Antecedents of Psychological Empowerment: A Study of Greek Employees in Municipalities

ABSTRACT

Psychological empowerment has received a burgeoning attention among scholars and practitioners in the last decades. However, little is known about its antecedents in the public sector, and even more in municipalities. The present study attempts to fill this gap by examining the relationship of leader-member exchange (LMX), role conflict and role ambiguity with employees’ psychological empowerment. Data were collected from 210 administrative employees of nine Greek municipalities. Results supported our hypotheses that these three factors constitute important antecedents of such employees’ psychological empowerment. Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.     

‘A second wife is not really a wife’: polygyny,gender relations and economic realities in Tajikistan

While polygyny in Tajikistan existed before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and has been a phenomenon of growing importance since Independence, it is still forbidden by law. To understand this renewal, I do not look at polygyny as a sign of religiousness, but as a form of patriarchal bargain in which women (who often experienced former matrimonial disjuncture) may have a greater power of decision in the spousal relations. I will explore women's points of view, from which polygyny is a strategy to accessing the symbolic and material resources they lack. I then explore the conditions to which becoming a second wife is possible: women's own resources, be they material, symbolic, familial, appear as of crucial importance in this accession to the status of being married anew.     

The rise and fall of spin: changes of fashion in the presentation of UK politics

Spin is the current dominant form of political presentation in the UK. Politics and presentation are inseparable and before the 1980s, political presenters were less aggressive towards and more respectful of journalists as watchdogs of politics. Labour introduced spin as a defensive response to editorial hostility but since New Labour came to terms with Thatcherism, spin has been used for the offensive promotion of policy. Changes in journalism, particularly a blurring treatment of fact and opinion, were an incubatory environment for spin. Moreover, the term became part of lay language and its vocabulary is deployed as a scrutiny of politicians via ridicule and satire. Conceptually, ‘spin’ can be characterised as an exchange or contest between information and publicity, with contingencies influencing where any presentation lies on that continuum. Wherever it falls, spin demeans elected politicians and tends to reduce their status to celebrities. That reduction is a cost too high for privileging presentation over policy and ought to be reversed. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

Three paradigms in a single monetary circulation

The nature of money is simple and easy to understand, both what it is and what it was; it is the ＂law of gravity＂ we all understand. Many macroeconomic concepts and operations are based on money. Without it, they would be impossible to comprehend and, in fact, can only be understood by methodically tracking the circulation of money. There are three core paradigms of money and money circulation： the money multiplier, the velocity of circulation of money income and the money-income multiplier. In this paper, we try to demystify or decouple some of these circulatory mechanisms in order to establish, to the extent that is possible, a single comprehensive theory. A comprehensive theory or an approximation to such demands that the three economic operations corresponding to the above three paradigms form part of the same monetary macroeconomic phenomenon. To prove workable, it requires that the formulae arrived at being represented by a single mathematical expression. This paper shows that there is a conflict between, on one hand, the inevitable and persistent economic intuition that relates the three paradigms and, on the other, the mathematical formulae （and their components） that occasionally negate this.     

"Ripple Effects" in Youth Peacebuilding and Exchange Programs: Measuring Impacts Beyond Direct Participants

A number of organizations have a mission of encouraging peace throughout the world by enhancing young people's knowledge and understanding of other countries and cultures. One strategy used to further this mission is international or intercultural exchange programs. Most evaluations of exchange programs gather data only from the direct participants who traveled to another country. But these programs have the potential to have impacts that expand beyond the direct participants—or "ripple effects." Thus, a more appropriate methodology to evaluate exchange programs is "360-degree feedback," which gathers data from multiple sources. This study uses 360-degree feedback to evaluate a youth peacebuilding and exchange program by gathering data not only from the exchange students but also from chaperones, host families, and students and teachers in the host school. ANOVA analyses finds that the program had positive impacts on the exchange students and, in many cases, even greater ripple effects on indirect participants.     

美朝核风波的实质与六方会谈的出路

美朝核风波再起的实质是美国霸权与朝鲜生存权的又一次政治博弈,美朝核风波的实质看成是生存权与霸权的政治博弈。进而为此展开的六方会谈框架又成为一组多方政治博弈平台。在美朝核风波愈演愈烈、几近战争临界值之际,中国从维护地区安全出发,积极出面斡旋,经三方会谈而达成了六方会谈框架。六方会谈的达成意义重大,舒解了“战争临界”;彰显了“中国作用”;取得了可视化成果。不应否认,六方会谈框架存在某种不足,却仍是解决朝核问题的最现实、最可行的方式。     

编造并传播证券交易虚假信息罪争议研究

我国学界目前对编造并传播证券交易虚假信息罪的客观要件、主观要件、罪数界限在认识上存在较大的分歧,经逐一比较分析,方可得出合理结论。     

商业承兑汇票诈骗犯罪及对策探析

企业和银行相勾结,把真实的商业承兑汇票、伪造的贸易背景材料和银行的虚假贴现相结合,办理转贴现、再贴现骗取银行资金,名义是“融资”,实际是票据诈骗犯罪。公安机关应理顺公、检、法机关的纵向联动机制,建立银行、企业、工商等部门的横向协作机制,在始终坚持打击票据诈骗犯罪的同时,为各类市场经济主体提供防范指导、信息咨询和法律帮助等方面的服务,在防控、打击票据犯罪中发挥更大的作用。     

试论央行加息的必然性及其影响

目前,我国经济运行中投资、货币信贷等指标均已出现不同程度的回落,但投资反弹的压力仍然较大.那么,要巩固现有成果,适度加息可以起到怎样的作用?加息对巩固前一阶段宏观调控的成果有积极的帮助,但由于加息幅度有限,对资本市场近期内影响将不会十分明显.     

Rapid screening for the detection and differentiation of γ-hydroxybutyrate using ion chromatography

The analysis of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) is problematic because it is hygroscopic, it lacks a good UV chromophore, and it undergoes heat-induced cyclization. This paper presents a new method utilizing ion-exchange chromatography (IC) with conductivity detection. The simple sample preparation, rapid analysis time, and inorganic anion detection capabilities are all advantages over the current methods. The detection of inorganic salts (formed during GHB synthesis) gives insight into the synthetic route utilized and can aid in drug seizure comparison. The developed method has a detection limit for GHB anions of 0.57 mg/L and chloride of 0.22 mg/L. A comparison of this technique with a current gas chromatography-mass spectrometry technique is presented, and a t-test found that the two methods' results are not statistically different at the 99.9% confidence level demonstrating the merits of this fast, simple, and informative IC method as a routine screening tool.