Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore the lived experiences of women without children experiencing housing instability and homelessness in Calgary, Canada; and narratives of what triggered their journeys were constructed according to the tenets of hermeneutic phenomenology, and suggest a framework for assisting these women.

The design for this study is qualitative, approached through hermeneutic phenomenology rooted in Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics (Gadamer, 2004). Hermeneutic phenomenology, as a research method has provided insight into understanding phenomena and human experiences that are important to human science professionals.

The experience of homelessness for women without children started while they still lived at home, but after they lost all sense of “being at home” as a consequence of identifiable negative home experiences, such as abuse. The effects or impacts of stable childhood or adult home experiences and the implications of such in contributing to the feelings of homelessness were pervasive in the stories told by these women.

Access to housing does not mean getting out of the feeling of homelessness, because the trauma that triggers the experience for the clients often last for a life time. Long-term engagement with the client will be synonymous to increasing the possibility that they can be stabilized permanently. Resources dedicated to these clients must be tailored to each client’s needs, with strong agency collaboration with the mainstream systems.

Community health nurses and other support workers for individuals experiencing homelessness need to build bridges with inter-professional groups to close the gap created by societal attitudes toward women and domestic abuse survivors through advocacy and education, especially in countries where women are still treated as second class citizens.

Although there has been a considerable amount of research conducted on the determinants of homelessness and housing instabilities in women or their pathways into homelessness, the plight of women without children and their experiences while homeless have received little attention in literature. This study explored the lived experiences of women without children experiencing homelessness and narratives of what triggered their journeys were constructed according to the tenets of hermeneutic phenomenology, and suggest a framework for assisting these women.

Fires have the potential to destroy, resulting in the loss of property and livelihoods, as well as injury, death and repeated trauma for those who are already vulnerable. However, fire as a hazard has been treated rigidly and un-critically, a model that has influenced how it is perceived by policy makers, first responders, engineers and academics and subsequently approaches to implementing and better understanding fire prevention, mitigation, response and recovery from the impacts of fire.

This article deals with fire, arguing that its case can help imagine what liberation might mean within and for disaster studies. The study argues against dogmatic, outdated, technological and solution-focused perspectives that have constrained how fire and its effects are understood and discuss what disciplinary liberation could mean for the study of fire and its integration within DRR. The study’s approach is based on the DRR Assemblage Theory, which points to fire as an issue at a societal level.

The study explores the themes of fire and liberation through contributions and insights that have emerged through the authors' professional experience in research and practice. It offers an original and timely engagement with disaster studies through the lens of fire, an increasingly pertinent phenomenon for disaster scholars and practitioners alike.

By drawing on the example of fire as a socio-technical-environmental phenomenon, this paper contributes a novel perspective on the intellectual and practical possibilities that can emerge from disciplinary liberation.

This is a case study of the contribution of independent researchers employed to obtain feedback on performance in home care services for a Best Value exercise in Luton. The authors report their findings and then speculate on how local authorities might enhance the process to achieve more informed consultation with service users.

Scholars and practitioners in the OB literature nowadays appreciate that emotions and emotional regulation constitute an inseparable part of work life, but the HRM literature has lagged in addressing the emotional dimensions of life at work. In this chapter therefore, beginning with a multi-level perspective taken from the OB literature, we introduce the roles played by emotions and emotional regulation in the workplace and discuss their implications for HRM. We do so by considering five levels of analysis: (1) within-person temporal variations, (2) between persons (individual differences), (3) interpersonal processes; (4) groups and teams, and (5) the organization as a whole. We focus especially on processes of emotional regulation in both self and others, including discussion of emotional labor and emotional intelligence. In the opening sections of the chapter, we discuss the nature of emotions and emotional regulation from an OB perspective by introducing the five-level model, and explaining in particular how emotions and emotional regulation play a role at each of the levels. We then apply these ideas to four major domains of concern to HR managers: (1) recruitment, selection, and socialization; (2) performance management; (3) training and development; and (4) compensation and benefits. In concluding, we stress the interconnectedness of emotions and emotional regulation across the five levels of the model, arguing that emotions and emotional regulation at each level can influence effects at other levels, ultimately culminating in the organization’s affective climate.

This paper aims to provide an assessment of the decision-usefulness and quality of governmental financial reports in Greece under the recently adopted modified-cash basis. The evaluation is performed within the wider debate regarding the actual benefits of a transition toward an accounting paradigm that lies closer to accrual accounting as the Greek modified-cash basis borrows several accrual characteristics.

The transition to modified accruals is analyzed through the prism of the new institutional theory. The approach adopted builds on the characteristics of the accounting information pertaining to the conceptual frameworks of public and private sector accounting standard setting bodies. The assessment is conducted on the basis of the perceptions of public sector financial information users on a Web-based questionnaire.

The findings provide empirical evidence, albeit of moderate magnitude, in favor of the benefits associated with a move to full accruals.

The study moves the debate on the merits of accounting systems’ changes toward the worldwide witnessed trajectory a step forward by providing practical evidence on the matter.

This research study aims to examine how differences in opinions on the material weaknesses identified in the auditor's assessment of the financial statements, and the auditor's assessment of internal control affect investment analysts' assessment of the financial strength of the company and willingness to recommend the stock for purchase to clients. It also aims to examine how the auditor's opinion on management's assessment of internal control affects investment analysts' assessment, providing additional evidence of the appropriateness of the elimination of this requirement under Auditing Standard No. 5.

The paper examines these research questions using data from a laboratory experiment with investment analysts as participants in the study.

The findings indicate that adverse audit opinions on the effectiveness of internal control result in investment analysts making a higher assessment of company risk, a lower assessment of the strength of internal control over financial reporting, and a marginally significant difference in the likelihood of recommending stock to their client.

These findings provide evidence that auditors' assessment of internal control risk provides information to investment analysts.

This study contributes to the literature by examining the implications of Section 404 of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act on the judgment of users of financial statements.

A research model is proposed to prove or disprove the dependence of a field list of internationally visible journals on the initial set. Applications of the experiment are outlined. A conjecture is formulated concerning the validity of isi's impact factors.

Although researchers and multilateral agencies recognize that no single model of corporate governance exists, this has not stopped the push for a one best corporate governance model. Research recognized institutional factors, including culture, affects the nature of corporate ownership structure and consequently on disclosure, transparency and enforcement practices. Drawing on East Asian examples, the chapter argues that a focus on ‘market’ principles alone fails to account for the contextual effects of Asian political, historical and institutional forms which moderate corporate governance systems and practices. This chapter suggests that there is the need to consider the extant effects of ‘culture’ on corporate governance.

Medical errors in obstetric departments are commonly reported and may involve both mother and neonate. The complexity of obstetric care, the interactions between various disciplines, and the inherent limitations of human performance make it critically important for these departments to provide patient-safe and friendly working environments that are open to learning and participative safety. Obstetric care involves stressful work, and health care professionals are prone to develop burnout, this being associated with unsafe practices and lower probability for reporting safety concerns. This study aims to test the mediating role of burnout in the relationship of patient-safe and friendly working environment with unsafe performance. The full population of professionals working in an obstetrics department in Malta was invited to participate in a cross-sectional study, with 73.6% (n = 184) of its members responding. The research tool was adapted from the Sexton et al.’s Safety Attitudes Questionnaire – Labor and Delivery version and surveyed participants on their working environment, burnout, and perceived unsafe performance. Analysis was done using Structural Equation Modeling. Results supported the relationship between the lack of a perceived patient-safe and friendly working environment and unsafe performance that is mediated by burnout. Creating a working environment that ensures patient safety practices, that allows communication, and is open to learning may protect employees from burnout. In so doing, they are more likely to perceive that they are practicing safely. This study contributes to patient safety literature by relating working environment, burnout, and perceived unsafe practice with the intention of raising awareness of health managers’ roles in ensuring optimal clinical working environment for health care employees.

The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to applied archaeology and interpretive methods for Iranian traditional archaeology. Applied archaeology is based on a holistic approach providing rational approaches in the field of cultural heritage preservation and sustainable use of the potential of cultural heritage with the participation of the people. This paper aims to create social good standing archaeology knowledge with respect to Iranian archaeology experts.

In this survey study, data collection was accomplished using a questionnaire. The sample consists of professors, PhD students, post-graduate fellows, and educated experts of the Iranian Tourism, Handicrafts and Cultural Heritage Organization.

Applied archaeology as a provider of situations, positions and employment opportunities for archaeologists has not been considered seriously in the Iranian archaeological education. Traditional education emphasizes the cultural history and field techniques; hence it does not consist of critical areas of heritage codes, protection and budget management, business skill and the most important, interpretation and consequently sustainable development. Iranian archaeologists agree with the findings of the applied archaeology. Evaluation of their opinions reveals that they agree with all applied archaeology items of the questionnaire.

As an approach, applied archaeology can be proactive and improve the status of archaeology in the Iranian field of cultural heritage, and representations of outputs such as site-museum and sustainable use of them which ultimately fulfil social, economic and even political-identity purposes, then applied archaeology can be a constructive element in archaeology and prevent vandalism and looting in cultural heritage.