Hannah Forsyth, Christina Burjan, Patrick Flood, Cooper Forsyth and Ruby Newman
Margaret Hodgins, Sarah MacCurtain and Patricia Mannix-McNamara
Bullying affects at least one-third of the workers through either direct exposure or witnessing, both of which lead to compromised health, and as a result, reduced organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
Bullying affects at least one-third of the workers through either direct exposure or witnessing, both of which lead to compromised health, and as a result, reduced organizational effectiveness or productivity. However, there is very little evidence that organisations provide effective protection from bullying, and in fact, the converse appears to the case. The purpose of this paper to explore the role of both individual and organisational power in the creation and maintenance of the problem. Such an approach moves away from the specific practice of identifying “bullying” that typically engages targets and perpetrators in a dance that is really just around the edges (Sullivan, 2008) of a larger problem; a culture that permits the abuse of power and ill-treatment of workers, in both practices and through organisational politics.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper elucidates key problems with organisational response as identified in the literature and critically examines weak organisational response to workplace bullying using the power theory, arguing that while overt approaches to addressing bullying appear to be underpinned by a simplistic, functionalist understanding of power, practices on the ground are better explained by more sophisticated “second-dimension” theorists.
Findings
There is a need for organisations to move beyond the current individualistic understanding of bullying towards a more nuanced understanding of how anti-bullying policies and procedures are themselves an exercise in institutional power protecting and reinforcing dominant power structures.
Research limitations/implications
The literature from which this paper is drawn is limited to studies published in English.
Practical implications
The authors advocate a realistic assessment of the role of both individual and organisational power in the creation and maintenance of workplace bullying, as a way forward to plan appropriate intervention.
Social implications
Workplace bullying is problematic for organisations at several levels, and therefore for society.
Originality/value
That power is relevant to workplace bullying has been apparent since the work of Brodsky in 1976 and Einarsen's early work, this paper builds on a the more nuanced work of McKay (2014), D'Cruz and Noronha (2009), Liefooghe and MacDavey's (2010) and Hutchinson et al. (2010), exploring the organisational response to the raising of bullying issues by individual employees as an exercise of power.
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This study aims to examine the direct influence of workplace bullying (WB) on internal auditors’ independence using the nexus between the agency theory and social exchange theory…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the direct influence of workplace bullying (WB) on internal auditors’ independence using the nexus between the agency theory and social exchange theory. From the internal auditors’ perspective, the investigation covered both government and private colleges and universities in one of the Middle East countries.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was administered and delivered to internal auditors at each of the 85 educational institutions. A total of 267 valid questionnaires were analysed. The study’s measurement and structural models were tested and evaluated by using SmartPLS v.4 and partial least squares-structural equation modelling.
Findings
The study results indicated that bullying is common among senior managers, and that it has a significant, negative, high-level and direct effect on the independence of internal auditors in the higher education sector.
Practical implications
Regulators and other stakeholders should make a deliberate effort to promote positive behaviours and abandon negative ones regarding the independence of internal auditors and the performance of audit teams, which play a crucial role in enhancing the efficiency of audit units. For example, enhancing coordination and communication internally and externally. In addition to providing the internal auditors with equitable advancement and learning opportunities, senior management should also support their professional development.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to examine the relationship between WB and the internal auditor’s independence in the context of government and private organisations in Southwest Asian countries.
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This chapter takes a critical perspective on the conventional wisdom that more advanced cost allocation methods have the potential to provide a more accurate picture of “true”…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter takes a critical perspective on the conventional wisdom that more advanced cost allocation methods have the potential to provide a more accurate picture of “true” cost, inevitably leading to optimal product mix and pricing decisions, and ultimately to greater profitability.
Methodology
Two concrete examples of the growing divergence between cost accounting theory and practice – the failures of activity-based costing and the reciprocal method of service department cost allocation to take root in practice – are examined through the lens of post-structuralist literary theory.
Findings
The findings suggest that economic truth has been devoured in an accounting simulation. The accounting model no longer reflects any profound economic reality; it precedes reality.
Research/practical implications
Much of the mainstream management accounting literature remains theoretically grounded in the belief that ‘true’ cost exists, as an object, which is revealed through our cost accounting systems. This chapter raises serious questions about this foundation, and therefore the practical applicability of a great deal of research.
Social implications
Society has granted the accounting profession a great deal of responsibility and autonomy, largely on the confidence that it has historically provided an objective and truthful model of economic reality. The findings in this chapter suggest that the basis for the accounting profession’s preferential charter in society ought to be critically examined.
Originality/value of paper
At a time where research has advanced toward an ever-narrower focus on self-referential tautologies and ever more complex modeling techniques, this chapter provides a new and stimulating, albeit provocative, perspective to yet unresolved issues in management accounting research and practice.
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The purpose of this legacy paper is to review leadership preparation over time in the United States and addresses challenges ahead. It is hoped that the US developments will be…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this legacy paper is to review leadership preparation over time in the United States and addresses challenges ahead. It is hoped that the US developments will be instructive to an international audience interested in strengthening the preparation of school leaders.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper synthesizes research and commentary on leadership preparation programs in the US as a basis for identifying five challenges ahead.
Findings
Meaningful change should be informed by the past but not bound by tradition. It is imperative to be open to different viewpoints, to take reasonable – and at times bold – risks, and to question deeply held values and assumptions. Broad recognition of the significant role school leaders play in facilitating student learning suggests that the political climate is right to effect meaningful reforms in leadership preparation in the US. Those involved in preparing school leaders are urged to address the challenges identified in this paper.
Research limitations/implications
Encouraging work is underway, but many more people need to be involved in efforts to rigorously assess and improve leadership preparation.
Practical implications
We do not have all the answers but cannot be paralyzed by what we do not know. We are ethically responsible to act on what we do know, such as incorporating the compelling research on learning theory into the leadership preparation curriculum.
Originality/value
The traditional complacency in the educational leadership professoriate cannot continue if university preparation programs are to meet the needs of the next generation of school leaders. The time is short, and the stakes are high for all involved especially for PK-12 students.
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The intention is to review the literature dealing with the role andstatus of research in preparation programmes for educationaladministrators, and to generate alternative ways to…
Abstract
The intention is to review the literature dealing with the role and status of research in preparation programmes for educational administrators, and to generate alternative ways to incorporate research into the programmes. To guide the reviews and to generate alternatives, a framework consisting of three categories is used – a historical perspective, the knowledge base and faculty orientations. A primary conclusion is that educational administration must not only improve the quality and increase the quantity of research, but programmes must also be changed to include research in central and coherent ways.
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Jaime Serra, Antónia Correia and Paulo M. M. Rodrigues
This chapter uses stated tourist preferences as a proxy of visitor yield measures, in order to analyse and understand the yield potential of different markets’ preferences. A…
Abstract
This chapter uses stated tourist preferences as a proxy of visitor yield measures, in order to analyse and understand the yield potential of different markets’ preferences. A literature review revealed that there is much progress to be made in terms of discussion, consensus and stability of methodology for the measurement of visitor yield. The aim of the visitor yield analysis, in the current chapter, is also to bring another dimension into yield analysis and discussion, contributing with a new form of measuring yield potential. Since the objective is to identify yield patterns based on tourist preferences over a period of time, dynamics may be captured from the fluctuation patterns, or expressed as volatility of visitor yield and length of stay throughout the years. Destination management organisations and tourist companies may potentially adopt this visitor yield matrix in order to support future strategic decisions.
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Timothy G. Ford and Patrick B. Forsyth
The evidence is strong that the instability of teacher rosters in urban school settings has negative consequences for student learning, but our concern is with the opposite…
Abstract
Purpose
The evidence is strong that the instability of teacher rosters in urban school settings has negative consequences for student learning, but our concern is with the opposite phenomenon: What is the value added to the organization when a school's teaching roster is stable over time? Our theory of teacher corps stability hinges on the claim that the stability of a teacher corps over time is a sine qua non that, under certain conditions, permits formation of the social capital needed to catalyze school effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
We test this claim using longitudinal data from 72 schools in a large, urban southwestern US school district. We first identified a subset of 47 schools with either chronic teacher turnover (high, stable turnover) or a stable teacher roster (low, stable turnover) via school-level HLM growth modeling techniques. These classifications were then used as a covariate in a series of HLM growth models investigating its relationship to growth in structural, relational and cognitive social capital over time.
Findings
Our findings sustain a claim of the importance of teacher corps stability. In our sample of urban schools, we found robust increases in the relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital over time in those schools with stable rosters. Furthermore, schools with chronic turnover were declining significantly in relational social capital, but no appreciable growth in structural social capital was found in either stable roster or chronic teacher turnover schools.
Practical implications
Given the nature of teacher corps stability and its relationship to key organizational outcomes, school leaders play a central role in realizing teacher corps stability within their school. A certain amount of this effort must necessarily be focused on retaining a stable corps of quality, happy, committed teachers. However, building social capital concerns the active engagement of all actors; thus, school leaders need to think beyond retention to how the teachers that remain can play larger leadership roles in this process.
Originality/value
Few studies have examined the positive benefits that can emerge in schools where the majority of teachers remain year after year. Collectively, the study findings suggest that teacher corps stability can provide fertile conditions for the development of social capital that has the potential to enhance school effectiveness and that its staff can leverage for school improvement.