Bad Things Happen Research Articles

Book Review: When Bad Things Happen to Privileged People: Race, Gender, and What Makes a Crisis in America by Dara Z. Strolovitch

Book Review: <i>When Bad Things Happen to Privileged People: Race, Gender, and What Makes a Crisis in America</i> by Dara Z. Strolovitch

Why Bad Things Happen to Good Organizations: The Link Between Governance and Asset Diversions in Public Charities

In the United States, the IRS now requires charities to publicly disclose any significant asset diversion, which is the theft or unauthorized use of assets, that the charity identifies during the year. We use this new disclosure to investigate whether strong governance reduces the likelihood of a charitable asset diversion. Specifically, for a sample of 1528 charities from 2008 to 2012, we simultaneously examine eleven measures of governance that capture four broad governance constructs: board monitoring, independence of key individuals, tone at the top, and capital provider oversight. We find consistent evidence that good governance across all four constructs is negatively associated with the probability of an asset diversion. Of the eleven governance measures, our results indicate that monitoring by debt holders and government grantors, audits, and keeping managerial duties in-house are most strongly associated with lower incidence of fraud. Our results also indicate that the likelihood of a fraud is negatively associated with a board review of the Form 990, the existence of a conflict of interest policy, and the presence of restricted donations. In addition, we document that the likelihood of an asset diversion is negatively associated with program efficiency and positively associated with growth and organizational complexity.

Why Bad Things Happen to Good Organizations: The Link between Governance and Asset Diversions in Public Charities

In the United States, the IRS now requires charities to publicly disclose any theft or unauthorized use of assets that the charity identifies during the year. We use this new disclosure to investigate whether strong governance reduces the likelihood of a charitable asset diversion. Specifically, for a sample of 1,528 charities from 2008 to 2012, we examine eleven measures of governance that capture four broad governance constructs: board monitoring, independence of key individuals, tone at the top, and capital provider oversight. We find consistent evidence that good governance across all four constructs is negatively associated with the probability of an asset diversion. Of the eleven governance measures, our results indicate that monitoring by debt holders and government grantors, audits, and keeping managerial duties in-house are most strongly associated with lower incidence of fraud. Our results also indicate that the likelihood of a fraud is negatively associated with a board review of the Form 990, the existence of a conflict of interest policy, and the presence of restricted donations. In addition, we document that the likelihood of an asset diversion is negatively associated with program efficiency and positively associated with growth and organizational complexity.

Adverse Outcomes: Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Adverse Outcomes: Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Sometimes Bad Things Happen to Good Trust Companies: A Reexamination of the Trust Company Panic of 1907

The runs on trust companies during the Panic of 1907 have been blamed on unregulated financial innovation. New York trust companies are said to have taken advantage of gaps in regulation to engage in risky behavior, ultimately causing depositors to lose confidence in trust companies. This paper shows that there was not a general loss of confidence in trust companies. Runs were concentrated on a specific group of trust companies: the uptown trust companies. But there is no evidence of mismanagement or unusually risky asset allocation among these companies. Instead, it was the nature of their deposits that made them more susceptible to runs. While traditional trust companies focused on small numbers of large deposits from businesses, the uptown trust companies had large numbers of household deposits.

Why Bad Things Happen to Good Shepherds: Providence and the Pastoral

La infelicidad de los actores pastoriles no ha dejado de inquietar a la crítica moderna que ha querido explicarla como una convención meramente estética, o sea una medida para conmover al lector convencido de su bondad y la honestidad de sus amores. En cambio, los contemporáneos de Cervantes atribuirían la infelicidad a dos factores íntimamente relacionados en la preceptiva cristiana: por una parte, la ausencia de providencia divina en un mundo explícitamente pagano y, por otra, la pasividad de los actores pastoriles, quienes no se valen (como deben) de su libre albedrío para hacer frente a sus conflictos internos.

Why Bad Things Happen to Good Shepherds: Providence and the Pastoral

La infelicidad de los actores pastoriles no ha dejado de inquietar a la crítica moderna que ha querido explicarla como una convención meramente estética, o sea una medida para conmover al lector convencido de su bondad y la honestidad de sus amores. En cambio, los contemporáneos de Cervantes atribuirían la infelicidad a dos factores íntimamente relacionados en la preceptiva cristiana: por una parte, la ausencia de providencia divina en un mundo explícitamente pagano y, por otra, la pasividad de los actores pastoriles, quienes no se valen (como deben) de su libre albedrío para hacer frente a sus conflictos internos.

Adult and Christian Self-Improvement Literature

Many adults search for spiritual guidance and direction and persist in seeking answers to life in today's fast-paced world. With burgeoning economic challenges, political corruption, war in Iraq, poverty, health care concerns, environmental concerns, rising fuel costs, violence, racism, and oppression, many adults seek solace and greater understanding for their own lives. Some adults seek respite and comfort during these increasingly complex and challenging times by attending a church, temple, synagogue, or mosque, and/or by reading the Bible, Koran, or other books of wisdom, inspiration, encouragement, and empowerment. Many adults still participate in traditional forms of church worship activities, including Bible study groups and adult Sunday school classes that are fundamental to religious education. This article's purpose is to highlight a specific genre of religious literature. I will review some recent examples of religious literature by focusing specifically on the category of Christian self-improvement (CSI) books. This review is to encourage adult educators teaching classes in adult growth and development, life-cycle/life-span areas, and gender and/or racial issues to consider using these books in adult education. Adult religious educators can explore religious literature to better understand some of the whole-life issues adults are facing. CSI literature can provide an excellent context for new and future areas of research in adult and religious education as it relates to adult growth and development; gender, socioeconomic, and racial issues; and how these issues are addressed in this genre of contemporary literature. The earliest origins of self-help literature can be traced back to a 1784 legal self-help book, Every Man His Own Lawyer by John G. Wells (Salerno). It was not until the early 20th century when two seminal works were published that self-improvement literature began to flourish (Salerno). Those books, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie's book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, are still and available today. The use of self-improvement literature in the 1970s and 80s ushered a new realm of books based on spiritual enlightenment, spiritual living, and spiritual self-improvement. Most notable was M. Scott Peck's book, The Road Less Traveled. According to McGee (2005), Peck's book proposes a spiritual alternative in a world where the likelihood of material success became, for the average American, an increasingly elusive goal (p. 57). Thirty years later, this sentiment still rings true for many Americans. McGee noted other spiritual self-help books appearing in the 1980s from well-known religious leaders such as Robert Schuller. His books have been described as scripturally derived homilies and with 'possibility thinking' (McGee, p. 57). Similarly, Rabbi Harold S. Kushner's books, When Bad Things Happen to Good People and When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough, enjoyed phenomenal success. McGee asserts, Indeed, the history of American success literature is filled with ministers providing moral justification and spiritual boosterism (p. 58). Garrett (2007) notes, like their religion with a heaping portion of practical application. That makes self-help with a religious or spiritual slant enduringly popular (p. 47). In a poll conducted by The Associated Press (2008), two-thirds of Americans surveyed said they read the Bible and other religious works more than any other category of books. The poll also noted that older and married women, lower-wage earners, minorities, less educated people, Southerners, rural residents, Republicans, and conservatives are more likely to read religious books. As the spiritual and religiously-themed self-help/improvement literature continually pervades every area of society, it is important for us as adult educators to acknowledge, critically examine, and even conduct empirical research on this genre and how it affects adult religious education, growth, identity, and development. …

When Bad Things Happen from Good People (and Vice-Versa): Hume's Political Ethics of Revolution

In the first Stuart volume of his History of England, David Hume provides ample evidence for his self-proclaimed Whig principles regarding things and Tory prejudices regarding persons. Hume...

When Bad Things Happen to Other People (review)

When Bad Things Happen to Other People (review)

When Bad Things Happen to the Endorsers of Good Products

We investigate how a firm's financial performance (as measured by stock returns) is influenced when celebrity endorsers become involved in undesirable events, i.e., events that have a deleterious effect on the spokespersons. We find that the stock market reaction to these events is negatively related to spokesperson blameworthiness. The lower (higher) the culpability, the higher (lower) the stock return. Interestingly, it is only those firms associated with spokespersons having high culpability that tend to experience losses in stock market value. In contrast, we find that events rated at or below the mean level of blameworthiness are associated with positive stock market returns.

From Experience: Why Bad Things Happen to Good New Products

The rollout of a new product can be an exhilarating time for everyone involved in the development and launch effort. Just as a construction crew may meet at a local gathering place to hail the “topping-off” of a new home or office building, the development team—or possibly the entire company—may gather to celebrate a new product’s release. Launch meetings generate enthusiasm among the salespeople, and favorable reviews lead to an influx of inquiries from prospective customers. Despite this initial wave of enthusiasm, however, customer desire for the innovative new product may soon wane. Does this mean that everyone was wrong about the new product’s potential? Citing three examples of launches that followed this pattern, Neil Rackham addresses a key question for product development professionals: “Why should promising products from highly respected companies fail despite clear evidence of market need, strong marketing support, and real enthusiasm and energy from salespeople?” Based on his own experience in these three cases, as well as research investigations into elements of these and other launches, he rejects the conventional wisdom that the problem stems from resistance to change on the part of either the customers or the salespeople. He suggests that the problem rests with the way in which highly innovative products are launched to the salesforce, which in turn influences the manner in which the products are sold. He notes that the launch of an innovative product typically focuses on all the great new features the product offers. However, the new features that make the product so exciting may draw the salesperson’s attention away from the most important issue in the selling process: the customer’s needs. In other words, he suggests that the launch and the selling of innovative products tend to be product-centered instead of customer-centered, causing customer interest to fade as the selling process progresses. Rather than fill the salesforce with details about a product’s “bells and whistles,” he suggests that the launch should focus on describing the product in terms of the problems it solves for the customer. Similarly, rather than bombard customers with details about product features, he suggests that the salesperson should focus on asking questions. In this customer-centered approach, the product’s features are considered only in terms of the manner in which they meet the customer’s needs.

From Experience: Why Bad Things Happen to Good New Products

The rollout of a new product can be an exhilarating time for everyone involved in the development and launch effort. Just as a construction crew may meet at a local gathering place to hail the “topping‐off” of a new home or office building, the development team—or possibly the entire company—may gather to celebrate a new product's release. Launch meetings generate enthusiasm among the salespeople, and favorable reviews lead to an influx of inquiries from prospective customers. Despite this initial wave of enthusiasm, however, customer desire for the innovative new product may soon wane. Does this mean that everyone was wrong about the new product's potential?Citing three examples of launches that followed this pattern, Neil Rackham addresses a key question for product development professionals: “Why should promising products from highly respected companies fail despite clear evidence of market need, strong marketing support, and real enthusiasm and energy from salespeople?” Based on his own experience in these three cases, as well as research investigations into elements of these and other launches, he rejects the conventional wisdom that the problem stems from resistance to change on the part of either the customers or the salespeople.He suggests that the problem rests with the way in which highly innovative products are launched to the salesforce, which in turn influences the manner in which the products are sold. He notes that the launch of an innovative product typically focuses on all the great new features the product offers. However, the new features that make the product so exciting may draw the salesperson's attention away from the most important issue in the selling process: the customer's needs. In other words, he suggests that the launch and the selling of innovative products tend to be product‐centered instead of customer‐centered, causing customer interest to fade as the selling process progresses.Rather than fill the salesforce with details about a product's “bells and whistles,” he suggests that the launch should focus on describing the product in terms of the problems it solves for the customer. Similarly, rather than bombard customers with details about product features, he suggests that the salesperson should focus on asking questions. In this customer‐centered approach, the product's features are considered only in terms of the manner in which they meet the customer's needs.

When Bad Things Happen to Good Feedback: Exacerbating the Need for Self-Justification with Self-Affirmations

In numerous self-affirmation studies, Claude Steele and colleagues have demonstrated that self-affirmations reduce the need to justify dissonant behavior even when the affirmation is unrelated to the dissonance-evoking action. However, research has not sufficiently examined the impact of reaffirming self-aspects that are related to the dissonance. The authors argue that relevant affirmations of this sort can make salient the standards that are violated in the course of dissonant behavior; thereby increasing dissonance and the need for self justification. In a laboratory study using the induced-compliance paradigm, it was demonstrated that dissonance can be exacerbated by reaffirming standards that are violated in the course of the dissonant behavior.

Women and Self-Help Culture: Reading Between the Lines.

Simonds writes about women's approach to reading. She is most interested in books directed primarily toward women. These books offer advice about managing relationships, enhancing sexuality, developing self-esteem, becoming assertive, and improving our spiritual lives. Simonds looks at hundreds of books, including such well-known ones as Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, Robin Norwood's Women Who Love Too Much, Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People, and Alexander Comfort's The Joy of Sex. Even though many critics see these books as anti-feminist drivel, their continued success says something about American women's search for meaning. Simonds examines the social construction, cultural consumption, and transmission of ideas about gender and the self. She wants to know why such books are appealing and what their readers are doing with them. Readers' own responses to books, though varied, do fall into patterns. A few readers reject the messages found in these books but most affirm the content. They look for validation of how they already feel and for answers to their problems. Traditionally women care for others; reading books gives them a chance to nurture themselves. Simonds explores the cultural messages offered by books. What do the books preach about blame, feminism, and individualism? She looks at sex manuals which advise their readers not only to learn techniques but also to improve their self-identities. She looks at books that deal with the larger arena of relationships between men and women. Authors see such relationships as plagued by nearly insurmountable problems. Men are obstacles that women must work around as they attempt to forge meaningful relationships in what is characterized as a war zone.Simonds discusses the place of books in relation to other forms of She views books as an example of the didacticism that pervades women's experiences. In her words, self-help culture is our culture. The same therapeutic culture that characterizes books can also be found in magazines, soap operas, and talk shows. These books are buyable therapy. In a sense, books commodify readers by urging them to make themselves into objects of analysis and improvement. Such books try to give their readers an understanding of existing problems, but they also help create the problems.Are books politically conservative or liberating? There is no easy answer. The authors of books seek answers through individual change, not social change. They reinforce the traditional dependence of women on authority. But at the same time Simonds argues that books can validate caring, and serve as a form of women caring for women. These books shift the emphasis of caring, as they encourage their readers to care less about their involvements with others and more about their own personal development, but for the ultimate goal of achieving better connections with others.

One Point of View: The Dangers of Implementing the Standards; or, When Bad Things Happen to Good Ideas

A trhough I embrace the vision that the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 1989) sets for us in the field of mathematics education, I am already worried about the way many people have begun to interpret it. My concerns echo those in the field of language education who fear the same fare for the writing process and whole language movement. Bad things can happen to good ideas, including the curriculum and evaluation standards, unless we are clear about what that document is and is not.

Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project (review)

Reviews313 dialogue, but as what Socrates says he remembers of a dialogue and as what Plato in turn writes down (parricidally, Derrida muses in "Plato's Pharmacy"): a triple mediation, the imitation of an imitation. How dien could the ostensible doctrine ofsuch a text be linked in an unproblematic way, as Nyquist proposes, to "Plato"? Such questions are by no means to be construed as a "critique" of Nyquist or of the other contributors in the collection. That those questions can perhaps fruitfully be posed is one sign of the collection's value. Washington State UniversityRalph Flores Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project, by John D. Caputo; ix & 319 pp. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987, $37.50 cloth, $17.50 paper. This is a remarkable book: wide-ranging, resonant, and well-written; it is also reflective and personable, warm and engaging. Especially if you are, like me, not a philosopher but a literary type, you will have to struggle with die dense chapters on Kierkegaard, Husserl, and Being and Time, but the close readings of Derrida and the later Heidegger are among the best I know, and so die prize is well worth the effort. Radical Hermeneutics emerges as one of those all-too-rare academic books that you hate to finish. Part of its excitement and importance derives from John D. Caputo's awareness that hermeneutics and deconstruction bear on our experience as persons engaged in ethical, political , and religious choices. Caputo is as nimble as he is judicious, and his moves are a pleasure to observe. The author of two previous books on Heidegger (The Mystical Element in Heidegger's Thought and Heidegger and Aquinas: An Essay on Overcoming Metaphysics ), Caputo understands hermeneutics as "an attempt to stick with the original difficulty of life, and not to betray it with metaphysics" (p. 1). By no means an exercise in nihilism, "radical hermeneutics" stays with and in the flux and tries to cope with it instead of escaping via one or more of the handy mechanisms philosophy has devised. Drawing on Kierkegaard, Caputo juxtaposes repetition, which "means to produce something, not to reproduce a prior presence," with "recollection," which, instead of forging ahead, retreats, representing "a nostalgic, melancholy longing for a lost paradise, a dreamy wistfulness " (p. 15). These differences parallel, of course, Derrida's "two interpretations of interpretation ." It is Heidegger, however, who constitutes the focus here, diough 314Philosophy and Literature he by no means has the last word. The opening chapters on Kierkegaard and on Husserl (the latter a strong, revisionist reading) point toward Being and Time. But that monumental text tells only part of the story, even for Heidegger, whose later writings Caputo elucidates. He effects ultimately a productive interweaving of Heidegger and Derrida that represents a radicalization of the former and a hermeneutic reading ofthe latter. Unlike those, such as Gadamer, who appear to stay with the flux but manage to escape, Caputo refuses to arrest die movement of drought. The result is a "cold" hermeneutics (it throws us out into the cold, makes us shiver) that sees in Derrida "an emancipatory form," in Heidegger "a meditative one" (p. 192). Neidier is privileged: Derrida and deconstruction need Heidegger and hermeneutics no more nor less than die latter do them. Caputo dius engages in a "double-cross: subverting Heidegger by means of Derrida, subverting Derrida by means of Heidegger, and always by means of pressing dieir point ofintersection—die delimitation of Being and truth (Wahrheit) as effects" (p. 198). This subversion points toward a "postmetaphysical rationality" and "an ediics of dissemination." Uniting Derridean dissemination and Heideggerian Gelassenheit (letting be), Caputo offers a discussion faithful to these (different) diinkers, as well as rich, suggestive, and practical. In his last chapter, Caputo applies some ofdie derived insights. Among odier tilings, he provides a "genealogy of the religious" diat relates, in my view, not only to liberation theology but also to Rabbi Harold S. Kushner's meditations on suffering in When Bad Things Happen to Good People. This attempt to apply "radical hermeneutics" is, however, the least successful part of Caputo's book. The basic notions have, moreover, been treated elsewhere, e.g., by Mark Taylor in Erring...

When Bad Things Happen to Good Nursing Departments

How does a crisis impact a hospital? And how should nursing executives manage the crisis so that productivity and morale remain high? The purpose of this article is to trace an organizational crisis from its inception to its resolution. Every crisis has predictable components that if recognized will enable an administrator to diminish interpersonal hostility and conflict. Key strategies for resolving a crisis include sending objective messages to staff concerning the magnitude of the crisis, enlisting staff support in resolving problems contributing to the crisis, and projecting an optimistic vision of the future.