Assessing and mitigating the impact of organisational change on counterproductive work behaviour: An operational (dis)trust based framework.:Full Report

This report comprises the findings of CREST funded research into organisational change and insider threat. It outlines the individual, social and organisational factors that over time, can contribute to negative employee perceptions and experiences.These factors can produce a reduction in an employee’s psychological attachment to, and trust in, their employing organisation which then allows them to undertake Counterproductive Work Behaviour (CWB). CWB concerns action which threatens the effectiveness, or harms the safety of, an employer and its stakeholders.It can develop from small scale discretions (e.g., time wasting, or knowledge hiding) into serious insider threat activities (e.g., destroying systems or exchanging confidential information with malicious others). Following past research linking CWB to both organisational change and trust breach, the aim of the study was to produce a (dis)trust based framework for predicting, identifying and mitigating counterproductive work behaviour and insider threat within the context of organisational change.We posed the following research questions:1. What effect does organisational change have in relation to counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) and insider threat acts?2. What role does (dis)trust play in CWB during organisational change?3. What preventative measures can be taken by organisations to help mitigate CWB and insider threat in organisational change initiatives?To address these questions, we collected empirical data from a case study organisation undergoing change: two sets of interviews, i.) with selected managers and staff outlining the key changes in the organisation, ii.) with a range of stakeholders involved in/privy to one of three insider threat case studies in two different departments, iii.) a review of HR and security paperwork on the insider threat cases, and then, iv.) anonymous surveys of the workforce in the same two departments in which our case studies occurred. Using these methods, we explored individuals’ cognitions and emotions to understand why while some employees remain engaged, loyal and trusting during change, others become disengaged, distrusting and behave in deviant ways

‘What they say peters down’: How non-profit leaders assess the trustworthiness of government - elite discourse and distrust in post-conflict Northern Ireland

© The Author(s) 2020. This article uses Northern Ireland as a research context to explore how elite discourse (from political and media actors/institutions) influences how Non-Profit Leaders (NPLs) assess the trustworthiness of government. We provide emergent themes which should aid theory development and practice in the area of political public relations by showing: (1) the value NPLs place on ‘soft’ trust qualities in trust assessments of government, namely benevolence; (2) the importance NPLs place on communicative acts which model trust (e.g. dialogue, compromise, mediation); and (3) the destructive role of divisive political elite discourse within a defective political system, amplified via the media, in NPLs’ distrust of government. The study thereby emphasises the crucial and constitutive role trust perceptions play in (in)effective political public relations, arguing that ‘trust’ must be defined by the perceiver and critically unpacked if public relations research is to fully appreciate its function. We propose that the nature of Northern Ireland’s post-conflict divided society, and political discourse in specific, makes certain trust antecedents most desirable to cross-community stakeholders. The findings contribute to further refining the concept of trust in public relations and they may also be instructive for other contexts

The Enabling Role of Internal Organizational Communication in Insider Threat Activity – Evidence from a High Security Organization

No abstract available

‘Reconciliation isn’t Sexy’: Perceptions of News Media in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland

© 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. News media play a key role in post-conflict contexts in helping to explain the peace process and report on current events. This research explores the perceptions of cross-community leaders about the role of journalism in reconciliation in present day Northern Ireland. The findings suggest that community activists perceive the media to be sustaining the legacy of the conflict and constraining debates about the way forward in Northern Ireland. We propose that they essentially advocate for a conflict sensitive model of journalism (Howard, 2004, Conflict sensitive journalism: A handbook by Ross Howard. IMPACS: International Media Support. https://www.mediasupport.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ims-csj-handbook-2004.pdf.), underpinned by a communitarian ethical framework (Christians, 1997, “Social ethics and mass media practice.” In Communication ethics in an age of diversity, edited by J. M. Makau, and R. C. Arnett, 187–205. Urbana Champaign: University of Illinois Press.) which would better reflect the changed interests and needs of a post-conflict community

Making an impact in healthcare contexts::insights from a mixed-methods study of professional misconduct

The scarcity of public sector healthcare resources and the vulnerability of service users make the conduct of health professionals critically important. Health regulators, in delivering their core objective of patient protection, use empirical evidence to identify professionals’ misconduct, improve their understanding of why misconduct occurs, and to maximize the effectiveness of regulatory actions that safeguard public trust in the healthcare system. This paper outlines the contribution of comparative academic analysis of three professions in the UK (doctors, nurses & midwives, and allied health professions) based on 6714 individual cases of professional misconduct. Three dynamic strands of ongoing impact are identified: “dialogue”, that creates an international multi-stakeholder community of interest; “knowledge generation”, which advances conceptual and empirical understanding of counterproductive work behaviour through sequential quantitative and qualitative study; and “dissemination”, where practical learning is utilized by regulators, employers and other academics

Democratic Communication and the Role of Special Advisers in Northern Ireland’s Consociational Government

This article examines the role of ministerial special advisers (SpAds) in Northern Ireland’s government communication. Using data gathered from elite interviews with SpAds, government information officers, and political journalists, we argue that the role of the SpAd is influenced by the post-conflict political culture in Northern Ireland and the consociational structure of government. The article suggests that current theorizing of the role of SpAds in democratic societies must also take account of how they operate within mandatory coalitions such as those found in Northern Ireland. We call for more research into their communication role in post-conflict consociational environments