JOB ANALYSIS: THE COMPOSITION OF SME SAMPLES

It is common for job analysts to solicit information from incumbents and supervisors (Subject Matter Experts or SMEs) when conducting a job analysis. These SMEs are asked to provide ratings on salient dimensions (e.g., frequency and importance of tasks that comprise the job). In constructing samples of SMEs for this purpose, it is reasonable to consider any possible influences that might bias or systematically influence the task ratings. The present paper considers the possible influence of SME demographic characteristics on task ratings of frequency. The tasks comprising the job of patrol officer in a large city were rated for frequency by approximately 700 incumbents. These ratings were gathered in two different years, 1982 and 1984. The total data set was used to conduct a components analysis of the 444-item task inventory. The first eight principal components were considered the dependent variables and four demographic characteristics the independent variables in an analysis of the 1982 data set. Analysis of variance and follow-up tests indicated that incumbent experience had a substantial influence on task ratings. Educational level and race had minimal effects on ratings. The sex factor was confounded by the experience factor, making interpretation of the sex effect equivocal. Mechanisms that might account for the experience effect are discussed. It was concluded that incumbent experience is a salient issue in job analysis using SME groups.     

Gandhi and the Virtue of Care

The film Gandhi expands our understanding of how the virtue of care can function in the public sphere by portraying Gandhi dealing with Indian independence from Britain, the subjugation of women and Untouchables, and strife between Hindus and Muslims. Gandhi illustrates in his social and political activism how the virtue of care is animated by benevolence and structured by the building blocks of the care perspective: responsibility and need, relationship and mutual dependency, context and narrative.     

LOVE,JUSTICE, AND SOCIAL ESCHATOLOGY

In this paper, we explore the ontological and theological ground of political institutions in order to then reflect upon the eschatological calling of society. The paper builds on Tillich's ontological insight that love does not simply transcend justice, but that it permeates and drives justice, that justice gives form to love's reunion of the separated. This relation between love and justice is at play in political institutions: these unite human beings under forms of justice that must be transformed ever anew if they are not to lose touch with the dynamic power of love and freeze into increasingly unjust juridicalism. The modern history of Western civilisation bears witness to this ontological tension, and the phenomenon of globalisation is yet another instance of human society's mystical calling. Thus, love heads the dynamic movement that transforms political institutions ever anew. Yet society as a whole must become conscious of its ontology for humanity to truly reach its eschatological potential, and this will require both that theology recovers its ground and that political theory thinks theologically.     

The Legal Rights of Students with Disabilities in Christian Schools

The adoption of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) and the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act, now the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), have had a major impact on the delivery of services for children with special needs.

In light of the legal issues surrounding the delivery of special education to children who attend Christian schools, the remainder of this article is divided into two parts. The first section opens with an overview of relevant litigation pertinent to special education before reviewing Sections 504 and the IDEA, along with its regulations, as they apply to religious schools. The second part offers practical suggestions for educators in Christian elementary and secondary schools as they work to serve children with special needs.     

The Future of Big Science

ABSTRACT The period of government-sponsored research and development, involving military and industrial intervention in academic life, especially in the USA, was brief and yet its characteristics were declared universal by two historians of science there, Derek J. de Solla Price and Thomas S. Kuhn, who justified coercion and boredom in research work organized hierarchically. The reform of work movement is now attempting to introduce ideas in the opposite direction. Clearly, the institutions of big science should be interested in the improvement of the quality of research done on their premises and in the changes in world situation which might greatly change the agenda of research. To that end research into the general character of big science is very advisable and may be instigated either by large research institutions or by some of their umbrella organizations which may create incentives and alter the character of big science radically to everybody's advantage.