Exploring the impact of social axioms on firm reputation: a stakeholder perspective

This study proposes a model of how deeply held beliefs, known as ‘social axioms, moderate the interaction between reputation, its causes and consequences with stakeholders. It contributes to the stakeholder relational field of reputation theory by explaining why the same organizational stimuli lead to different individual stakeholder responses. The study provides a shift in reputation research from organizational-level stimuli as the root causes of stakeholder responses to exploring the interaction between individual beliefs and organizational stimuli in determining reputational consequences. Building on a conceptual model that incorporates product/service quality and social responsibility as key reputational dimensions, the authors test empirically for moderating influences, in the form of social axioms, between reputation-related antecedents and consequences, using component-based structural equation modelling (n = 204). In several model paths, significant differences are found between responses of individuals identified as either high or low on social cynicism, fate control and religiosity. The results suggest that stakeholder responses to reputation-related stimuli can be systematically predicted as a function of the interactions between the deeply held beliefs of individuals and these stimuli. The authors offer recommendations on how strategic reputation management can be approached within and across stakeholder groups at a time when firms grapple with effective management of diverse stakeholder expectations.

Are empathy and compassion bad for the professional social worker?

Recent studies have shown that social workers and other professional helpers who work with traumatized individuals run a risk of developing compassion fatigue or secondary traumatic stress. Some researchers have hypothesized that helpers do this as a result of feeling too much empathy or too much compassion for their clients, thereby implying that empathy and compassion may be bad for the professional social worker. This paper investigates these hypotheses. Based on a review of current research about empathy and compassion it is argued that these states are not the causes of compassion fatigue. Hence, it is argued that empathy and compassion are not bad for the professional social worker in the sense that too much of one or the other will lead to compassion fatigue.

Ethnic aged discrimination and disparities in health and social care : a question of social justice

Older overseas-born Australians of diverse cultural and language backgrounds experience significant disparities in their health and social care needs and support systems. Despite being identified as a 'special needs' group, the ethnic aged in Australia are generally underserved by local health and social care services, experience unequal burdens of disease and encounter cultural and language barriers to accessing appropriate health and social care compared to the average Australian-born population. While a range of causes have been suggested to explain these disparities, rarely has the possibility of cultural racism been considered. In this article, it is suggested that cultural racism be named as a possible cause of ethnic aged disparities and disadvantage in health and social care. It is further suggested that unless cultural racism is named as a structural mechanism by which ethnic aged disparities in health and social care have been created and maintained, redressing them will remain difficult.

Climate change and social inclusion: opportunities for justice and empowerment

...the greatest untapped resource at our disposal lies in the disadvantaged Australians living in our most excluded communities. (Nicholson 2007 p. 4)

The commons are where justice and sustainability converge, where ecology and equity meet. (Shiva 2005 p. 50)

Since 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recognised human induced climate change to be primarily a result of burning fossil fuels and land clearing (Lee 2007). Changes to the world's climate patterns have been occurring for decades, but only in recent times has climate change arrived in our collective conscious. An onslaught of extreme weather events, destruction and failure of crops, increasing levels of water restrictions, government announcement of desalination plants. proposed increase in prices for utilities such as power and water - have ushered climate change into the Australian lexicon.

The challenges for all of us are many and varied and perhaps even unimaginable. as many propose a global reduction in annual C02 emissions of between 60-80% (compared to 1990 levels) by 2050.

We are not talking just about the re-construction of our world, but about its re-invention. Ryan (2007)

How will climate change affect us? Who is most vulnerable? What will be the features of policies and strategies to combat climate change that ensure an equitable and just response across our entire society? Are our present social-cultural justice paradigms of social exclusion and inclusion adequate in addressing the impending health consequences that are likely to result from climate change, and in supporting an equitable. harmonious and fruitful life for all population groups in the future?

This paper, written in the spirit of solution-oriented research. focusing on the causes of positive health rather than the causes of disease and other problems (Robinson & Sirard 2005). explores the possibility of a paradigm shift which imagines the social inclusion of specific population groups, not as an appended extra, but integral to the design of an equitable, sustainable low carbon society of the future.

Social stigma in diabetes : a framework to understand a growing problem for an increasing epidemic

A comprehensive understanding of the social and psychological impact of diabetes mellitus is important for informing policy and practice. One potentially significant, yet under-researched, issue is the social stigma surrounding diabetes. This narrative review draws on literature about health-related stigma in diabetes and other chronic conditions in order to develop a framework for understanding diabetes-related stigma. Our review of the literature found that people who do not have diabetes assume that diabetes is not a stigmatized condition. In contrast, people with diabetes report that stigma is a significant concern to them, experienced across many life domains, e.g., in the workplace, in relationships. The experience of diabetes-related stigma has a significant negative impact on many aspects of psychological well-being and may also result in sub-optimal clinical outcomes for people with diabetes. We propose a framework that highlights the causes (attitudes of blame, feelings of fear and disgust, and the felt need to enforce social norms and avoid disease), experiences (being judged, rejected, and discriminated against), and consequences (e.g., distress, poorer psychological well-being, and sub-optimal self-care) of diabetes-related stigma and also identifies potential mitigating strategies to reduce diabetes-related stigma and/or enhance coping and resilience amongst people with diabetes. The systematic investigation of the experiences, causes, and consequences of diabetes-related stigma is an urgent research priority.

Family day care educators : an exploration of their understanding and experiences promoting children's social and emotional wellbeing

This study aimed to explore family day care (FDC) educators’ knowledge of child social and emotional wellbeing and mental health problems, the strategies used to promote children’s wellbeing, and barriers and opportunities for promoting children’s social and emotional wellbeing. Thirteen FDC educators participated in individual semi-structured interviews. FDC educators were more comfortable defining children’s social and emotional wellbeing than they were in identifying causes and early signs of mental health problems. Strategies used to promote children’s mental health were largely informal and dependent on educator skills and capacities rather than a systematic scheme-wide approach. Common barriers to mental health promotion were limited financial resources, a need for more training and hesitance raising child mental health issues with parents. There is a need to build FDC educators’ knowledge of child social and emotional wellbeing and for tailored mental health promotion strategies in FDC.

Terrorism and social exclusion : misplaced risk - common security

Recent thinking on globalization places risk at the centre of contemporary life. Yet what if our perception of risk is misplaced? What if the greatest risk is not terrorism itself but the conditions that allow terrorism to flourish? This fascinating book illustrates that elevated perceptions of terrorism-related risks are having a deleterious impact on many societies, exacerbating feelings of exclusion among individuals and groups. Via their exploration of various societies, the expert contributors show that as a causal factor of terrorism, social exclusion can be remedied by inclusive, participatory and deliberative measures. They prescribe a recalibration of counter-terrorism policies to unite rather than divide multicultural societies.

Recognising user identity in twitter social networks via text mining

Social networks have become a convenient and effective means of communication in recent years. Many people use social networks to communicate, lead, and manage activities, and express their opinions in supporting or opposing different causes. This has brought forward the issue of verifying the owners of social accounts, in order to eliminate the effect of any fake accounts on the people. This study aims to authenticate the genuine accounts versus fake account using writeprint, which is the writing style biometric. We first extract a set of features using text mining techniques. Then, training of a supervised machine learning algorithm to build the knowledge base is conducted. The recognition procedure starts by extracting the relevant features and then measuring the similarity of the feature vector with respect to all feature vectors in the knowledge base. Then, the most similar vector is identified as the verified account.

A community based systems diagram of obesity causes

INTRODUCTION: Application of system thinking to the development, implementation and evaluation of childhood obesity prevention efforts represents the cutting edge of community-based prevention. We report on an approach to developing a system oriented community perspective on the causes of obesity. METHODS: Group model building sessions were conducted in a rural Australian community to address increasing childhood obesity. Stakeholders (n = 12) built a community model that progressed from connection circles to causal loop diagrams using scripts from the system dynamics literature. Participants began this work in identifying change over time in causes and effects of childhood obesity within their community. The initial causal loop diagram was then reviewed and elaborated by 50 community leaders over a full day session. RESULTS: The process created a causal loop diagram representing community perceptions of determinants and causes of obesity. The causal loop diagram can be broken down into four separate domains; social influences; fast food and junk food; participation in sport; and general physical activity. DISCUSSION: This causal loop diagram can provide the basis for community led planning of a prevention response that engages with multiple levels of existing settings and systems.

Don't eat that, you'll get fat! Exploring how parents and children conceptualise and frame messages about the causes and consequences of obesity

Family interactions about weight and health take place against the backdrop of the wider social discourse relating to the obesity epidemic. Parents (and children) negotiate complex and often contradictory messages in constructing a set of beliefs and practices around obesity and weight management. Despite this, very little research attention has been given to the nature of family-unit discourse on the subject of body weight and it's potential influence on the weight-related behaviours of family members. This includes the broad influence that dominant socio-cultural discourses have on family conceptualisations of weight and health. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with 150 family 'groups' comprised of at least one parent and one child in Victoria and South Australia, we explored how parents and children conceptualise and discuss issues of weight- and health-related lifestyle behaviours. Data were analysed using Attride-Stirling's (2001) thematic network approach. Three thematic clusters emerged from the analysis. First, both parents and children perceived that weight was the primary indicator of health. However, parents focused on the negative physical implications of overweight while children focused on the negative social implications. Second, weight and lifestyle choices were highly moralised. Parents saw it as their responsibility to communicate to children the 'dangers' of fatness. Children reported that parents typically used negatively-framed messages and scare tactics rather than positively-framed messages to encourage healthy behaviours. Third was the perception among parents and children that if you were thin, then eating habits and exercise were less important, and that activity could provide an antidote to food choices. Results suggest that both parents and children are internalising messages relating to obesity and weight management that focus on personal responsibility and blame attribution. These views reflect the broader societal discourse, and their consolidation at the family level is likely to increase their potency and make them resistant to change.

How the causes, consequences and solutions for problem gambling are reported in Australian newspapers: a qualitative content analysis

OBJECTIVE: To inform public health approaches to problem gambling by examining how the news media covers problem gambling, with a particular focus on the causes, consequences and solutions to problem gambling, and the 'actors' and sources who influence media coverage. METHODS: A qualitative content analysis guided by framing theory analysed coverage of problem gambling in Australian newspapers in the period 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012. RESULTS: Solutions to problem gambling were more frequently discussed than causes and consequences. A focus on the responsibility of individuals was preferred to reporting that focused on broader social, ecological, and industry determinants of problem gambling. Reporting was highly politicised, with politicians frequently quoted and political issues frequently discussed. In contrast, the community sector, health professionals and problem gamblers were rarely quoted. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: This analysis has revealed the need for a more proactive, coordinated approach to the media by both public health researchers and health groups. The establishment of a gambling-specific coalition to push for evidence-based reform is recommended.

SCLPV: secure certificateless public verification for cloud-based cyber-physical-social systems against malicious auditors

Cyber-physical-social system (CPSS) allows individuals to share personal information collected from not only cyberspace but also physical space. This has resulted in generating numerous data at a user's local storage. However, it is very expensive for users to store large data sets, and it also causes problems in data management. Therefore, it is of critical importance to outsource the data to cloud servers, which provides users an easy, cost-effective, and flexible way to manage data, whereas users lose control on their data once outsourcing their data to cloud servers, which poses challenges on integrity of outsourced data. Many schemes have been proposed to allow a third-party auditor to verify data integrity using the public keys of users. Most of these schemes bear a strong assumption: the auditors are honest and reliable, and thereby are vulnerability in the case that auditors are malicious. Moreover, in most of these schemes, an auditor needs to manage users certificates to choose the correct public keys for verification. In this paper, we propose a secure certificateless public integrity verification scheme (SCLPV). The SCLPV is the first work that simultaneously supports certificateless public verification and resistance against malicious auditors to verify the integrity of outsourced data in CPSS. A formal security proof proves the correctness and security of our scheme. In addition, an elaborate performance analysis demonstrates that the SCLPV is efficient and practical. Compared with the only existing certificateless public verification scheme (CLPV), the SCLPV provides stronger security guarantees in terms of remedying the security vulnerability of the CLPV and resistance against malicious auditors. In comparison with the best of integrity verification scheme achieving resistance against malicious auditors, the communication cost between the auditor and the cloud server of the SCLPV is independent of the size of the processed data, meanwhile, the auditor in the SCLPV does not need to manage certificates.

The effect of social security, demography and technology on retirement

This article investigates the causes in the reduction of labor force participation of the old. We argue that the changes in social security policy, in technology and in demography may account for most of the changes in retirement over the second part of the last century in the U.S. economy. We develop a dynamic general equilibrium model with endogenous retirement that embeds social security legislation. The model is able to match very closely the increase in the retirement rate of males aged 65 and older. It also quanti es the isolated impact on retirement and on the solvency of the social security system of the di¤erent factors. The model suggests that technological and demographic changes had a strong in uence on retirement, so that it would have increased signi cantly even if the social security rules had not changed. However, as the latter became much more generous in the past, changes in social security policy can account not only for a sizeable part of the expansion of retirement, but also for the most of the observed increase in the social security expenses as a share of GDP.

Transparência, a resposta institucional à pressão social: o caso do Tribunal de Contas do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

The present work aims to identify emerging organizational changes in the Court of Accounts of the State of Rio de Janeiro - TCE/RJ that are happening in the contemporary scenery known as the Age of Information. The search for the comprehension of the institutional dynamics is oriented by concepts originated from the theory of complexity, which believe that the public services external control system can be understood in a political, technical and legal environment with growing levels of learning and innovation. While chasing the possible causes of these changes, we try to prove the hypothesis that the TCE/RJ is turning into a more transparent organization. For this purpose, we define the outlines and reaches of the principle of transparency, based in bibliographical and documental researches, and analyze the phenomenon perceived in a explanation research through semi-structured interviews performed with two groups: a sample representing the universe under jurisdiction entities top level directors and the other obtained in the universe of formal and informal leaderships existing in the educational body of the institution. The conclusion of the present work confirms the initial questions, indicating that the organization is really becoming more and more transparent. The social-technical changes that are happening today at the TCE/RJ are caused by the growing social pressure for more effective results in the control of public expenditures. Under the systemic point of view, we observe cracks in the protective bell-glass that evolves the institution - previously hermetic to the external contingencies and that works today as a SAC - Adaptive Complex System. Aspects such as organization structural changes, the introduction of strategic planning and the growing democratization of the decision process are producing a new organizational culture. The seniority of the Technical Headcount contributes to establish the pre-conditions for the development of a administration where the participation of the TCE/RJ technical employees adds importance to its development as an institution that generates republican effects in the society from its less hermetic decision process.

Exclusão social: gestão estratégica de pessoas em duas subsidiárias de uma empresa multinacional

The present study of case empirically investigates the existence of indicators that suggest the social exclusion preoccupation from the organizations with a strategic management of human resources focus. The objects of study are two subsidiaries of a multinational enterprise in emergency and first-aid services area. One of them is Portuguese and the other is a Brazilian one. This exploratory research has used a sectional way with a longitudinal perspective, since it has considered a specific verified data referring to 2004 and 2005 years, beyond the deeper interviews with actual managers to an evaluation of these studied perception and its authentication. Our indicators identification sources were principally the individual and social rights and duties broaching and the fundamental guarantees disposed in the Brazilian and Portuguese Constitutions as such as the European Constitution project. The results appoint to great differences of management between both subsidiaries, being the Brazilian one closer to our research proposes, as such as suggest us that the human resource areas, still acting in an instrumentalist way, establish a great barrier to better practices in social inclusion and they would be unprepared for a management with the focus in the employees. Although our study has been realized in a specific activity enterprise, we believe that our results can stimulate the realization of other investigations with the same objectives. In this way, we contribute to a better comprehension of the social exclusion causes and the organizations participations in this process.