The Moderating Role of Hardiness and Social Support in the Relation Between Job Stressors and Well-Being. A Lesson From a Clerical Women Sample

The study concerns the moderating role of two variables—hardiness and social support—in the relation between job stressors and well-being. It was checked if there is a connection between hardiness and social support, and if these variables are directly related to the level of well-being. It was also hypothesized that hardiness and social support buffer the negative influence of stressors on well-being. The fact that social support and well-being are multidimensional variables was taken into account.

The cross-sectional study was conducted on a group of 200 women employed as office workers. The results showed that hardiness correlates with the indexes of emotional support as well as practical support coming from supervisors. The connection, however, was not strong. Hardiness and social support were directly connected with the level of well-being. Interaction of these two independent variables played a marginal role. As far as the buffering role of these variables was concerned, the results have shown that hardiness did not play a buffering role and social support did to a limited degree only.

The results of the study proved that it is justifiable to treat social support and well-being as multidimensional variables.     

Occupational Health and Social Resources

There is a relationship between the changes in work-related diseases and the following factors: the transformation of the organization of work, organizational development, as well as human and social changes in the work environment. These factors also influence the maintenance of industrial health and safety standards at work. Safety technology will continue to be important, but will be reduced in significance compared to the so-called soft factors, that is, all dimensions and parameters affecting people’s health and social environment at the work place.

It seems that in the future the relationship between the social resource development and work protection will become more relevant. Social resource development influences the quality of work performance and motivation, the quality of work and work protection, the likelihood of accidents and breakdowns, and the level of self-control and capacity of change.

The consequences of work protection research will be discussed in this article with a focus on the contribution of social sciences.     

When does centrality matter? Scientific productivity and the moderating role of research specialization and cross‐community ties

The present study addresses the ongoing debate concerning academic scientific productivity. Specifically, given the increasing number of collaborations in academia and the crucial role networks play in knowledge creation, we investigate the extent to which building social capital within the academic community represents a valuable resource for a scientist's knowledge‐creation process. We measure the social capital in terms of structural position within the academic collaborative network. Furthermore, we analyse the extent to which an academic scientist's research specialization and ties that cross‐community boundaries act as moderators of the aforementioned relationship. Empirical results derived from an analysis of an Italian academic community from 2001 to 2008 suggest academic scientists that build social capital by occupying central positions in the community outperform their more isolated colleagues. However, scientific productivity declines beyond a certain threshold value of centrality, hence revealing the existence of an inverted U‐shaped relationship. This relationship is negatively moderated by the extent to which an academic focuses research activities in few scientific knowledge domains, whereas it is positively moderated by the number of cross‐community ties established. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Asian Americans and workplace discrimination: The interplay between sex of evaluators and the perception of social skills

In two role‐playing scenarios, we investigate how White male and female evaluators perceive an Asian American versus White job candidate on the dimensions of competence and social skills and how these perceptions affect evaluators' decisions in hiring and promotion. Specifically, Study 1 examines how the perceptions of competence and social skills affect Asian (versus White) college graduates' chance of obtaining a non‐technical (versus technical) position, and Study 2 tests how these perceptions affect Asians' probability of promotion relative to Whites'. Our findings suggest that female evaluators were less likely to select Asian than White candidates into positions involving social skills and were less likely to promote Asian than White candidates into these types of positions. Furthermore, female evaluators' perception that Asians were less socially skilled than Whites mediated both of these decisions. This paper contributes to the understanding of workplace discrimination of Asian Americans. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

我国煤矿安全生产事故的致灾因素分析

煤矿安全不仅关系到广大煤矿工人的生命财产安全、煤炭的安全开采,还关系到煤炭企业的和谐稳定.煤矿安全工作是党和政府管理社会、为人民服务的基本任务,是全面落实科学发展观、建设和谐社会的重要组成部分.首先对我国煤矿安全形势进行了分析,随后介绍了事故致因理论的发展,结合我国煤矿事故的特点运用现代事故致因理论对一起煤矿事故进行了分析,最后得出提高煤矿安全监管的措施.     

数量化理论Ⅲ及其在煤与瓦斯突出危险性评估中的应用

研究了数量化理论Ⅲ建立煤与瓦斯突出危险性的原理和方法,以瓦斯地质学理论为基础,建立了包括煤层瓦斯含量、煤层瓦斯压力、煤层分岔合并现象、地质构造复杂程度、煤的破坏类型等11个地质因素的煤层突出危险性评估指标体系。以数量化理论Ⅲ为工具,实例分析得出马依西一井3煤层突出危险性的敏感地质因素及因素轴F1,以该轴上得分大于0.1的地质因素作为强突出的敏感地质因素;得分小于-0.1的地质因素作为弱突出的敏感地质因素,得分在0.1--0.1之间的地质因素作为中等突出的敏感地质因素,将矿井划分为强突出、中等突出和弱突出三个区域。该方法实现了地勘阶段煤与瓦斯突出的定量分析,进一步细化了突出区域的划分。     

Exploring the lay/expert divide: the attribution of responsibilities for coal ash pollution in Tuzla,Bosnia and Herzegovina

Invoking expert knowledge is a common strategy in attempts to settle environmental disputes. However, the validity of expertise is contingent upon the context in which an actor is recognised as an expert. In complex environmental conflicts the distinction between lay and expert knowledge is not always fixed a priori. However, as conflicts unfold, intervening parties tend to present their cases in ways that reinforce this distinction. This is apparent in the attribution of environmental responsibilities. This paper presents an empirical case of an environmental conflict related to land contamination due to coal ash disposal in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The analysis revealed two polar positions in the conflict: the first one, mainly held by scientists and industry representatives, invoked expert knowledge and presented a distributed approach to the attribution of responsibilities; the second one, mainly held by local residents and municipal officials, presented an experiential understanding of pollution, as lay knowledge, and attributed direct responsibilities to the local energy industry. The paper concludes that the persistence of the distinction between expert and lay knowledge is a manifestation of the social structures that underlie the conflict.     

Social capital networks for achieving sustainable development

There have been few empirical studies investigating whether and how social capital (SC) relates to better achievement of sustainability goals and, if so, how. This research investigates the roles three types of SC, namely, bonding, bridging, and bracing SC, play in achieving sustainable development (SD), using a case study of the Japanese region to explore the process of SC accumulation leading to collective action. The research question as to whether SC accumulation makes a difference in the progress towards sustainability is addressed qualitatively and quantitatively using a case study, and network and regression analysis; in particular the impact and functions of bracing SC are closely investigated. The study concludes that SC accumulation can indeed make a difference in achieving sustainability and that bracing SC plays an essential role in expediting the processes of goal sharing and resource flow by connecting various networks across sectors and scales, thereby making collective action possible. These findings suggest that creating an environment in which the generation of all three types of SC is encouraged may help local governments to achieve their desired policy goals for SD.     

Made in conflict. Local residents' construction of a local environmental problem

The aim of this paper is to understand how local residents participate in the construction of local environmental problems and to evaluate a particular analytical approach in environmental sociology to study this phenomenon. The paper is based on an interview study with a sample of local residents. The analysis demonstrates how the local residents attempt to construct a local environmental problem. In particular, the study focuses on how involved actors are positioned, how different sorts of knowledge claims are used, and how the neglect the residents perceive from the authorities affects the attempt to construct a local environmental problem. The study shows that the local residents play a central role in the construction of the situation and that the evaluated model could be very helpful as an analytical tool in the investigation of local residents' participation in the construction of environmental problems.     

Sustainability and social inclusion? Examining the frames of Canadian English-speaking environmental movement organisations

Some scholars and activists have suggested that discourses of environmental sustainability do not include sufficient attention to social issues or environmental justice. Since social inclusion is a prevalent masterframe among activists and in social policy circles in Canada and elsewhere, our research explored the extent that English-speaking Canadian environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) incorporate discursive aspects of social inclusion into their website communication. Social inclusion includes such issues as multiculturalism, gender inequality, low income and racialisation. We analysed mission statements, programmes and policy analysis presented by a sample of ENGOs drawn from the membership of the Canadian Environmental Network for evidence of a variety of indicators of attention to social inclusion. We conclude that environmental groups remain locked into an “environmentalist” frame that often ignores such issues. This has major implications for partnerships with other Canadian social movements.