International Journal of Public Sociology and Sociotherapy

Extant literature in the psychological contract field has addressed the ramifications of psychological contract breach, much of the evidence is drawn from the West. Perspectives from the Global South are not represented in proportion. The emergence of China and India, etc. to global players signals the criticality of examining the psychological contract in socio-cultural spheres outside the West. The article's contribution is clarifying culture and contexts as critical in theorizing modern inclusive psychological contract, transcending the West. It is found that culture is a key determinant of the form and functioning of the psychological contract in the Global South where allegiance, kinship, social networks impact on the perception and acceptance of employment relations and working conditions, etc. This means that, in many developing country contexts (despite perceived exploitation of workers by global players), there is limited association between psychological contract breach and employee turnover or organizational performance because the ‘divine' helps manage post-psychological breach.

Narrative skills are essential for children's social development. However, existing research primarily focuses on narratives' impact on children's cognitive abilities, with limited attention given to the relationship between narrative skills and peer interactions. This study aims to explore how oral and written narrative skills are associated with peer relations from a social perspective. 166 Chinese primary school children were randomly assigned to tasks of oral and written narratives, as well as peer nominations. Results indicate that grade 5 students performed significantly better than grade 3 students in both written and oral narrative tasks. Moreover, the level of written narrative proficiency surpassed that of oral skills. Significant interactions were also found among grade level, gender, and narrative modes. Crucially, narrative skills exhibited positive correlations with peer nominations, with stronger correlations seen for written narratives. These findings have important implications for narrative research and language instruction.

Companies conduct marketing research to generate customer insights. Marketing research involves public policy and ethical issues. The objective of the study is to analyze such issues. The methodology adopted is a conceptual analysis of the various public policy and ethical issues. The issues relate to intrusions on consumer privacy, consumer data security, and misuse of research findings. The discussions focus on technoethics involved in data collection in the digital age. Responsibilities of governments and companies for consumer privacy, measures to protect consumer privacy and to ensure technoethics, consumer data protection, and ensuring ethics for marketing research are discussed. The discussions will allow academicians and practicing managers to adopt initiatives and strategies which are effective. Policy makers and authorities may analyze the various aspects and implement rules and regulations which are effective in consumer privacy, consumer data security and protection, in preventing misuse of research findings, and in ensuring ethics in marketing research.

Companies focus on developing relationships and marketing partners to generate customer value and to receive value in return. However, companies should be selective in developing relationships with customers and marketing partners. The objective of the study is to understand and to focus on profitable customers and marketing partners. The methodology adopted is a conceptual analysis of the various aspects of building, developing, and managing relationships with selected customers and marketing partners. Companies should focus on developing deep and interactive customer relationships and on consumer-generated marketing. They should focus on developing customer relationships both in offline and online domains. They should understand various consumer rights and protect such rights. They should also focus on building relationships with marketing partners both within and outside the firms. The discussions will sensitize both academicians and practitioners about the importance of developing relationships with selected customers and partners to be successful in the long run.

This paper examines the impact of ‘social media influencers’ within the cosmetics industry, with a particular focus on their role as marketing agents. Deutsch and Gerard’s (1955) Normative Social Influence Theory was used to support the research. This study used a self-completing questionnaire, in which respondents were asked to rate their opinions regarding a specific statement on a Likert scale. Qualtrics was used to analyse the data. The results show that influencers can be significant support for business sales. Primarily, as credibility as a characteristic of influencers was deemed an effective way for influencers to use word-of-mouth marketing. The premise that an influencer could be considered ‘friend-like’ is rejected by respondents. However, we also found that influencers can damage business reputation, as their brand image –if negative -can contaminate the business brand.

We examine the predictive power of individual differences based on the Five-Factor Model (FFM) for stress among undergraduate students in private universities in Malaysia. One hundred thirty-one undergraduate students from three private universities were surveyed. A partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was utilised to analyse the data. Our findings indicate that Neuroticism and Agreeableness positively predict student stress. Whereas openness to experience, conscientiousness and extraversion do not exhibit significant or sufficiently sizable predictions of student stress. Notably, female students are found to report higher levels of stress than males. Emotionally unstable students tend to be more vulnerable to forms of stress. Agreeableness signifies the predisposition to be kind and supportive instead of suspicious or an adversary towards people. Thus, highly agreeable students may expose themselves to discretionary stress to meet their classmates and tutors' expectations. Our results are discussed. Further, practical and research implications are provided.

Keeping into consideration importance of citation analysis as a method of journal evaluation criteria study is initiated to highlight impact of journals which were removed by UGC presuming that journals are receiving citation attention as they are published by reputed publishers. The study aims to raise the awareness of increasing prevalence of citations to the journal articles considered as low quality by UGC. It demonstrated that many articles from the removed journals are deeply interwoven in the scientific literature and are cited by authors which later on publish in reputed publication outlet. Thus, the decision considering journal as low quality is not sufficient rather a proper mechanism should framed regarding citing low quality literature. Furthermore, declaring a journal as low quality or removing it from a country listing of white journals cannot change the entire landscape of scientific communication unless a collective effort at international level is initiated to curb the problem of low quality research and duplicated efforts.

Changes in modern society are rapid and complex and give rise to social problems such as crime. The relevance of community policing is derived from the need to facilitate robust relationships and mutual information flow between the police and the public. A £30 million UK Department for International Development (UK-DFID) overseeing a community policing initiative run in conjunction with the British Council's Security Justice and Growth in Nigeria did not achieve the desired community safety on account of the wide communication gaps between the security providers and the public in Nigeria. In 2004 at the presidential address to the American Sociological Association, Burawoy introduced the concept of public sociology involving taking sociology to the public audience. Adopting the Michael Burawoy's public sociology theoretical perspective, this paper explores the need and possibility of taking ideas of community policing to the public domain in Nigeria.

U.S. Retail Industry employed 4,528,550 retail salespersons, as stated by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics (2017). Tang, Liu, Oh, and Weitz (2014) assert that even though retail is the second largest industry in the United States, the retail stores’ employee turnover rate remains a staggering 60% for full-time employees. Gaining a better understanding of how to reduce turnover in this industry could be of significant value to organizations related to business sustainability and labor costs management. Generation Z represents people born in the 1990s and represents one-third of the U.S. population, a significant potential workforce (Fuscaldo, 2020). For the retail industry to flourish, it needs to hire, develop, and retain Generation Z employees. The study uses qualitative focus group research to discover applied human resources and talent management workplace leadership applications by exploring the ideal organizational culture and approaches to recruit and retain Generation Z employees.

The study aimed to determine the psychological impact of rhetorical persuasion to the millennial consumers. In order to determine this, respondents’ demographic profile, their perceptions towards advertisement and their preferred rhetorical persuasion were identified. It further aimed to analyzed how advertisement’s applied persuasion technique can psychologically persuade the respondents.Quantitative and descriptive research design were used in this study. There are 107 millennial respondents participated in the study. In conclusion, this study provided insights on the psychological impact of rhetorical persuasion in advertisement to Saudi millennial consumers. Demographic variables, such as gender, age, and personal allowance has little or no effect with their advertisement preference. Logos appeal incorporated in advertisement is most appealing to millennial respondents due to their personality that millennials are educated and knowledgeable, thus they will be believed or persuaded more with facts.

The study describes the level of assertiveness and self-esteem among nurses and examines the relations between assertiveness and self-esteem. Quantitative descriptive correlational design was used in 100 nurse respondents working in one of the tertiary hospital in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) using demographic components, assertive behavior inventory tool (ABIT), and Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSE). Data were analyzed. Results show that respondents are moderately assertive and have moderately high self-esteem. There is a significant relationship between assertiveness and the demographic variables while respondents' demographics did not have significant relationship with the level of self-esteem. The findings also suggested that assertiveness and self-esteem are positively and significantly correlated. Nurses are recommended to have regular assessment of their assertiveness as it affects the self-esteem and assertiveness training or other intervention that would empower and improve other nurses who are less assertive, non-assertive, and have low self-esteem.

Although different forms of corruption exist in every region, Africa, South America, Latin America, Russia, and Asia countries, perhaps to a greater extent engage in higher levels of corruption more than other regions of the world. Applying ethics of governance and theory of “patrimonialism,” this article examines governance of ethics and corruption. This article argues that corruption lays the foundation for the abridgement of citizens' rights and perpetuation of underdevelopment. Methodologically, the authors explored contents through multiple media sources, ensuring rigor and trustworthiness. The findings reveal how corruption is being perpetuated in Nigeria, prosecuted, and the challenges. This article finds a strong relationship between corruption, the absence of ethics of governance, and maladministration. Many public and political office holders engage or support corruption; there is lack of moral and ethical considerations. More so, it appears that politics is based on wealth acquisition and self-interest rather than on ideologies.

Small entrepreneur performance is always seen along with the complete proportions of financial, strategic, and structural development. The socioeconomic function performed by them is widely known. Yet there is concern regarding their financial literacy due to declining public and private to support and large developments in the financial marketplace. The concern is also deep due to the financial challenges and dearth of financial literacy of them. This may be a major factor for poor financial decision making and even deprived financial inclusion. Further, poor financial literacy causes not only business failures but has a penury multiplier effect. Thus, there is a global reckoning that financial literacy is not only vital for economic-financial stability and development but also as a strategy for financial inclusion. Hence, adopting a conceptual analysis approach, the aim of this study is to deliberate on financial literacy as a strategy for enhancing the financial inclusion of small entrepreneurs in the Indian context.

In recent years, the magnitude and complexity of movements have brought increased attention to the phenomenon of emigration which affects nearly all countries in the world. In developing countries, labour emigration is extremely complex. The main objective of the study is to explore the trends, causes, and challenges of labour emigration from Ethiopia. In-depth interview, key informant interview, observation, and document analysis were used as methods of data collection. Content and document analysis techniques were used to analyze the data. The results of the study show that there is a high level of labour emigration from Ethiopia. Labour emigration from Ethiopia is mostly associated with economic factors such as unemployment, underemployment, and the search for better life in the destination countries. The institutional structure and inter-institutional collaboration in relation to labour emigration are informed by a fragmented framework. As a result, Ethiopian migrant workers are highly vulnerable to human rights violations.

Trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation constitutes more than 59% of the entire trafficking industry globally. Young girls and women are sexually exploited and involved in prostitution, sex tourism, pornography, and other abuses. An efficient rehabilitation model reflects the utilization of the victim's coping mechanism to overcome the stress and trauma of past victimization. The main aim of the study is to explore various coping mechanisms utilized by both victims of commercial sexual exploitation and individuals vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation at rehabilitation and protective homes in India. The research utilized Participatory Action Research with Stress coping behavior scale (Janghel & Shrivastav, 2017 ) and conversational interviews to understand the various employed coping mechanism by the beneficiaries of Rehabilitation & Protective (R&P) homes. In total, 30 victims of commercial sexual exploitation and 30 individuals vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation, aged 18-50 years, participated in the study. The result through descriptive statistics shows the pursual of specific coping by the varied categories of the beneficiary in R&P homes. The measured risk ratio reflects the relative risk of alcohol & drug use due to prior exposure to commercial sexual exploitation. The findings from the conversational interviews complemented the results of the Stress coping behavior scale. The results have confirmed that victims of commercial sexual exploitation are more inclined towards maladaptive coping practices than the other participants

This paper extends and re-examines the author's previous findings using the same 2010 Canada Survey of Household Spending. Using a more advanced econometrics method, this paper empirically re-tests the four potential factors (price, economic, demographic, and geographic) that were significant. This paper concludes that economic and demographic factors are major determinants for hours of work by Canadians. Unlike the previous study, no provincial effects can be found. This means Atlantic Canadians work less not because of lifestyle choices but because of the lack of economic opportunities.

The study examines the effects of drug promotional practices and self-medication behaviour on public health in Lagos. It used a multistage sampling method to select 315 respondents. The researcher selected 12 in-depth interviewees and six focus group discussants to provide qualitative data based on his knowledge of their relevance. The data were analyzed. The logistic regression analysis indicated that drug promotions were less than once more likely to trigger self-medication behaviour among residents relative to being a rule-breaking activity. The study concludes that self-medication endangers public health in Lagos. It suggests the partnership of the stakeholders to promote public drug education, provide free healthcare for all, and criminalize unethical drug promotion practices in Lagos.

The location where workplace sexual harassment occurs points to the importance of workplace structures and practices for the precipitation of sexual harassment. In fact, some of the current theoretical explanations of sexual harassment focus primarily on organizational features that may facilitate sexual harassment, such as hierarchies and organizational cultures. Organizational literature suggests that in recent decades there has been a trend toward increased use of organizational practices that might empower workers, make organizations more inclusive, and constructively change organizational cultures through interventions. Assumptions about men and women contained in hegemonic gender beliefs can become embedded in organizational structures, authority lines, job classifications, institutional rules, and employee interactions. This paper explores these notions through a case study of an organizational intervention and a content analysis of the literature.

This paper discusses the relationships between fiction and working lives by exploring the roles of empathy and sustainability in how people read and perceive fiction in relation to their own private and working lives. The paper problematizes some notions manifesting within these relationships by discussing how ideology infiltrates both the understanding of concepts themselves as well as how they relate to each other. Hence, it thereby discusses how the individual experience of fiction has an effect on behavior but is influenced by ideological beliefs about society which are largely implicit to the reader herself. It thereby explains why fiction does not always enhance empathy. Using the distinction between aesthetic and ethical good, the paper elucidates how fiction may sustain an ideological version of empathy, and thus sustaining contemporary practices in the workplace and the economic system. The paper finishes with an exploration of how fiction may enable a reader to become aware of ideology, thereby opening possibilities to achieve more viable forms of social sustainability.

A 2016 article in the Nation outlined that in the United States the average Black family would need 228 years to build comparable wealth to the average white family. Today, achieving the dream of higher education has posed many threats to the Hispanic and African American communities. In order to achieve the dream, many minority students receive student loans to fund their higher education pursuits with hopes that future employment will afford repayment. However, most do not realize the risks. Student loan debt is a severe and mounting problem in the United States. In the United States, seven million student loan borrowers are now in default. Forty-five percent of college students obtain some sort of credit card debt. Lack of knowledge on financial literacy and student loan debt management is a serious issue. This article presents findings that support making financial literacy courses mandatory for college students just like Mathematics and English courses, especially at minority-serving colleges and universities.