"We're so sorry – yes we really are" : optimal apology strategies for errant fundraising charities

The purpose of this paper is to determine the strengths of the influences of certain factors potentially contributing to an effective apology for a fundraising charity. Four motivational forces possibly affecting public acceptance of an apology issued by a charity are explored, i.e. persuasion knowledge activation, a viewer’s regulatory focus, trait forgiveness and scepticism regarding charity advertising. Texts for two apologies (one based on expressions of guilt, the other on expressions of shame) were created for a fictitious international aid charity, some field workers of which had engaged in child abuse. A questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 777 members of the public containing one or other of the apologies. A good match between a participant’s regulatory focus and the regulatory focus of an apology significantly improved the likelihoods of the apology being “liked” and accepted. Nevertheless, the quality of the match had no impact on a person’s inclination to donate to the organisation. Trait forgiveness and donation history significantly influenced liking and acceptance of an apology, but not inclination to donate. Although past studies have examined the roles of apologies within the communication management activities of commercial organisations, research into the effectiveness of apologies by fundraising nonprofits has been sparse. Outcomes to the present investigation offer insights into how charity managers can best apologise for a fundraising nonprofit organisation’s errant behaviour

"My boss makes the most out of it" : the predictive value of learning climates for employability

This study aims to examine to what extent the employability of followers and their managers is equally supported by organizational learning climates. Studies often assume that managers and their followers benefit equally from these climates. However, this assumption overlooks the distinct roles and positions that managers hold in comparison with their followers. Managers typically have more freedom to engage in learning activities, make decisions about their professional development and leverage organizational resources to support their growth. Consequently, they may have better positions to reap the benefits of learning climates than followers, whose roles may be constrained by organizational hierarchies. Using an actor–partner interdependence model, in a dyadic study among 205 manager-follower dyads, we investigated how three specific learning climates—appreciation, facilitation and error avoidance—relate to managers' and followers' employability. Our findings revealed that managers' employability benefits from all three climates. Contrastingly, followers' employability is enhanced only by a facilitating learning climate. These results suggest that learning climates primarily enhance managers' career potential, while followers depend more on direct facilitation to improve their employability

The effects of personal brand equity on hiring recommendation : why, how, when…?

Although previous literature has identified personal branding as an important concept in marketing, little is understood about the effects of personal brand equity (PBE) during the personnel selection process. To address this research gap, we performed two experimental studies and one field study in the domains of sales and engineering to examine the effect of candidates’ PBE on hiring outcomes through recruiters’ perceptions. This research draws upon signaling theory and an integration of the accessibility-diagnosticity model with the competence-based view of careers and regards PBE as the interpreted outcome of personal branding signals, reflecting how recruiters perceive and evaluate the value conveyed by job candidates. We unveil that candidates’ PBE positively predicts hiring recommendation and that credibility mediates this relationship. Moreover, job hierarchy and objective job qualifications appear to negatively moderate the relationship between candidates’ PBE and hiring recommendation. Our findings also indicate that objective job qualifications negatively interact with candidates’ PBE in predicting their credibility. The present research contributes to personal branding and selection research by offering novel insights into the role of PBE during the interview process, thereby providing guidance for job candidates and practitioners

Distinctive features of district nursing in contrast to nursing in other settings : a discussion

Effective retention strategies are essential for the sustainability of district nursing services. To develop tailored retention strategies, the authors of this article examine what makes district nursing different compared to hospital and other care settings. Based on literature reviews and discussion groups, the authors identify five key characteristics of district nursing. This article invites expert district nurses to review these characteristics and provide feedback. By clearly identifying the distinctiveness of district nursing, the authors aim to strengthen retention strategies and explore other potential benefits for services

Translation : how securitization of Islam travels from right-wing to left-wing political parties

Securitization of Islam cannot be fully comprehended without looking at party ideologies. While it is acknowledged that Muslims in the West have been securitized, little attention has been paid to the language and ideas through which securitization manifests across and inside political parties, especially on the Left. This aspect needs further research. After the jihadist terrorist attacks of the mid-2010s, many European centre-left politicians have securitized not only Islamism, but also Islam, by using tropes frequently pronounced by right-wing political parties. The literature has already analysed how securitization changes across countries. I ask instead how securitization travels across parties and argue that this process occurs through an intralinguistic translation, which means to transform words within the same language without losing the original meaning. I investigate the translation of securitization of Islam from right-wing to left-wing language and show that the process is active and nested in ‘distal’ and ‘proximate’ contexts. I illustrate my argument through a discourse analysis of speeches released by key figures of the French Socialist Party-led governments (2012–2017) since they translated the securitization of Islam through indirect speech acts and by flagging their own referent objects (such as laïcité) to persuade left-leaning audiences