Multi-focal Analysis of Workplace Spirituality and Employee Commitment: Exploratory Empirical Assessment

The purpose of this paper was to examine the contribution of workplace spirituality to employee commitment from a multi-focal perspective at the individual, group and organizational levels. Obtained data from a random sample of 111 Tunisian employees were analysed using PLS-SEM to test the proposed hypothesis of the study. The findings revealed that three-dimensional workplace spirituality (meaningful work, sense of community and organizational values) contributed positively and significantly to multiple commitment levels (individual, group and organization levels). Besides, these spiritual dimensions contributed to more than one level and showed that workplace spirituality framework can provide an expanded contribution to the multiple commitment research. In particular, meaningful work had the largest contribution to all commitment levels and can offer unique approach to manage overall commitment within organizations.

Humanization of the hospital: participatory construction of knowledge and practices on care and ambience

ABSTRACT Objective: To identify and implement care and ambience strategies, with a view to hospital humanization. Method: Action-research study, whose investigation process occurred between January and March 2019, with the participation of employees in strategic functions of a medium-sized hospital, through a focus group and strategic focal analysis. The implementation of care and ambience strategies started in May 2019 and remains in progress, with the responsible and multiplying participation of professionals and patients. Results: 18 employees participated in the study. It was found that investigative processes accompanied by practical interventions, especially those related to the promotion of interactive, inclusive, care spaces and the creation of a ludic, attractive and interactive environment favor multi-professional actions, mobilize innovative knowledge and practices, and contribute to the (re)signification of the being and doing of the health professional. Conclusion: Care and ambience, with a view to hospital humanization, include the implementation of strategies designed with the responsible and multiplying participation of all actors (professionals and users) of the hospital. It is important that, in this process, everyone feels they are protagonists of new ways of being, living and doing in health.

Feminist Aims and a Trans-Inclusive Definition of “Woman”

In “Amelioration and Inclusion: Gender Identity and the Concept of Woman,” Katharine Jenkins argues that Sally Haslanger’s focal analysis of gender problematically excludes nonpassing trans women from the category “woman.” However, Jenkins does not explain why this exclusion contradicts the feminist aims of Haslanger’s account. In this paper, I advance two arguments that suggest that a trans-inclusive account of “woman” is crucial to the aims of feminism. I claim that the aims of feminism are to understand and combat women’s oppression. First, I argue that denial of trans identities reinforces cultural ideas that perpetuate both transphobic violence and sexual violence against women. Consequently, a feminist account of “woman” that fails to respect trans identities indirectly contributes to the oppression of women. Second, I prove that nonpassing trans women are oppressed as women through the internalization of sexual objectification. I then conclude that an account of “woman” that excludes nonpassing trans women cannot successfully advance a complete understanding of women’s oppression.

Nursing undergraduate education in relation to the death-dying process: perceptionsin light of the complex thinking

The objective of this study was to perceive the death-dying process from the perspective of nursing students. This is an exploratory, descriptive and qualitative research study. Data were collected between June and July 2013, from three focus groups with six nursing students at a University Center located in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The meetings were organized with an approach to increase discussions about the death-dying process from the perspective of the complex thinking. Data were analyzed by means of the Strategic Focal Analysis, and three categories were created: Death: a process of rupture or continuity?; Recognizing weaknesses in the undergraduate educational process; and Outlining strategies to broaden academic discussions. It is possible to conclude that the death/dying process is minimally discussed in undergraduate courses, and when it is discussed, it happens in a fragmented and disjunctive manner, without integrating it into the human living process.

The cities of need: capitalism and subjectivity in the contemporary metropolis

The objective of this article is to reflect upon the articulations between subjectivity and capitalism, the focal analysis on social life in contemporary metropolises. Inspired by Walter Benjamin, among other researchers, the author presents the narrow connection between the urban projects of Western cities and the forms of sensibility and the construction of the feeling of alterity. The article, using current scenes of daily life, underscores the singular characteristics of the production of subjectivities through contemporary capitalism, such as the disposability of social relations, the search for pleasure that is never satiated, the indifference, and the singular individualism of present day cities that predominates in the profusion of images of consumption and velocity.

Trading Networks of Malay Merchants and Traders in the Straits of Melaka from 1780 to 1830

Malay merchants and traders played an essential and significant role in the early modern history of trade and commerce in Southeast Asia. Nevertheless records on the history of their entrepreneurship has been hardly written and researched upon. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to trace back the dynamic of Malay trading communities in the late 18th and towards the early decades of the 19th century. The paper would also highlight the importance of Malay traders in early Penang and the survival of Melaka as an important port in the late 18th century. A focal analysis of this study is on the 18th and 19th centuries Malay merchant communities and how their active presence in the Malay waters had given a great impact to the intra-Asian trade in Southeast Asia prior to the period of European colonialism and imperialism.