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Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the complex interplay between the media, school shootings and society from the perspective of mediatization of the victim. In mediatization of the victim, the media, in a crisis, plays a key role in connecting people, disseminating information, compiling a security-related picture and providing for potential new emergencies.

Design/approach – The chapter draws on Winfried Schulz's (2004) typology for the analysis of mediatization of the victim in the multidimensional manner. It examines how mediatization works in practice by applying Schulz's typology in the analysis of the two school shootings in Finland in Jokela in 2007 and in Kauhajoki in 2008. The empirical material consists of interviews with police, state and municipal officials and people from non-governmental organizations. Media materials (electronic and print) were collected from the major Finnish media houses and several state and community official web sites.

Findings – The chapter argues that the media shapes the construction of the victim in the process of mediatization and makes the role of victim and witness both central and ambiguous. The chapter concludes by drawing upon the work of French sociologist Luc Boltanski (1999) on morality, media and politics as it identifies the ways in which mediatization engages the affective potential of the spectator and evokes a specific disposition to act upon the suffering, thus, creating a moralizing effect on the spectator.

Originality/value – The chapter produces new theoretical and empirical knowledge on the complex interplay between the media, school shootings and society by discussing it from the perspective of the victim. Consequently, it contributes in deepening our understanding of the process of mediatization and the place of the victim in it in the case of violent crisis such as school shootings.

This book contributes to the current academic discussion on school shootings by analysing this contemporary phenomenon in a broader context of media saturation in contemporary social and cultural life. We argue that in order to understand school shootings as a cultural and sociological phenomenon, we need to analyse this type of public violence from a variety of academic perspectives. By drawing on a range of empirical analyses of different school shooting incidents in the United States, Germany, Finland, and Canada, the authors in this volume demonstrate the diverse ways in which the media and school shootings are connected in contemporary society. Numerous frameworks are applied in these original analyses, including media violence, journalism, visual culture, and social networking. Our shared goal is to understand the complex interplay between media, society and school shootings, and certainly how this interaction is carried out in a range of cultural and societal contexts and settings.

Klas Backholm is post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Developmental Psychology at Åbo Akademi University, Vaasa, Finland.

Relationship learning is viewed as an important factor in enhancing competitiveness and an important determinant of profitability in relationships. Prior studies have acknowledged the positive effects of interorganizational learning on performance, but the performance measures applied have varied. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between interorganizational learning and different types of performance. The paper also goes beyond direct effects by investigating the moderating effects of different research designs.

This paper applies a meta-analytic approach to systematically analyze 21 independent studies (N = 4,618) to reveal the relationship between interorganizational learning and performance.

The findings indicate that interorganizational learning is an important predictor of performance, and that the effects of interorganizational learning on performance differ in magnitude under different research conditions.

The paper focuses on interorganizational learning, and during the data collection, some related topics were excluded from the data search to retain the focus on learning.

The study evinces the breadth of the field of interorganizational learning and how different research designs affect research results. Moreover, this meta-analysis indicates the need for greater clarity when defining the concepts used in studies and for definitions of the concepts applied in the field of interorganizational learning to be unified.

This study is the first to meta-analytically synthesize literature on interorganizational learning. It also illuminates new perspectives for future studies within this field.

History-based trade books are an essential classroom option for social studies and English teachers. Professional organizations in history, social studies, English, reading and literature promote these engaging, age-appropriate secondary sources. Research suggests that misrepresentations appear often within history-based curricula, yet the majority of empirical studies have been completed on textbooks. The purpose of this paper is to examine the historical representation of Thomas Jefferson within trade books.

The data sample included trade books targeting various ages to make comparisons within and between grade ranges; the authors selected books published in distinctly different years to examine how Jefferson’s historical representation changed over time. The mixed methods content analysis used both open coding and axial coding.

Findings included sanitized versions of slavery at Monticello and omissions of his relationship with Sally Hemings. Date of publication, particularly those published after 1999 as new scientific evidence emerged linking Hemings and Jefferson, and intended audience shaped patterns of representation about Jefferson’s privileged social position, authorship of the Declaration of Independence, political philosophy and involvement in the American Revolution, to mention a few. Heroification, a common historical misrepresentation, did not appear.

Limitations included: uneven portions of the data pool as children’s and young adult trade books were not common in early and mid-twentieth century; organization of books by grade range is problematic due to inexact nature of ranking narratives’ complexity; and definitive conclusions cannot emerge from a single study. Future research should consider how trade books represent other historical figures, particularly slave-owning American presidents.

Practical suggestions, such as how to address misrepresentations using primary sources, are offered.

Thomas Jefferson, undoubtedly an impactful American, is frequently included in elementary, middle level and high school curriculum. The authors examined Jefferson’s historical representation within trade books.

The authors analyzed the relationship between learning orientation (LO) and performance in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) by investigating the moderating role of environmental dynamism to answer the need for systematic research of models between LO and firm performance (FP).

The authors investigated the (in)direct relationship between LO and FP. The authors collected data from 182 MSMEs operating in technology parks (TPs) in Poland. The authors used two methods in the quantitative empirical research. The authors used linear regression models to test the hypotheses, which allowed for a global assessment of relationships among all analyzed variables. Dynamic capabilities (DCs) framework guided the study.

The study results show that FP benefits from LO-related behaviors. LO is an important stimulant of FP. Meanwhile, the authors did not classify market dynamism (MD) as a moderator of the LO-FP relationship.

By design, the authors surveyed only MSMEs open to participate in the survey, which potentially limits generalizability. Furthermore, future researchers may consider other types of strategic orientations (SOs) to further explain the impact of multiple SOs on FP in specific industries.

This article presents arguments that allow for recognizing LO as a strategic organizational factor shaping FP.

No genre of news reporting generates the same pressures as covering trauma. Multiple casualty incidents, such as the school shootings that are the subject of this volume, challenge reporters to find words for the results of actions that might more naturally be described as unspeakable. To paraphrase MacDuff's reactions to the murder at the court of MacBeth in Shakespeare's play, what take place in the familiar, supposedly safe and mundane settings of school classrooms and corridors are horrors that neither ‘heart nor tongue can conceive of’. For journalists such incidents raise acute ethical and practical dilemmas about how to approach and interview victims and survivors in ways that are less likely to add unnecessarily to their distress. Then there are the news choices which have to be made: how does one produce narratives that are informative and compelling but that avoid playing into the agendas of the perpetrators or inspiring copycat behaviour? And on top of that – what responsibilities do news editors owe the public in assisting them to digest information which may tear through their assumptions that the world is, for the most part, a stable and orderly place?

Taking an evidence from social exchange theory, this research examines the mediating role of affective commitment in the correlation between internal branding, employee engagement and job satisfaction. The moderating role of work environment on the link between internal branding and affective commitment is also studied in this research.

The data were collected by using well-structured research measures from 215 employees working in the BPO sector of India (Punjab and Chandigarh). The hypotheses were developed, and the conceptual model was validated by applying structural equation modeling. The data were analyzed by using two statistical packages, namely SPSS and AMOS.

The findings suggest that internal branding has a significant positive relationship with employee engagement, job satisfaction and affective commitment. The mediating effect of affective commitment on the relationship between internal branding and employee engagement was full, whereas on the relationship between internal branding and job satisfaction, it was partial. Work environment also moderated the relationship of internal branding with affective commitment.

The current study offers significant lessons to management thinkers, human resource (HR), organizational branding and marketing manager. However, BPO sector should be aware about the critical role played by internal branding to enhance affective commitment, employee engagement and job satisfaction of the employees. The role of affective commitment is also taken into account to study the effect of internal branding on employee engagement and employee's job satisfaction. For itself, internal branding cannot be considered as in isolation and is doubtful to be efficacious if the work environment is not encouraging to an employee as well as to the brand values.

This study offers significant lessons to management thinkers, HR, organizational branding and marketing manager. However, BPO sector should be aware about the critical role played by internal branding to enhance employee engagement, job satisfaction and affective commitment of the employees. An important role of affective commitment is also taken into account to study the effect of internal branding on employee engagement and employee's job satisfaction. For itself, internal branding cannot be considered as in isolation and is doubtful to be efficacious if employees are not provided an encouraging work environment.

Existing researches on internal branding are theoretical in nature and overlook the empirical impact of internal branding on employee engagement, job satisfaction and affective commitment from the BPO employees' perspective. The study also offers an empirical examination of potential mediator and moderator for internal branding.