Patricia Mannix McNamara, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Sarah MacCurtain and Michael O’Brien
The purpose of this paper is to report the experiences of redress seeking and organisational responses for targets of bullying.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report the experiences of redress seeking and organisational responses for targets of bullying.
Design/methodology/approach
A phenomenological research design was adopted. In total, 22 primary teachers (seven males, 15 females) in Ireland were self-selected for interview, following an advertisement detailing the study in a national teacher union magazine. Data were analysed utilising an interpretative phenomenological analysis framework.
Findings
All those interviewed had made official complaints as per available procedures for addressing workplace bullying in their schools. All participants had engaged in Stages 1 and 2 of the official complaints procedures including uptake of recommended counselling. Three participants ceased engagement at Stage 2. In total, 18 participants had engaged in Stage 3 with 12 ceasing engagement at this stage. Seven participants had proceeded to Stage 4. It is noteworthy that no participant articulated satisfaction with the outcome, but conversely all had articulated further upset and acceptance of the reality that redress would not be forthcoming. These participants who had exercised agency in attempting to seek redress were met with power abuses and cultures of collusion.
Research limitations/implications
This is a small-scale study with self-selecting teachers. The data point to some problematic assumptions underpinning anti-bullying policies in small organisations.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to discourses of power/agency in workplace bullying. It challenges researchers and policy makers to elucidate more carefully the issues surrounding seeking redress for bullying.
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This paper briefly describes the background to the establishment of the Committee of Inquiry into the future development of the Public Health Function. It summarises some of the…
Abstract
This paper briefly describes the background to the establishment of the Committee of Inquiry into the future development of the Public Health Function. It summarises some of the constraints, both explicit and implicit, which guided the committee's approach to its task. It points up the inextricable links between health authority responsibility, general management and public health medicine. Strengthening of the links between general management and public health medicine will enhance both for the benefit of public health.
How do transnational social movements organize? Specifically, this paper asks how an organized community can lead a nationalist movement from outside the nation. Applying the…
Abstract
How do transnational social movements organize? Specifically, this paper asks how an organized community can lead a nationalist movement from outside the nation. Applying the analytic perspective of Strategic Action Fields, this study identifies multiple attributes of transnational organizing through which expatriate communities may go beyond extra-national supporting roles to actually create and direct a national campaign. Reexamining the rise and fall of the Fenian Brotherhood in the mid-nineteenth century, which attempted to organize a transnational revolutionary movement for Ireland’s independence from Great Britain, reveals the strengths and limitations of nationalist organizing through the construction of a Transnational Strategic Action Field (TSAF). Deterritorialized organizing allows challenger organizations to propagate an activist agenda and to dominate the nationalist discourse among co-nationals while raising new challenges concerning coordination, control, and relative position among multiple centers of action across national borders. Within the challenger field, “incumbent challengers” vie for dominance in agenda setting with other “challenger” challengers.
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Laurie A. Cerveny, Floyd I. Wittlin, Michael P. O'Brien and Michael R. Trocchio
The purpose of this paper is to explain the Securities and Exchange Commission's recently proposed amendments to Rule 10b‐18 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain the Securities and Exchange Commission's recently proposed amendments to Rule 10b‐18 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are intended to modernize Rule 10b‐18 to reflect changes in the market since the Rule's adoption.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides an overview of Rule 10b‐18, which provides an issuer that is buying its own stock a safe harbor from liability for market manipulation if the issuer satisfies the purchase, timing, price and volume conditions defined in Rule 10b‐18. It outlines the proposed amendments to the timing condition, price condition, limitation on disqualification, and the time in which the safe harbor is available in connection with an acquisition by a special purpose acquisition company.
Findings
The proposed amendments are intended to modernize Rule 10b‐18 to reflect changes in the market since the Rule's adoption.
Practical implications
The proposed amendments to the price condition and the disqualification provisions will likely be welcome by issuers and brokers who have been challenged by the evolution of market practices and technology, but the amendments to the timing condition and the restrictions on SPACs could result in fewer opportunities for issuers to purchase their own shares under the safe harbor.
Originality/value
The paper provides practical guidance from experienced securities lawyers.
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Tim Martin and Michael O'Brien
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experiences of a teacher education program in the United Arab Emirates to demonstrate how a program can best balance the particular…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experiences of a teacher education program in the United Arab Emirates to demonstrate how a program can best balance the particular needs of a country's educational system with the requirements of international recognition, including benchmarking to international standards and undertaking formal third‐party accreditation.
Design/methodology/approach
The process begins first with the self‐reflection or analysis, reviewing the program terms of curriculum, assessment, clinical practice, faculty and operational indicators, coupled with a formal review of the market and economic drivers to determine future directions for the programs' offerings. After a year‐long analysis, the program was able to look at its operations personally, through the eyes of an external agency familiar with it, and those of an external expert in the field. This triangular process parallels the process that accrediting agencies employ to determine the health or effectiveness of the program to meet its mission.
Findings
After a process of deliberation, the program decided upon the Teacher Education Accreditation Council as the most appropriate agency to pursue accreditation with.
Originality/value
Many times international institutions must sacrifice or modify their existing programs to accommodate the traditional requirements of the outside accrediting agency. However, the paper shows that by thoroughly reviewing and investigating the agencies and their criteria, an institution can determine which agency will serve its needs and provide for a meaningful and successful partnership in the quest for accreditation and recognition.
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Public sector reform has focussed attention on how different models of change can contribute to organizational metamorphosis. Traditional “top down” approaches are unlikely to…
Abstract
Public sector reform has focussed attention on how different models of change can contribute to organizational metamorphosis. Traditional “top down” approaches are unlikely to achieve the necessary change. Instead, using a case study of an Irish public sector organization, this article argues that direct participation, involving frontline staff, can play a key role in ensuring acceptance of change and in creating the conditions for employees to make effective contributions to their organization. Direct participation plays a vital role in employee development. However, it also places demands on organizations to adopt a more facilitative and supportive style of management and to put in place mechanisms that will ensure that participation becomes an integral part of the work process.
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The purpose of this paper is to present an annotated bibliography of the new poetry volumes from the Poet's House 2008 Poetry Showcase.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an annotated bibliography of the new poetry volumes from the Poet's House 2008 Poetry Showcase.
Design/methodology/approach
The titles were selected from the Poet's House 2008 Poetry Showcase as titles that are both challenging and accessible.
Findings
This list provides the librarian and reader with a guide to collection development in poetry.
Originality/value
This is one of the few lists of its kind showcasing contemporary poetry.
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The relation between moral judgements, policy decisions and economic implications is a challenging subject for analysis, especially when the isues are the arms race and…
Abstract
The relation between moral judgements, policy decisions and economic implications is a challenging subject for analysis, especially when the isues are the arms race and war‐fighting capabilities. How to translate moral judgements into policy decisions with their economic consequences is a complex and troublesome question because of the enormous stakes for national and worldwide survival. The problem confronting us is clearly illustrated by the US Catholic bishops' pastoral letter, The Challenge of Peace, May 1983, which addressed the moral dimension of the nuclear arms race and warfare without coming to grips adequately with the issues of policy decisions and economy which their moral conclusions raised. Their later pastoral letter, Economic Justice for All: Catholic Social Teaching and the US Economy, November 1986, compounded their failure by omitting to confront directly the economic implications of translating their moral conclusions into practical policies. The economic side of the arms race is a concern which must be recognised and addressed if policy decisions are to be made effective. The harshest critics of The Challenge of Peace have noted this failure realistically to confront policy decisions in terms of geopolitical, strategic and economic consequences.
In years past, when life seemed simpler and the Law much less complicated, jurists were fond of quoting the age‐old saying: “All men are equal before the Law.” It was never…
Abstract
In years past, when life seemed simpler and the Law much less complicated, jurists were fond of quoting the age‐old saying: “All men are equal before the Law.” It was never completely true; there were important exemptions when strict legal enforcement would have been against the public interests. A classic example was Crown immunity, evolved from the historical principle that “The King can do no wrong”. With the growth of government, the multiplicity of government agencies and the enormous amount of secondary legislation, the statutes being merely enabling Acts, this immunity revealed itself as being used largely against public interests. Statutory instruments were being drafted within Ministerial departments largely by as many as 300 officers of those departments authorized to sign such measures, affecting the rights of the people without any real Parliamentary control. Those who suffered and lost in their enforcement had no remedy; Crown immunity protected all those acting as servants of the Crown and the principle came to be an officials' charter with no connection whatever with the Crown. Parliament, custodian of the national conscience, removed much of this socially unacceptable privilege in the Crown Proceedings Act, 1947, which enabled injured parties within limit to sue central departments and their officers. The more recent system of Commissioners—Parliamentary, Local Authority, Health Service—with power to enquire into allegations of injustice, maladministration, malpractice to individuals extra‐legally, has extended the rights of the suffering citizen.