The Influence of Predeployment Training on Coordination in Multinational Headquarters: The Moderating Role of Organizational Obstacles to Information Sharing

Coordination is critical to the success of multinational military operations and may be fostered by predeployment training. We argue that whether such training is related to a high degree of perceived coordination at the individual level is likely to depend on whether individuals experience a low degree of organizational obstacles to information sharing. We examined this using data from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Kosovo Force headquarters (survey: n = 131). We controlled for whether it was the participants’ first deployment, the participants’ background (military or civilian), the amount of time spent in the headquarters by participants, whether differences pertaining to culture and opinions were valued by the organization, the quality of supervisor/subordinate relationships, and the degree of national cultural obstacles to information sharing. The results showed no significant direct effects on coordination from 3 different training configurations: national training, multinational training, and a combination of national and multinational training. However, we found a negative direct effect from organizational obstacles to information sharing on coordination, and support for organizational obstacles to information sharing as negatively moderating the multinational predeployment training and coordination relationship. Qualitative interviews (n = 14) indicated that informal information sharing, and the problems exchanging information from tactical to operational levels could hinder coordination. Interventions to foster coordination could benefit from a focus on multinational training and lowering organizational obstacles to information sharing. Our findings contribute to more precisely pinpointing the types of training that are useful in multinational operations, as well as the factors upon which training transfer is contingent.     

Interplay Between Service Era,PTSD Symptom Expression,and Treatment Completion Among Veterans

The current veteran population has grown significantly as a result of 3 recent major conflicts: Vietnam, Persian Gulf War, and Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). Despite a strong presence in VA PTSD specialty clinics nationwide, little is known about how these veteran cohort groups differ in PTSD symptom presentation. Additionally, it is unclear how variations in PTSD symptom presentation may in turn affect treatment adherence and completion. Understanding factors associated with treatment dropout from exposure-based therapy for PTSD is an important area of study, as individuals who drop out of treatment are likely to remain symptomatic and experience significant impairment across a number of psychosocial domains. The present study examined the relationship between service theater affiliation and pretreatment symptom expression as predictors of treatment completion in a sample of 164 veterans. Although treatment completion did not differ by service era, study data revealed statistically significant differences in initial PTSD symptom expression. Implications of the results and future directions are discussed.     

An empirical examination of stigma toward mental health problems and psychotherapy use in Veterans and active duty service members

Although many Veterans and active duty service members experience mental health problems, most do not seek out any sort of mental health help. Stigma (a significant predictor of treatment-seeking) has been documented among Veterans and active duty service members; however, previous research on stigma in these groups has primarily utilized correlational and qualitative designs. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of stigma toward mental health problems in Veterans and active duty service members using an experimental design. One hundred sixty-five Veterans and active duty service members were randomized to read a vignette that described a Veteran who either did or did not experience a mental health problem and did or did not seek psychotherapy. Results indicated that the participants held more stigmatizing attitudes toward the Veteran who was described as having a mental health problem, but not toward the Veteran who was described as seeking psychotherapy. Additionally, participants held more positive attitudes toward the Veteran, compared to the attitudes that they believed other military members would hold. Last, with this sample of Veterans and active duty service members, self-stigma toward seeking psychotherapy was found to partially mediate the relationship between perceived public stigma and attitudes. Implications for addressing stigma in military service members and Veterans are discussed.     

Development of Cognitive Skills in Children with Motor Coordination Impairments at 12-Month Follow-up

The current study presents a 1-year follow-up investigation of the development of executive functions (i.e., inhibition, updating, and shifting) in children with motor coordination impairments. Cognitive and motor coordination skills of children (N = 94) aged between 5 and 7 years with and without motor coordination impairments were compared. A second focus of the study was on pre-academic skills. The results indicate marked stability of motor coordination impairments and persistent executive functioning deficits in motor-impaired children. Inhibition and shifting performance was consistently lower, compared to the children without motor coordination impairments. Moreover, children with motor coordination impairments showed lower pre-academic skills, facing a substantial disadvantage at the beginning of formal schooling. The combined cognitive and motor problems may be the result of an underlying inhibition deficit or a general automation deficit. Implications for intervention are discussed.     

Tensions of Accountability: Scientists,Technicians and the Ethical Life of Data Production in Astronomy

ABSTRACT

Laboratory ethnographies have emphasized the importance of trust and accountability among scientists and technicians when working in co-presence. But what happens to their relations when data production is outsourced, widely separating scientists and technicians? In contemporary astronomy, observing has largely become a service that observatory staff members do for researchers. This has increased the efficiency of telescope use while also resulting in arrangements prone to some researchers’ dissatisfaction and a raised visibility of technicians’ work. Attending ethnographically to situated evaluations reveals that some data-using researchers and data-producing technicians typify each other as moral figures: staff observers come to be seen as objects of blame and scientists as excessively demanding users. Wherever data travel, the quality and quantity of data can serve as ethical affordances for assigning blame to staff technicians. By contrast, the moral figure of the excessively demanding data user does not travel beyond the observatory, and the social accountability of interactions that visiting astronomers experience in the observatory’s control room is confined to its situated enactment. As scientist–technician interactions have become discontinuous and fraught, moral figures and ethical accounts thus travel unevenly in the landscape of data production, and the importance of social interactions remains often unrecognized.     

社会服务实践对中学生公民行动意向的影响——社会服务观念的中介作用

本研究对6203名参与过不同形式的社会服务实践的中学生进行调查,考察了中学生参与社会服务实践的现状及其对公民行动意向的影响机制。结果发现:(1)我国中学社会服务实践的质量各维度差异较大,内外调控、深化与拓展、课程关联和自主性得分依次显著降低。(2)中学生参与的社会服务实践在城乡、学校类型、年级上存在显著差异,学校类型和年级的交互作用显著。城市、示范学校、低年级的学生参与的社会服务实践的质量较好,示范学校的优势主要体现在低年级阶段。(3)中学生的社会服务实践经历影响其公民行动意向,而社会服务观念在其中起到部分中介作用。高质量的社会服务实践经历有助于改进中学生的社会服务观念,进而增强其公民行动意向。     

基于伦理学视域的失能老人照护服务体系研究

研究失能老人照护服务体系问题,对于保障失能老人的生命尊严与生存权利、促进社会和谐发展等具有重要意义.基于失能老人生存需要的服务供给、人才培养、制度安排、组织监管等问题,是照护服务体系构建的基本元素.坚持人本理念以及资源配置的公平、公正与效益目标,是照护服务体系构建的伦理原则.     

A social-psychological perspective on tacit coordination: How it works,when it works, (and when it does not)

We present a programmatic line of experimental studies which focus on the how and when of tacit coordination (i.e., the phenomenon that people can successfully coordinate their decisions without communication). We investigated this phenomenon using different types of economic games (i.e., social dilemmas as well as coordination games). Our studies broadly cover three themes: (a) fairness as a coordination rule, (b) uncertainty and common understanding, (c) social information as a cue. By focusing on these themes we have obtained several new insights on the prerequisites and boundary conditions of tacit coordination. We conclude that tacit coordination is often facilitated by mutual adherence to social norms (e.g., fairness rules, rules of deference, etcetera), but that in order to employ such norms people need sufficient environmental and/or social information.     

How Managed Care Can Help Couples Cope

ABSTRACT

This article traces how managed care became a quick fix to curb out-of-control healthcare costs rather than a real effective approach to managing care. To date, the impact has been not only a negative experience, but impediment to treating couples facing relationship and related problems. The author is optimistic about how managed care will evolve to recognize the importance of couples and family treatment as we enter the future with integrated systems of healthcare. ? The future will also require significant shifts in the thinking and practice patterns of providers and an emphasis on quality and outcomes.     

Focusing on Educational Outcomes

National education goals, content standards, and national tests are the hot topics of the day in educational reform. Special services personnel eventually will be faced with these issues, and can either be part of the discussion from the beginning, or wait and have to deal with someone else's decisions. In this article, we highlight some recent national and state educational reform activities and their probable implications for students with disabilities. We explain in brief the impetus behind the thrust toward an outcomesbased approach to education, and summarize the response of the National Center on Educational Outcomes for Students with Disabilities to this push. Possible ways in which special service providers can act to influence the focus on outcomes are described.