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This research investigates the politics of smiling as a central driver for employees to navigate power dynamics within the prevailing discourse at a Japanese retailer in Hong Kong. Existing critical management studies emphasize power in organizational language, often neglecting the role of employees’ emotions in sustaining discourse. This paper examines employees’ smiles as tools for legitimizing (sensegiving) and interpreting (sensemaking) discourse. It explores how the use of their emotional display influenced the outcome of the company’s attempt to legitimize discourse. This research divides the discourse process into five phases: formation, codification, implementation, monitoring and adaptation.

Using the critical sensegiving and sensemaking approach, this paper discusses how employees’ interpretations of corporate policies shape the perpetuation of dominant discourse and outcomes. Data were collected through the author’s long-term participant observation in the Hong Kong branches of Japanese retailers.

The formation phase discusses the emergence of a dominant discourse favoring Japanese practices in the company’s Hong Kong operations. Codification involves the conceptualization of standard smiles in customer service policies. In practice (implementation, monitoring and adjustment), employee smiles serve as tools for negotiating power—shaping careers, earnings and shift preferences. This paper argues that this discourse shapes organizational norms while employees’ sensemaking influences the discourse implementation. Furthermore, this paper highlights the transnational impact of Japanese culture in Hong Kong, which has shaped the way Japanese top management and local employees interpret the dominant discourse.

This study demonstrates the importance of discussing the display of emotions and employees’ intentions to understand their impact on the outcome of discourse implementation. This study also reiterates the significance of discussing the influence of one culture on another to understand the broader social context that affects the perpetuation of discourse.

Among the Somalis living in the diaspora, there is a growing number that are returning or are interested in returning to Somalia for personal, economic and political reasons. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential impact the diaspora has on the future of Somalia by understanding the anticipatory assumptions held by young Somali-Canadians. This research will also examine the role that Soomaalinimo [1] (Somali identity) plays in the transnational ties that diasporic individuals keep with their country and its people.

Using an indigenist research approach, this paper explores the evolution of Soomaalinimo over time in a way that is culturally informed and decolonial. Young Somali-Canadians in two cities (Toronto and Edmonton) were given an opportunity to define Soomaalinimo for themselves and create scenarios of how it might evolve in the future for their great-grandchildren. An analysis of these scenarios reveals anticipatory assumptions that shape how they think about the future.

Three distinct futures scenarios emerged, and this research revealed three key anticipatory assumptions held by the participants: Somalia will always be home; returning to Somalia is important to maintain Soomaalinimo; and it is the responsibility of the previous generations to transmit Soomaalinimo to future generations. These anticipatory assumptions are examined and an analysis of the implications on decolonizing futures is presented.

This study expands the conceptualization of the future of a country to include the diaspora and uses the concept of anticipatory assumptions to reveal some of the potential implications of this group.

The purpose of this paper is to nurture reflections on the colonization of the future in the present with a particular focus on Africa. This paper aims at exploring how participatory research and particularly anticipatory action research can contribute to a decolonising process.

Considering the future as a public good, this paper develops a reflection on the colonization processes that can turn it into a club or a private good. This paper mobilizes the notions of participatory knowledge production and local action research as a way to decolonize the future and empower imagination. This paper revisits the tenets of participatory action research as a means to achieve this objective and discusses the main features of a non-colonial anticipatory action research in the context of African futures.

This paper highlights the challenges associated with connecting anticipatory endeavours focusing on action research, the creation of collective intelligence and co-design, with the intention of encouraging the decolonisation process. It includes design principles and anticipates a possible process of counter-decolonization.

This is a conceptual paper, which does not provide field-tested evidence. Yet, the authors hope it serves as an input enabling to design methodologies that will prevent the colonisation of the future when engaging in future-oriented research activities in Africa and elsewhere.

This paper provides an integral approach to the colonisation of the future, as a renewed old question. This paper also connects this process with a reflection on the nature of what could be non-colonizing anticipatory action research.

Maneno mengi yanayohusu haki za binadamu na haki za kiteknolojia hayajatafsiriwa katika lugha ya Kiswahili. Kwa hivyo, wataalamu wa teknolojia na watetezi wa haki za kidijitali hutumia maneno ya Kiingereza – hata bila utohozi – wanapozungumzia haki za kiteknolojia. Hali hii ya mambo inachangia udhoofu fulani katika utetezi wa haki za kidijitali kwani wanaojaribu kueleza jamii umuhimu wa haki hizi hulazimishwa kutegemea msamiati wa Kiingereza usiyo na msingi au viungo na lugha ya Kiswahili Katika makala hii, tutazungumzia umuhimu wa kukaribisha watu kutumia lugha za Kiafrika kwenye mtandao.

Kiswahili ni lugha ya Kiafrika inayozungumzwa katika eneo zaidi sana duniani. Karibu watu milioni mia moja na arobaini Afrika mashariki wanazungumza Kiswahili kama lugha yao ya kwanza au ya pili, miongoni mwao Wakenya na Watanzania, wenyeji wa nchi ambamo Kiswahili ni lugha ya kitaifa. Tena kuna historia ndefu ya kutumiwa kwa lugha ya Kiswahili katika uandishi, uchapishaji na ubunifu wa utamaduni wa kisasa. Kiswahili pekee yake ndiyo lugha ya asili ya Kiafrika inayotumika kama lugha ya maalum ya Umoja wa Mataifa za Kiafrika. Hata hivyo, kwa upande wa matumizi ya Kiswahili, hasa kwenye mada ya teknolojia, Kiswahili imewachwa nyuma.

Zaidi ya maneno rasmi, uwepo wa lugha za Kiafrika ni muhimu kuimarisha jumuiya za Kiafrika mtandaoni kwani lugha inalenga sana haki na utambulisho wa watu. Miradi za kutafsiri maneno za kiteknolojia katika lugha ya Kiswahili inahimiza jumuiya za Afrika Mashariki kuunda jamii inayosimamia matakwa yao vyema. Makala hii basi inazingatia umuhimu wa lugha kwenye kuunda jamii na katika hatua za kuondoa mbinu za kikoloni mtandaoni ili wenyeji wa Afrika Mashariki wajione mtandaoni kwa ujumla wao wote. Makala pia itazingatia semiotiki ya lugha katika ubunifu wa teknolojia, na umuhimu wa kutafsiri jamii ya lugha ya Kiswahili katika harakati za kuondoa ukoloni katika ubunifu huu. Lakini sio tu kwamba lugha ya Kiswahili ndio pekee inayoweza kuondoa mbinu za kikoloni mtandaoni, kwani pia lugha hiyo ina ishara za kutawalwa kwa jamii fulani. Bali makala hii inatumia mfano wa Kiswahili kuhimiza utumiaji wa lugha za kiasili au za kimama mtandaoni ili kulinda mustakabali wa kidijitali wa umma.

Umuhimu wa makala hii ni kuashiria jipya umuhimu wa lugha katika harakati za kuendeleza haki za kidijitali na hasa kuondoa mbinu za kikoloni kwenye teknolojia, swala lisilowahijadiliwa katika lugha ya Kiswahili.

This paper analyzes the effects of the monetary stance on the media's favorable (or otherwise) attitude to the State Bank of Vietnam's (SBV) monetary policy using monthly data from 2011 to 2021. Monetary stance is a multivariate index based on the growth rates of money supply and domestic credit. A large set of articles published in five Vietnam daily newspapers are utilized to construct a view of the media's favorableness to the monetary policy.

This paper uses hand-collected data from 211 articles published in five newspapers from December 2011 to September 2021 in order to examine the relationship between the monetary stance and the media's favorableness to monetary policy. Following the studies of He and Pauwels (2008) and Xiong (2012), the authors constructed a multivariate stance index to capture most of the important changes in the SBV's monetary policy stance.

The study's main findings are that a change in monetary stance from easing to neutral/tightening, or from neutral to tightening, is greatly appreciated by the media. The study's findings are robust, especially in terms of alternative measures of the media's favorableness and monetary policy variables.

These findings have important policy implications for implementing SBV's monetary policy.

The main contribution of this paper is that the authors are the first to study the nexus of multivariate monetary stance and the media's favorableness to a central bank's non-inflation-targeting mandate. In particular, the study’s findings confirm that the SBV's multivariate monetary stance affects the media's favorableness, whereas the effect of inflation is statistically insignificant.

This study aims to examine the moderating effect of media exposure and media legitimacy on the environmental audit committee (EAC) regarding environmental disclosure quality as measured by voluntary and timely disclosure.

This paper was based on a sample of 81 French nonfinancial companies listed on the SBF 120 index and covered a six-year period; from 2014 to 2019. To test the hypotheses, a feasible generalized least squares regression was applied. Moreover, the authors checked the results using an additional analysis and the generalized method of moment model for endogeneity problems.

The results obtained show that for 482 French firm-year observations during the period 2014–2019, the media exposure does not play a moderating role between the EAC and the voluntary environmental disclosure; However, it plays a moderating role between the EAC and the timely environmental disclosure. The results also show that media legitimacy plays a moderating role between the EAC and the quality of environmental information. After testing for endogeneity problems, the findings remain unchanged.

The findings of this study may be of interest to academic researchers, practitioners and regulators who are interested in determining the quality of environmental disclosure by considering the role of the EAC while giving a role to media exposure and media legitimacy in the French context. Considering the EAC as a powerful source of effective corporate governance to improve the quality of environmental disclosure for decision-making, the research provides valuable insights for policymakers and managers on the importance of this mechanism and the importance of the environmental media and its tone in making environmental reporting useful and relevant.

The originality of the work lies in the fact that it is one of the first works that deal with the moderating effect of media exposure on the relationship between the EAC and the quality of environmental information disclosure measured by voluntary and timely disclosure. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous empirical studies have been conducted on this relationship in the French context or in other contexts.

L'objectif visé est de nourrir les réflexions sur la colonisation du futur dans le présent en mettant particulièrement l’accent sur le continent africain. Nous visons à explorer comment la recherche participative, et plus particulièrement la recherche-action anticipatoire, peut contribuer au processus de décolonisation effective.

Considérant le futur comme un bien public, nous mobilisons une réflexion sur les processus coloniaux qui l’ont transformé, à bien des égards, en bien de club ou en bien privé. Nous faisons ensuite appel aux notions de production participative de connaissances et de recherche-action locale comme moyens de décoloniser le futur et de libérer l'imagination. Nous revisitons ensuite les principes de la recherche-action participative pour atteindre cet objectif et nous examinons les principales caractéristiques d'une recherche-action anticipatoire non coloniale dans le contexte des futurs de l'Afrique.

Nous mettons en évidence les défis issus de la relation entre les efforts d'anticipation axés sur la recherche-action, la création d'une intelligence collective et la co-conception (codesign), dans le but d'encourager le processus de décolonisation. Cette démarche inclut des principes de conception, établit les bases pour un processus anticipatoire, potentiellement décolonial et envisage une possible réaction du système dominant à l’encontre de ce processus de décolonisation.

Il s’agit d’un travail conceptuel, qui ne fournit pas d’éléments testés sur le terrain. Toutefois, nous espérons que cela constituera un apport permettant de concevoir des méthodologies qui préviendront la colonisation du futur lors de la participation à des activités de recherche tournées vers les futurs en Afrique et ailleurs.

Nous proposons une approche intégrale de la colonisation du futur, comme renouvellement d’une question ancienne. Nous articulons également cette démarche autour d’une réflexion sur la nature de ce que pourrait être une recherche-action anticipatoire décoloniale.

This study develops a computational method to investigate the predominant language styles in political discussions on Twitter and their connections with users' online characteristics.

This study gathers a large Twitter dataset comprising political discussions across various topics from general users. It utilizes an unsupervised machine learning algorithm with pre-defined language features to detect language styles in political discussions on Twitter. Furthermore, it employs a multinomial model to explore the relationships between language styles and users' online characteristics.

Through the analysis of over 700,000 political tweets, this study identifies six language styles: mobilizing, self-expressive, argumentative, narrative, analytic and informational. Furthermore, by investigating the covariation between language styles and users' online characteristics, such as social connections, expressive desires and gender, this study reveals a preference for an informational style and an aversion to an argumentative style in political discussions. It also uncovers gender differences in language styles, with women being more likely to belong to the mobilizing group but less likely to belong to the analytic and informational groups.

This study provides insights into the psychological mechanisms and social statuses of users who adopt particular language styles. It assists political communicators in understanding their audience and tailoring their language to suit specific contexts and communication objectives.

This study reveals gender differences in language styles, suggesting that women may have a heightened desire for social support in political discussions. It highlights that traditional gender disparities in politics might persist in online public spaces.

This study develops a computational methodology by combining cluster analysis with pre-defined linguistic features to categorize language styles. This approach integrates statistical algorithms with communication and linguistic theories, providing researchers with an unsupervised method for analyzing textual data. It focuses on detecting language styles rather than topics or themes in the text, complementing widely used text classification methods such as topic modeling. Additionally, this study explores the associations between language styles and the online characteristics of social media users in a political context.

This study investigates the validity of Ferreira et al.’s (2020) Organizational Bullshit Perception Scale by examining its distinctiveness from similar constructs (perceptions of organizational politics, organizational cynicism, procedural justice) and its predictive validity through its relations with important organizational attitudes (organizational identification) and behaviors (counterproductive work behavior and organizational citizenship behavior). This study also examines the moderating effects of honesty–humility on the relations between organizational bullshit perception and the outcomes of counterproductive work behavior, organizational citizenship behavior and organizational identification. Finally, this study examines the incremental validity of organizational bullshit perception in predicting counterproductive work behavior, organizational citizenship behavior and organizational identification above and beyond similar constructs in an exploratory fashion.

Survey data were collected from a sample of working adults online via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform across two waves (final N = 323 for wave 1 and 174 for wave 2), one month apart.

The results indicate that organizational bullshit perception, as measured by Ferreira et al.’s (2020) scale, represents a distinct construct that has statistically significant relations with counterproductive work behavior, organizational citizenship behavior and organizational identification, even after controlling for procedural justice, organizational cynicism and perceptions of organizational politics. The results, however, showed no support for honesty–humility as a moderator.

These findings suggest that organizations can benefit from assessing and working to alleviate their employees’ perceptions of organizational bullshit. This construct predicts behaviors and attitudes important for organizational functioning.

This study adds to Ferreira et al.’s (2020) original work by demonstrating organizational bullshit perception’s distinctiveness from existing constructs in the literature and its implications for organizations and their employees.

The study investigates factors like media, tribal, religious and party politics' influence on Nigerias’ 2023 presidential election choice. It confirms dominant social media platforms and examines their influence on election polls, e-participation and political candidate choice. The main objectives of this study are to: investigate if tribal, religious and party politics affect the respondent’s choice of a presidential candidate, ascertain the respondent's most used social media platform for political engagement and determine how social media platforms influenced the election polls during the 2023 Nigerian presidential election.

A sample size of 384 registered voters was used to survey three states in Southeast Nigeria hinged on the technological acceptance model, the instrumentalist theory of ethnicity and the theory of reasoned action.

The study found that tribal politics did not influence political candidates during the 2023 Nigerian presidential election. However, religious and party politics influenced their choices as well as X (Twitter), found as the most used and most influential social media platform vital for enhancing participatory democracy and informing people at real-time.

The researchers experienced challenges such as ensuring that the respondents filled the questions appropriately to reduce the number of void questionnaires and a funding problem since they had yet to receive any grant to enhance the study.

The study commends improved Internet connectivity and accessibility among the citizens for increased political engagement on social media. It also recommends that the Nigerian government enforce the rule of law in politics to enable diverse tribes and religions to experience democratic e-participation and development without marginalisation or subjugation by incumbent power. The findings affirm that social media is apt in political communication during the 2023 presidential elections in Nigeria. The study is a contribution to knowledge, timely and original.