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Systematic Literature Review: The literature review explored why healthcare professionals have negative attitudes towards patients with Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS) and how these attitudes developed. Six databases were searched and twelve papers were found. A meta-ethnography approach was used to synthesise the papers and draw overarching understandings. All of the papers researched medical doctors in Europe. The synthesis revealed that a lack of training contributed to negative attitudes. The attribution of symptoms impacted attitudes. The doctor-patient relationship was found to be a key mediating factor for attitudes. Professionals also had to manage their own emotional reactions to MUS presentations. The review suggests that negative attitudes may reflect the difficulty for professionals in working with the MUS presentation. Further education and support is required. Empirical Research Project: Research suggests that culture can impact the presentation of symptoms and engagement with psychological services. However, how culture impacts this specifically within the context of Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS) is not known. Twenty psychologists took part in semi-structured interviews to explore this. The transcripts were analysed using Thematic Analysis. Cultural identity and sense-making was an overarching theme which noted the impact of cultural narratives, faith and spirituality, and intersectionality on the explanations of MUS. Systemic barriers to access were found to be related to family narratives, stigma and institutional discrimination. The link between mental health and MUS was emphasised, with the link between mind and body and the cycle of poor mental health being contributing factors. Earlier psychological intervention and co-construction of meaning were noted as key in improving the patient journey. It was clear that culture needed to be considered within MUS to improve patient outcomes.

My doctoral dissertation aims to study the Tukkhā songs of North Bengal composed by the Rājbaṃśī community in the Rājbaṃśī lect, a living tradition largely unexplored by the academic community in Bengal and beyond. My paper analyses language and practice, combining literary criticism with anthropological research. These songs were influenced by the esoteric devotional traditions such as the Buddhist Sahajayāna, Śaiva, Śākta and Vaiṣṇava traditions of north-eastern India. I have conducted extensive fieldwork in North Bengal (2017-2020) and documented and archived a number of songs (close to one hundred), interviews and audio-visual performances. My work focuses on the oral tradition (songs) and performative art and on the direct connections between the Rājbaṃśī living traditions, rituals and cosmology depicted in Tantric medieval literature. My work explores mysticism and language, politics of an alternative imaginative space, which I examine as an expression of esoteric devotionalism in the context of the socio-historical and religious evolution of the Rājbaṃśī community. I assess the artistic and political implications of this literature through a close assessment of how it is performed in the present day. I have translated a corpus of these songs into English for the first time and majority of these songs have not been published before. These songs have created a powerful medium of their self-assertion of the historical consciousness of the Rājbaṃśī community, which has been subjected to political and cultural marginalization. This community has produced diverse genres of songs including Tukkhā, Bhāwaiyā, Tistābuṛir gān (songs for Tista river), songs for Satya- Pīr and Maynāmatī (related to the Nāth cult in Bengal), which are important documents of the cultural traditions of this community, thematically and historically in terms of content, literary value and performance traditions. My thesis also explores notions of identity, marginality, subjectivity, and constructs a critical history 'from below' through the medium of literature of the Rājbaṃśī community. While studying the various metaphors used in the Tukkhā songs, the thesis will try to understand the various strands of heterodox religious ideas that were deeply imbricated in older Tantric traditions and how they were responded to, negotiated with, assimilated, and hybridized. The contours of Tukkhā, as a field and as a living tradition have been refigured and reinvented, while it has engaged with various socio-historical changes in historical, religious and political landscape of North Bengal. The metaphors contained in the songs reveal socio-religious and historical clues about the possible influences on these songs in the absence of substantial secondary sources of literature on the Tukkhā songs. My strategy was to connect the various strands of socio-religious traditions and their influences on the Rājbaṃśī community in constructing a preliminary history of the Tukkhā tradition.

Purpose: This PhD thesis offers explanations for the way in which the offence of Corrupt or Improper Practice by police officers was implemented within the service and is analysed through a framework of the psychology, ethics, and management of implementation. Using autoethnographic data as policing parables, it explores stories of police misconduct and suggests theoretical underpinnings for the drivers of corruption and how the police may react to it. Design/methodology/approach: This research is an autoethnographic examination of the author's last two years as a serving police officer leading the Professional Standards Department of a large rural UK police force. The data consists of reflections on the emotional and philosophical impact on the author created by day-to-day interactions with police officers recorded in personal journals. Findings: The paper offers the new concepts of The Honest Cop Belief, the Ethical Trihedral, and Hyper-Procedural Pseudo-Compliance which are presented through an encompassing model of policing implementation named the Triangle of Kakistocracy. This model is offered as an original theoretical lens for other researchers to consider when examining the workings of the police. It discusses organisational and personal arrogance arising from the psychological impact on officers of ingrained cultural icons such as the Blue Wall of Silence. The Ethical Trihedral is presented as a model for analysing ethical incompetence in the police which is the suggested outcome of tension arising from conflicting philosophical paradigms. The impact of neoliberal managerialism in liquid modernity is examined to offer explanations for perceived moral cowardice in police managerial decision making which takes the form of hyper-procedural pseudo-compliance. Originality/value: Autoethnographic insider-research on police corruption is rare in the literature. Public trust and consent are vital to the British policing model, so divining esoteric police attitudes towards the harms perpetrated by abuses of their power is increasingly valuable in understanding police/public relationships.

The thesis comprises a set of published papers which together investigate the use of functionalist and interpretive research paradigms and methodologies to enhance the understanding and practice of organisational and financial control in the public sector. The thesis describes two ways in which both paradigms may inform such research. The first, referred to as a multiple paradigm approach, entails the investigation of one research site using both paradigms separately. The second approach, referred to as a multiparadigmatic approach, entails the use of both paradigms, concurrently. Neither paradigmatic approach has previously been taken to empirical research in public sector accounting. The thesis consists of seventeen chapters, arranged in four sections, linked by a preface. Each section focuses on a different research project which contributes to the overall thesis. The first section comprises three normative papers setting out the arguments in favour of researching financial control in the public sector using different paradigmatic approaches. In the second section a multiple paradigm approach is taken to investigate the relationship between organisational culture and financial control processes and behaviour. The section provides the first empirical evidence of the relationship between organisational culture and financial control processes and practice to be reported in management accounting contingency research literature. It shows that this relationship is complex and both constitutive and reflexive, and that it can be understood by a combination of 'scientific' analysis of appropriate questionnaires and 'naturalistic' understanding of historical and social processes. In the third section a multiparadigmatic stakeholder approach is taken to assist the strategic decision making process of a psychogeriatric community health service. In the fourth section a multiparadigmatic stakeholder approach is taken to designing and implementing an information system for community health services for the elderly. The thesis provides a clear methodology for using such an approach for these purposes and also provides extensive evaluations of the two applications.

The primary aim of this thesis was to explore the role culture plays in service delivery, more specifically on consumers' perceptions of service quality and its potential impact on complaint behaviour. A key premise of the thesis was that prominent models of service quality are conceptualized largely in western contexts without considering conceptual meaning in various contexts or nuances of meaning. Furthermore, there may indeed be unique aspects of culture in each context not yet identified in the extant literature. With this in mind, a qualitative approach was employed in order to gain an in-depth understanding of consumers' perceptions. The thesis was conducted in three stages culminating in three separate papers. Stage 1 involved a student sample of Trinidad and Tobago nationals currently enrolled at university in the North West region of the UK. Generally this stage served as a pilot for the larger cross-national study. Interview data and subsequent thematic analyses culminated in a holistic, multi-dimensional hierarchical framework labelled Conceptualization of Service Quality in Cultural Context (CSQCC). Within this framework two key cultural triggers called Culture of Closeness and Culture of Servitude where found to have an overarching influence on all variables in the model. As well as uniquely including culture, the CSQCC also encompasses human resources and operational variables not included in traditional service quality models namely Employee Work Ethic/Attitudes, Organizational Responsibility and Customer Responsibility. Stage 2 which included samples of British and Trinidad and Tobago nationals, all currently living in their country of birth were part of the larger study sample. Findings from both country contexts indicate that the general structure of the CSQCC identified in Stage 1 is upheld demonstrating universality in terms of the range of factors consumers utilize in their evaluations of service quality, at least in Britain and the UK. Notwithstanding the similarities, the importance weightings for the universal aspects of the CSQCC framework appear to vary. Furthermore, cultural triggers again were found to have an overarching influence consumers' perceptions, two such triggers were identified for British nationals-British Reserve and Culture of Cordiality, and for Trinbagonian nationals two additional triggers-Festive Culture and Culture of Entitlement. Data for Stage 3 was collected at the same time at Stage 2 and involved a cross-national analysis of consumer complaint behaviour. Based on the empirical data a Cultural Framework of Consumer Complaint Behaviour (CFCCB) was proposed inclusive of consumers' behavioural processes and post-interaction behavioural outcomes. There are four key processes-cognitive, motivational, environmental and emotive-with emotions playing a central role. The unique cultural triggers identified in Stages 1 and 2 were also found to influence these behavioural processes which in turn impact behavioural outcomes. To the best of the researcher's knowledge such a holistic model as the CFCCB has not been previously conceptualized. There is no such thing as "culture-free" behaviour; culture and human behaviour are deeply intertwined, and thus multinationals and global firms need to be environmentally sensitive, identify the cultural triggers in potential markets, and assess their likely impact on service quality delivery.

A consequence of the 2005 Government White Paper on Education was the apparent continuation of the marketisation of education in England. As a result, it would appear that the need for schools to be able to market themselves within this culture was becoming more and more important. One of the key elements of an effective marketing strategy is the notion of ‘brand’. Consequently, this study explores the concept of brand within the environment of Primary education in the UK. In particular, it investigates the importance of an effective vision for generating a notion of brand within the school and the effects that this manifests. The research is conducted by using an Action Research methodology in which the researcher also assumed the role of consultant. This presented many potentially conflicting situations particularly with a view to maintaining validity and reliability. It was done by carrying out a sixteen month investigation into brand development within a primary school in the south-east of England. The results were obtained by a combination of ongoing data collection, questionnaire responses from school staff and interviews with a representative group of school staff. The focus of the research was potentially vast but was narrowed to an investigation of the relationship between vision and brand, the main component aspects of embedding a brand and an investigation into the effects of this on school staff. As a result, a model was developed to summarise the findings and present a potential methodology for subsequent research and development. The main findings were that a focus on brand development within the school, through the promotion and development of an effective vision, led to a greater sense of unity within the school staff, greater levels of staff engagement and motivation and a more positive atmosphere within the school.

The construction industry has inherent problems due to its structure and fragmentation. Its poor performance has been challenged by its client base and it has been forced to seek ways to deliver improved performance. This project was initiated as a response to this challenge and represents one organisation's attempt to deliver improvements. This organisation provides both design and construction solutions, offering ‘total life of asset support' from business consultancy through to decommissioning, in a neutral contractual environment. Initial investigations of the integration of design and construction and of the use of the EFQM Excellence Model concluded that a holistic view of the organisation's performance was needed. Most organisations use traditional, easily quantifiable measures, such as time and cost, whilst neglecting the softer cultural issues, as a way of assessing overall business performance. This prompted further research into the use of performance measurement and also a review of the culture that existed within the organisation. It became clear that many performance initiatives failed because of the lack of ‘Change Action driven by Results (CAR)'. The failure to initiate change or implement action based on the results achieved, means that performance measures are not being integrated into the management systems of the organisations. Based on the conclusions of this work, this project has developed and implemented the Integrated Business Improvement System (IBIS) within the primary case study unit and also two other organisations, all of which are part of AMEC Plc. The project details the barriers that were experienced during the development and implementation of the system and concludes that it is the human component that is critical for the successful implementation and use of any improvement system. The findings of this work have been presented in five peer- reviewed papers.