Julia Goodman, Hayley Pearson and Morris Mthombeni
Despite indications of scholarly interest, there are still gaps in the research of the concept of felt accountability, especially the felt accountability of board members. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite indications of scholarly interest, there are still gaps in the research of the concept of felt accountability, especially the felt accountability of board members. This paper aims to clarify the sources of accountability experienced by board members. Especially those in a non-executive capacity. How these sources can be accessed to enhance felt accountability and thereby governance effectiveness is explored.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative, exploratory research methods were used. In total, 15 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were completed with non-executive board members of Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed companies in South Africa. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse data.
Findings
The findings clarified the formal and informal sources of accountability experienced by non-executive board members. This included relational and structural mechanisms that can be used within corporate governance to enhance both types of accountability. Accessing the identified sources of accountability through appropriate mechanisms could increase the levels of felt accountability experienced by the individual non-executive board member, thereby strengthening accountability inside the boardroom and improving overall board effectiveness. The study also revealed a layer of implicit and explicit accountability.
Research limitations/implications
The study was conducted solely in South Africa, with non-executive board members of Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed companies.
Originality/value
There is limited research that clarifies the sources of accountability experienced by non-executive board members. This study aims to address this gap in the literature by providing techniques on how to enable the clarified sources of accountability to improve governance effectiveness.
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In this interview, Dr. Julia Gluesing describes her career trajectory and the successful approach to teaching global leadership that evolved from her anthropology and…
Abstract
In this interview, Dr. Julia Gluesing describes her career trajectory and the successful approach to teaching global leadership that evolved from her anthropology and communication background, coupled with deep knowledge of the auto industry and the engineering context. Her lessons are applicable and invaluable for anyone teaching global leadership – or engineers.
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Raymond G. McInnis and Michael Turner
Many people fear the approach of 1984. Why? Because in their minds too many of George Orwell's dark prophecies in his 1948 novel, 1984, appear to be coming true.
Julia R. Daniels and Heather Hebard
Discourses of racism have always circulated within US classrooms and, in the current sociopolitical climate, they move with a renewed sense of legitimacy, entitlement and…
Abstract
Purpose
Discourses of racism have always circulated within US classrooms and, in the current sociopolitical climate, they move with a renewed sense of legitimacy, entitlement and violence. This paper aims to engage the consequences of these shifts for the ways that racism works in university-based classrooms and, more specifically, through the authors’ own teaching as White language and literacy educators.
Design/methodology/approach
This teacher narrative reconceptualizes moments of racialized violence in the courses, as constructed via circulating discourses of racism. The authors draw attention to the ways that we, as White educators, authorize and are complicit in this violence.
Findings
This paper explicates a praxis of questioning, developed through efforts to reflect on our complicity in and responsibility for racial violence in our classrooms. The authors offer this praxis of questioning to other White language and literacy teachers as a heuristic for sensemaking with regard to racism in classrooms.
Originality/value
The authors situate this paper within a broader struggle to engage themselves and other White educators in work for racial justice and invite others to take up this praxis of questioning as an initial step toward examining the authors’ complicity in – and authorization of – discourses of racism.
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– The purpose of this paper is to outline and evaluate the development of a thinking skills programme for adults with learning disabilities at risk of offending.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline and evaluate the development of a thinking skills programme for adults with learning disabilities at risk of offending.
Design/methodology/approach
The programme was evaluated over three years using self-report clinical measures related to treatment targets and feedback from participants.
Findings
Results showed a statistically significant improvement in general empathy (t=1.800, df=15, p=<0.05) and perspective taking (t=1.898, df=15, p=<0.05). Improvement in impulsivity and locus of control was not significant. Feedback from service users was positive.
Practical implications
Findings suggest that thinking skills programmes can be of benefit to adults with learning disabilities at risk of offending.
Originality/value
There is a need to provide opportunities for adults with learning disabilities to address generic deficits and factors supporting offending behaviour and to increase readiness for offence-specific treatment.
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Food movements and organizations are increasingly complementing their longstanding emphasis on environment with a focus on social justice. This conceptual chapter discusses…
Abstract
Food movements and organizations are increasingly complementing their longstanding emphasis on environment with a focus on social justice. This conceptual chapter discusses dimensions in which engagements in this arena diverge and converge along a continuum from neoliberalization to opposition/structural change. Categories and visions of social justice vary widely, highlighting certain social categories and locations while eliding others. Gender, in particular, is a social category that is a key factor in the allocation of power and privilege, but that has not been significantly addressed in efforts toward social justice in most food movements.
The topics and categories movements consider most important determine their assignments of energies. These assignments in turn create common understandings of priorities and mechanisms for changing the food system, although they may omit consideration of key axes of oppression. For example, strategic preferences for family farms and food-system localization may not consider legacies and contemporary practices of enslavement, exploitation, and patriarchy.
As movements increase their focus on social justice, they can engage in critical reflection and dialogue to interrogate the nature of conditions of injustice and the causes behind these conditions. This would include examining how practices and discourses of racism, classism, and sexism – along with the ways they intersect – have shaped, reflect, and reproduce the food system. This process must privilege the participation, perspectives, and priorities of those who suffer from injustice. It can then best illuminate strategic definitions and pathways that can move toward transformation of a food system grounded in conditions of social justice.
Anna Gekoski, Julia C. Davidson and Miranda A.H. Horvath
The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings from a study commissioned by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) in England, concerning intrafamilial child…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings from a study commissioned by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) in England, concerning intrafamilial child sexual abuse (IFCSA)/incest. Specifically, it aims to explore what is known about the prevalence, nature, and impact of IFCSA and where the gaps in knowledge lie.
Design/methodology/approach
A rapid evidence assessment (REA) was used, the function of which is to: search the literature as comprehensively as possible within given time constraints; collate descriptive outlines of the available evidence on a topic and critically appraise it; sift out studies of poor quality; and provide an overview of the evidence. Over 57,000 documents were scanned, and 296 ultimately systematically analysed.
Findings
It was found that: there is wide variation in prevalence rates between studies; girls are more likely to be victims than boys; the onset of abuse is typically school age; abuse in minority groups is under-reported; sibling abuse may be more common than that by fathers; female perpetrated abuse may be under-reported; families where abuse occurs are often dysfunctional; and IFCSA has significant adverse effects on victims.
Research limitations/implications
A REA is not a full systematic review, differing in the scope and depth of the searches and depending almost exclusively on electronic databases, not accompanied by searching journals by hand.
Practical implications
This work found numerous gaps in current knowledge about IFCSA, which the authors recommend be addressed by further research, including: the scale and nature of IFCSA in disabled victims, research on BME children’s experiences; the prevalence of abuse by stepfathers as compared to biological fathers; the experiences of male victims; the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered child victims; the short-term impact of IFCSA based on child victims’ experiences; and more widely, further research on the prevalence of abuse in clinical populations and the relationship between that and prevalence in wider society. In addition to such questions, the OCC inquiry will also investigate issues surrounding child protection and criminal justice responses to (IF)CSA and how these might be improved. The evidence base for this section of the inquiry is reported in Gekoski et al. (2016).
Originality/value
The findings of this research provide the evidence base for a new two-year inquiry into the subject of IFCSA by the OCC.
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Julia A. Fehrer, Herbert Woratschek, Claas Christian Germelmann and Roderick J. Brodie
The purpose of this paper is to extend existing engagement research in two directions: first, it operationalizes the dynamic nature of the engagement process within a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend existing engagement research in two directions: first, it operationalizes the dynamic nature of the engagement process within a customer-brand dyad and, second, it tests the interrelationships with other network actors in a triadic network setting.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2×2 experimental design models the iterative nature of the engagement process based on repeated measures at three points in time, considering the contextual effects of connections with other customers and crowding-in effects based on monetary incentives.
Findings
This research demonstrates that in a utilitarian service setting, customer engagement does not emerge per se in the dyadic interaction between the customer and the brand. For high levels of engagement behavior to occur, incentives and ties to other network actors are essential. Further, the findings suggest a non-linear relationship between engagement behavior and its antecedents and consequences: engagement behavior must overcome a certain intensity threshold to unfold its effect.
Research limitations/implications
Further research is needed to explore the dynamic nature of the engagement process in experiential and interactive service settings, and more complex network settings that may involve more actors and more complex relationships.
Practical implications
By facilitating connections between customers and compensating for low intrinsic interest, managers can facilitate actual engagement behavior even in utilitarian service contexts. Once engagement behavior has been triggered, an increased engagement disposition, higher satisfaction, higher involvement and higher loyalty follow.
Originality/value
This study empirically tests the dynamic nature of the engagement process within and beyond the dyad, and has revealed a non-linear pattern of customer engagement behavior within its nomological network.
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Father involvement is a salient predictor of children’s development and recent studies suggest that African American fathers who are highly involved across infancy and toddlerhood…
Abstract
Father involvement is a salient predictor of children’s development and recent studies suggest that African American fathers who are highly involved across infancy and toddlerhood have children who enter school better prepared to succeed. Little is known, however, about the specific dimensions of fathering (e.g., language stimulation) that contribute to the positive development of African American children during the early childhood period. Even less is known about psychological and contextual barriers to positive father involvement among African American men with very young children. The first part of this chapter briefly reviews empirical research that has delineated links between multiple dimensions of father involvement and child development in African American families. The second part of the chapter explores emerging evidence on the associations between fathers’ psychological functioning, father involvement and child development, and concludes with suggestions for future research, practice, and policy.
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Julia Muehlhausen, Daniel Spurk, Andreas Hirschi and Anita Sandmeier
Organizational embeddedness of employees who are experiencing their work as a calling is of high relevance. Understanding what promotes staying in organizations can provide…
Abstract
Purpose
Organizational embeddedness of employees who are experiencing their work as a calling is of high relevance. Understanding what promotes staying in organizations can provide benefits for individuals with a calling while at the same time helping organizations to retain those valuable employees. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate how and when experiencing work as a calling relates to organizational embeddedness (OE). Based on assumptions from the theory of work adjustment (TWA), the authors hypothesized a conditional effects model with feedback from others and role clarity as moderating variables.
Design/methodology/approach
For this longitudinal study, the authors collected data at two measurement time points (N = 553). To tests the hypotheses, the authors performed hierarchical regression analysis. Additionally, the authors conducted simple slope tests to calculate the effects of calling on OE, depending on the different levels of the moderators.
Findings
The results indicated that higher levels of experiencing a calling are associated with higher levels of OE 18 months later while controlling for the initial levels of OE. Additionally, the moderation analysis revealed that feedback from others and role clarity strengthened the relationship between experiencing a calling and OE. Interestingly, for individuals with low feedback from others and low role clarity, experiencing a calling was not related to OE.
Originality/value
Addressing recent research calls that highlight more research on boundary conditions and diverse theoretical perspectives, this study contributes to the literature on calling and organizational retention and provides a more individual and career-related view of potential predictors of OE.