The increase in white-collar crimes has become a common feature around the globe and its impact has left many conglomerates despaired affecting businesses, economies, employees and families that are somehow related to these organizations. The famous money laundering and accounting scandals such as; Parmalat, Adelphia, Yukos Oil Company, Qwest Communications International, Tyco, and WorldCom, are true bitter realities of the corporate world. The dilemma is costing enterprises great amounts of money to set the image right that keeps on getting wrong. People are hired on loads of relevant work experience with excellent academic backgrounds, yet the strain of dishonesty lurks within the individual worker of an organization. The purpose of the research is to investigate the dismal realities that occur within the recruiters’ conscious or subconscious mind during a recruitment and selection process (the gateway to an organization). Our objective is to identify the dimensions of enterprise hypocrisy and to understand and explain the scenarios and the ways professionals are trying to cope with the matter. The recruiters see the white collar crimes as a potential rising concern and are using personality test such as the OPQ 32 (Occupational Personality Questionnaire) together with other methods (interviews, references, intuition, education, etc.) in hiring the right candidate for the job, which hopefully would be potentially harmless to the organization. The findings are not based on a systematic comparative study and can therefore only be interpreted as indicative.

Academic dishonesty has been widely reported to be a prevalent occurrence among university students and yet little research has been done to explore, in depth, the meanings the phenomenon holds for students. In response to this gap in research, the purpose of this study was to discover senior Education students understandings of academic honesty and dishonesty. A naturalistic research design was employed and the data were the verbatim discussions of five groups of senior Education degree program students from two western Canadian universities.<p> Findings were focused on the substantive, structural, and future applicability in students understandings. Essential elements of academic dishonesty appearing in students understandings were existence of rules, intent to break those rules, and resulting unearned grade advantages. These elements were extrapolated to serve as a baseline definition of academic dishonesty and as principles of culpability. Numerous situational considerations were volunteered by students that described enticements, deterrents, and beliefs about likelihoods associated with academic honesty and dishonesty. These considerations served as structures for the contemplation of risk that appeared prevalent in students understandings. Future applicability in students understandings was centred on expectations for teaching and professionalism. As teachers, students expected to need to respond to and prevent academic dishonesty. When working in a professional environment, they expected little need to acknowledge sources and a more collaborative climate overall that, for them, meant concerns for academic dishonesty had less relevance. Students expectations suggested rules for teaching and they contrasted the environments experienced as students with those anticipated as teachers.<p> The findings of this study were integrated to suggest students vision of a system for academic honesty that bears some similarity to a moral system. Also extrapolated were four metaphors for the roles of students in the university related to concerns for academic dishonesty: student as subject, student as moral agent, student as trainee, and student as competitor. Implications for higher education policy development and communication were based on students focus on grades and students sense of subculture for academic honesty and dishonesty. Students deference to the authority of the professor suggested implications for instructional practice. A lack of monitoring of students and professors behaviours related to academic honesty and dishonesty had implications for administrative practice in terms of fostering norms for academic integrity. A model for discernment of the student voice is proposed for student concerns appearing to be most freely and richly explored in a discussion among students. Recommendations for approaches to future research of this nature and for research questions and student populations bring the dissertation to a close.

Academic dishonesty has been widely reported to be a prevalent occurrence among university students and yet little research has been done to explore, in depth, the meanings the phenomenon holds for students. In response to this gap in research, the purpose of this study was to discover senior Education students understandings of academic honesty and dishonesty. A naturalistic research design was employed and the data were the verbatim discussions of five groups of senior Education degree program students from two western Canadian universities.<p> Findings were focused on the substantive, structural, and future applicability in students understandings. Essential elements of academic dishonesty appearing in students understandings were existence of rules, intent to break those rules, and resulting unearned grade advantages. These elements were extrapolated to serve as a baseline definition of academic dishonesty and as principles of culpability. Numerous situational considerations were volunteered by students that described enticements, deterrents, and beliefs about likelihoods associated with academic honesty and dishonesty. These considerations served as structures for the contemplation of risk that appeared prevalent in students understandings. Future applicability in students understandings was centred on expectations for teaching and professionalism. As teachers, students expected to need to respond to and prevent academic dishonesty. When working in a professional environment, they expected little need to acknowledge sources and a more collaborative climate overall that, for them, meant concerns for academic dishonesty had less relevance. Students expectations suggested rules for teaching and they contrasted the environments experienced as students with those anticipated as teachers.<p> The findings of this study were integrated to suggest students vision of a system for academic honesty that bears some similarity to a moral system. Also extrapolated were four metaphors for the roles of students in the university related to concerns for academic dishonesty: student as subject, student as moral agent, student as trainee, and student as competitor. Implications for higher education policy development and communication were based on students focus on grades and students sense of subculture for academic honesty and dishonesty. Students deference to the authority of the professor suggested implications for instructional practice. A lack of monitoring of students and professors behaviours related to academic honesty and dishonesty had implications for administrative practice in terms of fostering norms for academic integrity. A model for discernment of the student voice is proposed for student concerns appearing to be most freely and richly explored in a discussion among students. Recommendations for approaches to future research of this nature and for research questions and student populations bring the dissertation to a close.

To motivate effort, organizations commonly use budget-based tangible rewards (e.g., gift cards, merchandise) in lieu of or in addition to cash rewards and they can distribute tangible rewards to employees either directly (employees are given merchandise directly) or indirectly (via a redeemable points program). In conjunction with various budget-based financial rewards, employees can receive feedback about how they performed relative to other employees. However, employees can intentionally misstate their expected performance (i.e., create budget slack) when participating in the budgeting process, impairing the usefulness of budgets for planning and motivation. This dissertation investigates the effects of different types of budget-based rewards (cash, tangible, or redeemable points) on budget slack creation and performance, and whether relative performance information [RPI] moderates these effects. As predicted, results from an experiment completed by 166 undergraduate students show that participants eligible to earn redeemable points create less slack (i.e., set more difficult performance budgets) than those eligible for cash or direct tangible rewards. Further, RPI provides participants with a descriptive norm that slack creation is socially acceptable, resulting in more slack. Although I do not find support for the predicted indirect relationship between reward type or RPI on performance via their effects on budget slack, I do find that the provision of RPI has a direct positive effect on performance. Finally, supplemental analysis shows that those provided with RPI and cash rewards outperform all others. These results suggest that firms choosing to provide budget-based tangible rewards and allowing employees to participate in the budgeting process should consider using a redeemable points system rather than providing rewards directly to eligible employees. Further, before deciding whether to provide RPI to employees, firms should weigh the positive direct effects of RPI on performance against its negative effects on budget slack creation. Last, if a firm does choose to provide employees with RPI because of its positive effects on employee effort, firms may be well-advised to offer employees budget-based cash rewards instead of budget- based tangible rewards or budget-based points rewards.

Syftet med denna studie var att få en insikt i förskollärares syn på ärlighet och dess betydelse med koppling till kommunikation och samspel i förskolans verksamhet. Undersökningen har bidragit med en fördjupad förståelse av ärlighetens betydelse i kommunikation och samspel mellan olika individer i förskolan. Bidraget av den ökade förståelse och kunskapen om begreppen är till nytta för de människor i samhället som är intresserade av kommunikation, samspel och ärlighet i olika verksamheter, institutioner eller i privatliv.  Kunskapen har uppnåtts genom att intervjua sex förskollärare från två förskolor samt genom att ha analyserat och kritiskt granskat artiklar och annan vetenskaplig litteratur inom ämnet. Studiens frågeställningar var följande: Hur definierar förskollärare god kommunikation och ett gott samspel? Vad innebär ärlighet respektive oärlighet för förskollärare samt i vilka situationer kan dessa begrepp komma i konflikt med varandra? Och, hur hanterar förskollärare situationer där begreppen ärlighet och oärlighet tvingas tillämpas i praktiken? Kvalitativ intervjumetod, av den semistrukturerade typen, har använts vid insamling av empiri. Symbolisk interaktionism har används som teori och perspektiv i denna studie. Resultatet visade att förskollärarnas syn på ärlighet ansågs vara betydelsefull i kommunikation och samspel med barn och vuxna i förskolans verksamhet. Vita lögner visade sig vara accepterat i vissa situationer för att skydda sig själva eller för att skydda barnet. Respondenterna betraktade vuxna som förebilder och förväntas genom omsorg, fostran och lärande att lära barn att bli ärliga och goda samhällsmedborgare. God kommunikation och ett gott samspelsklimat handlade om att våga uttrycka tankar och åsikter samt att kunna stå för sina ord menade respondenterna. Ärligheten ansågs även vara betydelsefull för att erhålla en god kommunikation och ett gott samspelsklimat. / The purpose of this study was to gain an insight into the preschool teachers' views on honesty and its importance related to communication and interplay in preschool. The study has contributed to a deeper understanding of the importance of honesty in the communication and interaction between individuals in preschool. The contribution of the increased understanding and knowledge of the concepts for the benefit of the people in the community who are interested in communication, interaction or interplay and honesty in various businesses, institutions or in private life. Knowledge is achieved by interviewing six preschool teachers from two preshools, and by analyzing and critically reviewed articles and other scientific literature on the subject. The study's questions were: How does preschool teachers define good communication and good interplay? What does honesty or dishonesty mean to preschool teachers as well as the situations in which these concepts can come into conflict with each other? And, how do preschool situations where the concepts of honesty and dishonesty have to be applied in practice? Qualitative interview method, the semi-structured type, have been used in the collection of empirical data. Symbolic interactionism is used as theory and perspective in this study. The results showed that preschool teachers' views on honesty were considered significant in communication, interaction and interplay with children and adults in preschool. White Lies proved to be acceptable in some situations to protect themselves or to protect the child. Respondents considered adults as role models and is expected by the care, nurturing and learning to teach children to become honest and good citizenship. Good communication and good interplay climate was about to dare to express ideas and opinions and to meet its words meant respondents. Honesty was also considered important to obtain a good communication and good interplay climates.

Children are often involved in the legal system as victims of maltreatment, and their disclosure of adult wrongdoing is necessary to initiate effective legal responses and protect them from continued abuse. However, external pressures and children's perceptions of the consequences of truth-telling (e.g., punishment, removal from the home) may result in the delay of disclosure or failure to disclose altogether. Research examining techniques for promoting children's truth-telling has almost exclusively relied on explicit requests to tell the truth (e.g., a promise, reassurance, assessments of conceptual knowledge and moral discussions), and the success of these techniques has varied. The present study examined the benefit of priming honesty (i.e., indirectly or non-consciously activating the goal of honesty) on children's disclosure of an adult's transgression. One-hundred fifteen 6- to 9-year-olds (M age = 7.47 years) participated in a first aid/safety event during which an adult (mother or stranger) engaged the child in play with a box of forbidden puppets, broke a puppet that was designed to break, and requested that the child keep it a secret. Before responding to questions about the puppets, children were either (1) primed for the goal of honesty (prime condition), (2) asked to promise to tell the truth (oath condition), or (3) not provided with any further instructions or information (control condition). Then, children were asked open-ended, direct, and suggestive questions about whether they or the adult touched, played with, or broke any puppets. Regression analyses revealed that children’s truthful disclosures to direct questions increased when children witnessed a stranger transgressing rather than their mother. However, children’s truthful disclosures across the question types did not differ by age or when a prime relative to a promise to tell the truth was used. Results advance our understanding of how children disclose negative events and the effectiveness of different techniques (including a novel technique) in encouraging children’s true disclosures of a parent or stranger’s transgression.

Using two experiments, where children either rolled dice or solved a matrix task, we examined whether scouts are more honest than non-scouts. In the first experiment, participants completed a matrix task. The papers were then shredded, and participants self-reported the number they had correctly solved. After analysing the results, we found that 10.81 % of scouts and 13.04 % of non-scouts lied. This difference, between the honesty of scouts and non-scouts, was not statistically significant. There was no perceived effect from being scout on the individual's honesty, as well as from taking the scout promise, or years of experience in a scout organization on the scout's honesty. In the second experiment, participants rolled the dice privately. According to value rolled, participants could either take (1, 2, 3), or leave (4, 5, 6), a Kinder chocolate reward. Statistically, participants would be expected to take the reward 50 % of the time. This was the case for the scouts group, the results did not differ statistically from 50:50, but not for the non-scouts. However, the difference between scouts and non-scouts was not statistically significant, indicating that there is no significant difference in honesty between scouts and non-scouts. Thus, our hypothesis that scouts are more honest than non-scouts was not supported.

The balance between the costs and benefits of conspicuous signals ensures that the expression of those signals is related to the quality of the bearer. Plastic signals could enable males to maximize conspicuous traits to impress mates and competitors, but reduce the expression of those traits to minimize signaling costs, potentially compromising the information conveyed by the signals. I investigated the effect of signal enhancement on the information coded by the biphasic electric signal pulse of the gymnotiform fish Brachyhypopomus gauderio. Increases in population density drive males to enhance the amplitude of their signals. I found that signal amplitude enhancement improves the information about the signaler’s size. Furthermore, I found that the elongation of the signal’s second phase conveys information about androgen levels in both sexes, gonad size in males and estrogen levels in females. Androgens link the duration of the signal’s second phase to other androgen-mediated traits making the signal an honest indicator of reproductive state and aggressive motivation. Signal amplitude enhancement facilitates the assessment of the signaler’s resource holding potential, important for male-male interactions, while signal duration provides information about aggressive motivation to same-sex competitors and reproductive state to the opposite sex. Moreover, I found that female signals also change in accordance to the social environment. Females also increase the amplitude of their signal when population density increases and elongate the duration of their signal’s second phase when the sex ratio becomes female-biased. Indicating that some degree of sexual selection operates in females. I studied whether male B. gauderio use signal plasticity to reduce the cost of reproductive signaling when energy is limited. Surprisingly, I found that food limitation promotes the investment in reproduction manifested as signal enhancement and elevated androgen levels. The short lifespan and single breeding season of B. gauderio diminishes the advantage of energy savings and gives priority to sustaining reproduction. I conclude that the electric signal of B. gauderio provides reliable information about the signaler, the quality of this information is reinforced rather than degraded with signal enhancement.

no / Singapore commercial contract law has taken an Asian perspective in respect of express terms of good faith in the negotiation of contract. In general, however, it adheres to the English contract law orthodoxy regarding good faith. More specifically, Singapore, like England, does not recognize a general duty or principle of good faith and it is reluctant to imply a duty of good faith into a contract. However, as a hub of international trade and a rising forum for commercial dispute resolution, Singapore will have a stronger need to reconcile the differences in good faith in contract law between the English/Commonwealth and the European-Asian legal traditions. Conventional wisdom and international commercial law instruments in this respect are not as helpful as one would expect for such a need. Instead, to an enlightening but limited extent, the “organizing principle” approach in Bhasin v Hrynew could be useful for setting up a framework for reconciling the differences. This framework could consist of an organising principle of (honouring) reasonable expectations, a duty of honesty, and a duty of fair dealing. The framework realistically concretises good faith into the three components, all of which are essentially objective and ascertainable in specific factual matrix and are well-recognised in both common law and civil law.

Background: Journal writing is often used to gauge student skills and knowledge. There is disagreement as to whether journals should be graded because students may embellish experiences or write what the instructor wants to read. If students are not engaged in honest reflection, the benefit of reflective practice is reduced. Purpose: The purpose of this correlational non-experimental study was to examine if a relationship exists between the grading of reflective journals and student honesty in reflective journal writing. Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework for this study was based on Schӧn’s reflective practice theory. This theoretical framework is suitable as students participate in reflective journal writing learning from experience and response to the situation, scaffolding on previous knowledge with the application of new knowledge. Methods: The correlational, non-experimental study was conducted at five Midwestern U.S. pre-licensure nursing programs. Data were collected using an anonymous survey. The non-probability sampling technique was used to examine the existence of a relationship between the grading of reflective journals and student honesty in reflective journal writing. Results: Findings indicated that a significant relationship exists between the grading of reflective journals and student honesty. The relationship between reflective journal writing and embellishment was negative and non-significant. Conclusions: This study revealed that a relationship exists between graded reflective journals and study honesty in reflective journal writing. Nurse educators and policy makers need to assess the process of reflection which involves critical thinking and problem-solving instead of grading the written component; possibly, changing to a complete/incomplete grade.