ involvement had a unique contribution in preventing high levels of controlled motivation in both countries. Findings suggest that teacher–student relationships (teachers’ involvement) play an essential role in early adolescents’ motivation regardless of the nations and should be a priority for schools.