Evidence synthesis on the occurrence, causes, consequences, prevention and management of bullying and harassment behaviours to inform decision making in the NHS

Background Workplace bullying is a persistent problem in the NHS with negative implications for individuals, teams, and organisations. Bullying is a complex phenomenon and there is a lack of evidence on the best approaches to manage the problem. Aims Research questions What is known about the occurrence, causes, consequences and management of bullying and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace? Objectives Summarise the reported prevalence of workplace bullying and inappropriate behaviour. Summarise the empirical evidence on the causes and consequences of workplace bullying and inappropriate behaviour. Describe any theoretical explanations of the causes and consequences of workplace bullying and inappropriate behaviour. Synthesise evidence on the preventative and management interventions that address workplace bullying interventions and inappropriate behaviour. Methods To fulfil a realist synthesis approach the study was designed across four interrelated component parts: Part 1: A narrative review of the prevalence, causes and consequences of workplace bullying Part 2: A systematic literature search and realist review of workplace bullying interventions Part 3: Consultation with international bullying experts and practitioners Part 4: Identification of case studies and examples of good practic

Final Report - Learning to monitor think tanks impact: Three experiences from Africa, Asia and Latin America

The impact of think tanks has received increasing attention in the literature, especially amongst those working in the international development community. Accordingly, stakeholders, such as donors, policy makers, academia representatives, think tanks themselves, among others, are increasingly aware of the importance of monitoring and evaluating think tanks’ impact and many think tanks worldwide are working on identifying their impact areas and on developing mechanisms to estimate it. In this context, the objective of this study is to provide elements for an analytical framework to monitor and assess the impact of think tanks working in less developed contexts. This includes reflections about the very possibility of measuring impact. This is done by integrating different impact definitions and indicators, variables, contexts and approaches based on a literature review. This literature review informed the development of an analytical framework that was applied to all three think tank case studies. The objective of the study is also to understand the difficulties of measuring the impact of thinks tanks in the different spheres of their work, i.e. policy influence, contribution to academic field of research, public agenda, etc., and to learn from the experiences of the selected cases. One of the main conclusions of the exercise, particularly after its discussion at the South Africa TTI Exchange, is that it is possible and relatively easier to estimate impact if output (visibility) indicators are considered. More difficult and subjective is to monitor and estimate impact through the use of reputational and research use indicators such as surveys and citations. However, what seems more relevant but also more difficult is to estimate final impact (influence) because this can only be done through subjective, qualitative, contextual example based instruments, and it is hard to attribute a clear causality between ideas and actual changes

Attributing Development Impact: The Qualitative Impact Protocol Case Book

Substantiating cause and effect is one of the great conundrums for those aiming to have a social impact, be they an NGO, social impact investment fund, or multinational corporation. All face the same quandary: how do you know whether, or how, you contributed to an observed social change? A wide range of impact evaluation methodologies exist to address this need, ranging from informal feedback loops to highly elaborate surveys. But generating useful and credible information in a timely and cost-effective way remains an elusive goal, particularly for organizations working in complex, rapidly evolving and diverse contexts.Attributing Development Impact brings together responses to this challenge using an innovative impact evaluation approach called the Qualitative Impact Protocol (QuIP). This is a transparent, flexible and relatively simple set of guidelines for collecting, analysing and sharing feedback from intended beneficiaries about significant drivers of change in their lives. Innovative features include the use of ‘blindfolded’ interviewing to mitigate pro-project bias, and the application of a flexible coding system to make analysis and reporting faster and more transparent.The QuIP has now been used in 18 countries (including Ethiopia, India, Malawi, Mexico, Tanzania, Uganda and UK) with activities to promote food security, rural livelihoods, factory working conditions, medical training, community empowerment and microcredit for house improvement. This book includes comprehensive ‘how to’ QuIP guidelines and practical insights based on case studies from these countries into how to address the numerous methodological challenges thrown up by impact evaluation.Essential reading for evaluation specialists within NGOs, governments and donor agencies; social impact investors; community development practitioners; and researchers and students interested in evaluation methodologies

Reflections on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident: Toward Social-Scientific Literacy and Engineering Resilience

Nuclear Engineering; Environmental Science and Engineering; Social Sciences, genera

Interactions of technology and society: Impacts of improved airtransport. A study of airports at the grass roots

The feasibility of applying a particular conception of technology and social change to specific examples of technological development was investigated. The social and economic effects of improved airport capabilities on rural communities were examined. Factors which led to the successful implementation of a plan to construct sixty small airports in Ohio are explored and implications derived for forming public policies, evaluating air transportation development, and assessing technology

Toward a Responsible Design Science Research Ecosystem for the Digital Age: A Critical Pragmatist Perspective

This dissertation is motivated by the need to find ways to responsibly navigate the complex landscape of the digital age, in which rapid advances in information technology (IT), particularly in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), present both unprecedented opportunities and potentially catastrophic risks to society. The starting point is the assumption that we need to focus on Responsible Innovation (RI) in order to reap the benefits of accelerating IT innovation while avoiding the most dangerous risks. The main goal of this dissertation is to initiate and support the development of a responsible design science research (DSR) ecosystem to align DSR with the imperatives of RI. To this end, it advocates a paradigm shift for Information Systems (IS) research and proposes responsible DSR as a ”supermethodology” to address the grand challenges of the digital age in a responsible and productive manner. This dissertation achieves this goal through three interrelated inquiries: 1. Ethical Foundations of IS Research: A comprehensive overview of ethics and its relationship to IS research, based on a panel discussion and literature review, highlights ethical considerations for responsible IS research in the digital age. This sets the stage for a conscious engagement with RI in IS research and DSR. 2. Conceptual Framework for Responsible DSR: The central part of the dissertation develops a multi-grounded theory supported by interviews with various members of the IS community and academic literature. The result is a holistic framework for responsible DSR that addresses fundamental paradigmatic challenges: ontological, epistemological, axiological, and methodological. The framework serves as an open and integrative conceptual foundation for a responsible DSR ecosystem. 3. Applied Responsible DSR Project: The dissertation concludes with a concrete responsible DSR project that not only contributes to addressing a relevant societal problem, but also serves as an example of what responsible DSR can look like in practice. Scenario development and system dynamic simulation experiments are used to examine the impact of digitalization on the resilience of the U.S. food sector in the face of catastrophic electricity loss. The study stimulates a critical discourse on the interplay between digital transformation and social resilience and provides insights for the responsible embedding of digital technologies. Taken together, these studies form the basis for a responsible DSR ecosystem. However, this dissertation recognizes the participatory and emergent nature of such development efforts and can therefore only serve as a starting point. Continued discourse and deliberate action are needed to advance responsible DSR and contribute to the flourishing of our societies in the digital age

Doing Good or Doing Better

The world is changing, and so is the unquestioning belief that development policies are always right. Instead of focusing on the rather limited notion of poverty, this book aims to deepen our understanding of the broad issue of development. What are the drivers of development? What new issues have arisen due to globalization? And what kind of policies contribute to development in a world that is changing rapidly? The articles in this book provide insight into the muddled trajectories of development on various continents and rethink the notion of development in a globalizing, interdependent world. Taken together, the still fuzzy contours of a paradigm shift emerge from the 'Washington Confusion'. Development can no longer be the ambitious, moral project based on a standard model of economic European or American modernization. 'Doing better' means being less moralistic, more modest and pragmatic, and taking seriously the path dependencies and social realities that exist in each country

The complexity of behaviour in relation to health, safety and sustainability: A psychological network approach

Understanding behaviour in relation to health, safety and sustainability is a complex challenge that benefits from a broad and encompassing approach. An approach that allows for adopting a complexity perspective in empirical research is that of psychological networks. This dissertation evaluates how adopting such an approach in empirical research improves the understanding of behaviour in relation to issues in health, safety and sustainability. It does so through six empirical case studies that cover these domains via the topics of plastic medical devices, the COVID-19 pandemic and risk perceptions of the process industries. The empirical chapters show that different issues show different network structures in which different determinants are relatively important for the behaviour of interest. This result suggests that a psychological network approach provides in-depth insight into the interplay and mutual dependence of behavioural determinants specific to the issue. Such tailored insights are important as they can improve the effectiveness of behavioural interventions in the context of specific issues. Moreover, this dissertation provides recommendations for researchers who want to employ a psychological network approach in the format of a practical guideline. Adopting a psychological network approach in accordance with the guideline in this dissertation will likely further advance research into behaviour in relation to issues in health, safety and sustainability and enables researchers to integrate these domains. To conclude, this dissertation contributes to the scientific debate on the added value of a psychological network approach by providing an applied perspective based on empirical social psychological research

Capital and Inequality in Rural Papua New Guinea

That large-scale capital drives inequality in states like Papua New Guinea is clear enough; how it does so is less clear. This edited collection presents studies of the local contexts of capital-intensive projects in the mining, oil and gas, and agro-industry sectors in rural and semi-rural parts of Papua New Guinea; it asks what is involved when large-scale capital and its agents begin to become significant nodes in hitherto more local social networks. Its contributors describe the processes initiated by the (planned) presence of extractive industries that tend to reinforce already existing inequalities, or to create and socially entrench novel inequalities. The studies largely focus on the beginnings of such transformations, when hopes for social improvement are highest and economic inequalities still incipient. They show how those hopes, and the encompassing socio-political transformations characteristic of this phase, act to produce far-reaching impacts on ways of life, setting precedents for and embedding the social distribution of gains and losses. The chapters address a range of settings: the PNG Liquid Natural Gas pipeline; newly established eucalyptus and oil palm plantations; a planned copper-gold mine; and one in which rumours of development diffuse through a rural social network as yet unaffected by any actual or planned capital investments. The analyses all demonstrate that questions around land, leadership and information are central to the current and future social profile of local inequality in all its facets