bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The many approaches to organisational misbehaviour
Authors: Richards James 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to re‐map the neglected phenomenon of organisational misbehaviour (misbehaviour) by reflecting the many approaches taken on this emergent field of study, and articulate a revised research agenda.Design/methodology/approachBoth preceding and recent empirical and theoretical research papers are discussed and possible overlap and convergence of findings are examined. The discussions mainly surround studies from industrial sociology and organisational behaviour, yet studies from industrial relations and gender studies are also considered. From the re‐assessment, a revised map and research agenda for misbehaviour is produced.FindingsMore research should be directed towards humour and its uses in contemporary organisations, why managers break the rules, the internet as a tool and framework for defiant activities, informal and hidden employee identities as a framework for self‐organised misbehaviour, functional misbehaviour and informal strategies used by employees to survive work. Further work is required to unify the field and suggestions are made on how this may be achieved.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is based on a re‐assessment of the extant literature and the findings reflect the broadly problematic matter of reconciling incongruous paradigms.Practical implicationsThe paper puts forward a revised and updated map of organisational misbehaviour. It also offers insights which managers can use to deal with a broad range of misbehaviour conducted within and outwith the workplace.Originality/valueThe paper provides a new map that goes beyond previous articulations of misbehaviour. The revised research agenda attempts to guide future research on the subject of misbehaviour in a more balanced direction.
Help wanted? Employers' use of temporary agencies in the UK construction industry
Authors: Forde Chris , MacKenzie Robert , Robinson Andrew 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics between employers' use of temporary agency workers and the aspirations of agencies to expand their role further within organisations.Design/methodology/approachThe study focuses on the construction sector in the UK. A mixed methods approach is employed comprising a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews with construction employers.FindingsConstruction employers' use of temporary agency workers remains driven by “traditional” reasons, to meet short‐term peaks in demand and for one‐off tasks. Construction employers have widespread reservations about the use of temporary agency workers. There is little evidence of an expansion in the range of tasks or managerial functions being performed by agencies in construction. Together, these findings point to limits to the inexorable expansion of temporary agencies in the sector.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research is needed to assess the extent to which these reservations surrounding agencies, and the limits on the expansion of agencies that these reservations imply, are applicable to sectors outside construction.Practical implicationsEmployers' lack of appetite for agency workers stem from perceived problems of quality of agency labour and a desire to maintain control over production. These reservations suggest that agency aspirations to increase their role and functions further in the construction sector are likely to be frustrated.Originality/valueMuch research has pointed to the growth of agency working in recent years. The principal value of this research is in highlighting the potential limits to the inexorable expansion of agency working. The paper also reveals employers' reservations towards agencies, which have been neglected in the literature to date.
Coping with discipline
Authors: Sandoff Mette , Widell Gill 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to put forward examples of disciplinary practices, i.e. to interpret Foucault's ideas with data collected from today's working‐life in schools and prisons. Besides describing disciplinary practices the intention is to describe how individuals cope with the dilemmas that follow. On the grounds of the analysis a discussion about the tension between freedom and docility and different individuals’ strategies for coping with this tension is also promoted.Design/methodology/approachData are collected from teachers in schools and warders in prisons. The empirical question relates to how disciplinary practises are expressed and the dilemmas that follow. In the analysis the concepts of Foucault, time, space and visibility, as relations of power, are used.FindingsThe article shows examples of disciplining and the dilemmas following from disciplining, both at individual and organisational level. Encountering new demands in their work, teachers tend to stick harder to their profession while warders tend to freely use their life experiences to develop their work. One conclusion is that freedom may be easier when individual values and organisational values are in coherence with one another, and docility is more often used when they differ.Originality/valueThat there are tensions between individuals’ striving for freedom and organisations’ striving for their disciplining is no news but on the grounds of the empirical data dilemmas and how teachers and warders cope with them in their work are described. The data also encourage further discussion while it brings findings of different ways of coping, for example when it comes to professionals and non‐professionals.
A well‐being model of small‐scale microenterprise development to alleviate poverty
Authors: Alam Choudhury Masudul , Shahadat Hossain Mohammad , Solaiman Mohammad 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThe paper's purpose is to present and empirically validate a learning model of participatory grassroots development among the poor and needy in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThe approach used is conceptual modeling and its empirical validation for a case study of poor women's sewing project in an interior village of Chittagong, Bangladesh.FindingsA perpetual charity‐fund with endogenous values and productive transformation of the needy at the grassroots can prove to be an effective approach to socioeconomic development.Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical validation can be enhanced with more data being generated with experience in the women's sewing project in the near future.Practical implicationsThis is a policy‐oriented paper with practical ways and means‐test for implementation in development planning.Originality/valueA formal modeling of grassroots development premised on human resource development and perpetual charity‐fund for financing and their empirical validation is presented. Such an approach is not presently found in the hierarchical models of development planning. It should be included for making development meaningful as the grassroots. Particular reference is made here to Bangladesh development planning.
Are you unhappy? Then you are poor! Multi‐dimensional poverty in Belgium
Authors: Dekkers Gijs J.M. 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThis paper aims to present a multi‐dimensional measure of poverty. The proposed method has been applied to the Panel Set of Belgian Households dataset for Belgium for the years between 1994 and 2000.Design/methodology/approachFirst, a common model is decided upon by exploratory factor analysis, and applied by confirmatory factor analysis. Cluster analysis (CA) is then used to separate the multi‐dimensional poor. Finally, the possible causes of multi‐dimensional poverty are surfaced by estimating a discrete duration model.FindingsThe proposed method reveals three dimensions of poverty: “material deprivation”, “social deprivation” and “psychological health”. Between 9 and 11 per cent of the representative sample of Belgian individuals are poor. The paper also identifies causes of poverty, including not having a job, not having the Belgian nationality, having a poor health or a disability, being lower educated, experiencing financial poverty, being divorced or widowed, living in the Walloon or Brussels regions, and having a bad psychological health.Research limitations/implicationsResearch implications include the use of polychoric and tetrachoric correlations as a starting point of factor analysis, as well as the combination of factor analysis and CA.Originality/valueThe paper proposes an alternative multi‐dimensional measure of poverty. It argues that previous measures may suffer from categorisation errors and suggests a solution to this problem. The advantages of the proposed method are that all information is used to disentangle the poor from the non‐poor and that dimensions of poverty are defined using the correlations between deprivations. Finally, the paper identifies “psychological health” as one of the dimensions of poverty.
Neo‐liberalism, risk and regional development in Western Australia
Authors: Pick David , Dayaram Kandy , Butler Bella 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThis paper aims to present the case of the Pilbara as an illustration of how neo‐liberalism and globalisation affect a natural resource region.Design/methodology/approachA primary data set was collected by interviewing 21 people who had an interest in the development of the Pilbara. Secondary data was collected from relevant government policy documents and media reports relating to the region. Qualitative analysis techniques were used to analyse the data.FindingsIt is found that neo‐liberal policy has had a profound and largely negative effect on Pilbara communities. Rather than reaping the benefits of the wealth being generated in the region, participants in this research experience social breakdown and unmet social needs, and the local democratic institutions are weak and ineffective. Research limitations/implications – This paper reports on a single case and is limited in terms of its generalisability. However, it does illustrate the value of the “Resource Curse Thesis” and the concept of “risk” in illuminating the issues associated with neo‐liberalism.Practical implicationsThis research has practical implications in that it provides an example of the problems associated with neo‐liberal perspectives when they are used as a framework for developing and implementing regional policy.Originality/valueThe resource curse thesis tends to be used in analysing developing nations and risk has so far been applied in limited areas of researching the effects of neo‐liberal policy trajectories. This paper employs these concepts to provide a critical examination of regional development policy in a way that can be used in other national contexts.
Escaping from the economy: the politics of degrowth
Authors: Fournier Valérie 
Published: October 2008

PurposeWhilst there is a growing recognition of environmental degradation, the policies of sustainable development or ecological modernisation offered by national governments and international institutions seem to do little more than “sustain the unsustainable”. By promising to reconcile growth with the environment, they fail to question the economic principle of endless growth that has caused environmental destruction in the first place. In this context, alternatives based on critiques of growth may offer more promising grounds. The aim of this paper is to explore how the degrowth movement that emerged in France over the last decade resonates with, and can contribute to, green politics.Design/methodology/approachAfter locating the movement within environmental politics and providing a brief account of its development, the paper focuses on its core theme – escaping from the economy.FindingsHere it is argued that the movement's main emphasis is not merely on calling for less growth, consumption or production, but more fundamentally, in inviting one to shift and re‐politicise the terms in which economic relations and identities are considered. This politicisation of the economy is discussed in terms of the movement's foregrounding of democracy and citizenship, and it is argued that the articulation of these two concepts may offer interesting points of departure for conceptualising and practising alternatives to consumer capitalism.Originality/valueThe final part of the paper explores how the degrowth movement's stance on democracy and citizenship could help address two problematic issues within environmental politics: that of inclusion, and motivation
Islamophobia: examining causal links between the state and “race hate” from “below”
Authors: Frost Diane 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThis paper's aim is to examine whether there is a causal link between “race” hate, particularly Islamophobia (defined as anti‐Muslim feeling and violence based on “race” and/or religion), and government treatment of Muslim communities in Britain in recent years.Design/methodology/approachThe paper looks at recent legislation and other state controls to deal with terror activities.FindingsThe paper argues that government policy towards Muslim communities, including policies developed to deal with suspected terrorists has some responsibility for cultivating a hostile climate towards such communities. Moreover, this generalised hostile environment allows “race” hate and violence to thrive among sections of Britain's male white working class communities, especially where disaffection, socio‐economic exclusion and challenges to traditional forms of masculinities is evident.Practical implicationsThe paper demonstrates that “race” hate and routine attacks on Muslim communities appears to be increasing and needs to be addressed by developing strategies that are inclusive of all disadvantaged communities.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the literature on “race” hate by examining these theories in the light of recent and ongoing terror attacks and their impact on Muslim communities in Britain.
Islamophobia: examining causal links between the media and “race hate” from “below”
Authors: Frost Diane 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThe paper's aim is to examine whether there is a causal link between “race” hate, particularly Islamophobia (defined as anti‐Muslim feeling and violence based on “race” and/or religion), and media treatment of Muslim communities in Britain in recent years.Design/methodology/approachThe paper looks at the reporting of terror activities and examines the way the media (tabloid press) constructs racists news.FindingsThe article discusses some of the themes developed in a previous paper that looked at government policy towards Muslim communities by examining the media campaign directed against Muslims within this broader political context. The implications for the cultivation of “race” hate are considered.Practical implicationsThe paper demonstrates that “race” hate and routine attacks on Muslim communities appear to be increasing and needs to be addressed by developing strategies that are inclusive of all disadvantaged communities, racism, “war on terror”, working class.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the literature on “race” hate by examining these theories in the light of recent and ongoing terror attacks and their impact on Muslim communities in Britain.
The S‐shaped labor supply schedule: evidence from industrialized countries
Authors: Dessing Maryke 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to critically review the literature to assess the relevance of the S‐shaped model of family labor supply for industrialized countries.Design/methodology/approachStudies use a wide variety of methodologies and therefore are not readily comparable, but instead they cover a wide range of relevant factors such as historical trends, fringe benefits and home mortgages, ethnic differences, farm labor, low‐income households, child care, the impact of welfare benefits, and the problem of the measurement of work hours.FindingsIn spite of welfare systems that blur somewhat the predicted income effect at lower wage levels (forward falling segment primarily for women), this model appears to still bear some relevance for these countries, in particular in the face of declining real wages. Families have generally moved up higher along that curve, with less differentiated gender roles, women's stronger labor force attachment, and assortative mating of educated women.Originality/valueThe model is mostly relevant for LDCs and has far‐reaching practical consequences, while the review highlights the complexity of labor supply in industrialized countries.
Foreign direct investment, financial markets, and political corruption
Authors: Kholdy Shady , Sohrabian Ahmad 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether foreign direct investment (FDI) can stimulate financial development in countries with corrupt dominant élites. Financial markets have not been expanded in many developing countries despite their proven positive effect on economic growth. Although three voluminous and parallel lines of research investigate the impact of financial markets, FDI, and political corruption on economic growth, no research up to now has examined the combined effect of foreign investment and corruption on financial development.Design/methodology/approachTo investigate the causal links, a multivariate Error Correction Model (ECM) is applied on a sample of 22 developing countries, over the period of 1976‐2003.FindingsOverall, the study provides some preliminary evidence that FDI may jump‐start financial development in developing countries. Furthermore, the results indicate that most of the causal links are found in developing countries which experience a higher level of corruption in the form of excessive patronage, nepotism, job reservations, “favor‐for‐favors”, secret party funding, and suspiciously close ties between politics and business.Research limitations/implicationsThe study, however, does not provide any evidence that FDI can reduce political corruption. Much additional theoretical and empirical research is needed to explore whether FDI can influence political and economic traditions and stimulate financial markets.Originality/valueThe study is the first empirical attempt to examine the causal link between FDI and financial markets in interaction with political corruption.
Inflation and inflation uncertainty: evidence from the Caribbean region
Authors: Payne James E. 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to extend the literature on the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty by examining three Caribbean countries: the Bahamas, Barbados, and Jamaica.Design/methodology/approachARMA‐GARCH models are used to estimate inflation uncertainty along with Granger‐causality tests to infer the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty.FindingsThe results reveal that both the Bahamas and Jamaica exhibit a high degree of volatility persistence in response to inflationary shocks, while Barbados has a much lower persistence measure. Granger‐causality tests indicate that an increase in inflation has been a positive impact on inflation uncertainty for each country. However, an increase in inflation uncertainty yields a decrease in inflation in the case of Jamaica. In summary, the results for the Bahamas and Barbados support the Friedman‐Ball hypothesis, whereas the results for Jamaica support Holland's stabilization‐motive hypothesis.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research on inflation and inflation uncertainty can be extended to incorporate possible regime shifts associated with fiscal and monetary policy.Originality/valueThe study fills a void in the literature with respect to the inflation‐inflation uncertainty nexus for Caribbean countries. The results of the paper may be useful to policymakers in the formulation of fiscal and monetary policy.
The banking sector, economic growth and European integration
Authors: Ferreira Cândida 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThis paper seeks to contribute to the study of the link between financial intermediation and economic growth in the context of the European Union and particularly in the context of the integration of new member‐states.Design/methodology/approachPanel fixed and dynamic Arellano‐Bond estimates (with balanced panels) were used to explain and compare the influence of financial intermediation with the real per‐capita GDP growth in two sub‐sets of EU countries: the first one takes into account the availability of quarterly data and comprises 11 “old” EU countries, excluding Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland and Sweden, for the period between Q2 1980 and Q4 1998; the second panel includes 24 EU countries (excluding only Luxembourg) for the period between Q2 1999 and Q4 2002. The existing empirical evidence was enhanced by introducing some financial variables to explain the real per‐capita GDP growth, namely, the real domestic credit growth, the real foreign liabilities growth, the real growth of the sum of the bonds and money market instruments, in addition to two ratios: bank assets/bank liabilities and domestic credit/bank deposits.FindingsThe results obtained confirm the importance of these variables to the real per‐capita GDP growth and allow one to draw conclusions on some differences in the behaviour and the level of integration of the two groups of EU countries. There is a relatively more homogeneous behaviour in the first panel, while the results for the second panel indicate that, in spite of the relative heterogeneity and the differences in their historical evolution, all the countries have had to adapt rapidly to the increasing competition and to the new EU market conditions.Originality/valueThe paper confirms the influence of financial systems on output growth, as well as the efforts of financial institutions to adapt to the new conditions of the European and global markets in spite of all the differences in the historical evolution and initial conditions among EU member‐states.
Efficiency in public infrastructure provision: a theoretical note
Authors: Colombier Carsten 
Published: October 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to shed new light on the debate about the appropriateness of the Kaizuka rule, a Samuelson type of efficiency rule for public inputs, for the provision of firm‐augmenting public inputs. Firm‐augmenting public inputs are commonly included in public infrastructure modelling.Design/methodology/approachIn the microeconomic social surplus framework, and assuming perfect competition, the paper analyses how firm‐augmenting public inputs should be provided in order to maximise the welfare of consumers and producers. For this purpose, the paper develops a social surplus efficiency rule, i.e. the Boadway rule. Afterwards the question what the characteristics of firm‐augmenting public inputs mean for its efficient provision is examined.FindingsThe findings show that under perfect competition an omniscient government is unable to efficiently provide firm‐augmenting public inputs due to the characteristics of firm‐augmenting public inputs but not due to inappropriate efficiency rules.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings show that future research would be ill advised to model public infrastructure as a firm‐augmenting public input.Practical implicationsPolicy conclusions drawn from models that include firm‐augmenting public inputs, such as fiscal competition and endogenous growth models, should be reconsidered.Originality/valueThe paper makes a strong case that firm‐augmenting public input is not a viable concept for modelling public infrastructure. Rather, firm‐augmenting public inputs are similar to free goods.