Journal articles on the topic 'Job Description Index (JDI)'

Background: Assessment of employee’s job satisfaction in an organization management system was conducted periodically by Dr. Soetemo Hospital. The data can be an archive of organizational value, supervision reinforcement, and effective communication for the manager. The measurement of employees’ job satisfactionwas performed through Job Description Index (JDI).Aim: The aim of the research was to measure job satisfaction level of the employee at Dr. Soetomo Hospital.Method: The population of this study was 4347 employees at Dr. Soetomo Hospital, but only 413 were taken as the samples. The sample was calculated by Slovin formula. This sample size was taken based on proportional number of profession and department at Dr. Soetomo Hospital.Results: Most of the employees gave good assessment on Job Description Index (JDI) indicators among others which include job in general (78.9%), pay (59.1%), opportunities for promotion (67.3%), supervision (74.6%), people in present job (73.6%) and work in Present Job (72.9%). If JDI indicators are valued as employees’ job satisfaction, it can be said that most of employees felt satisfied about the organization’s management system at Dr. Soetomo Hospital, Surabaya (80,6%). However, there were still 12.3% of employees feeling unsatisfied about the organization’s management system at Dr. Soetomo Surabaya Hospital.Conclusion: Overall, many staffs mentioned that their income and compensation were respectively bad and very bad. The study provides implications for increasing opportunities of staff’s salary and career path such as promotions.Keywords: employee’s job satisfaction, hospital, Job Description Index

The increased intention of healthcare workers to leave the health sector is one of the many negative impacts of job dissatisfaction and poor working conditions among healthcare workers in Nigeria. This study assessed the level of job satisfaction and the intention of leaving the country or medical practice among primary healthcare workers in Lagos, Nigeria. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional among 235 respondents, selected using a multistage sampling method. An adapted self-administered questionnaire from the Minnesota questionnaire short form and the Job Description Index (JDI) was used for data collection. Data were analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. Descriptive statistics were performed while Chi-square was used to determine the association between categorical variables and the level of significance was set at p <0.05.  About half (50.6%) of the healthcare workers were satisfied with their jobs. Highest score 37.00 (32-40) for job satisfaction was found in the domain of management process; while the lowest score 16.00 (13-20) was found in the salary domain. The majority of the healthcare workers 201(85.5%) had the intention of leaving Nigeria for a better opportunity abroad. Healthcare workers were satisfied with the management process but dissatisfied with pay. Targeted interventions to improve the morale of healthcare workers at the primary healthcare level is recommended.

The objective of this study is to propose a framework that relates spiritual leadership theories to job satisfaction in a multidimensional approach. The framework is designed based on the previous literatures. Spiritual leadership components that will be included in the study consist of vision, altruistic love, hope/faith, meaning, calling and membership. Job Descriptive Index (JDI) is adapted to measure job satisfaction. JDI provides five subscales that measure different facets of job satisfaction describing various aspects of the respondent’s work experiences such as the work itself, pay/promotion, supervision, and coworkers. This study also included turnover intention in the framework to measure job dissatisfaction. In this study, nine hypotheses will be proposed based on the conceptual framework outlined.

Rewards are a function of job satisfaction and morale. As a result, it is generally accepted that dissatisfaction with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards offered by the employer results in employee reduced job satisfaction and morale. This paper endeavors to contribute to an understanding of the effect of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards on the job satisfaction and resultant morale of employees in an organization. The paper focuses on a case study organization that adds value in the South African context. The paper reviews theoretical and empirical rewards literature and their relationship with the job satisfaction and morale of employees (n = 265). A quantitative research design approach which is rarely used in this type of research was adopted. A self-administered Job Descriptive Index (JDI) was utilized in collecting data. The JDI measures people’s satisfaction with five (5) different aspects of the job, which are detailed in this paper. Data were processed using Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. The study revealed that both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards significantly influenced the job satisfaction and morale of public TVET educators in Western Cape public TVET institutions. Besides extrinsic rewards such as pay and bonuses, intrinsic rewards such as the job itself, supervision, career progression opportunities and relationships among principals and staff, and among educators and learners were found to be also instrumental in enhancing the job satisfaction and morale of educators.

Banking sector in Bangladesh is recruiting women more in number than ever before. Women are now viewed by planners and policy makers as equal partners in the process of development and great contributors to state economy. Banks, as development catalysts, need to evaluate both the male and female employees, in a timely manner to enhance their effort to work. This paper attempts to evaluate job satisfaction of bank officers considering sex differences to determine a fruitful comparison. The research work was conducted through JDI administered questionnaire on a sample of 210 employees from six banks (Two public and four private banks). A popular measure of job satisfaction - the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) - measure satisfaction in terms of five aspects of a person’s job: pay, promotion, supervision, the work itself and co-workers (Hellriegel and Woodman, 1995). As the two gender groups were not normally distributed, a Mann-Whitney U test was applied to test relationship between gender and job satisfaction with each facet. The findings of the study show that higher satisfaction among females for three of the five job facets while male officers dominate the rest two factors. The present study attempts to enrich the existing knowledge base in the area of job satisfaction in banking sector adding a new dimension of HRM-issues.IIUC Studies Vol.12 December 2015: 127-138

Job satisfaction is the sense of well- being, good feeling and positive mental state that emerge in an incumbent worker when his obtained reward consequent upon his performance is congruent with his equitable reward.The aim of this study is to ascertain the levels of job satisfaction amongst quantity surveyors in consulting firms in Lagos, Nigeria. Biographical and job descriptive index questionnaires (JDI) were administered to gather the data. The JDI measures job satisfaction on five facets, namely, pay, promotions, supervision, co-workers and the work itself. A total of 100 questionnaires were collected and used for the study. The survey covered quantity surveyors in consulting firms in Lagos and the respondents were selected using stratified random sampling technique. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation matrix, t-test and one way anova. Findings of the study revealed that the respondents were satisfied with the relationship with co-workers, nature of work and the supervision they receive. Major sources of dissatisfaction are promotion and salaries of the respondents. This finding is a bold step and necessary benchmark for resolving major sources of dissatisfaction among quantity surveyors in consulting firms. The roles of other contextual factors on job satisfaction need to be contemplated for future research.

Much has been written about how job satisfaction may or may not affect production, morale, and quality of work. However, most job satisfaction studies have been conducted in the area of manufacturing and management, but none have been conducted in the field of public horticulture. Job satisfaction was examined in 245 employees from 30 public horticulture institutions in the mid-Atlantic region of the American Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta (AABGA) using the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) and Job in General (JIG). Our purpose was to determine if differences in job satisfaction existed based on an individual' s job (management, horticulture, or other), sex, or other demographic information. In general, public horticulture employees reported satisfaction with work on their current job, supervision of co-workers, and their jobs in general, but showed dissatisfaction with their opportunities for promotion. They were ambivalent about their current pay. However, significant differences (P < 0.05) were seen between the sexes on satisfaction with current pay and among management, horticulture, and other staff on work on current job, current pay, opportunities for promotion, and co-workers.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction (JS) and customer satisfaction (CS) in the Social Security Insurance Organization (SSIO) in Iran. The statistical population of this research is composed of employees and customers of Tehran SSIO. Two questionnaires were used to measure the variables of the research. A job descriptive index (JDI) & service quality (SERVQUAL) questionnaire are used to measure JS and CS. Data are analyzed using Pearson Correlation Coefficient and regression analysis. The results indicated that there is no significant relationship JS and CS of Tehran Social SSIO (P > 0.05). Among all the research variables, only satisfaction from colleagues, employee satisfaction and satisfaction with management performance were able to predict CS from the services of the SSIO. Service satisfaction and satisfaction from colleagues also have the ability to predict satisfaction with management performance. In the end, only satisfaction with management performance and service satisfaction has been a significant predictor of CS.

To study the affective states of technical communicators, we administered a survey to examine three areas: first, the traditional facets or aspects of job satisfaction; second, any possible differences between male and female technical communicators in job satisfaction; and third, any influences on job satisfaction such as job stress that might be unique to the technical communication profession. To ensure the reliability and validity of the measures, the survey included the Job Descriptive Index (JDI), the most widely used measure of job satisfaction in the world. The sample from the Society for Technical Communication's (STC's) membership list yielded 323 usable responses. Our analyses included: a comparison of our subjects' responses to national norms for all occupations, an examination of male and female differences on satisfaction measures, and the use of various appropriate statistical procedures to select only the most significant results for discussion. The results indicate that technical communicators are satisfied with their compensation and opportunities for promotion, but they are dissatisfied with the work itself, their supervision, and their co-workers. No significant gender differences occurred. Implications are discussed.

Drug prevention and education program had been implemented in schools through special Substance Abuse Prevention Program (PPDa). The purpose of this study was to identify self-efficacy, job satisfaction and their relationships among PPDa teachers. This study also measured the differences in self-efficacy and job satisfaction based on gender and experiences in handling PPDa program. The researcher used snowball sampling technique to recruit 150 PPDa teachers in Malaysia. The translation version of 'General Self-efficacy Scale' and Job Descriptive Index (JDI) were used to achieve the research objectives. The findings showed that PPDa teachers are at the moderate level of self-efficacy and low level of job satisfaction. There was no significant difference in self-efficacy based on gender and experience in handling PPDa program. There was also no significant difference in job satisfaction based on experience in handling PPDa program. However, there was a significant difference in job satisfaction based on gender. The findings also revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between self-efficacy and the level of job satisfaction (rs=.277, p=0.01). The findings revealed that further enhancement could improve teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction to combat substance abuse in school level.

Recognizing and evaluating effective and principal factors that have been affected by academicians' feelings and satisfaction are imperative. This cross-sectional study aims to examine coworker's influence, pay, promotion, supervision, and work on academicians' job satisfaction at university. Job Descriptive Index (JDI) measured these factors, which comprised 72 items and proposed by Brodke et al. (2009) amongst 440 academicians who worked in public research universities in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Descriptive Statistics analyzed the achieved data. This study has illustrated that most academicians revealed a high level of satisfaction toward their pay, coworker, promotion, supervision, and work; their universities support them regarding the main factors of work and organizational structure. Based on these consequences, the universities and any other academic institutes have to the consciousness of these five main factors to improve and enhance academicians job satisfaction, leading to high outcomes and performance at the workplace.

Zusammenfassung. Obwohl eine ökonomische und differenzierte Erfassung von Arbeitszufriedenheit für Forschung und betriebliche Praxis von hoher Relevanz ist, sind deutschsprachige Messinstrumente meist sehr umfangreich oder nicht in der Lage, zwischen Zufriedenheitsfacetten zu differenzieren. Vor diesem Hintergrund besteht das Ziel des Beitrags darin, auf Basis verschiedener Versionen des Job Descriptive Index (JDI) und des Arbeitsbeschreibungsbogens (ABB) einen Kurzfragebogen zur Erfassung von Allgemeiner und Facettenspezifischer Arbeitszufriedenheit (KAFA) zu entwickeln und zu validieren. Anhand von zwei Stichproben (N = 594) wird ein 30 Items umfassender Kurzfragebogen entwickelt, mit dem sich die Gesamtzufriedenheit sowie die Zufriedenheit mit den Tätigkeiten, Kolleginnen und Kollegen, Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten, der Bezahlung und der/dem Vorgesetzten reliabel, valide und ökonomisch messen lassen.

<p><span lang="EN-AU">According to the importance of academic staff job satisfaction at university and evaluating effective factors on satisfaction, the present study is to clarify the relationship between personality factors and job satisfaction by the mediatory role of emotional intelligence. The study involved 440 academic staff selected by multi-stage sampling from public research universities in Klang Valley, Malaysia. This study applied a cross-sectional design. Big Five Inventory (BFI), Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT), and Job Descriptive Index (JDI) have been used to measured variables of the study. Additionally, the Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple linear regression analysis, and mediation analysis (Sobel test) are used for data analysis. The findings released a positive correlation between emotion perception, utilization of emotion, managing own emotions, managing others’ emotions, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness with job satisfaction. Conversely, there is a negative correlation between neuroticism and job satisfaction, whereas no correlation is observed between extraversion and job satisfaction. Personality factors likewise showed a significant relationship with almost all emotional intelligence factors except the utilization of emotion and neuroticism. The utilization of emotion and neuroticism predicted the level of job satisfaction, and only utilization of emotion significantly mediated the relationships between agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness with job satisfaction. In fact, the agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness academic staff have a better ability to apply emotion to obtain job satisfaction than other staff. In short, the study sheds new light in the context of psychology, particularly in the job satisfaction context among academic staff at universities.</span></p>

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of norms and inference, while providing national overall and subgroup norms for the updated Job Descriptive Index and Job in General measures of job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – A stratified random sample was drawn from an online panel to represent the US working population on key variables. Validity evidence is provided. Determination of subgroup norms was based on practical significance. Findings – The revised measures fit the theorized model and patterns of results are consistent with the literature. Practical subgroup differences were found for some stratification variables. Subgroup norms are made available; the first US overall norms are provided. Research limitations/implications – An updated job satisfaction measurement system is made available, complete with nationally representative overall and subgroup norms. A major limitation and direction for future research is the lack of norms for other nations. Practical implications – The revised measurement system is available for use in practice. National overall norms improve decision-makers’ ability to infer respondents’ relative standing and make comparisons across facets and employees. The JDI is useful for dimensional diagnostics and development efforts; the JIG is useful for evaluating overall job satisfaction levels. Social implications – By facilitating valid inferences of job satisfaction scores, the revised measurement system serves to enhance the quality of life at work. Originality/value – The authors provide the only publicly available job satisfaction measurement system that has US national overall norms.

Job satisfaction among employees is a crucial issue in an organization and employer plays a vital role to fulfill their needs. Keeping job satisfaction high among workers can be of tremendous benefit to any organization, as happy employees will be more likely to produce work effectively. It has been assumed that personality traits can play an important role in people's dealing with the environmental issues such as work situations. By assuming this effectiveness, the main aim of this essay is to study the relationship between personality traits and job satisfaction. Explaining job satisfaction by using personality traits can enlighten weather job satisfaction depends only on type of organization or on some personality traits. In this regard, present study has investigated the relationship between job satisfaction and personality traits among Iran Khodro Company expert staff. To do so personality characteristics were measured by NEO-PI-R scale and job satisfaction was measured by Job Descriptive Index (JDI scale) that filled by experts of “Iran Khodro” company (111 men and women). Pearson correlation used to analyze the data. Results show that, neuroticism/emotional stability was associated with low job satisfaction (r = −0/713, P < 0/01). Also conscientiousness (r = 0/620) and agreeableness (r = 0/476) was significantly correlated with job satisfaction (P < 0/01). But the relationship between extraversion (r = −0/025) and openness to experience (r = 0/061) with job satisfaction was not significant. In addition, the results of this study emphasis on the effective role of age (r = −0/301) and job background (r = −0/330) on job satisfaction. But relationship between sexuality (r = 0/183) and marriage (r = 0/125) with job satisfaction was not significant.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The aim of the presented study was to verify the relationship between the level of work engagement and organizational commitment and work satisfaction experienced by employees, taking into account intermediary variables—i.e. the climate at the organization and the phenomenon of silence in the organization. The survey involved a total of 131 employees of the National Revenue Administration, including 35 males and 96 females. Five methods were used to verify the questions and research hypotheses: Allen and Meyer’s Organizational Commitment Scale, the AVEM questionnaire, Paluchowski’s Organizational Climate Questionnaire, the four forms of the Organizational Silence Scale, and the Job Descriptive Index (JDI). The results of the research show that there is a significant relationship between work engagement and organizational commitment and work satisfaction.

The effects of leader behavior and organizational climate on the job satisfaction of intercollegiate coaches were analyzed. The 117 subjects represented 17 California colleges and universities. The instruments used in data collection were the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire, the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire, and the Job Descriptive Index. Statistical analysis revealed that the athletic director’s behavior and the climate had direct and indirect effects on job satisfaction. The degree of consideration shown by the athletic director had a strong effect on satisfaction with work and supervision. Coaches’ feelings of detachment and the lack of administrative support showed a negative relationship to satisfaction with work and supervision. Path analytic procedures showed male and female subjects differing with respect to the factors shaping job satisfaction. Consideration helped female coaches feel integrated into the department and supported by the administration. Male subjects viewed consideration as important to the development of morale and rapport with colleagues.

<p class="a"><span lang="EN-US">Job Satisfaction is an important element to attract college student’s involvement in volunteer clubs</span><span lang="EN-US">. </span><span lang="EN-US">Most studies have looked at job satisfaction of employees and volunteers in developed countries and few studies of job satisfaction done for volunteers in developing countries. </span><span lang="EN-US">This study aims to survey job satisfaction among college student volunteers in Malaysia. </span><span lang="EN-US">A cross </span><span class="txt"><span lang="EN-US">sectional </span></span><span lang="EN-US">survey was conducted among 310 college student volunteers from four regions of peninsular Malaysia. The participants </span><span class="txt"><span lang="EN-US">were selected using stratified multistage sampling.</span></span><span lang="EN-US"> Job satisfaction was measured using </span><span class="txt"><span lang="EN-US">Job Descriptive Index (JDI).</span></span><span lang="EN-US">R</span><span class="txt"><span lang="EN-US">esults of the study revealed that</span></span><span lang="EN-US"> job satisfaction in terms of colleague, leader/leadership, tasks, opportunities for promotion and overall job satisfaction were from moderate to high level. Mean for job satisfaction toward colleague was 43.16 (s.d = 6.63), leader/leadership 41.45 (s.d = 10.19), tasks 41.04 (s.d = 6.07), opportunities for promotion 33.26 (s.d = 10.88) and overall job satisfaction 158.90 (s.d = 25.55). Job satisfaction toward colleague was the highest mean meanwhile opportunities for promotion was the lowest. The implication of college student volunteer’s systems and </span><span class="txt"><span lang="EN-US">practices are discussed. </span></span></p>

This paper argues that teacher's job satisfaction should also have an impact on turnover intention. In this paper identified teacher's level of job satisfaction and turnover intention of advance learning institutions in the Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa Province of the Pakistan and the moderating effect of the cognitive style. Questionnaires were used to gather the information and 502 completed questionnaires were collected back from the respondents. The questionnaire was comprised of JDI consisting of seven items on job satisfaction, turnover Intention questionnaire consisting of three items and five point Likert scale was used and for cognitive style CSI, the cognitive style index was used, the fourth section was comprised of the open ended questionnaire and fifth section was comprised of demographic variables. Hierarchical multiple regressions have been used to check how much variance satisfaction shows upon turnover intention and also it has been checked that how much variance Analytical and intuition cognitive style shows variance upon satisfaction and turnover intention of advance learning institutions of kpk province of Pakistan. The correlation results taken from bivariate Pearson correlation shows significant results which later on strengthen by the regression results. The regression results show that satisfaction shows variance upon turnover intention, this extended model of job satisfaction will be useful to bring the changes in the academician's satisfaction of Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa province of Pakistan. The findings of this study could be used to guide the advance learning institution's management and professional academicians build targeted learning activities around key components of the academician's job satisfaction, diagnose where people are in their journey, set personalize goals and provide feedback to management in the process of the development of policies for advance learning institutions academician's. In the context of the efficient and effective educational policy, a greater understanding of the academician's job satisfaction could facilitate the development of more effective policy, practice that would increase not only the job satisfaction of the academicians but decrease the turnover intention of the academician's.

This paper's job attitude and educational attainment try to identify the present condition in the context of job attitude and educational attainment. The purpose of this study is based on the relationship between qualification and job performance. Generally, job attitude is built on through career development, professional identity, job satisfaction job performance, and the job description which are concerned with the total attitudes towards the various aspects of the working condition of individual perception for holistic index. However, attitudes do not cause variation in attainment but opportunity cost, salary, and policies, and practices of company and government continue to be effective. This paper includes a theoretical concept behind job satisfaction which is the human relation theory of George Elton Mayo and the theory of equity of Stacy Adams. This paper is a review-based paper based on different related research article theories and books. To fulfill the aims of the study using a qualitative descriptive method to establish a relationship between the job attitude and education attainment. The main issue of this paper focuses on the working class and people's attitude towards the attainment of jobs and its utilization.

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in English; abstract also in Chinese.The purpose of this study was to investigate the job satisfaction of Physical Education (P.E.) teachers in Hong Kong and their intention to stay or leave P.E. profession and teaching career. By means of proportional stratified random sampling, 400 questionnaires of Chinese version of Job Descriptive Index (JDI) and Job in General (JIG) were distributed to the full time Hong Kong P.E. teachers. Useable data from 181 respondents (62.4% from primary school teachers; 45.9% were male) representing 45.3% response rate. The .05 level was employed to evaluate the significance of the statistical relationships.68.5% and 79.6% of P.E. teachers were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied in the facets of 'present pay' and 'promotion', respectively. 26.0% (n=47; male=18, female=29) of the respondents reported not willing to teach P.E. within 5 years. 'Physical and mental exhaustion' (29.5%) and 'dislike of teaching P.E.' (27.3%) were the most commonly stated reasons. 17.7% (n=32; male=15, female=17) of the respondents intended to leave teaching profession within 5 years. Their stated reasons were 'physical and mental exhaustion' (24.0%), 'changing job' (24.0%) and 'migration' (20.0%). Low multiple R squares were found between JDI, JIG and the demographic data. Implications of the study and recommendations for further research were suggested.本文目的是探討香港體育教師工作滿足感的概況及其在五年內離職的意向。這項研究採用分層隨機抽樣寄出四百份調查問卷。在一九九六年四月至六月期間收回可應用的問卷共181份，回應率爲45.3%。研究結果顯示接近七成及八成體育教師分別不滿意或非常不滿意他們現在的薪酬及晉升機會。在未來五年內，打算不任教體育科的教師佔26.0%(男=18人；女=29 人；合共47人)，其原因爲身心筋疲力竭的佔29.5%，對任教體育科失去興趣的佔27.3%。此外，有17.7%(男=15人；女=17人；合共32人)的體育教師打算在未來五年內離職，他們所持的原因分別爲身心筋疲力竭和轉職的各佔24%，移民外國的佔20%。研究結果促請有關部門及主管儘早訂立長遠計劃改善體育教師的待遇，以維持和提高現有教師對工作的積極性，進而 提升教師的工作滿足感。

There is evidence indicating that most teachers in most school systems are not satisfied with their jobs. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between Islamic education teacher motivation, emotional intelligence work satisfaction, and organizational commitment in Ranau district primary schools. Furthermore, the study aims to examine the role of gender and age in motivation, emotional intelligence, and work satisfaction. The participants were selected by proportional stratified sampling and simple random selection. This study adopted a survey research design that utilized an ex-post facto research type in which the researcher used questionnaires to collect data from the respondents. The instruments used are the A Questionnaire Measure of Individual Difference in Achieving Tendency (QMAT), Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MIES), Job in General’ (JIG) & Job Descriptive Index (JDI) and Organization Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). A total of 108 Islamic Education teachers (mean age 40.1 +1.2 years; 47 males, 61 female) from 71 primary schools in Ranau District were involved in this study. The data gathered from the respondents were downloaded into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for quantitative analysis. The results of the study indicate that there is a positive significant relationship between motivation [r=0.905, p<.05)], emotional intelligence [r=0.912, p<.05)], work satisfaction [r=0.913, p<.05)] and organizations commitment. It is also found there is no significant difference among primary school teachers of different ages and gender concerning motivation, emotional intelligence work satisfaction, and organizational commitment. The present study gains significance as the results can assist the teachers and organizations in enhancing the organizational commitment of teachers.

The job challenge of the leaders of the organization unit of IS / IT (CIO) has been shifted from the beginning as well as supporting routine tasks becomes more complex and varied that support decisionmaking at the levels of supervisors, middle managers and even top leaders. The problem is for years 2014-2016 and job description of IS/IT leaders have shifted towards a more strategic longer. Pervasive computing capability and versatility of use IS / IT ecofriendly has become a reasonable claim. So that why the organization unit of the IS / IT will be led by a CIO and must be assisted by the CTO, COO and CPO. Organizational units IS/IT is not something monolithic anymore but is a combination of four functions simultaneously, namely operating computerized systems, developing systems, designing architecture and is able to identify new business needs. Every function requires a certain membership groups and different management strategies. Oriented activities in support of strategic business more importantly needed by companies or government agencies. The method used in this research is the study of literature and interviews with respondents. The results of the research conducted is that the duties and functions in a variety of major government agencies appears to look uniform and can be interpreted broadly so that needs to be made more specific for the central leadership organization unit of IS/IT to answer the challenges of the future. While the CIO job description of some large-scale private enterprises is highly variable and depends on the ability of the top management and also the creativity of CIO. Considering year 2014 is no longer, then it should be the top management of private companies and government agencies begin to prepare. Index Terms - Chief Information Officer, IS/IT organizational management strategy, job challenge

The workload is highly related to efficient and effective human resource utilization in an organization to achieve organizational objectives, vision, and mission. Various methods are used to optimize the number of personnel in an organization so that each task can be completed quickly and precisely. Accounting Institutions are inseparable from problems regarding the lack of workload with the number of personnel working on it. The change of the Policy gives an impact on the change of Job Description and List of Personnel Arrangements of the organization. To overcome these issues, workload measurement, analysis can be used to determine the optimal amount of personnel required in their working units. This study uses a mental workload measurement so called NASA-TLX and physical workload measurement According to the applicable workload regulation that is in accordance with the Administrative Direction of Workload Analysis. Both methods are then carried out to be compared to each other. The results showed that the physical workload is required in the completion of tasks in each work unit. In addition, the determination of the optimal number of personnel using physical workload or appropriate tasks per task position based Job Description is performed. As a result, it is known that there is an excessive workload in the Sub Service Budget Cost work units with personal shortcomings. On the other hand, there is an excessive personnel number in Administrative Work, Sub Department of Finance Administration and Sub Department Financial Control. The overall conclusion of this study is a need for personnel reduction in a List of Personnel Arrangements currently known as Accounting Institutions to be 39 personnel instead of the existing 48 personnel. Keywords: Workload, NASA-TLX (Task Load Index), assignments Per Task title, Number of Optimal personnel

AbstractThis pilot study investigated the efficacy of a job register index to support return to work (RTW) for injured workers in the construction industry. Participants included injured workers (n = 22), supervisors/managers (n = 23), treating practitioners (n = 5), occupational rehabilitation consultants (n = 5), union representatives/occupational health and safety representatives (n = 5), RTW coordinators (n = 2), steering committee members (n = 4) and the designated project officer (n = 1). A pre–post test intact group design was used to evaluate the perceived utility of the job register. A partial set of the sample including injured workers and supervisors/managers participated in the pretrial phase (n = 28) while the trial phase included more numerous stakeholder groups to assess the perceived utility of the register (n = 39). Participants completed surveys that incorporated a number of differing sections including injury description and circumstances, communication and collaboration with others, their overall opinion of the return to work process in general and suggestions for future improvements. Additional questions were designed for those participating in the trial with regards to the efficacy of the register. Data were analysed using analysis of variance procedures with pairwise comparisons of pre–post intervention test means. Alternative job options were seen to be offered more frequently. Communication and cooperation improved postimplementation. Supervisors perceived the job register a useful innovation to facilitate RTW. The register represents a new resource to the construction industry with potential for wider application following further study.

Kepuasan kerja yang tinggi amat penting untuk mengelakkan terjadinya gejala burnout dalam kalangan guru di sekolah. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti tahap kepuasan kerja dan tahap burnout guru Pendidikan Jasmani di Daerah Langkawi. Selain itu, kajian ini juga bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti hubungan antara kepuasan kerja dan burnout guru PJ. Hasil kajian ini mungkin dapat memberi gambaran tentang fenomena burnout dalam kalangan pendidik terutamanya guru PJ. Kajian ini merupakan kajian tinjauan yang melibatkan seramai 101 orang responden serta menggunakan borang soal selidik Job Descriptive Index (JDI) dan Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) sebagai instrumen kajian. Data yang dikumpul telah dianalisis dengan menggunakan perisian Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) versi 22.0. Secara keseluruhannya, tahap kepuasan kerja guru berada pada tahap yang tinggi. Dimensi penyeliaan, rakan sekerja, gaji dan kerja itu sendiri mencatatkan tahap kepuasan tinggi kecuali dimensi kenaikan pangkat yang mencatatkan tahap sederhana. Tahap burnout guru juga berada pada tahap sederhana bagi sub skala keletihan emosi, rendah bagi subskala depersonalisasi dan tinggi bagi sub skala pencapaian peribadi. Hasil kajian ujian analisis korelasi turut mendapati terdapat hubungan negatif yang lemah dan signifikan antara kepuasan kerja dengan dua sub skala burnout iaitu keletihan emosi dan depersonalisasi. Gejala burnout boleh dielakkan jika guru mendapat kepuasan kerja yang sepatutnya dengan mengekalkan persekitaran kerja yang menyeronokkan dan tekanan kerja yang minimum. Pihak atasan sekolah perlu lebih peka dengan kebajikan guru yang mengajar supaya kualiti pendidikan lebih terjamin bagi membantu kemenjadian murid terutama dalam menempuhi pembelajaran abad ke-21.

SummaryA person's weight depends on major factors like genetics, diet, and physical activity. Physical activity in adults is defined mainly by workload – light, moderate or heavy. The aim was to explore associations between weight and chronic non-infectious diseases in workers with different physical activity. The subjects included in the study were 224 male and 249 female employees, divided by workload based on their job description. Body mass index (BMI) and disease incidence were calculated, and statistical analysis was performed. The highest percentage of overweight and obese subjects was found in men with light workload. The mean BMI for men (27.434.85) was significantly higher than that for women (25.875.06). Analysis of obesity-associated diseases showed that in workers with higher BMI there was a higher incidence of endocrine disorders, musculoskeletal and related neurological diseases. Diseases of the circulatory system were highly prevalent in both overweight/obese and underweight employees. In conclusion, physical activity at work contributes to changes in BMI in the working population. Obesity-associated circulatory, endocrine and musculoskeletal diseases were highly prevalent in the groups with higher BMI. The prevalence in employees without diseases was in inverse relation to BMI.

In this issue of Journal of Disaster Research, we introduce nine papers on societal responses to recent catastrophic disasters with special focus on long-term recovery processes in Japan and the United States. As disaster impacts increase, we also find that recovery times take longer and the processes for recovery become more complicated. On January 17th of 1995, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the Hanshin and Awaji regions of Japan, resulting in the largest disaster in Japan in 50 years. In this disaster which we call the Kobe earthquake hereafter, over 6,000 people were killed and the damage and losses totaled more than 100 billion US dollars. The long-term recovery from the Kobe earthquake disaster took more than ten years to complete. One of the most important responsibilities of disaster researchers has been to scientifically monitor and record the long-term recovery process following this unprecedented disaster and discern the lessons that can be applied to future disasters. The first seven papers in this issue present some of the key lessons our research team learned from the studying the long-term recovery following the Kobe earthquake disaster. We have two additional papers that deal with two recent disasters in the United States – the terrorist attacks on World Trade Center in New York on September 11 of 2001 and the devastation of New Orleans by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina and subsequent levee failures. These disasters have raised a number of new research questions about long-term recovery that US researchers are studying because of the unprecedented size and nature of these disasters’ impacts. Mr. Mammen’s paper reviews the long-term recovery processes observed at and around the World Trade Center site over the last six years. Ms. Johnson’s paper provides a detailed account of the protracted reconstruction planning efforts in the city of New Orleans to illustrate a set of sufficient and necessary conditions for successful recovery. All nine papers in this issue share a theoretical framework for long-term recovery processes which we developed based first upon the lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake and later expanded through observations made following other recent disasters in the world. The following sections provide a brief description of each paper as an introduction to this special issue. 1. The Need for Multiple Recovery Goals After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, the long-term recovery process began with the formulation of disaster recovery plans by the City of Kobe – the most severely impacted municipality – and an overarching plan by Hyogo Prefecture which coordinated 20 impacted municipalities; this planning effort took six months. Before the Kobe earthquake, as indicated in Mr. Maki’s paper in this issue, Japanese theories about, and approaches to, recovery focused mainly on physical recovery, particularly: the redevelopment plans for destroyed areas; the location and standards for housing and building reconstruction; and, the repair and rehabilitation of utility systems. But the lingering problems of some of the recent catastrophes in Japan and elsewhere indicate that there are multiple dimensions of recovery that must be considered. We propose that two other key dimensions are economic recovery and life recovery. The goal of economic recovery is the revitalization of the local disaster impacted economy, including both major industries and small businesses. The goal of life recovery is the restoration of the livelihoods of disaster victims. The recovery plans formulated following the 1995 Kobe earthquake, including the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s plans, all stressed these two dimensions in addition to physical recovery. The basic structure of both the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s recovery plans are summarized in Fig. 1. Each plan has three elements that work simultaneously. The first and most basic element of recovery is the restoration of damaged infrastructure. This helps both physical recovery and economic recovery. Once homes and work places are recovered, Life recovery of the impacted people can be achieved as the final goal of recovery. Figure 2 provides a “recovery report card” of the progress made by 2006 – 11 years into Kobe’s recovery. Infrastructure was restored in two years, which was probably the fastest infrastructure restoration ever, after such a major disaster; it astonished the world. Within five years, more than 140,000 housing units were constructed using a variety of financial means and ownership patterns, and exceeding the number of demolished housing units. Governments at all levels – municipal, prefectural, and national – provided affordable public rental apartments. Private developers, both local and national, also built condominiums and apartments. Disaster victims themselves also invested a lot to reconstruct their homes. Eleven major redevelopment projects were undertaken and all were completed in 10 years. In sum, the physical recovery following the 1995 Kobe earthquake was extensive and has been viewed as a major success. In contrast, economic recovery and life recovery are still underway more than 13 years later. Before the Kobe earthquake, Japan’s policy approaches to recovery assumed that economic recovery and life recovery would be achieved by infusing ample amounts of public funding for physical recovery into the disaster area. Even though the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s recovery plans set economic recovery and life recovery as key goals, there was not clear policy guidance to accomplish them. Without a clear articulation of the desired end-state, economic recovery programs for both large and small businesses were ill-timed and ill-matched to the needs of these businesses trying to recover amidst a prolonged slump in the overall Japanese economy that began in 1997. “Life recovery” programs implemented as part of Kobe’s recovery were essentially social welfare programs for low-income and/or senior citizens. 2. Requirements for Successful Physical Recovery Why was the physical recovery following the 1995 Kobe earthquake so successful in terms of infrastructure restoration, the replacement of damaged housing units, and completion of urban redevelopment projects? There are at least three key success factors that can be applied to other disaster recovery efforts: 1) citizen participation in recovery planning efforts, 2) strong local leadership, and 3) the establishment of numerical targets for recovery. Citizen participation As pointed out in the three papers on recovery planning processes by Mr. Maki, Mr. Mammen, and Ms. Johnson, citizen participation is one of the indispensable factors for successful recovery plans. Thousands of citizens participated in planning workshops organized by America Speaks as part of both the World Trade Center and City of New Orleans recovery planning efforts. Although no such workshops were held as part of the City of Kobe’s recovery planning process, citizen participation had been part of the City of Kobe’s general plan update that had occurred shortly before the earthquake. The City of Kobe’s recovery plan is, in large part, an adaptation of the 1995-2005 general plan. On January 13 of 1995, the City of Kobe formally approved its new, 1995-2005 general plan which had been developed over the course of three years with full of citizen participation. City officials, responsible for drafting the City of Kobe’s recovery plan, have later admitted that they were able to prepare the city’s recovery plan in six months because they had the preceding three years of planning for the new general plan with citizen participation. Based on this lesson, Odiya City compiled its recovery plan based on the recommendations obtained from a series of five stakeholder workshops after the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake. <strong>Fig. 1. </strong> Basic structure of recovery plans from the 1995 Kobe earthquake. <strong>Fig. 2. </strong> “Disaster recovery report card” of the progress made by 2006. Strong leadership In the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake, local leadership had a defining role in the recovery process. Kobe’s former Mayor, Mr. Yukitoshi Sasayama, was hired to work in Kobe City government as an urban planner, rebuilding Kobe following World War II. He knew the city intimately. When he saw damage in one area on his way to the City Hall right after the earthquake, he knew what levels of damage to expect in other parts of the city. It was he who called for the two-month moratorium on rebuilding in Kobe city on the day of the earthquake. The moratorium provided time for the city to formulate a vision and policies to guide the various levels of government, private investors, and residents in rebuilding. It was a quite unpopular policy when Mayor Sasayama announced it. Citizens expected the city to be focusing on shelters and mass care, not a ban on reconstruction. Based on his experience in rebuilding Kobe following WWII, he was determined not to allow haphazard reconstruction in the city. It took several years before Kobe citizens appreciated the moratorium. Numerical targets Former Governor Mr. Toshitami Kaihara provided some key numerical targets for recovery which were announced in the prefecture and municipal recovery plans. They were: 1) Hyogo Prefecture would rebuild all the damaged housing units in three years, 2) all the temporary housing would be removed within five years, and 3) physical recovery would be completed in ten years. All of these numerical targets were achieved. Having numerical targets was critical to directing and motivating all the stakeholders including the national government’s investment, and it proved to be the foundation for Japan’s fundamental approach to recovery following the 1995 earthquake. 3. Economic Recovery as the Prime Goal of Disaster Recovery In Japan, it is the responsibility of the national government to supply the financial support to restore damaged infrastructure and public facilities in the impacted area as soon as possible. The long-term recovery following the Kobe earthquake is the first time, in Japan’s modern history, that a major rebuilding effort occurred during a time when there was not also strong national economic growth. In contrast, between 1945 and 1990, Japan enjoyed a high level of national economic growth which helped facilitate the recoveries following WWII and other large fires. In the first year after the Kobe earthquake, Japan’s national government invested more than US$ 80 billion in recovery. These funds went mainly towards the repair and reconstruction of infrastructure and public facilities. Now, looking back, we can also see that these investments also nearly crushed the local economy. Too much money flowed into the local economy over too short a period of time and it also did not have the “trickle-down” effect that might have been intended. To accomplish numerical targets for physical recovery, the national government awarded contracts to large companies from Osaka and Tokyo. But, these large out-of-town contractors also tended to have their own labor and supply chains already intact, and did not use local resources and labor, as might have been expected. Essentially, ten years of housing supply was completed in less than three years, which led to a significant local economic slump. Large amounts of public investment for recovery are not necessarily a panacea for local businesses, and local economic recovery, as shown in the following two examples from the Kobe earthquake. A significant national investment was made to rebuild the Port of Kobe to a higher seismic standard, but both its foreign export and import trade never recovered to pre-disaster levels. While the Kobe Port was out of business, both the Yokohama Port and the Osaka Port increased their business, even though many economists initially predicted that the Kaohsiung Port in Chinese Taipei or the Pusan Port in Korea would capture this business. Business stayed at all of these ports even after the reopening of the Kobe Port. Similarly, the Hanshin Railway was severely damaged and it took half a year to resume its operation, but it never regained its pre-disaster readership. In this case, two other local railway services, the JR and Hankyu lines, maintained their increased readership even after the Hanshin railway resumed operation. As illustrated by these examples, pre-disaster customers who relied on previous economic output could not necessarily afford to wait for local industries to recover and may have had to take their business elsewhere. Our research suggests that the significant recovery investment made by Japan’s national government may have been a disincentive for new economic development in the impacted area. Government may have been the only significant financial risk-taker in the impacted area during the national economic slow-down. But, its focus was on restoring what had been lost rather than promoting new or emerging economic development. Thus, there may have been a missed opportunity to provide incentives or put pressure on major businesses and industries to develop new businesses and attract new customers in return for the public investment. The significant recovery investment by Japan’s national government may have also created an over-reliance of individuals on public spending and government support. As indicated in Ms. Karatani’s paper, individual savings of Kobe’s residents has continued to rise since the earthquake and the number of individuals on social welfare has also decreased below pre-disaster levels. Based on our research on economic recovery from the Kobe earthquake, at least two lessons emerge: 1) Successful economic recovery requires coordination among all three recovery goals – Economic, Physical and Life Recovery, and 2) “Recovery indices” are needed to better chart recovery progress in real-time and help ensure that the recovery investments are being used effectively. Economic recovery as the prime goal of recovery Physical recovery, especially the restoration of infrastructure and public facilities, may be the most direct and socially accepted provision of outside financial assistance into an impacted area. However, lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake suggest that the sheer amount of such assistance may not be effective as it should be. Thus, as shown in Fig. 3, economic recovery should be the top priority goal for recovery among the three goals and serve as a guiding force for physical recovery and life recovery. Physical recovery can be a powerful facilitator of post-disaster economic development by upgrading social infrastructure and public facilities in compliance with economic recovery plans. In this way, it is possible to turn a disaster into an opportunity for future sustainable development. Life recovery may also be achieved with a healthy economic recovery that increases tax revenue in the impacted area. In order to achieve this coordination among all three recovery goals, municipalities in the impacted areas should have access to flexible forms of post-disaster financing. The community development block grant program that has been used after several large disasters in the United States, provide impacted municipalities with a more flexible form of funding and the ability to better determine what to do and when. The participation of key stakeholders is also an indispensable element of success that enables block grant programs to transform local needs into concrete businesses. In sum, an effective economic recovery combines good coordination of national support to restore infrastructure and public facilities and local initiatives that promote community recovery. Developing Recovery Indices Long-term recovery takes time. As Mr. Tatsuki’s paper explains, periodical social survey data indicates that it took ten years before the initial impacts of the Kobe earthquake were no longer affecting the well-being of disaster victims and the recovery was completed. In order to manage this long-term recovery process effectively, it is important to have some indices to visualize the recovery processes. In this issue, three papers by Mr. Takashima, Ms. Karatani, and Mr. Kimura define three different kinds of recovery indices that can be used to continually monitor the progress of the recovery. Mr. Takashima focuses on electric power consumption in the impacted area as an index for impact and recovery. Chronological change in electric power consumption can be obtained from the monthly reports of power company branches. Daily estimates can also be made by tracking changes in city lights using a satellite called DMSP. Changes in city lights can be a very useful recovery measure especially at the early stages since it can be updated daily for anywhere in the world. Ms. Karatani focuses on the chronological patterns of monthly macro-statistics that prefecture and city governments collect as part of their routine monitoring of services and operations. For researchers, it is extremely costly and virtually impossible to launch post-disaster projects that collect recovery data continuously for ten years. It is more practical for researchers to utilize data that is already being collected by local governments or other agencies and use this data to create disaster impact and recovery indices. Ms. Karatani found three basic patterns of disaster impact and recovery in the local government data that she studied: 1) Some activities increased soon after the disaster event and then slumped, such as housing construction; 2) Some activities reduced sharply for a period of time after the disaster and then rebounded to previous levels, such as grocery consumption; and 3) Some activities reduced sharply for a while and never returned to previous levels, such as the Kobe Port and Hanshin Railway. Mr. Kimura focuses on the psychology of disaster victims. He developed a “recovery and reconstruction calendar” that clarifies the process that disaster victims undergo in rebuilding their shattered lives. His work is based on the results of random surveys. Despite differences in disaster size and locality, survey data from the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu earthquake indicate that the recovery and reconstruction calendar is highly reliable and stable in clarifying the recovery and reconstruction process. <strong>Fig. 3.</strong> Integrated plan of disaster recovery. 4. Life Recovery as the Ultimate Goal of Disaster Recovery Life recovery starts with the identification of the disaster victims. In Japan, local governments in the impacted area issue a “damage certificate” to disaster victims by household, recording the extent of each victim’s housing damage. After the Kobe earthquake, a total of 500,000 certificates were issued. These certificates, in turn, were used by both public and private organizations to determine victim’s eligibility for individual assistance programs. However, about 30% of those victims who received certificates after the Kobe earthquake were dissatisfied with the results of assessment. This caused long and severe disputes for more than three years. Based on the lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake, Mr. Horie’s paper presents (1) a standardized procedure for building damage assessment and (2) an inspector training system. This system has been adopted as the official building damage assessment system for issuing damage certificates to victims of the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu earthquake, the 2007 Noto-Peninsula earthquake, and the 2007 Niigata-ken Chuetsu Oki earthquake. Personal and family recovery, which we term life recovery, was one of the explicit goals of the recovery plan from the Kobe earthquake, but it was unclear in both recovery theory and practice as to how this would be measured and accomplished. Now, after studying the recovery in Kobe and other regions, Ms. Tamura’s paper proposes that there are seven elements that define the meaning of life recovery for disaster victims. She recently tested this model in a workshop with Kobe disaster victims. The seven elements and victims’ rankings are shown in Fig. 4. Regaining housing and restoring social networks were, by far, the top recovery indicators for victims. Restoration of neighborhood character ranked third. Demographic shifts and redevelopment plans implemented following the Kobe earthquake forced significant neighborhood changes upon many victims. Next in line were: having a sense of being better prepared and reducing their vulnerability to future disasters; regaining their physical and mental health; and restoration of their income, job, and the economy. The provision of government assistance also provided victims with a sense of life recovery. Mr. Tatsuki’s paper summarizes the results of four random-sample surveys of residents within the most severely impacted areas of Hyogo Prefecture. These surveys were conducted biannually since 1999,. Based on the results of survey data from 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2005, it is our conclusion that life recovery took ten years for victims in the area impacted significantly by the Kobe earthquake. Fig. 5 shows that by comparing the two structural equation models of disaster recovery (from 2003 and 2005), damage caused by the Kobe earthquake was no longer a determinant of life recovery in the 2005 model. It was still one of the major determinants in the 2003 model as it was in 1999 and 2001. This is the first time in the history of disaster research that the entire recovery process has been scientifically described. It can be utilized as a resource and provide benchmarks for monitoring the recovery from future disasters. <strong>Fig. 4.</strong> Ethnographical meaning of “life recovery” obtained from the 5th year review of the Kobe earthquake by the City of Kobe. <strong>Fig. 5.</strong> Life recovery models of 2003 and 2005. 6. The Need for an Integrated Recovery Plan The recovery lessons from Kobe and other regions suggest that we need more integrated recovery plans that use physical recovery as a tool for economic recovery, which in turn helps disaster victims. Furthermore, we believe that economic recovery should be the top priority for recovery, and physical recovery should be regarded as a tool for stimulating economic recovery and upgrading social infrastructure (as shown in Fig. 6). With this approach, disaster recovery can help build the foundation for a long-lasting and sustainable community. Figure 6 proposes a more detailed model for a more holistic recovery process. The ultimate goal of any recovery process should be achieving life recovery for all disaster victims. We believe that to get there, both direct and indirect approaches must be taken. Direct approaches include: the provision of funds and goods for victims, for physical and mental health care, and for housing reconstruction. Indirect approaches for life recovery are those which facilitate economic recovery, which also has both direct and indirect approaches. Direct approaches to economic recovery include: subsidies, loans, and tax exemptions. Indirect approaches to economic recovery include, most significantly, the direct projects to restore infrastructure and public buildings. More subtle approaches include: setting new regulations or deregulations, providing technical support, and creating new businesses. A holistic recovery process needs to strategically combine all of these approaches, and there must be collaborative implementation by all the key stakeholders, including local governments, non-profit and non-governmental organizations (NPOs and NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and the private sector. Therefore, community and stakeholder participation in the planning process is essential to achieve buy-in for the vision and desired outcomes of the recovery plan. Securing the required financial resources is also critical to successful implementation. In thinking of stakeholders, it is important to differentiate between supporting entities and operating agencies. Supporting entities are those organizations that supply the necessary funding for recovery. Both Japan’s national government and the federal government in the U.S. are the prime supporting entities in the recovery from the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the 2001 World Trade Center recovery. In Taiwan, the Buddhist organization and the national government of Taiwan were major supporting entities in the recovery from the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake. Operating agencies are those organizations that implement various recovery measures. In Japan, local governments in the impacted area are operating agencies, while the national government is a supporting entity. In the United States, community development block grants provide an opportunity for many operating agencies to implement various recovery measures. As Mr. Mammen’ paper describes, many NPOs, NGOs, and/or CBOs in addition to local governments have had major roles in implementing various kinds programs funded by block grants as part of the World Trade Center recovery. No one, single organization can provide effective help for all kinds of disaster victims individually or collectively. The needs of disaster victims may be conflicting with each other because of their diversity. Their divergent needs can be successfully met by the diversity of operating agencies that have responsibility for implementing recovery measures. In a similar context, block grants made to individual households, such as microfinance, has been a vital recovery mechanism for victims in Thailand who suffered from the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami disaster. Both disaster victims and government officers at all levels strongly supported the microfinance so that disaster victims themselves would become operating agencies for recovery. Empowering individuals in sustainable life recovery is indeed the ultimate goal of recovery. <strong>Fig. 6.</strong> A holistic recovery policy model.

IT professionals’ job satisfaction is important in minimizing turnover, improving job performance, minimizing absenteeism, and increasing the level of job involvement. The primary purpose of this study is to measure the job satisfaction of IT professionals and to identify which factors influence job satisfaction the most in Hanoi’s IT companies. The study also investigates the relationship between job satisfaction factors and the overall job satisfaction by using the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) and Job General Index (JGI) questionnaire to evaluate the construct validity of factors. Data were gathered from a survey of 326 IT professionals in systems development to capture perceptions regarding workrelated factors on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The results of this study indicate that compensation and benefits, co-worker, promotion opportunities, nature of work, and supervision are positively related to job satisfaction. Based on these findings, the study provides implications to business executives in the IT businesses.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the moderating role of job control in relation to mental workload and job satisfaction of healthcare workers.Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 480 nurses, midwives, and administrative workers in four educational hospitals of Ardabil, Iran. Research tools were included demographic information questionnaire, NASA-TLX questionnaire, job description index (JDI) questionnaire and job control inquiry.Results: Compared with administrative workers, mental workload of nurses and midwives was significantly higher and likewise mental workload of nurses was significantly difference compared to midwives (P &lt; 0.001). Nurses and midwives had substantially higher job satisfaction than administrative workers (P &lt; 0.001). Also, nurses and midwives had higher job control than administrative workers (P &lt; 0.001 and P = 0.002, respectively). Based on the designed model, the correlation between mental workload and job satisfaction was negative and significant (r = −0.22); which in the presence of job control, the relationship between the two variables of workload and job satisfaction slightly increased (r = −0.19, P &lt; 0.001). These conditions were the same in the three job groups separately.Conclusion: Mental workload is inversely related to job satisfaction and job control. Job control plays an important role in improving working conditions in healthcare workers.

The dimensions of job satisfaction varies from one individual to another. The objective of this study was to identify the level of work control among academic staffs at public universities. This study used a questionnaire approach which is divided into 2 parts; Part A focuses the level of job satisfaction which were designed by the researcher and section B consists of the factors of job satisfaction translated from the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) developed by Smith, Kendall and Hulin in 1969 based on the Herzberg Two Factors Theory. The results of the pilot study showed that the instrument is very convenient to use and the reliability of the questionnaire accuracy was .85 for job satisfaction accuracy and .93 for Job Descriptive Index (JDI). The results showed that the level of job satisfaction of academic staffs are at a high level, namely (mean = 3.83, SP = 0.572). The results of correlation analysis showed a correlation between the work environment (r = 0708, p <0.01), promotion (r = 0.500, p <0.01), salary (r = 0.345, p <0.01), supervisors (r = 0.454, p <0.01) and colleagues (r = 0529, p <0.01) with job satisfaction among academic staffs at public universities. In summary, it appears that the work environment, opportunities for promotion and colleagues affect the job satisfaction of academic staff at the UA

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti tret personaliti guru dan sama ada wujud pengaruh personaliti terhadap kepuasan kerja dan stres kerja guru. Di samping itu, kajian juga dijalankan untuk menentukan tahap kepuasan dan stres kerja guru serta hubungan antara dua pemboleh ubah ini. Seramai 255 orang guru dari 10 buah sekolah menengah kebangsaan di daerah Johor Bahru dipilih secara rawak sebagai responden kajian. Kajian ini dijalankan menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif. Data dikumpul menerusi soal selidik yang diterjemahkan daripada The Big Five Inventory (BFI), Job Descriptive Index (JDI) dan Adminstrative Stress Indeks (ASI). Nilai kebolehpercayaan bagi instrumen JDI dan ASI ialah 0.91 dan 0.84. Manakala darjah kebolehpercayaan instrumen BFI ialah antara 0.73 hingga 0.80. Para guru menyatakan bahawa tahap kepuasan kerja dan stres kerja guru secara keseluruhannya berada pada tahap yang sederhana. Dapatan kajian juga menunjukkan hubungan negatif yang signifikan antara kepuasan kerja dan stres kerja guru. Hubungan yang signifikan didapati antara dimensi–dimensi personaliti t dengan kepuasan kerja dan juga stres kerja. Implikasi kajian turut dicadangkan dalam artikel ini Kata kunci: Personaliti; kepuasan kerja; stres kerja; guru; agreeableness; openness, conscientiousness, extraversion; neuroticism This study was done to determine the personality traits of teachers as well as to investigate whether these traits influence job satisfaction and stress among teachers. Another aim was to determine the level of satisfaction and stress in teaching profession and the relationship between these two variables. As many as 225 teachers from 10 national secondary schools in Johor Bahru district were chosen randomly as respondents in this study. A quantitative research approach was adopted. The Big Five Inventory (BFI), Job Descriptive Index ( JDI), and Administrative Stress Index (ASI) instruments were used to measure the related variables. All items were asked in both English and Malay languages. The reliability levels of the JDI and ASI instruments were 0.91 and 0.84 respectively, while the reliability levels of the BFI subscales were between 0.73 and 0.80. This study found that the level of job satisfaction and stress amongst the respondents as a whole was at a moderate level. Significant negative relationship in job satisfaction and stress was found in this study. Significant relationships between certain dimensions of personality t and job satisfaction and stress were also found. Results are presented and discussed in detail and practical implications of the study are also suggested. Key words: Personality; job satisfaction; occupational stress; teacher; agreeableness; openness; conscientiousness; extraversion; neuroticism

Background: Having enough ability to perform delegated tasks has a crucial role in preventing job-related accidents and medical errors. Excessive workload, particularly multitasking, causes increased physical stress and job dissatisfaction. Pre-hospital emergency technicians play a crucial role in saving patients' lives, therefore assessing their mental workload and job satisfaction is highly important. Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the mental workload of pre-hospital emergency technicians working in hospitals in the city of Ahvaz and its association with job satisfaction. Methods: In this study, 252 pre-hospital emergency technicians were studied. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) was used to assess the mental workload. The Job Descriptive Index (JDI) questionnaire was used to collect information regarding job satisfaction. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA and chi-square tests. Analyses were performed using SPSS version 22.0. Results: Participants had a moderate level of workload (mean score: 5296). The highest and lowest scores were related to mental demand (69.96 ± 19) and physical demand (32.35 ± 14.3), respectively. Also, participants had a moderate level of job satisfaction, and there was a significant association between job satisfaction and mental demand and frustration (P < 0.05). Conclusions: This study demonstrated an association between job satisfaction and mental demand and frustration in pre-hospital emergency technicians. Therefore, developing appropriate strategies is necessary.

Introduction: Experts consider the physical condition of the workplace and work pressure as important variables affecting job satisfaction. This study aims to investigate the relationship between workplace physical condition and work stress with job satisfaction. Materials and Methods: This research is applied in terms of purpose, and according to the nature of the subject and its objectives, is descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of this survey is all employees of one of Assaluyeh Petrochemical Companies in 2020. The sample's size is 290 people who were selected by simple random sampling method. Job Descriptive Index (JDI has been used to measure the concept of job satisfaction and its components, Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) were also used. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to measure the variables of physical conditions of work environment and work pressure SPSS software was used to analyze the data and descriptive statistical methods such as one-dimensional tables, mean and inferential methods such as factor analysis, correlation coefficient, and regression were used. Results: The average score of job satisfaction is 67.04, the physical work environment is 40.69, and work pressure is 60.17. The correlation between job satisfaction and physical conditions of the workplace and work stress, at a significance level of 0.01, is equivalent to 0.407 and -0.428, respectively. R = 0.496 and R2 = 0.246 were calculated. The regression coefficients are 0.298 and -0.321, respectively. Conclusion: The results show that the job satisfaction score is above average, the physical condition of the workplace is below average, and the workload is above average. There is a direct relationship between job satisfaction and physical conditions of the work environment and an inverse relationship between job satisfaction and work pressure.

Collaborative leadership style is a leadership practice centered on cooperation, knowledge sharing and experience. Through collaborative leadership, social learning and communication processes can be done more effectively. The new policies introduced in the Malaysian education system add to the burden for educators to implement. This at the same time causes teachers to be dissatisfied with their work. Based on the literature, collaborative leadership style can help teachers in performing tasks more productively while increasing their level of job satisfaction. This study aims to identify the level of collaborative practice of principals, the level of job satisfaction of teachers, and the relationship between the two in national secondary schools in the district of Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. This survey study uses a quantitative approach involving 127 respondents and uses descriptive and inferential analysis. Data were obtained using the Robert Wood Johnson Collaborative Leadership and Job Descriptive Index (JDI) questionnaire which was translated and modified in the context of this study. The results show that the level of collaborative leadership practices of principals and the level of job satisfaction as a whole teacher are at a high level. The study also found that there was a positive and very strong relationship between principals' collaborative leadership practices and teacher job satisfaction level [r (127) = 0.885, p <0.01]. The findings of this study should be used as a guide by school administrators to better understand the problems and responsibilities of principals in improving the professionalism and job satisfaction of teachers as well as the performance of students and schools as a whole.

The academic profession in South Africa faces great uncertainties in terms of its future. Focusing on academics’ job satisfaction and finding effective items that impact on the level of job satisfaction is crucial. The main purpose of this research is to examine the effects of demographics on levels of satisfaction among academics in a contemporary higher education institution in South Africa. A quantitative design using a survey approach was adopted for this study. The Job Descriptive Index inventory (JDI) was used to measure seven dimensions of job satisfaction among academic staff. A two-section questionnaire was administered to a quota sample of 500 academic staff in a university in South Africa. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and one-way analysis (ANOVA). The findings indicated that academic staff were moderately satisfied with their jobs. However, the most significant job satisfaction factors that affected the level of academic job satisfaction were the physical work environment and promotional opportunities. The median group differences existed between responses based on age, gender, designation and years of service of the academic staff. Job satisfaction was also significantly associated with job-related factors such as relationships with colleagues, departmental management support, career opportunities and training, remuneration and the nature of the job. The findings of the current study may be used by managers in higher education institutions to improve the level of job satisfaction among academics in the sector, thus preventing further job dissatisfaction. The study provides evidence that job satisfaction could contribute to the success of the higher education sector. The study will be useful for university management in improving overall job satisfaction as it suggests some strategies for job satisfaction practices. The study also provides updated insights into the effects of demographics on levels of job satisfaction among academics in a contemporary higher education institution in the context of South Africa, thereby addressing a research gap in this subject.

Job Satisfaction has been the focus of thousands of studies and published articles in industrial-organizational psychology (Resnick & Bond, 2001).In general, Job Satisfaction is defined as a positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job and is linked to the characteristics of one’s work (Dressel, 1982; Butler, 1990; Arches, 1991, cit in Sari, 2004), that is to say Job Satisfaction is usually treated as a collection of feelings or affective responses associated with the job situation, or “simply how people feel about different aspects of their jobs” (Spector, 1997, p.2). In 1967, Weiss, Dawis, England & Lofquist developed the short version of the MSQ - Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, a 5-point Likert-type scale with 20 items. This scale has been widely used in the literature being a well-known and stable over the time instrument (cf. Mathiew and Farr, 1991, Moorman, 1993, Hart, 1999, etc. cit in Fields, 2002); previous researches have been yielding coefficient alpha values ranging from .85 to .91. This instrument is also quite parsimonious, (in comparison with the 72 items of the JDI – Job Descriptive Index, for example). In this study we developed an exploratory factor analysis to assess the factor structure of this scale in a Hospital Workers sample, with N=140, recurring to IBM – PASW. Following this procedure, we conducted a Confirmatory Factor Analysis using AMOS, where our exploratory structure was compared with other structures found in previous studies, namely Martins (2008) and Sousa, Martins and Cruz (2011). This work aims at improving our understanding of the nature and assessment of Job Satisfaction in the Portuguese health care context, providing a more stable ground for future research in this area.

O estudo do papel da liderança ao nível da promoção de ambientes de trabalho saudáveis tem sido proposto por vários autores das temáticas associadas à gestão de recursos humanos, assim como a áreas afins (Brosdky, 1976; Einärsen, Skogstad, Aasland & Bakken, 2004, Leymann, 1996; Namie & Namie, 2009). O estudo que agora se apresenta procura compreender de uma forma mais global, o papel da liderança na criação de climas organizacionais inibidores ou facilitadores de situações de abuso. O bullying no local de trabalho está muitas vezes associado a estilos de liderança autoritários, insensíveis e abusivos, pelo que seria interessante, estudar este tipo de questões associadas ao respeito pela dignidade dos trabalhadores, nomeadamente ao aumentar a consciência dos limites que não devem ser ultrapassados, por estilos de liderança mais machista e ditatoriais. Mais concretamente, importa conhecer o grau de satisfação que os trabalhadores percecionam em relação aos seus superiores, assim como à organização com a qual estão comprometidos em termos contratuais. O desenho do estudo é do tipo transversal, tendo sido recolhidos os dados num único momento através da seguinte bateria de testes nas suas versões portuguesas: o Negative Acts Questionnaire- Revised (NAQ-R); o Questionário do Clima Organizacional (QuACO); o Job In General Scale (JIG); o Job Descriptive Index (JDI) (Supervision Scale). Os resultados são bastante elucidativos no que concerne ao papel da liderança em termos do impacto no bullying na saúde dos trabalhadores, sendo então lançadas pistas de intervenção no combate a este fenómeno, com programas de intervenção que possam reduzir o stresse ocupacional assim como a promoção de lideranças mais baseadas em valores que respeitem a dignidade dos trabalhadores, e que, inevitavelmente influenciarão a incidência de bullying no local de trabalho.

O estudo do papel da liderança ao nível da promoção de ambientes de trabalho saudáveis tem sido proposto por vários autores das temáticas associadas à gestão de recursos humanos, assim como a áreas afins (Brosdky, 1976; Einärsen, Skogstad, Aasland & Bakken, 2004, Leymann, 1996; Namie & Namie, 2001; Rayner, 1997). O estudo que agora se apresenta procura compreender de uma forma mais global, o papel da liderança na criação de climas organizacionais inibidores ou facilitadores de situações de abuso, assim como do impacto na saúde das pessoas. O bullying no local de trabalho está muitas vezes associado a estilos de liderança autoritários, insensíveis e abusivos, pelo que seria interessante, estudar este tipo de questões associadas ao respeito pela dignidade dos trabalhadores, nomeadamente ao aumentar a consciência dos limites que não devem ser ultrapassados, por estilos de liderança mais “machistas” e ditatoriais. Mais concretamente, importa conhecer o grau de satisfação que os trabalhadores percecionam em relação aos seus superiores, assim como à organização com a qual estão comprometidos em termos contratuais. O estudo procura avaliar a relação mediadora da satisfação dos trabalhadores (com o trabalho e com as chefias) na relação do bullying no local de trabalho e a saúde física e mental dos trabalhadores. O desenho do estudo é do tipo transversal, tendo sido recolhidos os dados num único momento através da seguinte bateria de testes nas suas versões portuguesas: o Negative Acts Questionnaire - Revised (NAQ-R); o Questionário do Clima Organizacional (QuACO); o General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12); o Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL); o Job In General Scale (JIG); o Job Descriptive Index (JDI) (Supervision Scale). Os resultados são bastante elucidativos no que concerne ao papel mediador da liderança em termos do impacto no bullying na saúde dos trabalhadores, sendo então lançadas pistas de intervenção no combate a este fenómeno, com programas de intervenção que possam reduzir o stresse ocupacional, e que inevitavelmente influenciarão a incidência de bullying no local de trabalho.

Abstract Purpose To examine the relationship between leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and ability to meet different work requirements among adult working men with or without current depressive symptoms. Methods We measured LTPA with the long version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The Work Ability Index (WAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were used to assess the work ability and depression of 921 Finnish employed male volunteers. Participants were divided into three groups according to the WAI for their work requirements: mental (MENT), physical (PHYS), and an equal amount of mental and physical work (BTH). Results When adjusted for age, BMI and employment years, there was a significant difference in weekly LTPA between WAI groups {p = 0.003, [F (2902) = 5.58]}, but not for depression. It appeared that participants with depressive symptoms scored lower WAI in each group regardless of LTPA. In addition, a linear relationship was found between higher LTPA and WAI in nondepressed workers in the PHYS [p = 0.011, β = 0.10 (95% CI 0.03–0.18)] and BTH [p = 0.027, β = 0.19 (95% CI 0.03–0.34)] groups. Among workers with depressive symptoms, similar linearity was found in BTH [p = 0.003, β = 0.20 (95% CI 0.03–0.55)]. In group-wise comparison, work requirements {p = 0.001, [F (2902) = 11.2]} and depressive symptoms {p < 0.001, [F (1902) = 177.0]} related with lower WAI. Conclusion Depressive symptoms were associated with lower work ability regardless of the job description. Therefore, higher levels of weekly LTPA was linked with better work ability among nondepressed working men. Workers with depressive symptoms in jobs that require extensive mental or physical work might need more than exercise to improve work ability.

Unlike some current discourse on automediality, this essay eschews most of the analysis concerning the adoption or modification of avatars to deliberately enhance, extend or distort the self. Rather than the automedial enabling of alternative, virtual selves modified by playful, confronting or disarming avatars we concentrate instead on emerging efforts to present the self in hyper-realist, interactive modes. In doing so we ask, what is the relationship between traumatic forms of automediation and the affective impact on and response of the audience? We argue that, while on the one hand there are promising avenues for valuable individual and social engagements with traumatic forms of automediation, there is an overwhelming predominance of suffering as a theme in such virtual depictions, comingled with uncritically asserted promises of empathy, which are problematic as the technology assumes greater mainstream uptake.As Smith and Watson note, embodiment is always a “translation” where the body is “dematerialized” in virtual representation (“Virtually” 78). Past scholarship has analysed the capacity of immersive realms, such as Second Life or online games, to highlight how users can modify their avatars in often spectacular, non-human forms. Critics of this mode of automediality note that users can adopt virtually any persona they like (racial, religious, gendered and sexual, human, animal or hybrid, and of any age), behaving as “identity tourists” while occupying virtual space or inhabiting online communities (Nakamura). Furthermore, recent work by Jaron Lanier, a key figure from the 1980s period of early Virtual Reality (VR) technology, has also explored so-called “homuncular flexibility” which describes the capacity for humans to seemingly adapt automatically to the control mechanisms of an avatar with multiple legs, other non-human appendages, or for two users to work in tandem to control a single avatar (Won et. al.). But this article is concerned less with these single or multi-player online environments and the associated concerns over modifying interactive identities. We are principally interested in other automedial modes where the “auto” of autobiography is automated via Artificial Intelligences (AIs) to convincingly mimic human discourse as narrated life-histories.We draw from case studies promoted by the 2017 season of ABC television’s flagship science program, Catalyst, which opened with semi-regular host and biological engineer Dr Jordan Nguyen, proclaiming in earnest, almost religious fervour: “I want to do something that has long been a dream. I want to create a copy of a human. An avatar. And it will have a life of its own in virtual reality.” As the camera followed Nguyen’s rapid pacing across real space he extolled: “Virtual reality, virtual human, they push the limits of the imagination and help us explore the impossible […] I want to create a virtual copy of a person. A digital addition to the family, using technology we have now.”The troubling implications of such rhetoric were stark and the next third of the program did little to allay such techno-scientific misgivings. Directed and produced by David Symonds, with Nguyen credited as co-developer and presenter, the episode “Meet the Avatars” immediately introduced scenarios where “volunteers” entered a pop-up inner city virtual lab, to experience VR for the first time. The volunteers were shown on screen subjected to a range of experimental VR environments designed to elicit fear and/or adverse and disorienting responses such as vertigo, while the presenter and researchers from Sydney University constantly smirked and laughed at their participants’ discomfort. We can only wonder what the ethics process was for both the ABC and university researchers involved in these broadcast experiments. There is little doubt that the participant/s experienced discomfort, if not distress, and that was televised to a national audience. Presenter Nguyen was also shown misleading volunteers on their way to the VR lab, when one asked “You’re not going to chuck us out of a virtual plane are you?” to which Nguyen replied “I don't know what we’re going to do yet,” when it was next shown that they immediately underwent pre-programmed VR exposure scenarios, including a fear of falling exercise from atop a city skyscraper.The sweat-inducing and heart rate-racing exposures to virtual plank walks high above a cityscape, or seeing subjects haptically viewing spiders crawl across their outstretched virtual hands, all elicited predictable responses, showcased as carnivalesque entertainment for the viewing audience. As we will see, this kind of trivialising of a virtual environment’s capacity for immersion belies the serious use of the technology in a range of treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (see Rizzo and Koenig; Rothbaum, Rizzo and Difede).Figure 1: Nguyen and researchers enjoying themselves as their volunteers undergo VR exposure Defining AutomedialityIn their pioneering 2008 work, Automedialität: Subjektkonstitution in Schrift, Bild und neuen Medien, Jörg Dünne and Christian Moser coined the term “automediality” to problematise the production, application and distribution of autobiographic modes across various media and genres—from literary texts to audiovisual media and from traditional expression to inter/transmedia and remediated formats. The concept of automediality was deployed to counter the conventional critical exclusion of analysis of the materiality/technology used for an autobiographical purpose (Gernalzick). Dünne and Moser proffered a concept of automediality that rejects the binary division of (a) self-expression determining the mediated form or (b) (self)subjectivity being solely produced through the mediating technology. Hence, automediality has been traditionally applied to literary constructs such as autobiography and life-writing, but is now expanding into the digital domain and other “paratextual sites” (Maguire).As Nadja Gernalzick suggests, automediality should “encourage and demand not only a systematics and taxonomy of the constitution of the self in respectively genre-specific ways, but particularly also in medium-specific ways” (227). Emma Maguire has offered a succinct working definition that builds on this requirement to signal the automedial universally, noting it operates asa way of studying auto/biographical texts (of a variety of forms) that take into account how the effects of media shape the kinds of selves that can be represented, and which understands the self not as a preexisting subject that might be distilled into story form but as an entity that is brought into being through the processes of mediation.Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson point to automediality as a methodology, and in doing so emphasize how the telling or mediation of a life actually shapes the kind of story that can be told autobiographically. They state “media cannot simply be conceptualized as ‘tools’ for presenting a preexisting, essential self […] Media technologies do not just transparently present the self. They constitute and expand it” (Smith and Watson “Virtually Me” 77).This distinction is vital for understanding how automediality might be applied to self-expression in virtual domains, including the holographic avatar dreams of Nguyen throughout Catalyst. Although addressing this distinction in relation to online websites, following P. David Marshall’s description of “the proliferation of the public self”, Maguire notes:The same integration of digital spaces and platforms into daily life that is prompting the development of new tools in autobiography studies […] has also given rise to the field of persona studies, which addresses the ways in which individuals engage in practices of self-presentation in order to form commoditised identities that circulate in affective communities.For Maguire, these automedial works operate textually “to construct the authorial self or persona”.An extension to this digital, authorial construction is apparent in the exponential uptake of screen mediated prosumer generated content, whether online or theatrical (Miller). According to Gernalzick, unlike fictional drama films, screen autobiographies more directly enable “experiential temporalities”. Based on Mary Anne Doane’s promotion of the “indexicality” of film/screen representations to connote the real, Gernalzick suggests that despite semiotic theories of the index problematising realism as an index as representation, the film medium is still commonly comprehended as the “imprint of time itself”:Film and the spectator of film are said to be in a continuous present. Because the viewer is aware, however, that the images experienced in or even as presence have been made in the past, the temporality of the so-called filmic present is always ambiguous” (230).When expressed as indexical, automedial works, the intrinsic audio-visual capacities of film and video (as media) far surpass the temporal limitations of print and writing (Gernalzick, 228). One extreme example can be found in an emergent trend of “performance crime” murder and torture videos live-streamed or broadcast after the fact using mobile phone cameras and FaceBook (Bender). In essence, the political economy of the automedial ecology is important to understand in the overall context of self expression and the governance of content exhibition, access, distribution and—where relevant—interaction.So what are the implications for automedial works that employ virtual interfaces and how does this evolving medium inform both the expressive autobiographical mode and audiences subjectivities?Case StudyThe Catalyst program described above strove to shed new light on the potential for emerging technology to capture and create virtual avatars from living participants who (self-)generate autobiographical narratives interactively. Once past the initial gee-wiz journalistic evangelism of VR, the episode turned towards host Nguyen’s stated goal—using contemporary technology to create an autonomous virtual human clone. Nguyen laments that if he could create only one such avatar, his primary choice would be that of his grandfather who died when Nguyen was two years old—a desire rendered impossible. The awkward humour of the plank walk scenario sequence soon gives way as the enthusiastic Nguyen is surprised by his family’s discomfort with the idea of digitally recreating his grandfather.Nguyen next visits a Southern California digital media lab to experience the process by which 3D virtual human avatars are created. Inside a domed array of lights and cameras, in less than one second a life-size 3D avatar is recorded via 6,000 LEDs illuminating his face in 20 different combinations, with eight cameras capturing the exposures from multiple angles, all in ultra high definition. Called the Light Stage (Debevec), it is the same technology used to create a life size, virtual holocaust survivor, Pinchas Gutter (Ziv).We see Nguyen encountering a life-size, high-resolution 2D screen version of Gutter’s avatar. Standing before a microphone, Nguyen asks a series of questions about Gutter’s wartime experiences and life in the concentration camps. The responses are naturalistic and authentic, as are the pauses between questions. The high definition 4K screen is photo-realist but much more convincing in-situ (as an artifact of the Catalyst video camera recording, in some close-ups horizontal lines of transmission appear). According to the project’s curator, David Traum, the real Pinchas Gutter was recorded in 3D as a virtual holograph. He spent 25 hours providing 1,600 responses to a broad range of questions that the curator maintained covered “a lot of what people want to say” (Catalyst).Figure 2: The Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan presented an installation of New Dimensions in Testimony, featuring Pinchas Gutter and Eva SchlossIt is here that the intersection between VR and auto/biography hybridise in complex and potentially difficult ways. It is where the concept of automediality may offer insight into this rapidly emerging phenomenon of creating interactive, hyperreal versions of our selves using VR. These hyperreal VR personae can be questioned and respond in real-time, where interrogators interact either as casual conversers or determined interrogators.The impact on visitors is sobering and palpable. As Nguyen relates at the end of his session, “I just want to give him a hug”. The demonstrable capacity for this avatar to engender a high degree of empathy from its automedial testimony is clear, although as we indicate below, it could simply indicate increased levels of emotion.Regardless, an ongoing concern amongst witnesses, scholars and cultural curators of memorials and museums dedicated to preserving the history of mass violence, and its associated trauma, is that once the lived experience and testimony of survivors passes with that generation the impact of the testimony diminishes (Broderick). New media modes of preserving and promulgating such knowledge in perpetuity are certainly worthy of embracing. As Stephen Smith, the executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation suggests, the technology could extendto people who have survived cancer or catastrophic hurricanes […] from the experiences of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder or survivors of sexual abuse, to those of presidents or great teachers. Imagine if a slave could have told her story to her grandchildren? (Ziv)Yet questions remain as to the veracity of these recorded personae. The avatars are created according to a specific agenda and the autobiographical content controlled for explicit editorial purposes. It is unclear what and why material has been excluded. If, for example, during the recorded questioning, the virtual holocaust survivor became mute at recollecting a traumatic memory, cried or sobbed uncontrollably—all natural, understandable and authentic responses given the nature of the testimony—should these genuine and spontaneous emotions be included along with various behavioural ticks such as scratching, shifting about in the seat and other naturalistic movements, to engender a more profound realism?The generation of the photorealist, mimetic avatar—remaining as an interactive persona long after the corporeal, authorial being is gone—reinforces Baudrillard’s concept of simulacra, where a clone exists devoid of its original entity and unable to challenge its automedial discourse. And what if some unscrupulous hacker managed to corrupt and subvert Gutter’s AI so that it responded antithetically to its purpose, by denying the holocaust ever happened? The ethical dilemmas of such a paradigm were explored in the dystopian 2013 film, The Congress, where Robyn Wright plays herself (and her avatar), as an out of work actor who sells off the rights to her digital self. A movie studio exploits her screen persona in perpetuity, enabling audiences to “become” and inhabit her avatar in virtual space while she is limited in the real world from undertaking certain actions due to copyright infringement. The inability of Wright to control her mimetic avatar’s discourse or action means the assumed automedial agency of her virtual self as an immortal, interactive being remains ontologically perplexing.Figure 3: Robyn Wright undergoing a full body photogrammetry to create her VR avatar in The Congress (2013)The various virtual exposures/experiences paraded throughout Catalyst’s “Meet the Avatars” paradoxically recorded and broadcast a range of troubling emotional responses to such immersion. Many participant responses suggest great caution and sensitivity be undertaken before plunging headlong into the new gold rush mentality of virtual reality, augmented reality, and AI affordances. Catalyst depicted their program subjects often responding in discomfort and distress, with some visibly overwhelmed by their encounters and left crying. There is some irony that presenter Ngyuen was himself relying on the conventions of 2D linear television journalism throughout, adopting face-to-camera address in (unconscious) automedial style to excitedly promote the assumed socio-cultural boon such automedial VR avatars will generate.Challenging AuthenticityThere are numerous ethical considerations surrounding the potential for AIs to expand beyond automedial (self-)expression towards photorealist avatars interacting outside of their pre-recorded content. When such systems evolve it may be neigh impossible to discern on screen whether the person you are conversing with is authentic or an indistinguishable, virtual doppelganger. In the future, a variant on the Turning Test may be needed to challenge and identify such hyperreal simulacra. We may be witnessing the precursor to such a dilemma playing out in the arena of audio-only podcasts, with some public intellectuals such as Sam Harris already discussing the legal and ethical problems from technology that can create audio from typed text that convincingly replicate the actual voice of a person by sampling approximately 30 minutes of their original speech (Harris). Such audio manipulation technology will soon be available to anybody with the motivation and relatively minor level of technological ability in order to assume an identity and masquerade as automediated dialogue. However, for the moment, the ability to convincingly alter a real-time computer generated video image of a person remains at the level of scientific innovation.Also of significance is the extent to which the audience reactions to such automediated expressions are indeed empathetic or simply part of the broader range of affective responses that also include direct sympathy as well as emotions such as admiration, surprise, pity, disgust and contempt (see Plantinga). There remains much rhetorical hype surrounding VR as the “ultimate empathy machine” (Milk). Yet the current use of the term “empathy” in VR, AI and automedial forms of communication seems to be principally focused on the capacity for the user-viewer to ameliorate negatively perceived emotions and experiences, whether traumatic or phobic.When considering comments about authenticity here, it is important to be aware of the occasional slippage of technological terminology into the mainstream. For example, the psychological literature does emphasise that patients respond strongly to virtual scenarios, events, and details that appear to be “authentic” (Pertaub, Slater, and Barker). Authentic in this instance implies a resemblance to a corresponding scenario/activity in the real world. This is not simply another word for photorealism, but rather it describes for instance the experimental design of one study in which virtual (AI) audience members in a virtual seminar room designed to treat public speaking anxiety were designed to exhibit “random autonomous behaviours in real-time, such as twitches, blinks, and nods, designed to encourage the illusion of life” (Kwon, Powell and Chalmers 980). The virtual humans in this study are regarded as having greater authenticity than an earlier project on social anxiety (North, North, and Coble) which did not have much visual complexity but did incorporate researcher-triggered audio clips of audience members “laughing, making comments, encouraging the speaker to speak louder or more clearly” (Kwon, Powell, and Chalmers 980). The small movements, randomly cued rather than according to a recognisable pattern, are described by the researchers as creating a sense of authenticity in the VR environment as they seem to correspond to the sorts of random minor movements that actual human audiences in a seminar can be expected to make.Nonetheless, nobody should regard an interaction with these AIs, or the avatar of Gutter, as in any way an encounter with a real person. Rather, the characteristics above function to create a disarming effect and enable the real person-viewer to willingly suspend their disbelief and enter into a pseudo-relationship with the AI; not as if it is an actual relationship, but as if it is a simulation of an actual relationship (USC). Lucy Suchman and colleagues invoke these ideas in an analysis of a YouTube video of some apparently humiliating human interactions with the MIT created AI-robot Mertz. Their analysis contends that, while it may appear on first glance that the humans’ mocking exchange with Mertz are mean-spirited, there is clearly a playfulness and willingness to engage with a form of AI that is essentially continuous with “long-standing assumptions about communication as information processing, and in the robot’s performance evidence for the limits to the mechanical reproduction of interaction as we know it through computational processes” (Suchman, Roberts, and Hird).Thus, it will be important for future work in the area of automediated testimony to consider the extent to which audiences are willing to suspend disbelief and treat the recounted traumatic experience with appropriate gravitas. These questions deserve attention, and not the kind of hype displayed by the current iteration of techno-evangelism. Indeed, some of this resurgent hype has come under scrutiny. From the perspective of VR-based tourism, Janna Thompson has recently argued that “it will never be a substitute for encounters with the real thing” (Thompson). Alyssa K. Loh, for instance, also argues that many of the negatively themed virtual experiences—such as those that drop the viewer into a scene of domestic violence or the location of a terrorist bomb attack—function not to put you in the position of the actual victim but in the position of the general category of domestic violence victim, or bomb attack victim, thus “deindividuating trauma” (Loh).Future work in this area should consider actual audience responses and rely upon mixed-methods research approaches to audience analysis. In an era of alt.truth and Cambridge Analytics personality profiling from social media interaction, automediated communication in the virtual guise of AIs demands further study.ReferencesAnon. “New Dimensions in Testimony.” Museum of Jewish Heritage. 15 Dec. 2017. 19 Apr. 2018 <http://mjhnyc.org/exhibitions/new-dimensions-in-testimony/>.Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Meet The Avatars.” Catalyst, 15 Aug. 2017.Baudrillard, Jean. “Simulacra and Simulations.” Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings. Ed. Mark Poster. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1988. 166-184.Bender, Stuart Marshall. Legacies of the Degraded Image in Violent Digital Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.Broderick, Mick. “Topographies of Trauma, Dark Tourism and World Heritage: Hiroshima’s Genbaku Dome.” Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific. 24 Apr. 2010. 14 Apr. 2018 <http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue24/broderick.htm>.Debevec, Paul. “The Light Stages and Their Applications to Photoreal Digital Actors.” SIGGRAPH Asia. 2012.Doane, Mary Ann. The Emergence of Cinematic Time: Modernity, Contingency, the Archive. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2002.Dünne, Jörg, and Christian Moser. “Allgemeine Einleitung: Automedialität”. Automedialität: Subjektkonstitution in Schrift, Bild und neuen Medien. Eds. Jörg Dünne and Christian Moser. München: Wilhelm Fink, 2008. 7-16.Harris, Sam. “Waking Up with Sam Harris #64 – Ask Me Anything.” YouTube, 16 Feb. 2017. 16 Mar. 2018 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMTuquaAC4w>.Kwon, Joung Huem, John Powell, and Alan Chalmers. “How Level of Realism Influences Anxiety in Virtual Reality Environments for a Job Interview.” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 71.10 (2013): 978-87.Loh, Alyssa K. "I Feel You." Artforum, Nov. 2017. 10 Apr. 2018 <https://www.artforum.com/print/201709/alyssa-k-loh-on-virtual-reality-and-empathy-71781>.Marshall, P. David. “Persona Studies: Mapping the Proliferation of the Public Self.” Journalism 15.2 (2014): 153-170.Mathews, Karen. “Exhibit Allows Virtual ‘Interviews’ with Holocaust Survivors.” Phys.org Science X Network, 15 Dec. 2017. 18 Apr. 2018 <https://phys.org/news/2017-09-virtual-holocaust-survivors.html>.Maguire, Emma. “Home, About, Shop, Contact: Constructing an Authorial Persona via the Author Website” M/C Journal 17.9 (2014).Miller, Ken. More than Fifteen Minutes of Fame: The Evolution of Screen Performance. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Murdoch University. 2009.Milk, Chris. “Ted: How Virtual Reality Can Create the Ultimate Empathy Machine.” TED Conferences, LLC. 16 Mar. 2015. <https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_milk_how_virtual_reality_can_create_the_ultimate_empathy_machine>.Nakamura, Lisa. “Cyberrace.” Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online. Eds. Anna Poletti and Julie Rak. Madison, Wisconsin: U of Wisconsin P, 2014. 42-54.North, Max M., Sarah M. North, and Joseph R Coble. "Effectiveness of Virtual Environment Desensitization in the Treatment of Agoraphobia." International Journal of Virtual Reality 1.2 (1995): 25-34.Pertaub, David-Paul, Mel Slater, and Chris Barker. “An Experiment on Public Speaking Anxiety in Response to Three Different Types of Virtual Audience.” Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 11.1 (2002): 68-78.Plantinga, Carl. "Emotion and Affect." The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film. Eds. Paisley Livingstone and Carl Plantinga. New York: Routledge, 2009. 86-96.Rizzo, A.A., and Sebastian Koenig. “Is Clinical Virtual Reality Ready for Primetime?” Neuropsychology 31.8 (2017): 877-99.Rothbaum, Barbara O., Albert “Skip” Rizzo, and JoAnne Difede. "Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1208.1 (2010): 126-32.Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson. Reading Autobiography: A Guide to Interpreting Life Narratives. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2010.———. “Virtually Me: A Toolbox about Online Self-Presentation.” Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online. Eds. Anna Poletti and Julie Rak. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2014. 70-95.Suchman, Lucy, Celia Roberts, and Myra J. Hird. "Subject Objects." Feminist Theory 12.2 (2011): 119-45.Thompson, Janna. "Why Virtual Reality Cannot Match the Real Thing." The Conversation, 14 Mar. 2018. 10 Apr. 2018 <http://theconversation.com/why-virtual-reality-cannot-match-the-real-thing-92035>.USC. "Skip Rizzo on Medical Virtual Reality: USC Global Conference 2014." YouTube, 28 Oct. 2014. 2 Apr. 2018 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdFge2XgDa8>.Won, Andrea Stevenson, Jeremy Bailenson, Jimmy Lee, and Jaron Lanier. "Homuncular Flexibility in Virtual Reality." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 20.3 (2015): 241-59.Ziv, Stan. “How Technology Is Keeping Holocaust Survivor Stories Alive Forever”. 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“I’m fat–and it’s okay! It doesn’t mean I’m stupid, or ugly, or lazy, or selfish. I’m fat!” so proclaims Joy Nash in her YouTube video, A Fat Rant. “Fat! It’s three little letters–what are you afraid of?!” This is the question I pose to my class on day one of Fat Studies. Sadly, many college students do fear fat, and negative attitudes toward fat people are quite prevalent in this population (Ambwani et al. 366). As I teach it, Fat Studies is cross-listed between Psychology and Gender Studies. However, most students who enrol have majors in Psychology or other behavioural health science fields in which weight bias is particularly pronounced (Watkins and Concepcion 159). Upon finding stronger bias among third- versus first-year Physical Education students, O’Brien, Hunter, and Banks (308) speculated that the weight-centric curriculum that typifies this field actively engenders anti-fat attitudes. Based on their exploration of textbook content, McHugh and Kasardo (621) contend that Psychology too is complicit in propagating weight bias by espousing weight-centric messages throughout the curriculum. Such messages include the concepts that higher body weight invariably leads to poor health, weight control is simply a matter of individual choice, and dieting is an effective means of losing weight and improving health (Tylka et al.). These weight-centric tenets are, however, highly contested. For instance, there exists a body of research so vast that it has its own name, the “obesity paradox” literature. This literature (McAuley and Blair 773) entails studies that show that “obese” persons with chronic disease have relatively better survival rates and that a substantial portion of “overweight” and “obese” individuals have levels of metabolic health similar to or better than “normal” weight individuals (e.g., Flegal et al. 71). Finally, the “obesity paradox” literature includes studies showing that cardiovascular fitness is a far better predictor of mortality than weight. In other words, individuals may be both fit and fat, or conversely, unfit and thin (Barry et al. 382). In addition, Tylka et al. review literature attesting to the complex causes of weight status that extend beyond individual behaviour, ranging from genetic predispositions to sociocultural factors beyond personal control. Lastly, reviews of research on dieting interventions show that these are overwhelmingly ineffective in producing lasting weight loss or actual improvements in health and may in fact lead to disordered eating and other unanticipated adverse consequences (e.g., Bacon and Aphramor; Mann et al. 220; Salas e79; Tylka et al.).The newfound, interdisciplinary field of scholarship known as Fat Studies aims to debunk weight-centric misconceptions by elucidating findings that counter these mainstream suppositions. Health At Every Size® (HAES), a weight-neutral approach to holistic well-being, is an important facet of Fat Studies. The HAES paradigm advocates intuitive eating and pleasurable physical activity for health rather than restrictive dieting and regimented exercise for weight loss. HAES further encourages body acceptance of self and others regardless of size. Empirical evidence shows that HAES-based interventions improve physical and psychological health without harmful side-effects or high dropout rates associated with weight loss interventions (Bacon and Aphramor; Clifford et al. “Impact of Non-Diet Approaches” 143). HAES, like the broader field of Fat Studies, seeks to eradicate weight-based discrimination, positioning weight bias as a social justice issue that intersects with oppression based on other areas of difference such as gender, race, and social class. Much like Queer Studies, Fat Studies seeks to reclaim the word, fat, thus stripping it of its pejorative connotations. As Nash asserts in her video, “Fat is a descriptive physical characteristic. It’s not an insult, or an obscenity, or a death sentence!” As an academic discipline, Fat Studies is expanding its visibility and reach. The Fat Studies Reader, the primary source of reading for my course, provides a comprehensive overview of the field (Rothblum and Solovay 1). This interdisciplinary anthology addresses fat history and activism, fat as social inequality, fat in healthcare, and fat in popular culture. Ward (937) reviews this and other recently-released fat-friendly texts. The field features its own journal, Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society, which publishes original research, overview articles, and reviews of assorted media. Both the Popular Culture Association and National Women’s Studies Association have special interest groups devoted to Fat Studies, and the American Psychological Association’s Division on the Psychology of Women has recently formed a task force on sizism (Bergen and Carrizales 22). Furthermore, Fat Studies conferences have been held in Australia and New Zealand, and the third annual Weight Stigma Conference will occur in Iceland, September 2015. Although the latter conference is not necessarily limited to those who align themselves with Fat Studies, keynote speakers include Ragen Chastain, a well-known member of the fat acceptance movement largely via her blog, Dances with Fat. The theme of this year’s conference, “Institutionalised Weightism: How to Challenge Oppressive Systems,” is consistent with Fat Studies precepts:This year’s theme focuses on the larger social hierarchies that favour thinness and reject fatness within western culture and how these systems have dictated the framing of fatness within the media, medicine, academia and our own identities. What can be done to oppose systemised oppression? What can be learned from the fight for social justice and equality within other arenas? Can research and activism be united to challenge prevailing ideas about fat bodies?Concomitantly, Fat Studies courses have begun to appear on college campuses. Watkins, Farrell, and Doyle-Hugmeyer (180) identified and described four Fat Studies and two HAES courses that were being taught in the U.S. and abroad as of 2012. Since then, a Fat Studies course has been taught online at West Virginia University and another will soon be offered at Washington State University. Additionally, a new HAES class has been taught at Saint Mary’s College of California during the last two academic years. Cameron (“Toward a Fat Pedagogy” 28) describes ways in which nearly 30 instructors from five different countries have incorporated fat studies pedagogy into university courses across an array of academic areas. This growing trend is manifested in The Fat Pedagogy Reader (Russell and Cameron) due out later this year. In this article, I describe content and pedagogical strategies that I use in my Fat Studies course. I then share students’ qualitative reactions, drawing upon excerpts from written assignments. During the term reported here, the class was comprised of 17 undergraduate and 5 graduate students. Undergraduate majors included 47% in Psychology, 24% in Women Studies, 24% in various other College of Liberal Arts fields, and 6% in the College of Public Health. Graduate majors included 40% in the College of Public Health and 60% in the College of Education. Following submission of final grades, students provided consent via email allowing written responses on assignments to be anonymously incorporated into research reports. Assignments drawn upon for this report include weekly reading reactions to specific journal articles in which students were to summarise the main points, identify and discuss a specific quote or passage that stood out to them, and consider and discuss applicability of the information in the article. This report also utilises responses to a final assignment in which students were to articulate take-home lessons from the course.Despite the catalogue description, many students enter Fat Studies with a misunderstanding of what the course entails. Some admitted that they thought the course was about reducing obesity and the presumed health risks associated with this alleged pathological condition (Watkins). Others understood, but were somewhat dubious, at least at the outset, “Before I began this class, I admit that I was skeptical of what Fat Studies meant.” Another student experienced “a severe cognitive dissonance” between the Fat Studies curriculum and that of a previous behavioural health class:My professor spent the entire quarter spouting off statistics, such as the next generation of children will be the first generation to have a lower life expectancy than their parents and the ever increasing obesity rates that are putting such a tax on our health care system, and I took her words to heart. I was scared for myself and for the populations I would soon be working with. I was worried that I was destined to a chronic disease and bothered that my BMI was two points above ‘normal.’ I believed everything my professor alluded to on the danger of obesity because it was things I had heard in the media and was led to believe all my life.Yet another related, “At first, I will be honest, it was hard for me to accept a lot of this information, but throughout the term every class changed my mind about my view of fat people.” A few students have voiced even greater initial resistance. During a past term, one student lamented that the material represented an attack on her intended behavioural health profession. Cameron (“Learning to Teach Everybody”) describes comparable reactions among students in her Critical Obesity course taught within a behavioural health science unit. Ward (937) attests that, even in Gender Studies, fat is the topic that creates the most controversy. Similarly, she describes students’ immense discomfort when asked to entertain perspectives that challenge deeply engrained ideas inculcated by our culture’s “obesity epidemic.” Discomfort, however, is not necessarily antithetical to learning. In prompting students to unlearn “the biomedically-informed truth of obesity, namely that fat people are unfit, unhealthy, and in need of ‘saving’ through expert interventions,” Moola at al. recommend equipping them with an “ethics of discomfort” (217). No easy task, “It requires courage to ask our students to forgo the security of prescriptive health messaging in favour of confusion and uncertainty” (221). I encourage students to entertain conflicting perspectives by assigning empirically-based articles emanating from peer-reviewed journals in their own disciplines that challenge mainstream discourses on obesity (e.g., Aphramor; Bombak e60; Tomiyama, Ahlstrom, and Mann 861). Students whose training is steeped in the scientific method seem to appreciate having quantitative data at their disposal to convince themselves–and their peers and professors–that widely held weight-centric beliefs and practices may not be valid. One student remarked, “Since I have taken this course, I feel like I am prepared to discuss the fallacy of the weight-health relationship,” citing specific articles that would aid in the effort. Likewise, Cameron’s (“Learning to Teach Everybody”) students reported a need to read research reports in order to begin questioning long-held beliefs.In addition, I assign readings that provide students with the opportunity to hear the voices of fat people themselves, a cornerstone of Fat Studies. Besides chapters in The Fat Studies Reader authored by scholars and activists who identify as fat, I assign qualitative articles (e.g., Lewis et al.) and narrative reports (e.g., Pause 42) in which fat people describe their experiences with weight and weight bias. Additionally, I provide positive images of fat people via films and websites (Clifford et al. HAES®; Watkins; Watkins and Doyle-Hugmeyer 177) in order to counteract the preponderance of negative, dehumanising portrayals in popular media (e.g., Ata and Thompson 41). In response, a student stated:One of the biggest things I took away from this term was the confidence I found in fat women through films and stories. They had more confidence than I have seen in any tiny girl and owned the body they were given.I introduce “normal” weight allies as well, most especially Linda Bacon whose treatise on thin privilege tends to set the stage for viewing weight bias as a form of oppression (Bacon). One student observed, “It was a relief to be able to read and talk about weight oppression in a classroom setting for once.” Another appreciated that “The class did a great job at analysing fat as oppression and not like a secondhand oppression as I have seen in my past classes.” Typically, fat students were already aware of weight-based privilege and oppression, often painfully so. Thinner students, however, were often astonished by this concept, several describing Bacon’s article as “eye-opening.” In reaction, many vowed to act as allies:This class has really opened my eyes and prepared me to be an ally to fat people. It will be difficult for some time while I try to get others to understand my point of view on fat people but I believe once there are enough allies, people’s minds will really start changing and it will benefit everyone for the better.Pedagogically, I choose to share my own experiences as they relate to course content and encourage students, at least in their written assignments, to do the same. Other instructors refrain from this practice for fear of reinforcing traditional discourses or eliciting detrimental reactions from students (Watkins, Farrell, and Doyle-Hugmeyer 191). Nevertheless, this tack seems to work well in my course, with many students opting to disclose their relevant circumstances during classroom discussions: Throughout the term I very much valued and appreciated when classmates would share their experiences. I love listening and hearing to others experiences and I think that is a great way to understand the material and learn from one another.It really helped to read different articles and hear classmates discuss and share stories that I was able to relate to. The idea of hearing people talk about issues that I thought I was the only one who dealt with was so refreshing and enlightening.The structure of this class allowed me to learn how this information is applicable to my life and made it deeper than just memorising information.Thus far, across three terms, no student has described iatrogenic effects from this process. In fact, most attribute positive transformations to the class. These include enhanced body acceptance of self and others: This class decreased my fat phobia towards others and gave me a better understanding about the intersectionality of one’s weight. For example, I now feel that I no longer view my family in a fat phobic way and I also feel responsible for educating my brother and helping him develop a strong self-esteem regardless of his size.I never thought this class would change my life, almost save my life. Through studies shown in class and real life people following their dreams, it made my mind completely change about how I view my body and myself.I can only hope that in the future, I will be more forgiving, tolerant, and above all accepting of myself, much less others. Regardless of a person’s shape and size, we are all beautiful, and while I’m just beginning to understand this, it can only get better from here.Students also reported becoming more savvy consumers of weight-centric media messages as well as realigning their eating and exercise behaviour in accordance with HAES: I find myself disgusted at the television now, especially with the amount of diet ads, fitness club ads, and exercise equipment ads all aimed at making a ‘better you.’ I now know that I would never be better off with a SlimFast shake, P90X, or a Total Gym. I would be better off eating when I’m hungry, working out because it is fun, and still eating Thin Mints when I want to. Prior to this class, I would work out rigorously, running seven miles a day. Now I realise why at times I dreaded to work out, it was simply a mathematical system to burn the energy that I had acquired earlier in the day. Instead what I realise I should do is something I enjoy, that way I will never get tired of whatever I am doing. While I do enjoy running, other activities would bring more joy while engaging in a healthy lifestyle like hiking or mountain biking.I will never go on another diet. I will stop choosing exercises I don’t love to do. I will not weigh myself every single day hoping for the number on the scale to change.A reduction in self-weighing was perhaps the most frequent behaviour change that students expressed. This is particularly valuable in that frequent self-weighing is associated with disordered eating and unhealthy weight control behaviours (Neumark-Sztainer et al. 811):I have realised that the number on the scale is simply a number on the scale. That number does not define who you are. I have stopped weighing myself every morning. I put the scale in the storage closet so I don’t have to look at it. I even encouraged my roommate to stop weighing herself too. What has been most beneficial for me to take away from this class is the notion that the number on the scale has so much less to do with fitness levels than most people understand. Coming from a numbers obsessed person like myself, this class has actually gotten me to leave the scales behind. I used to weigh myself every single day and my self-confidence reflected whether I was up or down in weight from the day before. It seems so silly to me now. From this class, I take away a new outlook on body diversity. I will evaluate who I am for what I do and not represent myself with a number. I’m going to have my cake this time, and actually eat it too!Finally, students described ways in which they might carry the concepts from Fat Studies into their future professions: I want to go to law school. This model is something I will work toward in the fight for social justice.As a teacher and teacher of teachers, I plan to incorporate discussions on size diversity and how this should be addressed within the field of adapted physical education.I do not know how I would have gone forward if I had never taken this class. I probably would have continued to use weight loss as an effective measure of success for both nutrition and physical activity interventions. I will never be able to think about the obesity prevention movement in the same way.Since I am working toward being a clinical psychologist, I don’t want to have a client who is pursuing weight loss and then blindly believe that they need to lose weight. I’d rather be of the mindset that every person is unique, and that there are other markers of health at every size.Jones and Hughes-Decatur (59) call for increased scholarship illustrating and evaluating critical body pedagogies so that teachers might provide students with tools to critique dominant discourses, helping them forge healthy relationships with their own bodies in the process. As such, this paper describes elements of a Fat Studies class that other instructors may choose to adopt. It additionally presents qualitative data suggesting that students came to think about fat and fat people in new and divergent ways. Qualitative responses also suggest that students developed better body image and more adaptive eating and exercise behaviours throughout the term. Although no students have yet described lasting adverse effects from the class, one stated that she would have preferred less of a focus on health and more of a focus on issues such as fat fashion. Indeed, some Fat Studies scholars (e.g., Lee) advocate separating discussions of weight bias from discussions of health status to avoid stigmatising fat people who do experience health problems. While concerns about fostering healthism within the fat acceptance movement are valid, as a behavioural health professional with an audience of students training in these fields, I have chosen to devote three weeks of our ten week term to this subject matter. Depending on their academic background, others who teach Fat Studies may choose to emphasise different aspects such as media representations or historical connotations of fat.Nevertheless, the preponderance of positive comments evidenced throughout students’ assignments may certainly be a function of social desirability. Although I explicitly invite critique, and in fact assign readings (e.g., Welsh 33) and present media that question HAES and Fat Studies concepts, students may still feel obliged to articulate acceptance of and transformations consistent with the principles of these movements. As a more objective assessment of student outcomes, I am currently conducting a quantitative evaluation, in which I remain blind to students’ identities, of this year’s Fat Studies course compared to other upper division/graduate Psychology courses, examining potential changes in weight bias, body image and dieting behaviour, adherence to appearance-related media messages, and obligatory exercise behaviour. I postulate results akin to those of Humphrey, Clifford, and Neyman Morris (143) who found reductions in weight bias, improved body image, and improved eating behaviour among college students as a function of their HAES course. 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