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Experiences of Minority Workers: A Three-Study Dissertation Evaluating Recruitment and Workplace Experiences for Minority Workers
No full textThrough a series of three manuscripts, the dissertation explores the experiences of minority groups across different points of the employee life cycle. As minority employees often face a negative set of unique stressors inside and outside of work, this series of papers attempt to further our understanding of minority experiences during the organizational stages of recruitment and retention. The first manuscript tests the effects of recruitment material on pre-hire applicant outcomes for minorities by integrating literature on realistic job previews (RJPs) and diversity recruitment. The experimental study finds that leader diversity testimonials that provide a mix of positive and negative (i.e., realistic) information about organizational diversity are rated more favorably compared to overly positive (i.e., idealized) testimonials among racial and ethnic minority applicants (N = 330). These empirical results suggest that organizations have an ethical imperative to provide minority applicants with realistic information regarding organizational diversity to allow minorities to make job-related decisions. The second manuscript integrates literature on RJPs, organizational impression management (OIM), and social identity theory (SIT) to propose a conceptual model of diversity recruitment for minority applicants. Specifically, I propose that diversity signals during recruitment influence downstream applicant outcomes and organizational outcomes across pre-hire and post-hire experiences for minorities. In addition, I identify mediating and moderating mechanisms that play a role in these relationships across the employee life cycle. What is left to be explored is the actual experiences among minority groups within the organization, especially with the continued rise of remote work. For this reason, the third manuscript examines the indirect relationship between the percentage of remote work and well-being outcomes via workplace loneliness among a sample of racial and ethnic minorities (N = 328). Results suggest that workplace loneliness is associated with negative well-being outcomes. Surprisingly, high levels of workplace psychological safety also significantly exacerbated the positive relationship between workplace loneliness and ratings of sleep dissatisfaction. When workplace psychological safety was high, greater workplace loneliness was associated with increased sleep dissatisfaction. Collectively, these studies will inform how to tailor recruitment material and implement organizational interventions to adapt to continuous societal events that continue to impact workplace and well-being experiences for minority employees
Signifying Improvement: Reform Symbols as Discursive Practice in School Improvement Plans
Full text linkSchool Improvement Plans (SIPs) have been shown to be generally of poor quality and written more as acts of compliance than efforts at genuine reform. This raises the question: if SIPs are ineffective at improving schools, what is their larger purpose? In this conceptual paper, we argue that SIPs are discursive sites where schools can signal their adherence to ostensibly proven and acceptable models of reform. They do so through the use of reform symbols, discursive markers that signal legitimized organizational change through the adoption of accepted modes of improvement. We illustrate this concept by showing how a variety of SIPs use reform symbols that point to the work of no-excuses Charter Management Organizations. Such organizations, emblems of an era of accountability and narrow models of school improvement, are used as symbols of legitimacy that help schools secure their survival without engaging in the difficult work of change. The examples we use show clearly how reform symbols might take a variety of forms, appearing as important signifiers in a range of policy artifacts across the landscape of school improvement. We further argue that such reform symbols reduce the complexities of educational change, thus reinforcing an ideological field that constructs underperformance as normative and “school improvement” as both urgent and possible
Dimensions of Organizational and Personal Evidence Use by Senior Managers in Private Child Welfare Agencies
Full text linkScholars know little about how human service agency leaders use evidence to improve organizational performance. We draw on interviews with 27 private child welfare administrators in six states to examine how senior leaders use evidence, the types of evidence they use, and specific organizational processes established to support evidence use. Results suggest evidence use in private agencies takes diverse forms, including the analysis of internal data, the use of external research, and evidence-based interventions. We identify actions taken by senior leaders to promote various types of evidence use, including modeling, requiring evidence use in decision-making, establishing performance measures, and developing infrastructure and processes to support the analysis and interpretation of different types of evidence. We organize these findings into a managerial, practice-informed framework for how human service managers may promote evidence use in their agencies and increase the diversity and utility of evidence use to achieve desired outcomes
The Effects of Imidacloprid and Polyester Microfibers on the Larval Development of the Endangered Sunflower Star
Full text linkSea star wasting syndrome has affected numerous species of sea star, with populations of Pycnopodia helianthoides (Brandt, 1835) left most at risk. As their populations are struggling to recover, it is important to gain a better understanding of the impacts that the multiple stressors in their habitats can have on their populations. Contaminant stressors in particular are of increasing importance, because aquatic organisms can be exposed to a dynamic range of contaminants from nearby anthropogenic activity that may affect their future recovery efforts. This study is the first to quantify the effects of contaminant stressors on the larvae of P. helianthoides. We exposed P. helianthoides larvae to the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid and polyester microfibers, both individually and in combination, at environmentally relevant concentrations (10 ng/L and 25 fibers/L, respectively) to measure the effects of these contaminants on their early life stages. Imidacloprid exposure resulted in stomach malformation in 10% of larvae and increased mortality during early development (p \u3c 0.001), and all treatments resulted in increased larval lengths relative to controls (p \u3c 0.001). During settlement, imidacloprid resulted in more rapid settlement responses than in the controls (p \u3c 0.01). These findings highlight the need for further research investigating the effects of contaminant stressors to endangered organisms during reintroduction as well as a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of pesticides to nontarget organisms
Advancing Methods for Comparative Urban Research: A City-Centric Protocol and Longitudinal Dataset for US Metropolitan Statistical Areas
Full text linkComparative urban research in the USA has an unacknowledged data and methodological problem at the metropolitan scale, rooted in geographic and definitional boundary changes of urban areas across time. In this article, we introduce a new spatial dataset, decision criteria, and methodological protocol for longitudinal and comparative research with US metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs)—known as ‘metros’—in a way that centers a ‘city-centric’ approach to comparison while significantly reducing spatial error and bias. First, we review gaps and limitations of existing approaches and identify three major but previously unacknowledged sources of error, including a new source of bias we call ‘spanning error.’ Next, we explain our methodological protocol and decision criteria, which are guided by the twin aims of reducing spatial bias and ensuring metropolitan consistency over time. We then introduce our improved dataset, which covers the 50 largest MSAs from 1980-2020. We argue that by centering the urban area as the fundamental unit of analysis—a city-centric approach—our methodology and dataset provides robust and dynamic metropolitan definitions that advance comparative urban studies while improving precision and accuracy in urban data analysis across different time scales. We discuss broader applications of our methodology and identify advantages and limitations over existing techniques, including potential applications of this work in policy, planning, and future research
Combining Passive and Active Ultrasonic Stress Wave Monitoring for the Characterization of the Early-Age Properties of a UHPFRC Beam
Full text linkThis article focuses on the characterization of the early-age properties of Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Cementitious Composite (UHPFRC), which is becoming popular for designing lightweight and durable structures. Due to the large proportion of cement in the mix, the hardening of UHPFRC is significantly faster than conventional concrete. Therefore, the development of UHPFRC properties, such as the elastic modulus, is difficult to monitor as it happens while elements are within the formwork. For this reason, the hydration process of UHPFRC elements is not fully understood yet. A combined passive (or acoustic emission) and active ultrasonic stress wave monitoring approach has the potential to characterize structures made of cementitious materials over their entire service duration. Using a network of embedded ultrasonic transducers, monitoring can start only a few instants after casting. A UHPFRC beam with a T-shaped cross-section and a length of 4.2 m was constructed and instrumented with 24 transducers as well as 15 thermocouples. Monitoring results lead to the characterization of the development of the early-age UHPFRC properties on the structural-element scale while the specimen is within the formwork. The continuous monitoring approach enabled accurate estimations of the spatial and temporal evolution of the modulus of elasticity. Thanks to this novel combination of monitoring techniques, the early age properties of UHPFRC, which were measured at the material scale, are confirmed at the structural scale for the first time
Using Geographic Interviews to Conduct Community Assessments—insights for MSW Pedagogy
Full text linkSocial work is predicated as a person-in-environment profession, but few tools presently exist for students to operationalize person-in-environment through assessment and systematic understanding. Geographic interviews, which combine spatial mapping and qualitative go-along interviews, are one possible tool with promise for application in the social work classroom. This teaching note describes the process of integrating geographic interviews as one data collection method MSW students could utilize in a community assessment assignment. We share learnings from student assignments (N = 8) and instructor focus groups (N = 4). We found that while there was a high level of student and instructor interest, the unfamiliarity of the tool and perceived time required meant that some students did not choose to use the tool. When they did use the tool, they found it valuable for their learning; however, many students did not use the tool to expected fidelity. We suggest the need for more substantial training of students and instructors when using this valuable tool, including examples, practice assignments, and suggestions for intentional adaptation
Entheogens: The Hallucinogenic Plants That Shaped Religion
Full text linkEntheogens have played a pivotal role in religious and spiritual practices across diverse cultures, aiding in the pursuit of divine connection and higher consciousness. Evidence suggests that dating as far as back as a million years ago, early human species such as Homo erectus and Homo habilis experimented with hallucinogenic plants like psilocybin mushrooms, introducing the earliest forms of shamanic practices. As societies became more structured, the use of entheogens expanded throughout various parts of society. In ancient Greece, oracles utilized plants like henbane to communicate with the divine, molding military and political policy. During the Middle Ages, Tibetan Buddhism embraced plants such as datura and cannabis to transcend conventional thought and attain enlightenment, while European witches, despite persecution, used similar substances in their Sabbat rituals. In the Americas, non-native Amazonians and indigenous North Americans have long utilized hallucinogens like ayahuasca and peyote for spiritual transformation, and these practices are now gaining global attention, sparking cultural and governmental change.
Part of the panel: High Stakes: Faith, Control and Consumption Moderator: Professor Natan Mei
Face Value: Cosmetics as a Unit of Historical Analysis
Full text linkCosmetics are a universal concept that have been inherent in society all throughout history. This paper explores four unique cultures from across the globe and their primary cosmetic of choice. A tube of lipstick from a Bronze Age Persian burial ground sheds light on the early uses and significance of lipstick in Ancient Persia. A compact of powdered pearls from China in the 11th century reveals the widespread importance of facial powder in China. The Maya applied paint and perfumes to denote social status and in ritual traditions, as evidenced by artwork and archaeological evidence. Ancient Egyptians famously painted their eyes with kohl and protected their skin with cosmetics, which was depicted in artwork and present in records. These cosmetics have a variety of uses and significance, but the essential premise is that cosmetics are used to change appearances and increase desirability, which has implications for social interactions and society as a whole.
Part of the panel: Reflections of Humanity Moderator: Professor Katrine Barbe
Indigenous Futures: Decolonizing Conservation and Restoring Ecological Sovereignty
Full text linkThis study examines how members of Indigenous-led conservation organizations perceive the ecological and social implications of colonial conservation ideologies in the context of contemporary grassroots strategies. By analyzing the ongoing impact of conservation frameworks in Kenya, this research highlights the role of Indigenous-led initiatives in advancing sustainable, community-driven alternatives. Using a Two-Eyed Seeing approach, which integrates Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) with Western scientific methods, the study employs qualitative, semi-structured interviews with leaders from Zawadisha, KENVO, Wildlife Works, and CER-Kenya. Findings indicate that these organizations, particularly those led by women, actively restore biodiversity, enhance climate resilience, and challenge exclusionary conservation policies. Additionally, participants highlight the persistence of green colonialism and greenwashing as barriers to equitable environmental governance. This study contributes to the discourse on decolonizing conservation by underscoring the need for policy frameworks that center Indigenous knowledge and leadership in sustainable land management