Public Management Reform. A Comparative Analysis

Peter Berger (1929) is an American sociologist best known for his collaboration with Thomas Luckman in writing The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. That book argues that human reality, and knowledge of it, is a social construct, emerging from the individual or group’s interaction with larger social structures (institutions). Social structures, once widely adopted, lose their history as social constructions (objectivation), and come over time, by the people who live within them, to be deemed natural realities independent of human construction (reification). Berger predicted, in his later book, The Sacred Canopy, near-term all-encompassing secularization of religion, which prediction has proved false, especially in the third world (as Berger himself has acknowledged in his later work, Desecularization).

神圣的帷幕 : 宗教社会学理论之要素 = The sacred canopy elements of a sociological theory of religion

http://www.foodaddictionsummit.org/docs/Gearhardt_2008_Appetite.pdf

Preliminary validation of the Yale Food Addiction Scale

Part I. Introduction: 1. Do rules matter? 2. Classifying electoral systems 3. Evaluating electoral systems Part II. The Consequences for Voting Behavior: 4. Party systems 5. Social cleavages 6. Party loyalties 7. Turnout Part III. The Consequences for Political Representation: 8. Women 9. Ethnic minorities 10. Constituency service Part IV. Conclusions: 11. The impact of electoral engineering.

Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior

An Introduction to Probability Theory and its Applications, Volume I

Rob Eisinga, Manfred te Grotenhuis, Ben Pelzer Department of Social Science Research Methods and Department of Sociology, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands October 8 2012 To obtain reliable measures researchers prefer multiple-item questionnaires rather than single-item tests. Multiple-item questionnaires may be costly however and time-consuming for participants to complete. They therefore frequently administer two-item measures, the reliability of which is commonly assessed by computing a reliability coefficient. There is some disagreement, however, what the most appropriate indicator of scale reliability is when a measure is composed of two items. The most frequently reported reliability statistic for multiple-item scales is Cronbach’s coefficient alpha and many researchers report this coefficient for their two-item measure

/pdf/the-reliability-of-a-two-item-scale-pearson-cronbach-or-18modapbyn.pdf

The reliability of a two-item scale: Pearson, Cronbach, or Spearman-Brown?

https://isiarticles.com/bundles/Article/pre/pdf/31185.pdf

Gender differences in the association between alexithymia and emotional eating in obese individuals

This paper examines which factors affect organizational commitment among Dutch university employees in two faculties with different academic identities (separatist versus hegemonist, Stiles, 2004). The analyses of Web survey data reveal that in the separatist faculty decentralization, compensation, training/development, positional tenure and career mobility have significant effects. Age, organizational tenure, level of autonomy, working hours, social involvement and personal importance significantly affect the employees' organizational commitment in the hegemonist faculty. Participation, social interactions and job level are factors that are important in both faculties. The findings indicate that the set of factors affecting the organizational commitment of employees differs between the separatist and hegemonist faculties. The findings empirically support the argument that different configurations or ‘bundles’ of HRM practices (Delery and Doty, 1996; Guest, 1997) are suited for organizations with differen...

/pdf/the-effects-of-hrm-practices-and-antecedents-on-1r9knu7mun.pdf

The effects of HRM practices and antecedents on organizational commitment among university employees

Validity of self-reported weight and height and predictors of weight bias in female college students.

Background In recent years the Netherlands has witnessed a steep increase in the number of bodies donated for medical research and training To explore this upward trend and motives for donation, a survey was conducted among registered body donors in the database of the Department of Anatomy at the University Medical Center of Groningen (UMCG) Methods In November 2008, postal questionnaires were sent to 996 people enrolled at the UMCG body donor database The present study focuses on motives for donation and social background characteristics of the body donors Findings Registered donors responded quickly and the survey response rate was high (76%) The mean age of respondents was 69 years and the majority described themselves as Dutch (98%) and non-church affiliated (79%) One quarter (25%) of the respondents are/were health care professionals and 11% involved in education Principal factor analysis revealed three dimensions underlying ten different motivations for body donation: a desire to be useful after death, a negative attitude towards funerals and expression of gratitude Despite the current economic recession only 8% of respondents are prompted by money motives to bequeath their bodies Conclusions The majority of motives for body donation stem from the wish to be useful after death However, the present survey suggests that body donation is more than an altruistic act; people are also motivated by personal benefit Results of our survey contradict the notion that body donation stems from loneliness Many donors have a supportive social network and meaningful social relationships People moreover propagate body donation within their social networks

/pdf/motivation-for-body-donation-to-science-more-than-an-34vyvfdwt0.pdf

Rob Eisinga

Papers

The reliability of a two-item scale: Pearson, Cronbach, or Spearman-Brown?

Gender differences in the association between alexithymia and emotional eating in obese individuals

The effects of HRM practices and antecedents on organizational commitment among university employees

Validity of self-reported weight and height and predictors of weight bias in female college students.

Motivation for body donation to science: More than an altruistic act