Organizational Dynamics of the Rise of Telework as an Adaptive Response to a Global Pandemic

The use of remote working options has saved jobs and reduced health risks inherent to the rise of COVID-19. The opportunity to use telework has allowed organizations to engage in operational activities by leveraging virtual teams’ potential. Organizations offering workers to work remotely have become financial salvation for many workers during the pandemic, significantly since the pandemic impacted the U.S. economy so severely that more than since more than 57 million American workers have filed for unemployment government benefits in just 2020. While having a telework option is an assurance of organizational sustainability or continual employment, it represents a unique opportunity for exploration for employees, supervisors, and organizations attempting to adapt to this evolving level of complex change. This paper uses applied qualitative focus group research from a process consulting to explore the values and barriers that telework for a real estate title organization called XRO.

Psychological ownership interventions increase interest in claiming government benefits

Each year, eligible individuals forgo billions of dollars in financial assistance in the form of government benefits. To address this participation gap, we identify psychological ownership of government benefits as a factor that significantly influences individuals’ interest in applying for government benefits. Psychological ownership refers to how much an individual feels that a target is their own. We propose that the more individuals feel that government benefits are their own, the less likely they are to perceive applying for them as an aversive ask for help, and thus, the more likely they are to pursue them. Three large-scale field experiments among low-income individuals demonstrate that higher psychological ownership framing of government benefits significantly increases participants’ pursuit of benefits and outperforms other common psychological interventions. An additional experiment shows that this effect occurs because greater psychological ownership reduces people’s general aversion to asking for assistance. Relative to control messages, these psychological ownership interventions increased interest in claiming government benefits by 20% to 128%. These results suggest that psychological ownership framing is an effective tool in the portfolio of potential behavioral science interventions and a simple way to stimulate interest in claiming benefits.

Environmental Education: Revealing Some Current Problems from Personal Opinion

Air and water pollution, wildlife habitat loss, soil desertification, and other environmental problems affect cities and the surrounding environment. Thus, increasing public environmental awareness and environmental literacy are essential for mitigating these problems. Although environmental education has been critical in solving problems that affect humans and the environment for more than five decades, the question remains whether the environment is improving or being degraded. Educators are devoted to popularizing environmental education, but as a result of many problems, people are gradually becoming paralyzed. Efficient methods of motivating people to perform environmentally friendly behaviors are required. Moreover, the term “environmental education” has been abused in some situations to receive government benefits. Thus, as an environmental educator and researcher, I provide opinions and reveal problems in environmental education.

Technology, Identification, and Access to Social Programs: Experimental Evidence from Panama

Access to identification cards (IDs) is often required to claim government benefits. However, it is unclear which policies to increase ID ownership are more effective. We experimentally analyze the effect of two policy interventions to induce the timely renewal of identification cards on access to a government social program in Panama. Sending reminders about expiration dates increased the probability of on-time renewals and of accessing benefits from a social program by 12 and 4.3 percentage points, respectively, relative to a control group. In contrast, allowing individuals to renew their ID online only increased renewals and access to benefits by 8 and 2.9 percentage points, respectively. This result was driven by lower-income individuals. The results suggest that policies to increase ownership of valid identity documentation can reduce inclusion errors in government programs and that simply granting access to digital tools may not be enough to unlock important effects.

Comparison of counseling methods to promote employment for HIV+ ADULTS

BACKGROUND: Despite improved health and during a strong job market (pre-COVID-19), a substantial proportion of HIV+ adults remained unemployed. This study sought to provide time-limited counseling to promote employment goals. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether behavioral activation (BA) or supportive counseling (SC), would be more effective in promoting vocational goals (full or part-time, paid or volunteer). METHODS: The study included two groups: those with clinically significant fatigue, who were first treated with armodafinil. Once their fatigue diminished, they were enrolled in the counseling program. Those without fatigue were enrolled directly. Both BA and SC interventions were manualized, consisting of eight individual sessions plus a follow-up. RESULTS: 116 participants entered counseling, including 87 assigned to BA and 29 to SC. Of these, 79 completed counseling or found a job by session eight. By follow-up, 51%of BA versus 41%of SC participants had found jobs, a non-significant difference either clinically or statistically. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple issues contributed to difficulty in employment, including gaps in resumes, loss of contact with former colleagues, and uncertainty about career direction. Ongoing barriers included substance use, housing instability, ambivalence about forfeiting government benefits, as well as inadequately treated depression. Success in employment for about half of participants is, in this context, a reasonable outcome.

The Tax Revolt

This chapter looks at state shrinking and tax cutting, describing how political change in capitalism would come to be dominated by a conservative middle class rather than a leftist working class. Why was there going to be a middle-class tax rebellion? The short answer is that most of the taxes under capitalism are paid by two groups: small businesses and rich individuals. Fortune 500 corporations and large banks pay very few taxes; this group can be called monopoly capital because they are entitled, fully legally, to a wide variety of exemptions that they make full use of. Meanwhile, the poor pay very few taxes because they simply do not have the money. Ultimately, small businesses, wealthy individuals, and the middle class are paying a disproportionately large amount of the expenses of the government while receiving a disproportionately small amount of government benefits. This makes those taxpayers resentful of government bureaucrats, welfare programs, and government waste.

Personal Characteristics Associated with Working After Disability Onset for People with Visual Impairments

Introduction: This study utilized data from the 2014 Survey of Disability and Employment (SDE) to examine personal characteristics that influenced employment after disability onset for people who are visually impaired (i.e., those who are blind or have low vision). Method: The selected sample from the SDE data set included 131 individuals who are visually impaired, had disability onset after age 14 years, and worked before their disability onset. Logistic regression was used to examine working after disability onset associated with age at disability onset, years since disability onset, gender, race, education, receipt of government disability benefits, self-reported health, encouragement received to work, additional disabilities, and the interaction between age at disability onset and years since disability onset. Results: Persons who were female, received government benefits, and had multiple disabilities were less likely to work after disability onset; persons who had more sources of encouragement were more likely to work after disability onset. Age at disability onset interacted with time since disability onset; as age increased, odds of working after disability onset increased but only for persons who had their disability for at least 4 years. Discussion: Persons with newly acquired disabilities may need time to adjust to their disability and learn new skills that allow them to continue employment. Information about how employment may influence receipt of government benefits would be helpful to persons evaluating their options regarding continuing employment. Implications for practitioners: A person who has not worked after recent disability onset may be adjusting to life with a disability and may return to work in the future. Encouragement to work from both service providers and family members made a meaningful difference in employment retention after disability onset, and this is an area that vocational rehabilitation professionals can influence.

Testing the Economic Independence Hypothesis: Union Formation Among Single Mothers in Chile

Despite the increasing proportion of single-mother families, the literature on union formation among unpartnered parents in Latin America is scant. Using a sample from a Chilean longitudinal survey ( N = 3,318), we estimated regression models to test associations between single mothers’ economic resources in 2010 and coresidence with the biological father of their children in 2012. We also examined whether these associations differed in subgroups with higher rates of labor market participation. We found that mothers’ paid work was not associated with union formation. Receiving government benefits and living with a parent were associated with lower probability of coresidence with the biological father, even among the most advantaged subgroups. We conclude that in contexts in which most mothers of young children are not doing paid work, economic resources coming from government and extended family may be more consequential than earnings’ potential in influencing single mothers’ union formation behavior.

A Confrontation on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Researching how the Australian state relates to the Muslim Malay community on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (an Australian territory), Herriman and Winarnita provide an example of rapport with a potential research participant going wrong. They see this experience as providing insightful and important data. In this example, Herriman is following a suggestion to interview a new participant when, by chance, he meets with Ifti. Ifti immediately accuses Herriman of wishing to do a study that would enrich Herriman, making him a millionaire (after the study had been published as a book). In addition to providing another example that questions the very possibility of rapport, Herriman and Winarnita analyze this “Ifti moment” as an expression of Ifti’s ideology. Namely, Ifti saw Herriman’s government-funded academic research as merely a continuation of the profits and the historical exploitation of Muslim Malays of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the majority of whom are receiving government benefits for unemployment, pensions, and so on.