Death beyond the means: Funeral overspending and its government regulation around the world

While death-related household overspending is increasingly an international phenomenon with far-reaching implications, the government responses to it vary greatly throughout the world. This article offers a model of death-related overspending, including both population and governments. The analysis of data from 118 countries empirically supports the main research argument—the decline of traditional hierarchies and simultaneous ascendance of newly-affluent urbanite class, to the backdrop of collectivist society pervaded by superstitions, increase household incentives to spend on death beyond their means. State policy response depends on both the government’s ability to control vested interests and the financial cost of an average funeral.

GREED AS A FACTOR IN THE HISTORICAL PROCESS

Greed is regarded as a human characteristic that occurs naturally in the course of social evolution. Under capitalism, unlimited desire of possession acts as the main motive of economic and any other activity, which leads to a number of objective technical, ecological, social, cultural and moral consequences – both positive and extremely negative. Greed has influenced the development of civilization constructively but it slowing down the social process increasingly in the modern era. Greed should be taken away from the historical stage. Curbing the demon of greed is required not only for the modern world reality, but also for the challenges that are expected by humanity in the future. The experience of the Soviet project implementing, based on an appeal to the over-utilitarian motives of the individual, demonstrates the objective possibility of building a collectivist society in which greed is perceived not as a norm, but as a deviation.

Patient’s expectations of privacy and confidentiality in Pakistan: a mixed-methods study

Privacy and confidentiality are considered a cornerstone in the practice of medical ethics. However, these notions may play out differently in the cultural context of Pakistan. In order to understand the perceptions and expectations of privacy and confidentiality, a cross-sectional mixed method study was undertaken in a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. While the subjects demonstrated unfamiliarity with the Western terms, majority of them also exhibited a high expectation for privacy (both informational and physical) and confidentiality. Patients appeared most comfortable with sharing private medical information with the primary physician, indicating the level of trust placed in the physician. Participants also showed high expectations for confidentiality, thus, even in a collectivist society, patients may not want their private information shared across the medical team and also among family members. The onus is, therefore, on healthcare professionals to assess patients’ preferences and choices. Keywords: Privacy, Confidentiality, Patient perception, Continuous...

COVID-19 and Mental Health: A Study of its Impact on Students

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyse the personal, social and psychological impact of COVID - 19 on the mental health of students of age group 16 to 25. A response from N= 351 students (from the most affected state in India), provided a comparative analysis based on the gender, and background to understand the pattern in issues related to mental health during the pandemic. The results show that female students are more concerned about health, and future, and are more prone to psychological issues like feelings of uncertainty, helplessness and outbursts than male students. Urban student population is more mentally affected than their rural counterparts, however time spent on the internet is almost the same despite the difference in infrastructure and resources. Also, there is an increase in need for solitude, being withdrawn and self-harm in male students require attention. A shift in perception from seeing family as a source of support to that of a restriction is indicated, although the benefits of a collectivist society are undisputed. The results indicate that there is overall increased awareness about mental health among the student population and with programs/strategies focusing on background and gender, a significant improvement is attainable.

Linking Work-Family Conflict (WFC) and Talent Management: Insights from a Developing Country

Considering the profound societal change taking place in several developing countries, the objective of this paper is to reflect on work-family conflict (WFC) both as a concept and a social phenomenon. Given that WFC is a concept rooted in academic debate focusing on developments in Western, largely individualistic, societies, this paper reconsiders WFC’s value added as applied in a context of a collectivist society in a developing country. The objective of this paper is thus threefold, i.e., (i) to assess WFC’s applicability in a context of a collectivist society in a developing country, where the position and role of women gradually changes; (ii) to develop a culturally adjusted/sensitive scale to measure the scope of WFC in Pakistan, whereby the latter is treated here as a case study; and (iii) to reflect on the possibility of devising a set of good practices that would allow a smooth inclusion of women in the formal workforce, while at the same time mitigating the scope and scale of WFC. The value added of this paper stems from these three objectives.

Perseverance of effort and consistency of interest for entrepreneurial career success

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of grit (consistency of interest and perseverance of effort) on entrepreneurial career success (career satisfaction, perceived career achievement and perceived financial attainment) through the role of resilience. Design/methodology/approach The study was cross-sectional, and the data were collected using questionnaires from 111 entrepreneurs in Nigeria who have been in business for over five years and were selected using purposive sampling technique. The study used Smart-PLS to assess the measurement and structural model. Findings The perseverance of effort was related to all the aspects of career success as well as resilience. But consistency of interest was positively related to only perceived financial attainment. It also predicted resilience. Resilience was also related to all the facets of career success. All three mediation hypotheses were supported. Research limitations/implications The study delivered fascinating understandings into the structures of grit. The Western conceptualisation of grit may not be valid in a collectivist society where consistency is not that very much considered. Practical implications The study helps to further validate grit in the entrepreneurship field; the construct is a facilitator of entrepreneurial action and an indispensable source of energy that can revitalise the entrepreneur along the arduous road to success. Originality/value The two components of grit can have a dissimilar influence on different outcomes – as prior investigations, although recognising that the two components are conceptually dissimilar, have rarely studied them so empirically.

Translation, culture and politics

This article analyzes the election slogans of Hong Kong chief executives and the titles of their policy addresses since Hong Kong’s handover to mainland China in 1997, from the point of view of translation methods, cultural implications and reader responses. It finds that literal translation dominates in the translation of election slogans and policy address titles, that translated slogans and titles portray Hong Kong as a collectivist society with low power distance, and that choices between domestication and foreignization are dependent upon individual chief executives (or nominees). The article discusses the growing importance of the role of readers and proposes an inductive framework of interactive responses to represent the reality of political translation in the new era brought about by digitalization.