Organizational embeddedness,turnover intentions,and voluntary turnover: The moderating effects of employee demographic characteristics and value orientations

To explain why some employees who experience high embeddedness contemplate leaving their organizations and others do not, we examined the moderating effects of employee demographic characteristics (age and gender) and value orientations (individualism and risk aversion) between organizational embeddedness and turnover intentions. Turnover intentions were further expected to increase voluntary turnover. Data were collected from 643 full‐time employees at three points in time over a 12‐month time period in a wide range of organizations in Japan, a relatively low turnover context with little prior embeddedness research. Findings show that gender and risk aversion moderate the relationship between organizational embeddedness and turnover intentions, which in turn predict voluntary turnover. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rethinking the contribution of indigenous management in small-scale water provision among selected rural communities in Cameroon

This paper describes the pro-active role of rural communities in negotiating livelihood and sustenance through the improvement of some of their local water sources. It discusses the strategies put in place to ensure the availability of water, one of the worlds scarcest natural resources. Despite some external assistance, local communities are increasingly shouldering the responsibility of ensuring the availability of water through self-reliant efforts. These attempts are being undermined by a high incidence of waterborne and water-related diseases, which are impacting on health, and hygiene and other health care delivery systems. The management of potable water is proving to be a herculean task for most communities after the departure of funding partners. To guarantee the proper maintenance of pipe borne water schemes, communities are rethinking their strategies as they grapple with difficulties to put in place viable techniques for sustainability of water supply schemes.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Care and career: A family identity‐based typology of dual‐earner couples

The rise of dual‐earner couples challenges traditional gender stereotypes of women as “caregivers” and men as “breadwinners” and significantly impacts the ways in which partners define their roles as family members. The way in which individuals construe their family identities has implications not only for the decisions they make at home but also decisions in the workplace. In this paper, we propose an updated understanding of the different ways in which men and women can construe their family identity—specifically, in terms of care and/or career. Based upon this nuanced understanding of family identity, we outline five dual‐earner couple types—traditional, non‐traditional, family first, outsourced, and egalitarian—that stem from distinct combinations of partners' family identities. We also outline an agenda for theory and research that challenges scholars to further explore our proposed construals of family identity, work–family decisions at the couple level of analysis, and the interplay between family identity and social context. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

体育馆建筑内青年学生疏散预动作时间调查和分析

通过组织火灾应急疏散逃生演习、现场问卷调查等方式,统计了体育馆内人员的疏散预动作时间,进而建立多分变量逻辑斯蒂回归模型对该统计数据进行了研究.发现:男生选择疏散预动作时间为＜30 s的可能性是女生的0.886倍,选择疏散预动作时间为30-60 s的可能性是女生的2.818倍.预测人员疏散预动作时间为＜30 s、30 -60 s、＞60s的概率,男生分别为15.45％,75.61％、8.94％,而女生分别为24.14％,39.72％、36.14％;研究结果表明:人员性别的不同对疏散预动作时间有一定的影响,在体育馆类建筑中,青少年人员疏散预动作时间基本上小于60 s.     

Autonomous emergency braking systems adapted to snowy road conditions improve drivers' perceived safety and trust

Objective: This study investigated drivers' evaluation of a conventional autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system on high and reduced tire–road friction and compared these results to those of an AEB system adaptive to the reduced tire–road friction by earlier braking. Current automated systems such as the AEB do not adapt the vehicle control strategy to the road friction; for example, on snowy roads. Because winter precipitation is associated with a 19% increase in traffic crashes and a 13% increase in injuries compared to dry conditions, the potential of conventional AEB to prevent collisions could be significantly improved by including friction in the control algorithm. Whereas adaption is not legally required for a conventional AEB system, higher automated functions will have to adapt to the current tire–road friction because human drivers will not be required to monitor the driving environment at all times. For automated driving functions to be used, high levels of perceived safety and trust of occupants have to be reached with new systems. The application case of an AEB is used to investigate drivers' evaluation depending on the road condition in order to gain knowledge for the design of future driving functions.

Methods: In a driving simulator, the conventional, nonadaptive AEB was evaluated on dry roads with high friction (μ = 1) and on snowy roads with reduced friction (μ = 0.3). In addition, an AEB system adapted to road friction was designed for this study and compared with the conventional AEB on snowy roads with reduced friction. Ninety-six drivers (48 males, 48 females) assigned to 5 age groups (20–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59, and 60–75 years) drove with AEB in the simulator. The drivers observed and evaluated the AEB's braking actions in response to an imminent rear-end collision at an intersection.

Results: The results show that drivers' safety and trust in the conventional AEB were significantly lower on snowy roads, and the nonadaptive autonomous braking strategy was considered less appropriate on snowy roads compared to dry roads. As expected, the adaptive AEB braking strategy was considered more appropriate for snowy roads than the nonadaptive strategy. In conditions of reduced friction, drivers' subjective safety and trust were significantly improved when driving with the adaptive AEB compared to the conventional AEB. Women felt less safe than men when AEB was braking. Differences between age groups were not of statistical significance.

Conclusions: Drivers notice the adaptation of the autonomous braking strategy on snowy roads with reduced friction. On snowy roads, they feel safer and trust the adaptive system more than the nonadaptive automation.     

Three lessons for gender equity in biodiversity conservation

Amid a growing global agenda, biodiversity conservation has embraced gender equity as a pillar of equitable and effective practice. Gender equity has become enshrined in the global environment and development agenda through global commitments, policy and funding. However, for various reasons, conservation biodiversity often takes a simplistic view of gender as synonymous with women or as a dualism between women and men. This narrow view risks promoting inequitable processes and ineffective outcomes. Deeper engagement with feminist theory, and feminist political ecology in particular, could help advance biodiversity conservation's approach to how gender is understood, framed and integrated. Engaging with lessons from feminist political ecology can help advance gender equity in conservation through attention to power dynamics, intersectionality, and subjectivity.     

Comparison of Canadian firefighters and healthy controls based on submaximal fitness testing and strength considering age and gender

Introduction. Few studies have addressed whether firefighters are fitter than the general population and possess sufficient levels of aerobic capacity and muscle strength to perform on-duty tasks in a safe and efficient manner, considering age and gender. We aimed to evaluate the fitness levels of Hamilton firefighters, and to determine the effects of age and gender. Methods. In total, 89 participants were recruited. The modified Canadian aerobic fitness test was used to determine participants’ estimated maximal oxygen consumption (V_O2max) levels. For upper and lower body strength levels, a calibrated J-Tech hand-held dynamometer and a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) lifting device was used respectively. Results. Firefighters’ mean (SD) V_O2max level was 40.30?±?6.25?ml·kg^?1·min^?1. Age proved to have a statistically significant impact on V_O2max (p?<?0.001). Gender displayed statistically significant effects on strength levels. Firefighters’ age was the only statistically significant independent variable, and accounted for 61.00% of the variance in firefighters’ aerobic capacity levels. Conclusions. Firefighters possessed somewhat similar aerobic capacities but much higher levels of body strength when compared with the general population. With age, firefighters’ aerobic capacities decreased; however, their upper and lower body strength levels remained the same.     

Gender and career success: A typology and analysis of dual paradigms

Despite women's advancements in the workplace, gender inequality persists. We classify and test two frameworks used to explain gender differences in career success: unequal attributes and unequal effects. The unequal attributes framework suggests that gender is related to other attributes, which result in unequal career outcomes for men and women (i.e., a mediated effect). The unequal effects framework suggests that even when men and women share the same attribute or circumstances, they are rewarded differently, such that individual attributes have unequal effects on career outcomes for men and women (i.e., a moderated effect). We collected survey data from a gender‐balanced sample of 394 business school alumni. Using structural equation modeling to test the unequal attributes framework, we found that work hours, career orientation, having a nonemployed spouse, and working in a predominantly female job were unequal attributes that explained gender differences in career success. Using multigroup path analysis to examine unequal effects, we found that being agentic, married, having children at home, and working in a predominantly female workplace had unequal effects in relation to career success for men and women. We find support for both models across three categories of career success antecedents (i.e., personal, family, and job attributes).     

居民用电消费回弹效应研究:基于人均收入和性别差异的视角

居民住户用电消费的回弹效应对中国建设节约型社会具有重要影响,但从居民住户微观调查视角对用电回弹效应进行分析并剖析回弹效应影响因素的文献较为少见。本文基于CGSS数据库1969个居民数据,采用双对数模型测算中国居民用电的回弹效应,并通过分组回归法探讨影响回弹效应的因素。得到以下结论:①中国居民用电消费存在回弹效应(43.51%),表明当用电效率提高时,预期节电量的43.51%将被用电成本降低导致额外增加的电量消费所抵消;②人均收入对居民用电的回弹效应具有显著作用,收入水平与回弹效应呈现倒V型趋势;③性别差异对居民用电的回弹效应存在显著影响,男性消费者的回弹效应明显高于女性。鉴于上述结论,政府在制定居民节能政策时需要重视电力消费的回弹效应,并针对不同收入群体和性别差异采取针对性举措。