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1 – 10 of 552Melanie 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.
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Andrew Atherton and Peter Elsmore
To explore the cases for and against the use of computer‐assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) in qualitative organisation and management research.
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the cases for and against the use of computer‐assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) in qualitative organisation and management research.
Design/methodology/approach
Reflecting the debate inherent in the questions raised about the use of CAQDAS, a dialogue between the authors is used.
Findings
There are risks associated with using CAQDAS without considering its underpinning principles and assumptions about data analysis. If these are considered explicitly as part of a research methodology, then CAQDAS may be a valuable analytical tool. If not, there is risk of distortion and bias in results from the use of CAQDAS.
Originality/value
The paper addresses a commonly posed question for qualitative researchers, in a format and structure that is likely to stimulate further debate.
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The article examines strategies of human resource management in the absence of institutional hedging by norm-enforcing institutions such as a state monopoly of violence by using…
Abstract
Purpose
The article examines strategies of human resource management in the absence of institutional hedging by norm-enforcing institutions such as a state monopoly of violence by using case studies of criminal organizations. This condition provides a test-bed for studying the effects of human relations management strategies on organizational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
For this purpose, a case study methodology is applied. Three cases are selected to build a scale from complete plasticity of an undifferentiated network via a status differentiated gang to a hierarchical organization that provides social positions. The case studies are analysed by qualitative content analysis, network analysis and agent-based simulation.
Findings
An undifferentiated network based on informal trust lacks mechanisms for conflict resolution. This is a highly vulnerable organizational structure. While a status differentiated gang is more resilient towards internal conflicts, its activities remain dependent on individually accumulated social capital. This organizational structure is not resilient over generations of actors. A hierarchical organization provides highest degree of structural resilience up to a level of a system of self-organized criticality.
Originality/value
The study of human relations management outside the legal world provides insights into the basic mechanisms and functional effects of organizational activity.
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Lídia Oliveira, Lúcia Lima Rodrigues and Russell Craig
This paper seeks to identify factors that influence the voluntary disclosure of intangibles information in annual reports of Portuguese listed companies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to identify factors that influence the voluntary disclosure of intangibles information in annual reports of Portuguese listed companies.
Design/methodology/approach
An index of the voluntary disclosure of intangibles is constructed based on analysis of the Management Report and Chairman's Letter of all 56 companies listed on Euronext Lisbon at 31 December 2003. Several hypotheses about associations between that index and eight firm‐specific variables are tested.
Findings
The voluntary reporting of intangibles is found to be influenced significantly by size, ownership concentration, type of auditor, industry and listing status in univariate analysis; and by size, industry, type of auditor, and ownership concentration (and listing status to a lesser extent) in multivariate analyses.
Research limitations/implications
This study focuses on annual reports only, and is cross‐sectional. The use of content analysis and the subjective judgment involved in constructing the index cannot be view uncritically. The small sample size is inevitable because of the small Portuguese capital market.
Practical implications
Accounting regulators will be better able to understand the factors that explain the voluntary disclosure of intangibles by firms and use this in developing future recommendations.
Originality/value
The paper validates some previous research and also provides insights to the firm‐specific factors that explain voluntary disclosure of intangibles by companies operating in the small share market of a European country in which capital market fund raising is not regarded to be an important source of financing.
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Jan G. Langhof and Stefan Gueldenberg
The article aims at examining the ethical limits and risks of servant leadership. During the Second World War, the German army officer Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is a loyal…
Abstract
Purpose
The article aims at examining the ethical limits and risks of servant leadership. During the Second World War, the German army officer Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is a loyal servant to his nation and homeland. But when he learns about the Nazis’ mass murders and crimes, he begins to have doubts about whom he should serve. Being confronted with numerous moral dilemmas, he finally decides to join a resistance group. Of course, Stauffenberg's situation as colonel and leader was an extreme case. Time and again, however, managers and leaders are faced with similar dilemmas. Indeed, the current COVID-19-crisis shows that even today’s leaders are repeatedly faced with almost insoluble dilemmas. The recent literature about ethics and leadership suggests a philosophy which is almost portrayed as a panacea to any ethical issues: servant leadership (SL). This study, however, questions the commonly held view that SL is always ethical. The purpose of our historical case study is twofold. First, this study explores the ethical challenges Stauffenberg (and other officers) faced and how they dealt with them. Second, this study elaborates on what responses (if any) SL would provide to these challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
The applied method is a historical case study, in which the authors draw on a plethora of secondary literature, including books, reports, and articles.
Findings
By analyzing the historical case of “Operation Valkyrie,” this study elaborated and identified risks and limitations of SL and pointed out ways to address these risks. In particular, SL poses risks in the case of a too narrow understanding of the term “service.”
Originality/value
While other leadership styles, e.g. transformational leadership or charismatic leadership, have been extensively studied with regard to ethical risks, in the case of SL possible risks and limitations are still largely unexplored.
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Lídia Oliveira, Lúcia Lima Rodrigues and Russell Craig
The purpose of this paper is to analyse voluntary disclosures of intellectual capital (IC) items in the sustainability reports of Portuguese companies. The paper aims to highlight…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse voluntary disclosures of intellectual capital (IC) items in the sustainability reports of Portuguese companies. The paper aims to highlight the level, pattern and determinants of IC disclosures in those sustainability reports; and the potential for sustainability reports to be a medium for IC disclosures.
Design/methodology/approach
An index of voluntary disclosure of intangibles is constructed and deployed to analyse IC disclosures in the sustainability reports for 2006 of Portuguese firms, published on the web site of the Portugal's Business Council for Sustainability Development. Four hypotheses are tested about associations between that disclosure index and firm‐specific variables.
Findings
Disclosure of information about IC is more likely in sustainability reports of firms that have a higher level of application of the Global Reporting Initiative framework, and are listed companies.
Research limitations/implications
This study is cross‐sectional. Subjective judgment is involved in constructing the disclosure index.
Practical implications
The observed level and pattern of disclosure of IC information suggests that the preparation of a sustainability report is an opportune starting point for the development of IC reporting.
Originality/value
The study highlights the determinants of IC disclosures in sustainability reports; the high incidence of such disclosures; and points to the enhancement of legitimacy and reputation as potential incentives for firms to engage in such practice.
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William M. Doerner and William G. Doerner
The aim of this paper is to examine whether accredited police agencies display higher clearance rates than their non‐accredited counterparts.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to examine whether accredited police agencies display higher clearance rates than their non‐accredited counterparts.
Design/methodology/approach
The study group consists of all municipal police departments operating continuously in the State of Florida from 1997 through 2006. Independent variables capture organizational characteristics for nearly 260 agencies to determine whether becoming accredited improves clearance rates.
Findings
Random‐effects Tobit analysis suggests that accreditation status does not affect violent and property crime clearance rates. Clearance rates are more influenced by the number of sworn personnel and law enforcement expenditures per capita.
Research limitations/implications
Much of what is currently known about the impact of accreditation stems from anecdotal and testimonial evidence. Still, the industry manages to expand and flourish. A glaring need for sound empirical research is evident.
Practical implications
Instead of advancing the protection of local communities and bringing about meaningful organizational reform, accreditation appears to be a useful tool for bureaucrats who wish to further their own careers.
Originality/value
Advocates link accreditation status to a number of benefits, including better investigatory practices that culminate in more solved cases. Recent academic work suggests that accreditation has dubious benefits, despite claims to the contrary. This study adds to that literature by showing that accreditation also fails to elevate clearance rates.
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This paper challenges and expands commonplace assumptions about problems of time and temporality in emergencies. In traditional emergency powers theory “emergency time” is…
Abstract
This paper challenges and expands commonplace assumptions about problems of time and temporality in emergencies. In traditional emergency powers theory “emergency time” is predominantly an “exceptional time.” The problem is that there is “no time” and the solution is limited “in time”: exceptional behavior is allowed for a special time only, until the emergency is over, or according to formal sunset clauses. But what is characteristic of many emergencies is not the problem of “no time” but the ways in which time is legally structured and framed to handle them. Using the Israeli High Court of Justice 1999 decision on the use of physical interrogation methods under conditions of necessity, this paper illustrates how legally significant emergency-time structures that lay beyond the problematic of exceptional time, gravely implicate the way that “exceptional measures” are practiced and regularized.
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Can Saygin and Balaji Natarajan
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) deployment at an airport baggage‐handling system (BHS).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) deployment at an airport baggage‐handling system (BHS).
Design/methodology/approach
The impact of number of RFID readers at different power levels with varying conveyor (i.e. baggage‐handling conveyors) speeds on timely delivery of baggage is studied via simulation. The layout of the BHS at the Hong Kong International Airport and data pertinent to its RFID deployment in 2005 are used to build the simulation model. The RFID read logic is based on the equations defined as a function of the number of tags and the time the tags spend in the interrogation zone for each reader in order to capture possible read‐rate issues realistically.
Findings
The identification capability of the BHS studied in this paper is a result of its combined ability to identify tags via RFID technology on straight and circulating conveyors, as well as at the manual recovery station for unidentified bags on circulating conveyors. Overall, timely delivery of bags to gates, as a performance metric, increases as the identification capability is improved. The controllable factors that affect the identification capability are the conveyor speed, which determines the time a tag stays in the interrogation zone; the reader antenna power level, which determines the size of the interrogation zone; and the number of reader antennas in the system that increases the likelihood of not missing tags. This paper shows that “the higher the number of reader antennas and the higher the power level on them, the better” approach is not correct.
Originality/value
Unlike typical simulation studies related to RFID deployment where read‐rate issues are considered to be non‐existent, this paper captures read rate in a realistic manner in the simulation model by incorporating the effect of number of RFID tags in the interrogation zone and time that RFID tags spend in the interrogation zone due to baggage conveyor speed. Such a simulation approach can be used as a system design tool in order to investigate the impact of RFID‐specific parameters on system‐level performance.
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Abstract
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