Testing Two Contrasting Structural Models of Innovativeness in a Contractual Network

This study examined contrasting models of the impact of formal and informal structural factors and the communication environment on organizational innovativeness. Specifically, three formal structural variables (decentralization, formalization, and slack resources), two informal structural variables (range and prominence), and two communication environment variables (communication quality and acceptance) are posited to be antecedents of organizational innovativeness. In the traditional model, formal structural impacts are posited to be shaped by informal structure. Conversely, the coexisting model argues that both formal and informal structural variables directly affect the communication environment, which, in turn, shapes perceptions of innovativeness. Data were gathered from self-report questionnaires and network analysis communication logs completed by organizational members (N = 79) of a geographically dispersed government health information agency, the Cancer Information Service (CIS). Tests of the models demonstrate that the coexisting model is clearly superior. These results suggest that the dual role of formal and informal structures needs to be more systematically specified as we focus on innovation in new organizational forms, such as the CIS.     

Counseling Persons With Disabilities: Summary and Projections

The author summarizes the findings of the other articles in this feature in terms of progress made during the last decade, as well as problems remaining. The author proposes several idealistic scenarios for counselors and other human development specialists to use as guidelines for future work with people who are disabled.     

Religious Orientation and Multidimensional Perfectionism: Relationships and Implications

To investigate relationships between religiosity and multidimensional perfectionism, the researchers administered measures of religious orientation and multidimensional perfectionism to 242 undergraduate students. The researchers found that more religious students had higher scores on an adaptive dimension of perfectionism (personal standards) but not on any of the measures of maladaptive perfectionism, suggesting that religious persons may be perfectionistic in adaptive, but not in maladaptive, ways.     

Exploring the Different Levels of Multicultural Counseling Training in Counselor Education

The authors discuss the various approaches to multicultural counseling training currently being used in counselor education programs. In doing so, they outline a developmental framework that describes the types of training thought to be available to counseling students at this time. Los autores discuten los diferentes tipos de entrenamiento multicultrual que se usan hoy en día en los programas educativos de consejería. Al hacerlo, proporcionan un esquema del estado actual de desarrollo que describe los tipos de entrenamiento que se cree que están disponibles actualmente para los estudiantes de consejería.