NEGOTIATING QUALITY OF WORKLIFE, PRODUCTIVITY AND TRADITIONAL ISSUES: UNION MEMBERS'PREFERRED ROLES OF THEIR UNION

Recognizing the importance of the union in successfully implementing quality of worklife programs, numerous commentators have called for union-management collaborative programs. In response to these pleas, recent studies have addressed union activists'perceptions of their unions'roles in negotiating quality of worklife as well as other issues. Although important, these studies have focused on the union leadership and have generally failed to consider the rank and file union members' views. The primary objective of the present study was to examine union members'preferred roles of their union in negotiating quality of worklife, productivity, and traditional bargaining issues. A second purpose was to explore the correlates of their views concerning the union's role in dealing with these issues. Using data collected from 171 members of a railroad, union, the results showed that members' support for union involvement tended to vary depending upon the type of issue in question. They strongly preferred collective bargaining when dealing with traditional union concerns and joint union-management efforts when quality of worklife issues were involved. In predicting preferred union-management cooperation, the importance of the individual predictors varied across the types of negotiation issues. However, attitudinal measures were generally found to be more important in explaining members'preferences than demographic or union participation measures. The results are discussed in terms of implications for implementing joint union-management programs.     

Employment and Roles of Counselors in Mental Health Agencies

The authors studied the employment of counselors with master's degrees in multiservice mental health agencies. The study focused on the types of clients seen, the direct care services provided, and the administrative duties performed. Results suggested that the employment of counselors does not differ significantly from the employment of individuals with master's degrees in psychology and social work. Also, the data indicated that counselors are delivering direct care services that traditionally have been offered in mental health centers, that clients seen by counselors demonstrate a range of mental disorders, and that counselors are responsible for fulfilling various administrative duties.     

Guidance and Counseling in the Republic of Ireland

University College Dublin introduced counselor training in 1967, and guidance and counseling are now established in secondary education and the national employment and rehabilitation services.     

Preventing Dual Relationships in Pastoral Counseling

The practice of pastoral counseling provides many opportunities for dual relationships. Churches and church-related institutions are contexts in which such relationships are easily formed. Some pastoral counselors cope by entering private practice, which may exacerbate the problem by removing resources for collegiality and accountability. Pastoral counselors can avoid dual relationships by understanding their vulnerability, subscribing to and communicating a clear code of professional ethics, becoming aware of personal limitations, and building networks of accountability.     

Self‐expansion and flow: The roles of challenge,skill, affect,and activation

The self‐expansion model posits that engaging in challenging activities with one's romantic partner increases the quality of that romantic relationship. Research on flow suggests that the optimal level of challenge for such experiences is determined by the skill of the individual. In a series of 5 studies spanning experimental, survey, and experience sampling methodologies, we elaborate on the self‐expansion model to describe how activity challenge effects romantic relationship quality. The results suggest that engaging in challenging activities with one's partner results in increases in relationship quality, though this effect is dependent on the skill of the individual. Changes in affect appear to fully mediate this process. We present a theoretical model combining self‐expansion and flow theories.     

Regulatory Framing and Collective Action: The Interplay of Individual Self‐Regulation and Group Behavior

Two studies examined the relations between regulatory focus and collective action. In Study 1, undergraduate women expressed stronger action intentions when they were primed to consider prevention (ought‐self) self‐discrepancies than promotion (ideal‐self) self‐discrepancies, suggesting that collective action is more likely to occur when individuals are prevention‐ rather than promotion‐focused. In Study 2, however, prevention‐focused women expressed stronger action intentions in response to security framing, whereas promotion‐focused women expressed stronger action intentions in response to achievement framing. This suggests that the relative disinterest in collective action among promotion‐focused individuals can be overcome with the appropriate promotion‐focused framing. Implications for analyses of both collective action and regulatory focus are discussed.     

Disciplined Syntacticism and Moral Expressivism

Moral Expressivists typically concede that, in some minimal sense, moral sentences are truth-apt but claim that in some more robust sense they are not. The Immodest Disciplined Syntacticist , a species of minimalist about truth, raises a doubt as to whether this contrast can be made out. I here address this challenge by motivating and describing a distinction between reducibly and irreducibly truth-apt sentences. In the light of this distinction the Disciplined Syntacticist must either adopt a more modest version of his theory, friendlier to Expressivism, or substantially modify it, abandoning one of its central conditions on truth-aptness. One natural and promising such modification, the Pure Discipline View , is described and its implications for an understanding of Expressivism briefly discussed.