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1 – 5 of 5A considerable amount of police evaluation research focuses on innovative approaches to reduce crime at places. This is hardly coincidental; policing and place-based scholars have…
Abstract
Purpose
A considerable amount of police evaluation research focuses on innovative approaches to reduce crime at places. This is hardly coincidental; policing and place-based scholars have found crime is highly concentrated, and when police focus on these places, they can prevent and reduce crime. The regularity of such findings led Weisburd (2015) to assert the existence of a “law of crime concentration.” Given that bold assertion, the authors test whether the law of crime concentration is generalizable to one of the most common public safety concerns that police handle—traffic crashes.
Design/methodology/approach
To determine whether the law of crime concentration applies to traffic crashes, the authors examined crash locations and times in all counties in Utah across four years. Following and expanding on Weisburd's methods, the authors calculate the bandwidth of concentration for these crashes and analyze various types by severity and possible explanations for variations in crash concentrations across the state.
Findings
A small proportion of street segments and intersections experience a disproportionately high number of crashes, and the degree of concentration of crashes may be even higher than that of crime. Further, there are variations in the levels of crash concentration across counties and in the severity of injuries resulting from the crashes.
Practical implications
Place-based criminologists and policing scholars have not often explored traffic crashes in their analyses. Yet, traffic problems take up a significant amount of law enforcement time and resources and are often priorities for most law enforcement agencies. Given what the authors know from traffic, policing and crime and place research, targeted approaches at micro traffic crash hot spots can be beneficial for public safety prevention.
Originality/value
This study is the first to explore the application of Weisburd's Law of Crime Concentration to traffic crashes. Given that police spend a significant amount of time and resources on traffic-related problems in their jurisdiction, finding more effective, evidence-based approaches to address this public safety concern should be a high priority for police and researchers alike.
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Deneise Dadd and Matthew Hinton
This study aims to investigate the growing use of financial metrics (such as return on investment [ROI]) to measure performance and evaluate human capital (HC) investments.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the growing use of financial metrics (such as return on investment [ROI]) to measure performance and evaluate human capital (HC) investments.
Design/methodology/approach
The research employed an embedded case study approach, examining how one ROI approach was applied to evaluating HC investments, across three sectors (corporate, public health and international development).
Findings
Three major findings emerged in this study: First, interpretations of ROI can lead to ambiguity during implementation. ROI is interpreted trichotomously – metaphorically, as a desire for value; literally, as a metric; and procedurally, as a method for planning and evaluating HC investments. Second, understanding, measuring and tracking the domains of people performance (cognitive, affective and psychomotor) is vital to evaluating the impact of HC investments because this is where the change in behavior occurs. Third, although the logic model measures the change in process following an intervention (input-activity-output-outcome-impact), other approaches measure the change in behavior of people in the intervention (people performance).
Practical implications
These findings provide clarity for practitioners about challenges when applying ROI.
Originality/value
This is the first study to explore how the ROI financial metric is applied in a new domain by first examining its interpretation. It elucidates the use of ROI in practice, as well as the different purposes of key ROI approaches.
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Kareem Folohunso Sani and Toyin Ajibade Adisa
The extant literature on work–life balance (WLB) has generally overlooked the interrelationship between leadership and WLB. Does leadership have any impact on employees' use of…
Abstract
Purpose
The extant literature on work–life balance (WLB) has generally overlooked the interrelationship between leadership and WLB. Does leadership have any impact on employees' use of WLB policies and practices? To answer this question, this article considers the social exchange theory as well as transformational and transactional leadership in an investigation of the impact of leadership on WLB.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs qualitative data from 32 semi-structured interviews to achieve the study’s objectives.
Findings
The research reveals that leadership does matter in WLB. The study findings reveal that both the transactional and transformational leadership styles result in the establishment of strong reciprocal relationships between leaders and employees in terms of using WLB policies and practices. Managers only sanction the use of WLB policies and practices only as a reward for excellent performance or when they are completely sure the outcome will favour the organisation. The study concludes that the desire to achieve WLB has often led many employees to go the extra mile in carrying out their work duties, which is rewarded with an approval to use WLB policies and practices. These non-contractual exchanges emphasise reciprocity and are based on trust.
Research limitations/implications
The extent to which the findings of this research can be generalised is constrained by the size and nature of the research sample.
Practical implications
Many managers are transactional leaders, and they purposefully allow their employees to use WLB policies and practices only as a reward for meeting targets and for excellent performance. This means that employees who fall short of the required targets and expected performance are not permitted to use WLB policies and practices. This finding implies that such employees experience incessant work–family conflict, which may have negative implications for their work engagement, overall well-being and work performance.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates that leadership is relevant to WLB. It shows that transformational leadership is supportive of WLB, as it considers employees' work performance and non-work outcomes. The results and practical implications of this study aids the understanding of the non-contractual exchanges involved in manager–employee relationships, which is crucial for ensuring employees' achievement of WLB and for organisations to achieve their goals.
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This paper aims to examine the association between the working relationship between internal and external auditors and the moral courage of internal auditors to report management…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the association between the working relationship between internal and external auditors and the moral courage of internal auditors to report management fraud in the Tunisian setting.
Design/methodology/approach
Data are gathered from 163 internal auditors working in Tunisian companies and a partial least squares–structural equation model (PLS-SEM) is used to test the hypothesis regarding the effect of the cooperation between internal and external auditors on internal auditors’ moral courage.
Findings
The results of this study provide strong empirical support for the positive impact of the working relationship between internal and external auditors on internal auditors’ moral courage to report management fraud and unethical behaviors.
Practical implications
The reported results increase the awareness of Tunisian regulators to enact regulations that strengthen the collaboration between internal and external auditors to promote internal auditors’ moral courage and then limit fraud and improve organizational performance in the Tunisian setting.
Originality/value
This paper fills one of the major research gaps in internal audit and moral courage research streams by revealing that the courageous behavior of internal auditors can be fostered by specific means efficacy such as the working relationship between internal and external auditors.
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Endrit Kromidha and Nia Kurniati Bachtiar
This study explores resilience learning from uncertainty, taking a holistic view by considering individual, firm and contextual factors. Resilience development is understood by…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores resilience learning from uncertainty, taking a holistic view by considering individual, firm and contextual factors. Resilience development is understood by focusing on how uncertainty is related to entrepreneurs and their environment, suggesting that developing resilience needs to be a continuous learning process.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study explores factors related to entrepreneurial uncertainty, resilience and learning. Evidence is drawn from interviews with rural entrepreneurs in two regions of Indonesia, and analyzed using a rigorous approach to generate codes, second-order themes and aggregate dimensions for the theoretical contributions.
Findings
Uncertainty readiness, uncertainty response and uncertainty opportunity for resilience emerge as the key learning areas from this study. They are related to resilience on a personal, community and systemic level. The proposed framework relates learning from uncertainty to the process of developing resilience for entrepreneurs and their communities.
Originality/value
This study proposes a framework based on resilience motivation and learning from uncertainty as usual. It explores the relationships between uncertainty readiness, responses and opportunities with personal, relational and systemic resilience factors. This contributes to entrepreneurship behavior research at the intersection of organization studies and management in the socio-economic and often informal context of developing countries.
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