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The purpose of this paper is to explore what characterizes cyberbullying when it is performed in digital space and in an increasingly boundary blurred working life context.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore what characterizes cyberbullying when it is performed in digital space and in an increasingly boundary blurred working life context.
Design/methodology/approach
Cyberbullying is explored through the lens of Erving Goffman’s theories on everyday life interaction and social media scholars understanding of social life on the internet today. The empirical material for the study is grounded in eight in-depth interviews with individuals who have been subjected to cyberbullying behavior in their professional life. The interview data were analyzed by means of thematic analysis.
Findings
Three key themes were identified: spatial interconnectedness, colliding identities and the role of the audience. The empirical data indicate that in order to understand cyberbullying in working life, it is necessary to consider the specific context that emerges with social network sites and blogs. Moreover, this study shows how social network sites tend to blur boundaries between the private and the professional for the targeted individual.
Originality/value
Cyberbullying in working life is a relatively under-researched area. Most existing research on cyberbullying follows the tradition of face-to-face bullying by addressing the phenomenon with quantitative methods. Given the limited potential of this approach to uncover new and unique features, this study makes an important contribution by exploring cyberbullying with a qualitative approach that provides in-depth understanding of the new situations that emerge when bullying is performed online.
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This paper aims to explore how environmental employment can promote desistance among criminalised children. Research demonstrates that being immersed in and interacting with the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how environmental employment can promote desistance among criminalised children. Research demonstrates that being immersed in and interacting with the natural environment has a positive impact upon well-being and behaviour, including reduced aggressive and violent behaviours. However, how exposure to the natural environment might promote desistance amongst children with persistent criminal involvement is unclear.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines, through semi-structured interviews and participant observations, the experiences of n = 23 criminalised children aged 16–18 employed in outdoor work at a UK social enterprise.
Findings
The findings demonstrate how working in the natural environment can provide a safe space for children, where they can build positive relationships, learn valuable skills and reconnect with the world outside of the high-pressure, conflict-driven spaces in which they typically occupy.
Originality/value
This research highlights the relevance of the setting in which child rehabilitation takes place and the potential role of natural environments in providing places and opportunities which support pro-social identity development and desistance for children.
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Nengchao Lyu, Yugang Wang, Chaozhong Wu, Lingfeng Peng and Alieu Freddie Thomas
An individual’s driving style significantly affects overall traffic safety. However, driving style is difficult to identify due to temporal and spatial differences and scene…
Abstract
Purpose
An individual’s driving style significantly affects overall traffic safety. However, driving style is difficult to identify due to temporal and spatial differences and scene heterogeneity of driving behavior data. As such, the study of real-time driving-style identification methods is of great significance for formulating personalized driving strategies, improving traffic safety and reducing fuel consumption. This study aims to establish a driving style recognition framework based on longitudinal driving operation conditions (DOCs) using a machine learning model and natural driving data collected by a vehicle equipped with an advanced driving assistance system (ADAS).
Design/methodology/approach
Specifically, a driving style recognition framework based on longitudinal DOCs was established. To train the model, a real-world driving experiment was conducted. First, the driving styles of 44 drivers were preliminarily identified through natural driving data and video data; drivers were categorized through a subjective evaluation as conservative, moderate or aggressive. Then, based on the ADAS driving data, a criterion for extracting longitudinal DOCs was developed. Third, taking the ADAS data from 47 Kms of the two test expressways as the research object, six DOCs were calibrated and the characteristic data sets of the different DOCs were extracted and constructed. Finally, four machine learning classification (MLC) models were used to classify and predict driving style based on the natural driving data.
Findings
The results showed that six longitudinal DOCs were calibrated according to the proposed calibration criterion. Cautious drivers undertook the largest proportion of the free cruise condition (FCC), while aggressive drivers primarily undertook the FCC, following steady condition and relative approximation condition. Compared with cautious and moderate drivers, aggressive drivers adopted a smaller time headway (THW) and distance headway (DHW). THW, time-to-collision (TTC) and DHW showed highly significant differences in driving style identification, while longitudinal acceleration (LA) showed no significant difference in driving style identification. Speed and TTC showed no significant difference between moderate and aggressive drivers. In consideration of the cross-validation results and model prediction results, the overall hierarchical prediction performance ranking of the four studied machine learning models under the current sample data set was extreme gradient boosting > multi-layer perceptron > logistic regression > support vector machine.
Originality/value
The contribution of this research is to propose a criterion and solution for using longitudinal driving behavior data to label longitudinal DOCs and rapidly identify driving styles based on those DOCs and MLC models. This study provides a reference for real-time online driving style identification in vehicles equipped with onboard data acquisition equipment, such as ADAS.
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Pichamon Poonnotok, Nuchanart Kaewmart, Tanawan Asarath and Wetid Pratoomsri
The purpose of this paper is to describe experiences of caregivers in managing psychotic symptoms of persons with schizophrenia in various circumstances.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe experiences of caregivers in managing psychotic symptoms of persons with schizophrenia in various circumstances.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were obtained via a focus group and in-depth interviews among caregivers who cared for relatives with schizophrenia for more than five years. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis.
Findings
“Making it better” emerged as the main theme describing caregivers’ experiences in trying to manage psychotic symptoms. It comprises four sub-themes including cutting off the wind, protecting from harm, preventing relapses and pulling back to normality. The caregivers gradually learned and adjusted their strategies through trial and error. They tried to stop aggressive and violent behaviors soon after they had begun by giving cool water to their relatives to drink or shower, while expressing their own affect with gently talking. They also dealt with a hardship in protecting the patients, other people, their properties and their own selves from harm resulting from violent behavior. When the psychotic symptoms improved, the caregivers tried to prevent relapses by using various strategies to maintain medication adherence and by soothing their relatives’ mental state. They also tried to pull their relatives back to normal as much as they could by promoting their relatives’ memories and abilities to perform daily functions.
Originality/value
The findings increase knowledge in nursing regarding psychotic symptoms management. The findings can be applied to the development of a program to help caregivers to manage psychotic symptoms effectively in order to promote good clinical outcomes of patients and alleviate the caregivers’ burden.
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Michael Rosander and Denise Salin
In this paper the authors argue that organizational climate and workplace bullying are connected, intertwined and affect each other. More precisely, the focus of the present study…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper the authors argue that organizational climate and workplace bullying are connected, intertwined and affect each other. More precisely, the focus of the present study is how a hostile climate at work is related to workplace bullying. A hostile work climate is defined as an affective organizational climate permeated by distrust, suspicion and antagonism. The authors tested four hypotheses about the reciprocal effects and possible gender differences.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a longitudinal probability sample of the Swedish workforce (n = 1,095). Controlling for age, the authors used structural equation modelling and cross-lagged structural regression models to assess the reciprocal effects of a hostile work climate on workplace bullying. Gender was added as a moderator to test two of the hypotheses.
Findings
The results showed a strong reciprocal effect, meaning there were significant associations between a hostile work climate and subsequent bullying, β = 0.12, p = 0.007, and between baseline bullying and a subsequent hostile work climate, β = 0.15, p = 0.002. The forward association between a hostile work climate and bullying depended on gender, β = −0.23, p < 0.001.
Originality/value
The findings point to a possible vicious circle where a hostile work climate increases the risk of bullying, which in turn risks creating an even more hostile work climate. Furthermore, the findings point to gender differences in bullying, showing that the effect of a hostile work climate on workplace bullying was stronger for men.
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This paper aims to discuss the dilemma of terrorism as a political phenomenon that many political scientists care about; however, they find themselves incapable of explaining some…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss the dilemma of terrorism as a political phenomenon that many political scientists care about; however, they find themselves incapable of explaining some of its aspects and they resort to other disciplines. The second part of the dilemma is related to the incapability of well-established disciplines to provide political scientists with much help. This raises the following question: Will political scientists be able to enhance their knowledge of terrorism with the help of scholars from consolidated and well-established disciplines or with the help of scholars from interdisciplinary fields?
Design/methodology/approach
This research depends on the main theories of psychology and of social psychology and adopts a comparative approach to assess the effectiveness of both disciplines in providing political scientists with the knowledge they lack.
Findings
In spite of being a well-established and consolidated discipline, psychology is not the perfect discipline that can help political scientists know who a terrorist is. Social psychological theories of aggression provide political scientists with greater ability to understand what psychological and sociological factors motivate a person to turn to aggression and terrorism. Moreover, social psychology developed the “terror management theory” which clarifies various aspects of the phenomenon.
Originality/value
This research paper calls the attention of scholars of terrorism to the importance of adopting an interdisciplinary approach to understand the various aspects of a complex phenomenon such as terrorism. The interdisciplinary field adopted will differ according to the research question that a researcher needs to answer.
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Fadoua Toumi, Mohamed Amine Bouraoui and Hichem Khlif
This paper aims to study the effect of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation) on corporate…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the effect of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation) on corporate tax avoidance as proxied by the effective tax rate.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 944 observations during 2016 was analyzed at three different quantiles (Q 0.25, Q 0.50 and Q 0.75) based on a quantile regression approach.
Findings
Using Hofstede’s (2001) cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation), the authors find that individualism and masculinity are negatively associated with effective tax rates, and this negative relationship is more pronounced under low tax aggressiveness regime (third quantile). By contrast, long-term orientation is positively associated with the effective tax rate, and this relationship is more prevailing under aggressive tax regime (first quantile). These findings remain stable when using cash effective tax rate as an alternative measure for tax avoidance.
Originality/value
This study adds to the extant literature a further understanding of the impact of cultural dimensions on tax avoidance. The use of quantile regression approach shows how the effect of masculinity, individualism and long-term orientation on tax avoidance varies under different tax management regimes.
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Adam Fletcher, Natasha Fitzgerald-Yau, Meg Wiggins, Russell M. Viner and Chris Bonell
The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of involving students and staff on school action groups, and staff and student experiences of reviewing local data and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of involving students and staff on school action groups, and staff and student experiences of reviewing local data and initiating school-level changes, to address bullying and other aggression.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw on qualitative, process data collected at four purposively sampled pilot intervention schools in England via semi-structured interviews with school managers, action group members and facilitators (n=33), focus groups with students (n=16) and staff (n=4), and observations.
Findings
School staff used multiple methods to recruit a diverse range of students onto school action groups. Locally tailored data reports were an important catalyst for action groups to identify priorities and plan whole school change – both through the process of “validation” (whereby existing concerns were confirmed) and “discovery” (whereby new problems were identified). An unexpected benefit of providing schools with these data was that it triggered analyses of other data sources, including routine monitoring data. External facilitators were important in promoting student voice and ensuring the intervention retained integrity as a whole-school restorative approach.
Practical implications
It was feasible to involve young people using action groups, and there was evidence of school-level actions led by students, including in disadvantaged school contexts. Future Health Promoting Schools interventions could incorporate this approach to support locally appropriate, school-level change.
Originality/value
The micro-level processes that were observed, whereby action groups interrogated feedback reports and collected additional data, suggest the responsiveness of such youth-involvement interventions to local needs. Contrary to many public health interventions, implementation appeared to be facilitated rather than hindered by features of the secondary-school “market” whereby parents have some choice between schools.
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Lucia Parisi, Teresa Di Filippo and Michele Roccella
Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) is a congenital disorder characterized by distinctive facial features, growth retardation, limb abnormalities, intellectual disability, and…
Abstract
Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) is a congenital disorder characterized by distinctive facial features, growth retardation, limb abnormalities, intellectual disability, and behavioral problems. Cornelia de Lange syndrome is associated with abnormalities on chromosomes 5, 10 and X. Heterozygous point mutations in three genes (NIPBL, SMC3 and SMC1A), are responsible for approximately 50-60% of CdLS cases. CdLS is characterized by autistic features, notably excessive repetitive behaviors and expressive language deficits. The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptomatology is comparatively high in CdLS. However, the profile and developmental trajectories of these ASD characteristics are potentially different to those observed in individuals with idiopathic ASD. A significantly higher prevalence of self-injury are evident in CdLS. Self-injury was associated with repetitive and impulsive behavior. This study describes the behavioral phenotype of four children with Cornelia de Lange syndrome and ASDs and rehabilitative intervention that must be implemented.
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