Societal individualism–collectivism and uncertainty avoidance as cultural moderators of relationships between job resources and strain

The job demands–resources model is a dominant theoretical framework that describes the influence of job demands and job resources on employee strain. Recent research has highlighted that the effects of job demands on strain vary across cultures, but similar work has not explored whether this is true for job resources. Given that societal characteristics can influence individuals' cognitive structures and, to a lesser extent, values in a culture, we address this gap in the literature and argue that individuals' strain in reaction to job resources may differ across cultures. Specifically, we theorize that the societal cultural dimensions of individualism–collectivism and uncertainty avoidance shape individual‐level job resource–strain relationships, as they dictate which types of resources (i.e., individual vs. group preference‐oriented and uncertainty‐reducing vs. not) are more likely to be valued, used, or effective in combating strain within a culture. Results revealed that societal individualism–collectivism and uncertainty avoidance independently moderated the relationships between certain job resources (i.e., job control, participation in decision making, and clear goals and performance feedback) and strain (i.e., job satisfaction and turnover intentions). This study expands our understanding of the cross‐cultural specificity versus generalizability of the job demands–resources model.     

The protective effect of job satisfaction in health,happiness, well-being and self-esteem

The purpose of this article is to analyze the possible effects of job satisfaction on mental and physical health, happiness, subjective well-being and self-esteem. A total of 971 Portuguese-speaking adults participated in this study. Most participants reported high rates of satisfaction with their colleagues, the nature of their work and leadership, while reporting dissatisfaction with regard to salaries and promotions. Results indicated the existence of the protector effect of job satisfaction for health, happiness, subjective well-being and self-esteem, in addition to reinforcing the importance of maintaining a positive evaluation of one’s work. As a practical implication, the results may suggest that the effects of personnel management policies which emphasize job satisfaction could potentially lead to improvements in levels of health, happiness, subjective well-being and workers’ self-esteem, all of which are factors that can potentially improve organizational performance. The study also considered its limitations and the possibility for future investigation.     

补贴流向与耕地保护经济补偿政策农户满意度绩效——以成都市耕地保护基金为例

从农户满意度绩效出发,在理论分析基础上提出相关研究假说,并基于全国率先探索耕地保护基金的成都市的实地调研数据,利用ordered probit模型,实证检验了耕地保护补贴流向对耕地保护经济补偿政策农户满意度的影响。研究结果表明:(1)转出土地的农户比转入土地或未流转土地的农户对耕地保护经济补偿政策有更高的满意度。土地转出行为使农民对补偿政策"非常不满意"、"不满意"和"一般"的概率分别下降0.3%、4.8%和11%,并使农民对补偿政策"满意"和"非常满意"的概率分别上升14.4%和1.7%。(2)土地转入行为则使农民对补偿政策"非常不满意"、"不满意"和"一般"的概率分别上升9.3%、35.4%和0.7%,并使农民对补偿政策"满意"和"非常满意"的概率分别下降42.9%和2.6%。为提高耕地保护经济补偿政策农户满意度绩效,政府应合理分配有限的耕地保护补贴资金,补贴资金应优先向土地转入户倾斜,提高实际上在承担耕地保护责任的土地转入户保护耕地的积极性。     

土地利用规划的生态满意度评价与环境影响分析

摘 要： 土地利用总体规划的环境影响包括对传统环境影响评价要素的影响及对区域人-地系统的影响。土地利用总体规划中的刚性方案与弹性方案的环境影响有着不同的表现形式,它们使得土地利用规划的环境影响评价变得更为复杂。鉴于土地利用总体规划这一环境影响评价对象的特殊性,提出了土地利用总体规划环境影响分析与生态满意度评价的方法。根据仙桃市土地利用总体规划方案,识别了各种污染源。在MAPGIS支持下进行了面域分析与空间统计处理,预测了规划实施后主要环境指标的变化;根据预测的规划实施后的生态指标变化,进行生态满意度评价。结果表明：规划区预测生态满意度值为7485,生态环境总体处于良好水平,但水污染还比较严重,应该加强治理,固体废物无害化处理也应该得到重视。土地利用总体规划环境影响评价存在着诸多不确定性,评价过程中应根据规划内容与区域差异选择合适的指标建构生态满意度评价体系。     

Does the presence of wind turbines have negative externalities for people in their surroundings? Evidence from well-being data

Throughout the world, governments foster the deployment of wind power to mitigate negative externalities of conventional electricity generation, notably CO₂ emissions. Wind turbines, however, are not free of externalities themselves, particularly interference with landscape aesthetics. We quantify these negative externalities using the life satisfaction approach. To this end, we combine household data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) with a novel panel dataset on over 20,000 installations. Based on geographical coordinates and construction dates, we establish causality in a difference-in-differences design. Matching techniques drawing on exogenous weather data and geographical locations of residence ensure common trend behaviour. We show that the construction of wind turbines close to households exerts significant negative external effects on residential well-being, although they seem both spatially and temporally limited, being restricted to about 4000 m around households and decaying after five years at the latest. Robustness checks, including view shed analyses based on digital terrain models and placebo regressions, confirm our results.     

Neighbourhood satisfaction,self-rated health,and psychological attributes: A multilevel analysis in Japan

Although earlier studies have demonstrated an association between neighbourhood perceptions and self-rated health, further study is needed regarding how this association is related to an individual's psychological attributes. Hence, we examined how self-rated health is associated with neighbourhood satisfaction after controlling for personality traits as well as other individual- and area-level covariates. We employed multilevel analysis using microdata collected from a nationwide Internet survey in Japan in 2011 (N = 8139). When controlling for personality traits, we observed that the odds for reporting poor health in response to neighbourhood dissatisfaction declined but remained highly significant. We obtained similar results when additionally controlling for sense of coherence (SOC) or replacing personality traits with it. We also found virtually no significant effect of personality traits or SOC on the sensitivity of self-rated health with neighbourhood dissatisfaction. Overall, this study indicated that the observed association between neighbourhood satisfaction and self-rated health tends to be overestimated, but cannot be fully explained by personality traits or SOC.     

On a combined theory of pay level satisfaction

For decades, research on pay level satisfaction has focused on two theories and one approach: the direct link theory, the discrepancy theory, and the no‐difference‐scores approach. However, there are still unsolved puzzles facing pay level satisfaction research. We develop a combined theory to consider the impact of the interaction of reported pay and pay discrepancy. With this newly developed theory, we expect that (a) both reported pay and pay discrepancy have main effects on pay level satisfaction; (b) reported pay and pay discrepancy also interact with each other, in that the effect of pay discrepancy on pay level satisfaction decreases as pay level increases; (c) equitable payment is more related to pay level dissatisfaction when pay level is low; and (d) overpayment in general is related to pay level satisfaction, not dissatisfaction. An empirical study (N = 481) using four types of comparison standards was conducted, and the results supported our predictions. The findings of our study have important implications for both academic research and management practice.     

Factors Influencing Local Communities’ Satisfaction Levels with Different Forest Management Approaches of Kakamega Forest, Kenya

Satisfaction of communities living close to forests with forest management authorities is essential for ensuring continued support for conservation efforts. However, more often than not, community satisfaction is not systematically elicited, analyzed, and incorporated in conservation decisions. This study attempts to elicit levels of community satisfaction with three management approaches of Kakamega forest in Kenya and analyze factors influencing them. Three distinct management approaches are applied by three different authorities: an incentive-based approach of the Forest Department (FD), a protectionist approach of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), and a quasi-private incentive-based approach of Quakers Church Mission (QCM). Data was obtained from a random sample of about 360 households living within a 10-km radius around the forest margin. The protectionist approach was ranked highest overall for its performance in forest management. Results indicate that households are influenced by different factors in their ranking of management approaches. Educated households and those located far from market centers are likely to be dissatisfied with all the three management approaches. The location of the households from the forest margin influences negatively the satisfaction with the protectionist approach, whereas land size, a proxy for durable assets, has a similar effect on the private incentive based approach of the QCM. In conclusion, this article indicates a number of policy implications that can enable the different authorities and their management approaches to gain approval of the local communities.     

新生代农民工市民化问题探析——基于生活满意度视角

新生代农民工市民化是我国当前重大社会问题,了解新生代农民工市民化的需求与驱动力对于促进其主动市民化,构建和谐社会具有重要意义。本文认为农民工市民化的过程就是其在城镇就业、定居进而构建并不断提高生活满意程度的过程,因而生活满意度是新生代农民工市民化的实质驱动力。利用四川省成都市的实地调查数据与实证分析,基于296份新生代农民工的问卷调查,采用多元回归分析技术,探讨了经济收入、社会福利、社会地位及社会关系等对新生代农民工生活满意度的影响程度。分析结果表明:新生代农民工具有追求平等、发展与融入城市的强烈愿望,其生活满意程度取决于经济收入、社会福利、社会地位及社会关系等方面与城市人的横向比较结果。最后提出了就业环境公平化、社会福利均等化及市民化教育等对策建议,从而有利于促进其从经济、社会到心理的城市融入。     

Evaluation of the Environmentalist Dimension of Ecotourism at the Dadia Forest Reserve (Greece)

Environmental education and financial support of nature conservation are considered among the primary components of the environmentalist dimension of ecotourism. The potential of environmental education calls for enhancing visitor environmental knowledge and prompting change of visitor behavior. The present study addressed the evaluation of the environmentalist dimension of ecotourism in the Dadia Forest Reserve. The first objective of the research was to study the influence of variables determined prior to the visit, namely, visitor and visit characteristics, visitor environmental information sources, visitor pro-environmental behavior, and visitation goals, on variables determined during the visit, that is, visitor participation in and satisfaction from ecotourism activities. The second objective was to study the effect of selected variables on visitor knowledge and behavior intentions. Visitor participation in and satisfaction from ecotourism activities were primarily controlled by visit characteristics. Levels of visitor knowledge were quite satisfactory; however, coherence among knowledge items was rather loose. On the other hand, behavior intention items revealed the highest possible degree of coherence, which should be attributed to the pervasive influence of visitor satisfaction from watching birds at the Bird Observatory within the Dadia Forest Reserve. Ecotourism activities, during which the main part of environmental knowledge was offered, exerted no effect on visitor knowledge; all the same, they significantly influenced visitor behavior intentions. Overall, visitor behavior intentions revealed a considerable potential of financing environmental protection and providing voluntary work in the frame of the environmental management of the Dadia Forest Reserve.