Continuity

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Medical Sciences

Kinds of Continuity

  • considerable continuity
  • cultural continuity
  • greater continuity
  • historical continuity
  • intergenerational continuity

  • Terms modified by Continuity

  • continuity condition
  • continuity equation
  • continuity requirement

  • Selected Abstracts


    ORGANIZATIONAL INVOLVEMENT AND BLACK PARTICIPATION: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

    POLITICS & POLICY, Issue 4 2000
    Darryl L. McMiller
    Empirical investigations of black political activity either do not include measures for associational affiliation among blacks or take into consideration differences among black organizations in their capacity to promote political activity among their members. In this investigation, a model of black political behavior was presented that included not only the standard predictors of political activity, but also incorporated measures for membership in different types of voluntary associations. Two important conclusions emerge from this study. First, this investigation demonstrated that since the 1960s, there has been an important transformation in the organizational infrastructure of the black community: blacks changed their voluntary memberships from political to nonpartisan organizations. Second, these findings showed that the decline in group-based political mobilization since the 1960s is partly the result of this shift from partisan to nonpolitical affiliations. [source]


    REJECTING THE DEATH PENALTY: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN THE TRADITION

    THE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 3 2008
    E. CHRISTIAN BRUGGER
    First page of article [source]


    GLAZED CERAMIC MANUFACTURING IN SOUTHERN TUSCANY (ITALY): EVIDENCE OF TECHNOLOGICAL CONTINUITY THROUGHOUT THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD (10TH,14TH CENTURIES),

    ARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 1 2008
    C. FORTINA
    Archaeometric investigation allowed the characterization of two important classes of ceramics: ,vetrina sparsa' and ,invetriata grezza'. Their archaeological peculiarity makes them particularly suited for tracing the evolution of glaze manufacturing in southern Tuscany throughout the medieval period (10th,14th centuries). These ceramics were found in different sites of historical importance, and also from a mining perspective. Local copper, lead, zinc and iron mineralizations supported the growth of several settlements in the vicinity of the mines. The many castles and different archaeological finds (ceramics, glazed ceramic, slag etc.) attest to the intense mineral exploitation of the area from at least the first millennium bc up to the modern period. In light of these geological and archaeological characteristics, archaeometric investigation was intended to provide insight into ancient technical knowledge of ceramic glazing and to determine the source area for raw materials in the medieval period (10th,14th centuries). Ceramic bodies were analysed through OM, XRDp, SEM,EDS and XRF, while coatings were investigated through SEM,EDS. Mineralogical, petrographic and chemical analyses revealed slightly different preparation and firing processes for the two classes of ceramics. These data suggest the continuity through the centuries of the ,vetrina sparsa' and ,invetriata grezza' production technology. The mineralogical phases, such as monazite, xenotime, zircon, barite, Ti oxide, ilmenite, titanite, tourmaline and ilvaite, and the lithic (intrusive and volcanic) fragments detected within the ceramic bodies suggest a source area in the vicinity of the Campiglia mining district. Lastly, the presence of Cu,Zn,Pb (Ag) and Fe sulphide mineralizations (materials used to produce glaze) in the area supports the hypothesis of local manufacture. [source]


    Continuities and changes in self-change research

    ADDICTION, Issue 9 2010
    Harald Klingemann
    ABSTRACT Aims A substantial literature demonstrates that natural recoveries from substance use disorders not only occur but are a common pathway to recovery. This article reviews selectively and comments on the current state-of-the-art in natural recovery research. Methods Basic concepts in natural recovery research are presented, and topical and methodological trends and changes in self-change research over time are discussed. Conclusions Although considerable progress has occurred in natural recovery research, several topics deserving of further research are identified, and implications for policy practice are discussed. [source]


    Of Continuities, Beginnings, and Generativities

    FAMILY PROCESS, Issue 1 2004
    Evan Imber-Black
    [source]


    Gender at Work and at Home in Britain: Continuities and Changes

    JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 12 2000
    Gerda Siann
    This paper discusses the views that British men and women hold about gender roles. Drawing on a survey with over 4,000 university students and interviews with professional men and women, it is suggested that, while the majority of both genders are moving toward an egalitarian model of gender roles, men's views are more likely than women's to be constrained by an essentialist mode] of gender. The data presented indicate that men were more likely than were women to endorse traditional gender roles, to regard women as better equipped for child care than men, to believe that women's advances necessarily disadvantage men, and to believe that men's work opportunities have worsened in comparison to women's. Drawing on both the interviews and the survey, it is also argued that beliefs about gender roles tend to be mediated by individualist discourses, which exempt exceptional individuals from normative gender roles. [source]


    Continuities, Travels and Directions

    NORTH AMERICAN DIALOGUE (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2009
    Catherine Kingfisher
    [source]


    Patient advocacy in newborn screening: Continuities and discontinuities,

    AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL GENETICS, Issue 1 2008
    Diane B. Paul
    Abstract In the 1960s, patient advocacy groups were instrumental in efforts to mandate state testing of newborns for phenylketonuria (PKU), a recessively inherited disorder of phenylalanine metabolism. Advocacy groups have continued to actively lobby for the expansion of screening to other conditions detectable in newborns and, currently, for states' adoption of a uniform core screening panel. They have also been generally favorable to the offer of fee-based supplemental screening services. In the early years of newborn screening, groups such as the National Association for Retarded Children (NARC) were strongly imbued with a public-health ethic. This ethic has apparently eroded over time as the result of both broad social changes and the increasing entanglement of such groups with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. A history of newborn screening reveals both continuities and discontinuities in the agendas and funding of patient advocacy groups and in their rhetorical strategies. In particular, it demonstrates that there have always been tensions as well as partnerships with medical and other professionals, although the nature and intensity of the former have been affected by advocacy groups' increasing numbers, resources, and cultural authority. It also illuminates differences that have emerged as advocacy groups have informally allied with industry and adopted new rationales in support of access to testing. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


    Continuities and Discontinuities in Children and Scholarship

    CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 6 2008
    Lynn S. Liben
    This article introduces a collection of essays on continuity and discontinuity in cognitive development. In his lead essay, J. Kagan (2008) argues that limitations in past research (e.g., on number concepts, physical solidarity, and object permanence) render conclusions about continuity premature. Commentaries respectively (1) argue that longitudinal contexts are essential for interpreting developmental data, (2) illustrate the value of converging measures, (3) identify qualitative change via dynamical systems theory, (4) redirect the focus from states to process, and (5) review epistemological premises of alternative research traditions. Following an overview of the essays, this introductory article discusses how the search for developmental structures, continuity, and process differs between mechanistic-contextualist and organismic-contextualist metatheoretical frameworks, and closes by highlighting continuities in Kagan's scholarship over the past half century. [source]


    Continuity and Change in Corporate Governance: comparing Germany and Japan

    CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2005
    Gregory Jackson
    Germany and Japan are often seen deviating from an economic model of shareholder control and thereby as being similar by virtue of their mutual contrast with the US. Given the common challenges for bank-based and stakeholder-oriented models of corporate governance, Germany,Japan comparison seems particularly timely. This article provides an introductory overview and analysis for the Special Issue by comparing recent developments in corporate law reform, banking and finance, and employment in Germany and Japan. While rejecting arguments for international convergence, we discuss this evidence of simultaneous continuity and change in corporate governance as a potential form of hybridisation of national models or renegotiation of stakeholder coalitions in German and Japanese firms. One consequence is the growing diversity of firm-level corporate governance practices within national systems. [source]


    The braincase of the chondrichthyan Doliodus from the Lower Devonian Campbellton Formation of New Brunswick, Canada

    ACTA ZOOLOGICA, Issue 2009
    John Maisey
    Abstract The braincase of the late Lower Devonian (Emsian) chondrichthyan Doliodus is described for the first time. Its postorbital process is extended ventrally and probably enclosed part of the infraorbital sensory canal, as in some placoderms. Doliodus has a shark-like dentition, but its upper anterior tooth files were supported by the internasal cartilage of the braincase, not by the palatoquadrates. Modern selachian jaws and dentitions are not representative of primitive crown-group gnathostomes because they display a mixture of conserved and derived character states. Separation of the palatoquadrates by the internasal cartilage is probably a primitive condition for crown-group gnathostomes. Continuity of the upper dental arcade across the ethmoid region may represent a synapomorphy of chondrichthyans and some acanthodians (the condition is not found in placoderms or osteichthyans). Exclusion of the arcade from the ethmoid region is probably apomorphic within elasmobranchs. Doliodus has curious bar-like, paired subcranial ridges ending posteriorly at the hyomandibular articulation. These superficially resemble visceral arch infrapharyngohyals fused to the floor of the braincase, adding circumstantial palaeontological support to the old proposal that parts of visceral arches may be incorporated into the gnathostome braincase, although it seems more plausible that they formed in the lateral margins of the embryonic parachordal or hypotic lamina. [source]


    Review article: Continuity, culture and the state in late antique and early medieval Iberia

    EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 3 2007
    Rachel L. Stocking
    First page of article [source]


    Christa Wolf's Kassandra and Medea: Continuity and Change

    GERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 1 2004
    Helen Bridge
    When Christa Wolf's Medea: Stimmen appeared in 1996, some critics accused the work of being little more than a pale repetition of the earlier Kassandra project. This paper argues that, while broad continuities in Wolf's concerns are obvious, the shift from monologue in Kassandra to a polyphony of voices in Medea is symptomatic of subtle, yet important shifts in her approach to myth and her understanding of history. Although Wolf's archaeological understanding of myth and the problems this raises remain unchanged, the focus has shifted from the effects myth has on the individual to the human needs which give rise to it. The more psychological exploration of myth in Medea reveals interesting shifts in Wolf's understanding of the individual's role in history. In Kassandra, just as we assume that individuals exercise sovereign control over the myths they circulate, so we have the impression that history results from human agency in accordance with the will of those in power. In Medea, Wolf seems more doubtful about the ability of individuals to control events, even those they have caused. The idea of a coherent historical development, albeit a negative one, which is central to the Kassandra project, is absent from the later work. [source]


    The Diabetes Continuity of Care Scale: the development and initial evaluation of a questionnaire that measures continuity of care from the patient perspective,

    HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 6 2004
    Lisa R. Dolovich PharmD MSc
    Abstract The purpose of the present study was to develop and pilot test a questionnaire to assess continuity of care from the perspective of patients with diabetes. Seven patient and two healthcare-provider focus groups were conducted. These focus groups generated 777 potential items. This number was reduced to 56 items after item reduction, face validity testing and readability analysis, and to 47 items after a preliminary factor analysis. Readability was assessed as requiring 7,8 years of schooling. Sixty adult patients with diabetes completed the draft Diabetes Continuity of Care Scale (DCCS) at a single point in time to assess the validity of the instrument. Patients completed the draft DCCS again 2 weeks later to assess test,retest reliability. A provisional factor analysis and grouping according to clinical sense yielded five domains: access and getting care, care by doctor, care by other healthcare professionals, communication between healthcare professionals, and self-care. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for the whole scale was 0.89. The test,retest reliability was r = 0.73. The DCCS total score was moderately correlated with some of the measures used to establish construct validity. The DCCS could differentiate between patients who did and did not achieve specific process and clinical indicators of good diabetes care (e.g. Hba1c tested within 6 months). The development of the DCCS was centred on the patient's perspective and revealed that the patient perspective regarding continuity of care extends beyond the concept of seeing one doctor. Initial testing of this instrument demonstrates that it has promise as a reliable and valid measure in this area. [source]


    A qualitative study of women's views about how health professionals communicate about infant feeding

    HEALTH EXPECTATIONS, Issue 4 2000
    Pat Hoddinott GP
    Objective To look at how communication by health professionals about infant feeding is perceived by first time mothers. Design Qualitative semi-structured interviews early in pregnancy and 6,10 weeks after birth. Subjects and setting Twenty-one white, low income women expecting their first baby were interviewed mostly at home, often with their partner or a relative. Results The personal and practical aspects of infant feeding which were important to women were seldom discussed in detail in ante-natal interviews. In post-natal interviews women described how words alone encouraging them to breastfeed were insufficient. Apprenticeship style learning of practical skills was valued, particularly time patiently spent watching them feed their baby. Women preferred to be shown skills rather than be told how to do them. Some felt pressure to breastfeed and bottle feeding mothers on post-natal wards felt neglected in comparison. Women preferred their own decision-making to be facilitated rather than being advised what to do. Some women experienced distress exposing their breasts and being touched by health professionals. Continuity of care and forming a personal relationship with a health professional who could reassure them were key factors associated with satisfaction with infant feeding communication. Conclusions The infant feeding goal for many women is a contented, thriving baby. In contrast, women perceive that the goal for health professionals is the continuation of breastfeeding. These differing goals can give rise to dissatisfaction with communication which is often seen as ,breastfeeding centred' rather than ,woman centred.' Words alone offering support for breastfeeding were often inadequate and women valued practical demonstrations and being shown how to feed their baby. Spending time with a caring midwife with whom the woman had developed a personal, continuing relationship was highly valued. Women were keen to maintain ownership, control and responsibility for their own decision-making about infant feeding. [source]


    Who Went to College?

    HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2006
    Socio-Economic Inequality in Entry to Higher Education in the Republic of Ireland in 200
    Ireland has experienced substantial increases in participation in higher education in recent years. This paper examines whether or not increased admission rates between the mid-1990s and 2000s led to a reduction in social class inequality in access to higher education. We draw on two data sets, one, a dedicated survey of new entrants to higher education in 2004, the other, a combination of the results of a series of school leavers' surveys conducted in the mid-1990s and early 2000s. We show that the period has been characterised by both continuity and change. Continuity is reflected in persistent social inequalities in access to higher education: the children of higher professionals and farmers, in particular, have maintained their privileged access to higher education. Change is reflected in some closing in relative social inequalities, partly arising as more advantaged groups reach a saturation point in progression to higher education, and partly due to the children of manual workers increasing their participation rates. [source]


    Short-Term Reliability and Continuity of Emotional Availability in Mother,Child Dyads Across Contexts of Observation

    INFANCY, Issue 1 2006
    Marc H. Bornstein
    Emotional availability (EA) is a prominent index of socioemotional adaptation in the parent,child dyad. Is EA affected by context? In this methodological study, 34 mothers and their 2-year-olds were observed in 2 different settings (home vs. laboratory) 1 week apart. Significant cross-context reliability and continuity in EA as measured with the Emotional Availability Scales emerged. Because EA is not affected by context, cross-context generalizations about EA status in the dyad may be warranted. This work further documents the adequate psychometric properties of emotional availability. [source]


    Prenatal alcohol exposure and infant negative affect as precursors of depressive features in children

    INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 3 2001
    Mary J. O'Connor
    This study examined the continuity of negative temperamental variations from infancy to early childhood. Also examined was the association of prenatal alcohol exposure with negative affect in infancy and with depressive features in early childhood. Participants were 41 6-year-old children who were followed longitudinally from 1 year of age. Infant negative affect was observed and behaviorally assessed at 1 year, and child depressive symptoms were measured at 6 years using a self-report questionnaire. Results revealed continuity between infant negative affect and early childhood depressive symptoms. In addition, prenatal alcohol exposure appeared to be a significant risk factor in the development of depressive features through both its direct association with child outcome and its indirect effect on infant negative affect. Children with higher levels of prenatal alcohol exposure, who exhibited higher levels of negative affect at 1 year, reported more depressive symptoms at 6 years. This effect was observed primarily in girls. Results suggest one mechanism by which children exposed to alcohol in utero might be predisposed to display higher levels of negative emotionality in infancy placing them at greater risk for depression in early childhood. Continuity of negative affect and depressive symptoms in prenatally exposed youngsters suggests that interventions could begin in infancy and could be targeted specifically at negative child behaviors. © 2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health. [source]


    Mixed piezoelectric plate elements with direct evaluation of transverse electric displacement

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 4 2009
    E. Carrera
    Abstract A mixed variational statement for the analysis of layered structures under the effect of mechanical and electrical fields is proposed in this paper to develop finite plate elements that permit the direct evaluation of transverse electrical displacement Dz. The original Reissner mixed variational theorem, RMVT, has been modified to account for ,only' interlaminar continuous Dz. Continuity of mechanical variables, such as transverse shear and normal stress components, has been discarded to provide a simple ,electrical' modified RMVT, here called RMVT- Dz. Finite element implementations are made via the Carrera unified formulation. The advantages of the proposed approach have been demonstrated through numerical comparisons with classical formulations based on the principle of virtual displacements as well as with available 3D solutions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


    Providing emergency mental health care to asylum seekers at a time when claims for permanent protection have been rejected

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 1 2005
    Nicholas G. Procter
    ABSTRACT:,In total, 90% of ,boat people' who make it to Australia's migration zone are assessed as legitimate refugees and given Temporary Protection Visas (TPV) allowing them to stay in Australia for 3 years in the first instance. With an increasing number of individuals and families on TPV having their claims for a Permanent Protection Visa (PPV) rejected, this paper argues using the National Mental Health Plan 2003,2008 as a guide, for interventions that are culturally and linguistically appropriate, thus, aiming to minimize risk from exposure to extreme mental stressors in the event of an application for a PPV being rejected. Continuity and integration of mental health care involving key stakeholders is best achieved by bridging discrete elements through preparing for visa appeals and reviews, news from home and ongoing psychosocial stressors , in the context of different episodes, interventions by different providers, and changes in mental distress. To help strengthen continuity and integration of mental health supports for TPV holders, well resourced care must be experienced as connected and coherent. [source]


    Continuity and change in the southern European social model

    INTERNATIONAL LABOUR REVIEW, Issue 1 2008
    Maria KARAMESSINI
    Abstract. Over the past 20 years or so, the southern European model has undergone substantial change in every way. The changes in industrial relations, wage-setting and employment protection legislation have tended to increase wage and labour flexibility and restrict labour market segmentation. Changes within the welfare state have sought to improve labour force skills, fill gaps in social protection, reduce inequalities in social security and contain social expenditure growth. Yet institutional change has not eliminated the main features of this model: pronounced labour market segmentation and familialism; however, extremely low fertility rates are indicative of the limits of familialism in the near future. [source]


    Forms of Governance in European Union Social Policy: Continuity and/or Change?

    INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 2 2006
    Gerda Falkner
    This article addresses the question of the evolution of regulatory and distributive social policy at European Union (EU) level, with special emphasis on its quantitative aspects. Data collected in meticulous detail on the EU's powers in the area of social policy and their practical implementation from the early days of European integration through to the end of 2002 are presented in a range of figures and tables. It becomes apparent that, quantitatively speaking, the body of EU social law in existence to date is impressive. Contrary to expectation, non-binding forms of action have not replaced those which are binding, or at least not yet. Soft law and the "open method of coordination", the subject of so much recent debate, are rather a complement to classic legislation, entailing a minimum of harmonization. In terms of political science and legal theory this means that while the neo-voluntarism and legalization hypotheses highlight important aspects of EU social policy, neither of them represents the whole story. [source]


    Continuity and Change: Some Observations on the Landscape of Agricultural Labourers in North Bihar, India

    JOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 4 2004
    PRAVEEN JHA
    This paper is an attempt to catalogue and analyse the changes over two decades in the world of agricultural labourers in a backward region in India. It is primarily based on a series of field visits to two villages in Purnia district, located in the north-eastern part of Bihar. Changes in the living conditions of labourers are obviously connected to developments in the rural economy of the region and there are important linkages with developments elsewhere, including changes in the overall macro-economic policy regime. An attempt is made to trace these. Agricultural wage workers in the surveyed region are extremely poor by any reckoning, although a few of them have made some progress through state-sponsored programmes and migration. These developments have also contributed significantly to altering the relations of dominance and subordination, thus creating greater elbow-room for labourers. However, it is important not to overstate these small gains and there are serious doubts as to whether they can be sustained. It appears that some of the material correlates of labourers' well-being in the surveyed region are being affected adversely by the currently ascendant neoliberal policy regime. There are no signs of the emergence of mechanisms that might imply sustained significant improvements in the very fragile life and work conditions of these labourers. [source]


    Continuity and change in social and physical aggression from middle childhood through early adolescence

    AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 5 2009
    Marion K. Underwood
    For a sample followed from age 9,13 (N=281), this investigation examined developmental trajectories for social and physical aggression as measured by teacher ratings. Trajectories for both forms of aggression were estimated first separately, then jointly. Mean levels of both social and physical aggression decreased over time for the overall sample, but with high variability of individual trajectories. Subgroups followed high trajectories for both social and physical aggression. Joint estimation yielded six trajectories: low stable, low increasers, medium increasers, medium desisters, high desisters, and high increasers. Membership in the high increaser group was predicted by male gender, unmarried parents, African American ethnicity, and maternal authoritarian and permissive parenting. Permissive parenting also predicted membership in the medium increaser group. This is one of the first studies to examine social aggression longitudinally across this developmental period. Though the results challenge the claim that social aggression is at its peak in early adolescence, the findings emphasize the importance of considering different developmental trajectories in trying to understand origins and outcomes of aggression. Aggr. Behav. 35:357,375, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


    Genetic and environmental sources of continuity and change in teacher-rated aggression during early adolescence

    AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 4 2006
    Elina Vierikko
    Abstract Genetic and environmental sources of continuity and change in aggression were studied in a sample of 1,041 twin pairs (364 monozygotic; 348 same-sex dizygotic; and 329 opposite-sex dizygotic) as part of an ongoing, population-based Finnish twin-family study. At ages 12 and 14, the twins' aggression was assessed by their classroom teachers, using a rating form of the Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory. Genetic and environmental sources of continuity and change were studied by fitting a longitudinal bivariate Cholesky decomposition model. Longitudinal model-fitting results indicated that both genetic and environmental factors influenced continuity in aggression during this 2-year period, but the age-to-age correlation of these factors differed by sex. Continuity in boys' aggression was mediated by genes and common environmental factors; in girls, in contrast, continuity was due primarily to common environmental, and to a lesser degree, unique environmental factors. Genes and unique environments contributed to change in aggression in both sexes. Aggr. Behav. 31:1,13, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


    Noah and Disaster Planning: The Cultural Significance of the Flood Story

    JOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2003
    Russell R. Dynes
    Disasters are both interesting and infrequent. Thus, understanding them usually depends on stories others tell us. Such stories frame our understandings and imaginations. With those stories at hand, we comprehend reality and history on the basis of what everyone knows. At times, however, it is useful to examine what everyone knows. To create a lasting narrative, disaster provides rich raw material to elaborate. ,Natural' disasters involve universal, primordial elements , water, fire, the shaking of the earth. Beyond those physical elements, disasters elicit basic human concerns , death, injury, disruption, broken social relationships, and fractured hope. Ultimate values and meanings can be challenged. Continuity and permanence are challenged. Such crises can lead to new explanations and the reworking of old metaphors. The task here is to take a disaster story, the Biblical flood , often referred to as the Deluge , and to examine its origins, its evolution, and its continuing impact within the Western World. More specifically, it will be argued that the flood story has had a continuing determinative influence on how disasters have been imagined in American society, especially in the ways that imagery has influenced emergency planning. [source]


    Continuity and Change in Mergers and Acquisitions: A Social Identity Case Study of a German Industrial Merger*

    JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 8 2005
    Johannes Ullrich
    abstract It is crucial from an employee's point of view to perceive some degree of stability even in times of major organizational change. This paper examines the role of a sense of continuity for organizational identification after an organizational merger. We argue that mergers and acquisitions so often end in failures partly because the change is designed in discontinuous ways and employees do not feel they are doing the same job after the merger as before. Such discontinuous change engenders a critical tension between positive and negative effects of identification that has not yet been fully understood. To deepen the understanding of this tension, in-depth interviews were conducted in a recently merged German industrial company. Based on these qualitative data we demonstrate how features of the post-merger company structure and the way it was implemented may have eroded organizational identification. Finally, we propose a parsimonious model to be tested by future research, in which the sense of continuity is consisting of both observable as well as projected continuity. [source]


    Strategic Practices: An Activity Theory Perspective on Continuity and Change

    JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 1 2003
    Paula Jarzabkowski
    abstract This paper draws upon activity theory to analyse an empirical investigation of the micro practices of strategy in three UK universities. Activity theory provides a framework of four interactive components from which strategy emerges; the collective structures of the organization, the primary actors, in this research conceptualized as the top management team (TMT), the practical activities in which they interact and the strategic practices through which interaction is conducted. Using this framework, the paper focuses specifically on the formal strategic practices involved in direction setting, resource allocation, and monitoring and control. These strategic practices are associated with continuity of strategic activity in one case study but are involved in the reinterpretation and change of strategic activity in the other two cases. We model this finding into activity theory-based typologies of the cases that illustrate the way that practices either distribute shared interpretations or mediate between contested interpretations of strategic activity. The typologies explain the relationships between strategic practices and continuity and change of strategy as practice. The paper concludes by linking activity theory to wider change literatures to illustrate its potential as an integrative methodological framework for examining the subjective and emergent processes through which strategic activity is constructed. [source]


    Continuity and Change in Marital Quality Between 1980 and 2000

    JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 1 2003
    Paul R. Amato
    We use data from two national surveys of married individuals,one from 1980 and the other from 2000,to understand how three dimensions of marital quality changed during this period. Marital happiness and divorce proneness changed little between 1980 and 2000, but marital interaction declined significantly. A decomposition analysis suggested that offsetting trends affected marital quality. Increases in marital heterogamy, premarital cohabitation, wives' extended hours of employment, and wives' job demands were associated with declines in multiple dimensions of marital quality. In contrast, increases in economic resources, decision-making equality, nontraditional attitudes toward gender, and support for the norm of lifelong marriage were associated with improvements in multiple dimensions of marital quality. Increases in husbands' share of housework appeared to depress marital quality among husbands but to improve marital quality among wives. [source]


    Continuity and Change in Personality Traits From Adolescence to Midlife: A 25-Year Longitudinal Study Comparing Representative and Adjudicated Men

    JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 5 2003
    Julien Morizot
    The second study examined structural, rank-order, and mean-level continuity. Partial structural continuity was demonstrated through confirmatory factor analysis. Regarding rank-order continuity, the correlations were stronger as age increased, particularly for the adjudicated men. For mean-level continuity, the adjudicated men displayed higher scores from adolescence to midlife for nearly every personality trait related to Disinhibition and Negative Emotionality. Significant decreases were observed in these traits for both samples, supporting the hypothesis of a normative psychological maturation. Although both samples showed this maturation, the adjudicated men displayed a lower rate of change during adolescence and early adulthood. The two samples did not differ in Extraversion and this trait remained more stable, particularly for adjudicated men. [source]