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The prevalence of Congolese refugee women seeking asylum in the USA has recently garnered substantial attention. Many women have fled the Democratic Republic of Congo due to trauma and loss. Likewise, the resettlement process, particularly acculturative stress, may exacerbate mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. By recognizing the centrality of family within Congolese culture, this study aims to investigate cultural beliefs about family among Congolese refugee women in the USA, using acculturative theory as an interpretative lens.

The authors’ study centered on understanding the resettlement experiences of 20 Congolese refugee women living within an urban area of Midwest America after their arrival in America since 2011. Through using convenient sampling methods, the authors chose these particular activists as they could provide insight into their stories concerning their journey from Congo to settling down as refugees within Northeast America. During interviews, semi-structured questioning was used to gather responses from participants which were later analyzed through implementing a thematic interpretation process.

Three themes emerged encapsulating cultural beliefs about family: supporting one another; the importance of togetherness; and disciplining our children. These findings provide culturally tailored resources to support Congolese refugee women and their families upon resettlement optimally.

The authors’ work provides health equity researchers with an opportunity to better understand cultural beliefs among Congolese refugee women. Findings from this study provide an increased understanding of how to provide culturally specific tools to better aid Congolese refugee women and their families upon arrival.

The authors’ research offers insights for health equity researchers seeking to understand the cultural beliefs of Congolese refugee women. The findings contribute to an enhanced understanding of how to provide culturally specific resources better to support Congolese refugee women and their families upon arrival.

The authors verify that, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper was written completely independently, and neither the entire work nor any of its parts have been previously published. The authors confirm that the paper has not been submitted to peer review, nor is in the process of peer reviewing, nor has been accepted for publishing in another journal. The authors confirm that the research in their work is original.

Stress and the military go hand-in-hand, particularly in combat environments. While some personality traits or types weaken relationships between stress and performance, others, such as psychopathy, may strengthen them. In the present chapter, we consider the ramifications of individuals with high levels of psychopathy or psychopathic tendencies in the military with regard to both their own stress and performance and that of those around them. We discuss different reactions to psychological and physical stress, as well as the implications of psychopathic tendencies as they relate to current military issues, including gender, leadership, teamwork, turnover, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide. By juxtaposing relevant research findings on stress and psychopathy, we conclude that psychopathic tendencies should have neither uniformly negative nor positive effects on stress and performance in the military. Rather, effects on such individuals and the peripheral others with whom they interact will likely vary greatly depending on numerous factors.

The mathematical models used to describe the dynamical behaviour of a group of closely-spaced road vehicles travelling in a single lane without overtaking are known as car-following models. This paper presents a novel car-following model, which differs from the traditional models by having an equilibrium solution that corresponds to consecutive vehicles having not only zero relative velocity, but also travelling at a certain desired distance apart. This new model is investigated using both numerical and analytical techniques. For many parameter values the equilibrium solution is stable to a periodic perturbation but, for certain parameter values, chaotic motion results. This shows that in congested traffic, even drivers attempting to follow a safe driving strategy, may find themselves driving in an unpredictable fashion.

After decades of successful, if not always smooth, working relationships with regional library networks in the United States, Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), Inc., with approval of amended articles of incorporation in 2008, it implemented significant changes in how it would price its products and services and how it would govern itself. These changes proved to have profound impact on the networks, precipitating the merger of many and the dissolution of some. This chapter describes the results of many interviews with past and present leaders of OCLC and the regional networks, both existing and defunct, and other knowledgeable individuals. The contrasting opinions on how the changes came about and their consequences offer a perspective on the evolution and then decline of some of the powerful consortial relationships of the last four decades.

Meetings can serve the important role of facilitating communication and coordination for systems of teams known as “multiteam systems” (MTSs) that work interdependently to achieve grand societal challenges. Given that MTSs often appear in complex, ambiguous, urgent, and multifaceted task contexts, the MTSs require effective, and efficient but thorough, communication within and between teams in order to achieve shared goals. However, the extant literature regarding the science of meetings has left much to be explored in regard to the inter- and intrateam influences and impacts. This chapter considers the significance of meetings and their practical value in facilitating MTS processes and performance by leveraging what is known thus far regarding MTS structural attributes, their value, their challenges, and opportunities, integrating this foundation with the broader science of meetings. Building on this rationale, the authors move toward empirically and theoretically derived considerations for how meetings may best be designed, facilitated and utilized for MTS effectiveness, as guided by our current understanding of critical MTS attributes.

Assistive technology can support and enhance the learning, independence, and daily living skills of students with disabilities, including students with intellectual disability (ID). Assistive technology is not generally disability dependent; however, for students with ID we decided to focus on assistive technology across two areas: instructional aids – with a focus on reading, writing, and mathematics – and transition and independence. Throughout our focus on these two categories of assistive technology, we discuss low-tech, mid-tech, and high-tech options to support students with ID.

This paper aims to offer a review of the concept of wasta, as a form of social capital in Arab societies. Furthermore, this paper seeks to elucidate the main implications of the use of wasta among human resource management (HRM) practices on the workplace environment and the overall performance of institutions.

The authors embraced a qualitative approach in this paper. A total of 27 semi-structured interviews were conducted with HR officials from different levels in a number of Jordanian public organizations.

The results obtained indicate that wasta has negative consequences on the overall performance of organizations, through the influence it exerts on employee motivation, morale and job satisfaction, frustration, workplace diversity, turnover, brain drain, as well as its effect on the image and reputation of the individuals and organizations alike.

In this paper, the authors attempted to illustrate the concept of wasta as a form of social capital and to analyze its links with the features of the Jordanian culture through two of Hofstede’s dimensions. Furthermore, this paper is based both on the available literature and on data obtained through the semi-structured interviews. The findings through this process not only corroborate what we already know in the literature but they also generate an understanding of the hidden mechanisms that link the different implications of wasta together, creating the actual known consequences of this practice.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) employees constitute one of the largest, but least studied, minority groups in the workforce. This article examines what we know, and what we need to know, about the career and workplace experiences of this understudied population. The construct of sexual identity is defined, followed by a review of the research on sexual orientation in the workplace. Then an analysis of the differences between LGB employees and other stigmatized groups is presented. Three unique challenges facing LGB employees are identified, and conceptual models are developed that explain underlying processes. Finally, career theories are critically analyzed, and an identity-based longitudinal theory of LGB careers is presented.

The study seeks to introduce a new media model that (1) clearly illustrates the role of mass media in the transmission of cultural messages, and (2) helps to explain variations in the reception and employment of cultural messages by members of the same culture.

Drawing on decades of theorizing in cultural sociology and communication studies, as well as data from two qualitative content analyses, a new model was developed, explained, and then applied to a specific cultural phenomenon.

Mass media are significant transmitters of cultural messages and play an influential role in shaping culture, yet the process is complex. There is great variety in what messages are accepted by different consumers, how they are interpreted, and how they ultimately are employed (or not). Further, cultures that include contradictory messages are more likely to inadvertently promote deviant paths to culturally valued goals.

First, the model only addresses one dimension of the relationship between mass media and culture; it does not explain cultural influences on mass media. Second, the model does not specifically address recent changes in the media landscape, though an accommodation is suggested. Finally, the model needs additional testing before its utility can be reasonably determined.

First, a new model is introduced that clearly illustrates the complex process by which cultural messages are transmitted to receivers via mass media. Second, the model introduces the concept of “cultural capacity” to complement existing concepts and advance understanding of the operation of culture.

Project management scholars and practitioners have long debated how best to harness social interactions to optimise knowledge exchange and enhance stakeholder alignment and value. This study aims to assist project managers to understand and manage fuzziness and create enduring front-end value. It views the project life cycle as a potential source of co-created value. The paper uses a social capital lens to provide a deeper understanding of the project front-end; it uses a three-dimensional view (structural, relational, cognitive) to explore how stakeholder social capital can overcome front-end fuzziness to enhance decision-making and, thus, value creation.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers from teleconnections companies, which, when combined with secondary data, established the impact, nature and dimensions of social capital within a project management setting.

The research found that social capital can help to reduce complexity, uncertainty and equivocality in the early stages of projects, making them more clearly defined and thus helping to create greater stakeholder value in the later stages of the project. A surprising finding was that some project team members engaged in intentional equivocality to try to promote their own benefits rather than those of the organisation.

This paper reconceptualises the impact of social capital on stakeholder value creation in the front-end of projects. The paper contributes to a more holistic view of the front-end of project management, focusing social capital to reduce the sources of front-end fuzziness.