Cultures of sleep: organization and the lure of dormancy

Sleep occupies us for around a third of our lives. Yet traditionally considered a period of respite and recuperation from the demands of work and its organization, little attention has been paid to the status of sleep from the perspective of management and organization studies. This article seeks to address this particular absence and, in doing so, attempts to contextualize both a growing cultural fascination with sleep as well as a more general strategy to reconstitute the dormant body as a site of organization and managerial intervention. In doing so, the article will look to contribute to the field in such a way as to raise the question of sleep as both an embodied and a culturally negotiated practice, and to consider its significance for the study of processes of social and organizational reproduction.     

The Environmental Risks of Incomplete Globalisation

As the liberal optimism of the long 1990s has faded into a world of growing inequality and resurging nationalism, there is less certainty about the prospects of economic convergence and global integration. Beyond the formidable human cost of maintaining a divided world, the possibility of incomplete globalisation also gives rise to a number of environmental risks. While environmental political theory generally sees strength in localism, history rather shows that a robust world trade system is crucial to offset local resource scarcities and that cosmopolitan norms of solidarity are essential for helping communities to rebuild after environmental catastrophe. In relation to climate change, statist thinking has led to a focus on non-scalable technologies and a silent acceptance of chronic poverty abroad as a way of avoiding a climate emergency. Contrary to such views, this paper argues that accelerating the transition to a fully integrated high-energy planet may more effectively mitigate Anthropocene risks.     

Social network and family business: Uncovering hybrid family firms

What does it mean for a private enterprise in China to be embedded in a family? Our purpose here is twofold: (1) use social network analysis to describe what it means for a firm to be embedded in a family, (2) reveal from the application a new kind of firm, not family, yet akin to family. Armed with data on a large probability sample of private enterprises — a third of which meet ownership and employment criteria of being family businesses — we uncover a category of “hybrid family firms” that look modern in the style of firms that exclude family, but operate socially in ways similar to family firms. Our conclusion from summary statistics on the sample is that there are no differences in average performance level or network advantage for the three categories of businesses: family firms, hybrid family firms, and family-excluded firms. The fact that CEOs of family firms and hybrid family firms more often turn to family as key business contacts is a fact about network composition that raises no question about network mechanisms. Whether the CEO turns to more or fewer family contacts, government help is more likely with stronger political connections, and business success and survival are more likely with a large, open network. That said, the look-modern, act-traditional hybrid family firms stand alone in prospering with a CEO embedded in a closed business network. Recognition of hybrid family firms adds to the literature’s illustrations of social network analysis used to distinguish types of businesses and business people, and extends the population of organizations within which governance and strategy are likely to be better understood when viewed through a family logic.     

Responding to Adolescent Violence in the Home – A Community Mental Health Approach

Family violence perpetrated by adults is increasingly understood as a health issue, and we argue that this pertains even more strongly to violence by adolescents. The co-dependence of the parent–child bond, lack of maturity in the adolescent, and often related issues of disability or mental illness make these young people both complex and also vulnerable. This research paper reviews the current literature relating to adolescent violence in the home, identifies known best practice, and evaluates the importance of taking a family-focused, therapeutic approach to adolescent family violence, in place of a punitive one. It describes the use of a co-design workshop to unpack gaps in service provision and develop a potential family focused model of care to address the needs both of young people who use violence, and their families. The findings indicate that an inclusive family approach is a key element in addressing adolescent violence in the home across a spectrum of behaviours and mental health care needs. The use of a coordinated, family-inclusive response through mental health care services is recommended to address the complexity of this issue, as well as to provide support both to adolescents and to their families and carers.     

Uncertain lies: How payoff uncertainty affects dishonesty

In this paper we experimentally explore how lying changes when its consequences are not certain. We argue that, when consequences are not certain, lying is morally less costly because the action of lying does not mechanically result in the obtainment of the benefit and this produces a lower feeling of responsibility in case the benefit is obtained. Moreover, we argue that the smaller the impact of lying on the probability to obtain the benefit the lower is the feeling of responsibility. We test our predictions using a modified die-under-the-cup task where misreporting, rather than delivering a higher payoff, increases the likelihood to get a prize. Overall we have four treatments where the reported outcome affects the probability to get a prize to a different extent. Contrary to our prediction, we do not observe any treatment difference suggesting that lying is independent to the extent to which it increases the probability to get a benefit. This result suggests that the willingness to lie to secure a benefit and the willingness to lie to marginally increase the probability to obtain a benefit are very similar.     

A Boy’s Journey and the Journey to Freedom*

The journey to freedom is a literary genre that involves a realization of oppression, a decision to leave, a journey that is both physical and moral, a wilderness experience, a self‐reinvention, and, most importantly, a first person testimonial to the reality of oppression.     

TEACHING IN LITHUANIA—THE PERSONAL AND THE PROFESSIONAL

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the central role of the countertransference as a catalyst for understanding for both teacher and student. During a week of teaching basic psychoanalytic concepts to Lithuanian university students in central Lithuania, I discovered that there was an absence or lack of understanding between the group I was teaching and myself. Our expectations were very different. On a political, cultural level, I was faced with a Lithuanian understanding of the world that is quite different from a Western European perspective. This personal narrative explores how I used my countertransference to the group, and their countertransference to their clinical work, as a tool to begin to explore the professional issues we have in common and to struggle to understand the differences. It was impressive to observe, through the lived experience of this work, the development of a well‐functioning group that had overcome not only the difficulties that accompany large groups but that had taken on board a new way of thinking and working. I returned in October 2004 for a further week's teaching and a continuation of a joint teaching–learning enterprise.     

Factors preventing the social reintegration of homeless persons: A comparison between residents of long-stay hostels and individuals living on the street

Homelessness is a major social issue in all Western countries. In France, many homeless persons do not have access to the accommodation and help with social reintegration provided in long-stay hostels, and remain on the streets or in other forms of emergency shelter. The objective of the present study is to identify the variables preventing access to these hostels and, more generally, to a process of social reintegration. We compared a group of 10 individuals housed in long-stay hostels with a group of 16 who were still living in the streets. All participants were assessed on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and underwent a semi-structured interview. Results showed that individuals who had not been admitted to a hostel were characterized by high levels of depression and anxiety, the attribution of responsibility to external factors, a vagrant lifestyle, a lack of social support, a negative approach to reintegration, and an inability to look to the future. This study highlights various factors explaining the reintegration difficulties encountered by a proportion of the homeless population. It suggests new ways of improving support for the homeless.     

Work performance and tax compliance in flat and progressive tax systems

Different tax systems, and their impact on work motivation and tax compliance are significant issues in contemporary political and economic debates. The proportional feature of a flat tax system is assumed to lead to higher performance, while the fairness of the redistributive progressive tax system is assumed to result in higher tax compliance. However, empirical findings on the topic are inconclusive. Both work performance and tax compliance under different tax systems were examined in an experiment, with special attention devoted to the effect of a change in tax systems. A flat tax system was supposed to induce greater work performance, whereas a progressive tax system was expected to increase tax compliance based on fairness perceptions, allowing for the opposite effect due to higher complexity. Furthermore, it was assumed that performance and tax payments would be influenced by motives of self-interest. The design included 20 rounds with a real-effort task in each round, determining participants’ experimental income. Participants (N = 191) made decisions about their tax payments from round-to-round in four different experimental conditions: (1) a flat tax system, (2) a progressive tax system, (3) starting with a flat and changing to a progressive, and (4) starting with a progressive and changing to a flat tax system. Results indicate higher work performance in a progressive system. However, a change from a progressive tax system to a flat system led to increased tax compliance.     

On Periodically Potent Places: The Theatre Stage as a Temporarily Empowered Space for Ritual Performances in Cambodia

In this paper, I aim to discuss the notion of potency as attributed or inherent to a place through the study of the performance space in which the Khmer ritual classical theatre is staged. Here, the potency of the place results from a complex and cumulative process that strengthens the rite. Through a deliberately identified topography, a space is delimited, constructed and periodically activated so a community can safely transit from one yearly cycle to the next. In so doing, the ritual performance highlights nuanced qualities as well as social and religious considerations of space, and its relation to power. Considering the location’s contribution to the rite helps not only to discuss the relation of people to space but also brings greater understanding to performance as a religious expression.     

Child Sexual Abuse Attributions Among Undergraduate Psychology Students in Singapore

ABSTRACT

Experimental vignettes were used to investigate attributions relating to child sexual abuse with a focus on the degree of blame allocated to the family and to society, factors thought to be particularly relevant in a collectivist society. One hundred and sixty-two undergraduates in Singapore evaluated media reports describing a case of child sexual abuse. A 2 x 2 x 2 between-subjects design manipulated victim sex, perpetrator sex, and victim–perpetrator relationship. Participants rated the vignettes on degree of blame and prevention potential and rated the abusiveness of the case. Individualism and collectivism attitudes of the participants were also measured. While the highest blame ratings were attributed to perpetrators, significantly more blame was attributed to the family and to society than to the victim. The demonstration of the present attributions of blame to family and to society is a timely finding given recent recommendations to broaden approaches to child abuse prevention by moving away from a reliance on school based child protection programs, which leave the onus on the child to prevent and report abuse, toward a public health approach, which is particularly inclusive of parent and community education approaches . Allocation of some blame to victims, in spite of their status as children, while not a unique finding in victimology research, emphasizes the challenges still to be faced in encouraging the reporting of child sexual abuse.     

Reviews

The article, drawing on the results of a small research project investigating a cohort of student-practitioners who had studied a course titled ‘Frameworking for Community Development’, considers the implications for teaching within a university setting. The findings of the research discuss such topics as, what a personal practice framework is, the process of creating such a framework by practitioner-learners, and the use of traditions. Within the discussion the article argues for a shift away from using a ‘personal practice framework’, to a ‘subjectively held practice framework’, reflecting an increased awareness that the journey towards constructing a practice framework is itself an active engagement in a community of practice, rather than, or as well as, an intellectual or introspective personal journey. Furthermore, the article proposes that to create an experience of elicitive learning in a community of practice today runs counter to the usual learning style of universities. It requires opportunities to talk, to learn together, and to be with uncertainty and ambivalence, to challenge each other. The article contributes significant new social work thinking in relation to both reflective practice and teaching for community development.     

The COVID‐19 Pandemic: An Evolving Story. Professional and Personal Insights using Self and Culture as Agents of Calm and Healing after a Year of Co‐habitation with Imminent Threat

Being a cross‐cultural systemic therapist, clinical supervisor, and educator means that culture and language are central to my work. They provide a scaffold to develop deeper understanding, increased trust, and connection between myself and my supervisees, students, and clients and facilitate a process for the latter to connect to their own selves and values. Given the fear and uncertainty generated by the COVID‐19 pandemic, there exists a pervasive activation of the sympathetic nervous system in the community. In this article, I present two case studies as examples of a cross‐cultural/cross‐linguistic approach that facilitates two clients to find a place of comfort and calmness and consequently a balancing activation of the para‐sympathetic nervous system. First is a client who, due to the overwhelming pandemic chaos, suddenly exhibited a host of signs and symptoms of a functional neurological nature, which she experienced as a lack of control and disconnection from her body, her primary language, and herself. Within a trusted therapeutic relationship that draws on the culture and primary language of the therapist, the client regains connection with language and enhances her ability to communicate and connect with her body. Second is an international student who is encouraged to use her culture of origin and primary language to induce calmness, reconnect with herself, and return to the familiar as a ‘known’ collectively inclusive, comforting, and nurturing environment.     

Subculture wars: The struggle for the vape industry

Drawing on a 2-year study, I argue that the UK vape industry is engaged in a classificatory struggle between a subcultural industry and its “other”, the mainstream industry. I build on Thornton's analysis of club culture to characterize the subcultural vape industry as a community of taste built round a masculine aesthetic and a commitment to authenticity and DIY practice. Its attachment to complex systems and masculine spaces risked excluding customers without specialist knowledge or interest. The mainstream industry included tobacco companies which promoted vaping as a complementary category to smoking, linking their own vaping products to historic meanings of the cigarette as a lifestyle product. This task was hampered by the toxic legacy of combusted tobacco and its increasing reversion to a generic category rather than a branded product. Finally, the success of the price-focused vaping industry has been largely overlooked, but suggests that for most consumers, electronic cigarettes are still a contrasting category to combusted tobacco and are purchased largely on price. I conclude that the exclusion of a feminized, classed “other” is a defining element of subcultural formation, itself an overwhelmingly male mechanism of group identity construction.     

Seeking to Engage ‘Hard‐to‐Reach’ Families: Towards a Transferable Model of Intervention

This paper describes an exploratory evaluation of the Peers Early Education Partnership ‘Room to Play’, an innovative and experimental ‘drop‐in’ service seeking to attract and engage ‘hard‐to‐reach’ families in one of the most deprived areas of a Midlands city. Located in a shop unit of a busy community shopping centre, it offers play and learning activities for children, and provides opportunities for parents to talk to practitioners in a neutral and supportive environment. Through a mixed methods design, the authors attempted to document the core components of a potential transferable model of intervention, within challenging research constraints.     

Developing a methodology to assess the impact of research grant funding: A mixed methods approach

This paper discusses the development of a mixed methods approach to analyse research funding. Research policy has taken on an increasingly prominent role in the broader political scene, where research is seen as a critical factor in maintaining and improving growth, welfare and international competitiveness. This has motivated growing emphasis on the impacts of science funding, and how funding can best be designed to promote socio-economic progress. Meeting these demands for impact assessment involves a number of complex issues that are difficult to fully address in a single study or in the design of a single methodology. However, they point to some general principles that can be explored in methodological design. We draw on a recent evaluation of the impacts of research grant funding, discussing both key issues in developing a methodology for the analysis and subsequent results. The case of research grant funding, involving a complex mix of direct and intermediate effects that contribute to the overall impact of funding on research performance, illustrates the value of a mixed methods approach to provide a more robust and complete analysis of policy impacts. Reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology are used to examine refinements for future work.     

Adolescents’ Views on Families as Metaphors in Hong Kong: Implications for Pre‐counselling Assessment

This interpretative study aims to offer metaphors that describe family meanings from the adolescent’s perspective by encouraging them to give a metaphor with their own explanation on a self‐administering essay form. This study has three objectives: to explore the family meanings as a metaphor from the Hong Kong adolescent’s perspective; to reveal any common and unique features of these metaphors; and to search for the possibilities of collecting metaphors from adolescents as a pre‐counselling assessment tool. The 12 participants for this study were referred to me for family counselling because of poor self‐esteem, loss of life goals or ineffective relationships with their parents. Based on the 12 metaphors, the following five themes can be discerned: (i) gender role in a family, (ii) Chinese culture in a family, (iii) heat in a family, (iv) security in a family and (v) the family as honey and a loan company. Based on the above five themes, there are some common metaphors (e.g. a warm place, honey, a shelter, a boat shelter, a chick and a hen, a volcano, a fire, an oven and a loan company), trans‐cultural and unique metaphors (e.g. a wet market and ‘Kung Fu’ experts), and those that are culturally specified. Both strengths and limitations of collecting and analysing metaphors were discussed.     

Factors that influence organisational crisis perception from an internal stakeholder’s point of view

This paper starts from the premise that crisis is a perception and that one of the best ways to conquer a crisis is not to allow it to develop in the first place. By detecting or perceiving a crisis before other stakeholders do, an organisation can prevent or mitigate a crisis. Few studies have considered the question of whether organisations put the right people in the right places to be able to see a crisis coming. Within an organisation, managers are usually well placed to take decisions to initiate crisis communication, but they seem to be reluctant to do so or may not wish to see an impending crisis. Communication professionals should have a better perception of a crisis, but they rarely find themselves in a position to have a substantial impact on the management decision to communicate during a crisis. In this paper, we study crisis perception by individuals in a large governmental organisation during various stages of an unfolding crisis and compared perception scores to individual profiles based on study background, professional situation and crisis experience. This study involves a large-scale scenario-driven survey with ‘crisis perception’ as the main dependent variable. The results of this specific case indicate that an academic communication degree, a high hierarchical position in the organisation and crisis experience are positively related to an augmented perception of an impending organisational crisis.     

Use of concurrent mixed methods combining concept mapping and focus groups to adapt a health equity tool in Canada

The aim of this project was to identify and prioritize a set of conditions to be considered for incorporating a health equity tool into public health practice. Concept mapping and focus groups were implemented as complementary methods to investigate the conditions of use of a health equity tool by public health organizations in Quebec. Using a hybrid integrated research design is a richer way to address the complexity of questions emerging from intervention and planning settings. This approach provides a deeper, operational, and contextualized understanding of research results involving different professional and organizational cultures, and thereby supports the decision-making process. Concept mapping served to identify and prioritize in a limited timeframe the conditions to be considered for incorporation into a health equity tool into public health practices. Focus groups then provided a more refined understanding of the barriers, issues, and facilitating factors surrounding the tools adoption, helped distinguish among participants’ perspectives based on functional roles and organizational contexts, and clarified some apparently contradictory results from the concept map. The combined use of these two techniques brought the strengths of each approach to bear, thereby overcoming some of the respective limitations of concept mapping and focus groups. This design is appropriate for investigating targets with multiple levels of complexity.