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1 – 5 of 5This study draws parallels between the Major and Johnson eras to reclaim a discursive space beyond the media and political battlefields to examine long-term systemic failure of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study draws parallels between the Major and Johnson eras to reclaim a discursive space beyond the media and political battlefields to examine long-term systemic failure of government PR.
Design/methodology/approach
As part of a wider study into government communications from 1979 to date, this paper draws on evidence from government archives from the 1990s, as well as contemporary accounts, official documents, media accounts, memoirs and biographies, to examine the PR record of two Conservative administrations divided by three decades.
Findings
News management during the Major premiership is worth serious scrutiny, not just as an interlude between two media-friendly Prime Ministers, Thatcher and Blair, but in comparison to Boris Johnson's struggle to contain the news narrative between 2019 and 2022. Both administrations experienced terminal reputational crises during their closing years but their means of managing the news were counter-productive and damaging to public trust (65).
Practical implications
Does this failure in public communication illustrate a systemic dysfunction in government-media relations and, if so, what is the role of government PR in these circumstances?
Originality/value
This article uses a comparison between fixed and moving variables associated with two very different administrations to identify the causes of ongoing systemic failure in government communication.
Details
Keywords
Catherine Warren, Amy Wax, Gino Galvez, Kelly-Anne Van Geffen and Michelle V. Zernick
Current events such as the #metoo and #timesup movements have ushered in an era of heightened awareness of sexist organizational climate. Increasingly, supporters have called for…
Abstract
Purpose
Current events such as the #metoo and #timesup movements have ushered in an era of heightened awareness of sexist organizational climate. Increasingly, supporters have called for top-down changes, demanding that organizations embrace a culture of accountability. Accordingly, the current study proposed and investigated the concept of benevolently sexist organizational climate and explored the impact on women's state self-esteem, while testing for the potential moderating effects of power and gender.
Design/methodology/approach
The current experimental study utilized a video video-based manipulation to introduce benevolently sexist organizational climate with a 2 (content of communication) x 2 (gender of communicator) x 2 (status of communicator) between-subjects design. The hypotheses were tested using an analysis of variance moderation model, based on a sample of 652 women.
Findings
Results indicated a significant two-way interaction between benevolently sexist organizational climate and power on self-esteem. Specifically, results suggested that benevolently sexist organizational climates have a greater negative impact on women's self-esteem when a supervisor communicates the information on the climate as opposed to a coworker.
Practical implications
Benevolently sexist climate had a deleterious impact on women's organizational outcomes especially when communicated by a supervisor. These findings can be used for guidance on the development of training and interventions targeted at mitigating the prevalence of benevolently sexist workplace climate.
Originality/value
This study was the first to propose the concept of a benevolently sexist organizational climate. Additionally, the study demonstrated the negative impact of a benevolently sexist organizational climate on women's state self-esteem providing important implications for organizations. Further theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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Keywords
The figure of the femme fatale is attached to a range of contested meanings around femininity, sexuality and violence. Despite its ambiguity and its origins in art, myth and…
Abstract
The figure of the femme fatale is attached to a range of contested meanings around femininity, sexuality and violence. Despite its ambiguity and its origins in art, myth and fiction, the term has proven popular in giving a name to violent articulations of female power in non-fictional settings by journalists. In this chapter, I outline the figure of the femme fatale as an archetype of women's violence that appears throughout Western popular culture, and provide an overview of the term's definitions and cultural meanings. In doing so, I trace the figure's movement across different forms and genres of popular culture. I identify a number of themes in the existing scholarship around the figure: feminist criticism of the figure; the value that feminist film scholars have found in the figure as a symbol of power and sexual transgression; the relationship between the femme fatale, race and the colonial imagination; and the way the idea of the femme fatale has been used in reporting of real-life women's violence.