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A limited body of research has examined satisfaction with work–life balance of expatriate workers who live abroad, residing outside the typical “family” or “life” domain. This study aims to demonstrate how and under which organizational circumstances job autonomy can increase work–life balance satisfaction of humanitarian aid expatriates. We hypothesize that especially in humanitarian work, trust in management can buffer potential negative effects of high autonomy. We test our hypothesis by means of ordinal logistic regression, using survey data collected among expatriates of the Operational Center Amsterdam of Médecins Sans Frontières ( N = 142). Results reveal that high levels of autonomy are positively related with work–life balance satisfaction when trust in the management of the organization is high. When trust in management is low, the effect of high autonomy on work–life balance satisfaction is negative. This implies that trust in management indeed buffers negative effects of high autonomy among expatriate humanitarian aid workers.

Collective action is a community resource crucial to ensure the resilience of communities. However, maintaining cooperation over time is also a significant challenge. Arguing that a major, though neglected, precondition for community resilience is sustained cooperation, this paper analyses the conditions triggering collective action in collective housing communities. Particular attention is paid to micro-level pathways through which characteristics of the common courtyard and the related rules for its use play for the maintenance or decay of collective action. The contours of an integrated theory of sustained cooperation is sketched. Drawing on Goal Framing (GF) theory and Common Pool Resource (CPR) theory, it is argued that CPR management institutions can only be effective in a community in which a normative goal frame is salient. Empirical material is presented from a multi-method comparative case study of four low-income urban collective housing communities in Mexico City in 2010. This evidence corroborates both approaches: the two communities characterized by sustained collective action exhibit a salient normative frame in combination with all elements of CPR managing institutions, whereas the two communities with failed collective action do not meet these conditions. The results suggest that both mechanisms are necessary for sustained cooperation to occur.

Background Informal caregiving is becoming more relevant with current trends such as population ageing. However, little is known about nonconsent and nonresponse bias in caregiving research. We investigated nonconsent and nonresponse bias in a sample of informal caregivers who participated in the LifeLines Cohort Study, and were invited for participation in an additional caregiving study. Methods We compared socio-demographic characteristics, caregiver health, caregiving situation, and caregiver outcomes of nonconsent and consent caregivers, and nonresponse and response caregivers, on LifeLines data, by using Chi-square tests, Independent Sample T-tests, and Mann-Whitney tests. Furthermore, we examined the influence of nonconsent and nonresponse on the presence and magnitude of the associations between caregiver characteristics and two commonly used caregiving outcomes (caregiver burden and satisfaction). We conducted multinomial logistic regression analyses, including interaction terms with nonconsent and nonresponse. Results Within a subcohort of 8443 caregivers, aged >18 years, 5095 caregivers (60 %) gave consent for participation in the caregiving study. Within the subgroup of 2002 caregivers who received the questionnaire, 965 (48 %) responded. Caregivers who were highly involved in caregiving (i.e. high time investment, high caregiver burden), gave more commonly consent to participate, and responded more often to the questionnaire. Nonconsent and nonresponse influenced the associations between caregiver characteristics and caregiver burden for only a few characteristics, mainly indicating the level of caregiving involvement (e.g. time investment, caregiving duration). Especially for caregiver burden, these indicators were stronger for consent and response caregivers than for nonconsent and nonresponse caregivers. Conclusions Our findings are important for caregiving research, as they emphasized that participation might not be evenly distributed among caregivers, and that the possibility of nonconsent and nonresponse bias should be considered. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2948-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Social status and social capital frameworks are used to derive competing hypotheses about the emergence and structure of advice relations in organizations. Although both approaches build on a social exchange framework, they differ in their behavioral micro-foundations. From a status perspective, advice giving is a means to generate prestige, whereas asking advice decreases one's relative standing. At a structural level these motivations are expected to result in an overrepresentation of non-reciprocal dyads and non-cyclical triadic structures in the advice network, as well as in active advice seekers being unlikely to be approached for advice, especially by active advice givers. From a social capital perspective, advice seeking creates obligations for the advice seeker. At the structural level, this results in an overrepresentation of reciprocal dyads and cyclical triads, and active advice seekers to be unpopular as targets of advice seeking, especially for active advice givers. Analyses of four waves of a longitudinal sociometric study of 57 employees of a Dutch Housing Corporation provide partial support for both approaches. In line with the social capital perspective, we find reciprocal advice relations to be overrepresented at the dyad level. Results at the triad level support the social status arguments, according to which high status individuals will avoid asking advice from low status individuals. The implications for macro-structural properties of intra-organizational advice network are discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

'Representative voice' can be defined as actions in which one or more speakers represent others when speaking up about a problem at the workplace or making a suggestion. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of representative voice, assess the frequency of its occurrence and examine department characteristics associated with its frequency. We present a theoretical framework and develop and test hypotheses about the effects of characteristics of the departmental context on the frequency of representative voice. Our focus is on organizational design features, i.e. characteristics that can be directly implemented by management. Data on 40 departments of a large Dutch childcare organization suggested that representative voice occurred in most of the organization's departments, although not frequently. Multilevel analyses showed that representative voice was best predicted by the presence of shared problems. Further, representative voice was more frequent in departments in which employees worked directly with clients (i.e. children), and in larger departments. Frequent contact with the department's manager and among the department's employees had no effect.

I. Theoretical Reflections on Decentralization and Governance for Sustainable Society 1. Decentralization and Governance for Sustainable Society in Indonesia Ronald Holzhacker, Rafael Wittek and Johan Woltjer 2. Good Governance Contested: Exploring Human Rights and Sustainability as Normative Goals Jilles L. J. Hazenberg II. Decentralization and Policy Making 3. Decentralization and Primary Health Care Innovations in Indonesia Suwatin Miharti, Ronald Holzhacker, and Rafael Wittek 4. The Impact of Decentralization on Educational Attainment in Indonesia Tatang Muttaqin, Marijtje van Duijn , Liesbet Heyse and Rafael Wittek 5. Decentralization, Foreign Direct Investment and Development in Indonesia K. Kuswanto, Herman Hoen, and Ronald Holzhacker 6. The Inclusive Growth Concept: Strengths, Weaknesses and a Research Agenda for Indonesia P.N.L. Kusumawati, J.Paul Elhorst, and Jakob de Haan III. Challenges of Decentralization for Cities to Create Sustainable Futures 7. Metropolitan Governance and Institutional Design: Transportation in the Jakarta Metropolitan Region Taufiq Hidayat Putra, Wendy Guan Zhen Tan, and Johan Woltjer 8. Environmental Governance with Transnational Municipal Networks: The Case of Indonesian Cities Annisa Paramita Wiharani, Ronald Holzhacker and Jaap de Wilde IV. Governance to Limit Opportunities for Corruption in Decentralized Environment 9. Institutional Change and Corruption of Public Leaders: A Social Capital Perspective on Indonesia Mala Sondang Silitonga, Gabriel Anthonio, Liesbet Heyse and Rafael Wittek 10. Corporate Governance and Corruption: A Comparative Study of South-East Asia Nureni Wijayati, Niels Hermes, Ronald Holzhacker

Objectives. This study in vestigates the role of gender, functional limitations, and social interaction in the association between instrumental support from adult children and parental depression. We apply self-determination theory to hypothesize about the role of physical needs and social resources on parental depression in a European context. Method. A sample of 6,268 parents older than 65 who have nonresident children from the first wave of Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (2004) is analyzed. We estimate logistic regression models to test for the association between instrumental support and depression. Physical needs, gender, and social interaction are used as moderators. Results. Net of core f actors that contribute to depression, including previous history of depression, there is a U-shaped pattern between receiving instrumental support and depression that persists across country regimes. For respondents with medium physical limitations, too little or too frequent support from children is associated with higher depression. For respondents with severe limitations, receiving at least some support is better than receiving none at all. The receipt of too frequent support from children increases the level of depression more for women than men. All interaction effects are comparable across country regimes. Discussion. Heterogeneity in ph ysical needs and resources of older individuals must be taken into account when assessing the effects of instrumental support on mental health.

This paper focusses on organisational governance during a process of organizational restructuring. We analyse reorganization processes in terms of four types of problems that emerge during the tran...

Prosocial behavior involves costs for the self and results in benefits for others. Altruistic acts confer benefits to others, but net costs to the self. Different types of prosocial behavior are distinguished, depending on whether it is enacted by an individual or as part of a group effort, and whether it is first order (direct contributions) or second order (sanctioning) behavior. Six theoretical approaches are outlined (evolutionary, rationalist, structural, institutional, situational, and individual differences). They explain the evolution of prosocial behavior and its variation across groups, contexts, and situations. Avenues for future research are discussed.

Status beliefs link social distinctions, such as gender and race, to assumptions about competence and social worth. Recent modeling work in status construction theory suggests that interactions in small, task focused groups can lead to the spontaneous emergence and diffusion of such beliefs in larger populations. This earlier work has focused on dyads as the smallest possible groups in which status beliefs might emerge from face-to-face interaction. In today's societies, however, many task focused interactions take place in groups larger than dyads. In this article, we therefore develop an agent-based computational model that enables us to study the emergence of status beliefs in groups larger than dyads. With this model, we address questions such as: Do basic principles of task focused interaction systematically favor the emergence of status beliefs in groups larger than dyads? Does the time-frame over which small groups interact affect the likelihood with which status beliefs emerge? How does group size affect the emergence of status beliefs? Computational experimentation with the new model suggests that behavioral principles known to spontaneously create hierarchical differentiation between individual group members also tend to align these hierarchies with categorical differences and thereby facilitate the emergence of status beliefs. This tendency is stronger in smaller groups, and in groups that interact either for a very short or very long time. ispartof: Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation vol:18 issue:2 status: published

High employee turnover rates constitute a major challenge to effective aid provision. This study examines how features of humanitarian work and aid workers' individual characteristics affect retention within one humanitarian organisation, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Holland. The study extends existing research by providing new theoretical explanations of employment opportunities and constraints and by engaging in the first large-scale quantitative analysis of aid worker retention. Using a database of field staff (N=1,955), a logistic regression is performed of the likelihood of reenlistment after a first mission. The findings demonstrate that only 40 per cent of employees reenlist for a second mission with MSF Holland, and that workplace location and security situation, age, and gender have no significant effect. Individuals are less likely to reenlist if they returned early from the first mission for a personal reason, are in a relationship, are medical doctors, or if they come from highly developed countries. The paper reflects on the findings in the light of policy.

Background The combination of informal care and paid work is becoming increasingly common. Currently, in the Netherlands more than 70% of all informal caregivers aged 65 or younger combines informal care with paid work, and an increase is expected. Findings of research on consequences of this combination for caregiver quality of life are inconclusive. Our aims are to examine differences between working and non-working caregivers, and to study whether determinants of quality of life differ for working and non-working …

Dynamic network models based on the homophily principle are criticized for neglecting organizational context conditions and the impact of role structures on the evolution of intra-organizational trust networks. Using a neo-institutional framework it is argued that individuals in competitive environments will attempt to reduce uncertainty about the trustworthiness of potential trustees by imitating the sociometric choice behavior of persons in similar network positions. Three hypotheses are developed. The positional trust hypothesis predicts that individuals tend to trust other actors who occupy a similar network position as themselves. The mimetic trust hypothesis argues that individuals trust actors who are trusted by persons in their own network position. Finally, the advisory trust hypothesis claims that individuals prefer to maintain trust relations to persons occupying a position of third party intermediary than to persons in other positions. An exploratory empirical test of the hypotheses is carried out by reanalyzing a longitudinal network study of the relationships among 25 salesmen in the furniture department of a North American retail sales store during the 1950s. Blockmodelling procedures are used to identify structural positions in the networks, and log-linear analysis is applied to determine stability of choices within and between structural positions. The results support the mimetic trust and the advisory trust hypothesis.

Structures fermées. structures ouvertes, structures stables - Etude de la forme structurale et de la stabilité temporelle des réseaux sociaux informels dans des organisations. Les hypothèses qui concement la forme structurelle et la stabilité des réseaux sociaux informels dans des organisations viennent de la théorie des organisations et de l'analyse dynamique des réseaux. Un test empirique exploratoire de ces hypothèses est fait avec la ré-analyse d'une étude longitudinale d'un réseau de relations de confiance/méfiance réalisée dans un grand magasin aux Etats-Unis pendant les années 1950. On explore deux questions. D'abord, on montre que le degré de fermeture du réseau est une fonction des arrangements de partage tels qu'ils émergent des interdépendances fonctionnelles dans les groupes de travail. On montre aussi que les effets vont en partie contre les processus anticipés par le modèle commun d'équilibre structurel. Ensuite, on examine pourquoi certaines structures informelles de réseau restent stables, même sous des conditions: où leur dissolution est anticipée; où des encouragements formels favorisent fortement la compétition au lieu de la coopération; et où les structures informelles au niveau de choix individuels reflètent un type d'échanges limités au lieu d'échanges générallsés. On démontre que la stabilité du réseau étudié accroit significativement avec la présence d'intermédiaires tiers dans la structure. Les résultats soulignent l'importance des tiers occupant le rôle d'intermédiaires pour la stabilité des réseaux sociaux informels et fournit un nouveau point de vue sur la supposée fragilité des échanges limitiés prévue par la théorie des échanges.

Three hypotheses about the effects of different informal social network structures on gossip behavior are developed and tested. Gossip is defined as a conversation about a third person who is not participating in the conversation. Having analyzed the costs and benefits of gossip, we prefer the coalition hypothesis.~It states that gossip will flourish in social networks that have a relatively large number of coalition triads, that is ego and alter having a good relationship amongst themselves and both having a bad relationship with tertius, the object of gossip. Two rivalling hypotheses are developed. The constraint hypothesis predicts that the inclination towards gossip is greater, the larger the number of structural holes in the personal network of the gossipmonger.~The closure hypothesis predicts that more gossip will be found in networks with a large number of closed triads, that is where both gossipmonger and listener have a good relationship with the absent third person. The hypotheses are tested using a newly developed instrument to measure gossip behavior and network data from six work organizations and six school classes. The data support the coalition hypothesis and do not support the two rivalling hypotheses.

To date, the gaps between actual and preferred working hours are mostly theorised and analysed at the individual level. This article provides new insights as to what extent different household arrangements relate to matches or mismatches concerning the achievement of a desired time allocation. The concept of household governance refers to regulations and practices families apply to keep work–family relationships under control, like the earner model, outsourcing of household task and household rules. This article explores by linear regression analyses how these are related to time-use problems of families: the gap between actual and preferred working hours, lack of free time and the experience of time pressure. The rivalling perspectives of flexibility, regulation and boundary theory have different predictions as to which modes of governance produce favourable outcomes. The results generally support boundary theory. However, households often are unable to choose their earner model optimally.

Proponents of new public management (NPM) expect public organizations to become more flexible and adaptive after administrative reforms, effectively showing convergence with patterns of organizational change in the private sector. This "convergence argument" is tested with a sample of 61 public and 61 private organizations in the Netherlands. We analyze whether public organizations, after 20 years of NPM reform, have changed their organizational structures and internal policies in relation to competitive, regulatory, and autonomy pressures, similarly to private organizations. Statistical analyses show that competition increases the incidence of change both in public and private organizations. High managerial autonomy and exposure to regulatory pressures relate to increased incidence of change in public organizations, but not in private ones. The results support the idea that NPM reform has made public organizations more similar to private organizations but that some concrete differences persist between private and public management in the Netherlands.

Extending Hirschman’s ‘Exit—Voice—Loyalty’ framework, the authors distinguish between attitudinal and relational aspects of loyalty. They hypothesize that co-workers’ support for voice will moderate the effect of relational, but not attitudinal loyalty on voice. In line with the study’s hypotheses, multilevel analyses of survey data on 204 voice actions (concerning three issues) of 121 employees in a Dutch public sector organization showed that the effect of relational loyalty (operationalized as social relations) on voice depended on context and issue. When department members perceived serious problems, relational loyalty decreased the likelihood of voice for one of the issues. For another issue, relational loyalty increased the likelihood of voice when department norms encouraged voice. By contrast, attitudinal loyalty (operationalized as organizational commitment) had no effect on voice.

We use a model of continuous attachments in networks to generate propositions concerning inequalities in network structures, and test the propositions on data from organizational settings. Our network model, inspired by that of [Gould, Roger 2002. The origins of status hierarchies: A formal theory and empirical test. American Journal of Sociology 107, 1143-1178], is based on a theoretically informed actor model, in which each network member sets attachment strengths based on perceived partner quality, reciprocity, influence from others, attribute homophily, and attachment resistance. A computer algorithm finds the single robust equilibrium configuration of attachment strengths. This allows us to generate six propositions concerning inequalities at the individual, dyadic, triadic, and network levels. We test the propositions on network data for four kinds of attachments over four waves for five organizations, and find that the results generally support the propositions. The results suggest that partner quality, reciprocity, and attachment resistance are the most important elements in the network members' choices. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

To study life course trajectories and ageing, scientific expertise is needed beyond epidemiology. More specifically, appropriate models of life course require a theoretical micro-foundation, need to incorporate multi-level context conditions and the interplay between them. It also requires the application of additional social scientific research methods that go beyond the application of statistical methods based on the multi-stage life table. These research theories and methods are available in disciplines like sociology, cultural anthropology, psychology, demography and economics. To effectively study healthy ageing of populations the individual approach of epidemiology has to be extended with the macro-population and socio-cultural approach of (social) demography and the institutional and network approaches of sociology.

Nous estimons que les explications sociologiques proposees dans le cadre du capital social pour expliquer le bien-etre individuel sont incompletes car elles ne font pas de distinction entre les mecanismes d’influence interpersonnelle et de selection d’une part, et les processus cognitifs intrapersonnels d’autre part. Dans ce but, trois modeles theoriques de l’interaction dynamique entre la confiance interpersonnelle et la satisfaction au travail servent a elaborer et a tester empiriquement six hypotheses. Tout d’abord, d’apres les mecanismes d’influence, la satisfaction au travail d’un individu peut resulter du nombre de choix de confiance sociometriques qu’il recoit (effet de popularite) ou du degre de satisfaction au travail des acteurs a qui il fait confiance (effet de contamination). Deuxiemement, les mecanismes de selection partent du principe qu’un acteur focal sera plus susceptible de developper des relations interpersonnelles avec des collegues dont le degre de satisfaction au travail est eleve (effet d’attraction) ou dont les degres de satisfaction au travail sont semblables a ceux de l’acteur focal (effet d’homophilie). Enfin, d’apres les mecanismes de propagation intrapersonnelles, un degre de satisfaction au travail eleve peut faciliter la creation de relations de confiance interpersonnelles (propagation de la satisfaction), ou les individus a l’origine d’un nombre important de relations de confiance interpersonnelles manifestent des degres de satisfaction plus eleves (propagation de la confiance). Les donnees du reseau social longitudinal intra-organisationnel d’une societe d’hebergement neerlandaise (n = 57) sont utilisees pour tester simultanement ces six hypotheses. Nous constatons un effet de contamination significatif, mais rien ne vient appuyer l’effet de popularite ni aucun des effets de selection. De plus, contrairement a nos attentes, les employes dont le degre de satisfaction au travail est faible sont nettement plus susceptibles de developper des relations de confiance envers les autres.

A multisource field study of 103 employees and their supervisors tested an extension of uncertainty management theory (E. A. Lind & K. Van den Bos, 2002; K. Van den Bos & E. A. Lind, 2002). According to this theory, persons high in social comparison orientation (F. X. Gibbons & B. P. Buunk, 1999) experience chronic uncertainty about the self. It was hypothesized that this should strengthen the effects of interactional and procedural justice perceptions on antisocial work behaviors. As predicted, the negative relationship between employee perceptions of interactional justice and supervisory ratings of antisocial work behaviors was stronger for people who are high as compared with low in social comparison orientation. Results provide evidence for an extension of uncertainty management theory to the self-domain.

In the main theoretical framework of the present book, it was outlined that an actor’s level of solidary and prosocial behavior in a given situation is largely dependent on his or her framing of the situation. According to Lindenberg’s framing theory (in this volume), three general and distinct ways of framing a given situation can be: (1) a hedonic frame aimed at immediate pleasure, (2) a gain frame aimed at the maximization of one’s own personal resources and largely ignoring the well-being of others, and (3) a normative frame in which people aim to do what is morally appropriate even if such behavior opposes their material self-interests. In this chapter we relate this theory to determine in which situations people follow social norms of fairness and (financial) honesty. When investigating this question, it is necessary to distinguish two kinds of situations. First, an actor may perceive that disobeying a certain social norm might lead to some external sanctions. Take the example of a university professor who has given a presentation at a private company and has earned 2,000 euros for this. When filling in his yearly tax declaration, he wonders whether or not to declare this extra income. This does not need to be a moral question. If the professor assumes the tax authorities will find out if he conceals this extra income and he expects severe punishment for such behavior, he may indicate the extra income simply because he wants to avoid the punishment. In the terminology of Lindenberg’s framing theory, the professor’s decision in this example is independent of whether he is in a normative or in a gain frame. Even if he feels no moral obligation at all to pay his taxes, he may do so because he perceives this decision to be in his material self-interest. To put it differently: if external sanctions are severe enough, problems in ensuring solidary behavior do not emerge.

Based on the distinction between expressive and instrumental motives, six theoretical mechanisms for the formation of trust relationships are elaborated and empirically tested. When expressive motives drive tie formation, individuals primarily attach emotional value to social relationships. Three mechanisms have been tested: the homophily, the balancing, and the gossiping effect. When instrumental, control-related, motives drive tie formation, actors strategically establish relationships because of their potential use for the realization of material benefits or the avoidance of material losses. Again, three mechanisms have been tested: the signalling, the sharing group and the structural hole effect. Longitudinal data come from a sociometric panel study of 17 members of the management team of a German paper factory. Actor-oriented statistical modelling shows that all effects significantly affect trust formation separately. In a simultaneous test incorporating all six mechanisms, the pattern of structural holes turns out to be the major predictor of network evolution. The implications of structural hole theory for modelling the evolution of intra-organizational networks are discussed. keywords: balance, control, gossip, homophily, relational signalling, sharing groups, structural holes

The continuous rise in CEO compensation over the past few decades has been attributed either to efficient labour market processes (efficient market theories) or to corporate governance failures lea...

Op 1. januari 2013 werd in Nederland het Wet Normering Topinkomens (WNT) van kracht, met als doel om de stijging van inkomens van topbestuurders in (semi)publieke organisaties te beperken. Dit artikel richt zich op de vraag wat de mogelijke bijkomende effecten van de WNT zullen zijn. Wij stellen dat een gedragstheoretische analyse deze bijkomende effecten in kaart kan brengen. We schetsen de aannames van drie benaderingen die tot nu toe vooral gebruikt werden om de loonontwikkeling van topmanagers in de private sector te verklaren: de efficiënte-markt-theorie, de managerial power theorie, en recenter de relatiesignaaltheorie. De efficiënte-markt-theorie roept de vraag op of de private en publieke arbeidsmarkten poreus zijn en dus mogelijk leidt tot verlies aan kwaliteit. De managerial power theorie impliceert dat de maatregelen effectief zullen zijn en de juiste balans herstelt. De relatiesignaaltheorie richt zich daarentegen op de ontwikkeling van de vertrouwensrelatie tussen de partijen en het nieuwe wettelijke kader bemoeilijkt deze aanzienlijk. Kostbare en geloofwaardige relatiesignalen zijn essentieel om dit soort vertrouwensbanden op te bouwen en in stand houden, en een salaris boven het marktniveau heeft de kenmerken van een krachtig relatiesignaal. Het ontbreken daarvan maakt de relatie ingewikkelder.

La comunicación entre individuos ha sido establecida como la variable con el efecto positivo más significativo cuando el sujeto se enfrenta al dilema social de cooperar o no cooperar. Por otro lado, situaciones de interdependencia en la realización de tareas son estrechamente asociadas con actos de cooperación. Este trabajo analiza la eficacia tanto de la comunicación como de las situaciones de interdependencia en el surgimiento de la acción colectiva. Para ello, cuatro casos de vivienda colectiva en México son analizados de manera empírica. Los resultados indican que una intensa comunicación puede provocar múltiples manifestaciones de cooperación entre individuos, más no necesariamente una acción colectiva. En la ausencia de un actor o situaciones particulares que la provoquen, la acción colectiva surge únicamente a partir de situaciones de interdependencia.