Lidia Del Piccolo, Maria Angela Mazzi, Silvia Scardoni, Martina Gobbi and Christa Zimmermann
The prupose of this paper is to present the development of the Verona Patient‐Centred Communication Evaluation (VR‐COPE) scale, together with its psychometric properties. The nine…
Abstract
Purpose
The prupose of this paper is to present the development of the Verona Patient‐Centred Communication Evaluation (VR‐COPE) scale, together with its psychometric properties. The nine item rating scale assesses the content and relational aspects of patient‐centred communication during medical consultations on the basis of a multidimensional evaluation as suggested by the more recent literature in the field. Each item is defined by operational definitions.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 246 transcribed primary care consultations was rated with the VR‐COPE. Explorative factor analysis, Pearson correlation coefficients and internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha were calculated. Convergent validity with the Verona Medical Interview Classification System (VR‐MICS) was also tested. A sub sample of 32 consultations was used to assess inter‐rater reliability.
Findings
Interrater reliability and internal consistency were good (overall Cronbach alpha=0.75). Four factors (explaining 74 per cent of the variance) were extracted by exploratory factor analysis. Six items of the VR‐COPE correlated significantly with specific communication skills evidenced by the VR‐MICS and pertained to the physician's ability to explore medical or psychosocial issues. The VR‐COPE items on interview structure and shared decision, more related to process than to specific skills, had no equivalent in the VR‐MICS.
Originality/value
The new rating scale responds to the need in communication research for a multidimensional scale that combines the evaluation of specific skills and process aspects.
Details
Keywords
María Consuelo Cárdenas, Alice Eagly, Elvira Salgado, Walkyria Goode, Lidia Inés Heller, Kety Jauregui, Nathalia Galarza Quirós, Naisa Gormaz, Simone Bunse, María José Godoy, Tania Esmeralda Rocha Sánchez, Margoth Navarro, Fernanda Sosa, Yenny Aguilera, Marion Schulmeyer, Betania Tanure, Mónica Naranjo, Beatriz Helena Soto, Silvana Darre and Rubén Carlos Tunqui
Because women ' s status in Latin American countries appears comparable to their status in organizations of more economically advanced nations, this paper probes the…
Abstract
Purpose
Because women ' s status in Latin American countries appears comparable to their status in organizations of more economically advanced nations, this paper probes the mystery of how and why these women fare relatively well in their careers, given that socioeconomic and cultural factors could limit their possibilities of achieving higher management positions. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Exploratory study of 162 Latin American women who demonstrated exceptional success by attaining first and second level positions in private organizations. They responded to a semi-structured interview of 49 closed-ended questions about career challenges and barriers, leadership style, ambition, personal goals and work-life balance, plus two open-ended questions about men and women ' s leadership differences and how they understand their success.
Findings
Interviewees disagreed on issues of discrimination, recognized few serious professional career barriers and regarded work-life balance as their main challenge. They understood their success in terms of individual factors such as personality characteristics, performance and results, and their own leadership traits. Most admitted that machismo limits women ' s access to upper level positions. They recognized their ambition to attain power positions mainly for personal satisfaction, and their main goal was personal development and fulfilment.
Research limitations/implications
Given the sample size per country, future research could include a more representative and large sample or concentrate on one country per region to establish relationships between women ' s personal characteristics and organizations ' sector, or challenges faced and leadership style. Also family-owned companies as well as women entrepreneurs could contribute knowledge about women ' s leadership in these countries. Studying only national companies, a more neatly description of local culture and gender awareness in its organizational practices that hinder or promote women ' s leadership and participation in decision-making positions may be obtained. Transcultural studies that compare women ' s rise and upper management performance in countries where support from domestic help and extended family as well as cultural values are very different, could permit to understand more fully what it takes to reach top management positions and the weight that these particular cultural conditions have.
Originality/value
This study is unique in shedding light on a multinational sample of Latin American female executives and their perceptions of their success, leadership style and barriers and challenges faced.
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International tourists traveling the eastern Adriatic are sometimes perplexed when some guides describe a Venetian bell tower, a Byzantine church, or Roman ruins as solely…
Abstract
International tourists traveling the eastern Adriatic are sometimes perplexed when some guides describe a Venetian bell tower, a Byzantine church, or Roman ruins as solely Croatian or Slovenian cultural heritage. If the same guides would then reveal that Marco Polo should be spelled Marko Polo for his Croatian origins, their perplexities would probably grow stronger. Most of the time, the same tourists are unaware that the Austrian Navy kept the codes and the tradition of the Serenissima Republic of Venice. Actually, until the Empire split in 1867, it was named Österreich-Venizianische Marine (Austro-Venetian Navy). Interestingly, according to the legend, the Austrian Admiral von Tegheltoff (German speaking subject of the Empire, born in the Alpine town of Maribor-Marburg, currently in Slovenia) after the famous victory in the battle of Lissa in 1866 hailed “Viva San Marco!” The Austrian victory against the fleet of the Kingdom of Italy was surprising and it has become a legendary one both in a good and bad sense. Accordingly, it has been later romanticized in different ways and strategically imbued with moral values by diverse actors. For instance, the journal of Admiral Wilhelm von Tegheltoff reports the famous sentence: “Iron men with wooden ships defeated wooden men with iron ships.” So, Tegheltoff stressed the virtues of the imperial subjects vis-à-vis the lack of moral strength of the opponents. As a matter of fact, the kingdom of Italy's fleet was stronger in numbers and technologically more advanced, but less organized and riddled with conflicts among the admirals. Quite differently, hundred years later, one of the most prominent journalists and writers from the Italian region of Veneto, Guido Piovene, said that: “the battle of Lissa has been the last great victory of the Venetian fleet.” The reason for such statement is that the mariners boarded in the Austro-Venetian fleet were all from former Venetian lands, such as Veneto, Istria and Dalmatia. Therefore, from this standpoint, the battle of Lissa is a matter of an “Italian” dispute between different maritime traditions, namely the Adriatic one of Venice and the antagonist Genoese or Neapolitan. Conversely, in Croatia and Slovenia, there is usually a different version of the story. The battle of Lissa is seen as a victory of a Croatian-Slavic navy over the Italians. Particularly, the battle of Vis (Lissa) is usually referred to as part of Croatian national history and it is a crucial step to legitimize the Croatian identity on the Adriatic Sea, because many of the sailors were ethnically Croats.