We argue that the stakeholder perspective on corporate social responsibility is in the process of being enlarged. Due to the process of institutional isomorphism, corporations are increasingly ...adopting organizational features designed to promote proactivity over mere reactivity in their stakeholder relationships. We identify two sources of pressure promoting the emergence of the proactive corporation - stakeholder activism and the recognition of the social embeddedness of the economy. The final section describes four organizational design dimensions being installed by the more proactive corporations today - cooperation, participation, negotiation, and direct anticipation.
What determines the relatively low number of cause findings by employment discrimination investigators in equal employment opportunity agencies? Studies by the GAO indicate that the problem can be ...traced to failure of investigators to follow official guidelines. Based on a study of cases handled by a regional office of a state equal employment opportunity agency, Lenahan O'Connell argues that the reasons are found elsewhere-in the conservative standards of proof applied in such cases, in the bureaucratic and legal constraints imposed on investigators, and in the tendency for investigators to rely on conservative informal performance rules. Calling for greater attention to these factors rather than formalized procedures, O'Connell proposes a number of steps that can be taken to enhance the performance of employment discrimination investigators.
The comparison of women in one traditional and two nontraditional occupations is discussed. The plans of the women in the traditional and nontraditional occupations are similar.
Earlier surveys show differences in work orientations of males and females, but these were based on mostly sex‐segregated workers. Two broad explanations are used to examine differences in work ...orientations of males and females: namely the socialstructural and the gender‐socialization approaches. A secondary analysis of 22 separate sudies of specific occupations are combined and used to determine if the sexes display different patterns on ten work dimensions when occupation is held constant. Patterned differences in work orientations between the sexes persist supporting the gender socialization approach. Implications for workplace discrimination are discussed.
Despite the fact that most Whites give liberal responses to survey questions about racial stereotypes, many social scientists believe that most Whites are willing to stereotype African Americans. ...Many also assume such stereotypes are harmful because they are applied to most members of the out group. With a sample of White college students, this article shows that: (a) Whites who give liberal responses to survey questions are quite willing to stereotype; (b) these stereotypes are applied to only a small subset of a minority; and (c) even seemingly modest stereotyping is associated with prejudiced attitudes.
The role model approach to occupational choice predicts concern with sex appropriateness and reliance on same‐sex influencers when individuals choose nontraditional occupations, while the opportunity ...structure approach predicts men and women respond equally to opportunity. Using data from male and female engineering and nursing students, this study evaluates both perspectives. Findings suggest the opportunity structure approach is more predictive of nontraditional choices, since male nurses and female engineers rely more on opposite sex influencers, many of whom are inside their chosen occupation. Implications for theory and social policy also are discussed.
African-Americans have far less access to treatment for heart disease than similar white Americans. In this article, we explore the sector difference theory hypothesis that treatment provided by a ...nonprofit Medicaid managed care plan can reduce or even eliminate the race gap. Specifically, we compare the treatment offered to patients in for-profit Medicaid managed care programs to the treatment offered to similar patients in nonprofit Medicaid managed care programs. Data are from the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission and cover all patients discharged from hospitals in Maryland during calendar year 1998 with principal diagnoses indicating diseases of the circulatory system (ICD-9-CM codes 390 through 459) or chest pain (ICD-9-CM codes 786.50 through 786.52 and code 786.59). African-Americans were significantly less likely to receive the three treatments of interest, even after controlling for principal diagnosis, blood pressure, co-morbidities, and age. In regard to African-American access to treatment, there were no significant differences between the sectors.
Sociologists have predicted that the growth of a professional class would integrate modern industrial society. Yet public distrust of professionals is growing. This paper examines distrust of doctors ...and the resultant call for accountability of the medical profession. We look at how the structure of exchange between doctors and patients has changed as a result of population mobility, professionalization, bureaucratization, and specialization. Then we contrast the ideology of the medical profession with that of the patients, and conclude that the latter is a growing, countervailing power to the medical profession and rationalizes the exchange relation by specifying the goals and terms of the exchange. We predict that third party social controls will deprofessionalize the medical profession.
