Suchergebnisse

Non-resident fathers' compliance with child support agreements is low. An estimated 50% of fathers never pay any formal support to their co-parents (Stykes, Manning, & Brown, 2013). Responsible fatherhood programs have been developed as an alternative to incarceration to provide parenting and other skills to fathers in the hopes of increasing their payment compliance. This study adds to the sparse literature on the evaluation of responsible fatherhood programs by quantitatively examining the role of hope, parenting role salience, and parenting skills in predicting changes in child support compliance attitudes. The sample was drawn from participants in community-based responsible fatherhood programs. Results indicated that as fathers reported greater improvements in parenting skills and hope for the future, they also reported greater intentions to comply with child support agreements. Implications for fatherhood educational program design and implementation are discussed.

Healthcare organizations are striving to meet legislated and public expectations to include patients as equal partners in their care, and research is needed to guide successful implementation and outcomes. The current research examined the meaning of customer service as related to the culture of care relationships within a Canadian hospital in southeastern Ontario. The goals were to better understand these expectations, develop shared meanings and influence cultural change from the perspective of the organization's employees about their interactions with patients, families and work colleagues, and to generate ideas and groundswell for change. An ethnographic approach within the critical research paradigm was used over the course of a three phase study, where direct care healthcare providers (Phase 1), mid-level leaders (Phase 2) and senior leaders (Phase 3) volunteered to explore their values, philosophies and suggestions for change in the organization's care relationships. This paper describes Phase 2 of the overall research project. A mixed methodology was used where mid-level leaders were individually surveyed and then participated in a focus group and/or interview to discuss these concepts. Mid-level leaders indicated that providing excellent customer service was important in their own work with many customers including staff, patients and their families, students, volunteers and outside agencies. They believed that this in turn led to improved partnerships for care, health service transitions and linkages, customer satisfaction and health outcomes. The majority stated that the organization's culture would support change related to customer service relationships and opportunities for this were explored.

AbstractPrior research examines factors that enable or hinder knowledge sharing and knowledge seeking in groups. However, individuals also share and seek knowledge outside group meetings, especially if the group is making strategic decisions over time. Therefore, this study examines how, during a longitudinal strategic decision‐making process, the emotions of group members and knowledge sharing within the group affect their knowledge‐sharing intentions and knowledge‐seeking behaviors beyond the group. We focus on a single organization, a hospital, whose board created a citizen advisory panel (CAP) of 28 individuals to gather community input on the restructuring of the hospital's activities to contain costs. The group met in five all‐day sessions to provide their input. We surveyed each member before the CAP process and after each CAP session. The resulting longitudinal data were analyzed using panel‐data techniques, with the findings being complemented by qualitative insights. The results indicate, somewhat surprisingly, that both positive and negative emotions (specifically enthusiasm and anxiety) positively affect both knowledge‐sharing intentions and knowledge sharing within groups in strategic decision‐making contexts. We also find that enthusiasm, anxiety, and perceived relative knowledge within groups positively affect subsequent knowledge‐seeking behaviors. Our findings contribute to the literature on knowledge management and organizational decision making. The study provides insights into how, in groups making strategic decisions over time, emotions as well as knowledge sharing within groups affect knowledge‐related intentions and behaviors beyond the groups. The study also adds to the theory of planned behavior to highlight the role of emotions in influencing intentions and behaviors.