Lisa Eckenwiler, Matthew R. Hunt, Jan Joy Louise G. Crismo, Elyse Conde, Shelley-Rose Hyppolite, Mayfourth Luneta, Isabel Munoz-Beaulieu, Handreen Mohammed Saeed and Lisa Schwartz
In this paper, the authors propose a new lens to examine international humanitarian organizations' responsibilities in the context of project closure, what authors call “an ethics…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, the authors propose a new lens to examine international humanitarian organizations' responsibilities in the context of project closure, what authors call “an ethics of the temporary”. The authors offer this as an orienting ethical ideal to facilitate the moral imagination of humanitarian planners, practitioners and stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors drew on recent philosophical work on responsibilities for global justice to analyze an ethical concern inherent to humanitarian practice, the proper scope of responsibility in the context of closure of humanitarian projects.
Findings
The ethics of the temporary includes four elements: situating humanitarian action temporally with attention to the past and how it shapes a current crisis and crisis response, focusing attention on anticipating and seeking to mitigate potential harm, promoting sustainability and greater equity going forward and emphasizing inclusive, collaborative approaches. The authors propose a set of questions that can foster discussion and reflection about the scope of humanitarian responsibilities at project closure.
Practical implications
Although the authors' work is primarily conceptual, it has many practical implications for humanitarian policy and practice. It can support critical reflection and offers a process for considering the scope of responsibility at project closure and decisions around how to close a given intervention in a manner that avoids causing harm and advances equity.
Originality/value
Very little work has been done on ethical closure of humanitarian projects. Most literature offers critiques. This essay contributes a new approach to closure, the ethical ideal and practice of an ethics of the temporary.
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Muhammad Yusuf Shaharudin, Zulkhairi Mohamad and Asmah Husaini
The wake of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had caused substantial disruptions to the usual delivery of healthcare services. This is because of restrictive orders that…
Abstract
The wake of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had caused substantial disruptions to the usual delivery of healthcare services. This is because of restrictive orders that were put in place to curb the spread of the infection. Palliative care services in Brunei also face challenges to deliver effective services during this period. However, the impact of advanced illnesses on patients' health and end-of-life care are issues that cannot be planned, postponed or cancelled. Hence, the palliative care team needs to continue to deliver effective palliative care services. As Brunei faced its second pandemic wave in August 2021, crucial adaptations were made to ensure palliative care service was not disrupted. This reflective case study aims to discuss the adaptations made in providing palliative care during this era of disruptions.
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Clara M. Chu and Isola Ajiferuke
The study compares the quality of indexing in library and information science databases (Library Literature (LL), Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), and Information…
Abstract
The study compares the quality of indexing in library and information science databases (Library Literature (LL), Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), and Information Science Abstracts (ISA)). An alternative method to traditional retrieval effectiveness tests, suggested by White and Griffith in their paper ‘Quality of indexing in online databases’ [13], is adopted to measure the quality of the controlled vocabulary of each database. The method involves identifying clusters of documents that are similar in content, searching for each document from a given cluster in a database, identifying the terms used by the databases to index each document, and calculating certain measures to determine the quality of indexing. Problems found with the White and Griffith discrimination index led the authors to propose an alternative discrimination index which takes into consideration the collection size of a database. Our analysis shows that LISA has the best quality of indexing out of the three databases.
Reading the political and the familial in The Americans illuminates central features of the New Right. In particular, The Americans provides an opportunity to reconsider the…
Abstract
Reading the political and the familial in The Americans illuminates central features of the New Right. In particular, The Americans provides an opportunity to reconsider the significance of the ‘pro-family’ label to New Right organising, the importance of mothering to the ‘pro-family’ narrative offered by the New Right, and the relationship between this account of mothering and democratic citizenship more broadly. This paper argues: first, the ‘pro-family’ label served to weaponise American families against equality and egalitarian public institutions; second, that this weaponisation of the family was accomplished through a rhetorical and real elevation of the moralised work of mothers in the home; and third, this account of mothering is incompatible with democratic citizenship not only because it reproduces inequality but also because it presents families, particularly mothers, as surrounded by enemies. Surrounded by enemies, their children appear endangered or dangerous should they become products of enemy forces. The pro-family rhetoric of the New Right – with its emphasis on the labour of women, particularly mothers – concealed an insurgent factional bid for power just as the Jennings family concealed an insurgent operation inside the United States. The displacement of law in The Americans mirrors the displacement of law in American conservative politics in the 1980s and law’s replacement by the ideal of sanctified families that the guard republic. The Americans both recognises this reversal in American conservative politics and parodies the reversal of the idea that law protects the family.
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Lisa Kiang, Sara Mendonça, Yue Liang, Ayse Payir, Lia T. O’Brien, Jonathan R.H. Tudge and Lia B.L. Freitas
Despite USA’s emphasis on children as consumers with great spending power, little is known about their actual spending preferences and how they might be linked to personal…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite USA’s emphasis on children as consumers with great spending power, little is known about their actual spending preferences and how they might be linked to personal character traits such as materialism and gratitude. This study aims to address this literature gap by examining children’s spending preferences in an imaginary windfall scenario, as well as main and interactive effects of materialism and gratitude on such preferences.
Design/methodology/approach
This was a school-based research study. Survey methodology was used in which self-report measures were collected from 247 7-14-year-old children (58 per cent male).
Findings
Results suggest that materialism was significantly associated with saving resources and allocating less money to charity. Gratitude was related to more charitable giving. One interactive effect was found whereby the link between more materialism and saving was attenuated by high levels of gratitude. Contrary to expectations, no age or gender differences in spending preferences or materialism were found, but older children and girls reported higher gratitude than did younger children and boys.
Research limitations/implications
Although cross-sectional data limit conclusions regarding directionality, the results have implications for understanding children’s consumer behavior, as well as children’s well-being, self-regulation and ability to delay gratification.
Practical implications
The results suggest that materialism, with its emphasis on consumption, and gratitude, with its positive feedback loop that encourages prosocial connections, are particularly relevant avenues to continue examining in future research on youth consumer patterns.
Social implications
Gratitude not only promotes social connectedness but also is more environmentally sustainable in promoting appreciation for what one has rather than wanting more. Uncovering ways that these characteristics are linked to hypothetical and, ultimately, actual spending behavior reflects a meaningful contribution to the field.
Originality/value
This paper fills gaps in the literature by examining links between specific character traits and potential spending behaviors, with deeper implications for children’s psychosocial development, self-regulation and environmental sustainability.
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This article addresses the issue of social representations of the past, focusing on the relation between collective memory and power. It is argued that cultural shapes of memories…
Abstract
This article addresses the issue of social representations of the past, focusing on the relation between collective memory and power. It is argued that cultural shapes of memories (i.e. a memorial, a monument, a diary, a public display) are the space and the place were power relations affect the social representation of the past. In this respect, the choice of representing a controversial past through a specific cultural form can be viewed as a good terrain were to study the process of selecting one of the competing versions of this past. This process, in fact, is closely related to the category of power. Particularly in case of controversial events (such as the Vietnam War, the Hiroshima bombing, the Bologna massacre, the Milan slaughter), Halbwachs’ and Namer’s analyses on the social construction of the past become particularly evident. In those cases there is a conflict among different versions of the past, that can be analysed by referring to the power relations among the different social groups related to that event. If collective memory is the content, and cultural objects are the form of this content, power is the key to understanding why a certain content embodied in a specific form has been selected in a specific context. Methodologically speaking, the notion of commemorative genre represents an useful key to understanding the articulation of power in relation to collective memories. The genre, in fact, can be viewed as a schema of perception, able to organise the process of classifying the competing representations of the past. In fact, if the arena where one version of an historical event successfully competes with another is represented by the cultural and symbolic field, the criteria of this competition are determined by the established genre of memorisation. By sketching the most pertinent dimensions to the understanding of the relations among cultural objects, collective memories and public discourse, it is here shown how the struggle over the most “adequate” social representation of a certain past (i.e. its cultural form) corresponds to a struggle over legitimacy.
Ronald J. Burke, Mustafa Koyuncu and Lisa Fiksenbaum
This research aims to examine potential antecedents and consequences of different career priority patterns among managerial and professional women working in a large Turkish bank…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to examine potential antecedents and consequences of different career priority patterns among managerial and professional women working in a large Turkish bank. Two career priority patterns advanced by Schwartz were considered: career‐primary and career‐family. Previous research conducted in other countries has compared these career priority patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 286 managerial and professional women using anonymously completed questionnaires, a 72 percent response rate.
Findings
Career‐primary and career‐family women were similar on personal demographic and work situation characteristics. However, the two groups were significantly different on a variety of other measures. Career‐primary women were more satisfied with their jobs and careers, had more optimistic career prospects, were more work engaged, exhibited higher levels of workaholism and reported higher levels of psychological well‐being. These findings were somewhat different from those obtained in previous research suggesting possible country and culture differences.
Research limitations/implications
All data were collected using questionnaires at one point in time making it difficult to draw conclusions on causality. It is also not clear the extent to which these findings would generalize to women in other occupations.
Practical implications
The findings raise potential career development issues and their role in the satisfaction and well‐being of managerial women, these having possible career counseling implications.
Originality/value
This study replicates previous work and extends this to another county. Future research should be devoted to greater understanding of country and culture effects on the findings.
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Margaret-Anne Lawlor, Áine Dunne and Jennifer Rowley
While substantial scholarly attention has been given to children’s understanding of advertising in the context of traditional advertising channels, there is a gap in the…
Abstract
Purpose
While substantial scholarly attention has been given to children’s understanding of advertising in the context of traditional advertising channels, there is a gap in the literature with regard to children’s commercial awareness in the context of online social networking sites. This paper aims to seek to explore the nature and extent of advertising literacy among young consumers in the context of their use of social networking sites, namely, Facebook and Bebo.
Design/methodology/approach
A three-stage study was conducted with 12 to 14-year-old girls, using focus group discussions, participant observation and in-depth interviews.
Findings
The study illustrates that the increasingly blurred line between online advertising and other forms of online brand-related content is militating against the development of advertising and marketing literacy in young consumers. A key issue which is discussed is the extent to which the traditional conceptualisation of advertising literacy is “fit for purpose” in an online context.
Originality/value
The authors propose an alternative to the advertising literacy concept, namely, the Online Brand Communications literacy framework. This framework recognises the convergence of traditional online advertising and other forms of online brand content and also acknowledges that the messaging around a brand may originate from the brand owner in a variety of overt and covert forms. Equally, online consumers may also act as brand promoters when they engage in brand-related word-of-mouth.
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Lisa E. Baranik, Natalie Wright and Rachel W. Smith
Many contemporary career theories emphasize the role of individual agency and choice, a perspective that may not be relevant for the careers of underprivileged groups around the…
Abstract
Purpose
Many contemporary career theories emphasize the role of individual agency and choice, a perspective that may not be relevant for the careers of underprivileged groups around the world. The psychology of working theory notes this disconnect and highlights the role that contextual variables play in the careers of marginalized, disadvantaged groups of employees. The goal of this paper was to identify factors that impact employees' careers by examining the relationship between desired work values and obtained work values.
Design/methodology/approach
The data utilized in this study were from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) Work Orientations IV survey. Across 37 countries, 27,527 individuals were surveyed and multilevel moderation analyses were employed.
Findings
Using psychology of working theory as a theoretical framework, the authors identify the contextual factors that enable employees to secure their desired work values. Employees living in countries with higher levels of the Human Development Index have an easier time securing their desired intrinsic work values. Gender was not a statistically significant moderator.
Originality/value
The authors’ findings indicate that, for many employees, careers are influenced by larger socioeconomic factors, showing that individuals have a more difficult time shaping their own careers in some contexts.
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This paper aims to problematize existing conceptualization of corruption by presenting alternative perspectives on corruption in Indonesia through the lens of national/cultural…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to problematize existing conceptualization of corruption by presenting alternative perspectives on corruption in Indonesia through the lens of national/cultural identity, amidst claims of the pervasiveness of corruption in the country. In so doing, the paper also sheds light on the micro-processes of interactions between global and local discourses in postcolonial settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The study applies discourse analysis, involving in-depth interviews with 40 informants from the business sector, government institutions and anti-corruption agencies.
Findings
The findings suggest that corruption helps government function, preserves livelihoods of the marginalized segments of societies and maintains social obligations/relations. These alternative meanings of corruption persist despite often seen as less legitimate due to effects of colonial powers.
Research limitations/implications
The snowballing method of recruiting informants is one of the limitations of this paper, which may decrease the potential diversity and lead to the silencing of different stories (Schwartz-Shea and Yanow, 2013). Researchers need to contextualize corruption and study its varied meanings to reveal its social, historical and political dimensions.
Practical implications
This paper strongly suggests that we need to move beyond rationalist accounts to capture the varied meanings of corruption which may be useful to explain the limited results of existing anti-corruption efforts.
Social implications
This study calls for a greater use of qualitative methods to study broad social change programs such as anti-corruption from the perspective of the insiders.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the discussion of agency at the interplay between the dominant and alternative discourses in postcolonial settings. Moreover, the alternative meanings of corruption embedded in constructions of national identity and care ethics discussed in this paper offer as a starting point for decolonizing (Westwood, 2006) anti-corruption theory and practice.