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This study aims to describe and analyze the differences in the linguistic styles of honest and dishonest stories.

This paper uses a descriptive study with a multivariate analysis of linguistic categories according to the story. The research analyzed 37 honest stories and 15 dishonest stories produced during actual legal proceedings through software Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC).

The authors find that individuals who engage in deception use a different number of words when they narrate facts. The results suggest a need for additional investigation of the linguistic style approach because of its high applicability and detection accuracy. This approach should be complemented by other types of verbal, nonverbal and psychophysiological deception detection techniques.

Among the limitations, the authors consider length of the stories should be considered and scarce scientific literature in Spanish to compare with outcomes in English.

This research highlights the relevance to include linguistic style in real contexts to differentiate honest and dishonest stories due to objectivity and agility to implement.

Understanding deception as a social behaviour and its psychological processes associated are elements that contribute to people and justice to comprehend it.

Analyzing real statements and discriminate differences in linguistic style, contribute to understand deeply this important behaviour to propose new methodologies and theories to explain it.

An ecologically sustainable future calls for fruitful dialogues between spirituality, modern science and policymaking at large. What could be that connects them all? We found out that ideas about holism exist across time, space, culture and thinkers – ranging from mathematics, philosophy, sociology, medicine, education, religion and quantum physics to finding its roots in ancient Indian Vedic tradition and later usage in Greek and Roman cultures.

This chapter takes a look at the history and intricacies of two seemingly distinct but interconnected fields – spirituality and modern science, particularly quantum science – with an aim to uncover what these fields can teach us about the idea of holism. This chapter, therefore, highlights one of the most fundamental and profound spiritual principles of the unity and interconnectedness of the entire universe – encapsulated in the concept of holism – and its practical applications in approaching sustainable development. We hope to ignite further research on this topic.

Wisdom is a very difficult construct to work with in research and practice. One reason for this is that wise people can deal with metaphysical questions and experience spiritual phenomena, both of which are hard to measure meaningfully. Although metaphysical and spiritual matters are not imponderable, they have significant measurement problems that are also part of the shortcomings of standard social science statistical frameworks. A second reason is that for many wisdom theorists, wisdom is context-dependent because wisdom is defined by and responds to what its context presents to it. We can therefore argue that wisdom is essentially context, which in quantum physics is theorised as a superposition of random variables that interact. This chapter, therefore, ponders the ‘immeasurable’ from the perspective of quantum-like social science and quantum theory to render wisdom, including its spirituality component, in formal mathematical models. The mathematical formalism of quantum physics allows for the presence of metaphysical phenomena in its ontological foundations and its mathematical models. This chapter, therefore, also presents an argument for understanding wisdom from the superposition perspective and, in particular, the internal interactions between random variables contained within it. If the challenge of measuring wisdom as a nondeterministic system is met, we may finally have an opportunity to measure wisdom in ways that embrace wisdom's complex ontology. A third reason is that wisdom depends on people making first-person subjective judgements. Subjectivity is central to many interpretations of quantum theory, and we can borrow the analytical formalism used in quantum physics for wisdom research. Finally, the chapter discusses future approaches to empirical wisdom research that adopt quantum-like social science methods.

For a successful search, all members of the client–headhunter–candidate trio need to step up to the plate. How can clients better prepare for and engage in the search process? What are the current limits of client engagement and their rights vis-á-vis the headhunter? We explain why headhunting is different from recruitment, and why procuring executive search is as serious as other assets. We reveal the depth of questioning and bias management that it takes to reveal and attract the right candidate. We propose five points to build into the profile of the leader of the future. We next take a look at the clients of executive search firms – who come in all shapes and sizes. Van Eijck distinguishes four groups: multinationals, family businesses, private equity firms and public institutions. A tour signals points of attention for each group regarding a search process and some key points that apply across the spectrum – for example, how wildcard candidates can compromise a search process, the persistent problem of “no pay no cure” and why an appointment doesn’t always guarantee success. Finally, we move to the world of the executive candidate. Many make errors (also of judgment) when building their CVs. A seasoned headhunter can easily spot these. We present the keys to forging a robust story, working effectively with an executive search consultant and conclude with the features of the modern educational and work environment that can get in the way of a career.

An earlier form of this chapter by the author was published in Dutch in “Bestemming Boardroom: over zoeken en gevonden worden” (Boom, Amsterdam, 2018).

The role of local authorities is crucial in addressing the essential needs of communities, and they possess the right to impose property taxes on all properties within their territory. Property taxes are levied on all properties, contributing to approximately 60% of the local authority’s finances. However, their role in this policy is not frequently understood, primarily in executing property tax reassessment. Hence, this paper aims to reveal property tax reassessment implementation and identify its key challenges.

The latest tone of the list record was extracted from the local government division, Ministry of Housing and Local Government Malaysia, to answer the research objective. The data were received on November 2021 by email. Furthermore, through the literature review, the most significant challenges in property tax reassessment were identified, compared and presented.

The results highlight that property tax reassessment implementation in West Malaysia is at the level of concern where only two councils have the latest tone of the list. However, larger councils have a higher performance compared to smaller councils. The findings also reveal various challenges in property tax reassessment, such as insufficient human resources, inadequate property systems and software and lack of financial capacity. Others include a shortage of competent assessors, lower public education, political interference and socioeconomic uncertainty.

This study offers practical implications to policy and decision-makers in the West Malaysian local authorities. Despite inferior performance by West Malaysian local authorities, there is a need for conducting property tax reassessment activity to ensure the quality and uniformity of the assessment. This study suggests that local government stakeholders and managers should devote more attention to formulating long-term plans and promoting the property tax reassessment practice. The property tax reform could solve the current situation of substandard reassessment activity.

This study explains, compares and interprets the actual statistical data through the figures and summarises the challenges of property tax reassessment activity among local authorities.

Much prior work involving director incentives and corporate behaviour has been focussing on their absolute dollar value or the intrinsic value and generated mixed findings. Comparison theories, however, suggest that the relative value of an incentive may be the main drive for individual performance. This study attempts to investigate the role of director relative pay in promoting the board’s intervention with unrelated diversification decisions.

The analysis uses data from firms operating in more than one segment during the period from 1999 to 2019. Data were obtained from WRDS databases. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis and the two-stage system generalized method of moments (GMM) were run to test the hypotheses. To test the robustness of the findings, alternative proxies for the key independent variables were used in separate analyses.

The results support the hypothesis that unrelated diversification negatively impact firm performance, while higher director relative pay will help reduce unrelated business diversification. The absolute director pay, however, has no significant impact on corporate strategic choices. The results also highlight the moderating effect of director overcompensation. Director overcompensation will cancel out the impact of relative director pay on unrelated diversification.

This study takes a fresh theoretical perspective by framing the investigation using the dimensional comparison theory to address the single untended comparison framework in the director pay structure – the intra-individual framework. It is the first to investigate the role of director relative pay in corporate strategic choices. The findings support the contention that the relative value of the incentive is an important indicator of the effectiveness of the pay.

In this final chapter, we explore the ever-evolving 21st century landscape where ethics drive community development toward resilience and progress. Drawing inspiration from the subheadings mapping our journey, we traverse international case studies spanning Canada, Brazil, Sweden, Kenya, China, Australia, Antarctica, and India. Through these global insights, we uncover the impacts of dynamic forces on communities worldwide, navigating ethical dilemmas and opportunities. We present strategies tailored to diverse continent-specific needs, explore inclusive governance models, and highlight the transformative power of ethical engagement. This journey underscores the vital role of resilience and concludes with a global call to embrace ethical approaches for inclusive community development and a sustainable future.

With the increasing popularity of online courses, their quality has become a public concern. Based on the perspective of knowledge management, this study aims to identify comprehensive and granular quality factors of online courses and analyze the relationships between the factors.

Following the principles of the grounded theory, interpretive structural modeling and cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis methods, this research uses reviews and comments garnered from Zhihu, which is the most popular online question-and-answer community in China, to conduct the analysis.

Based on the text data, 50 factors that potentially affect the quality of online courses are obtained. The analysis identifies the hierarchical relationships and dependent correlations between the factors.

The research uses the knowledge transformation model to classify content elements according to their degree of descriptiveness and provides practical and effective suggestions for improving the quality of online courses.