Societal-level Factors Research Articles

Cultural and Economic Determinants of Managerial Perceptions of Quality

ABSTRACT The study investigates the impact of societal-level factors and organizational attributes on managerial perceptions of quality. The results are based on a cross-national study of managerial perceptions of quality utilizing data from the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Turkey. The study draws on Cheng (1994) by including the societal context into the analysis of organizations. It has been shown that the application of such an inclusive approach improves cross-national research by focusing on society-level variables in addition to the organizational-level variables. Models' coefficients are estimated using an Ordered Logit estimation method. The findings suggest that cultural factors are significant predictors of overall perceptions towards quality exhibited by managers. Specifically, the results indicate that managers from cultures with high levels of individualism and hierarchy tend to perceive quality processes differently than do their counterparts in other cultures.

Alcohol culture, family structure and adolescent alcohol use: multilevel modeling of frequency of heavy drinking among 15-16 year old students in 11 European countries.

Frequency of heavy alcohol use among adolescents is examined by family structure and propensity toward heavy alcohol use on the individual level, and by alcohol availability and drinking patterns among adolescents on the societal level. The analysis includes direct effects and moderating effects of societal-level indicators on individual-level associations between family structure and frequency of heavy alcohol use. The study drew upon self-reports from 34,001 students in Cyprus, France, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom participating in the 1999 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs study. Distinctions were drawn between adolescents living with both parents, a single mother, a single father, a mother and stepfather, a father and stepmother, and neither biological parent. The multilevel analysis estimated the effects of societal-level factors on the intercepts and slopes of individual-level regression models. Adolescents living with both biological parents engaged less frequently in heavy alcohol use than those living in any other arrangements. Living with a single mother was associated with less heavy drinking than living with a single father or with neither biological parent. National beer sales figures and societal patterns of heavy adolescent alcohol use predicted more frequent heavy drinking and greater effects of living in nonintact families. Adolescent heavy drinking is more common in all types of nonintact families. The adverse effect of living in nonintact families is greater in societies where alcohol availability is greater and where adolescents drink more heavily.

Using an interactive framework of society and lifecourse to explain self-rated health in early adulthood

This paper presents an integrated model of the determinants of adult health combining lifecourse factors and contemporary circumstances. Using the 1958 British Birth Cohort, it operationalises lifecourse influences in terms of factors from birth to age 33, which might act through latent, pathway, or cumulative effects. Contemporary circumstances are represented by variables at different levels of social aggregation: macro (socio-economic circumstances); meso (involvement in civil society functions); micro (personal social support); and intersecting (job insecurity and life control). Multiple regression models were fitted, using self-rated health at age 33 as the health outcome. To allow for temporal ordering of events, early life factors were entered first in the final model, followed by later childhood factors and, finally current factors. Self-rated health was predicted by variables representing both early and later stage of the lifecourse and also contemporary societal-level factors. The effects of childhood factors were not removed by including contemporary factors, and conversely, contemporary factors contributed to the prediction of self-rated health over and above lifecourse factors. The factors were not collinear; supporting the notion that each dimension was distinct from the others. Although the model accounted for only 9% of the variance in self-rated health, the general conclusion is that both lifecourse and contemporary circumstances should be considered together in explaining adult health.

Meanings of Money Nurtured by Nature

Based on the experiences of his family members, peers, and himself in China since the 1920s, the author suggests three individual-level factors that combine to have a huge impact on people's attitudes toward money and property. One is the influence of parents or parental figures. The second is one's life goal or lack thereof. The third is the role that money and property (or the lack thereof) play in achieving that goal. There are, however, societal-level factors that loom large at the background. The dramatic changes in the economic and social systems and conditions contributed to the differences in the attitudes among Chinese of different times. Similarly, the differences between China and other countries in the economic and social systems and conditions contributed to the differences in the attitudes of Chinese and the attitudes of other peoples during a given time period.

Societal-level predictors of groups' drinking patterns: a research synthesis from the Collaborative Alcohol-Related Longitudinal Project.

Period effects of per capita consumption of alcohol and divorce rates are assessed for change in quantity and frequency among age/sex groups in multiple longitudinal studies. Twenty-five studies of quantity and 29 studies of frequency are used. Studies are from 15 nations and cover periods of 1 to 21 years. Models predict the standardized mean difference for quantity and frequency based on period effects and group-level and methodological variables. When both the period effects of per capita consumption and the divorce rate are considered, the divorce rate significantly predicts change in quantity and frequency. An increase in the divorce rate is associated with a stronger decrease in frequency among younger people; men are more likely than women to decrease their frequency of drinking when divorce rates rise. Multiple societal-level factors should be considered critical in influencing the drinking patterns of groups. These results suggest that an increase in the divorce rate is associated with more "dry" social contexts, characterized possibly by drinking patterns of a more "volitive" nature (i.e., heavier quantity per occasion and less frequent drinking).

Violence By and Against Women: A Comparative and Cross-National Analysis

Drawing from different kinds and levels of analysis, this article synthesizes current knowledge on women's violent offending and victimization cross-nationally. Individual-level data indicate characteristics and situations that put women at risk for violence within particular countries. Aggregate-level data concentrate on women's risks of violent encounters across nations and the societal-level factors that are associated with these risks. This multinational, multilevel approach reveals substantial gaps between our understanding of the types of encounters in which women are at greatest risk for violence and the societal correlates that predict gender distributions in violence across nations.