Shame, Stigma, HIV

The affective climate often associated with HIV prevention and care practices is often dominated by negative emotions such as shame, fear and suspicion which arise because of HIV’s historical stigma. This article explores the experiential consequences of this affective climate and the continued stigma associated with HIV, through a focus on the experience of shame anxiety which can be under- stood as the chronic anticipation of shame or shameful exposure. Exploring first- person narratives of gay men living with HIV, the article gives an account of how shame anxiety is central to understanding how stigma causes harm, especially in experiences of chronic illnesses such as HIV. Using a philosophical framework, through phenomenology, it will be demonstrated how shame anxiety manifests in bodily lived experience through the structure of the “horizon”. The article will finish with reflections on how shame anxiety can act as a barrier to the effective delivery of health services for those with stigmatised chronic illnesses and, fur- thermore, why the experience of shame anxiety might be useful to consider when delivering health services.

Distributed leadership and organizational commitment: moderating role of confidence and affective climate

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of distributed leadership on organizational commitment and the role of trust and open group climate as moderator variables in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach To test the conceptual model and research hypotheses empirically, the authors collected data based on an investigation over a sample of 318 engineers in the Information Technology telecommunication sector in Tunisia. The results were analyzed using factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings The results show a significant and positive impact of the support function, of the participation in decision-making and cooperation on organizational commitment. The authors find evidence for the existence of a positive moderating effect of trust and affective climate at the level of the causal link between distributed leadership and organizational commitment dimensions. Research limitations/implications These results provide useful indications for managers within the framework of leadership style that is more appropriate to the group’s proper functioning. Throughout this work, managers will know that distributed leadership is adapted to create a social climate based on dialogue and trust, an essential element of distributed leadership. Supervision and authority should give up a coercive vision in a more cooperative and constructive approach. Coordination should be founded on a horizontal and transversal vision of the organization. Originality/value Distributed leadership is increasingly seen as a key vehicle for firms’ improvement and renewal. However, research on this concept was largely conducted in the field of education and health. Studies dealing with small and medium-sized companies are rather scarce. There are not, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, any works in the Tunisian context because the majority of the reference studies are Anglo-Saxon. The originality and value of this research lies in its anchoring in the context. Moreover, this study provides empirical evidence of the importance of the role of the affective climate on organizational commitment. Indeed, engagement is a behavioral and attitudinal indicator of organizational climate. This paper is intended to provide a stimulus for exploring the distributed leadership area in terms of shaping thinking and designs for organizational change to enhance organizational commitment in a highly digital world.

Crude Optimism: Romanticizing Alberta’s Oil Frontier at the Calgary Stampede

Designed to preserve and promote western heritage and culture, the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede has become entwined with, and politically and economically expedient for, Alberta’s oil and gas industry. Performances at the Stampede relieve guilt about the expropriation of Indigenous territory and conquest of the natural world, and produce an affective climate of “crude optimism,” an optimistic attachment to fossil fuel production and consumption despite the brutal realities of extractivism.

The bittersweet effect of power disparity

Purpose Collaborative systems are particular cases of multi-team systems in which several groups representing various interests meet to debate and generate solutions on complex societal issues. Stakeholder diversity in such systems often triggers power differences and disparity and the study explores the dual role of power disparity in collaborative settings. The purpose of this paper is to extend the power approach-inhibition model (Keltner et al., 2003) to the group level of analysis and argue that, on the positive side, power disparity increases the cognitive activity of the interacting groups (i.e. task-related debates), while on the other hand it generates a negative affective climate. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected data at two time points across nine behavioral simulations (54 teams, 239 participants) designed to explore the cognitive and affective dynamics between six parties interacting in a collaborative decision task. Findings The results show that power disparity increases cognitive activity in collaborative multi-party systems, while it hinders the affective climate, by increasing relationship conflict and decreasing psychological safety among the stakeholders. Practical implications This study provides important theoretical and practical contributions mostly for the consultation processes, as interventions might be directed at fostering the positive effects of power disparity in collaborative setting, while mitigating its drawbacks. Originality/value By extending the approach-inhibition model to the group level, this is one of the first empirical studies to examine the dual nature of the impact that power disparity has on the cognitive (i.e. positive effect) and affective (i.e. negative effect) dynamics of multi-party collaborative systems (i.e. multi-team systems).