Background Workplace Incivility is a common issue in the nursing profession. Nurses who are affected by such behaviors may experience distress. Objectives This study aimed to assess the relationship between workplace incivility and nurses’ professional quality of life. Research design This cross-sectional correlational study was conducted in 2021 in “Tehran”. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the Nursing Incivility Scale (NIS), and the Professional Quality Of Life scale (ProQOL). Data analysis was performed through the Pearson correlation and multiple linear (...) regression, using the SPSS v.16. Participants and research context Participants were 200 nurses randomly recruited from selected hospitals of “TUMS”. Ethical considerations The study obtained research ethics approval and all participants were informed of the voluntary and anonymous nature of their participation. Findings The mean age of participants was 32.30 ± 7.22, and 76.5% were female. There was a significant correlation between the professional quality of life and workplace incivility ( r = −0.23, p =.001). Multiple regression analysis between the subscales of workplace incivility and professional quality of life demonstrated that the incivility from the supervisor ( β = −0.29, p =.001) and incivility from patients ( β = −0.27, p <.001) can predict the compassion satisfaction dimension. The incivility from the supervisor ( β = 0.24, p =.001) and incivility from patients ( β = 0.26, p <.001) can explain burnout. The incivility of the patients can explain secondary traumatic stress ( β = 0.14, p =.02). Conclusion This study showed that workplace incivility is significantly related to professional quality of life. Therefore, the reduction of behaviors of incivility can lead to the improvement of the professional quality of life. (shrink)

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect and use of distributed practice in the context of self-regulated mathematical learning in high school. With distributed practice, a fixed learning duration is spread over several sessions, whereas with massed practice, the same time is spent learning in one session. Distributed practice has been proven to be an effective tool for improving long-term retention of verbal material and simple procedural knowledge in mathematics, at least when the practice schedule is (...) externally guided. In the present study, distributed practice was investigated in a context that required a higher degree of self-regulation. In total, 158 secondary school students were invited to participate. After motivational and cognitive characteristics of the students were assessed, the students were introduced to basic statistics, a topic of their regular curriculum. At the end of the introduction, the students could sign up for the study to further practice this content. Eighty-seven students did so and were randomly assigned either to the distributed or to the massed practice condition. In the distributed practice condition, they received three practice sets on three different days. In the massed practice condition, they received the same three sets, but all on one day. All exercises were worked in the context of self-regulated learning at home. Performance was tested two weeks after the last practice set. Only 44 students finished the study, which hampered the analysis of the effect of distributed practice. The characteristics of the students who completed the exercises were analyzed exploratory: The proportion of students who finished all exercises was significantly higher in the massed than in the distributed practice condition. Within the distributed practice condition, a significantly larger proportion of female students completed the exercises compared to male students. Additionally, among these female students, a larger proportion showed lower concentration difficulty. No such differential effects were revealed in the massed practice condition. Our results suggest that the use of distributed practice in the context of self-regulated learning might depend on learner characteristics. Accordingly, distributed practice might obtain more reliable effects in more externally guided learning contexts. (shrink)

The presumption of innocence undergirds the American criminal justice system. It is so fundamental that it is derived from the concepts of due process and the importance of a fair trial. An informed, historical understanding of the interaction between the presumption of innocence and key tenets of due process can help clarify the meaning and application of the presumption of innocence in the modern day. Due process, as developed throughout English and US. Colonial history leading up to the formation of (...) the US. Constitution, has two important implications. First, due process provides a general guarantee of liberty against punishment or imprisonment without a fair trial. Second, due process requires that a jury, as opposed to a judge, determine the factual guilt of a defendant at trial. These two key tenets were historically fundamental to due process and should guide how the presumption of innocence impacts various stages of trial, including pretrial detention decisions and sentencing. Returning to a historical understanding of due process requires that judges not determine facts or punish individuals before a trial has occurred. (shrink)

The concept of sustainability was developed in response to stakeholder demands. One of the key mechanisms for engaging stakeholders is sustainability disclosure, often in the form of a report. Yet, how reporting is used to engage stakeholders is understudied. Using resource dependence and stakeholder theories, we investigate how companies within the same industry address different dependencies on stakeholders for economic, natural environment, and social resources and thus engage stakeholders accordingly. To achieve this objective, we conducted our research using qualitative research (...) methods. Our findings suggest that the resource dependencies on different stakeholders lead to development of different stakeholder relationships and thus appropriate resources within the company to execute engagement strategies that are informing, responding, or involving. Our research explains why diversity exists in sustainability disclosure by studying how it is used to engage stakeholders. We find that five sustainability reporting characteristics are associated with the company’s stakeholder engagement strategy: directness of communication, clarity of stakeholder identity, deliberateness of collecting feedback, broadness of stakeholder inclusiveness, and utilization of stakeholder engagement for learning. Our study develops the literature by providing insight into companies’ choices of stakeholder engagement strategy thus explaining diversity in sustainability reporting based on the characteristics and relationships with specific stakeholders. (shrink)

Ziel dieser Untersuchung ist, Ursachen und Faktoren zu ermitteln, die in der Entstehung und Verstärkung von Bildungsungleichheit im iranischen Bildungssystem wirksam sind. Diese Forschung wurde gemäß einem qualitativen Paradigma unter Verwendung der Methode der “Grounded Theory” durchgeführt. Die Daten wurden von einer Fokusgruppe, bestehend aus 20 Teilnehmern, mithilfe der Methode des Tiefeninterviews erhoben. Die Teilnehmer wurden nach dem Prinzip der maximalen Streuung und unter Berücksichtigung des Sättigungspunkts durch eine gezielte Auswahl ausgewählt. Für die Datenanalyse wurde der interpretativ-absorptive Ansatz verwendet. Die (...) Ergebnisse der qualitativen Analyse zeigten, dass einerseits die Bildungsungleichheit im iranischen Bildungssystem von den sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Ungleichheiten in der Gesellschaft beeinflusst wird, und andererseits das Bildungssystem des Landes und die Struktur, die es regiert, Faktore für die Verstärkung und Ausweitung der Ungleichheiten sind. Nach den Forschungsergebnissen kann mit Sicherheit gesagt werden, dass in der gegenwärtigen Struktur des Bildungswesens der Hauptrahmen des Bildungssystems des Landes, einschließlich der Prinzipien, Ziele, Inhalte, Methoden, Erzieher, und Lernenden, jeweils auf eine bestimmte Art und Weise eine spezifische Rolle bei der Bildungsungleichheit und Ungerechtigkeit in der Gesellschaft spielen. (shrink)

The novel COVID-19 has created an exogenous shock to capital markets and, hence, an ideal opportunity for researchers to assess whether CSR-related activities provide an insurance-like mechanism to protect firms against the shock. Using a large sample of 4361 firms domiciled in 40 countries, we investigate the roles of CSR reporting and assurance in the negative consequences of COVID-19 on firm value. The results confirm that prior CSR reporting experience buffers firms against the adverse effects of the health crisis. The (...) results also support that not only does the assurance on CSR reports create a buffering effect against the health crisis, but it also intensifies the buffering effects of prior CSR reporting experience against the pandemic. Moreover, using difference-in-difference method for testing the link between CSR reporting and firm value, we show that the positive association of reporting and assurance with firm value is more pronounced during the pandemic as compared with the years preceding it. The results of this study are robust to various analyses. Replicating the analyses to the context of the global financial crisis, we find that prior CSR reporting experience and assurance provide similar buffering effects when a market is exposed to various exogenous shocks. The results also hold for the mandatory disclosure regimes. By distinguishing first and subsequent reports and assurance, we show that, unlike subsequent CSR reports and assurance, the initial ones cannot mitigate the negative effects of the crisis on firm value, indicating that stakeholders take into account longer-term CSR reporting experiences. Aside from reporting and assurance aspects of CSR, we analyze the role of CSR report's quality and accuracy and show that the adoption of Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) frameworks can enhance socially responsible firms' resilience against systematic shocks. (shrink)

Shiʿi jurists have three different theories with regard to gestational surrogacy and who should be recognized as the mother of the newborn: (1) the surrogate mother (2) or the ovum provider (biological mother) (3) or both of them. The religious law (al-Aḥkam al-sharʿi) regarding the title of ‘mother’ and issues such as inheritance, will (Waṣiya), marriage, and custody have been discussed by Shiʿi jurists but no exact definition of this term has been provided by them. Because the fertilized ovum is (...) considered the origin of humans and the formation of an embryo also determines the kinship of the newborn, the mother of the child is the woman that fetus created by her ovum. It is this woman who has all the rights and responsibilities of a mother; even if the surrogate mother is considered the mother of the child, she has no rights over the child nor does she have any duties towards him/her. (shrink)

Source: Author: Shima Peimanfard, Mohsen Hanif This essay sets out to study the function of hybridity and mimicry in Jean Rhy’s acclaimed novel Wide Sargasso Sea drawing on Homi K. Bhabha’s theoretical framework in this regard. In this novel, Antoinette emerges as the “Other” who aims to prove herself to the “Centre”. Undergoing extreme sufferings, the heroine wistfully ponders mimicry as an impulse to break out of her mare’s nest and to establish herself within one culture. Indeed, unlike what (...) Bhabha believes mimicry cannot upset the total authority of the “Centre”. Meanwhile, Antoinette used it as a result of her longings for the position of the “Centre” which she is unable to attain because of her hybrid existence. Countering Homi K. Bhabha’s central argument, this essay contends that Antoinette’s mimicry of Englishness fails to fend off the norms of the superior power, but partakes in celebrating the very ideals that Bhabah’s theory is trying to keep at bay. ]]>. (shrink)

A review of advertisement studies shows that there has been little attempt to examine infomercials in terms of rhetorical appeals and persuasive strategies. Therefore, this study sought to contribute to the existing literature by exploring the persuasive elements of Apple infomercials through Aristotle’s modes of persuasion to reveal the most frequent persuasive language features and structures and to study how such elements were utilized to promote the products and services of the company. A top-down approach based on Aristotle’s modes of (...) persuasion was adopted to identify the rhetorical appeals of logos, ethos and pathos as well as the promotional tokens and patterns in the text. The descriptive findings provided evidence to demonstrate that although all the rhetorical proofs were employed in the corpus, emotional appeal was the most dominant. The findings of this research open new horizons for further studies on infomercials in general and persuasive rhetoric in specific. (shrink)

We explore the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) personality traits and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. Upper echelons theory indicates that the values, experiences, and personalities of top organizational managers influence their organization's strategic decisions and effectiveness. We utilize IBM Watson Personality Insights software to infer CEOs’ personality traits based on their responses to questions raised by analysts during year‐end conference calls; we obtain CEOs’ Big Five personality traits—openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—from which we compute a measure of (...) their risk tolerance. Using a longitudinal dataset of Standard and Poor's 500 firms for 2008–2015, we document that high CEO risk tolerance is related to lower CSR report readability and smaller CSR disclosure volume. This finding indicates that executives who are comfortable with greater risk are more willing to supply stakeholders with reports that are shorter and require greater effort to understand. Exploration of the association between CEO Big Five personality traits and CSR report readability and disclosure volume allows key stakeholders to better comprehend CSR disclosures and connotations thereof. Overall, our results contribute to the debate on how CEO personality traits affect organizations’ CSR disclosure reporting strategies, and support upper echelons theory in the CSR setting. (shrink)

BackgroundHaving moral courage is a crucial characteristic for nurses to handle ethical quandaries, stay true to their professional obligations towards patients, and uphold ethical principles. This concept can be influenced by various factors including personal, professional, organizational, and leadership considerations. The purpose of this study was to explore the predictors of moral courage among nurses working in hospitals.MethodsIn 2018, an observational cross-sectional study was carried out on 267 nurses employed in six hospitals located in the northern region of Iran. The (...) participants were selected through a simple random sampling technique. To collect data, a demographic information form was used along with two questionnaires. The first questionnaire was a standard survey on moral courage, while the second questionnaire was designed to assess the ethical climate. Linear regression was used to assess the predictors of moral courage.ResultsNurses had an average moral courage score of 87.07 ± 15.52 and an average moral climate score of 96.12 ± 17.17. The study showed that 16% of the variation in moral courage scores among nurses was explained by ethical climate and monthly overtime hours.ConclusionThis study underscores the significance of establishing an ethical work environment and minimizing overtime hours in order to enhance moral courage among nurses. These findings carry weight for both nursing practice and organizational policies focused on fostering ethical conduct within healthcare settings. (shrink)

This book examines key issues in gender equality and corporate social responsibility in Japan. Legal compliance, the business case and social regulation are examined as driving factors for enhancing gender equality in corporations. In turn, case studies from various contexts, such as the hotel industry, retail and financial services companies add practical insights to the theoretical debate. The role of governments, NGOs and supranational organizations is examined as well. Given its scope, the book will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students, (...) scholars, policymakers and practitioners interested in advancing the gender, CSR and sustainability debates. (shrink)

We approach the problem of the extended mind from a radically non-dualist perspective. The separation between mind and matter is an artefact of the outdated mechanistic worldview, which leaves no room for mental phenomena such as agency, intentionality, or feeling. We propose to replace it by an action ontology, which conceives mind and matter as aspects of the same network of processes. By adopting the intentional stance, we interpret the catalysts of elementary reactions as agents exhibiting desires, intentions, and sensations. (...) Autopoietic networks of reactions constitute more complex super-agents, which moreover exhibit memory, deliberation and sense-making. In the specific case of social networks, individual agents coordinate their actions via the propagation of challenges. The distributed cognition that emerges from this interaction cannot be situated in any individual brain. This non-dualist, holistic view extends and operationalises process metaphysics and Eastern philosophies. It is supported by both mindfulness experiences and mathematical models of action, self-organisation, and cognition. (shrink)

Divine Motivation theory is an ethical theory with a theological foundation, attempting to explain the relation between religion and morality in the context of Christian theology with emphasizing on neo-Aristotelian and motivation-based ethics. This theory that is presented by Linda Zagzebski, provides a new form of virtue ethics that God's motives, especially that of love, are foundations of moral life and these motivational states are considered ontologically and explanatorily the basis for all moral properties and values. This theory uses five (...) steps to advance its destination. In the first step, this theory proves the personhood of God. In the second step, it argues that God has perfect virtues and motives. In the third step, it shows that God's motive in the Creation is motive of love that is the central and fundamental divine motive. In the fourth step, it discusses the doctrine of imitatio Dei and focuses on the problems of this doctrine. In the last step, it attempts to link this doctrine to the doctrine of the incarnation to resolve its problems. (shrink)

Heidegger’s most significant critique of metaphysics is that the history of metaphysics is the history of the forgetting of being. However, he also criticizes metaphysics for forgetting the nothing. Metaphysics fails to adequately address both being and nothingness, neglecting the nothing and treating it as a conceptual abstraction without objective reference. Metaphysics reduces discussions of the nothing to mere figurative expressions. However, by drawing on the approach of a contemporary Muslim philosopher who examines the the problem of the nothing in (...) particular and the fact-itself and reality in general, and the division of being into general, real, and specific, we can respond to Heidegger’s critique within the framework of metaphysics. According to this perspective, the nothing, like being, is an integral part of reality in a general and real sense. The nothing, with its nothingness, manifests itself in the external world without being reduced to the being. Thus, Heidegger’s statement that “nothing nihilates (or noths) itself” finds metaphysical justification. (shrink)

We explore the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) personality traits and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. Upper echelons theory indicates that the values, experiences, and personalities of top organizational managers influence their organization's strategic decisions and effectiveness. We utilize IBM Watson Personality Insights software to infer CEOs’ personality traits based on their responses to questions raised by analysts during year‐end conference calls; we obtain CEOs’ Big Five personality traits—openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—from which we compute a measure of (...) their risk tolerance. Using a longitudinal dataset of Standard and Poor's 500 firms for 2008–2015, we document that high CEO risk tolerance is related to lower CSR report readability and smaller CSR disclosure volume. This finding indicates that executives who are comfortable with greater risk are more willing to supply stakeholders with reports that are shorter and require greater effort to understand. Exploration of the association between CEO Big Five personality traits and CSR report readability and disclosure volume allows key stakeholders to better comprehend CSR disclosures and connotations thereof. Overall, our results contribute to the debate on how CEO personality traits affect organizations’ CSR disclosure reporting strategies, and support upper echelons theory in the CSR setting. (shrink)