Identity, self-story and desistance from crime

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin O'Sullivan ◽  
Richard Kemp ◽  
David Bright

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to lay the groundwork for a narrative study of desistance that is both qualitative and quantitative. Design/methodology/approach – The review traces the strands of research that have made self-story an important theme in the study of desistance with particular reference to work since 2001. Findings – The importance of an agentic self-story in the process of desistance from crime came to prominence in the work of Shadd Maruna (1997, 2001). Since then authors have attempted to formulate: first, an integrated theoretical view of desistance incorporating agency; and second, a clinically useful understanding of how self-story is important. The clinical studies have almost always been qualitative, relying on extensive life history interviews which yield great richness of detail but few, if any, testable hypotheses. To date, such studies have not provided the empirical foundation on which to develop policy in correctional environments. Practical implications – If it is found that a measure of self-belief correlates with desistance from crime, it may be possible to devise psychological interventions to enhance and change self-belief. Originality/value – The paper proposes adding a quantitative approach to the measurement of self-concept in order to estimate the likelihood of desistance.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine Vaughan ◽  
Kim Maund ◽  
Thayaparan Gajendran ◽  
Justine Lloyd ◽  
Cathy Smith ◽  
...  

Purpose This study aims to address the research gap about value in the holistic discourse of creative placemaking. It identifies and synthesises the often discounted social and environmental values of creative placemaking along with typically emphasised economic values. Design/methodology/approach This paper builds upon two research phases; first, a review and extraction of creative placemaking value indicators from relevant current urban, cultural and planning literature; and second, the identification of relevant, practice-based, value indicators through interviews with 23 placemaking experts including practitioners, urban planners, developers and place managers from the two largest cities of NSW, Australia; Sydney and Newcastle. Findings This study identifies three broad thematics for valuing creative placemaking along with several sub-categories of qualitative and quantitative indicators. These indicators reveal the holistic value of creative placemaking for its key stakeholders, including expert placemakers, designers, building developers, government and community groups. A key conclusion of the research is the need for tools that grasp the interconnected, and at times conflicting, nature of placemaking’s social, economic and environmental outcomes. Originality/value While a variety of value indicators exist to understand the need for ongoing resourcing of creative placemaking, stakeholders identified the limitations of current approaches to determine, represent and appraise the value of creative placemaking. The indicators of value proposed in this research consolidate and extend current discourse about the value of creative placemaking specifically. The indicators themselves have profound practical implications for how creative placemaking is conceived, executed and evaluated. Theoretically, the study builds on the deep relationships between values and practice in creative placemaking, as well as critiquing narrow forms of evaluation that entrench economic benefits over other outcomes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 2198-2214
Author(s):  
Jin-Soo Lee ◽  
Chia-Hao Chiang

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore a multidimensional quality scale for the identification of incentive travel attributes. Design/methodology/approach The combined qualitative and quantitative method was used. Findings The resulting quality scale comprises 32 items with eight factors: image and attractions, accessibility, site environment, hotel facilities, opportunities for networking and sense of achievement/reward, program, specially arranged program and local people. Practical implications The results of this study provide insights for practitioners in Taiwan, particularly the government bodies concerned and incentive event organizers, and thus assist the practitioners in making strategic plans and decisions to ensure event quality and overall attendee satisfaction. Originality/value The value of this study is the first attempt to develop and validate a scale for capturing the quality of incentive events.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ciara O’Higgins ◽  
Tatiana Andreeva ◽  
Nekane Aramburu Goya

Purpose This paper aims to identify what international management challenges professional service firms (PSFs) face and why they face them. Design/methodology/approach This study carries a focussed thematic literature review of 102 empirical articles. This paper uses content analysis to extract and aggregate challenges identified by researchers in their fieldwork and then analysed this data using qualitative and quantitative methods. Findings This study identifies 10 international management challenges that PSFs face and a number of causes for these challenges. The analysis also suggests that the distinctive characteristics of PSFs generate some of the international management challenges for PSFs. Practical implications This study helps PSF managers understand the international management challenges they may face depending on the specifics of their company, thus helping them better prepare their internationalisation. Originality/value This study contributes to providing a greater understanding of what is holding PSFs back in their internationalisation and why. It demonstrates that distinctive characteristics of PSFs may predict the challenges that PSFs will face, thus paving the way for further research on international management in PSFs and for the development of the diagnostic tool for practitioners that could help them to identify which challenges they should prepare for most.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayaraman Rajagopalan ◽  
Praveen Kumar Srivastava

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a new comprehensive metric to successfully plan and execute IT projects. The development will be based on a study of all the variables that go into making a successful IT project. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire, containing qualitative and quantitative response questions, to gather data from practicing project managers is designed and used in an IT company. Cronbach’s alpha is used to analyze the data and multiple regression is used to find the equation relating project success to project management success. Findings A comprehensive variable called Project Health Index (PHI) has been identified. Using this variable, one can predict whether a project is likely to succeed or not. This comprehensive, composite variable is calculated by using 17 other project-related metrics identified from the responses to the questionnaire. Research limitations/implications The PHI has been calculated for the company studied. However, more studies need to be performed before it can be established that the PHI can also be used in other companies and projects. What has been established and validated is that PHI can be used in the studied company and that the methodology to calculate PHI is valid. Practical implications The PHI can be used as a predictive variable, i.e. one that can be used to take corrective and preventive actions to make a project successful. The PHI can also be used to allocate resources, prioritize the allocation and improve project management during the course of project execution. Social implications By implementing projects efficiently, resource utilisation increases and leads to waste avoidance. Improved sustainability is the end result. Originality/value The work is original. The contents and the conclusions drawn, as well as the use of the PHI will enable IT companies to implement projects efficiently, reduce cost and enhance profit.


Author(s):  
Maria Francisca Blasco López ◽  
Nuria Recuero Virto ◽  
Joaquin Aldas Manzano ◽  
Jesús Garcia-Madariaga

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine a model for developing sustainable tourism in archaeological sites. A qualitative and quantitative approach has been assumed in order to test a model of market orientation, where 11 experts were interviewed and 122 employees of archaeological sites answered the e-questionnaire. Design/methodology/approach Partial least squares path modelling regression was employed to examine the measurement and structural model. Findings The findings have revealed that market orientation and innovativeness positively and significantly influence tourism sustainability, measured in economic and social terms. Besides, tourist functionality has been determined as an antecedent of market orientation. Research limitations/implications This study is limited by the sample sizes of both researches. The model has second order constructs (market orientation, innovativeness and tourism sustainability) that include related concepts to increase parsimony and understand relations with other variables. As a result, separate effects of these dimensions have not been measured, which could report interesting findings in future-related studies. Practical implications The results suggest useful insights for managers to improve social and economic sustainability in archaeological sites. Innovativeness affects tourism sustainability, which reinforces the idea that offering technological and organisational innovations improve economic and social sustainability. Besides, it has been proved that market orientation is a necessary precondition to guarantee social and economic sustainability. Originality/value This paper assists scholars and practitioners by shedding light on the comprehension of tourism sustainability.


Kybernetes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Pablo Cardoso Castro ◽  
Angela Espinosa

Purpose The purpose of this is to explore the potential of the combined use of the viable system model (VSM) and social network analysis (SNA) to identify organizational pathologies. Design/methodology/approach Using a well-documented case study based on an academic consultancy intervention and Action Research Project, participative methods for the diagnostic of the VSM and questionnaires for the collection of connectivity data for the SNA were used to develop a heuristic to integrate these two tools and identify organizational pathologies. Findings This study provides empirical evidence of the benefits of the combined use of SNA to enhance the identification of organizational pathologies in VSM interventions, by providing an additional qualitative and quantitative framework for the interpretation of findings coming from VSM organizational diagnostics. Research limitations/implications This work explores some analytic routines of SNA frequently used in management. The validation is constrained to the nature of the data set from a case study. The document invites to a discussion of further and more advanced applications on the integration of the VSM and SNA. Practical implications The enhanced identification of organizational pathologies can contribute to the emerging new interest in applications of the VSM in management, providing robustness to the structural analysis of organizations. Originality/value This paper proposes a guideline to exploit the potential of the combined use of SNA and VSM. It opens new avenues for the study of organizational pathologies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renato Koch Colomby ◽  
Andrea Poleto Oltramari ◽  
Maria Beatriz Rodrigues

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the phenomenon of work from eight different and subsidiary perspectives: physiological, cultural, spiritual, ideological, economic, political, legal and psychosocial. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on an exploratory quantitative survey with a probability sample composed of 407 cases. The bibliographic review resulted from several readings about the phenomenon of work and the impacts arising from these different perspectives. Findings The analysis of the data collected confirmed that the meaning and the sense of work are multifaceted. The authors also found that work is an important source of reflection and learning in people’s life. The research instrument promoted thinking and analysis of the participants’ careers. The research process resulted in mutual and interactive learning of investigators and investigation. Research limitations/implications The data collection came from a single source: a written questionnaire. This limits the scope of the data and raises interpretative discussion concerning the contents of the answers. For future reference, the authors suggest to complement it with different techniques of data collection, associating qualitative and quantitative approaches. Practical implications The main contributions of the paper are, on the one hand, the effort of synthetizing and recording eight different categories of analysis of the multiple and possible meanings of work, which were elaborated using the available literature, and on the other hand, to understand and analyze those categories using the perception of a numerically meaningful sample of the public, coming from different backgrounds. Social implications The purpose of this paper is to propose a guideline for future studies so that they could choose with increased awareness the initial perspectives at the basis of the analyses. This study could encourage continuity and provide greater incentives on this increasingly relevant subject. Originality/value After analyzing the data, it was acknowledged that work cannot be seen from a single perspective, but it must be viewed in its multifaceted character and sense. The published material on the meanings of work usually focuses on specific professions and careers, the authors argue that this fact limits the scope of perspectives and interpretations of the phenomenon.


2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-3

Purpose – This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint 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 – Consumers who voluntarily acquire both original luxury brands and their counterfeits transfer the symbolic personality traits of the original brand to the counterfeit, experience significantly higher coincidence between their personality traits and those of the original brand and also experience a stronger overlap between their overall self-concept and the original brand’s concept than with the counterfeit’s concept, and feel higher levels of love toward the original brands than toward their counterfeits. Practical implications – The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations. 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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nickson Hebert Odongo ◽  
Daoping Wang

Purpose This study aims to ascertain the magnitude to which real corporate responsibility (CR), ethics and accountability practices exist in Kenyan corporations. Design/methodology/approach The insights of qualitative and quantitative approaches are investigated through descriptive and exploratory study carried out on 193 Kenyan companies in the corporate sector and 5 focus groups discussions comprising 9 members each. Findings The paper divulged that current practices on CR, ethics and accountability are relatively low, as only senior managers underwent training on ethics; accountability was broadly perceived as resources accounting instead of actual accountability; and responsibility is highly skewed toward senior management at the expense of stakeholders and society in which they thrive. Research limitations/implications The concept of sustainability has not been emphasized as a dimension of CR, ethics and accountability. Fresh opportunities of inquiry are extended considering this aspect. Practical implications This study affirms practices that have a positive effect on corporate stakeholders, communities and environment. Social implications This study strives to develop approaches of managing and controlling, ensuring that the welfare of stakeholders and society as a whole is uplifted and sustained. Originality/value The conception of CR, ethics and accountability practices signifies a theoretical innovation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Serkan Ozmen

Purpose Most business organisations try to create and maintain trustful relationships with their various stakeholders. Among all, sustaining a trustful relationship with employees has been particularly important for organisations. However, due to the multidimensional structure and changing nature of concept across settings, it is difficult to identify what makes an organisation trustworthy for its employees. The purpose of this study is to analyse the concept of organisational trust and identify how employees actually define organisational trust. Design/methodology/approach In the study, a survey was conducted on a sample of 104 employees who were working in Turkey. Following a qualitative and quantitative approach, the data were analysed to categorise the definitions of respondents according to the theoretical framework. Findings The findings of study closely overlap with the relevant literature, but they also extend the scope of definition with including new factors such as reputation management, strategic management or ethics and values. According to results, the perceptions of employees on organisational trust vary depending on their individual and organisational characteristics. Practical implications The study reveals the context depending nature of organisational trust. Developing a wider sense by capturing its full meaning and reflecting the different expectations of employees can increase the trust in organisations. Originality/value Based on the detailed review of literature, the study identifies the major dimensions of organisational trust and then reveals the similarities and differences with the literature. The study provides a viable perspective on the concept to capture its meaning in different contexts.


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