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1 – 10 of 53In total, 10 years since the establishment of the Special Criminal Court (SCC) in Cameroon to deal with a specific kind of corruption, one may wonder whether any achievements have…
Abstract
Purpose
In total, 10 years since the establishment of the Special Criminal Court (SCC) in Cameroon to deal with a specific kind of corruption, one may wonder whether any achievements have been made so far in fulfilling its mandate and also assuaging the tense and toxic perception that the Court was established as an arsenal to witch-hunt political opponents. This study aims to look into the work done so far in this regard, and makes an assessment as to whether any accomplishments have been made in the first decade of its establishment.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper takes an evidence-based approach in seeking answers to what accomplishments, if any, have been made by the Court, explores the notion of corruption within Cameroon’s legislative and institutional landscape prior to the establishment of the Court and looks into the profiles of those who have been indicted by the SCC for that crime; the amounts that were misappropriated and for which they were convicted; the sentences imposed. It identifies some outstanding cases: where the amounts misappropriated exceeded a threshold and asks the question of what made it possible for these individuals to misappropriate such huge sums of money?
Findings
The inconsistencies and irrationality in the sentencing are a few findings made. Added to those is the timing of the establishment of the Court which, as most have perceived, is a political witch-hunting aimed at bringing credibility to a failed regime, as well as deal with a few political “irresponsibles” who were once the president’s buddies.
Research limitations/implications
This research unravels key insights into the functioning of the SCC. It advances the knowledge thereon and adds to the literature on corruption in Cameroon.
Practical implications
The establishment of the SCC is commendable. However, as it deals with but a particular kind of corruption, it might be necessary to rethink the need of additional institutional mechanisms that have specialized jurisdiction to deal with the different kinds of corruption in Cameroon.
Social implications
The paper highlights the entrenched nature of corruption in the social fabrics of Cameroonian society, and exposes the need for a much holistic approach in dealing with corruption, as the SCC offers but one institutional mechanism toward that direction.
Originality/value
This paper, given the issues discussed therein, and considering the dearth of literature on the topic, advances the literature on the SCC in particular and the problem of endemic corruption in Cameroon in general.
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Olusegun Emmanuel Akinwale, Owolabi Lateef Kuye and Olayombo Elizabeth Akinwale
The dynamics of work have increased the importance of work conditions and job demand in the corporate environment. This has exposed the high predominance of work overload among…
Abstract
Purpose
The dynamics of work have increased the importance of work conditions and job demand in the corporate environment. This has exposed the high predominance of work overload among employees and managers in social organisations. This study aims to investigate the contemporary determinants of workaholism (organisational culture, financial well-being and career development) and quality of work-life (QWL) in Nigeria’s information technology (IT) sector.
Design/methodology/approach
To synthesise an understanding of factors that are responsible for workaholic behaviour among employees in the IT industry, this study used a cross-sectional research design to investigate the phenomenon that accounts for such hysteric conditions. This study administered an inventory battery of scales to obtain data from the study population on a random sampling technique to measure the established constructs responsible for workaholism and QWL. This study surveyed 644 samples of IT professionals in Nigeria and used structural equation modelling and artificial neural networks to examine the data obtained from the IT professionals.
Findings
The outcome of this study was significant as proposed. This study demonstrated that compulsive work approach adversely affects employee QWL in Nigeria’s IT industry. Also, excessive work adversely affects employee QWL in Nigeria’s IT industry. This study further discovered that organisational culture and management pressure significantly affect the QWL in the Nigerian IT industry. The results of this study showed that financial well-being significantly affects the QWL in the Nigerian IT industry. Lastly, it established that career development significantly affects the QWL in the Nigerian IT industry. This study concluded that if working round the clock is not completely removed from Nigeria’s IT cultural system, the industry will not be a safe environment and will not attract employees anymore. It has enabled many Nigerian workforces to quit working in Nigeria and migrate to international organisations.
Originality/value
This study has shown a meaningful dimension by discovering that workaholism is inherently in the cultural values and DNA of Nigerian IT institutions and not work addiction in itself for the employees. The novelty of this research has indicated that workaholism has not been documented much in the Nigerian IT sector.
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Izhak Berkovich and Vincent Jonathan Foldes
The purpose of this article is to address the involvement of third sector organizations in state public education in Israel, with emphasis on the decision‐making processes…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to address the involvement of third sector organizations in state public education in Israel, with emphasis on the decision‐making processes affecting the geographic distribution of service provision.
Design/methodology/approach
A collective case study approach was used to investigate non‐governmental organization (NGO) procedures for the deployment of the educational services they provide. The study was based on semi‐structured interviews with key personnel and on documents from four NGOs operating in the Israeli public education system.
Findings
The article illustrates the extent of third sector organizations' involvement in the Israeli public educational system, in most cases operated with significant governmental funding. The findings reveal two main factors in the NGOs' decision‐making process that affect their operational deployment: the type of financing model they adopted and the nature of their relationship with the Ministry of Education.
Practical implications
The paper's findings have led to several policy recommendations. It recommends that NGOs be more aware of their financing model and more critical in its appraisal. It also recommends that the state take into account the vision and financing model of NGOs and its own strategic responsibility for reaching nationwide social goals when selecting partners.
Originality/value
The study examines the increasing involvement of NGOs in state public education. As trends of privatization and democratization continue, the number of NGOs operating in the public education system continues to rise, and their importance continues to increase.
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Roots of global Terrorism are in ‘failed’ states carved out of multiracial empires after World Wars I and II in name of ‘national self‐determination’. Both sides in the Cold War…
Abstract
Roots of global Terrorism are in ‘failed’ states carved out of multiracial empires after World Wars I and II in name of ‘national self‐determination’. Both sides in the Cold War competed to exploit the process of disintegration with armed and covert interventions. In effect, they were colluding at the expense of the ‘liberated’ peoples. The ‘Vietnam Trauma’ prevented effective action against the resulting terrorist buildup and blowback until 9/11. As those vultures come home to roost, the war broadens to en vision overdue but coercive reforms to the postwar system of nation states, first in the Middle East. Mirages of Vietnam blur the vision; can the sole Superpower finish the job before fiscal and/or imperial overstretch implode it?
This paper explores the role of accounting in ecological reconstitution and draws attention to the public value as a topic of strategic interest for developing it.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the role of accounting in ecological reconstitution and draws attention to the public value as a topic of strategic interest for developing it.
Design/methodology/approach
The process of ecological reconstitution described by Latour in the “Politics of Nature” is traced towards a distinct set of accounting practices. These accounting practices, designated here as full-tax accounting, offer indications of the changing shape and role of accounting in ecological renewal.
Findings
Full-tax accounting extends the planetary public towards the inclusion of nonhuman planetarians. It establishes matters of care in multimodal accounts and haunts constitutional processes with the spectre of exclusion. Starting with full-tax accounting, public-value accountants emerge as curators of matters of care.
Research limitations/implications
The association of accounting in ecological reconstitution with matters of care highlights the mediating and immersive effects of accounting practice, inviting accounting scholars to explore these effects more systematically.
Practical implications
Accountants need to reconsider their stewardship role in relation to the fundamental uncertainties implied in planetary public-value accounting, support the process of ecological reconstitution by associating themselves with matters of care and develop ethics of exclusion.
Social implications
Broad alliances among planetary accountants are needed to extend the terms of ecological reconstitution, to gain and preserve attunement to matters of care and defend these attunements, in the atmospheric politics of ecological renewal, against regressive tendencies.
Originality/value
In problematising public value, the paper draws attention to a convergence of interests among scholars in accounting, public sector research and the environmental humanities. It presents a case for planetary accounting in ecological reconstitution that calls for participation from across disciplines, professions, arts and environmental activism.
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Christopher Mensah and Edem M. Azila-Gbettor
Academic misconduct has become an albatross on the management of higher education institutions with long-term ramification on developmental agenda of countries. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
Academic misconduct has become an albatross on the management of higher education institutions with long-term ramification on developmental agenda of countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between religiousness of students and examination cheating tendencies. Further, this paper explored the cheating methods, reasons for cheating and the relationship between perception of peer cheating and examination cheating propensity among students in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional research design was adopted for the study using questionnaires to collect data from 355 students in a three-year higher national diploma awarding technical university in Ghana. Descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests were the main data analytical tools.
Findings
Results of the study revealed that “fear of failure” was the leading reason driving students’ examination cheating behaviours. Perception of peer cheating was related to levels of self-reported cheating whereas religious inclination of students was uncorrelated with the self-reported cheating behaviour of students.
Practical implications
The findings of the study provide implication for management of higher education institutions. The academic counselling unit of higher education institutions should work to dispel students’ overly sensitivity to end-of-semester examinations. Teachings of religious groups should highlight examination cheating as constituting violations of religious values and norms.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the pioneers of examination cheating and religiosity relationship in Ghana’s higher education settings. This study makes an additional contribution to the literature on the religiosity examination cheating nexus.
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IT is known that the Library Association Council has devoted watchful care to the position of libraries in the event of war. As we write, the international situation is as dark as…
Abstract
IT is known that the Library Association Council has devoted watchful care to the position of libraries in the event of war. As we write, the international situation is as dark as it has been at any time since 1919, and many have that calm, cold feeling that there is nothing to do but to tighten our belts and stand againt the onslaught. Even if that is still avoided, as all who listened to Lord Halifax trust it may be, there should be active protection of the library service which is one of those things which might so easily go under in a time of stress. The Library Association has done well in submitting to Government that experience in the last war proved the value of libraries for information and as a factor in the morale of the people; that their services should, so far as possible, be maintained even during hostilities; that there would be need of library provision for people, and especially for children, “evacuated” to areas where the existing library provision might often be inadequate; and that library buildings should not be used for purposes for which they are unsuitable, seeing that there will be many halls, schools and other buildings that would be better for food‐control, recruiting and so on.
AT this time of the year librarians take their holidays. They will need the break this year as much as in any year since the end of the war. There are many problems to be faced in…
Abstract
AT this time of the year librarians take their holidays. They will need the break this year as much as in any year since the end of the war. There are many problems to be faced in the autumn and winter, among them the continuous rising prices of everything, and the diversion of public funds to rearmament, which must have some repercussions upon the library service. Whether it is yet a fact that the pound is worth little more than five shillings in real money, we are not prepared to say, but it is certain that every cost has increased, and is continuing to increase. Especially is this so in connection with book production and bookselling; even, as our correspondent on another page suggests, in some cases the royalties of authors are in jeopardy. How far this will go it is impossible to say. At the same time the rates everywhere promise to increase still further, and in spite of the advances, it is unlikely that libraries will be exempt from the stringencies of the time. Such predictions have, however, been frequently contradicted by our past experience. Some of the real advances libraries have made have seemed to be the direct result of bad times. This is hardly a holiday meditation, but we think our readers will need all the physical and mental refreshment they can get before they face the possibilities that may follow.