Questioning impact: interconnection between extra-organizational resources and agency of equality and diversity officers

This paper examines the change agency of equality and diversity (E&D) officers with a specific emphasis on the role of extra-organizational influences and resources. The paper is informed by qualitative material collected through interviews with E&D officers from 20 higher education institutions in the UK. The paper offers an evidence-based analysis of the utility of extra-organizational mechanisms and intervention programmes for organizational E&D agenda and for the agentic influence of E&D officers. The paper contributes to both academic literature and policy-making. We present original empirical insights into the change agency of E&D officers by exploring the impact of extra-organizational bodies as potential mechanisms for support and influence. At the policy level, the paper provides evidence on the value of extra-organizational resources and tools that are produced by policy bodies in promoting progressive E&D agendas in organizations

Preschoolers in Belarus and Turkey accept an adult’s counter-intuitive claim and do not spontaneously seek evidence to test that claim

When presented with a claim that contradicts their intuitions, do children seize opportunities to empirically verify such claims or do they simply acquiesce to what they have been told? To answer this question, we conducted a replication of Ronfard, Chen, and Harris (2018, conducted in the People’s Republic of China) in two countries with distinct religious and political histories (Study 1: Belarus, N = 74; Study 2: Turkey, N = 79). Preschool children were presented with five, different-sized Russian dolls and asked to indicate the heaviest doll. All children selected the biggest doll. Half of the children then heard a (false) claim (i.e., that the smallest doll was the heaviest), contradicting their initial intuition. The remaining children heard a (true) claim (i.e., that the biggest doll was the heaviest), confirming their initial intuition. Belarusian and Turkish preschoolers typically endorsed the experimenter’s claim no matter whether it had contradicted or confirmed their initial intuition. Next, the experimenter left the room, giving children an opportunity to check the experimenter’s claim by picking up the relevant dolls. Belarusian and Turkish preschoolers rarely explored the dolls, regardless of the type of testimony they received and continued to endorse the counter-intuitive testimony they received. Furthermore, in Study 2, Turkish preschoolers continued to endorse smallest = heaviest even when doing so could have cost them a large reward. In sum, across two different cultural contexts, preschool children endorsed a counter-intuitive claim and did not spontaneously seek evidence to test it. These results confirm and extend those of Ronfard et al. (2018)

Involving, Countering and Overlooking Stakeholder Networks in Soft Regulation: Case study of a SME’s implementation of SA8000

To achieve effective stakeholder governance in the context of international social accountability certification (SA8000) requires constructing a network of agreement. In a case study of a small-to-medium-sized enterprise (SME), we examine managers’ attempts at enrolling participants in the supply chain to investigate how they strive to engage these stakeholders. We adopt actor-network theory (ANT) and sensemaking theory to develop a novel approach to understanding social accountability (SA) standards’ certification in stakeholder networks. We argue that the design and operation of any SA standard across a network requires not only attempts at enrolling other participants in the supply chain but management contextualizing and problematizing the terms of their involvement.acceptedVersio

Shovels and Swords: How realistic and fantastical themes affect children's word learning

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Research has shown that storybooks and play sessions help preschool children learn vocabulary, thereby benefiting their language and school readiness skills. But the kind of content that leads to optimal vocabulary learning – realistic or fantastical – remains largely unexplored. We investigate this issue as part of a large-scale study of vocabulary learning in low-income classrooms. Preschoolers (N = 154) learned 20 new words over the course of a two-week intervention. These words were taught using either realistic (e.g., farms) or fantastical (e.g., dragons) storybooks and toys. Children learned the new words in both conditions, and their comprehension knowledge did not differ across conditions. However, children who engaged in stories and play with a fantastical theme showed significantly greater gains in their production knowledge. Reasons for and implications of this result are discussed

Corporate Social Responsibility in a context of sustainable development

“The future we want”, the main document summarizing the action areas advocated by the Rio+20 conference (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 20-22nd), advocates “green economy” as a main instrument to eradicate poverty, while maintaining the healthy functioning of the environment. “Green economy” is a reply to global capitalism and the excesses of its elite practitioners, as they became manifest during the recent economic crisis. A classical contribution of the private business sector to sustainable development is corporate social responsibility (CSR). The concept dovetails in the doctrine that a company is not only responsible for a positive economic performance, but also has to take care about the environmental, social and ethical aspects of its activities. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3164

'Do No Harm' (DNH) as a principle, process and system of innovation : balancing innovation and sustainability outcomes

The author introduces a novel concept and the transformation guidance required for organisations to manage innovation, "Do No Harm," which is a concept successfully used in healthcare practice. He believes the DNH concept is a critical and inseparable response to the overseen continuous economic and innovation growth, responsible for the growing challenges to sustaining our lives on earth. The author believes it will guide fulfilling our capacity to address those goals by 2030 or beyond

Fiabot!: design and evaluation of a mobile storytelling application for schools

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about how digital technology can be integrated into the formal education system. Within a longitudinal research study, which lasted four years, we conducted an investigation on how mobile technology can support educational activities as defined by a school curriculum. Among the topics included in the school curriculum, we focused on the literary field and developed a Digital StoryTelling (DST) application, Fiabot!, to support this activity. Here, we describe the design of the application and how we evaluated its impact on educational activities. The application was designed and evaluated in two primary schools. The study had the objectives of exploring whether Fiabot! supports children in achieving educational objectives defined by the curriculum, how this effectively supports teachers, and to what extent children like using it for the creation and sharing of their stories. Our findings show that the application has a positive impact on curriculum enactment and effectively supports the related educational activities. Overall, Fiabot! wasdemonstrated to be very effective in stimulating children's discussion of a story's plot and characters. Thus, Fiabot! supported children not only in being creative but also in organizing their work and exploring a digital media opportunity. This resulted in the development of new skills and the better grounding of previously acquired knowledge, while teachers also had the opportunity to expand their teaching skills and get a taste of ICT's potential in education

Cosmopolitanism and transnational elite entrepreneurial practices: manifesting the cosmopolitan disposition in a cosmopolitan city

Purpose The paper aims to focus on the role that cosmopolitanism and, in particular, “the cosmopolitan disposition” (Woodward et al., 2008) plays in the process of entrepreneurial business by transnational business elites in Dubai. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a relational perspective based on Bourdieu and Wacquant’s (1992) Reflexive Sociology, as well as an inductive design, the authors conducted 30 semi-structured interviews focusing on both expatriates and Emiratis (locals/nationals) who displayed key features of a transnational business elite. Findings The findings indicate that the cosmopolitan disposition is an asset for transnational business elites when they venture in the context of Dubai. Research limitations/implications The findings would have to be further replicated in similar contexts, i.e. other major cities displaying similar cosmopolitan features with Dubai. A theoretical framework that calls for further study of transnational entrepreneurship via the lens of cosmopolitan disposition and Bourdieuan “habitus” is proposed. Practical implications The research outlines cosmopolitan skills for a transnational business elite which are required when entrepreneurial ventures are developed in the context of a city like Dubai. Social implications Cosmopolitanism and transnational entrepreneurship change cities like Dubai around the world constantly. Therefore, this study aims at achieving a better understanding of these changes and the ways in which they occur. Originality/value Studies on transnational entrepreneurship have already adopted Bourdieu’s theory (1977/1986), but this is the first time the cosmopolitan perspective and disposition is researched using this approach

An incubation perspective on social innovation : the London Hub - a social incubator

In the context of incubators, particularly those that are driven to achieving social objectives, this paper investigates core processes that support the development of social innovation. Social innovation as this paper argues is underpinned by a new form of social collaboration and engagement built upon strong forms of sharing knowledge and learning. Coupled with this is the element of social capital reinforced by entrepreneurship and leadership that promotes sustainability in the community. These factors drive innovative thinking and ways of engaging among stakeholders in order to create new forms of socio-economic impact. Such value-creating activity occurs in firms that operate within incubators involving a wide range of stakeholders who work through networks to co-create and meet social challenges. Through a case study of a social incubator and an incubatee, we demonstrate the core processes that irradiate the argument on social innovation. The contribution of this paper is threefold: firstly, social innovation is an emerging area of research, of which there is a dearth in terms of examining the processes empirically. We address the gap in this field by demonstrating the value of social collaboration and engagement using different innovation models. Secondly, we establish links between social innovation and incubation using the concept of social capital. This allows us to achieve our third contribution: exemplification of a dyadic value-based partnership and collaboration processes between an incubator and an incubatee, through activities driven by social innovation which aim to have social impact. The paper concludes with practice implications and suggests directions for future research