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Based on empirical survey data, this paper uses concepts from sociotechnical theory and role theory to explore the effects of stress created by information and computer technology (ICT)--that is, "technostress"--on role stress and on individual productivity. We first explain different ways in which ICTs can create stress in users and identify factors that create technostress. We next propose three hypotheses: (1) technostress is inversely related to individual productivity, (2) role stress is inversely related to individual productivity, and (3) technostress is directly related to role stress. We then use structural equation modeling on survey data from ICT users in 223 organizations to test the hypotheses. The results show support for them. Theoretically, the paper contributes in three ways. First, the different dimensions of technostress identified here add to existing concepts on stress experienced by individuals in organizations. Second, by showing that technostress inversely affects productivity, the paper reinforces that failure to manage the effects of ICT-induced stress can offset expected increases in productivity. Third, validation of the positive relationship between technostress and role stress adds a new conceptual thread to literature analyzing the relationship between technology and organizational roles and structure. In the practical domain, the paper proposes a diagnostic tool to evaluate the extent to which technostress is present in an organization and suggests that the adverse effects of technostress can be partly countered by strategies that reduce role conflict and role overload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a brief account of celebrated athletes, moral exemplars and lusory objects in sports. It seeks to explain the special responsibilities of the celebrated athletes. It is reported in the article that even coaches at the high school and college levels recognize the fact that celebrated athletes are role models, and coaches sometimes insist that their athletes participate in programs that can positively influence others. It also offers some useful distinctions that will be important in evaluating the case for exemplarism.

This study investigates how male and female consumers in the Czech Republic respond to sex role portrayals in advertisements for a fictional cell phone service. Special emphasis is placed on integrating consumer prejudices and emotions into an incongruity-resolution framework. Prejudices were found to moderate effects of sex role incongruity on the emotional dimensions approval and disapproval. Surprise, the third emotional dimension, was directly affected by role incongruity. Downstream effects included positive (approval) and negative (disapproval, surprise) influences on attitude toward the ad. Extensions into other cultural settings and more in-depth examinations of the elaboration and processing paths, including effects on memory, are suggested for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated when subordinates engage in upward influence behaviors to voice their opinions on empowerment practices to their leaders. Data were collected from 114 pairs of leader–subordinate dyads at a manufacturing firm. Based on cross-level polynomial regression and response surface analyses, the present study found that the less the leaders were aware of subordinates' empowerment expectations, the more the subordinates engaged in upward influence behaviors, namely rational persuasion and inspirational appeals. Moreover, high leader–subordinate task interdependence and subordinate self-efficacy as moderators amplified the (in)congruent relationships. The results contribute to empowerment literature by providing valuable insight into the bottom-up influence in the empowerment process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article measures the importance of ethics of salespeople in marketing as a source of role conflict. Ethics of salespeople is an area of marketing that draws constant public criticism. According to reports of few researchers, salespeople wanted more guidelines to help them resolve ethical questions. This implies that salespeople and sales managers must agree on what ethical problems exist. Every institution has a set of expectations among its participants, who occupy distinct role positions, their interactions constituting the personal aspect of marketing. This is "the part of marketing" in which ethical considerations arise. When disagreement between expectations occurs, role conflict can result. When members of a group hold differing expectations, interaction may be difficult. Placed in an organization, then, the salesperson must attempt to integrate the organization's role expectations with his role expectation. To determine if differences in expectations exist, the sales role must be examined from multiple perspectives.

The article presents a paper on the significance of socialization constructs to the teaching methods of teachers. Studying the way how teachers teach seems to be socialization theory. The importance of the socialization construct is that it centers on processes which acts as a go-between the individual's personality and the role expectations of the institution. Conflict and bargaining are the two general patterns of interaction that have been delineated. The four processes of socialization are anticipatory socialization, reference groups, the training period, and the world of work.

Numerous studies have found that although young adults are arguably less constrained by gendered norms and expectations than previous generations, they have nevertheless continued to imagine their biographical futures in highly gendered ways. In this paper I draw on an analysis of 28 in-depth interviews in which 16 women and 12 men (aged 18-34) were asked to discuss their expectations for both the biographical and social future. The results of this study largely confirm the findings of previous scholarship, with young women often viewing childbearing and caring responsibilities as compulsory, while young men largely viewed these commitments as complementary to their chosen careers. This paper extends existing findings in this area by examining, firstly, whether these perceptions of the biographical future are mirrored in the participants’ views of the long-term, social future, and secondly, what implications such views may have when they are extended into this register. In so doing it ultimately finds that the gender norms that shape young adults’ expectations for their own futures are echoed in their outlooks upon the social future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have explored how female food celebrities represent a realm of fantasy and desire, embodying attractive "domestic goddesses" who showcase the wonder and seduction of home-cooked meals. These studies have largely focused on television personalities and have overlooked the food blogosophere, a highly popular, digital realm of food media dominated by women. The blogosphere has its own prominent food personalities and occupies a central role as a source of information and inspiration for home cooks. This paper investigates how idealized food femininities manifest on popular food blogs by examining 426 blog posts written by twenty-two award-winning, female food bloggers. These bloggers forward a vision of idealized feminine domesticity that is glamorously seductive and rooted in the "real" life of everyday home cooks. This article illuminates food blogs' paradoxical combination of idealization and mundanity. It argues that the online domestic goddess exemplifies women's need to balance multiple, seemingly contradictory ideals: she must embody domestic success, while avoiding associations of perfectionism, excessive control, or laziness. This study of female bloggers nuances scholarly understanding of the domestic goddess fantasy by revealing the deep tensions in women's food blogs, particularly the challenge of crafting a credible and appealing feminine voice in a postfeminist context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early childhood education (ECE) has long been recognized as one of the most gendered professions. This paper aims to examine how far ECE can become a space to deliver ‘gender flexible pedagogy’, a concept that incorporates ideas about staff modelling of alternative forms of masculinities and femininities, the value of a mixed gender workforce, and explicit gender teaching within curricula. The theoretical underpinnings of this concept are discussed drawing on data collected in discussions with pre-school teachers in order to understand the potential of this principle and identify how it can be practiced. The paper is based on two different interview based studies, one conducted in an Indonesian kindergarten and the other with Swedish preschool pedagogues. The findings suggest that gendered practices in ECE are rooted in teachers’ implicit gender beliefs influenced by larger socio-political discourses. Early childhood educators must develop an explicit gender consciousness before they can deliver a gender conscious pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the moderating role of severity of service failure between emotions and dissatisfaction, as well as between dissatisfaction and behavioral intention. Results showed that when customers’ regret and disappointment are low, service failure severity has an amplifying impact on their dissatisfaction. It also demonstrates that when customers’ dissatisfaction levels are low, service failure severity plays an important role in their negative word of mouth and switching intention. Therefore, if a restaurant can reduce its number and frequency of critical service failures, then restaurant operators can dramatically enhance customers’ word of mouth testimonials and customer retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The case study explores the experiences of Muslim women in the area of physical activity participation conducted whilst they were studying at one UK University. Previous research in the field indicated that Muslim women can be denied opportunities to participate in areas of sport-related physical activity through multiple factors such as socio-cultural, familial, religious or sporting structural constraints. Despite increased knowledge about the inclusion of Muslim girls in school-based physical education and sport, there is a dearth of literature on Muslim women's experiences post their school years. Informed by socio-cultural theories of the body, identity and embodied cultures, the study focuses on Muslim women's early physical activity experiences, university-based participation patterns and reflections on the influences that shaped their attitudes and beliefs towards such participation. Open-ended questionnaires, 34/50 returned (68%), and 6 in-depth interviews were conducted with volunteers studying a wide range of programmes. Content analysis revealed that values, attitudes and behaviours were largely influenced by the family; prior to university, the women's physical activity experiences were mixed and dependent on family activity patterns and school-based opportunities; university recreational sport-related provision did not cater for the women's Islamic needs denying them opportunities to participate. Religious belief and cultural expectations made a significant contribution to the women's preferences for participation environments that respected their Islamic beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the strategic issues in human resource management (HRM) research is the recognition of HR professionals' roles, yet how effective HR professionals are performing these roles has seldom been studied. This article conducts a two-phase study to explore the role expectations, role effectiveness and discrepancies of HR professionals in the Chinese business context. In the first phase, six roles in three domains were determined using a qualitative method. In the second phase, hypotheses were proposed and tested empirically. The results highlight that the value of role effectiveness is significantly lower than that of role expectation. In terms of perceptive discrepancies between HR and non-HR individuals, significant differences exist on the expectations of the roles in the strategic domain (i.e. facilitator and supporter), and also on the effectiveness of the roles in all three domains, except for that of facilitator in the strategic domain. The results also indicate that the effectiveness of each different role has a distinctive weighting in explaining the overall effectiveness of HRM, and that different groups hold diverse views on the relationship between role effectiveness and overall effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Existing literature suggests that a particular learning challenge for some doctoral candidates is coming to an understanding the concept of theory, that is the use of theory to frame research as well as theorising findings. The concept of theory has been identified as a Threshold Concept taking into account the characteristics of these concepts outlined by Meyer and Land. However, there has been little work that has focused on strategies that supervisors and candidates adopt to help them move from the liminal ‘stuck’ space of not understanding, to crossing the conceptual threshold following insight and the ‘Aha!’ moment. This paper draws on a Threshold Concepts framework, particularly liminality and being ‘stuck’, in the analysis of interviews and discussions with 21 experienced supervisors and 10 doctoral candidates. It focuses on how participants witnessed and experienced ‘stuckness’ regarding theory and theorising and strategies adopted to assist with understanding and becoming ‘unstuck’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A large body of research in journalism studies has analyzed which social and political roles news professionals consider they must fulfill in society. These studies are based on the assumption that role conception influences news content. However, the gap between ideals and practice is inevitable, since the constraint to which journalists are exposed limits the possibility of living up to their normative standards. While recent studies have addressed the relationship between ideals and practice by studying whether journalists with different roles report differently, we know less about the gap between the two. By comparing the role conception of journalists with the news stories they produce, we address the (dis)connection between roles and content as a gap, analyzing which roles render a larger distance and also which journalists are more likely to put their ideals into practice. The findings show a significant gap between role conception and performance, particularly for the service, civic and watchdog roles. Greater perceived autonomy leads to a smaller gap, while economic and political influences as well as belonging to a beat increase the gap. Likewise, the gap varies significantly between journalists working at the quality and the popular press. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an exploration of intimate expectations, ideals, and male freeters' romantic relationships, this article examines the ways in which expectations and practices of intimacy are shifting in gendered ways in contemporary Japan. Whilst women's expectations of intimacy and marital roles have changed and expanded, many male irregular workers continue to practice more conventional ideals of intimacy and gender roles, rooted in notions of responsibility, obligation, and duty. This article argues that there is consequently a significant miscommunication between male and female desires relating to the practice of intimacy that is contributing to both a perceived difficulty in getting married, and, after marriage, considerable stress about what is constitutive of intimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper looks at works of various authors on the supervision of doctoral students and their expectations. We aim through reading, experience and reflection to offer a logical framework that will aid in the better understanding of the process for those new to supervision. The two authors draw upon experience as new supervisors via the use of case studies applied to current literature, and identify some of the pitfalls they may come into contact with. To this end, the models and works of Hockey, Argyris, and Lewin are applied. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, I explore one lesbian teacher’s ethical dilemmas and resulting disappointment related to the lack of participation by queer students in the Gay Straight Alliance she helped to create. Her dilemmas hinge on the paradoxical subject position of queer teacher in tension with the “coming out imperative” and intersecting with discursive articulations of teacher-as-role model and queer students as a population “at-risk.” Grounded in scholarship that describes the discursive production of queer teacher and queer students, I explore the ways in which one group of queer students resist notions of “at-riskness” and the resulting impact on their teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article aims to discuss and analyze the emergence and evolution of Turkey's role as a model in the international system in three different periods, 1991–93, 2003–05 and 2010–12. To this end, it methodologically uses the main concepts of role theory: role expectations, role conceptions and role performance. Focusing on K.J. Holsti's example national role conception category in particular, it seeks to reveal the major similarities and differences between the role expectations that have enacted the role conception known as the Turkish model, and compare the impact of these expectations on role performance in each of these three cases. The major argument of the article is that the sustainability of the model's national role conception depends foremost on Turkey's political and economic capabilities that directly influence its role performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sociological and cultural studies research suggests that men and women cook differently. However, this research rarely takes into account men's and women's different levels of responsibility for the practice and how this might affect cooking approaches. This study investigates this culinary gender dichotomy through the experiences of men with significant domestic cooking responsibilities. Using interviews, cooking observations, and meal diaries from 30 such men from Toronto, Canada, I examine the extent to which they drew on traditionally ‘masculine’ and traditionally ‘feminine’ approaches to food. While most men did draw on traditional masculinities, many of the same men also drew on traditional femininities. Further, I observed the most ‘feminine’ approaches among men with the heaviest responsibilities for feeding others, including men who, previous to taking on these roles, saw cooking in more masculine ways. The data illuminate how social roles and responsibilities, as they intersect with interactional positionings and identities, shape gendered cooking approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers are supposed to use forms of differentiated instruction to anticipate the differences among their students. However, the adaptation of teaching to the diversity of the group often takes place with difficulty. Teacher education is blamed for not preparing student teachers adequately for differentiated instruction. Several authors suggest that congruent teaching in teacher education might be an adequate solution to this problem. This case study aims to investigate the (congruent) realization of differentiated instruction in teacher education using ethnographic tools. The results indicate that the observed teacher educator demonstrated limited forms of differentiation, largely without providing meta-commentary. Therefore, she is not a role model on the subject of differentiated instruction in the view of student teachers. These results are discussed in depth, and form a basis for further research and suggestions for practice in teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Korean labor movement was known as militant and dynamic, historically it was based on antagonistic social psychology against military government and employer. This study explored empirically the main impact of transformational leadership on union members' willingness to participate in union activities as well as role substitutability between transformational leader behavior and members' ideological psychology over the impacts on members' willingness to participate in union activities, based on Korean labor contexts. The elements of members' ideological psychology that are introduced in this study are ‘them and us attitude’ and ‘union instrumentality’. The empirical results are as follows. The main impact of transformational leadership on members' willingness to participate in union activities was positive, and the interactional impacts of leadership and social psychology of members on members' willingness to participate in union activities were significantly negative. This result suggests that transformational leadership and members' ideological psychology are acting as substitutes over the impact on members' willingness to participate in union activities. This implies that modern union activation may be more dependent on the dyadic relationships between leader and member rather than ideological psychology of members against employers which has reflected the antagonistic employment relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study aimed at identifying the factors that working women in Cyprus are faced with which lead to experience discrimination, examining possible barriers that affect women's advancement and identifying organizational practices that assist them in achieving work–life balance. The data were collected by the distribution of a questionnaire, which was on a voluntary, anonymous and confidential basis and targeted women of four different occupational levels. Several barriers were identified, preventing them from advancement such as stereotypes, conflicting work and family obligations, lack of women role models and low levels of self-confidence. This research enhances women's awareness of the existence of gender discrimination at work and the barriers in their career advancement. It highlights the creation of company programs such as mentoring programs, refresher courses, flexible work hours and on-site childcare, which could help women in developing and advancing their careers as well as achieving work–life balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative exploratory study adopts a role theory perspective to examine the role of cultural mediators in reducing role stress experienced by staff in Japanese companies in Australia. The results reveal cultural mediators contribute to allay role stress that exists between Japanese expatriates and non-Japanese host country staff. Japanese expatriate managers are prone to rely on cultural mediators due to their boundary spanner role. Although cultural mediators are perceived to be effective in reducing role stress, our study uncovers potential negative consequences. Thus, reliance on cultural mediators must be cautiously managed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have demonstrated that interpersonally oriented leadership abilities such as being empathetic, supporting work relationships, or explicitly stating an interest in helping others are particularly relevant in crisis contexts. Since these leadership abilities coincide with stereotypically feminine roles and traits, it has been proposed that a “think crisis–think female” association may exist (Ryan, Haslam, Hersby, & Bongiorno, 2011). In a field study (N = 301 workers and managers) we examined this association and identified two relevant factors that may hinder the acceptance of female leaders and stereotypically feminine characteristics in crisis management: instrumental (male) leadership role models and sexist attitudes. In doing so, we provide new insights into the “think crisis–think female” relationship and illustrate the potential implications of this occurrence for gender studies and for research into work and organizational psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There would appear to be an enduring belief that successful sportsmen and women can act as powerful motivational role models for young people, especially disaffected, disadvantaged or disengaged youth. In the UK, for example, this belief has been expressed recently in the development of programmes, such as changingLIVES, the Respect Athlete Mentor Programme and Playing For Success. There are further examples around the world of programmes based on similar beliefs including Sporting Partnerships, Athlete Development Australia, Active Girls Breakfast and the Whitelion Sports and Recreation program. This paper reports an evaluation of the changingLIVES ‘athlete mentor’ programme in the UK. This was a school-based programme using successful sports people to deliver a series of motivational activities to young people who were identified as being disengaged or disaffected in some way. Conceptual confusion in the terms ‘mentor’ and ‘role model’ evident in the literature was mirrored in the programme design. The design of an appropriate evaluation strategy was constrained by the scale of the programme aims and the comparatively low evaluation budget. Nonetheless, detailed data were collected on individual pupils. Evaluation data suggested that although the teachers and young people did report an immediate positive reaction to the activities, there was limited evidence of a wider impact on young people's behaviour, school attendance or self-esteem. It is argued that there should be greater conceptual clarity and a stronger evidence base supporting the design and delivery of interventions in schools that seek to use sports people as role models (or mentors) for young people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We add to the literature on job satisfaction by examining the role played by self-reported and spouse-reported work–family conflict for dual-earner husbands and wives (N = 156 couples, 312 individuals), a contagion model of work and family. Two path models of job satisfaction were tested: a spillover model, including the respondent's work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict, and a crossover model, including the spouse's perception of the respondent's work-to-family conflict. Workplace and family/respondent characteristics were also included in the models. For wives, job satisfaction is associated with family-to-work conflict (spillover). For husbands, job satisfaction is associated with his spouse's perception of his work-to-family conflict (crossover). For both husbands and wives, coworker support is both directly and indirectly associated with job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is commonly believed that men think about sex much more often than do women, but the empirical evidence in this area is fairly weak. By means of a golf tally counter, 283 college students kept track of their thoughts pertaining to food, sleep, or sex for one week. Males reported significantly more need-based cognitions overall, but there was no significant interaction between sex of participant and type of cognition recorded. Therefore, although these young men did think more about sex than did young women, they also thought more about food and sleep. In contrast, a retrospective estimated frequency of need-based cognitions obtained at the start of the study revealed a sex difference in sexual cognitions, but not thoughts about eating or sleeping. Erotophilia and sexual desirability responding were significant predictors of frequency of sexual cognitions for women, but not for men. Overall, erotophilia was a better predictor of sexual cognition than was sex of participant. Taken as a whole, the results suggest that, although there may be a sex difference in sexual cognitions, it is smaller than is generally thought, and the reporting is likely influenced by sex role expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify a public, state‐supported university’s role expectations of the presidential partner. The study identified various challenges and obstacles, as well as useful strategies for retaining the presidential partner’s professional identity as a professor. This paper will provide a glossary of terminology unique to this under‐reported population followed by a brief literature review of the history of the role expectations for public university presidential partners. The paper will continue with role theory as the framework, the methodology used in developing the study, and discuss the results with supporting narrative. The paper will conclude with a discussion of the results and further implications for practical use and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the biographical narratives of two mathematics teachers who describe themselves as 'traditional' and 'connectionist' teachers respectively. Holland et al.'s amalgam of Bourdieu, Vygotsky and Bakhtin, including 'figured worlds', 'positionality', 'self-authoring', and 'world-making' is used to examine these narratives. Differences between the two narratives include (i) their histories of compliant or oppositional identities as learners, and subsequently as teachers; (ii) their different experiences of 'understanding' and 'tricks', and (iii) their different use of figures as role models or anti-heroes in their self-authoring as teachers. It is argued that these narratives might 'make worlds' and provide future teachers in turn with figures for their own professional identity work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the behaviour of the elected representatives at the beginning of the transition period in former Communist countries provides an insight into some of the first freely elected parliaments after decades of authoritarianism. The role perception grasps the essence of how MPs position themselves in their decision-making process in a fuzzy institutional setting. By relying on the sole established institutions for that period (that is, political parties), this article tests to what extent the party type and size explain role orientations of the MPs in terms of delegates (from the party), trustees, and politicos. Using a dataset that includes over 600 MPs from four parliaments, this cross-national analysis reveals that MPs belonging to newly emerged and rather small parties are more likely to be party delegates compared with their colleagues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender role conflict (GRC) theory emphasizes social influences on masculine gender role expectations that produce negative outcomes among men. Because sport represents an influential domain in which boys learn expectations associated with manhood, this study explored masculinity socialization among high school football players through the lens of GRC. At the p < .05 significance criterion level, multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and multiple regression results suggest that year-in-school and athletic identity predicted differential levels of GRC, whereas year-in-school and restrictive emotionality predicted help-seeking attitudes. Findings can help sport psychologists assist adolescent males in making lessons learned on the gridiron applicable to relationships, to the classroom, and other domains of life outside of football. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the intergenerational family relationships of grandparents and GLBQ grandchildren. Reviewing empirical research on GLBQ family of origin relationships that includes materials on grandparent-GLBQ grandchild relationships, this paper examines the following: (1) disclosure patterns with grandparents, (2) social expectations that exist about coming out to grandparents, (3) social expectations of GLBQ grandchildren when coming out to grandparents, (4) the mediating role of parents and other extended family in grandparent-GLBQ grandchild relationships, and (5) theorizing differences among grandparent-GLBQ grandchild relationships. This review indicates that grandparents have been overlooked in existing empirical research on GLBQ family relationships. Grandparents may be a unique source of support for younger GLBQ individuals and their parents. Future research may usefully incorporate grandparents, as well as other extended family members, to better understand the experience of coming out in families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequently missing from official accounts of European involvement in colonial territories is documentation of the contribution made and support provided by the wives who accompanied their husbands. The scientific investigation of the disease kuru, which afflicted the Fore people of New Guinea, provides one such example. From the early 1960s, a succession of medical researchers with their wives and families were based in the Okapa area of the Eastern Highlands. The narratives of three European wives and the spouse of a Fore assistant are the focus of this paper, which employs three contextual frameworks—“dutiful wives”, “colonial wives” and “invisible helpers”—to explore their roles and experiences and the contribution they made to the kuru inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A total of 235 adolescents and college students from Aruba, St. Lucia, Tennessee, and Alabama participated in this study that measured various aspects of well-being. The Life Factors Questionnaire measured participants' responses on such self-reported measures as health, intelligence, subjective well-being, responses to stress, optimism, depressive symptoms, and on several open-ended queries of participants' perceptions on life goals, role models, and important values. Results show that overall groups were quite similar on most of the well-being variables measured. Older participants tended to report more depressive symptoms than their younger counterparts. American adolescents and college students had more depressive symptoms than their Caribbean counterparts. Seventh-Day Adventist adolescents reported twice as many depressive symptoms than students from different religious affiliations (Roman Catholic and other religions). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As business firms embrace the emerging strategic sales organizations, they need to be mindful of the intra-organizational factors that may facilitate or challenge this transformation and its related strategic imperatives. Using depth-interview data collected from 38 sales and marketing executives, this study highlights the similarities and differences in sales and marketing personnel's perceptions about the role they and their counterparts may play in the strategic process. Drawing on these insights, it then brings forth the 'role-related' and 'process-related' factors that may facilitate and challenge strategic imperatives associated with the new sales paradigm. This paper thus highlights the nuances of the role expectations within the sales-marketing interface, and its impact on strategic imperatives that may determine the firm's movement toward a strategic customer management philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engagement in social activities impacts the health outcomes of older adults, especially as regards mortality and physical and cognitive disability. Participation and its benefits vary by socioeconomic gradient and ethnicity. This research aims to identify activities of interest to diverse older adults and factors that influence participation (barriers, motives, perceived benefits, and role expectations). We conducted five focus groups throughout Baltimore City with nonactive elders stratified by class, gender, and ethnicity. Activities, motives, and barriers varied across groups. Differences may exist in the challenges and facilitators for maintaining socially active lifestyles among different groups of older adults. Common barriers were found across the groups, in particular the absence of adequate transportation and financial resources, as well as health in the form of mobility difficulties. Nuanced differences among the groups described may help target interventions to particular groups as needed and create opportunities for engagement where extrinsic barriers might exist. Findings were disseminated to community partners to improve awareness of social factors in developing health-promoting strategies for active and meaningful roles for older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth from diverse societies need to understand the importance of human rights and become involved in related projects that insure the human rights of peoples in local cultures worldwide. For this reason, it was particularly notable that young people from countries all over the world participated in the recent annual conference of non-governmental organizations accredited at the United Nations, that was held in Paris in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This paper reports on youth participation at that meeting, with particular emphasis on experiences of several young psychologists who attended and a group of student journalists who participated in the unique student journalism program under the auspices of the Conference Planning Committee composed of NGOs accredited with the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) as well as staff of DPI. Included are their definitions of the meaning of human rights, their role models, the youth caucus, narratives the young participants found most impactful, and their motivation for action and new life directions based on what they heard and shared. Examples are given of the students' journalism reports about the conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to better understand what undergraduate students in hospitality and tourism management (HTM) in China expected from their future career. Different types of career goals and expectations were examined. A sample of 503 undergraduate students from HTM programs at four different universities in China was surveyed. Results showed that a majority of the undergraduate students were interested in pursuing a career in the hospitality and tourism industry and expressed a desire for an advanced degree. Students reported a variety of topics learned during their HTM studies that proved valuable for their future careers. The topics most reported were management, marketing, economics, tourism psychology, introduction to tourism, industrial practices, English, service attitude, and communication. No interest in the hospitality and tourism industry was cited by the students as the major reason they did not want to enter the industry. Opportunities for personal development and high salaries were found to be the most important goals for students to pursue after graduation. Implications for hospitality and tourism educators and industry employers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims were to examine the relationships of 128 elderly couples married longer than 45 years and the role division between the partners, including a comparison of their perceptions of their first 3 years of their marriage with today. The research hypotheses were (a) there will be a change in the couple's perceptions about the traditional roles at the time of their marriage as opposed to today, and (b) men and women who recognize a change in traditional role division will experience better mental well-being than those who do not. The results showed a change in the couple's perceptions about traditional role division during the years of marriage. It was also found that these changes showed a positive correlation to the couple's mental well-being in those couples who recognized the changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on an investigation into the dynamics of masculinity in two male elementary school teachers' lives. It draws on a poststructuralist approach to empirical analysis that is informed by Sondergaard who argues for the need to attend to the 'constitution of social practices and cultural patterns' through which subjects make sense of their lived experiences. This approach, it is argued, is supported by Convery who stresses the need to 'sensitively confront' the identity claims that are inscribed through teacher narratives. In this sense, the author provides an account of the dynamics of masculinity in two male elementary school teachers' lives, which attend to issues of sexuality and social class in examining how gendered identity management impacts on pedagogical practices and philosophical approaches to teaching. This poststructuralist analytic inquiry, with its emphasis on interrogating essentialized notions of fixed identity, illuminates the contradictory practices of hegemonic masculinity in male elementary school teachers' lives. Such empirical inquiry, it is further argued, is necessary given the failure of educational policy, in its insistence on the need for more male role models in elementary schools, to deal adequately with the complexities and significance of male teachers' masculinities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In physical education, bodies are not only moved but made. There are perceived expectations for bodies in physical education to be 'healthy bodies'—for teachers to be 'appropriate' physical, fit, healthy and skilful 'role models' and for students to display a slim body that is equated with fitness and health. In teachers' monitoring of students with the intention of regulating health behaviour, however, the surveillance of students' bodies and associated assumptions about health practices are implicated in the (re)production of the 'cult of the body'. In this paper, we consider issues of embodiment and power in a subject area where the visual and active body is central and we use data from Australian and Swedish schools to analyse the discourses of health and embodiment in physical education. In both Swedish and Australian physical education there were discourses related to a fit healthy body and an at risk healthy body. These discourses also acted through a range of techniques of power, particularly regulation and normalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative, descriptive, secondary analysis of spousal caregivers (n = 20) examined similarities and differences in help-seeking patterns to understand the processes underlying decisions regarding resource use. Husbands were comfortable with letting others assume care or getting others to provide care while wives felt responsible for providing care. Both groups underutilized available services. Gender, role expectations, past coping, and family relationships contributed to differences between groups. An important implication is that services should be gender-specific. Understanding spousal help-seeking patterns may enable health professionals to better provide assistance for elder spousal caregivers so that they continue to provide care and reduce burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work students create should help them develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed in the adult world. In this article, the authors identify adult roles essential for young people to develop and outline ways teachers can use curriculum standards to create assignments and assessments that prepare youths for those adult roles in society. They also provide guidelines for scoring these assessments and a sample rubric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popular media have made gay and lesbian individuals increasingly visible. In educational contexts, this has led to an increased recognition of gay and lesbian adults as potential role models. But it should be understood by educators that "openness" about gay and lesbian topics is largely confined to the media, and many portrayals remain stereotypical. Persistent taboos against openly addressing issues related to the sexuality of young people in schools are entrenched. Educators who deal with adolescents are limited by custom, expectation, and in many cases statute when it comes to addressing the needs of LGBT and questioning youth. Three recent books may help teachers, counselors, and school administrators understand more fully LGBT and questioning students' needs. The reviewed books are Ritch C. Savin-Williams' The New Gay Teenage,; David Campos' Understanding Gay and Lesbian Youth, and Shane L. Windmeyer's The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY. Like other women in our culture, lesbians find parental caretaking is a gendered expectation that often falls to them. This article explores how we negotiate competing demands and integrate our parents' needs into our lives. The daughter/parent relationship may have been strained by parental homophobia, exclusion of our partner, "splitting" between our lesbian and birth family lives, and physical distance. We may recall feelings of metaphorical and physical caretaking not offered to us when we came out, when lack of parental support may have brought financial abandonment and emotional upset. Inversion of the relationship into the child as parental caretaker, fraught with mixed emotions, can bring resolution of long-held resentments and pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women planners in Africa do not constitute a critical mass: their numbers remain negligible and their output unrecognised, while mentors and role models still tend to be male. Women's experiences are undervalued, and their knowledge is often excluded in policy, project planning, and implementation. This article arises not from systematic academic research but from confessional, reflective, pilot research based on personal experience and the experiences reported by 25 women planners between 1999 and 2004. It deliberately seeks to break the monotony of drawing from survey results which are often detached from experiential and emotional encounters. Using anecdotal material from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, it examines the training and professional environment of the 'planneress'; and discusses the emotions, expectations, and experiences of female planners in everyday encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how mentoring and female role models enhance perceptions of self-worth and career aspirations for adolescent girls from low socioeconomic backgrounds. It describes an eight-week project that provided nine girls from the slums of Bangladesh with female role models and mentors in a modern work environment. The project involved collaboration between a charity hostel for low-income girls and a private international school that aimed to raise self-esteem and awareness of non-traditional career and lifestyle options for the participating girls. Qualitative data collected during the project from participants' diaries, focus group discussions, and mentor and participant interviews are analysed for evidence of the effectiveness of mentoring for empowerment rather than skill acquisition. The author concludes with reflection on the potential use of mentoring in non-formal educational and vocational settings for the empowerment of adolescent girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for more male role models in young boys' lives is one of the main reasons underpinning the call for more male teachers in primary schools. However, the exact responsibilities and attributes associated with the term 'male role model' have yet to be clearly established. The purpose of this survey of 250 New Zealand primary school principals was to investigate the views of one major group of stakeholders to determine how principals defined male role models and what they considered the specific attributes of that role. The study found that the principals favoured men who exhibit a hegemonic masculinity couched in heterosexual, rugby-playing, 'real men' attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]