Business corruption: cheating the system or using opportunities?

Working paperCorrupt behaviour in organisations involves individuals or groups of people behaving in ways that are outside usually accepted norms for the organisation and/or society at large. This may include influencing or coercing some members of the group to act in ways that are normally unacceptable to them. Such behaviour might be expected to cause stress to, or indeed be as a result of stress for, the individuals and groups concerned. By refusing to join in the corrupt behaviour of their group, such people risk being alienated from it, something that they would find highly stressful. A series of experiments involving both students and the business community in the U.K., showed that individuals who identified strongly with their group behaved corruptly not only to support their wider socially identified category, but also in support of smaller immediate groups. In all cases, high identifiers experienced less stress than low identifiers. A model of group identity, stress and corruption is introduced

The Stressful Business of Corruption: the Relationship Between Social Identity Threat, Stress and Corrupt Group Behaviour

Corruption in organisations is an on-going phenomenon. Previous academic research has examined corruption at structural and corporate levels. This research focused on small groups within organisations and the relationship between their corrupt behaviour and stress. Corruption, group behaviour and stress have all been studied in their own right, but this research brings these concepts together. The Social Identity Theory (SIT) with its focus on both inter-group and intra-group behaviour provided a framework for the work. Previous research suggests that corruption in the workplace can occur when employees are put under pressure to meet difficult targets. SIT suggests that to support their group at such times, individuals who identify strongly with it may be prepared to modify their behaviour. Although, people may find behaving in ways contrary to their normal inclinations stressful, SIT also suggests that high identification with a group can lower stress levels. What was not known was whether these previous findings would apply in the case of corruption. The aim of this research is to investigate whether corruption is influenced by group behaviour, and whether stress is a factor in these acts. A series of experimental studies was conducted in which the participants had the opportunity to behave corruptly. The results demonstrate that in all cases, this opportunity was taken, whether the participants were students or senior business executives. High identifiers behaved more corruptly than low identifiers and they experienced less stress. Women were found to be less corrupt than men. Leaders play a definite role in corrupt behaviour. Qualitative analysis showed that corruption in groups is highly contextual and is accompanied by rationalisation. When group identification is strong in a team, and conditions present the opportunity, corrupt behaviour may occur even when threat to the identity is not high. This has led to a new model of corrupt behaviour in which opportunity and social identification definitely play their parts, while threat and/or stress may or may not. The implication is that strong identification between members within sub-units may result in employees behaving in corrupt ways that may run counter to the norms of the wider organisation. However, the increased understanding of corrupt group behaviour that this research has provided will help to prevent such behaviour from occurring

The impact of social isolation on rat behaviour

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder with symptoms including delusions, social withdrawal and cognitive deficits. The cognitive symptoms respond poorly to current antipsychotic medication and in order to develop new treatments it is necessary to model these deficits in animals. Rearing rats in isolation from weaning causes behavioural, cognitive and neurochemical alterations, some of which have relevance to the symptoms of schizophrenia. The work described in this thesis aimed to further characterise the behavioural and cognitive changes found isolation reared rats. After five weeks of isolation rats demonstrated increased locomotor activity in a novel environment and a gender specific impairment in recognition memory. After six weeks of isolation rats developed attenuated prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle. Isolation reared rats did not develop impairments in the attentional set shifting test of behavioural flexibility. However, in a further study isolated rats did show deficits in reversal learning (but not acquisition) in the water maze, which were reversed by the pro-cognitive 5-HT6 antagonist Ro 04-6790. Sub-chronic treatment with aniracetam, a modulator of the AMPA receptor had no effect on fear-related memory impairments seen in passive avoidance but aniracetam-treated isolation reared rats were able to discriminate the novel object. Finally, following controversial reports linking heavy cannabis use with increased risk of schizophrenia, weanling rats were dosed with a component of cannabis, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The interactions between isolation rearing and two regimens of THC treatment (low: 4x 2mg/kg and high: 8x 5mg/kg) were observed in adulthood. The low dose of THC had no effect on any behavioural test used. The high dose of THC led to impairments in recognition memory but had no effect on attentional set shifting or prepulse inhibition. High-THC and isolation rearing interacted to improve passive avoidance performance in isolates, but impair social rats. In conclusion, isolation rearing induces varied cognitive deficits which are responsive to nootropic compounds and as such is an important tool in the development of cognition enhancing and antipsychotic drugs

Towards an understanding of induced-charge electrokinetics at large applied voltages in concentrated solutions

The venerable theory of electrokinetic phenomena rests on the hypothesis of a dilute solution of point-like ions in quasi-equilibrium with a weakly charged surface, whose potential relative to the bulk is of order the thermal voltage (kT/e ≈ 25 mV at room temperature). In nonlinear electrokinetic phenomena, such as AC or induced-charge electro-osmosis (ACEO, ICEO) and induced-charge electrophoresis (ICEP), several V ≈ 100 kT/e are applied to polarizable surfaces in microscopic geometries, and the resulting electric fields and induced surface charges are large enough to violate the assumptions of the classical theory. In this article, we review the experimental and theoretical literatures, highlight discrepancies between theory and experiment, introduce possible modifications of the theory, and analyze their consequences. We argue that, in response to a large applied voltage, the “compact layer” and “shear plane” effectively advance into the liquid, due to the crowding of counterions. Using simple continuum models, we predict two general trends at large voltages: (i) ionic crowding against a blocking surface expands the diffuse double layer and thus decreases its differential capacitance, and (ii) a charge-induced viscosity increase near the surface reduces the electro-osmotic mobility; each trend is enhanced by dielectric saturation. The first effect is able to predict high-frequency flow reversal in ACEO pumps, while the second may explain the decay of ICEO flow with increasing salt concentration. Through several colloidal examples, such as ICEP of an uncharged metal sphere in an asymmetric electrolyte, we show that nonlinear electrokinetic phenomena are generally ion-specific. Similar theoretical issues arise in nanofluidics (due to confinement) and ionic liquids (due to the lack of solvent), so the paper concludes with a general framework of modified electrokinetic equations for finite-sized ions.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (contract DMS-0707641

The impact of social isolation on rat behaviour

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder with symptoms including delusions, social withdrawal and cognitive deficits. The cognitive symptoms respond poorly to current antipsychotic medication and in order to develop new treatments it is necessary to model these deficits in animals. Rearing rats in isolation from weaning causes behavioural, cognitive and neurochemical alterations, some of which have relevance to the symptoms of schizophrenia. The work described in this thesis aimed to further characterise the behavioural and cognitive changes found isolation reared rats. After five weeks of isolation rats demonstrated increased locomotor activity in a novel environment and a gender specific impairment in recognition memory. After six weeks of isolation rats developed attenuated prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle. Isolation reared rats did not develop impairments in the attentional set shifting test of behavioural flexibility. However, in a further study isolated rats did show deficits in reversal learning (but not acquisition) in the water maze, which were reversed by the pro-cognitive 5-HT6 antagonist Ro 04-6790. Sub-chronic treatment with aniracetam, a modulator of the AMPA receptor had no effect on fear-related memory impairments seen in passive avoidance but aniracetam-treated isolation reared rats were able to discriminate the novel object. Finally, following controversial reports linking heavy cannabis use with increased risk of schizophrenia, weanling rats were dosed with a component of cannabis, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The interactions between isolation rearing and two regimens of THC treatment (low: 4x 2mg/kg and high: 8x 5mg/kg) were observed in adulthood. The low dose of THC had no effect on any behavioural test used. The high dose of THC led to impairments in recognition memory but had no effect on attentional set shifting or prepulse inhibition. High-THC and isolation rearing interacted to improve passive avoidance performance in isolates, but impair social rats. In conclusion, isolation rearing induces varied cognitive deficits which are responsive to nootropic compounds and as such is an important tool in the development of cognition enhancing and antipsychotic drugs.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The stressful business of corruption : the relationship between social identity threat, stress and corrupt group behaviour

Corruption in organisations is an on-going phenomenon. Previous academic research has examined corruption at structural and corporate levels. This research focused on small groups within organisations and the relationship between their corrupt behaviour and stress. Corruption, group behaviour and stress have all been studied in their own right, but this research brings these concepts together. The Social Identity Theory (SIT) with its focus on both inter-group and intra-group behaviour provided a framework for the work. Previous research suggests that corruption in the workplace can occur when employees are put under pressure to meet difficult targets. SIT suggests that to support their group at such times, individuals who identify strongly with it may be prepared to modify their behaviour. Although, people may find behaving in ways contrary to their normal inclinations stressful, SIT also suggests that high identification with a group can lower stress levels. What was not known was whether these previous findings would apply in the case of corruption. The aim of this research is to investigate whether corruption is influenced by group behaviour, and whether stress is a factor in these acts. A series of experimental studies was conducted in which the participants had the opportunity to behave corruptly. The results demonstrate that in all cases, this opportunity was taken, whether the participants were students or senior business executives. High identifiers behaved more corruptly than low identifiers and they experienced less stress. Women were found to be less corrupt than men. Leaders play a definite role in corrupt behaviour. Qualitative analysis showed that corruption in groups is highly contextual and is accompanied by rationalisation. When group identification is strong in a team, and conditions present the opportunity, corrupt behaviour may occur even when threat to the identity is not high. This has led to a new model of corrupt behaviour in which opportunity and social identification definitely play their parts, while threat and/or stress may or may not. The implication is that strong identification between members within sub-units may result in employees behaving in corrupt ways that may run counter to the norms of the wider organisation. However, the increased understanding of corrupt group behaviour that this research has provided will help to prevent such behaviour from occurring.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo