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The Jason Bourne series of films (2002–2016) are widely acknowledged with helping to successfully re-invent the action thriller genre in the 2000s by focusing more on motivation and plot than over-the-top spectacle. Featuring a profoundly wounded son figure in the titular character, the films are indicative of an awareness of the vulnerabilities and reactions of a fatherless masculinity within a post-Cold War political reality.

This chapter will argue that Bourne's onscreen pain and subsequent violent responses to his various narrative predicaments are a result of being repeatedly betrayed by a series of older males, in many cases, father surrogates. Bourne's experience of this paternal disruption and betrayal is the key psychological motivating factor, with the films and the story arc of the character only being resolved when both he and the audience finally discover and reconcile the role that his biological father played in shaping his destiny and his life. This ‘father hunger’ – in effect a need for a continuative masculinity – that Jason Bourne experiences, and that is arguably at the heart of the franchise, will be analysed and explored within the contexts of post-Jungian screen theory. Alongside the deliberately casting of ‘quality’ actors (such as Brian Cox, Joan Allen, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn) and other formalist elements of the text, archetypal energies and symbolism are also rife throughout the film, and can be, in part, credited with the critical and commercial success of the films. Finally, the films are put in their cinematic context in terms of the influence they subsequently exerted on other action film franchises – particularly James Bond (1962 to present).

There is a paucity of information on the characteristics and reasons for workers contacting the CAB with employment problems. This paper seeks to fill this gap in people's knowledge by providing a detailed profile of the employment and personal characteristics of Citizens' Advice Bureau (CAB) clients.

A total of eight bureaux, from contrasting localities in Greater London, participated in the research. The data for this paper are derived predominantly from interviews with CAB clients and reinforced by quantitative data, which were also garnered.

It is argued that the use of the CAB, for employment advice, is rooted in a structural rather than an attitudinal explanation.

There is a growing recognition within the industrial relations literature of the increasing plurality of sources of representation available to workers. However, very little is known about those employees seeking advice and representation and the types of issues with which they approach bureaux.

Demonstrates that one of the most important elements required to ensure the success of any organization is to retain and motivate its employees, from the CEO down to the productionline worker. Argues that profit incentives can be a way to squeeze quality and productivity improvements from its remaining workers, while giving them greater control over their financial fates. Suggests ways to make incentive play plans work, and lists a number of types of incentive pay plans.

This paper draws on established and more recent concepts of an industrial relations actor and applies them to the citizens' advice bureau (CAB). The purpose of this is to determine the significance of the CAB as an industrial relations actor and to identify limitations associated with traditional concepts of what constitutes an actor.

Eight bureaux from contrasting localities in Greater London participated in the research. CAB advisers providing employment advice and clients with work related problems were interviewed.

Provides information on what constitutes an industrial relations actor and the significance of the CAB as a new industrial relations actor.

The paper addresses a gap on new industrial relations actors particularly in relation to their importance. It suggests that new bodies can be classified as industrial relations actors and that they are significant, particularly in the absence of a strong labour movement.

This paper seeks to focus on civil society organizations (CSOs) and their capacity to exercise power in the employment relationship. In particular, the paper is concerned with identifying the sources of power, how it is exercised and whether CSOs can exert pressure on other employment actors despite their apparent lack of resources possessed by more established representative structures.

Findings are based on 139 completed postal questionnaires and 47 interviews, primarily face‐to‐face, across 34 different CSOs.

Adopting a resource dependence framework suggests that CSOs have the capacity to exercise power and influence key employment actors. However, the power of CSOs is undermined by the absence of an internal organizational presence, making it difficult to mobilize workers.

The research highlights the role of an often‐ignored employment actor. To provide further insights further research is needed to garner the views of other employment participants.

In employee relations discussions of workplace power have typically focused on the power of the state, employers and trade unions. This paper adopts a novel angle by exploring the role of CSOs and their ability to exercise power.

Studies of workplace equality have often questioned the effectiveness of employers' efforts to tackle employment disadvantage. This article is concerned with the role that civil society organisations (CSOs) play in promoting equality at work. The main aims of this article are to: examine the role played by CSOs in promoting equality and challenging disadvantage at work through engaging with employers; characterise the ways in which they operate as mediating agents; and to reflect on the implications of CSO interventions for understanding how the process of mediating workplace equality operates.

The paper uses interview data from a study of the work and employment‐related activities of CSOs operating in the UK, and was undertaken during 2007 and 2008. In‐depth interviews were conducted with key respondents from a carefully selected sample of CSOs.

It is found that there is a marked emphasis that many CSOs place on tackling equality issues by engaging positively with employers.

The paper examines the role played by CSOs in tackling inequality and disadvantage in work and employment by engaging with employers, characterising how they operate as mediating agents.

States that shop stewards have traditionally been viewed as “pivotal” to employee representation at the place of work. Given the changing composition of the workforce, increasingly part‐time and female, combined with the growth of non‐union firms, stewards are increasingly absent from many new workplaces. Argues that, in this environment, it is not only stewards that employees go to with workplace problems, but the voluntary sector and, in particular, the Citizens’ Advice Bureaux (CABx). The paper will then go on to outline the overlapping nature of the work of CAB advisers and stewards. The final section argues that, rather than replacing the traditional shop steward, CABx provide stewards, and unions generally, with the opportunity to reinforce their presence among sections of the workforce that have traditionally been alienated from the labour movement.

In an effort to develop an audit quality (AQ) framework specific to the US audit market, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) recently issued a concept release proposing 28 audit quality indicators (AQIs) along three dimensions: audit professionals, audit process and audit results. Using AQIs initially proposed by the PCAOB, as well as AQIs suggested by prior literature, the authors solicit perceptions from junior-level (senior and staff) auditors to investigate the current state of practice along many of the AQIs relating to audit professionals and audit process.

In the study, 78 junior-level auditors responded to the survey.

An analysis of the responses suggests auditors engage in activities and audit firms promote conditions that at times improve, and at other times, reduce audit quality. The authors find that individual auditors’ perceptions differ across experience level, gender and audit firm size for certain AQIs.

The study is useful to the PCAOB because it provides insights to help assess the value of potential AQIs in differentiating AQ. The study is also useful to other regulators because it describes audit staff and seniors’ perceptions of apparent firm and auditor compliance with accounting and auditing standards. Practitioners should find this information useful in helping to identify possible root causes of audit deficiencies, a challenge put forth to firms by the PCAOB.

This study provides academia with evidence on AQ from practicing auditors, which informs existing and future research along. The study complements existing work by showing how individual auditor characteristics (experience and gender) at the junior levels may impact AQ in practice

One of the most vertically integrated plants of the Sony Corporation is to be found at Bridgend in the UK. Whilst its origins are Japanese it is very much European in character as Brian Rooks found out.