Cloak Of Competence Research Articles

Accounts and counter-accounts: accounting and accountability for asbestos-related liabilities

PurposeThis study aims to investigate disclosure of asbestos-related liabilities in corporate accounts and counter-accounts to examine whether and how accounting contributes to corporate accountability for asbestos-contaminated products.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses the Goffmanesque perspective on impression management to examine instances of concealed asbestos-related liabilities in corporate accounts vis-à-vis the revealing of such liabilities in counter-accounts.FindingsThe findings show counter-accounts provide significant information on liabilities originating from the exposure of employees and consumers to asbestos. By contrast, the malleability of accounting tools enables companies to eschew accounting disclosures. While the frontstage positive performance of companies served an impression management role, their backstage concealing actions enabled companies to cover up asbestos-related liabilities. These companies used three categories of mechanisms to avoid disclosure of asbestos-related liabilities: concealing via a “cloak of competence”, impression management via epistemic work and a silent strategy of concealment frontstage with strategic reorganisation backstage.Practical implicationsThis study has policy relevance as regulators need to consider the limits of corporate disclosures as an accountability tool. The findings may also initiate academic and practitioner conversations about accounting standards for long-term liabilities.Originality/valueThis study highlights the strategies companies use both frontstage and backstage to avoid disclosing asbestos-related liabilities. Through analysis of accounts and counter-accounts, this study identifies the limits of accounting as an accountability tool regarding asbestos-induced diseases and deaths.

Adopting a Cloak of Incompetence: Impression Management Techniques for Feigning Lesser Selves

The “cloak of competence” concept captures attempts to disguise limitations and exaggerate abilities. The author examines the conceptual converse: the “cloak of incompetence,” or the various ways people deliberately disregard, disguise, downplay, or diminish their personal abilities. Drawing on a comparative analysis of manifold empirical cases, the author identifies three generic competence-concealing techniques—avoidance, performance, and neutralization—and considers some of the interactional contingencies that can enhance or reduce their effectiveness. Avoidance and performance techniques are used to manage creditable competence. Neutralization techniques are used to manage credited competence. Each strategy obstructs the appearance and attribution of competence in a particular way: avoidance techniques prevent the dramatic realization of competence, performance techniques dramatically realize incompetence, and neutralization techniques discount, downplay, distance, or otherwise explain away evident but undesirable competent performances. The author concludes by discussing some implications for sociologies of persons, culture, and structure.

Behind the cloak of competence: brain injury and mental capacity legislation

PurposeBrain Injury Case Managers (BICMs) work closely with individuals with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), assessing needs, structuring rehabilitation interventions and providing support, and have significant experience of clients with impairments to decision making. The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and its guidance when applied to ABI survivors. This research aimed to: first, highlight potential conflicts or tensions that application of the MCA might pose, and second, identify approaches to mitigate the problems of the MCA and capacity assessments with ABI survivors. It is hoped that this will support improvements in the services offered.Design/methodology/approachUsing a mixed method approach, 93 BICMs responded to an online questionnaire about decision making following ABI. Of these, 12 BICMs agreed to take part in a follow-up semi-structured telephone interview.FindingsThe data revealed four main themes: disagreements with other professionals, hidden disabilities, vulnerability in the community and implementation of the MCA and capacity assessments.Practical implicationsThe findings highlight the need for changes to the way mental capacity assessments are conducted and the need for training for professionals in the hidden effects of ABI.Originality/valueLimited research exists on potential limitations of the application of the MCA for individuals with an ABI. This paper provides much needed research on the difficulties surrounding mental capacity and ABI.

Celebrating a classic text: The Cloak of Competence revisited

Celebrating a classic text: The Cloak of Competence revisited

The Cloak of Incompetence: A Neglected Concept in the Sociology of Everyday Life

Sociologists have gained great purchase from Edgerton’s (1967) introduction of “the cloak of competence” as an analytical concept, particularly those in the study of deviance and health interested in presentations of self as “normal” and those who have studied professional socialization. Our concern in this paper is with the opposite process—the presentation of an incompetent or less than competent self. Situating our analysis within the sociology of everyday life and performing a meta-analysis of a range of studies, we show that displays of incompetence or diminished competence are as pervasive and integral a feature of social life as displays of competence. We explore the wide variety of situations in which social actors engage in displays of diminished competence and make the case for studying them more systematically as a way of understanding the full range of presentational strategies social actors employ. We conclude by suggesting that incompetence/competence are best viewed as a continuum along which individuals seek to position themselves, engaging in “cloaking behavior” to either maximize or minimize their displayed level of competence. We also discuss the relevance of these conceptual ideas to those concerned with the dynamics of social inequality, and the doing of gender, race, class, power and resistance, suggesting that greater attention to cloaking behavior may serve as a bridge between interpretive and structural approaches in sociology.

The “Cloak of Competence”: So Who Are We Saying Is Stupid?

The cloak of competence, a term that has resurfaced recently, is yet another clever way of using demeaning language to devalue people with disabilities. The implications and impact of this specific expression and the more general transaction of devaluation will be explored. The language we use and the images we associate to individuals create expectancies that then limit or expand opportunities for competency development. What we call people matters.

Characteristics and Needs of People With Intellectual Disability Who Have Higher IQs

Characteristics and Needs of People With Intellectual Disability Who Have Higher IQs

Unveiling the cloak of competence: Cultivating authenticity in graduate sociology

In the summer 2005 issue of The American Sociologist, there were a series of essays that applied the sociological eye to the issue of graduate school experience, providing insightful and, at times, uncomfortable examinations of the "underside" of this competi tive endeavor.1 In this issue, Fenrales and Fine (2005) presented an incisive analysis of the realities of labeling processes that inevitably emerge in graduate school, and the repercussions this carries with it.2 The authors argue that the quest for supervisors is com petitive, and that the professoriate must make typifications about students rather quickly, in order to choose whom to work with and whom to avoid. Beyond simply passing the minimum requirements of the program in terms of courses, comprehensive exams, and the dissertation, they argue that the cultivation of a positive reputation (conveying the image of a hardworking, intelligent student) is an essential part of success. Thus, if the student is ignorant of a relevant theorist or issue in classroom discussion, this should be effectively hidden. There is such a thing, Ferrales and Fine warn, as a "stupid question"; as such, displaying this sort of ineptitude should be avoided. Further, students who are planning to vacation over the summer, or invest time in leisure pursuits, ought not to advertise this, as it is a sign that they are not fully committed to the demands of the discipline. Under the constant monitoring and surveillance of the professorial gatekeep ers, students must be active in censoring that which could serve to harm their academic reputational identities. It is this piece of advice we take issue with, as we argue that it has negative normative ramifications for our profession in the long term. Further, we believe that the degree of bureaucratic impression management enacted by graduate students (and others) varies

The Cloak of Competence: Revised and Updated.

The Cloak of Competence: Revised and Updated.

: The Cloak of Competence: Revised and Updated . Robert B. Edgerton.

: The Cloak of Competence: Revised and Updated . Robert B. Edgerton.

‘The cloak of competence’: Assessment dilemmas in social work education

In the face of administrative and pedagogic changes in professional social work training, educators and trainers face considerable uncertainty. Key dilemmas concern what is meant by competence, and how far it is possible to identify and reconcile technical and ideological competencies. This paper uses empirical material from a semi-participant study to explore the relevance of the concept ‘cloak of competence’, with reference to the behaviour of tutors and practice teachers. It suggests that excessive or continuous uncertainty generates avoidance or coping strategies, which lead to a resolution by the achievement of an appearance of competence. The consequences of these processes for staff development are then briefly considered.

Book Review The Cloak of Competence Revised and updated edition. By Robert B. Edgerton. 247 pp. Berkeley, Calif., University of California Press, 1993. $35 (cloth); $15 (paper). 0-520-08225-7 (cloth)

Book Review The Cloak of Competence Revised and updated edition. By Robert B. Edgerton. 247 pp. Berkeley, Calif., University of California Press, 1993. $35 (cloth); $15 (paper). 0-520-08225-7 (cloth)

Listening to Disabled People: The Problem of Voice and Authority in Robert B. Edgerton's the Cloak of Competence

ABSTRACT Using anthropological methods and a theoretical perspective derived from the sociology of Erving Goffman, Robert B. Edgerton's The Cloak of Competence: stigma in the lives of the mentally retarded (1967) brought an unusual degree of empathy to attempts to understand the lives of those labeled ‘mentally retarded’. Yet the book was conceived prior to the time when mental retardation began to be widely formulated as a social construction rather than a clinical syndrome. This essay analyzes the consequences for Edgerton's understanding of the lives of recently deinstitutionalized people of this uneasy combination of empathy and acceptance of mental retardation as an unalterable condition. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which Edgerton's conceptualization of mental retardation served to deny to members of his sample a voice with which to speak authoritatively about their own situation. Edgerton's revisionist follow-up research, which called into question some aspects of his earlier concept...

Time, Place and Competence: Society and History in the Writings of Robert Edgerton

ABSTRACT This is an article by an historian about the work of an American anthropologist and social scientist who has for many years observed, recorded and participated in the lives of the mentally handicapped. It had its origins in a dissatisfaction with existing histories of retardation and a desire to seek out twentieth century sociological perspectives with relevance to and resonances for earlier periods. The paper falls into three sections. The first describes and analyses the polarity–social competence and incompetence within given cultures–which is central to Edgerton's conception of what he terms ‘socio-cultural retardation’. This is followed by an evaluation of The Cloak of Competence [1], which concentrates on the interactions between deinstitutionalisation, stigma and passing for normal. A concluding section returns, by means of an examination of the validity of the notion of a ‘retarded community’, to a final interrogation of the causes as well as the meanings and contradictions implicit in ‘s...

The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded.Robert B. Edgerton

<i>The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded.</i>Robert B. Edgerton

Book Review: The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded

Book Review: The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:Counseling: Philosophy, Theory and Practice by Dugald Arbuckle.Human Relations—A Conceptual Approach by Ronald B. Levy.Principles of Educational and Psychological Testing by Frederick G. Brown.Today's Guidance: A Book of Readings edited by Carroll H. Miller and George D. Weigel.SIX SPECIALIZED BOOKS ON MENTAL RETARDATION: A REVIEW FOR GENERAL COUNSELORS: Mental Retardation edited by Alfred Baumeister.SIX SPECIALIZED BOOKS ON MENTAL RETARDATION: A REVIEW FOR GENERAL COUNSELORS: The Cloak of Competence by Robert B. Edgerton.SIX SPECIALIZED BOOKS ON MENTAL RETARDATION: A REVIEW FOR GENERAL COUNSELORS: Mental Retardation: Its Social Context and Social Consequences by Bernard Farber.SIX SPECIALIZED BOOKS ON MENTAL RETARDATION: A REVIEW FOR GENERAL COUNSELORS: A High School Work‐Study Program for Mentally Subnormal Students by Oliver P. Kolstoe and Roger M. Frey.SIX SPECIALIZED BOOKS ON MENTAL RETARDATION: A REVIEW FOR GENERAL COUNSELORS: Counseling and Psychotherapy with the Mentally Retarded edited by Chalmers L. Stacey and Manfred F. DeMartino.SIX SPECIALIZED BOOKS ON MENTAL RETARDATION: A REVIEW FOR GENERAL COUNSELORS: Management of the Family of the Mentally Retarded edited by Wolf Wolfensberger and Richard A. Kurtz.Vocational Rehabilitation of the Disabled: An Overview by David Maliken and Herbert Rusalem.The Woman Doctorate in America by Helen S. Astin.Strategies for Success in Compensatory Education: An Appraisal of Evaluation Research by Edward L. McDill, Mary S. McDill, and J. Timothy Sprehe.Videotape Techniques in Psychiatric Training and Treatment edited by Milton M. Berger.Personality Tests and Reviews by Oscar K. Buros.Reaching the Disadvantaged Learner edited by A. Harry Passow.The Slow Learner edited by Joseph S. Roucek.Guidance and the Emerging Adolescent by Philip A. Perrone, T. Antoinette Ryan, and Franklin R. Zeran.The Elementary School Counselor by William H. Van Hoose, Mildred Peters, and George E. Leonard.Strategies in Counseling for Behavior Change by Samuel H. Osipow and W. Bruce Walsh.Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather.The Psychology of Counseling by Edwin C. Lewis.The Professions: Roles and Rules by Wilbert E. Moore in collaboration with Gerald W. Rosenblum.The Counselor's Work in the Elementary School by James J. Muro.Counseling and Values by James A. Peterson.Remembering the Answers: Essays on the American Student Revolt by Nathan Glazer.Occupational Psychology by Donald E. Super and Martin J. Bohn, Jr.Occupations and the Social Structure by Richard H. Hall.People and Information edited by Harold B. Pepinsky.America's Problem Youth: Education and Guidance of the Disadvantaged edited by Oscar G. Mink and Bernard A. Kaplan.The Troubled Campus edited by G. Kerry Smith.Vocational Education and Guidance: A System for the Seventies by James A. Rhodes.Free‐Access Higher Education by Warren W. Willingham.

Review of The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded.

Review of The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded.

The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded.

The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded.

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:One Man's Practice. By Ray S. Greco with Rex A. Pittenger.An Introduction to Psychiatric Nursing. By David Boorer, R.M.N., and Heather Boorer, S.R.N., R.M.N. The Commonwealth and International Library of Science, Technology, Engineering and Liberal Studies.Social Science and Medicine, vol. 1, no. 1, April 1967. (Quarterly journal.)Ten Studies into Psychopathic Personality. By Michael Craft.Risk Taking: A Study in Cognition and Personality. By Nathan Kogan and M. A. Wallach.Mental Testing in Clinical Practice. By Moyra Williams.Asthma: Attitude and Milieu. By Aaron Lask.Abnormal Psychology: Understanding Behaviour Disorders. By Jacky Roy Strange.Social Organization and Behavior. Edited by Richard L. Simpson and Ida Harger Simpson.Social Deviance, Social Policy, Action and Research. By Leslie T. Wilkins.Sensitivity of People. By Henry Clay Smith.The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded. By Robert B. Edgerton.Divisiveness and Social Conflict: An Anthropological Approach. By Alan R. Beals and Bernard J. Siegel.The Science of Society: An Introduction to Sociology. By S. Cotgrove.