Drama and discounting in the relational dynamics of corporate social responsibility

Employing theoretical resources from Transactional Analysis (TA) and drawing from interviews with managers dealing with social or environmental issues in their role, we explain how CSR activity provides a context for dramas in which actors may ignore, or discount aspects of self, others, and the contexts of their work as they maintain and reproduce the roles of Rescuers, Persecutors and Victims. In doing so, we add to knowledge about CSR by providing an explanation for how the contradictions of CSR are avoided in practice even when actors may be aware of them. Specifically, we theorise how CSR work can produce dramatic stories where adversity is apparently overcome, whilst little is actually achieved at the social level. We also add to the range of psychoanalytic tools used to account for organisational behaviours, emphasising how TA can explain the relational dynamics of CSR

CONVENIENT SYNTHESES OF 2,2'-BIINDOLE

Two new syntheses for 2,2\u27-biindoles are reported. The first uses a palladium catalyzed annulation of a bis(o-iodophenyl)-α,β-diimine. The method employs mild conditions, gives good yields, and is potentially tolerant of a variety of substituent groups. The second method uses a Wittig reaction between a 2-nitrobenzylphosphonium salt and 2-nitrocinnamaldehyde to form 1,4-bis(2-nitrophenyl)butadiene, which followed by triethylphosphite cyclization to give the biindole

Improved magnetization in sputtered dysprosium thin films

50nm thick nanogranular polycrystalline dysprosium thin films have been prepared via ultra-high vacuum DC sputtering on SiO2 and Si wafers. The maximum in-plane spontaneous magnetization at T = 4K was found to be MS4K = 3.28T for samples deposited on wafers heated to 350C with a Neel point of TN = 173K and a ferromagnetic transition at TC = 80K, measured via zero field cooled field cooled magnetization measurements, close to single crystal values. The slightly reduced magnetization is explained in the light of a metastable face centered cubic crystal phase which occurred at the seed interface and granularity related effects, that are still noticeably influential despite an in-plane magnetic easy axis. As deposited samples showed reduced magnetization of MS4K = 2.26T, however their ferromagnetic transition shifted to a much higher temperature of TC = 172K and the antiferromagnetic phase was completely suppressed probably as a result of strain.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure