Constructions of credibility in decisions concerning unaccompanied minors

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Hedlund

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the key credibility principles used by Migration Agency case-officers in Sweden. More specifically it analyses how they construct arguments about asylum-seeking unaccompanied minors’ credibility in first-decisions. Design/methodology/approach The study is inspired by a social constructionist approach to discourse and explores how case-officers construct legally legitimate arguments about credibility. The qualitative text analysis is focused on discursive practice. The data selected for analysis consists of 827 excerpts containing case-officers’ credibility reasoning deducted from a sample of 916 decisions. Findings The main finding is that case-officers question unaccompanied minors by using argumentative techniques in which children appear to be expected to deliver detailed and coherent accounts. In addition, unaccompanied minors’ knowledge-claims can be questioned regardless of decision outcome (rejection or approval). As unaccompanied minors’ claims for asylum appear to be questioned in such an extensive manner, their humanitarian claims also seem to be reduced. The findings of this study suggest that there is a risk that the possibility to be understood as a legitimate asylum seeker, worthy of residency, can be restricted for unaccompanied minors. Practical implications The findings indicate that when case-officers base their understanding of credibility on unaccompanied children’s individual life experiences they make use of a limited repertoire of arguments. Originality/value This study contributes to insights about how case-officers fulfil legal expectations when assessing unaccompanied minors’ credibility. The findings can be of interest to both legal and social science as well policy planners and immigration practitioners.

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-202
Author(s):  
Hsiu-Yuan Tsao ◽  
Ming-Yi Chen ◽  
Colin Campbell ◽  
Sean Sands

PurposeThis paper develops a generalizable, machine-learning-based method for measuring established marketing constructs using passive analysis of consumer-generated textual data from service reviews. The method is demonstrated using topic and sentiment analysis along dimensions of an existing scale: lodging quality index (LQI).Design/methodology/approachThe method induces numerical scale ratings from text-based data such as consumer reviews. This is accomplished by automatically developing a dictionary from words within a set of existing scale items, rather a more manual process. This dictionary is used to analyze textual consumer review data, inducing topic and sentiment along various dimensions. Data produced is equivalent with Likert scores.FindingsPaired t-tests reveal that the text analysis technique the authors develop produces data that is equivalent to Likert data from the same individual. Results from the authors’ second study apply the method to real-world consumer hotel reviews.Practical implicationsResults demonstrate a novel means of using natural language processing in a way to complement or replace traditional survey methods. The approach the authors outline unlocks the ability to rapidly and efficiently analyze text in terms of any existing scale without the need to first manually develop a dictionary.Originality/valueThe technique makes a methodological contribution by outlining a new means of generating scale-equivalent data from text alone. The method has the potential to both unlock entirely new sources of data and potentially change how service satisfaction is assessed and opens the door for analysis of text in terms of a wider range of constructs.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarek El Shafeey ◽  
Paul Trott

Purpose – The field of research on resource-based competition is full of nuanced terminology and misunderstandings. This has led to confusion, and thus the authors offer a critical review, which provides a structure and clarity to this subject. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This analysis structures the literature on resources, capabilities, and competences into three distinct schools of thought: the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, the rational-equilibrium school; the dynamic capability-based view of the firm, the behavioural-evolutionary school; and the competence-based view of the firm, the social constructionist school. Findings – The authors uncover 13 criticisms of the most widely adopted theoretical framework of the RBV of the firm – Valuable-Rare-Imperfectly imitable-Organisation (VRIO). Research limitations/implications – The misinterpretation and neglect of the classic scholarly work may help to explain why the VRIO framework has been elevated from a view to a theory and why it has received so much attention. Practical implications – The authors show how the relative ease of measuring resources as compared to (dynamic) capabilities and (core) competencies has helped raise the profile of RBV. Originality/value – This analysis contributes to management research by illustrating the deviation among the three schools of thought; the authors show how this has contributed to wide terminological confusion and offer a structure to help researchers situate their work within the relevant school of thought.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 655-665
Author(s):  
Barbara Czarniawska

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to convince the readers that more complex images of working women are needed, and that fiction may provide them. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, text analysis is done using a version of close reading. Findings Both media and research tend to simplify the images of working women, either in positive or negative way. Reality and some of its fictive representations offer more nuanced examples. Research limitations/implications Fiction can be treated as field material. Practical implications Women should dare more at workplaces. Social implications Researchers should join fiction writers in convincing society of the crucial role women play in contemporary organizations. Originality/value This paper belongs to the growing tradition of transdisciplinary organization studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Stephen Walton

Purpose This paper aims to provide a brief and accessible introduction to genetics and epigenetics for forensic practitioners. It provides two primers which define key genetic concepts and explain what epigenetic mechanisms actually are. The primers are provided alongside sections that focus on genetic research relevant to forensic practice, with a range of key messages that support the call to contextualise harmful behaviour and build better awareness of gene-environment relationships. Design/methodology/approach This is an opinion paper. Findings Select and seminal studies from the genetic literature that have forensic practice relevance are cited. These include studies from candidate gene research and epigenetic research. They highlight a number of key themes, including the way neurodevelopment and behaviour are contextually adjusted to fit certain environments, with epigenetic changes being an underpinning biological mechanism that facilitates this. Research limitations/implications This article aims to introduce forensic practitioners to basic concepts in genetics and epigenetics so that they are able to engage with the relevant literature and understand the far-reaching implications for forensic practice. Practical implications It is becoming increasingly useful for forensic practitioners to appreciate how life experiences are encoded into biology through epigenetics. This paper highlights the potential of genetic and epigenetic research to provide major contributions to real-world practice in the coming years. It provides a modern biopsychosocial perspective on harmful behaviour and helps deepen the understanding of our efforts to support behaviour change. It offers ways to think of social and rehabilitative initiatives in biological terms. Originality/value This paper is one of few modern texts that focusses on the relevance of genetic and epigenetic research in applied forensic practice. It aims to introduce relevant concepts in an accessible manor. It intends to introduce biologically informed ways of understanding harmful behaviour within context and with attention to its function. It contributes to a de-pathologising narrative.


2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 177-180
Author(s):  
David Bernard-Stevens

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to get individuals understanding how to think differently about leadership and the process for creating ethical leaders with sustainable impact. Design/methodology/approach – The author uses his experience as a teacher, a state senator and his own learning experiences from studying and experiencing leadership from the top down. The author has taken concepts from his recently published book: A Leap of Faith: Going, Doing and Changing Ourselves and the World Around Us. Findings – There is a huge difference between having a position of authority and that of being a leader. One cannot lead anyone until first learning to lead one’s self. That we must shift how we think from reacting and repeating to responding and creating new possibilities. Research limitations/implications – This work is based upon the life experiences of the author. It is limited to that experience and his interpretation of what those experiences can mean for future leaders. Practical implications – These concepts can change reality for anyone both professionally and personally. These are concepts for changing ourselves and the world around us to provide meaning and joy regardless of one’s circumstance. Social implications – Create a way of thinking and a process for creating authentic, ethical leaders throughout the world whose impact will be both sustainable and resilient in the worlds of today and tomorrow. Originality/value – These are concepts taken from the author’s new book which is in the form of letters to his sons (and to us) about his life, experiences and how to be ethical leaders with lives of meaning and joy.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ed Vosselman

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it seeks to articulate a framework for different conceptions of accounting’s performativity. Second, it aims to advance a Baradian posthumanist understanding of accounting’s performativity. Design/methodology/approach The paper traces different foundational conceptions of performativity and then articulates and substantiates different conceptions of accounting’s performativity. It advances one of these conceptions by producing a Baradian posthumanist understanding of accounting’s performativity. Findings Seven conceptions of performative accountings are articulated: accounting as a (counter)performative illocution; accounting as a performative perlocution; accounting as a self-fulfilling prophecy; accounting as an overflowing frame; accounting as a controlled relational agency; accounting as a mediator; and accounting as an exclusionary practice. It is argued how a posthumanist understanding of accounting as an exclusionary practice turns accounting from a world-knowing practice into a world-making practice. As such, it should be called to account. Research limitations/implications Posthumanist qualitative accounting research that conceives of accounting as an exclusionary practice focuses on how accounting is a material-discursive practice that intra-acts with other practices, and on how there is a power-performativity in the intra-actions that locally and temporarily (re)produces meaningful positions for subjects and objects and the boundaries between them. Practical implications A posthumanist understanding teaches practitioners to be attentive to and accountable for the exclusions that come with accounting or, more generally, with measurement. Accounting raises ethical concerns. Originality/value This paper articulates different conceptions of accounting’s performativity and makes the case for empirical non-anthropocentric examinations of accounting as an exclusionary practice.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-471
Author(s):  
Jorge Cruz-Cárdenas ◽  
Jorge Guadalupe-Lanas ◽  
Ekaterina Zabelina ◽  
Andrés Palacio-Fierro ◽  
Margarita Velín-Fárez ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand in-depth how consumers create value in their lives using WhatsApp, the leading mobile instant messaging (MIM) application. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts the perspective of customer-dominant logic (CDL) and uses a qualitative multimethod design involving 3 focus groups and 25 subsequent in-depth interviews. The research setting was Ecuador, a Latin American country. Findings Analysis and interpretation of the participants’ stories made it possible to identify and understand the creation of four types of value: maintaining and strengthening relationships; improving role performance; emotional support; and entertainment and fun. In addition, the present study proposes a conceptual model of consumer value creation as it applies to MIM. Practical implications Understanding the way consumers create value in their lives using MIM is important not only for organizations that offer MIM applications, but also for those companies that develop other applications for mobile phones or for those who wish to use MIM as an electronic word-of-mouth vehicle. Originality/value The current study is one of the first to address the topic of consumer behavior in the use of technologies from the perspective of CDL; this perspective enables an integrated qualitative vision of value creation in which the consumer is the protagonist.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 378-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arian Razmi-Farooji ◽  
Hanna Kropsu-Vehkaperä ◽  
Janne Härkönen ◽  
Harri Haapasalo

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to understand data management challenges in e-maintenance systems from a holistically viewpoint through summarizing the earlier scattered research in the field, and second, to present a conceptual approach for addressing these challenges in practice. Design/methodology/approach The study is realized as a combination of a literature review and by the means of analyzing the practices on an industry leader in manufacturing and maintenance services. Findings This research provides a general understanding over data management challenges in e-maintenance and summarizes their associated proposed solutions. In addition, this paper lists and exemplifies different types and sources of data which can be collected in e-maintenance, across different organizational levels. Analyzing the data management practices of an e-maintenance industry leader provides a conceptual approach to address identified challenges in practice. Research limitations/implications Since this paper is based on studying the practices of a single company, it might be limited to generalize the results. Future research topics can focus on each of mentioned data management challenges and also validate the applicability of presented model in other companies and industries. Practical implications Understanding the e-maintenance-related challenges helps maintenance managers and other involved stakeholders in e-maintenance systems to better solve the challenges. Originality/value The so-far literature on e-maintenance has been studied with narrow focus to data and data management in e-maintenance appears as one of the less studied topics in the literature. This research paper contributes to e-maintenance by highlighting the deficiencies of the discussion surrounding the perspectives of data management in e-maintenance by studying all common data management challenges and listing different types of data which need to be acquired in e-maintenance systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 755-770
Author(s):  
Maria Krambia-Kapardis

Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop a profile of whistleblowers and to determine whether whistleblowing legislation would encourage those individuals to bring to light some illegal or unethical behaviour that otherwise would remain in the shadows. Design/methodology/approach Having identified whistleblowing correlation, a survey was carried out in Cyprus of actual whistleblowers and could-have-been whistleblowers. Findings Males between 46 and55 years of age, regardless of whether they have dependents or hold senior positions in organizations are significantly more likely to blow the whistle. However, could-have-been whistleblowers did not go ahead because they felt that the authorities would not act on their information. Research limitations/implications Because of the sensitive nature of the research topic and the fact that only whistleblowers or intended whistleblowers could participate in the study, the sample size is limited as a result. This, in turn, limits both the number of respondents in each category (actual and intended) as well as constrains the statistical analysis that could be carried out on the data. Practical implications It remains to be seen whether EU Member States shall implement the European Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union Law, in its entirety by the due date, namely December 2021. Originality/value This study provides a literature review of whistleblowing and reports an original survey against the backdrop of the European Directive.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 29-31

Purpose Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings The problem with developing a reputation of being something of an oracle in the business world is that all of a sudden, everyone expects you to pull off the trick of interpreting the future on a daily basis. Like a freak show circus act or one-hit wonder pop singer, people expect you to perform when they see you, and they expect you to perform the thing that made you famous, even if it is the one thing in the world you don’t want to do. And when you fail to deliver on these heightened expectations, you are dismissed as a one trick pony, however good that trick is in the first place. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.


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