Fostering Constructive Action by Peers and Bystanders in Organizations and Communities

Peers and bystanders play important roles in organizational and community conflict management. Bystanders often learn relevant information and have opportunities to act in ways that can affect three of the basic functions of a conflict management system (CMS.) They can help (or not help) to identify, assess, and manage behaviors that the organization or community deems to be “unacceptable.” Examples in which bystanders play important roles include sexual and racial harassment, safety violations, unethical research, national security violations and insider threats, cyber‐bullying and cyber‐sabotage, violence, fraud, theft, intimidation and retaliation, and gross negligence. Bystanders often are a missing link in conflict systems. For the purposes of this article, I define peers and bystanders as people who observe or learn about unacceptable behavior by others, but who are not the relevant supervisors, or who knowingly engage in planning or executing that behavior. I define CMS managers as all those people, including line managers, who have responsibility for managing conflicts. Conflict managers face many challenges in fostering constructive behavior from bystanders. The interests of bystanders may or may not coincide with the interests of conflict systems managers in an organization or community. Bystanders often have multiple, idiosyncratic, and conflicting interests, and experience painful dilemmas. In addition, peers and bystanders, and their contexts – often differ greatly from each other. Blanket rules about how all bystanders should behave, such as requirements for mandatory reporting, are often ineffective or lead to perverse results. Bystanders are regularly equated with “do‐nothings,” in the popular press. In real life, however, helpful bystander actions are common. Many bystanders report a wide variety of constructive initiatives, including private, informal interventions. In this article, I report on forty‐five years of observations on bystanders in many milieus. I present what bystanders have said are the reasons that they did not – or did – take action, and what can be learned to help organizations and communities to support bystanders to be more effective when faced with unacceptable behavior.     

Challenges of Local Ownership: Understanding the Outcomes of the International Community’s ‘Light Footprint’ Approach to the Nepal Peace Process

This article investigates whether a ‘light footprint’ approach to peacekeeping and peacebuilding by the international community more effectively addresses local drivers of conflict than the dominant model of large, multidimensional peace operations. It considers international engagement in the Nepalese peace process through the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), and argues that the international community’s approach to local ownership became more focused on non-imposition and therefore less politically engaged over time as a result of both local and international factors. This facilitated local elite ownership of the process, which fundamentally undermined the international community’s capacity to support peace consolidation as elites moved away from key transformational pledges of the peace settlement.     

Does U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Training Constitute a Type of Civic Education?

In what respects can military basic training affect veterans’ civic identities? According to a 2015 report published by the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC), military service positively affects civic health. While social scientists have also noted this possible connection, little attention has been paid to how and why this link might exist. To test the purported relationship between military training and increased civic capacities, I explored the United States Marine Corps’ (USMC) Recruit Training program. I conducted 20 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 17 enlisted Marine veterans and Marine drill instructors (DI) to ascertain their perceptions of the pedagogical aspirations of their service’s recruit training. The study’s participants reported that Marine Corps Recruit Training does seek to inculcate skills, values, and habits that are consistent with a civic identity as discussed in the civic-engagement and civic-education literature.     

Doctrine and violence: The impact of combatant training on civilian killings

Military theorists and practitioners have long argued that training shapes how combatants treat civilians during war. Yet there is little systematic evidence regarding the impact of training on wartime behavior, and almost none for non-state armed groups, despite the fact that such groups intensively train their fighters in order to shape their behavior towards civilian populations. This article argues that among insurgent groups that emphasize the strategic and tactical importance of restraint towards civilian populations, political training can reduce civilian killings. We test the observable implications of our theory in the case of Colombia, using survey data on former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgents and sub-national data on civilian killings. We find support for our hypothesis, with results that are robust to a range of model specifications and controls, including alternate sources of combatant discipline and obedience, such as military training and punishment.     

警务合成实战训练理念探析

警务合成实战课的教学训练使体能、武力使用、射击、查缉等专业技能知识融为一体。警务合成技能训练的实用性、重视训练过程和灵活多变性的训练理念方法有助于提高民警的警务实战能力。     

对当前民警培训工作发展定位的思考

在公安专科院校努力中办公安本科教育的新形势下,民警培训工作的发展思路是充分依托学历教育资源,充当公安院校与公安机关之间的桥梁和纽带,坚持不懈地抓好培训专题、师资队伍、目标管理三项建设,不断做强民警培训工作。     

论宪法社会学的学科价值、思维方式与研究内容

宪法社会学是从外部视角来观察和审视宪法,进而对宪法现象进行整体和动态研究的一门交叉学科和基础性学科。整体性思维方式决定了宪法社会学主要研究动态的宪法或者说宪法过程,亦即研究宪法如何受社会影响以及宪法如何影响并改造社会,它为宪法社会学预设了极为广泛的研究内容。     

程序的多重视角

程序是法学(法律)的一个独立范畴。由于语境不同,中西方对“程序”的理解有较大的差异,国内学者对法律程序进行解释时存在误读现象。完整地认识程序,需要完整的观察视角。只有从人权、法治、民主和经济等多元视角来诠释法律程序的价值和功能,才可能较完整地认识实体权利和程序权利的相互关系。     

数学教学中的素质教育

数学学科的特点 ,决定了数学教学在素质教育中的不可替代的作用。在教学中 ,介绍数学发展史 ,能帮助学生树立正确的人生观、价值观 ;解数学题是做“思维体操” ,能使学生形成良好的思维习惯及一丝不苟的学习作风 ;在教学中教会学生观察、类比、联想、归纳、审美的方法能培养创新精神。     

公共行政组织建构的合法化进路

对待现代国家公共行政组织建构的合法化问题,有一种形式法治主义的主张,即通过民主代议机关的合法化模式。这种模式在方法论上有单一原因论、理想的形式规范主义和绝对的建构理性主义之倾向,它在解决当下中国行政组织无序的诸多问题方面力有未逮。而在实践中,另外一种可以称为开放反思的合法化模式的进路,以其多向原因论、经验的实质规范主义和复合理性主义之方法论倾向,在相当程度上发挥着重要功能。它并非彻底否定民主代议模式,而是传统主张之外的一条比较贴近中国现实的合法化进路。