Search results
1 – 10 of 249Margaret B. Takeda, Marilyn M. Helms, Paul Klintworth and Joanie Sompayrac
Hair colour stereotyping is well documented in countless jokes as well as in the psychological literature. Blondes, for example, are stereotyped as incompetent, but likeable…
Abstract
Hair colour stereotyping is well documented in countless jokes as well as in the psychological literature. Blondes, for example, are stereotyped as incompetent, but likeable. Those with red hair are stereotyped as competent but cold or with a fiery temper. These and other stereotypes may affect job progression, mobility, and the rise to the corporate suite. To test this research question, the hair colour of CEOs of the Fortune 500 was recorded and analysed. The results support the pre conceived hair colour stereotypes. Of this group, only 11 CEOs (2.2%) were blonde while 17 CEOs (3.4%) had red hair. The remainder of the 460 male non‐minority CEOs (92%) had either brown or black hair. Do ste reo types or per cep tions be come reality? Is awareness the first step in correcting the disparity? Is the disparity a problem? Does it point to discrimination in lower organisational ranks? Is this bias warranted? The article discusses the possible implications of these findings. Areas for further research are also included.
Details
Keywords
Abstract
Fernanda Leão, Delfina Gomes and Garry D. Carnegie
The purpose of this paper is to study the portrayal of early accountants in the unfamiliar site of Portugal by examining Portuguese-language realist literature from the second…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the portrayal of early accountants in the unfamiliar site of Portugal by examining Portuguese-language realist literature from the second half of the nineteenth century.
Design/methodology/approach
Two popular literary works – Uma Família Inglesa (An English Family), written by Júlio Dinis and published in 1867, and Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loura (The Idiosyncrasies of a Young Blonde Woman), written by Eça de Queirós and published in 1873 – were examined through a qualitative content analysis.
Findings
The dimensions of the accounting stereotype discerned for the two early accounting practitioners featured in these works are portrayed as: modest; on-the-job trained practitioner; uncreative, conservative and unenergetic; honest financial manager; servant of the capitalist (i.e. merchant), and warm and sentimental. The accountant stereotype depicted from 1860s to 1870s period is similar to the conventional accountant stereotype, identified as the “traditional accountant” stereotype. Variations from this stereotype, however, are identified in the local, time-specific settings of Lisbon and Oporto.
Originality/value
The study’s portrayal of early accounting practitioners occurs during a period of transformation marked by liberalism. It augments an understanding of the image of early accounting practitioners, reflecting their social positioning at a time of significant social, economic, political and cultural changes, thereby contributing to an appreciation of the historical legacy of the accountant stereotype in continental Europe. Importantly, a taxonomy is proposed for content analysis that can be used and developed by future researchers.
Details
Keywords
Mayte Cabral Mesquita and Marcelo De Rezende Pinto
The purpose of the study is to understand how the consumption of online pornography runs through fantasy, discourse and the exercise of female sexuality.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to understand how the consumption of online pornography runs through fantasy, discourse and the exercise of female sexuality.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the study analyzed a few information obtained from a secret group of the social media Facebook. Secondly, the research was developed based on the information gathered during the observation period; 11 in-depth interviews were conducted with women that participated in the aforementioned group. In order to analyze the data, the study used the French discourse analysis as methodological tool.
Findings
It was possible to realize that the consumption of pornographic content is motivated by curiosity, pursuit of variety and sexual fantasies, and it ends up strengthening stereotypes related to the concept of beauty and body standards. Also, the consumption of pornography can be seen as an important feature in the reformulation of perceptions and creation of senses related to pornography itself, pleasure, self-knowledge and in the constitution of the subjectivities of the consumers, despite the influence of the cultural context in which they are inserted into.
Research limitations/implications
The consumption of online pornography can be seen as an important “social operator”; that is, the consumption of pornography reflects and refracts what is socially established as beautiful and adequate in terms of the human figure. The outcomes of this research lead to debates that can challenge standardized world perspectives, besides expanding the discussion of such consumption made by women.
Originality/value
Taking into consideration the significant volume of pornography consumption and the high figures that this market indicates, one can notice that literature related to consumption studies has neglected this specific theme.
Details
Keywords
Melanie Sauerland, Svenja Mehlkopf, Alana C Krix and Anna Sagana
– The purpose of this paper is to test how modifying one’s alibi statement interacts with exposure to deceptive interrogation techniques.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test how modifying one’s alibi statement interacts with exposure to deceptive interrogation techniques.
Design/methodology/approach
In all, 90 participants walked about a university building for 15 minutes and either stole an envelope from a staff pigeonhole (guilty condition) or put the envelope there along the way (innocent condition). Subsequently, participants were asked to provide an alibi for the past 15 minutes. Guilty and half of the innocent participants were instructed to omit that they had been in the vicinity of the pigeonholes. The rest of the innocent participants were asked to tell the truth. Several days later, participants were questioned about six statements taken from their alibis, three of which contained altered information.
Findings
As expected, participants were largely blind to our alterations, with detection rates ranging from 1 to 36 percent. Contrary to cognitive load predictions, detection rates did not vary as a function of truthfulness. Rather, guilty participants were less likely to detect alterations than innocents.
Research limitations/implications
Memory distrust and guilty suspects’ aim to keep a low profile might be possible explanations for these findings.
Practical implications
It is recommended that law enforcement officers and other legal practitioners refrain from using deceptive interrogation techniques and such techniques that can cause inconsistencies in suspects’ reports. Researcher should make it their task to educate these professional groups about the natural occurrence of memory related, non-deceptive inconsistencies in successive statements.
Originality/value
This research uses a new methodology to study the effect of deceptive interrogation techniques on both innocent and guilty suspects. The findings are relevant for legal practitioners and researchers.
Details
Keywords
Ramy Magdy, Maries Mikhael and Yassmine G. Hussein
This paper aims to analyze the discourse of Arab feminism social media pages as a form of real-time new media. This is to be conducted culturally to understand the Westernized…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze the discourse of Arab feminism social media pages as a form of real-time new media. This is to be conducted culturally to understand the Westernized character these pages tend to propagate and the politico-cultural significations of such a propagation.
Design/methodology/approach
Using visual and content analysis the paper analyzes both the written and visual contents of two popular Arab feminist Facebook pages, “Thory” and “Feminist doodles” to explore its culture relevance/Westernization via the categories of “re-employing the binary second wave feminism, the historical relevance and the Westernized tone of both pages.
Findings
The pages showed a tendency toward second wave, Westernized, anti-orient feminism. Such importation of feminism made the pages’ message not only a bit irrelevant but also conceptually violent to a large extent. Starting from alien contexts, the two pages dislocate the Arab women experiences of their situation for the sake of comprehending and adapting to heavily Westernized images.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the ongoing debate over the gender issue in the Arab context after 2011, what it originally offers is discussing the cultural relevance of popular feminist Facebook pages claiming to represent the everyday struggles of the Arab women. In addition, it shows the impact of real-time media on identity formulation.
Details
Keywords
John Garofalakis Panagiotis, Panagiotis Kappos and Christos Makris
Considers the problem of improving the performance of Web access by proposing a reconstruction of the internal link structure of a Web site in order to match the quality of the…
Abstract
Considers the problem of improving the performance of Web access by proposing a reconstruction of the internal link structure of a Web site in order to match the quality of the pages (measured in terms of their link importance in the Web space – global ranking) with the popularity of the pages (measured in terms of their importance recognized by Web users – local metrics). Provides a set of simple algorithms for local reorganization of a Web site, which results in improving users’ access to quality pages in an easy and quick way.
Details
Keywords
David Flood and Carol‐Ann Farkas
This paper seeks to examine the value of teaching about mental illness through the use of literature.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to examine the value of teaching about mental illness through the use of literature.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the examples of two colleges in eastern USA that focus on educating students for healthcare careers, the paper examines two different course formats for using literature to teach about mental illness: a course that places the topic within the larger context of medicine and literature; and a freestanding madness and literature course.
Findings
While professional education tends towards specialization, it can lead to a monocultural vision that limits approaches to patients and problems alike. Courses integrating mental illness and literature were found to be effective means of counteracting this trend.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to two healthcare‐centred colleges in eastern USA.
Practical implications
For mental health clinicians and healthcare professionals in general, literature broadens the scope of both perspectives and analytical tools for understanding mental disorders and responses to them.
Originality/value
While literature courses often contain such themes as mental illness, courses that truly integrate literature with mental illness meet a growing need for interdisciplinary education as a means of preparing more flexibly thinking healthcare professionals.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to present a visually documented brand history of Winchester Repeating Arms through a cultural analysis of iconic Western images featuring its lever action rifles.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a visually documented brand history of Winchester Repeating Arms through a cultural analysis of iconic Western images featuring its lever action rifles.
Design/methodology/approach
The study applies visual culture perspectives and methods to the research and writing of brand history. Iconic Western images featuring Winchester rifles have been selected, examined, and used as points of departure for gathering and interpreting additional data about the brand. The primary sources consist chiefly of photographs from the nineteenth century and films and television shows from the twentieth century. Most visual source materials were obtained from the US Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and the Internet Movie Firearms Database. These have been augmented by written sources.
Findings
Within a few years of the launch of the Winchester brand in 1866, visual images outside company control associated its repeating rifles with the settlement of the American West and with the colorful people involved. Some of these images were reproduced in books and others sold to consumers in the form of cartes de visite, cabinet cards and stereographs made from albumen prints. Starting in the 1880s, the live Wild West shows of William F. Cody and his stars entertained audiences with a heroic narrative of the period that included numerous Winchesters. During the twentieth century and into the present, Winchesters have been featured in motion pictures and television series with Western themes.
Research limitations/implications
Historical research is an ongoing process. The discovery of new primary data, both written and visual, may lead to a revised interpretation of the selected images.
Originality/value
Based largely on images as primary data sources, this study approaches brand history from the perspective of visual culture theory and data. The research shows how brands acquire meaning not just from the companies that own them but also from consumers, the media and other producers of popular culture.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this study was to explore negative and stereotype-threatening depictions of career women in Hollywood films. The study draws on stereotype threat research to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to explore negative and stereotype-threatening depictions of career women in Hollywood films. The study draws on stereotype threat research to reflect on how such portrayals might undermine women’s career aspirations and contribute to the glass ceiling’s persistence, and proposes an agenda for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
Bridging social role theories with conceptual models of films as social “texts”, the author explored depictions of 165 career women presented by 137 films, focusing on negative and potentially stereotype-threatening personal and professional characteristics and contexts.
Findings
Thematic analyses of film portrayals revealed negative and stereotype-threatening characteristics and contexts of career women, including their mean and conniving personalities, promiscuity, isolation, failures at intimacy and inability to balance work and family.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations include the subjective interpretations of a single author, a broad exploratory focus and no empirical evidence of connections between film portrayals and career attitudes. Researchers are encouraged to deepen analyses of film portrayals and examine linkages with stereotype threat and career behaviours sustaining the glass ceiling.
Practical implications
Given the pervasive reach of the media and the potential for consumers to internalize its messages, the negative depictions documented here could bear an adverse effect on women’s career aspirations, contributing to the glass ceiling’s survival.
Originality/value
Questioning the role of the media, in particular the portrayals of career women in film, provides an additional angle to understand why the glass ceiling endures.