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In contemporary, complex organizations, “open secrets” may be just as common as intentionally concealed secrets, and are often associated with ethical failures and administrative evil. This chapter explores the ethical implications of open secrets in contemporary organizations and the dynamics by which they can become masked. Both the space shuttle Challenger disaster and Enron's corporate collapse, as well as other similar ethical debacles, show how organizational actors at all levels can promote the public interest and recognize ethical issues, only if they require of themselves a broader scope of ethical standards and vigilance that addresses not just individual behavior but also, and even primarily, the organizational and cultural context of values and ethics. The evolution of a moral vacuum within a culture of technical rationality and the resulting ethically deficient organizational dynamics produced the inability to recognize the open secrets that masked the pathway to disaster.

The final group of papers included in this volume Research in Social Problems and Public Policy involves ethical considerations of government secrecy and its intersection with privacy, knowledge production, language, and national security.

Public administration as an aspect of governmental activity has existed as long as political systems have been functioning and trying to achieve program objectives set by the political decision-makers. Public administration as a field of systematic study is much more recent. Advisers to rulers and commentators on the workings of government have recorded their observations from time to time in sources as varied as Kautilya's Arthasastra in ancient India, the Bible, Aristotle's Politics, and Machiavelli's The Prince, but it was not until the eighteenth century that cameralism, concerned with the systematic management of governmental affairs, became a specialty of German scholars in Western Europe. In the United States, such a development did not take place until the latter part of the nineteenth century, with the publication in 1887 of Woodrow Wilson's famous essay, “The Study of Administration,” generally considered the starting point. Since that time, public administration has become a well-recognized area of specialized interest, either as a subfield of political science or as an academic discipline in its own right.

Government secrecy is often portrayed as antithetical to transparency¹ as well as an affront to the general right to know, citizen participation, administrative oversight, and democracy itself.² Furthermore, government secrecy is connected to “much broader questions regarding the structure and performance of democratic systems” (Galnoor, 1977, p. 278), and in instances, is “more dangerous to democracy than the practices they conceal” (Fulbright, 1971).³ This condition has led to what Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (1987) describes as a secrecy state, whichhas extended the secrecy system far beyond its legitimate bounds. In doing so, the target is far less to prevent the disclosure of information to enemy governments than to prevent the disclosure of information to the American Congress, press and people. For governments have discovered that secrecy is a source of power and an efficient way of covering up the embarrassments, blunders, follies and crimes of the ruling regime. (p. 5)

Rewind is a trauma-focussed exposure technique that is part of Human Givens (HG) therapy. However, there have been no controlled studies examining the effectiveness or acceptability of Rewind, and a previous study comparing HG therapy outcomes with cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) benchmarks has yet to be replicated. The paper aims to address these issues.

This preliminary investigation used an observational, quasi-experimental design. Using both between-subject and within-subject designs, the outcome measures of those who had Rewind in the second session and participants who had treatment-as-usual (TAU) in the second session followed by Rewind in the third session were compared. Pre–post treatment scores were used to evaluate the overall HG therapy and to compare with benchmarks.

Rewind was more effective than control treatment sessions, with 40 per cent recovered and 57 per cent having reliably improved or recovered after the Rewind treatment session. Rewind sessions were rated as acceptable as other treatment sessions. The effect size of HG therapy was above the CBT Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation Outcome-10 (CORE-10) benchmark of 1.22. The recovery rate for treatment completers was 63 per cent, with 91 per cent recovered or reliably improved and was equivalent to the top quartile of services.

Rewind is a promising alternative trauma treatment, as people need not discuss details of the trauma, multiple traumas can be treated in one session and fewer treatment sessions may be needed.

There are few HG studies reported in the peer-reviewed literature. This preliminary study is the first controlled study of Rewind. The findings are also in line with previous research on HG therapy.

In recent years there has been a decrease in the proportion of commerce students taking an accounting major in Australia (Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, 2001), resulting in a greater proportion of first year accounting classes comprising non‐accounting majors. At our institution we felt that an approach based on “active learning” strategies as suggested by the Albrecht and Sack Report (2000) was appropriate for non‐accounting majors. This was primarily to instil a greater enthusiasm for and interest in accounting than had been evident from our experience with these students in the past. In the course evaluations the non‐accounting majors were positive about their learning experiences. In reviewing the students’ assessment performance we found that the non‐accounting majors actually performed better than the accounting majors in one of the five assessment components – the final exam. These findings suggest that the active learning approach may be beneficial to all accounting students.

This study introduces emotional labor into an analysis of multiple dimensions of burnout in sworn and civilian employees across three law enforcement agencies.

Using data from a survey of law enforcement employees in a metropolitan police department, a full-service sheriff's department, and a state corrections agency located in the western United States (n = 1,921), we test the explanatory power of an emotional labor-based model of burnout.

Results partially confirm the lone prior study to examine civilian and sworn personnel. Sworn and civilian employees experience variant levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, though the underlying emotional labor correlates are significantly related to burnout for both groups. Further, we extend prior results by capturing multiple facets of burnout as well as contributing an emotional labor explanation for burnout, while controlling for individual demographic characteristics and agency type.

Law enforcement agencies rely upon non-sworn employees to support their missions. The experience of non-sworn law enforcement personnel is under-researched in both the emotional labor and law enforcement organizational literature. Burnout is a phenomenon that has high costs for both employees and organizations, particularly in the law enforcement context. Investigating the emotional labor experience of employees is critical for practitioners who are tasked with effectively managing both groups.

One previous study has investigated the emotional labor of civilians in law enforcement and used community-level predictions for burnout. This study builds on those findings by capturing two facets of burnout rather than the lone gauge of burnout used in the previous study. Furthermore, we use an emotional labor model to investigate emotional exhaustion and depersonalization reported by sworn and civilian personnel.

Metaphors are used a great deal in theory but are not always fully explained. This paper expands on the carnival metaphor used by Boje (2001) by clarifying the type of carnival the metaphor describes, in this case the sideshow carnival. The sideshow carnival metaphor helps to explain how emotional labor can be used to avoid situations of administrative evil that have been partially caused by the separation of mind/body of public servants operating in public space. The authors of this article illustrate the application of the sideshow carnival metaphor by showing how emergency professionals in the area of natural disaster management have become more professionalized over the last several decades. This professionalization has led to a focus on the rational mind over the emotional body. By engaging in emotional labor, emergency professionals are engaging in carnivalesque behavior that helps to repair the mind/body connection. If the connection is not repaired, the rational mind will take over and the public space wherein the emergency professional exists can co-opt the professional leading them to be unable to see the potential evil acts they might commit.

Many psychological, cultural, and social barriers exist that impact Black male participation in the workforce. In this chapter, authors discuss the impact that mentorship, racism, society, culture, economics, and other pertinent factors have on the career development of Black men. This chapter examines programs and strategies that effectively address the career development needs of Black men. A review of counseling interventions and their applicability to career counseling with Black men are presented. Emerging trends in career development for Black men are also discussed. In addition, provided in this chapter are personal narratives given by the authors who contextualize their career development experiences through culturally-specific career development theoretical frameworks. Lastly, implications for research, counseling, counselor education, and policy, as well as recommendations for professional development are offered.