Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine how participation in an online health community provides for direct benefits in the form of information utility and social support and an indirect influence on perceptions of patient empowerment.

A multi‐method approach was conducted involving interviews with moderators of 18 online health communities and a field survey of 153 online health community participants.

Online health community participation leads to direct benefits in the form of information utility and social support and that information utility also helps to shape perceptions of patient empowerment among community participants.

This research calls into question the role of online health communities as a support mechanism to empower patients to take ownership over their healthcare treatment. Online health communities support the development of patient empowerment by creating and disseminating information that can be used to gain an understanding of a patient's health condition.

Purveyors of online health communities must be able to ensure a high level of engagement among community participants that allows for each member to elicit outcomes such as information utility, while simultaneously guarding against undesirable circumstances that may prohibit a positive experience.

Medical professionals can utilize the results of this study to develop strategies for incorporating online health communities into patient care. Specifically, medical professionals can use these results to identify relevant communities and engage in information sharing to ensure relevant and accurate information is disseminated to patients as they seek out information concerning their health conditions.

As an ever growing segment of the population looks to online health communities for health information seeking and emotional support, we still know very little as to the type of support that is provided by these forums and how benefits obtained from participation help to shape patient empowerment outcomes. This study determined that information utility and social support are two benefits obtained by online health community participants and that information utility also helps to shape perceptions of patient empowerment among community participants.

For an organization to realize the intended benefits of an enternprise resource planning (ERP) investment, it must integrate both technical expertise and functional area knowledge, and it must have continuing support after implementation. The study aims to expand understanding of how organizations ensure the necessary support from functional experts during and after ERP installations. In particular, the study aims to address the question of the type of horizontal support mechanism chosen for this support and how managers make these choices.

The study is a replicated case study based on interviews with project leaders in nine universities judged to have successful PeopleSoft ERP implementations. Thematic analysis is applied to identify the factors influencing managerial choices and organizational decisions made to assure post‐implementation ERP support.

The findings indicate that managers of ERP implementations recognize the necessity for horizontal coordinating mechanisms both during and after implementation. The paper finds no single “best” structure in the cases, nor does it observe that the support structure decision is always based on a deliberate organizational strategy. The findings indicate that selection of post‐implementation support structure is often a negotiated outcome. Ultimately, the paper finds that the outcomes were based on three factors: the situated context of the original implementation project goals; the nature of early commitments made to functional subject matter experts and their departments; and the initial project structure used during the implementation phase.

This research fills a gap in research on ERP support structures by examining how localized organizations assure the necessary support from subject matter experts, commencing with project inception and continuing through post‐implementation. The results contribute to theory by illustrating the value of a process‐based approach to understanding the factors that affect the choice of support structures. The findings contribute to practice by highlighting how early management decisions and the methods executives chose to assure commitments from key stakeholders can restrict the range of options for post‐implementation organizational structures.

This chapter reports on findings from a study that explored the experiences of African American young men who graduated from Du Bois Academy, an all-boys public charter secondary school in the Midwestern region of the United States. The chapter considers issues of African American male persistence and achievement and how they are impacted by school culture. Specifically, the author discusses how school culture can help shape these students’ educational experiences and aspirations. Using student narratives as the guide, a description of how Du Bois Academy successfully engaged these African American male students is provided. The students articulated three critical components of school culture that positively shaped their high achievement and engagement: (a) sense of self, (b) promotion of excellence, and (c) community building. The student narratives provided a frame for promoting positive school culture that enhances the educational experiences and academic aspirations of African American male students.

We assess the impact of labor litigations on the ex post performance of firms. Using a sample of 44 French labor litigation cases, our empirical results confirm that the compensation amount requested by an employee has a significant and negative influence on the firm financial performance. Although that effect fades over time, it still remains significant four years after the employee has initiated the legal procedure. In addition, firms that have opted for a trial rather than a conciliation procedure improved their financial performance only in the first two years following the triggering of the litigation. That effect can be mainly explained by the long delays in the judgment of French labor courts. Our results contribute to the debate on the labor litigation impacts by assessing the financial opportunity of enacting pro-worker labor legislation dealing with employment redundancies.

Identity construction is a dynamic process that encompasses a variety of factors such as commonalities, loyalties, power struggles, and survival instincts (Lei, 2003). The complex dimensions of Black identity are influenced, in part, by community, comfort, and acceptance which at times imposes fixed categorizations, characteristics, and singular depictions. Recent research suggests that more attention be paid to the needs of Black adolescent girls and how their race and gender impact what happens in schools (Koonce, 2012). Moreover, it challenges and influences academic success, as it is challenging and difficult to excel in environments that fail to value every aspect of one's identity or identities (Rollock, 2007).

Black girls' interaction with each other, especially in urban schools, can also be problematic and resemble “relational aggression,” when in fact it is a form of posturing to increase their social status. Contextual factors (e.g., culture, school climate) can serve as risk or protective factors for involvement in posturing, relationship aggression, or increasing one's social status. Research focused on peer relationships has found differences in friendship patterns among ethnically and socioeconomically diverse youth, suggesting the importance of examining friendships within the context of ethnic and socioeconomic diversity (see Brown, Way, & Duff, 1999; Crothers, Field, & Kolbert, 2005). Sisterhood among Black girls can serve as a supportive network that enhances the “Black girl experience” as well as promote wellness and healthy identity.

Through scholarly personal narrative (Nash, 2004), this chapter outlines a multifaceted approach to creating safer brave spaces for queer and trans students within a predominantly Hispanic-serving, public research university with a mainly commuter student population in South Florida. All spaces require courageous acts of authenticity on the part of its occupants. Thus, the creation of safer brave spaces is acknowledged as a practice since safety is an ideal to be worked toward especially for those with less power and privilege, such as queer and trans people as opposed to straight and cisgender people. Experiences of heterosexism and cisgenderism are positively associated with psychological distress among queer and trans college students (Goldberg, Kuvalanka, & Black, 2019; Sue, 2010; Woodford, Kulick, Sinco, & Hong, 2014). Research suggests empowerment and the acquisition of power is a positive coping mechanism for resisting and overcoming experiences of heterosexism and cisgenderism (Mizock, 2017; Nadal, Davidoff, Davis, & Wong, 2014; Todoroff, 1995). Administrators are called upon to mindfully create spaces that empower queer and trans students. Quick tips throughout the chapter highlight that queer and trans students should be given opportunities to determine their own risks, choose their own mentors, create their own spaces, have their own voices centered, realize their own solutions, fail and learn from setbacks, and deconstruct systems of power. At the University level, administrators should work to educate and change policies that further support students' opportunities to courageously exist and persist authentically in spaces across the university as a whole and not just in designated centers.

Max Weber called the maxim “Time is Money” the surest, simplest expression of the spirit of capitalism. Coined in 1748 by Benjamin Franklin, this modern proverb now has a life of its own. In this paper, I examine the worldwide diffusion and sociocultural history of this paradigmatic expression. The intent is to explore the ways in which ideas of time and money appear in sedimented form in popular sayings.

My approach is sociological in orientation and multidisciplinary in method. Drawing upon the works of Max Weber, Antonio Gramsci, Wolfgang Mieder, and Dean Wolfe Manders, I explore the global spread of Ben Franklin’s famed adage in three ways: (1) via evidence from the field of “paremiology” – that is, the study of proverbs; (2) via online searches for the phrase “Time is Money” in 30-plus languages; and (3) via evidence from sociological and historical research.

The conviction that “Time is Money” has won global assent on an ever-expanding basis for more than 250 years now. In recent years, this phrase has reverberated to the far corners of the world in literally dozens of languages – above all, in the languages of Eastern Europe and East Asia.

Methodologically, this study unites several different ways of exploring the globalization of the capitalist spirit. The main substantive implication is that, as capitalism goes global, so too does the capitalist spirit. Evidence from popular sayings gives us a new foothold for insight into questions of this kind.