Showing papers on "Situational ethics published in 2005"

Situational Analysis: Grounded Theory After the Postmodern Turn

Abstract: List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Prologue: Regrounding Grounded Theory 1. Pushing and Being Pulled Around the Postmodern Turn Grounded Theory/Symbolic Interactionism as a Theory/Methods Package Grounded Theory/Symbolic Interactionism as Always Already Around the Postmodern Turn Grounded Theory as Recalcitrant Against the Postmodern Turn Pushing Grounded Theory Around the Postmodern Turn Reflections and Anticipations 2. From Chicago Ecologies to Situational Analysis Root Metaphors: From Chicago School Social Ecologies to Social Worlds/Arenas/Discourses New Roots I: Foucault and the Interactionist Project New Roots II: Taking the Nonhuman Explicitly Into Account New Roots III: From Social Worlds/Arenas to Situational Maps and Analysis Project Design, Data Gathering, and Accountability Temporary Closures 3. Doing Situational Maps and Analysis Doing Situational Maps Doing Social Worlds/Arenas Maps Doing Positional Maps Final Products: Project Maps Provisional Conclusions 4. Turning to Discourse(s) Introducing Discourse Analysis Multisite/Multiscape Research Issues in Situational Analysis of Discourse(s) Turnings 5. Mapping Narrative Discourses Designing a Narrative Project Doing Situational Maps of Narrative Discourse Doing Social Worlds/Arenas Maps of Narrative Discourse Doing Positional Maps of Narrative Discourse Final Comments: Situational Analysis of Narrative Discourse 6. Mapping Visual Discourses Entering Visual Discourse Doing Situational Analysis of Visual Discourse Visual Discourse Exemplars: Moore and Clarke's Anatomies Final Comments: Situational Analysis of Visual Discourse 7. Mapping Historical Discourses Designing Historical and Historicizing Projects Doing Situational Maps of Historical Discourse Doing Social Worlds/Arenas Maps of Historical Discourse Doing Positional Maps of Historical Discourse Project Map of Historical Discourse Final Comments: Situational Analysis of Historical Discourse Epilogue: FAQs and Conversations References Index About the Author

Psychological and Situational Influences on Commuter-Transport-Mode Choice:

Abstract: The relative importance and relationship between psychological and situational factors in predicting commuter-transport-mode choice was tested by four hypotheses. First, the influence of individuals’ values on commuter behavior is mediated by their corresponding beliefs about the environmental threat of cars (mediation hypothesis). Second, the influence of these beliefs on behavior is moderated by individual consideration of future consequences and control beliefs (moderation hypothesis). Third, cost, time, and access factors contribute to individuals’ commuter choice (situational hypothesis). Fourth, situational and psychological factors jointly influence proenvironmental behavior (interaction hypothesis). A sample of 205 Australian university students completed a survey to measure these relationships. Regression analyses indicated support for the mediation, situational, and interaction hypotheses. It was concluded that to achieve a transport-mode shift to public transport, public policy strategies shoul...

Enduring involvement, situational involvement, and flow in leisure and non-leisure activities.

Abstract: This research was conducted to investigate relationships between enduring involvement (EI), situational involvement (SI), and flow. It was hypothesized that the constructs would be related and that...

Which Behaviors Do Attitudes Predict? Meta-Analyzing the Effects of Social Pressure and Perceived Difficulty

Abstract: A meta-analysis of 797 studies and 1,001 effect sizes tested a theoretical hypothesis that situational constraints, such as perceived social pressure and perceived difficulty, weaken the relationsh...

RESEARCH REPORTS Understanding Supervisor-Targeted Aggression: A Within-Person, Between-Jobs Design

Abstract: Summary and Hypotheses There are two main purposes of the present study. First, we testwhether supervisor-targeted aggression is situation-specific, thatis, whether it is directed specifically at supervisors who are per-ceived to be abusive or unfair. Second, we examine the relativeimpact of situational factors and individual differences onsupervisor-targeted aggression.One way of investigating both the situational or target specific-ity of workplace aggression and the relative impact of situationalfactors and individual differences on aggression is with a researchdesign that allows a simultaneous assessment of within-subjectsituational factors and between-subjects individual differences.Individuals who engage in “moonlighting” provide a robust natu-ralistic context in which to conduct this study. Moonlighting oc-curs when individuals hold a primary, or full-time, job and chooseto seek secondary employment over and above their primary job.Moonlighters have two separate jobs in two separate organizationsand work for two separate supervisors, enabling an assessment ofthe extent to which workplace aggression is predicted by concur-rent, within-subject situation factors relative to between-subjectsindividual differences.With this as background and consistent with existing research(e.g., Anderson & Bushman, 2002; L. Greenberg & Barling, 1999)described above, we predicted the following:

Understanding Consumer Choice

Abstract: Understanding Consumer Choice explores the expectation that consumers' attitudes are related to their behavior and shows why it was thwarted. It goes on to demonstrate how recent attempts to relate attitudes and actions have implicitly incorporated measures of the two situational variables on which a behavior-based model of consumer choice must be founded: the consumption theory of the buyer and the elements of the physical and social setting in which consumer behavior takes place. These variables are combined into a model of the consumer situation from which a typology of consumer situations is derived. The model has been tested in terms of its capacity to predict attitudes known to relate to consumer behaviors in a variety of situational contexts. In addition, the book explores the capacity of this model, and the methods of behavioral economics and marketing science, to elucidate and suggest an intellectual foundation for consumer brand choice. Beyond all that, however, the book proposes a novel interrogation of the cognitive and behavioral perspectives, an overarching philosophy for consumer research.

Integrating the desire–for–control and rational choice in a corporate crime context

Abstract: The “rational choice” framework, with its focus on risks and rewards, is often used to explain corporate criminality. In this paper, we build on this framework by integrating the notion of “desire‐for‐control.” Although common to many psychologists, the desire‐for‐control, or the general wish to be in control over everyday life events, has not been examined for its relevance in understanding criminal activity generally, or within corporate offending in particular. After demonstrating the importance of desire‐for‐control in the corporate context, we use data from a sample of managers and MBA students to examine the extent to which desire‐for‐control relates to rational‐choice considerations and corporate criminal decision‐making. Results suggest that desire‐for‐control (1) influences the interpretation of rational‐choice considerations and (2) is positively related to corporate criminality even after controlling for a number of important situational‐ and individual‐level factors. Implications for future th...

Participation in Sport: A Developmental Glimpse at Emotion

Abstract: As we will see when we review the emotional response literature later in this chapter, competitive sport offers a rich emotional context with many potential sources of stress and enjoyment. We also know from previous research that the sources of these emotional responses organize into threecategories: intrapersonal, situational, and significant others. If we examine Jeniqua, we might see that she experiences a certain amount of stress from being a perfectionist (intrapersonal), participating in championship meets (situational), and dealing with negative social evaluation from her coach (significant others). However, she derives considerable enjoyment from learning new gymnastics skills (intrapersonal), winning (situational), and from the friendships she has established through participation (significant others).

Gendered Discourse about Family Business

Abstract: Language patterns of family business owners were explored by identifying discourse styles and emphasized ideas in four presenting contexts: business, family, intersection of family and business, and business success. The content analysis supports the existence of a general discourse style within family businesses and of similarities and differences between men and women in emphasized ideas as they frame their family businesses. The emotional discourse style (words of personal involvement, concern, and preference) was prominent across contexts for both genders, and there was a distinct absence of analytical language. Women had a higher emotional discourse style score for managing the business than did men, and balanced their emotional language with the practicality of planning tasks and creating efficiencies. Key Words: discourse, discourse analysis, family, gender, work. Business-owning families manage their work lives by negotiating the intersection of entrepreneurial endeavors with family obligations (Danes & Olson, 2003; Parasuranman, Purohit, Godshalk, & Beutell, 1996). Professionals who work with families in business need to understand the complex dynamics that this ongoing multisystem negotiation entails. These dynamics include how family members talk about their work, which reveals differences in how family members, such as spousal co-owners, may perceive their situation. Differences in perception are related to differences in actions, so understanding talk is an important part of understanding family business sustainability. Professionals who attend to how business owners talk about both the family and business aspects of their enterprise will be more effective in their consultant roles (Budge & Janoff, 1991). The complexity of working with family businesses evolves from the fact that they are composed of two unique systems that often overlap to varying degrees depending on situational circumstances (Stafford, Duncan, Danes, & Winter, 1999). In attempting to simplify the human dynamics within these complex family businesses, the systems of family and business often are described with labels such as emotional (family) and rational (business) arenas, and are prescribed with opposing tasks, values, goals, and rules. Outcomes emanating from this simplistic approach have some strong gender implications. Within the family business literature, the tendency is to consider the family as the system that impedes the functioning of the business (Borwick, 1986; Danes, Zuiker, Kean, & Arbuthnot, 1999; Ward, 1997). Much of that literature is based on case studies of family businesses with extensive problems or dysfunction. Within this same literature, women often are seen as problematic to family business functioning, and the family is viewed as needing to be managed (Budge & Janoff, 1991; Whiteside & Brown, 1991). Further, the role of women within the business system of family businesses often is characterized by the metaphor of "the invisible woman"; this phenomenon is explained by suggesting that the roles and rules of the family system (many of which are genderspecified) often are unconsciously integrated into the family business culture (Danes & Olson, 2003; Hollander & Bukowitz, 2002). In actuality, we know empirically little about the distinct manner in which men and women make sense of their family businesses. A contributing factor to this lack of knowledge is that much of what is written about family businesses comes through the discourses of psychology, accounting, business management, finance, or law rather than the discourse that family business owners use. As a result, little is known about the social context of language in family businesses, or the gendered discourse of that language. This study examined those voids and explicated the discourse of family business owners with two purposes: to identify language patterns used by male and female family business owners to describe the dynamics of their family businesses, and to identify ideas that are emphasized as they talk about their businesses. …

Effects of Negative Political Advertising on Voting Intention: An Exploration of the Roles of Involvement and Source Credibility in the Development of Voter Cynicism

Abstract: Candidates' use of negative political advertising continues to generate objections among individuals and concern among scholars and journalists. An experiment examining the influence of negative political advertising on individuals' voting decisions indicated that the effects and effectiveness of such advertising depend, at least in part, on the situational involvement of the participants and the credibility of the candidate. As would be expected, participants' intent to vote for a candidate who uses negative political advertising is higher for a high‐credibility candidate than for a low‐credibility candidate. This is true regardless of their level of situational political involvement. However, highly involved participants do experience greater cynicism when a high‐credibility candidate uses negative political advertising rather than when a low‐credibility candidate uses such advertising. There is no change in the cynicism of participants who are low in involvement, regardless of the credibility level of ...

Situational Crime Prevention as a Key Component in Embedded Crime Prevention

Abstract: This article provides information about the evolving field of situational crime prevention and proposes that the situational perspective be used to understand recent crime prevention approaches in Canada. The article also explores how the articulated description of situational crime prevention can be used to develop ways of measuring the impact of specific crime prevention programs and to find ways to embed the crime prevention process into general governance.

Older but not wiser? The relationship between age and wisdom

Abstract: This article reviews the literature on the relationship between wisdom and aging. It opens with a discussion of different approaches to defining what wisdom is. Philosophical, implicit-theoretical, and explicit-theoretical approaches are considered. The article continues with a consideration of the main perspectives on the relationship between wisdom and aging. Then the article discusses implicit-theories data relevant to the development of wisdom. Next, it considers explicit-theories data relevant to this development. Finally, it draws conclusions. Individual differences in and situational variables relevant to the development of wisdom may overwhelm any trends represented by gross group averages.

Uncertainty management and adoptees’ ambiguous loss of their birth parents

Abstract: According to the National Adoption Information Clearing House (2000; http://www.calib.com/naic/statistics.htm) 120,000 children each year are adopted in or into the US. Much has been written about the attachment and adjustment issues adoptees experience, yet there has been no comprehensive study on the loss felt by adoptees as they reach adulthood. This study of 54 adult adoptees extends the literature on uncertainty management and ambiguous loss by examining how these forces inform one another in the context of adoption. More specifically, it builds upon the uncertainty management literature by investigating the multiple ways in which adoptees experience uncertainty and loss and how these experiences, and the management responses that result from them, are shaped by the familial, perceptual, and situational factors that comprise them.

The Role of Involvement in Country-of-Origin Effects on Product Evaluation

Abstract: Past research on country-of-origin (COO) effects has largely focused on the general effects of the phenomena, with little attention to differences in individual factors and decision content This study seeks to understand under what conditions COO is effective In particular, this study investigates how situational and enduring involvement impact on the processing of product information containing COO cues Results from this study suggest that situational involvement moderates the effect of COO cue on product evaluation More importantly, situational involvement as a moderator is qualified when individuals are high in enduring involvement Findings from this study support the notion that pre-existing level of enduring involvement tends to magnify the effect of situational involvement

The role of sexual interests and situational factors on rapists' modus operandi: Implications for offender profiling

Abstract: Purpose. Although it has often been suggested that there is a direct relationship between an individual's sexual interests and behaviours exhibited during the crime they commit, few studies have investigated this question empirically. The purpose of the present study was thus to examine the role of sexual interests and situational factors as to their possible relationship to three components of rapists' modus operandi: (a) the level of organization of the offence, (b) the level of force used by the offender, and (c) the level of injury inflicted on the victim during the sexual assault. Methods. This study is based on a sample of 118 offenders who sexually assaulted a female aged 16 or over. All participants were assessed phallometrically and through the CQSA, a computerized questionnaire. Data were analysed using multiple regression analyses. Results. Our findings showed links between sexual interests, situational factors, and rapists' modus operandi. Firstly, individuals demonstrating a greater sexual interest in nonsexual violence showed a higher level of organization in the modus operandi. Secondly, alcohol consumption prior to the offence was related to a higher level of coercion. Finally, a negative emotional state prior to the crime was related to a high level of injury inflicted on the victim. Conclusions. Despite the fact that several authors postulated a direct link between the offender's sexual interests and his behaviour at the crime scene, our results only partially support this hypothesis. Moreover, our results partly support the fact that crime scene behaviour is related to offenders' personal characteristics, challenging an assumption of criminal profiling. We still believe that the modus operandi is related to offenders' personal attributes. It is, however, dynamic and may fluctuate due to certain situational factors related to offenders and victims. Future studies should take into account situational factors related to offenders and their victims.

The (affective) dispositional approach to job satisfaction: sorting out the policy implications

Abstract: Summary The dispositional approach to job attitudes has played an important role in refocusing attention in organizational behavior on person factors, in addition to situational factors, as determinants of job attitudes and behaviors. I focus on what have been suggested as policy implications of research on dispositions, in particular, research on affective dispositions. My reading of the evidence suggests that affective dispositional factors may be useful in employee selection, and I identify questions that need to be resolved for this case to be stronger. On the other hand, I find little in the way of logic or evidence to support the claim that dispositions constrain the success of situational interventions designed to improve employee attitudes (or behaviors). Consistent with recent developments in the personality literature and with arguments made by Gerhart and Davis-Blake and Pfeffer in the organizational behavior literature, I show that within-person consistency in attitudes and behaviors can coexist with mean level changes in attitudes and behaviors induced by situational changes in the workplace. Copyright # 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

General-Purpose Situational Simulation Environment for Construction Education

Abstract: The traditional construction education model based on precise well-defined problems and formal definitions is not satisfactorily fulfilling its mission of educating the decision makers of tomorrow. This realization has moved several researchers to explore alternatives where problem solving is carried out in conjunction with the environment, and concepts are embedded in the context promoting learning within the nexus of the activity. Several efforts have been undertaken to develop these environments resulting in a variety of special-purpose situational simulations. However, special-purpose situational simulations exhibit inherent limitations related to their application breadth, flexibility, and promotion of collaborations. These limitations cannot be resolved within the framework of special-purpose learning environments. A general-purpose environment is required to overcome these shortcomings and take full advantage of the situational learning paradigm. This paper describes the conceptual framework and pilot implementation of such an environment called the Virtual Coach.

Understanding Insurance Customer Dishonesty: Outline of a Situational Approach

Abstract: The paper takes a look at insurance customer dishonesty as a special case of consumer ethics, understood as a way of situation handling, as a moral choice between right and wrong, such as between self-interest vs. common-interest, in other words, a “moral temptation”. After briefly raising the question if different schools, of moral philosophy would conceptualize such moral temptations differently, the paper presents ‘moral psychology’ as a frame of reference, with a focus on cognitive moral development, moral attitude and moral neutralization. Conceptualization questions can’t be answered finally without thinking at the same time of empirical research design and instrument design decisions, e.g. choosing between experiment vs. questionnaire studies, designing suitable moral temptation situations as an experiment vs. questionnaires with scenario vignettes. The paper discusses then experiences from a 2004 pilot survey, with a main focus on a few insurance dishonesty scenarios with follow-up questions. The paper has an open end, i.e. outlines desirable future theoretical, empirical and practical work with insurance customer dishonesty.

Experimental evidence relating to the person-situation interactionist model of ethical decision making

Abstract: According to a widely credited model in the business ethics literature, ethical decisions are a function of two kinds of factors, personal (individual) and situational, and these factors interact with each other. According to a contrary view of decision making that is widely held in some areas of business research, individuals’ decisions about ethical issues (and subsequent actions) are purely a function of their self-interest.The laboratory experiment reported in this paper provides a test of the person-situation interactionist model, using the general theoretical and experimental framework used in the experimental economics literature. One individual and two situational factors relating to moral intensity were examined which may influence decisions to misrepresent information in the course of business activities.The individual and one situational variable were significantly related to participants’ actions. The interactions among individual and situation variables were not individually significant, although the model including interactions had a much higher level of statistical significance. Gender was significant, both directly and in interaction with moral development, suggesting that it may be worthy of further examination.

Crisis and Charisma in the California Recall Election

Abstract: The 2003 California recall election represented a unique opportunity to study leadership in the context of what has been described in the popular media as an economic and political crisis. Participants (N= 311) reported their perceptions of the current situation in California and their tendency to attribute outcomes to leaders rather than situational factors (the Romance of Leadership Scale, or RLS). They subsequently watched video clips of the incumbent, the incumbent party challenger and the outside challenger, and rated their delivery style, charisma and expected effectiveness in office. Results indicate that both challengers were rated as more charismatic than the incumbent, and crisis perceptions were related to expected effectiveness ratings for all three candidates. In addition, higher charismatic delivery was associated with higher ratings of charisma and effectiveness. Finally, the RLS was significantly related to ratings of the outside challenger’s charisma, and interacted with crisis perception...

Myopic Biases in Strategic Social Prediction: Why Deadlines Put Everyone Under More Pressure Than Everyone Else

Abstract: Five experiments document biases in the way people predict the outcomes of interdependent social situations. Participants predicted that situational constraints would restrain their own behavior more than it would the behavior of others, even in situations where everyone faced identical constraints. When anticipating the effects of deadlines on outcomes of negotiations, participants predicted that deadlines would hinder their performance more than it would hinder the performance of others. The results shed light on the psychological processes by which people predict the outcomes of and select strategies in strategic social interaction. They extend prior findings, such as people believing themselves to be below average on difficult tasks, to highly interdependent situations. Furthermore, the article shows both how focusing can account for these effects and also how perspective taking can reduce their biasing influence.

Prediction and the periodical aspect as generators of knowledge in a social practice framework

Abstract: We start from the assumption that school mathematics knowledge could be better explained if social practices were considered to be generators of knowledge. This perspective changes the way we look at what school mathematics knowledge is and what it takes to teach and learn it. In this article, we will present a teaching situation about periodic functions, which was designed with this perspective in mind. The design was based on the assumption that the scientific notion of periodic function is related with the social practice of prediction. In the situation, prediction as a social practice is transformed into a situational line of argument which redefines that which is periodical. The situation brings into play meanings for the repetition of a movement, which takes place in time in the context of graphs of functions. Our analysis of the situation will focus on the prediction tools that participants generated in order to define that which is periodical. We will conclude with some implications of our observations for the teaching of mathematics.

Lying, Cheating, Foreigners!! Negotiation Ethics Across Cultures

Abstract: Being on the receiving end of 'unethical' negotiation tactics is challenging any time but especially difficult to understand when the other party is culturally different. This paper extends current understanding of the influence of culture on ethical decision making in negotiation by presenting a new model showing that culture influences situational variables in a negotiation. It is posited that culture directly influences the organisational code of ethics, the organisational goals and the perception of the other party in an ethical decision context and that culture moderates the understanding of each of these situational variables. The theoretical and practical implications model are discussed.

Individual, situational and topic interest in geoscience among 11‐ and 12‐year‐old children

Abstract: All interest necessarily links the person with the external environment: the object/s of interest. Research into children’s interests is examined in the context of a rapidly‐expanding literature which has generated several powerful concepts in recent decades, notably ‘individual interest’, ‘situational interest’ and ‘topic interest’. The first is relatively robust and is usually represented as a manifestation of personality traits and psychological states. ‘Situational interest’, in contrast, relates to the learning environment, the context, and is essentially transitory. ‘Topic interest’ is more complex and a consensual definition has yet to emerge. It is conceived either as a subset of ‘individual interest’, involving a restricted part of a knowledge domain (the colloquial meaning of topic), or as a fluid amalgam of individual and situational interest. Very little research has been undertaken on science topic interest, the majority of related work dealing either with children’s interests in science per ...

Attributional Inference Across Cultures: Similar Automatic Attributions and Different Controlled Corrections

Abstract: Five studies examined the automatic and controlled components of attributional inference in U.S. and East Asian (EA) samples. Studies 1 through 3 used variations of the "anxious woman" paradigm, manipulating the inferential goal (dispositional or situational) and the normative impact of situational constraint information (discounting or augmenting). In each study, U.S. and EA participants under cognitive load produced strong automatic attributions to the focus of their inferential goal (dispositional or situational). Compared with the U.S. cognitive load participants, U.S. no load participants corrected their attributions according to the normative rules of inference. In contrast, EA no load participants corrected in the direction of situational causality, even when the specific content of the situational information provided should have promoted stronger dispositional inferences. Studies 4 and 5 examined and ruled out alternative accounts. Results are discussed in terms of a situational causality heuristic present in EA individuals.