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Article
Publication date: 4 March 2021

Balkrushna Potdar, Tony Garry, Juergen Gnoth and John Guthrie

This study aims to provide empirically generated insights into the drivers of guardianship behaviour among frontline service employees (FLEs) within retail settings.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to provide empirically generated insights into the drivers of guardianship behaviour among frontline service employees (FLEs) within retail settings.

Design/methodology/approach

The research framework comprises a quantitative survey of 507 frontline service employees at national supermarkets within New Zealand.

Findings

The findings of the survey suggest that service employee perceptions of internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, their level of psychological ownership towards the supermarket and personal moral beliefs, shape their guardianship behaviours and, consequentially, the prevention of in-store deviant behaviours by customers such as shoplifting.

Originality/value

The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it offers both a conceptual foundation and an empirical-based evaluation of the antecedents and role of guardianship behaviour among frontline service employees. Second, the conceptual model derived from this research may aid practitioners in developing strategies that engender guardianship behaviours in their employees within service contexts.

Details

Journal of Service Theory and Practice, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-6225

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1996

Richard A.E. North, Jim P. Duguid and Michael A. Sheard

Describes a study to measure the quality of service provided by food‐poisoning surveillance agencies in England and Wales in terms of the requirements of a representative consumer…

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Abstract

Describes a study to measure the quality of service provided by food‐poisoning surveillance agencies in England and Wales in terms of the requirements of a representative consumer ‐ the egg producing industry ‐ adopting “egg associated” outbreak investigation reports as the reference output. Defines and makes use of four primary performance indicators: accessibility of information; completeness of evidence supplied in food‐poisoning outbreak investigation reports as to the sources of infection in “egg‐associated” outbreaks; timeliness of information published; and utility of information and advice aimed at preventing or controlling food poisoning. Finds that quality expectations in each parameter measured are not met. Examines reasons why surveillance agencies have not delivered the quality demanded. Makes use of detailed case studies to illustrate inadequacies of current practice. Attributes failure to deliver “accessibility” to a lack of recognition on the status or nature of “consumers”, combined with a self‐maintenance motivation of the part of the surveillance agencies. Finds that failures to deliver “completeness” and “utility” may result from the same defects which give rise to the lack of “accessibility” in that, failing to recognize the consumers of a public service for what they are, the agencies feel no need to provide them with the data they require. The research indicates that self‐maintenance by scientific epidemiologists may introduce biases which when combined with a politically inspired need to transfer responsibility for food‐poisoning outbreaks, skew the conduct of investigations and their conclusions. Contends that this is compounded by serious and multiple inadequacies in the conduct of investigations, arising at least in part from the lack of training and relative inexperience of investigators, the whole conditioned by interdisciplinary rivalry between the professional groups staffing the different agencies. Finds that in addition failures to exploit or develop epidemiological technologies has affected the ability of investigators to resolve the uncertainties identified. Makes recommendations directed at improving the performance of the surveillance agencies which, if adopted will substantially enhance food poisoning control efforts.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 98 no. 2/3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 July 2022

Mine Özaşçılar

Shoplifting has become a widespread crime problem worldwide. The study aims to investigate retailers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of crime prevention through environmental…

Abstract

Purpose

Shoplifting has become a widespread crime problem worldwide. The study aims to investigate retailers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)-based techniques to prevent shoplifting in Istanbul.

Design/methodology/approach

Data collection involved 370 face-to-face interviews with store managers at shopping malls in Istanbul by using a structured, self-explanatory questionnaire. The current study applies CPTED approach to measure the effectiveness of informal and formal surveillance techniques.

Findings

The results revealed that store managers perceived awareness of sales staff as the most effective CPTED-based approach to prevent shoplifting. The study identified six factors underlying perceived effectiveness of CPTED-based techniques: surveillance (informal surveillance), image/maintenance and surveillance (formal surveillance), territoriality, surveillance (formal surveillance), surveillance (mechanical surveillance) and target hardening.

Originality/value

No research to date has addressed the effectiveness of CPTED-based techniques in Turkey at shopping malls. Given the limited number of prior research, the results provide important insights regarding the perceived effectiveness of CPTED-based techniques.

Details

Safer Communities, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-8043

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 16 October 2018

Antonio Francesco Maturo and Veronica Moretti

The chapter critically analyzes the concepts and the practices of surveillance in modern and postmodern societies along with their consequences. We show the changes in the…

Abstract

The chapter critically analyzes the concepts and the practices of surveillance in modern and postmodern societies along with their consequences. We show the changes in the systems, which are used to monitor individuals, and emphasize the transition toward soft surveillance systems, probably stimulated by digital technologies. This switch from top-down control to “lateral” monitoring systems encloses surveillance practices with suggestive names like interveillance, synopticon, and dataveillance. The dark side of digital health has a bright start. According to Topol’s (2016) vision of the future, we will soon be the “consumers,” the real protagonists, of the management of our health – thanks largely to the practically endless data about our bodies, behaviors, and lifestyles we will be able to collect and analyze. We will share our health information in real time with the doctors whom we will choose based on their score in clinical rankings (here, too, quantification rears its head). Yet, this simplified version of health makes it seem that there are always some solutions, which the algorithm can supply as long as it has enough information. Moreover, in the United States, some health-insurance companies have started to offer a discount on premiums to the members who agree to collect and share self-tracking data with them. Clearly, the discount is given only to the workers who have healthy habits. At first sight, this can seem as a win-win trade-off; however, what today is presented as an individual option can easily become a requirement tomorrow.

Details

Digital Health and the Gamification of Life: How Apps Can Promote a Positive Medicalization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78754-366-9

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 20 September 2014

Patrick Rafail

Scholarship on the state control of social movements has predominately focused on overt repression, resulting in comparatively less attention to more covert forms of control…

Abstract

Scholarship on the state control of social movements has predominately focused on overt repression, resulting in comparatively less attention to more covert forms of control. Researchers have suggested that government surveillance of social movement organizations (SMOs) has become increasingly widespread and routinized in the post-September 11, 2001 era, but this hypothesis has remained untested. Since contemporary surveillance is grounded in a logic of information gathering that has diffused across law enforcement agencies since the September 11 attacks, government actors now cast a wide net and monitor a large variety of groups. This study shows that a result, traditional factors predicting surveillance, such as contentious behavior, have less explanatory power. Using a database of 409 SMOs active in Philadelphia between January 1996 and October 2009, the research asked who and why particular groups are monitored by the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security (PA-OHS) between November 2009 and September 2010. Bayesian logistic regression analysis is used to examine the variables predicting surveillance. Findings show that 23% of the SMOs in the sample were targets of surveillance. Organizational ideology was the strongest predictor and there was little evidence that history of contentious protests or previous conflict with the police influenced coming under surveillance. However, groups with less visibility in traditional media sources were more likely to be monitored.

Details

Intersectionality and Social Change
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-105-3

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 February 2008

Kevin Stenson

An industry of description and interpretation has developed around the growth of surveillance, accelerated by: the development of the internet; volatile international relations…

Abstract

An industry of description and interpretation has developed around the growth of surveillance, accelerated by: the development of the internet; volatile international relations since the collapse of communism; demographic mobility, segregation by class and ethnicity in the rich and poor worlds, sharpening inequalities, and post 9/11 fears of terrorism. Influential narratives have emphasised the diminishing power of sovereign nation-states in a marketised and globalised world. This chapter challenges the notion that coercive, sovereign modes of rule are a monarchical survival in decline. Rather, sovereign technologies of rule, in which surveillance is central involves strategies of governance from below as well as from above. They combine coercive with rhetorical, metaphorical communication and other ‘soft’ modes of rule. These make thinkable the nation-state as a discrete, defensible entity. Political communication translates between the complex technical expertise of evolving surveillance and security technologies and language intelligible to the public. Though surveillance technologies and information can be produced by commercial and other non-state sites of governance, metaphorically, much surveillance can be viewed as the extension of the eye of the sovereign. Although we are all targets of surveillance, those seen as threatening to the majority help to constitute and reproduce the social collectivity.

Details

Surveillance and Governance: Crime Control and Beyond
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-7623-1416-4

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1998

Ann Marie Wood

Explores the extent of employee surveillance in the western world and queries why the USA uses surveillance measures to a greater extent than other developed nations. Suggests…

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Abstract

Explores the extent of employee surveillance in the western world and queries why the USA uses surveillance measures to a greater extent than other developed nations. Suggests that American managers choose surveillance methods which include the control of workers’ bodies in the production process. Lists the batteries of tests and monitoring to which US employees can now be subjected – including searching employee computer files, voice/e‐mail, monitoring telephone calls, drug tests, alcohol tests, criminal record checks, lie detector and handwriting tests. Notes also the companies which are opposed to worker and consumer privacy rights. Pinpoints the use of surveillance as a means to ensure that employees do not withold production. Reports that employees dislike monitoring and that it may adversely affect their performance and productivity. Argues that Americans like to address complex social problems with technological means, there are no data protection laws in the USA, and that these two factors, combined with the “employment‐at‐will” doctrine, have all contributed to make it possible (and easy) for employers to use technological surveillance of their workforce. Outlines some of the ways employers insist on the purification of workers’ bodies.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 18 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 May 2014

Tiago Costa, Henrique Duarte and Ofelia A. Palermo

Taking into account the need to make a clearer distinction between traditional and new organizational controls, the purpose of this paper is to investigate similarities and…

1482

Abstract

Purpose

Taking into account the need to make a clearer distinction between traditional and new organizational controls, the purpose of this paper is to investigate similarities and differences between those two forms and explore the extent to which new forms of control can be operationalized from a quantitative point of view.

Design/methodology/approach

Suggesting that new organizational controls can be understood also in light of quantitative paradigms, the paper develops and tests a scale to measure the existence of this type of controls, examine its construct validity and evaluate its convergent validity.

Findings

The theoretical dimensions of new controls have empirical correspondence. Input and behaviour controls are strongly associated with the promotion of values and beliefs in organizations. New controls become responsible for employees’ acceptance of companies’ management, an aspect measured by perceived organizational support (POS).

Research limitations/implications

The study presents two challenges linked to the lack of evaluation of the possible process mediators that measure the subjectification of the individual, and to the lack of data coming from the organizational level. Limitations can be addressed by multi-level studies using measures that would avoid single variance biases. The need for companies to pay more attention to organizational discourses and to the promotion of specific values (that can enrich traditional controls), and the impact this might generate on POS and future reciprocity, are the practical implications of the study.

Originality/value

– The impact of new organizational controls can be measured by scales rather than investigated only with qualitative approaches. Furthermore, it can be observed that the promotion of values and beliefs strongly increases POS. Such dimension can reduce employees’ resistance when compared to output controls or controls based on changes in surveillance technologies and structural change processes.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 27 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 March 2023

Miral Sabry AlAshry

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent of digital surveillance by Arab authorities, which face risks and threats of surveillance, and how journalists seek to press…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent of digital surveillance by Arab authorities, which face risks and threats of surveillance, and how journalists seek to press freedom by using tools and techniques to communicate securely.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used focus group discussions with 14 journalists from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Yemen, Oman, Jordan and Egypt. While in Egypt, questionnaires were distributed to 199 journalists from both independent and semi-governmental outlets to investigate how Egyptian journalists interpret the new data protection law and its implications for press freedom.

Findings

The study indicated that journalists from these countries revealed severe censorship by their respective governments, an element inconsistent with the Arab Constitution. The recommendation of the study encourages media organisations to play a more active role in setting policies that make it easier for journalists to adopt and use digital security tools, while Egyptian journalists see the law as a barrier to media independence because it allows the government to exercise greater information control through digital policy and imposes regulatory rules on journalists.

Practical implications

The study identifies practical and theoretical issues in Arab legislation and may reveal practices of interest to scientists researching the balance between data protection, the right of access to information and media research as an example of contemporary government indirect or “soft” censorship methods.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first research contributions to analyse the relationships between Arab authoritarians who used surveillance to restrict freedom of the press after the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011 to keep themselves in power as long as they could. In addition, Egypt's use of surveillance under new laws allowed the regimes to install software on the journalists’ phones that enabled them to read the files and emails and track their locations; accordingly, journalists can be targeted by the cyberattack and can be arrested.

Details

Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, vol. 25 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-5038

Keywords

Abstract

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Work, Workplaces and Disruptive Issues in HRM
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-780-0

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