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Public police professionals must deal with complex and disruptive social, political and organizational environments. This fact highlights the key role that leadership can play in effectively managing their work, while also ensuring their well-being. The aim of this research is to analyze the influence of laissez-faire versus authentic leadership on the work engagement of police professionals, considering the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of resilience and self-efficacy.

Structural equation modeling and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were used in a sample of 184 public police professionals.

The results show that emotional exhaustion partially mediates the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement, and fully mediates the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and work engagement. Moreover, resilience moderates the relationships between authentic leadership, emotional exhaustion and work engagement; and self-efficacy moderates the relationships between laissez-faire leadership and emotional exhaustion and between laissez-faire leadership and work engagement.

This study highlights that constructive leadership is an important driver of positive experiences at work; it is necessary to change from passive to constructive leadership; and it is important for the combination of psychological resources and positive leadership to improve police professionals’ well-being.

This paper aims to provide an in-depth examination of culturally and linguistically diverse older adults’ perceptions of and experiences with the Toronto Police Service to inform the development of a training curriculum for police officers working with older persons.

A qualitative descriptive study using virtual focus groups with 26 older adults from Toronto was conducted.

Three main themes emerged: understanding intersectionality; the impact of police officer attitudes and biases; and the need for age-friendly policing. Although many older adults rely on police services to keep them safe, there is dissatisfaction with some aspects of how police interact with older adults, particularly from minority groups.

Participants were older adults from culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse backgrounds who are not usually included in studies on improving police services.

The smart sustainable cities (SSC) concept has a wide acknowledgement amongst governments and societies that deal with emerging technology and help in developing better urban communities. However, the fact that citizens' participation (CP) is not adherent to the current policies and governance often boosts their aspirations of decision-making to become smart cities. This paper aims to identify SSC variables and, more importantly, rank, categorise and discuss the factors towards implementing SSC by engaging, empowering and enabling citizens to participate in the urban development of SSC.

A comprehensive literature review identified 38 factors in the CP process. Those factors were used to design an online questionnaire administered to the respondents. A total of 164 valid responses were collected. A two-stage statistical analysis was adopted. First, the Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to rank and prioritise the importance of the factors that affect the current policies and agenda. Second, factor analysis was utilised to categorise and group those factors.

This study founds four significant factors that help in implanting SSC: “knowledge of smart sustainable cities”, “awareness of smart sustainable cities”, “willingness of the citizens to participate” and “opinion on the current agenda of the government's role”.

This study has a few limitations which can be considered in future studies. First, the response rate of the participant is relatively low (163), so sampling a larger segment will support the broader perception of the citizens.

The outcome of this paper underlines the need for the successful implementation of smart cities by adopting CP in the process of impacting policies and governance. Particularly, it identifies factors that help cities and policymakers in engaging CP in developing new policies and revising existing policies for promoting SSC.

There is a need to investigate the most critical factors that influence CP for implementing SSC. These factors have not been adequately examined in extant literature.

Cannabis as a recreational drug is prohibited in Nigeria. Consequently, the open use of cannabis attracts both formal and informal sanctions. As such, there is much stigma on users' faces across social spaces. This has led to innovations in drug use. Recently, non-medical use of tramadol has been rising across each of the gender categories. This study aims to understand (1) tramadol use prompts, (2) the sudden surge in gendered recreational use of tramadol and (3) the gendered challenges of recreational tramadol use among Nigerian university students.

Data were collected between December 2021 and October 2022. The researcher conducted 20 semi-structured interviews, with participants chosen purposefully from acquaintances and others selected through chain referral. The selection criteria included knowledge of a particular tramadol tablet and willingness to participate. This study got ethical approval from the Anambra State Ministry of Health (Ref: MH/AWK/M/321/354) and oral consent was obtained before the interviews. The participants were assured of confidentiality. The interviews were conducted in English (the formal Nigerian language) and lasted between 30 and 65 min. The data collected were transcribed and coded manually, and themes generated.

Findings suggest that peer pressures accounted for entry-level drug use. However, cannabis-related stigma is attributed to the surge in tramadol use across gender categories. Furthermore, academic pressure and sexuality are major reasons for tramadol use. The challenges associated with tramadol use include headaches and addiction.

This study, to the best of the author’s knowledge, presents alternative data on the surge in tramadol use among Nigerian university students.

This paper delves into a pivotal juncture within the co-production literature, intersecting with the ongoing debate about performance challenges in public sector accounting scholarship. It explores how public managers conceive and measure the performance of co-produced public services.

A case study is conducted on three instances of neighbourhood watching – that is, a type of collective co-production – in a homogeneous institutional setting. The analysis and interpretation of empirical data are guided by a systematic conceptual space delineating the qualities that performance criteria can take in contexts where public services are produced.

Findings reveal that when the co-production activation is driven by both state and lay actors, public managers tend to conceptualise and measure its performance in a way that contributes to building a more structured co-productive space, where the roles to play, how to interact and what to achieve are clearly defined.

This paper breaks new ground by scrutinising the conceptualisation of performance in settings where public services involve actors beyond traditional public administrations. By exploring the diverse “shapes” and meanings that performance can take in co-production arrangements, this paper enriches discussions on how public sector accounting can inform co-production literature.

Patriotism is often described as the “love of country” that individuals display in the acclamation of their national community. Despite the prominence of this sentiment in various societies around the world, organizational research on patriotism is largely absent. This omission is surprising because entrepreneurs, human resource (HR) divisions, and firms frequently embrace both patriotism and patriotic organizational practices. These procedures include (among other interventions) national symbol embracing, HR practices targeted toward military members and first responders, the adulation of patriots and celebration of patriotic events, and patriotic-oriented corporate social responsibility (CSR). Here, the authors argue that research on HR management and organization studies will likely be further enhanced with a deeper understanding of the national obligation that can spur employee productivity and loyalty. In an attempt to jumpstart the collective understanding of this phenomenon, the authors explore the antecedents of patriotic organizational practices, namely, the effects of founder orientation, employee dispersion, and firm strategy. It is suggested that HR practices such as these lead to a patriotic organizational image, which in turn impacts investor, customer, and employee responses. Notably, the effect of a patriotic organizational image on firm-related outcomes is largely contingent on how it fits with the patriotic views of other stakeholders, such as investors, customers, and employees. After outlining this model, the authors then present a thought experiment of how this model may appear in action. The authors then discuss ways the field can move forward in studying patriotism in HR management and organizational contexts by outlining several future directions that span multiple levels (i.e., micro and macro). Taken together, in this chapter, the authors introduce a conversation of something quite prevalent and largely unheeded – the patriotic organization.

The construction industry in emerging economies have suffered from productivity issues related to poor resource management as a result of theft. Therefore, this study aims to carry out an exploratory factor analysis of the key causes of theft in the construction industry in Nigeria.

The methodology entailed a review of the literature which identified 58 causes of construction theft. The causes were operationalized through a Likert-scale questionnaire survey, which was revised in a pilot study with ten industry experts. The questionnaire was further distributed to experienced construction professionals in Nigeria. A total of 63 respondents participated in the study, and the results were analyzed through an exploratory factor analysis.

A Kruskal–Wallis test showed no difference in perception of the various group of respondents, while Cronbach alpha test indicated an acceptable level of internal consistency and reliability. The top causes from the literature review were determined through descriptive statistics. However, a Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measurement resulted in the exclusion of ten causes, and exploratory factor analysis yielded twenty causes in six dominant factors that together account for 55.7% of the variance. The six dominant factors were general theft prevention measures, site security measures, site layout planning, management of materials and equipment, construction project management and policy and safety management.

The limited amount of research on construction site theft in emerging construction environments such as Nigeria contributes to poor construction productivity. This study advances our knowledge of construction site theft and is of significant value to construction stakeholders in effective material and resource management through theft mitigation measures.

Organizations are increasingly joining inter-organizational networks to foster sustainable employability for their employees. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors and mechanisms central to their success as experienced by key stakeholders.

An explorative, qualitative approach was adopted, using four focus groups with network coordinators (N = 18) and HR professionals (N = 14). Fourteen Dutch inter-organizational networks were represented. Respondents were recruited through purposive and snowballing sampling techniques. Thematic analysis was applied using open coding to generate themes.

The results of this study outline environmental, structural, and inter-personal factors and mechanisms that contribute to the success of inter-organizational networks that aim to foster sustainable employability for their employees. The environmental factors and mechanisms consist of challenges stemming from the labor market. The structural factors and mechanisms include: a network’s flat structure, flat fee, lack of informal rules, the allocation of roles and expectations for stakeholders and shared network activities. Lastly, the inter-personal factors and mechanisms are: communication among stakeholders, establishing reciprocity, interaction and collaboration between stakeholders, the valuation of trust, a convivial culture and shared vision among stakeholders. The dynamics between these factors and mechanisms are compared to other forms of inter-organizational networks. Furthermore, several recommendations for network coordinators and practitioners regarding the development of networks are presented.

This study provides insights into the factors and mechanisms that are regarded by stakeholders as influencing the success of inter-organizational networks in their ability to foster sustainable employability for workers. We have identified a unique model that captures this new way of inter-organizational collaboration and builds on insights from literature on collaborative governance regimes, institutional fields and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Specifically, the model provides a framework that consists of environmental, structural and interpersonal factors and mechanisms for network success. This study increases our understanding of how collaborative efforts can be fostered beyond organizational boundaries and existing Human Resource Management practices.