Problematic Work Research Articles

The Wrestler and His World: Precarious Workers, Post-Truth Politics, and Inauthentic Activism

In this article, I explore attempts to organize a precarious workforce in a setting that is always-already post-truth: professional wrestling. I focus in particular on a nascent, bottom-up unionization effort in the UK that foregrounds the rights of wrestlers who perform for low wages, in unsafe environments, and in the absence of both the state and traditional trade unions. I show that while many wrestlers agree with this movement’s diagnosis of problematic working conditions, there is also widespread skepticism about activists’ motivations, with many wrestlers suggesting that the organization may be telling a self-interested story about work, rather than engaging in a form of work. I argue that wrestlers’ permanent questioning emerges at the intersection of the self-appreciating, entrepreneurial subject and the post-truth, zany situation and conclude that wrestling affords insight into labor organization under employment conditions emblematic of a contemporary post-truth neoliberalism.

Protecting oneself while supporting the organisation: A longitudinal exploratory study of healthcare workers’ coping strategies and organisational resilience processes in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major source of stress for health professionals and health institutions. In response, healthcare workers adapted their behaviours to protect their health and the organisational resilience of their institutions. The study aimed to explore these individual coping and organisational resilience strategies and their evolution during the first year of the pandemic. Based on a mixed and longitudinal protocol, the study included staff from several French-speaking Swiss healthcare institutions. Participants completed an online questionnaire three times during the first year of the pandemic. They described daily problematic work situations, coping styles, and organisational resilience strategies. ‘Problem solving’ was the most frequently reported coping style, followed by ‘positive thinking’, and in a lesser extent ‘seeking social support’ and ‘avoidance’. A high level of ‘problem solving’ and ‘positive thinking’ was associated with well-managed situations, learning and development of new work practices and higher team performance. A higher level of ‘seeking social support’ and ‘avoidance’ tended to be associated with high-risk problematic situations that hindered organisation resilience. Coping strategies differed depending on profession, job tenure and hierarchical status. The article concludes with recommendations for improving both organisational resilience and individual workers’ well-being in healthcare institutions.

Navigating the Complexities of School Leadership for Students With Disabilities

This case study delves into the complexities faced by Principal Williams, a newly appointed leader at Hudford Elementary School, as she navigates the challenges of providing high-quality education for students with disabilities in an elementary school. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), each student with a disability is required to have access to the general education curriculum and specially designed instruction (SDI) that is tailored to the student’s unique needs. As Principal Williams steps into her role as leader of Hudford Elementary School, she has questions about the current service delivery model for students, the distribution of responsibilities across general and special education, and the extent of inclusion. She is considering her next steps, including how she will address some problematic working conditions experienced by special educators at the school. Through this case, readers gain insights into the complexity of supporting students with disabilities in a time of teacher shortages and learn about identifying the resources teachers need to fulfill their responsibilities.

The different approaches to chemical phosphorus removal across the UK wastewater industry

AbstractWater companies in the United Kingdom are currently facing unprecedented tightening of phosphorus discharge consents, which will only become stricter in the near future. Historically, the most widely applied method of phosphorus removal has been chemical precipitation through the addition of iron or aluminium salts. Although more sustainable options, such as biological processes, are already being implemented at key sites, data shows that chemical removal is likely to remain an integral part of wastewater treatment—whether as the main method in small or problematic works or as a trim for meeting consents below 1 mg/L, not achievable through biological removal alone. All sewage treatment providers in the United Kingdom have developed asset standards (internal design and operation guidelines) for the design and management of chemical precipitation at existing works. However, the approach has not been consistent throughout the sector, with wide variations of criteria, brackets and rules of thumb. This paper collates and compares these approaches, looking at asset standards from most of the water companies in the United Kingdom. The methods stated in these standards have been applied for the sizing of chemical phosphorus removal on four simulated sites, to meet theoretical consents based upon the future discharge requirements set by the Environment Agency under the Water Industry National Environment Programme.

‘Challenging’ doesn’t sum it up: Exploring probation practitioners’ experiences managing high-risk individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been, and still is, a worldwide health crisis. Despite the surge of literature on this phenomenon, little research has been conducted with the Probation Service during this time. The aim of this research was to explore Probation Practitioners’ (PPs’) experiences of the COVID-19 restrictions with a specific focus on those who access the Psychologically Informed Consultation Service (PICS). Further, to explore the experiences of key aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of the Community Offender Personality Disorder Service. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 PPs who represented a broad cross-section in terms of age and years of experience in the role. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to explore the experiences of PPs and revealed 5 main themes: unmet support needs, problematic working environments, an emotionally distressing time, the use of PICS, and a silver lining. These findings are discussed with implications for further research.

Using therapeutic metacommunication and systematic monitoring of the working alliance in adolescent psychotherapy: a clinical case study

ABSTRACT The quality of the working alliance as assessed by the patient is the most robust predictor of the therapeutic outcome. However, the working alliance is much less studied in youth psychotherapy than among adults, even though it might be a more complex phenomenon. This clinical case study presents examples of how a problematic working alliance is addressed through therapeutic metacommunication and how strengthening the therapeutic alliance contributes to the outcome in the psychotherapy of an adolescent girl. The results of this study encourage further studies of working alliances in adolescent psychotherapy apart from child and adult psychotherapy.

Effects Of Fan Activity And Views On Purchase Decision In The Genshin Impact Fanwork Market: a Literature Synthesis

Since the beginning of the industry, role-playing games (RPGs) have been among the most widely played game categories. As one of the worldwide top-grossing role-playing games in 2022, Genshin Impact is currently the 4th most popular game In Indonesia. With this popularity, many commercialized Genshin Impact fanworks circulated daily in the fan community, more popularly known as fandom. However, not all fanworks are accepted in the fandom and are considered "problematic works." Therefore, this research aims to know what factors support the purchase decision of Genshin Impact fanworks in Indonesia and the impact of negative factors of Genshin Impact fanworks on the purchase decision of Indonesian Genshin Impact fans. The findings of this study are expected to be of help to Genshin Impact fan workers in Indonesia.

HANDLING OF PROBLEM WORKING CAPITAL FINANCING IN INDONESIAN SHARIA BANK (BSI)

Working capital financing is an important part of the Company's operations. For Islamic banks, working capital is one of the most important products offered to customers. However, in practice, there are cases of problematic working capital financing that can affect the financial stability of Islamic banks in Indonesia. The results of the study show that several factors cause problematic working capital financing at Bank Syariah Indonesia, including: the inability of debtors to fulfill their payment obligations, poor bank management in controlling the use of funds and high business risks in several sectors. Several possible strategies include tightening control and supervision of the use of financial assets, improving credit processes, diversifying the financial portfolio and strengthening risk management. cooperation between Islamic banks and external parties such as economic monitoring institutions and consulting service companies can help overcome problematic working capital financing. All these efforts must be supported by proper regulations and the development of qualified human resources in the field of Islamic finance. This study is expected to provide a better understanding of the problems of working capital financing at Bank Syariah Indonesia and provide recommendations to banks and regulators to improve the management of these problems.

김정일의 『영화예술론』과 북한영화

The history of North Korean cinema is divided into before and after Kim Jong-il led the film territory. Kim Jong-il was in charge of propaganda and agitation in the mid-1960s. In addition, he led the qualitative change in the literary territory with a focus on the film territory. In the process, he took the lead in the liquidation of person in the North Korean film industry and took the lead in creating so-called revolutionary films such as “Sea of Blood” with detailed guidance in all areas of production, from writing a scenario to directing, filming, acting, and making stage.Kim Jong-il’s achievements in the film territory are concentrated in his “On the Art of the Cinema”. This book is a problematic work that encompasses the development and limitations of film art during the Kim Jong-il era. This article focuses on the theory of film art and examines its system, form, and content. Also in this article, I reveal that starting with the theory of film art, the literary center of the Kim Jong-il era began to expand into fields other than film. It relates to achievements in the fields of play, literature, art, architecture, music, etc., completed from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

Freud’s Moses and Fromm’s Freud: Erich Fromm’s silence on Freud’s Moses – a silence of negation or a silence of consent?

ABSTRACT In 1939 Sigmund Freud published his latest book, Moses and Monotheism, which is his most unusual and problematic work. In Moses Freud offers four groundbreaking claims in regard to the biblical story: [a] Moses was an Egyptian [b] The origin of monotheism is not Judaism [c] Moses was murdered by the Jews [d] The murder sparked a constant sense of unconscious guilt, which eventually contributed to the rational and ethical development of Jewish monotheism. As is well known, Freud’s Moses received extremely negative reviews from Jewish thinkers. The social psychoanalyst, Erich Fromm, who wrote extensively on Freud as well as on Judaism and the biblical narrative, did not explicitly express his position on Freud’s latest work. This paper offers explanations for Fromm’s roaring silence on Freud’s Moses.

Workarounds in the Shadow System: An Ethnographic Study of Requirements for Documentation and Cooperation in a Clinical Advisory Center.

Hospital information systems (HIS) are meant to manage complex work processes across healthcare organizations. We describe limitations of HIS to address local information requirements and how they are circumvented at different organizational levels. Results can be used to better support collaboration in socio-technical systems. Workarounds describe a mismatch between a technology's purpose and its actual use, whereas shadow systems are unofficial IT systems circumventing limitations of official systems to support workflows. Boundary infrastructures are conceptualized as the entirety of all (in)formal digital and analog systems connecting different communities of practice in a socio-technical system. An ethnographic study with observations and semi-structured interviews was conducted and analyzed through categorization and iterative coding. Several digital-analog workarounds are employed for documentation and a shared server functions as a shadow system to support workflows in ways the HIS cannot. For collaborative documentation, all (official and informal) information sources were used simultaneously as part of an interconnected boundary infrastructure. Formal and informal IT systems are interconnected across different organizational levels and provide insights into unmet information requirements, effective and problematic work practices, and how to address them to improve system functioning. An integrated perspective on boundary infrastructures, workarounds, and shadow systems may advance system analysis, providing a more comprehensive picture of IT requirements than any concept alone. Workarounds and shadow systems highlight that HIS should support systemic and local needs. Customized interfaces in HIS to support search, access, and exchange of relevant data might help to mitigate current shortcomings.

Ethics education to support ethical competence learning in healthcare: an integrative systematic review

BackgroundEthical problems in everyday healthcare work emerge for many reasons and constitute threats to ethical values. If these threats are not managed appropriately, there is a risk that the patient may be inflicted with moral harm or injury, while healthcare professionals are at risk of feeling moral distress. Therefore, it is essential to support the learning and development of ethical competencies among healthcare professionals and students. The aim of this study was to explore the available literature regarding ethics education that promotes ethical competence learning for healthcare professionals and students undergoing training in healthcare professions.MethodsIn this integrative systematic review, literature was searched within the PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycInfo databases using the search terms ‘health personnel’, ‘students’, ‘ethics’, ‘moral’, ‘simulation’, and ‘teaching’. In total, 40 articles were selected for review. These articles included professionals from various healthcare professions and students who trained in these professions as subjects. The articles described participation in various forms of ethics education. Data were extracted and synthesised using thematic analysis.ResultsThe review identified the need for support to make ethical competence learning possible, which in the long run was considered to promote the ability to manage ethical problems. Ethical competence learning was found to be helpful to healthcare professionals and students in drawing attention to ethical problems that they were not previously aware of. Dealing with ethical problems is primarily about reasoning about what is right and in the patient’s best interests, along with making decisions about what needs to be done in a specific situation.ConclusionsThe review identified different designs and course content for ethics education to support ethical competence learning. The findings could be used to develop healthcare professionals’ and students’ readiness and capabilities to recognise as well as to respond appropriately to ethically problematic work situations.

When a door becomes a window: using Glassdoor to examine game industry work cultures

ABSTRACT Despite a growing interest in its labour conditions, research about the games industry remains constrained by the streetlight effect. Non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements, or HR blocking access for embedded research, are examples of how the industry can shield itself from outside view. Furthermore, when access is granted, researchers might find themselves constrained by their own timelines (tenure clocks, graduation deadlines, etc.) that are antithetical to long-term, embedded ethnographic research. In this article, I discuss an opportunity to look behind the curtain of the game industry via employee reviews left on Glassdoor, a popular job-seeking website. These reviews provide a means to gather worker perspectives in a way that reduces the potential for harm for those who speak out to counter the dominant, PR-polished narratives about working in the game industry being a ‘dream job.’ To demonstrate Glassdoor’s utility as a supplemental data source for investigations of industry workplace cultures, I draw on employee reviews describing their experiences at Riot Games, developer of the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena League of Legends. These first-hand accounts of working at Riot provide a view into the games industry, allowing observation of how problematic work cultures become normalized, and ultimately, how workers who do not come to internalize these norms may be pushed out.

Broaden and Build? Examining student teachers’ understanding of teacher collaboration

Teacher collaboration is widely endorsed across the teacher continuum, including student teachers, due to its positive impact on teachers’ professional practice, knowledge and support, and learner outcomes. Notably, one’s definition of teacher collaboration informs beliefs and engagement in the process. Yet, little attention has been given to student teachers in this regard. Employing Broaden-and-Build theory (BBT; Fredrickson, 2004), this case study examines student teachers’ understanding and the perceived impacts they align to the teacher collaboration. 119 student teachers in one Initial Teacher Education (ITE) institution, in the Republic of Ireland completed a researcher-designed questionnaire seeking their definition of teacher collaboration and aligned impacts they afford to the process. Thematic analysis revealed participants’ understandings of collaboration included working together, sharing and a school-wide activity. Participants were positively disposed to collaboration, with enhanced intellectual, social and emotional resources attributed to collaborators. Inhibitory factors, such as lack of understanding, limited time and problematic working relationships were also identified as restricting collaborative opportunities and by extension associated gains. Discussion of the findings and their support of BBT are presented, as well as future research emanating from this study considered.

Leadership Characteristics of Female School Principals According to Female Teachers

Although the number of female teachers in schools is higher, this is not evident when looking at leadership levels. Various studies have examined this situation. In this study, the perspectives of female teachers working in private schools who are gradually raising their educational levels are discussed in depth about female head teachers. For this purpose, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 37 female teachers working in private schools in the Anatolian part of Istanbul. The data were analysed using content analysis, one of the qualitative analysis methods. As a result of the research, three main themes were found among the characteristics of female leaders, the competencies of female leaders, and the impact on the work environment. Under the theme of characteristics of female leaders, there are five categories: being selfish, forming problematic working relationships, being detail-obsessed, being jealous, acting emotionally; under the theme of competencies of female leaders: they lead well, their leadership skills are weak, they cannot be fair and impartial, they are not solution-oriented. The theme of the impact of female leaders on the work environment is a chaotic environment; communication is important, supportive environment.

A Novel Pre-Processing Approach for the Denoising of Alzheimer Disease Image Dataset

Medical imaging doing an indispensable part in the area of medicine. Noise in the image is maddening as it worsens the quality of image. Thus, removal of noise is perpetually a problematic work in the images of all domain. Alzheimer’s disease, a neurological dysfunction in which destruction of cells in brain creates mental weakening and memory loss. The distinguished reason for Alzheimer’s disease is low brain activity and low blood flow. We proposed a framework for removal of noise in Alzheimer disease image using histogram equalization, thresholding, open morphological operation and a wavelet transform. This framework reduces the noise and significantly better than the existing methods used for Alzheimer disease images.

Adapting to the unexpected: Problematic work situations and resilience strategies in healthcare institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave

The COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave required considerable adaptation efforts on the part of healthcare workers. The literature on resilient healthcare describes how the collective regulation strategies implemented by frontline employees make essential contributions to institutions’ abilities to cope with major crises. The present mixed-methodology study was thus conducted among a large sample of employees in a variety of Swiss healthcare institutions and focused on problematic real-world situations experienced by them and their managers during the pandemic’s first wave. It highlighted the anticipatory and adaptive strategies implemented by institutions, teams and individuals. The most frequently cited problematic situations involved organisational changes, interpersonal conflicts and workloads. In addition to the numerous top-down measures implemented by institutions, respondents also identified personal or team regulation strategies such as increasing staff flexibility, prioritising tasks, interprofessional collaboration, peer support or creating new communication channels to families. The present findings underlined the importance of taking greater account of healthcare support staff and strengthening managerial capacity to support interprofessional teams including those support staff.

How to Navigate Trainee-Mentor Relationships and Interpersonal Dynamics in the Lab.

Relationships with mentors and labmates are defining aspects of a researcher's journey in science. Ideally, these interactions are outstanding opportunities to learn from others and provide the basis for lifelong collaborations. Unfortunately, sometimes interpersonal dynamics in the lab are challenging. Graduate students entering the lab can greatly benefit from advice about navigating the interpersonal aspects of doing science. This article covers essential recommendations for developing a good trainee-mentor relationship and working well with peers in the lab, or being a "good lab citizen." Lab members-especially graduate students-often spend more time with labmates than with their friends and family during their graduate career, making these relationships essential to their well-being. The guidance also covers some advice for handling a tense relationship or problematic work environment. Finally, the advice concludes by discussing how to manage the fear of failure, overcome imposter syndrome, develop self-awareness, and cope with stress. These four issues are fundamental to success in research but are not discussed with graduate students as much as may be necessary. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Einleitung

Abstract Many classical philosophical texts contain passages that are to be judged as discriminatory and degrading, and by today’s standards even as racist, sexist or anti-Semitic. How we should deal appropriately with this heritage – be it in teaching or in research – is by no means undisputed. Some researchers are of the opinion that the passages in question are terminological idiosyncrasies of the respective authors related to the time they lived in and therefore philosophically irrelevant: they can be disregarded. Others doubt that such a separation can actually be made. They are of the opinion that the philosophical parts of the respective work are always affected if racist, sexist or anti-Semitic ideas can be detected in passages. In analogy to the current discussion on how to deal with problematic works of art, memorials, street names or linguistic expressions, the question can also be addressed to philosophical works: what should be done with philosophical texts if they contain racist, sexist and anti-Semitic thoughts and their reception preserves so-called racist knowledge in our society? The contributions in the section ‘Philosophie aktuell’ take a stand on these questions from different perspectives and thereby show that one can also deal critically with this topic on the basis of philosophical methods.

장르인식과 시대인식, 비극 장르와 정동의 동력 - 김정진의 <기적불 때>(1924)라는 문제적 작품 소고(小考) -

이 글에서는 염상섭을 매개로 『동아일보』의 기자이자 『폐허이후』의 동인으로 활동했던 김정진의 비극 <기적불 때>를 살펴보았다. 김정진의 문사(文士)로서의 삶은 1920년대 초 소위 동인지 문학 시대 『동아일보』에 근무하며 본격적으로 희곡을 발표하던 생애 시기로부터 시작되었다. 하지만 그동안의 김정진에 대한 연구가 개별 작품 분석에 한정되고, 작품을 희곡사적으로 평가하는데 그쳤던 탓에 김정진이 문사로서 1920년대 위치했던 지점을 종합적으로 고찰하는 부분은 간과되어왔다. 20년대 소위 동인지 문학은 동인지라는 미디어와 문학이라는 미적 자율성을 요구하는 영역의 만남으로 가능했다. 이런 배경을 반영하여 이 글에서는 김정진이 1920년대 문사로서의 삶, 극작가로서의 정체성을 정립하는 과정을 염상섭과 문인회, 『폐허이후』의 맥락 속에서 살펴보았다. 언론인과 문사의 삶을 횡단하며 아나키즘을 바탕으로 문학관을 정립했던 염상섭을 롤모델 삼아 자비 일본 유학생이라는 배경을 공유하며 김정진 역시 유사한 행보를 모색했다. 김정진은 자신의 태생을 부정해야 하는 운명, 그것을 이겨내고 새롭게 갱생하려는 의지를 자신의 문사로서의 출발에 투영했다. 그 결과가 뛰어난 극작법으로 완성된 그의 첫 본격 희곡이자 비극인 <기적불 때>이다. 이 작품은 새드 스토리의 비극적 정조가 아닌, 정동을 환기하는 비극의 극작법을 통해 20년대 개인적인 문제인 동시에 사회적인 문제였던 감정의 동력을 보여주었다. 그 결과 식민권력의 검열의 대상이 되기도 했지만, 그것은 역설적으로 이 작품이 지닌 감정의 공적 활용 가능성을 인정하는 것이었다.