States targeted by human rights criticism usually do something—whether ratifying treaties, passing laws, establishing institutions, prosecuting perpetrators, or shifting discourse. But how do we know how coordinated, comprehensive, and effective these actions are? This article proposes five questions to assess how willing a state is to take the steps necessary to meaningfully respond to human rights crises. It applies this approach to two human rights crises in Mexico: femicides and violence against women, and disappearances. This approach effectively differentiates state responses that initially appear similar, demonstrating that the Mexican government has been more willing to address violence against women and femicides than disappearances. An explanation for this difference in outcomes points to a combination of factors related to the underlying preferences of the government involved, the characteristics of victims, and the specific human right being violated.

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a cognitive bias that leads to perception and intolerance of uncertainty and has associated negative cognitive, emotional, and behavioural responses. It plays a strong role in social anxiety disorder (SAD; Counsell et al., 2017). Our experimental study examined the impact of uncertainty related to a social stressor on SAD using a speech task. We examined features of SAD including anticipatory anxiety, anxiety during the task, willingness to perform the task, and avoidance of the task. Undergraduate students (N = 110, 88% female) with significant social anxiety completed a series of questionnaires, then were randomised to one of two conditions related to level of uncertainty about an impromptu speech task. The experimental condition (state IU) did not predict any of the outcome variables, while trait IU significantly predicted anxiety levels. Results indicate that increased uncertainty of a social situation does not impact acute anxiety levels in SAD and reinforce the strong role of trait IU as a transdiagnostic cognitive variable. Neither trait nor state IU predicted the willingness and avoidance variables. Results also highlighted the central role of the experience of anxiety on avoidance behaviours, above cognitive factors such as IU.

The literature on knowledge transfer is confident in its assertion that a ‘stickiness’ pervades knowledge disclosure process. This phenomenon is often attributed to structural communication barriers but an equally valid explanation could stem from the individual feeling a sense of ownership of their knowledge which then engenders a reluctance to be open about their knowledge within a formal knowledge transfer process. We pursue this idea theoretically through notions of possessiveness and psychological ownership; and empirically by exploring the concept of willingness to disclose. Assuming willingness to be unidimensional a methodology is put forward that uses indicators to measures its direction. Using a sample of 1050 UK engineers we illustrate the direction of willingness on a reluctance–willing dimension. We argue that knowledge transfer requires management to examine more closely the stimuli that affect the process.

Effective hospital surge response in disaster depends largely on an adequate number of personnel to provide care. Studies appearing since 1991 indicate health care personnel may not be willing to work in all disaster situations—and if so, this could degrade surge response. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to determine the state of the evidence concerning the willingness of health care personnel to work in disaster. The aims of this review are to collate and assess the literature concerning willingness of health care personnel to work during a disaster, to identify gaps in the literature as areas for future investigation, and to facilitate evidence-based disaster planning. Twenty-seven studies met inclusion criteria (25 quantitative and 2 qualitative studies). The current evidence indicates there may be certain factors related to willingness to work (or lack of willingness) in disaster including the type of disaster, concern for family, and concerns about personal safety. Barriers to willingness to work have been identified including pet care needs and the lack of personal protective equipment. This review describes the state of an emerging area of science. These findings have significant implications for community and organizational emergency planning and policymaking in an environment defined by limited resources. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2009;3:42–56)

Objectives: An influenza pandemic, as with any disaster involving contagion or contamination, has the potential to influence the number of health care employees who will report for duty. Our project assessed the uptake of proposed interventions to mitigate absenteeism in hospital workers during a pandemic.

Methods: Focus groups were followed by an Internet-based survey of a convenience sample frame of 17,000 hospital workers across 5 large urban facilities. Employees were asked to select their top barrier to reporting for duty and to score their willingness to work before and after a series of interventions were offered to mitigate it.

Results: Overall, 2864 responses were analyzed. Safety concerns were the most frequently cited top barrier to reporting for work, followed by issues of dependent care and transportation. Significant increases in employee willingness to work scores were observed from mitigation strategies that included preferential access to antiviral medication or personal protective equipment for the employee as well as their immediate family.

Conclusions: The knowledge base on workforce absenteeism during disasters is growing, although in general this issue is underrepresented in emergency planning efforts. Our data suggest that a mitigation strategy that includes options for preferential access to either antiviral therapy, protective equipment, or both for the employee as well as his or her immediate family will have the greatest impact. These findings likely have import for other disasters involving contamination or contagion, and in critical infrastructure sectors beyond health care. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2009;3(Suppl 2):S141–S147)

Recent economic development and socio-cultural changes have made it increasingly difficult for Chinese families to provide eldercare. Consequently, institutional care has been strongly promoted to meet older adults' long-term care needs. Although it has been estimated that China needs more beds to meet such needs, unfilled beds have been reported nationwide. One reason for the low occupancy may be a lack of willingness among older adults to live in long-term care institutions. Based on a national survey of 20,255 older adults, this study examined the extent of willingness among older Chinese to live in eldercare institutions, and it was found that in urban and rural areas, only 20 and 17 per cent of older adults, respectively, were willing to do so. Using an integrated theoretical model and logistic regression analyses, this study shows that gender, perceived family harmony, perceived filial piety, socio-cultural beliefs and practices about raising children and eldercare, knowledge and opinion about eldercare institutions, and self-assessed economic status were associated with willingness to live in eldercare institutions for both urban and rural older adults, while other predictors of willingness had different effects. The paper concludes with a discussion of the substantive, theoretical and policy implications for long-term care in China.