Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore the bias of psychiatrists and other healthcare staff’s perception of “presenting psychosis”. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to suggest that psychosis, rather than residing in the individual, can be triggered by a hostile ward environment (e.g. very loud emergency alarms) as well as the negative attitudes of staff and friction with other service users; second, to argue that psychosis is not just in the person’s mind but interpreted and negatively labelled by psychiatrists and other healthcare professionals.

This paper is based on the lived experience of Ben, who was first diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2003 (when he spent two years in and out of a mental health unit). Ben had a relapse in 2013 and spent six full months in the same unit. Ben has been working as a peer worker on the same ward he was on as a patient for the last 17 months. This paper is informed by participant observation as a patient and peer worker, particularly reflecting on the general ward environment, ward reviews and punitive action faced by Ben and other service users. The title of this paper is based on occasions when Ben has been told that he cannot interact or take service users on leave off the ward, because they were “presenting psychosis”.

Ways of judging whether someone is presenting psychotic behaviour sounds straightforward enough but in fact can be quite complex. Whether someone is presenting psychotic behaviour is open to interpretation. Psychotic behaviour is perceived as latent or inherent within the individual by psychiatry. This paper makes the case that presenting psychotic behaviour is in fact a construct or interpretation by psychiatrists that works to limit people’s freedom, coerce them, take away their leave off the ward and voice, and which expresses power imbalances between staff and service users. The impact for service users of psychiatrists and staff’s decision-making can lead to service users being angry and upset, a negative ward environment and feelings of unfreedom. A good example is that service users present psychotic behaviour due to a hostile and frightening ward environment, with loud emergency alarms (like sirens) and the threat of restraint, restrictive practice and seclusion in de-escalation rooms being used as a threat.

People with mental illness, particularly schizophrenia like Ben, can be stereotyped as psychotic, aggressive and dangerous or a risk to themselves and others. While this can sometimes be the case the majority of people with mental illness that Ben has interacted with for over 20 years could be described as “broken” and in need of care, fixing and giving them hope in their recovery. This paper is of value because it draws on over twenty years of experience of the lived experience of Ben and his diagnosis of the harmful label of schizophrenia. It describes the added value of peer work in an in-patient mental health unit. It also introduces the new idea of “clemency”.

The complex world in which we reside is calling for more critical approaches to address the precarity experienced by the most marginalized in social systems. However, human resource development (HRD) lacks empirical data to describe, define and project the objectives and future directions of Critical HRD in today’s turbulent and volatile times. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the historical and contemporary progression of Critical HRD, as described by nine of its most well-known scholars.

Data were collected through semistructured interviews, and a constructivist grounded theory coding approach was applied during analysis to identify themes and patterns.

The findings of this study highlight the persistent scholarship versus practice divide among Critical HRD scholars, suggesting that Critical HRD may merely be an academic undertaking and something not practiced within the public domain. The authors call for an evolution of Critical HRD toward more practice- and action-oriented approaches to scholarship and teaching so that meaningful changes can take place in actual organizations and workplaces.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study was the first to empirically show that there is a real research–practice gap, particularly among Critical HRD scholars. Critical HRD scholars need to take these findings seriously as an opportunity to reflect on how they can take Critical HRD to the next level beyond academic discourse.

This chapter focuses on the contextual conditions around which entrepreneurship is a positive option for individuals on the autism spectrum. Drawing on omnibus and discrete context (Johns, 2006) and on research on other forms for neurodiversity and entrepreneurship, this chapter explains the who, what, where, when, and why of entrepreneurship and autism. Aimed at encouraging future scholarship in this under-research area, the chapter underlines the connections between entrepreneurship and common characteristics of individuals on the spectrum, issues of motivation and self-efficacy, the option of social entrepreneurship, and the importance of formal and informal support networks.

This paper expands on existing analyses of corporate energy and sustainability communication and shows the potential of evolutionary theory to study and conceptualize sustainable corporate communication as niche construction and its transformative and transformational potential.

With a qualitative content analysis of non-financial reporting of energy corporations and a deep dive into one selected case (Yin, 2013) with a two-step categorization of the sustainability related text and (n = 5) expert interviews (QCAmap, Mayring, 2019; Fenzl and Mayring, 2017), the paper reflects on alterations within the organization and in the organization–stakeholder relationships through corporate sustainability communication.

The analytical deep dive into one case of corporate sustainability communication of a multinational energy corporation shows the difference between a transformative and transformational character of corporate communication. The insights from the interviews support the assumption that corporates not only adapt to changes of environmental factors (perturbative communication) but also – however rarely – alter their spatiotemporal relationships with their external environment (relocational communication), so there is a lack of actual transformational communication.

Corporates in the (renewable) energy sector as well as industry networks like gas (infrastructure) suppliers have the potential to impact their environment (stakeholder, energy communities, etc.), change cultural patterns and norms and co-construct new socio-ecological niches through communication. The study presented gives evidence and examples for transformative corporate sustainability communication. On a conceptual level, it offers an innovative framework to understand sustainability as a guiding principle for corporate communication that will stimulate corporate communication research in the future.

This study examined the impact of peer mentoring on identity transformation amongst women in prison, exploring how peer mentoring roles develop non-offender identities, contributing to the desistance process.

A qualitative, interpretative approach was adopted. The research was undertaken at a female prison in England and Wales. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with peer mentors, mentees, project workers and prison officers, alongside focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the findings.

Being a peer mentor contributes positively to identity transformation for women in prison, fostering a legitimate, non-offender identity critical to the desistance process. Mentors view their role as a desistance signal through their interactions with prison staff. However, it can lead to role conflict and tension with other women in prison and prison staff.

Future studies should consider longitudinal approaches to capture the long-term effects of peer mentoring upon desistance.

Recommendations include leveraging peer mentoring as a rehabilitative intervention, providing ongoing support for mentors and educating prison staff on programme benefits to foster a supportive environment.

Enhancing peer mentoring programmes can improve the well-being of women in prison and support their reintegration into society.

This study examined identity transformation in female peer mentors in prison through the lens of social identity and group membership. To the author’s knowledge, no previous studies have focused centrally on identity or applied social identity theory to explore the psychological mechanisms behind these transformations.

Microcharity is a non-profit organization promoting social brotherhood through small donations and volunteer services among diverse members, aiming to address poverty through compassion, cooperation and humanitarianism. The study aims to comprehend the role of microcharity as an alternative to microcredit for poverty alleviation. It sheds light on the modus operandi, prospects and problems associated with microcharity.

The current study used a qualitative research design to investigate a social phenomenon while involving the researchers directly. The study applied participatory action research by involving participants and researchers to comprehend social challenges and evaluate their experiences. The study made considerable use of participant-observer data and field observations.

It has been revealed that microcharity has potential to address social challenges faced by the marginalized and vulnerable section of society.

This study is based on participatory action research, and therefore, it suffers from academic standardization and heavily depends on researchers. On the other hand, it offers practical approach to solve social problems and would bring forth realistic resolution by offering insights of those making use of micro charity for philanthropic activities.

The article is especially helpful for communities that must respond to emergencies and will be beneficial to individuals and institutions working for social welfare.

It will bring forth various facets of micro charity as an alternate for fundraising to rescue sufferers of social exigencies through collective efforts.

The article represents original scholarly research, leveraging the researchers' personal experience to enrich the understanding of microcharity. Its implications are valuable for communities involved in social welfare and can benefit individuals working for charitable institutions, cooperative societies, NGOs and social welfare programmes of government. Additionally, the study's insights can aid researchers in designing new methodologies to explore microcharity and its impact on social welfare initiatives.

The purpose of this research was to seek a more refined understanding of the ways beneficiaries are evaluating nonprofit organisations (NPO), from the beneficiaries’ perspectives. Understanding evaluation from beneficiaries’ perspectives is not only important theoretically, but also for enabling evaluation processes to authentically contribute toward enhanced downward accountability.

Theorisation of immanent evaluation (Deleuze, 1998), the ontological view that there is no form imposed from outside or above but instead an articulation from within, was drawn upon to direct attention toward understanding beneficiaries’ inherent productive evaluative capacity and agency. This theorisation enabled a different way of observing and understanding beneficiary evaluation within a qualitative case study conducted in an Australian NPO. Data was sourced from interviews, observations and document analysis.

Findings suggest beneficiaries largely viewed the NPO’s evaluation processes to be unsatisfactory toward meeting their needs in relation to meaningful engagement. However, beneficiaries’ evaluative capacity was noted to include their own evaluation criteria and evaluative expressions indicating the production of an evaluative account. Here beneficiaries’ evaluative expressions are representations of events of evaluation, initiated by them. Findings enable a more refined understanding of beneficiaries’ engagement in evaluation, moving beyond traditional considerations of participative evaluation, and illustrating beneficiaries’ agency and active role in the production of evaluation.

This research furthers understandings of downward accountability and participative evaluation by detailing how beneficiaries’ evaluative capacity is part of an NPO’s evaluative environment, and as such, conceives of an immanent theory of beneficiary evaluation. Findings highlight how evaluation, as a mechanism of downward accountability, functions from beneficiaries’ perspectives and the type of organisational environment capable of enabling and better supporting beneficiary engagement.

The purpose of this research is to examine the role of anticipation as a source of well-being in extended service contexts involving constraints on one’s agency (e.g. aged care). In these service contexts, consumers have limited ownership over their time usage and foci of anticipation, which affects their well-being.

Semi-structured interviews (n = 35) were conducted with members of the aged care ecosystem (residents, family and staff). Two separate aged care service models were investigated as they typically reflect different levels of agency/constraint: retirement villages and residential aged care facilities.

Results indicate that the subjective passage of time is influenced by one’s foci of anticipation. Having regular foci of anticipation both at a micro- and macro-level can generate well-being benefits for recipients. The importance of restabilization and building positive curves to counteract potential negative implications was identified.

This research is the first service study to investigate the concept of anticipation and subjective time perception as key components of one’s well-being in extended service encounters. We propose a novel conceptual model that combines micro- and macro-level foci into an iterative package to mitigate the after-effects of anticipation. We also demonstrate how Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) (good health for well-being) can be addressed through service research.

This study explores how companies’ operations and supply networks can induce social impacts such as enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The study focuses on social enterprises’ supply networks and examines the effects of supply network characteristics on the creation and resolution of social–commercial objectives tension.

A supply network that is divided into five embedded cases, where each case is the supply network of a social enterprise, was studied. Forty-eight interviews at social enterprises, corporate customers, distributors, suppliers, non-governmental organizations and charities were conducted.

The study highlights how social enterprises use their supply networks to help disadvantaged people gain employment, truly balance DEI and efficiency objectives and manage paradoxical tensions. The results reveal three types of social purpose supply networks, dichotomized, paired and blended, that hybrid and for-profit organizations can adopt to jointly pursue multiple, potentially competing, objectives and resolve the paradoxical tensions in their supply networks. The creation and resolution of tension are also clarified by considering dyadic, triadic and tetradic tie structures.

The study contributes to the literature by extending the analysis of paradoxical tension between commercial and social welfare objectives such as DEI to the supply network level and revealing three social purpose supply network structures that depict social enterprises’ different ways to resolve paradoxical tensions. The study contributes to social network theory by describing the dynamic interaction between strong and weak ties in multi-tie structures.