This study is aimed at to identify and to understand the role of information in what concerns the mobility process of top executives, helping organisations to make the most of their expatriatesâ experiences. The methodological approach chosen was the case study, carried out in an economic group of the Portuguese financial sector with several business operations abroad. Several data collection methods were used, including a questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews and in loco interaction with the expatriates in three different countries. Based on the analysis of expatriatesâ information needs, a typology of information throughout the complete cycle is described and two critical moments are identified. These moments correspond to transitions of expatriatesâ informational spaces: first the moment of arrival to the host country and second, when they return to their home country. The incorporation of expatriatesâ information in the organizational information system, across the various phases of the expatriation cycle, is summarized.

No description available.

Research has yet to explain how individuals develop and incorporate their religious and spiritual views into their sense of self and romantic relationship beliefs and behaviors. The current study seeks to understand how individuals and couples understand their spiritual and religious beliefs and use them to negotiate satisfying marital relationships. Self-discrepancy theory assists in understanding the ways in which individuals and couples navigate the development of their spiritual, religious, and relationship beliefs, as participants beliefs are often fluid as they work to reconcile various discrepancies. To understand how participants experience these beliefs in family of origin, courtship, and the early years of marriage, a story-telling methodology is employed. Many couples experience their religious beliefs as being focused on the organization, denomination, rites, and rituals, whereas spirituality is more often about beliefs, movement or questioning, and connection to a God or Higher Power. Spiritual and religious beliefs influenced the way participants viewed romantic relationships in terms of marriage, sex, marital cohesion, dating, family of origin, children, pregnancy, cohabitation, and divorce. This study represents participants' lived experiences and the various ways in which spiritual and religious beliefs permeate into other aspects of marital life. Interestingly, there appears to be a high salience of religious and spiritual beliefs in regards to relational beliefs and behavior beginning in adolescence leading up to marriage and then a reduction in saliency for some after marriage until the presence of children when saliency increases for some couples.

To address some remaining questions in the extant family caregiving literature, the present study examined a specific care-recipient (CR) problematic behavior that could be the most critical to family caregiver (CG) emotional and physical well-being--CR-resistance or uncooperative behaviors vis-à-vis the CG. In order to provide detailed descriptions of CR-resistance and to determine the impact of CR-resistance on CG emotional and physical well-being, the present study applied a sequential quantitative-qualitative mixed method design approach with 8-day diary survey data on 63 family CGs and follow-up semi-structured interview data from 19 of those CGs.The quantitative data documented and revealed significant within- and between-person variance in CR-resistance. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) analyses results further revealed that neither the mean level nor the daily fluctuation of CR-resistance across 8 survey days by themselves appeared to have a significant impact on CG emotional or physical health. However, the combination of having relatively high mean level and daily fluctuation of CR-resistance brought had a significant impact on CG physical health; when CGs with relatively high mean level CR-resistance faced more than their usual amount of CR-resistance on a given day, they reported increases in physical health symptoms.The qualitative inductive thematic analyses revealed that based on the context in which CR-resistance occurred and the occurrence patterns, CR-resistance experiences could be divided into four types, and these four types of CR-resistance seem to pose different types and/or magnitude of impact on CG emotional well-being.Furthermore, informed by Social Cognitive Theory and Stress Theory, the present study also examined CG personal, interpersonal, and social resources as possible moderators of the link between CR-resistance and CG emotional/physical well-being. HLM analyses results revealed that CG sense of efficacy, community/professional service utilization, and family disagreement regarding care played significant moderating roles. The qualitative thematic analyses clearly suggested that specific CG cognitive resources--particularly those that were transferred and/or generalized from the CG's past professional or personal experiences--have a strong influence on CG resilience in the face of CR-resistance. The moderating results were interpreted light of theoretical frameworks and extant literature. Implications and future directions are discussed.

This qualitative study was aimed at developing an understanding of how persons involved in the investigation or deliberation of child abuse and neglect cases think and feel about the process of weighing evidence and drawing conclusions from it. Twenty investigators, supervisors, and administrators employed by the Child Protective Services agency in Texas were asked to describe cases they had investigated or reviewed that had been particularly difficult because of conflicting or ambiguous evidence. They were also asked opinion questions about the agency's actuarial risk assessment instrument and the concept of preponderance of evidence. Finally, participants were asked to respond to two short case vignettes describing allegations of sexual abuse. Constant comparative and narrative analysis of interview data revealed that the process of case deliberation in CPS makes use of both intuitive and analytic decision-making styles, and there is a general movement from intuition to analysis as a case ascends the decision-making hierarchy. This movement entails a shift from narrative forms of thought and an outcome-oriented ethic to analytic forms of thought and a rule-based ethic. Though intuitive decision making is at least partly guided from personal experience and personal values, and does produce error because of that, it is nonetheless a form of rationality as capable of being guided by scrupulousness and fidelity to truth as analysis is. The personal value and outcome-oriented ethic that intuition brings to the decision making process not only cannot be eliminated, it is necessary to the program's achievement of its mission. It is recommended that the training of new investigators should, first, acknowledge the large role that intuitive thinking plays in CPS decision making and, second, develop ways to help decision makers discipline intuition, in the words of one participant, and to create conditions that foster its optimal functioning.

No description available.

This qualitative research study focuses explicitly on understanding the experiences and perceptions of urban Aboriginal women living with HIV/AIDS. Stigmatizing attitudes and language have serious impacts upon the lives of HIV-positive Aboriginal women. The ways our society presently addresses the women needs to change. With the insights and assistance of four Aboriginal women living with HIV, this project adds to the presently sparse qualitative literature in this research area. Current research indicates that there are many factors associated with urban Aboriginal women being at higher risk for infection and lower physical and mental health, such as race, socio-economic conditions, isolation, oppression and violence, family history, substance abuse, discrimination, and often the responsibilities of childrearing. However, current research analysis and presentation is insufficient, and more in-depth questions arise. Material was collected using semi-structured, open-ended questioning conversations with the participants. Two guiding research questions were asked: 1) What is it like for you, living with HIV right now? and 2) What would you want other people to learn from your experiences? The women’s stories provide an avenue for participants to voice some of their triumphs and challenges about being an Aboriginal woman living with HIV/AIDS. For the community at large, this is also an opportunity to hear first hand, important information such as this. In this work, I have tried to adhere to the tenets of Indigenous methodologies by allowing the life-stories to resonate as holistic representations. Rather than deconstructing the women’s stories through naturalistic analysis (which continues to categorize and to objectify participants), the stories are viewed through a Health Narrative Topography whereby thematic genres such as Restitution, Chaos, and Quest are illuminated, while also being critically aware of some of the limitations to this framework. Three overarching themes are revealed through the women’s stories: 1) the empowerment and resiliency demonstrated by the participants; 2) the need for cultural competency in a society that continues to stigmatize Aboriginal and HIV-positive women; and, 3) the need for a more holistic approach within society when it comes to education, learning, and healing.

Despite widespread health promotion and nutrition education efforts, gaps between official healthy eating messages and people’s actual eating practices persist. There is increasing recognition that emphasizing individual responsibility for eating may have limited applicability in improving people’s health. Many experts advocate that future research on healthy eating should involve exploration of how food practices are shaped by social structures (or determinants) and individual agency. The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which people engage with food structures to construct everyday notions of healthy eating. ‘Food structures’ draws on the concept of ‘structure,’ described by the social theorist Anthony Giddens, to refer to the range of food rules and resources people draw on. The research was conducted as part of a qualitative study on family food decision-making that included 144 participants from 13 African Nova Scotian, 10 European Nova Scotian, 12 Punjabi British Columbian and 11 European British Columbian families. These groups were chosen for their potential differences in perspectives based on place, ethnocultural background and histories of immigration to Canada. Data collection consisted of individual interviews with three or more family members aged 13 and older, and, with each family, observation of a grocery shopping trip and a family meal. Analysis followed common qualitative procedures including coding, memoing and thematic analysis. Together, the analyses support views that the gaps between official healthy eating messages and people’s eating practices may not be closed by further education about how to eat. Drawing on the theoretical concepts of Anthony Giddens and Michael Foucault, the findings suggest that one way to understand why people eat the way they do and how changes in eating habits occur is to think about the constant exposure to change through everyday, taken-for-granted practices. The findings also suggest that further healthy eating discourses may require more reflection with respect to the roles of nutrition educators and the social roles/autonomy of people in goals for health and well-being. Dietary goals for the population cannot be considered as isolated scientific objectives without taking into consideration how healthy eating discourses provide social standards beyond messages about healthy eating.

Higher rates of HIV are seen within correctional systems across the United States. Georgia has one of the largest correctional populations in the country and HIV rates among prisoners are elevated when compared to the state as a whole. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the Pre-Release Planning Program of the Georgia Department of Corrections and to identify reentry needs unique to persons living with HIV. This evaluation was informed by the post-release experiences of participants who described their own reentry journeys through semi-structured qualitative interviews. A convenience sample of 45 program participants was recruited to complete a qualitative interview following their release in 2009-2010. All 45 persons recruited consented to be contacted for an interview. A research interviewer successfully located 25 members of the original sample and they all agreed to participate. In addition a structure and process evaluation of the program was conducted. Recommendations for improvement were developed from the program evaluation and qualitative analysis of participants’ reentry experiences. For former program participants three central needs were identified: housing, health and income. Stigma and risk behaviors negatively impacted stability of housing, health and income. Strengths of the program included linkage to a Ryan White Clinic, provision of prison medical records, referrals to general social service agencies and its acceptability. The structural and individual challenges faced by persons living with HIV leaving the prison system demand comprehensive integrated services to assure access to HIV care and avoid recidivism. Minimally, housing, health and income must be addressed.

In Ontario, the organs of deceased donors are usually allocated to those recipients who are ranked highest on the province’s waiting list for transplant surgery. However, on rare occasion, a donor, or the donor’s family, will request that an organ be given to a designated recipient or designated group of recipients. The ethical acceptability of these so-called “directed donations” of organs from deceased donors is debated in the transplant literature. The purpose of this study was to elicit the views of a group of transplant professionals in Ontario on the question, “Under what circumstances, if any, should a donor or the donor’s family be allowed to choose the recipient of the organ?” Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 Ontario transplant professionals from a range of clinical disciplines. An analysis of these interviews revealed several practical and ethical considerations that the transplant professionals believed to be important in assessing the acceptability of directed donations.