Self-Administered Treatments of Public Speaking Anxiety

This article reports on two do-it-yourself treatment programs for dealing with stage fright. One program followed a systematic desensitization paradigm; the other was a handout listing 16 strategies for understanding stage fright.     

A LONGITUDINAL EXAMINATION OF CONCOMITANT CHANGES IN TEAM LEADERSHIP AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

For each of three 1‐year time periods, we examined the relationship between changes in the team leadership of branch managers (as measured by employee ratings) and concomitant changes in customer satisfaction for branches of a regional bank. Specifically, for the time period 2001–2002, we examined concomitant changes in team leadership and customer service satisfaction with 68 branch managers; between 2002–2003 and 2003–2004 we examined these relationships for 46 and 40 of the remaining 68 branch managers, respectively. We expected that improvements (declines) in team leadership ratings would be accompanied by concomitant changes (i.e., improvement or decline) in customer satisfaction ratings. We found that, in 2 of the 3 time periods we examined, improvements (declines) in team leadership were related to improvements (declines) in customer satisfaction. We interpret these findings using the service climate literature.     

'Self-exploitation' and Workers' Co-operatives—or how the British Left get their concepts wrong

ABSTRACT  In this article I examine the concept 'self-exploitation' and its use in criticising workers' co-operatives. I argue that the concept is incoherent and that the kind of exploitation which members of workers' co-ops actually face is 'market-exploitation'. Moreover, some of the criticisms of workers' co-ops which are made by those who employ the confused concept 'self-exploitation' are shown to be inapposite when 'market-exploitation' is recognised to be the real problem. I conclude with a discussion of the reasons for the acceptance of the misguided concept 'self-exploitation' by a number on the Left in Britain today.     

Philosophy, Social Institutions, and the Ethics of Belief: A Response to Buchanan

abstract   First, Allen Buchanan, in the version of his paper entitled 'Philosophy and public policy: a role for social moral epistemology' that he presented at the workshop on 'Philosophy and Public Policy' held at the British Academy in London on March 8^th 2008, seems to imply that professional, academic philosophers have had little impact upon public policy. I mention an area where it can be argued in response that they have had a more benign, as well as a more widespread, influence on society than Buchanan acknowledges in that version of his paper: in legislation concerning animal welfare. Second, I question whether or not the liberal commitment to freedom of religion is compatible with the ethics of belief that Buchanan appears to advocate .     

Is Seasonal Stress a Career Choice of Professional Accountants?

Workload compression during the first quarter of each year (January-March) is hypothesized to involve additional job demands on auditors and tax professionals causing job strain (occupational stress). Using canonical correlation analysis to analyze the survey data, this study found that the strongest stressor-strain relationship was for the group surveyed in January, indicating that workload compression contributes to seasonal occupational stress. Seasonal stress will remain a very strong barrier to qualified individuals in making an accounting career their vocational choice and will put additional demands on Employee Assistance Program (EAP) counseling for accounting practitioners.