Mikael Sundström

Citizenship education and diversity in liberal societies : Theory and policy in a comparative perspective

Citizenship education is a popular and contested phenomenon in liberal democratic societies. It is difficult to imagine a school system that does not contribute to the preservation and improvement of society through education of democratic, responsible and tolerant citizens. On the contrary, the execution of such education is full of caveats, controversy and resistance. This special issue examines the inherent tensions of citizenship education in a variety of national contexts (France, England, Sweden and Quebec) and from several theoretical and empirical perspectives. In this introductory article, we present an overview of the debates on citizenship education in academia and the media and propose a conceptual framework for the categorisation and comparison of the diversity of practices that relate to citizenship education. This model is then used to guide a brief presentation of the remaining articles in the special issue.

Leadership and the Psychology of Awareness: Three Theoretical Approaches to Information Security Management

The authors argue that information security management (ISM) would benefit from studies that examine the social and psychological mechanisms that, when in evidence, generate employee awareness of information security (IS)-related issues. Properly instilled, IS awareness has the power to engender a proactive wariness beyond mechanical guidelines, however detailed. To study how awareness travels in complex organizations, the authors devise a framework to catch mechanisms grounded in psychological and sociological theories. To illustrate the framework, the authors then turn to an empirical study of a medium-sized company where they sound out managers for definitions of IS and ISM; for initiatives intended to influence IS and IS awareness among employees; and for their views on learning related to IS and ISM. The study highlights the difficulties facing managers charged with IS matters, whose responsibilities are often considered peripheral by the general employee. The study also provides several pointers on how to go about the complex business of building awareness.

When implementation falters: the challenge of having peripheral issues stick in organisations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study a class of issues that in spite of recognised needs and explicit managerial demands have proven hard to have “stick” in organisations (information security is used as an example). It offers a theory-driven rationale why superficially different issue areas can indeed be considered as instances of the identified class, and builds on complexity leadership theory (CLT) to explain how the related strategic challenges can be explained and possibly alleviated. Design/methodology/approach A. Kenneth Rice’s notion of organisations’ “primary task” is used to home in on its opposite that is here labelled “peripherality”. Existing strands of organisation research that can be related to this notion are then revisited to ground the fundamental concept theoretically. The CLT is finally used to provide a detailed understanding of the underlying dynamics. Findings The paper explains how and why certain issue areas seem resistant to common managerial intervention methods even though it would seem that organisational members are in fact favouring proposed changes (a state that would normally increase the chances of success). It also offers ideas how these challenges may fruitfully be approached. Originality/value Problems related to the suggested “peripherality” class of issues have thus far been approached as wholly unrelated (and for that reason as idiosyncratic). The proposed framework offers a hitherto never attempted way systematically to link these challenges – and so structure and concentrate discussion about possibly common remedies.