Understanding Deviance in a World of Standards

Standards have become widespread regulatory tools that promote global trade, innovation, efficiency, and quality. They contribute significantly to the creation of safe, reliable, and high-quality services and technologies to ensure human health, environmental protection, or information security. Yet intentional deviations from standards by organizations are often reported in many sectors, which can either contribute to or challenge the measures of safety and quality they are designed to safeguard. Why then, despite all potential consequences, do organizations choose to deviate from standards in one way or another? This book uses structuration theory—covering aspects of both structure and agency—to explore the organizational conditions and contradictions under which different types of deviance occur. It also provides empirical explanations for deviance in organizations that go beyond an understanding of individual misbehaviour where mainly a single person is held responsible. Case studies of software developing organizations illustrate insightful generalizations on standards as a mechanism of sensemaking, resource allocation, and sanctioning, and provide ground to rethink corporate responsibility when deviating from standards in the ‘audit society’.

1991 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-62
Author(s):  
Irene Hughson

Summary This paper examines the horse carvings to be found on Class I and Class II Pictish sculptured stones and considers their reliability as evidence of the sort of horses and ponies that would have existed in the Early Historic Period. An attempt is made to show that the availability in Britain of good sized, high quality riding horses during that period is not inconsistent with what is known of the development and distribution of different types of horses in pre-hislory. The importance of horses and ponies in Early Historic societies is stressed and inferences drawn about the agricultural economy that could support horses and the skilled specialists required to look after them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 105-110
Author(s):  
LAKEN H.A. ◽  
AHMED. Y. ALI ◽  
INAAM H. KADHIM ◽  
MOHAMMED R. KAHLIL ◽  
NASIR HUSSAIN

Global Jurist ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayalew Abate

Abstract This article argues that the bulk of the bilateral investment treaties (BITs) that Ethiopia has ever concluded, to regulate its bilateral foreign investment relations, don’t contain an environmental provision that require investing corporations to discharge responsibility towards environment and there is a pressing call for either to re-negotiate, update or engage in concluding of environmental side agreements (ESA). To substantiate the argument the trends of BIT making is assessed, the status of Ethiopian BITs have been evaluated through content analysis, environmental responsibility of Ethiopia has been examined both from domestic and international perspective, relevant reasons for the regulation of environment in foreign investment through BIT have been discussed and justifications for the need to renegotiate, update or make ESA in Ethiopia have been highlighted.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
V Bartelink ◽  
D Yacaman Mendez ◽  
A Lager

Abstract Issue Public health problems and interventions are often addressed in sub-optimal ways by not prioritizing them based on the best available evidence. Description of the Problem The public health report 2019 for the Stockholm region aims to inform decision makers, politicians, and public health workers about the risk factors and diseases that account for the biggest part of the burden of disease with a clear focus on high quality evidence and communication of main messages. How did the public health report 2019 affect public health policy in the Stockholm region? Results The public health report 2019 influenced agenda setting, resource allocation and priority setting in the Stockholm region. Lessons We identified the following facilitating factors in the process, of which most also are supported in scientific literature, in chronological order: 1) understanding the policymaking context to be aware of windows of opportunity, 2) establishing relationships with relevant policymakers, engage with them routinely in the decision-making process, and being accessible for questions, 3) doing high-quality research by considering the latest scientific literature, multiple data sources and involving academic experts in the field, 4) communicating clear and relevant messages for generalists by translating research into easy-understandable texts and attractive figures, and 5) active dissemination of the report through multiple channels. In addition, the following barriers were identified: 1) the timeframe of the policymaking process was not in line with the research process, and 2) involving politicians in an early stage can potentially harm the objectivity of research in media messages. Key messages By focussing on major problems, high quality evidence and clear messages a public health report can contribute to more evidence-informed policy making. Engaging decision makers in the process of public health reporting is critical for the impact on agenda setting, resource allocation, and priority setting.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-29
Author(s):  
Manjinder Kaur

This study tends to shed light on early childhood care and education (ECCE) institutions with special reference to kindergartens in Fukuoka, Japan. The choice of the topic for study was derived by the importance of ECCE in children’s life and huge economic growth of Japan after worst effects of world war-II, which are thought to be linked with the education that children receives in Japan. The study is limited to four kindergartens in Fukuoka City and observations made for the study refers to 2018. Herein, different types of institutions providing ECCE, their infrastructural set-up, activities, along with curriculum are discussed. At the end, issues and challenges of ECCE system in Japan are discussed. It has been observed that the infrastructural facility and nature of activities are of high quality. Each and every care is being taken to inculcate habits, as well as to maintain physical and intellectual growth of children. The children seem to be highly happy and enjoy learning via various activities in these schools. It is clear that the devised policies on education and care of children are implemented in full spirit.


2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (03) ◽  
pp. 244-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael F. Drummond ◽  
J. Sanford Schwartz ◽  
Bengt Jönsson ◽  
Bryan R. Luce ◽  
Peter J. Neumann ◽  
...  

Health technology assessment (HTA) is a dynamic, rapidly evolving process, embracing different types of assessments that inform real-world decisions about the value (i.e., benefits, risks, and costs) of new and existing technologies. Historically, most HTA agencies have focused on producing high quality assessment reports that can be used by a range of decision makers. However, increasingly organizations are undertaking or commissioning HTAs to inform a particular resource allocation decision, such as listing a drug on a national or local formulary, defining the range of coverage under insurance plans, or issuing mandatory guidance on the use of health technologies in a particular healthcare system. A set of fifteen principles that can be used in assessing existing or establishing new HTA activities is proposed, providing examples from existing HTA programs. The principal focus is on those HTA activities that are linked to, or include, a particular resource allocation decision. In these HTAs, the consideration of both costs and benefits, in an economic evaluation, is critical. It is also important to consider the link between the HTA and the decision that will follow. The principles are organized into four sections: (i) “Structure” of HTA programs; (ii) “Methods” of HTA; (iii) “Processes for Conduct” of HTA; and (iv) “Use of HTAs in Decision Making.”


Author(s):  
Ilias Fountoulakis ◽  
Panagiotis Kosmopoulos ◽  
Kyriakoula Papachristopoulou ◽  
Panagiotis-Ioannis Raptis ◽  
Rodanthi-Elisavet Mamouri ◽  
...  

Cyprus plans to drastically increase the share of renewable energy sources from 13.9% in 2020 to 22.9% in 2030. Solar energy can play a key role in the effort to fulfil this goal. The potential for production of solar energy over the island is much higher than most of European territory because of the low latitude of the island and the nearly cloudless summers. In this study, high quality and fine resolution satellite retrievals of aerosols and dust, from the newly developed MIDAS climatology, as well as information for clouds from CMSAF are used in order to quantify the effects of aerosols, dust, and clouds on the levels of surface solar radiation (SSR) and the corresponding financial loss for different types of installations for production of solar energy. An SSR climatology has been also developed based on the above information. Ground-based measurements were also incorporated to study the contribution of different species to the aerosol mixture and the effects of day-to-day variability of aerosols on SSR. Aerosols attenuate 5 – 10% of annual GHI and 15 – 35% of annual DNI, while clouds attenuate ~25 – 30% and 35 – 50% respectively. Dust is responsible for 30 – 50% of the overall attenuation by aerosols.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 454-478
Author(s):  
Andrzej Bukała ◽  
Michał Koziarski ◽  
Bogusław Cyganek ◽  
Osman Koç ◽  
Alperen Kara

Histograms of oriented gradients (HOG) are still one of the most frequently used low-level features for pattern recognition in images. Despite their great popularity and simple implementation performance of the HOG features almost always has been measured on relatively high quality data which are far from real conditions. To fill this gap we experimentally evaluate their performance in the more realistic conditions, based on images affected by different types of noise, such as Gaussian, quantization, and salt-and-pepper, as well on images distorted by occlusions. Different noise scenarios were tested such anti-distortions during training as well as application of a proper denoising method in the recognition stage. As underpinned with experimental results, the negative impact of distortions and noise on object recognition with HOG features can be significantly reduced by employment of a proper denoising strategy.


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