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1 – 10 of over 2000Philipp Paulus and Katrin Muehlfeld
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between host country (HC) language skills, fear of terror, and cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) of expatriates based in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between host country (HC) language skills, fear of terror, and cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) of expatriates based in host countries with different terrorist threat levels.
Design/methodology/approach
Integrating the expatriate adjustment framework by Black et al. (1991) with social identity theory-based literature, this study first, theorizes about the effects of both fear of terror and HC language proficiency on CCA and, second, puts forward the moderating effect of the actual terrorist threat level on the relationship between HC language proficiency and fear of terror. Hypotheses are tested using survey data of 116 expatriates based in host countries with different threat levels.
Findings
HC language proficiency is positively associated with CCA. Yet, it is also positively associated with fear of terror, which is, in turn, negatively related to CCA. Consequently, the beneficial effect of HC language skills on CCA is reduced in environments where expatriates experience significant fear of terror. While the actual threat level has a direct positive effect on fear of terror, it also positively moderates the relationship between HC language proficiency and fear of terror.
Originality/value
This study extends prior literature on expatriation to dangerous environments by zooming in on a specific type of risk factor associated with international assignments, i.e., terrorism, and by integrating HC language proficiency and fear of terror as important factors, which may influence CCA in contexts in which expatriates experience significant fear of terror.
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Inam Ul Haq, Dirk De Clercq and Muhammad Umer Azeem
With a basis in conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of championing behaviour in the relationship between employees’…
Abstract
Purpose
With a basis in conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of championing behaviour in the relationship between employees’ fear of terror and their job performance, as well as the buffering role of their passion for work, as a personal resource, in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
The tests of the hypotheses rely on three-wave, time-lagged data collected from employees and their supervisors in Pakistan.
Findings
An important reason that concerns about terrorist attacks diminish performance is that employees refrain from championing their own entrepreneurial ideas. This mediating role of idea championing is less salient, however, to the extent that employees feel a strong passion for their work.
Practical implications
For human resource managers, this study pinpoints a key mechanism – a reluctance to mobilize active support for entrepreneurial ideas – by which fears about terrorism attacks can spill over into the workplace and undermine employees’ ability to meet their performance requirements. It also reveals how this mechanism can be better contained by the presence of adequate personal resources.
Originality/value
This study adds to burgeoning research on the interplay between terrorism and organizational life by specifying how and when employees’ ruminations about terrorism threats might escalate into diminished performance outcomes at work.
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Samuel Sinclair and Alice LoCicero
Since 9/11, 2001, protection from terrorism has become a poignant issue in the political spectrum, and some have argued that fears of terrorism have been manipulated for political…
Abstract
Since 9/11, 2001, protection from terrorism has become a poignant issue in the political spectrum, and some have argued that fears of terrorism have been manipulated for political purposes. Contributing to a growing body of research, this study sought to test whether terrorism fears, and/or the impact of terror alerts, predicted overall trust in government in a sample of university undergraduates who completed the Perceptions of Terrorism Questionnaire Short‐Form (PTQ‐SF). Two psychological theories offer plausible explanations for this relationship: attachment theory and evolutionary psychology theory. Results indicate that both general terrorism fears and the impact of terror alerts specifically, are statistically significant predictors of trust in government, using separate hierarchical regression models after controlling for other factors. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed, as are directions for further research.
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Pia Charlotte Faeth and Markus G. Kittler
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the differing perceptions of fear of expatriates operating in terror-exposed Nairobi and the high-crime environment of Johannesburg and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the differing perceptions of fear of expatriates operating in terror-exposed Nairobi and the high-crime environment of Johannesburg and its impact on stress and well-being. It illustrates how expatriates cope with the challenges associated with these two regions.
Design/methodology/approach
Following an interpretative and inductive research approach, qualitative content analyses were conducted using evidence from in-depth interviews with 12 expatriates in senior management or officer positions within a large global organisation, with respondents based in South Africa and Kenya.
Findings
Data suggest that expatriates in the more terrorism-exposed context perceive fear less strongly than expatriates in environments categorised by high degrees of conventional crime. Fear seems to relate to physical well-being via restricted freedom of movement, but there is little evidence that fear affects mental well-being. The study finds that respondents in terror-exposed Nairobi tend to engage more in avoidance-oriented coping strategies, whereas their counterparts in the high-crime environment of Johannesburg predominantly rely on problem-focused coping.
Practical implications
The qualitative design allows practitioners to better understand expatriates’ perceptions of fear, its consequences for stress, and well-being and potential coping strategies expatriates employ. It discusses a set of practical recommendations focussing on the deployment of expatriates assigned to dangerous locations.
Originality/value
This study develops a distinction between terror and conventional crime and contributes with practical insights for assignments into dangerous work environments. The geographic lens of the study provides an in-depth look at expatriation challenges in an arguably neglected regional context.
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Shuaib Ahmed Soomro, Olivier Roques and Akhtiar Ali
This study aims to investigate the impact of fear of terror (FOT) on employee organizational commitment (OC) working in terror-induced areas through examining the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impact of fear of terror (FOT) on employee organizational commitment (OC) working in terror-induced areas through examining the role of rumination as a mediator and perceived organization support (POS) as a moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop a model in which the mediating role of rumination in the FOT relationship is conditional to the values of OC. Using a sample size of 268 respondents, questionnaires were used to collect data from Pakistan during a period when terrorist attacks were at a peak. Results from the hierarchical regression analyses provided support for the developed model.
Findings
Overall, the statistical model is significant (p < 0.05); the authors found negative relationships between FOT and OC. The authors found that FOT positively led to rumination, which then negatively led to OC. It was also found that POS significantly moderated FOT and OC.
Practical implications
This study revealed that FOT is a deterring factor that changed employees’ OC. It further revealed that organizations providing support to employees working in terrorist-ridden areas showed positive commitment. This paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
Originality/value
This paper provides an examination of the relationship between FOT and employee OC. It expands our knowledge of the stress theory and terror management theory for employees working in discontinuous areas.
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The attacks of 11 September 2001 created a crisis of legitimacy for the U.S. nation state. To overcome a catastrophic event that threatened national identity, the Bush…
Abstract
The attacks of 11 September 2001 created a crisis of legitimacy for the U.S. nation state. To overcome a catastrophic event that threatened national identity, the Bush administration evoked fear as the spiritual root of patriotism and the basis of a renewed security state. The modern rhetoric of crisis management was combined with a nostalgic rhetoric of national community. In the new civil defense, all citizens were enlisted to relentlessly examine their fears so that bodies, minds, neighborhoods, and ultimately the nation state could be free of terror. These conditions led to authoritarian efforts to reach deep into citizens’ private lives and purge the body politic of ill-defined invaders, damaging democratic community.
Richard J. Pech and Bret W. Slade
Modern society has found its nemesis in the terrorist, fundamentalist criminals attempting to halt progress and force society back into the Dark Ages. This article aims to build…
Abstract
Purpose
Modern society has found its nemesis in the terrorist, fundamentalist criminals attempting to halt progress and force society back into the Dark Ages. This article aims to build on the work of Pech, arguing that many acts of terrorism are rooted in mimicry of acts of violence.
Design/methodology/approach
The article argues that the number of terrorist copying behaviours can be reduced through the concept of memetic engineering, which is the altering of the message that motivates terrorists and the copying of their violent activities. A model is developed for identifying and re‐engineering vulnerable constructs within the terrorist's causal algorithm.
Findings
This terrorist algorithm can be modified by: eliminating media portrayal of terrorists as freedom fighters and heroes; minimising potential causes of disinhibition; editing the terrorist's script that initiates and engenders empathy with violent acts; reconstructing the religious, cultural, and environmental support for violence as an acceptable means of communication, protest, and negotiation; reducing factors that facilitate susceptibility to the terror meme, identifying and moderating influences that initiate a state of cognitive priming for violence, and weaken the appeal of the terror meme. Introduces a diagnostic model for assessing key elements responsible for creating and sustaining terror memes.
Originality/value
The article describes an original and radically different approach to responding to terrorism. Essentially this means re‐engineering toxic scripts, using the mass media to moderate fundamentalist messages, re‐engineering of scaffolds that maintain some societies in cultural empathy with acts of violence, and the removal of environmental factors that enable terrorism to emerge.
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It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the French Revolution in Russian intellectual life. One could even make the claim that the French Revolution has had a more…
Abstract
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the French Revolution in Russian intellectual life. One could even make the claim that the French Revolution has had a more significant impact on modern Russian history than it has had upon modern French history! Indeed, since the end of the nineteenth century, the French Revolution has become passe in France in the sense that no Frenchman has looked at it as a blueprint for current political development. While there have been cases in which some of the old revolutionary images were invoked to bolster support for certain political activities (such as support for the war against Germany), it has never been wholeheartedly re‐embraced and there has been a sense of detachment about the revolution, a sense that modern conditions were somehow different.
Ahmet Keser, Ibrahim Cutcu, Sunil Tiwari, Mehmet Vahit Eren, S.S. Askar and Mohamed Abouhawwash
The main objective of this research is to investigate if there is a long-term relationship between “terrorism” and sustainable “economic growth” in Big Ten Countries.
Abstract
Purpose
The main objective of this research is to investigate if there is a long-term relationship between “terrorism” and sustainable “economic growth” in Big Ten Countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The data was tested via Panel ARDL Analysis. The growth rate (GR) is the dependent variable, and the “Global Terror Index (GTI)” is the independent variable as the terror indicator. The ratio of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the ratio of External Balance (EB) to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are included in the model as the control variables due to their effect on the growth rate. A Panel ARDL analysis is conducted to examine the existence of long-term co-integration between terror and the economy. The planning of the study, the formation of its theoretical and conceptual framework, and the literature research were carried out in 2 months, and the collection of data, the creation of the methodology and the analysis of the analyzes were carried out in 2 months, the interpretation of the findings and the development of policy recommendations were carried out within a period of 1 month. The entire study was completed in a total of 5 months.
Findings
Results showed that “Terror” has a negative impact on “Growth Rate” in the long term while “External Balance” and “Foreign Direct Investment” positively affect the Growth Rate. The coefficients for the short term are not statistically significant.
Research limitations/implications
The sample is only limited to Big Ten including China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Poland and South Africa. The period for annual data collection covers the years between 2002 and 2019 and due to the unavailability of data.
Practical implications
Considering the risks and the mutual negative effect that turns into a vicious circle between terrorism and the economy, it is necessary to eliminate the problems that cause terrorism in the mentioned countries, on the one hand, and to develop policies that will improve economic performance on the other.
Social implications
Trustful law enforcement bodies have to be established and supported by all technological means to prevent terror. The conditions causing terror have to be investigated carefully and the problems causing terror or internal conflict have to be solved. International cooperation against terrorism has to be strengthened and partnerships, information, experience sharing have to be supported at the maximum levels.
Originality/value
It is certain that terror might have a negative influence on the performance of economies. But the limited number of studies within this vein and the small size of their sample groups mostly including single-country case studies require conducting a study by using a larger sample group of countries. Big Ten here represents at least half of the population of the world and different regions of the Globe.
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