David O'Connell and Mara Fitzgibbons Adams
This study builds upon previous research on grace in the workplace, using scholarship from the fields of psychology, business ethics, philosophy and religion with the purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study builds upon previous research on grace in the workplace, using scholarship from the fields of psychology, business ethics, philosophy and religion with the purpose of clarifying how people experience grace in their work, when it happens, why it happens and what are the affective outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from employed adults in the USA. Research questions were explored using qualitative and quantitative methods.
Findings
Working from a conceptual framework linking the occasions of grace, the reasons for grace-giving and the resulting sentiments, the design and findings of a mixed methods study are presented. The results clarify how individuals from various work environments, demographic groups and spiritualties enact and react to grace-giving at work.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to organizational change and workplace spirituality literatures by unpacking what precipitates workplace grace episodes, what is the nature of the interpersonal exchanges and individuals’ affective responses. This approach allows us to better understand what happens in the specific moments of grace and how grace-giving might be encouraged.
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Manoël Pénicaud and Anne-Gaëlle Jolivot
To date, a few studies have examined the use and circulation of votive materiality in religious pilgrimages. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has explored…
Abstract
Purpose
To date, a few studies have examined the use and circulation of votive materiality in religious pilgrimages. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has explored the ritual reuse of votive materiality within pilgrimages. This paper aims to explore the (re)uses and circulations of votive materiality in the ritual process.
Design/methodology/approach
In the analysis, the authors adopt the cross-views of an anthropologist and a marketing researcher. Votive practices are examined through the anthropologist’s past ethnographies. Audiovisual data play a central role in this analysis. Moreover, the authors choose a comparative perspective by focusing on two not famed pilgrimage arenas, each mobilising Muslim pilgrims and food offerings.
Findings
Revisiting the thoughts of Weber (1978) on the religious field and those of Kotler (2019) on transformational experiences, the authors propose a graphic schematisation to trace the circulations of votive materiality (sugar) involving four interdependent ideal-typical actors: the merchant, the priest, the mystical operator and the pilgrim-consumer who, in her/his quest for the divine, is the target for the first three. Either pilgrims or mystical operators can ritually reuse votive materiality. However, such reuses are not performed for ecological purposes, but for practical reasons, mainly due to an overabundance of votive materiality.
Originality/value
It is often believed that a votive object is only for single use, used only once, for a single request or thanksgiving, by a single person. But the authors show that once used, certain votive objects – as vehicles for grace – can be reused, revealing an unexpected ritual reuse.
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AS J. L. Hobbs shows so clearly in his recent book, the interest in local history is growing enormously at present. The universities, training colleges and schools, as well as the…
Abstract
AS J. L. Hobbs shows so clearly in his recent book, the interest in local history is growing enormously at present. The universities, training colleges and schools, as well as the institutions of further education, are all making more use of local studies—geographical, economic, social and historical—in their regular courses, in their advanced work, and in their publications.
Ana Marta Aleixo, Ulisses Azeiteiro and Susana Leal
The purpose of this work is to analyze the current state of implementation of sustainability development (SD) in Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this work is to analyze the current state of implementation of sustainability development (SD) in Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs).
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire was developed to measure the level of implementation of SD practices in HEIs as well as the number of rankings, certifications and declarations of these institutions. The questionnaire was sent by e-mail to all rectors, presidents, directors of faculties, departments and schools of Portuguese universities and polytechnics. A sample of 53 leaders was obtained.
Findings
Portuguese HEIs are mainly engaged in the social dimension of sustainability. The economic dimension emerges in second place and the institutional in third; the environmental dimension is the least developed. Except for a few specific topics (e.g. related to research on SD, and the offer of degree courses in SD), there are no significant differences between universities and polytechnics in the implementation of SD practices. Only 11 per cent of HEIs are innovators in the implementation of SD practices, and a majority of HEIs have implemented less than 34 per cent of the SD practices studied.
Research limitations/implications
This research has a national scope, and the results should be interpreted only in the Portuguese context. Future studies should include a larger range of institutional actors within the faculty.
Practical implications
This study provides valuable insights and theoretical and methodological guidance for future implementation processes supporting the transition to sustainability in HEIs.
Originality/value
This is the first study conducted in Portuguese HEIs with the aim of determining their efforts to implement and promote sustainability.
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J. Peter Grace was interviewed in September at his company headquarters in New York by PR's editors Robert J. Allio and Robert M. Randall. The questions were selected from several…
Abstract
J. Peter Grace was interviewed in September at his company headquarters in New York by PR's editors Robert J. Allio and Robert M. Randall. The questions were selected from several sets prepared by senior NASCP planners. After forty years of interviews, Grace has mastered the art of counterpunching, and his interrogators better be in top shape to go 15 rounds with him.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the ramifications of developments in surveillance policies and technologies for information sharing cultures in a “public protection…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the ramifications of developments in surveillance policies and technologies for information sharing cultures in a “public protection routine”.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper uses a mixed theoretical, legal and policy-based approach to inform this exploration of the ramifications of developments in surveillance policies and technologies.
Findings
This conceptual paper concludes that developments in surveillance policies and technologies as part of the “public protection routine” will result in a damaging and hasty culture of “share or be damned” unless a more careful approach to new information sharing approaches is developed. Otherwise, an increasing bureaucratisation of risk management through surveillance will lead to a disregard for the fine balance between public protection, procedural rights and privacy.
Originality/value
The originality and value of this conceptual paper is considerable – as some of the case studies discussed are very recent ones, and ones that represent an acceleration of the problems within the “public protection routine” which this paper seeks to unpick.
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This chapter focusses on the ‘during’ – the actual corporeal experiences of sexual harassment on the London Underground. I explore these ‘moments’ in detail, the nitty gritty…
Abstract
This chapter focusses on the ‘during’ – the actual corporeal experiences of sexual harassment on the London Underground. I explore these ‘moments’ in detail, the nitty gritty complexity of these experiences that often hold vulnerability, fear, resistance, anger and ambivalence all at once. As considered above, this ‘messiness’ can be lost in quantitative work, to the detriment of a nuanced understanding of sexual harassment. I continue to explore and understand these moments through the lens of mobility, again operationalising Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis and Cresswell’s (2010) concept of friction in order to draw out key conceptual observations that are specific to how sexual harassment manifests in a public transport environment. Using a framework that has movement and mobilities at its core, this chapter links sexual harassment to spatial and temporal elements of the broader city and its transport system. In doing so, it shows how these multiple rhythms coalesce to create the conditions within which sexual harassment is perpetrated and experienced in a certain and particular way. The framework illustrates how harassment is, in part spatially implicated, facilitated or hindered by the spaces and paces of the city.
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Steve Benford, Adrian Bullock, Paul Harvey, Howidy Howidy, Alan Shepherd and Hugh Smith
Describes the Grace Project, its goals and scope. The aim of Graceis to build distributed group communications tools within an OpenSystems Interconnection (OSI) networking…
Abstract
Describes the Grace Project, its goals and scope. The aim of Grace is to build distributed group communications tools within an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) networking environment. Grace provides the foundations for a globally distributed system for cooperative working based on information sharing within activity and organizational domains. Introduces a conceptual model of group communications derived from analysing sample activities. Outlines architecture of Grace and explains the use of existing OSI services. Examines two prototype activities: a Help desk in detail and Computer Conferencing in outline. Discusses the implications of trying to control the access to the above type of tools. Briefly describes the status of group communications standardization.
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Marc Dupuis, Rosalind Searle and Karen V. Renaud
The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of grace in the aftermaths of adverse cybersecurity incidents. Adverse incidents are an inescapable fact of life in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of grace in the aftermaths of adverse cybersecurity incidents. Adverse incidents are an inescapable fact of life in organizational settings; consequences could be significant and costly. Increasingly, the cause may be a cybersecurity exploit, such as a well-targeted phishing email. In the aftermath, line managers have a choice in responding to the individual who caused the incident. Negative emotions, such as shame and regret, may deliberately be weaponized. Alternatively, positive emotions, such as grace, forgiveness and mercy, may come into play.
Design/methodology/approach
We detail a study with 60 participants to explore attribution differences in response to adverse incidents, both non-cybersecurity and cybersecurity. We examined the stages that occur in the aftermath of such adverse incidents where grace may be observed.
Findings
Our participants generally believed that grace was indicated toward those who triggered an adverse cybersecurity incident, pointing to situational causes. This was in stark contrast to their responses to the non-cybersecurity incident, where the individual was often blamed, with punishment being advocated.
Research limitations/implications
The role of positive emotions merits investigation in the cybersecurity context if we are to understand how best to manage the aftermaths of adverse cybersecurity incidents.
Practical implications
Organizations that mismanage aftermaths of adverse incidents by blaming, shaming and punishing those who make mistakes will harm the individual who made the mistake, other employees and the long-term health of their organization in the long run.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to reveal the grace phenomenon in the cybersecurity context.