Paulo Rocha

This article examines the alignment of the bachelor program in Customs, trade and border management at the University of Stavanger, Norway, with the World Customs Organization’s (WCO) Professional Standards 2019 , originally launched as the Professional Standards for Customs Operational and Senior Managers in 2008. As frontline agencies in national systems of societal safety, managing risks related to illicit trade, customs administrations handle cross-border crime, supply chain disruption and technological vulnerabilities. Therefore, the aim herein is to assess how effectively the program has been preparing graduates for the evolving demands of customs practice. The study adopts a curriculum mapping approach, comparing course content and learning outcomes against the WCO’s Professional Standards 2019 , which is structured according to a knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) model. Methodologically, the analysis combines curriculum mapping with a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) framework, allowing for both internal evaluation of program strengths and weaknesses and external assessment of opportunities and threats in the global customs education landscape. Findings indicate that the Norwegian program offers strong training in law, ethics, organisational culture, logistics and other traditional fields, providing students with solid legal and operational foundations reinforced by practical training. However, gaps exist in financial management data-driven customs operations, and customer orientation, while emerging competencies in artificial intelligence, blockchain and cybersecurity remain underdeveloped. The study concludes that reforming the curriculum to integrate digital modernisation and stakeholder-oriented skills would future-proof Norwegian customs education and position it as a model internationally.

This study explores the relationship between customs officer students’ intercultural values, bias awareness and professional confidence in communication and judgement during border control encounters. Drawing on intercultural competence theory, dual-process cognition and naturalistic decision-making, the study investigates whether awareness of cultural biases reduces reliance on first impressions, and whether valuing intercultural competence predicts greater self-awareness and communication confidence. Data were collected through a survey of 91 Norwegian customs students and analysed using correlation and regression methods. The results indicate that while belief in the importance of intercultural competence is associated with greater bias awareness, it does not predict reduced reliance on first impressions or higher communication confidence. Instead, practical field experience emerged as the strongest predictor of confidence. The findings highlight a gap between intercultural values and applied competence, emphasising the need for experiential and reflective training models to bridge awareness and behaviour in customs education.

This study examines how national cultural practices influence perceived honesty across 62 countries. Using the GLOBE framework and data from the World Honesty Report, as well as controlling for socioeconomic factors such as GDP, HDI, happiness levels, immigration rates, and population size, this research investigates the role of nine cultural dimensions in shaping societal perceptions of honesty. Key findings reveal that dimensions such as uncertainty avoidance and institutional collectivism positively influence honesty, while in-group collectivism and assertiveness exhibit negative associations. Additionally, socioeconomic factors like GDP and HDI significantly mediate the relationship between cultural practices and honesty. These results provide insights for policymakers and organizations aiming to design ethical governance and management strategies tailored to specific cultural contexts. The study contributes to cross-cultural management literature by highlighting the critical role of cultural nuances in shaping ethical behavior.

Purpose: This paper investigates the influence of sector-specific cultural practices on interagency collaboration between criminal justice and welfare services, specifically within the context of offender rehabilitation. The study addresses the cultural barriers that inhibit effective collaboration, despite its critical role in successful rehabilitation outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative case study was conducted on the Criminal Justice Liaison and Diversion service, employing data collection methods that included document analysis, semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Findings: The study identifies key barriers to collaboration, including fragmented IT systems, ethical concerns related to performance-based policies and the pivotal role of interpersonal relationships in overcoming cultural divides. Research limitations/implications: One limitation is the sample size, which may not fully represent the diversity of experiences within criminal justice and welfare services. Another limitation is the potential bias in participant responses due to social desirability or fear of repercussions. Additionally, the generalizability of the findings may be limited to similar contexts and may not apply to different cultural or organizational settings. These limitations might have affected the results by providing a narrower view of the issues at hand. Thus, further research should investigate the impact of intercultural training on actual collaboration outcomes and service delivery improvements. Practical implications: The findings highlight the need for integrated technological solutions, adaptable administrative policies and intercultural training initiatives to facilitate interagency collaboration. Addressing these areas can improve collaborative practices and contribute to more effective and humane approaches to offender rehabilitation. Originality/value: This paper provides actionable strategies for addressing cultural disparities between criminal justice and welfare services, with an aim to enhance offender rehabilitation outcomes through improved collaboration.

This chapter uses Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to analyse blended learning environments within an internationalized educational setting in Norway. As digital platforms become increasingly integral to teaching and learning, blending traditional classroom instruction with online elements, this chapter evaluates how such integration impacts international students and reshapes practices in higher education. Drawing on the author’s experiences running a master’s programme on intercultural work, the text explores the potential of CHAT to address cultural and pedagogical complexities by identifying and managing contradictions within and between activity systems, such as conflicting cultural expectations and difficulties with integrating digital tools. This analysis concludes with emphasis on adaptation of teaching methods and assessment strategies to foster intercultural competence and meet the evolving demands of global educational environments. Through practical suggestions and theoretical insights, the chapter contributes to ongoing discussions about the effectiveness and challenges of blended learning in fostering inclusive and adaptable educational practices.

The intersection of personality and culture has long intrigued various disciplines, having gained renewed attention with the advancements in psychometrics as a means to study personality traits as well as progression in the use of quantitative methods to study intercultural relations. This paper investigated the relationship between Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and the Big Five personality traits across 22 countries. It did so with the goal of testing hypotheses on whether Hofstede’s cultural dimensions significantly relate to the Big Five traits and whether countries sharing cultural similarities exhibit similar personality trait scores. The findings produced here highlight a substantial link between certain cultural dimensions (specifically, Masculinity, Power Distance, Individualism, and Uncertainty Avoidance) and the Big Five traits, while dimensions such as Long-Term Orientation and Indulgence did not significantly correlate with personality traits. Through regression and cluster analyses, this study confirmed that countries grouped based on cultural dimensions showed similar personality trait scores.

The split of the brain into two hemispheres is pivotal to human existence, enabling incompatible versions of the world, with quite different priorities and values, to exist concomitantly. Neuroimaging techniques are usually the adopted methods to assess hemispherical bias. However, can differences in thinking orientation, behavioural style, and personality emerging from laterality be observed without the use of neuroimaging techniques? This paper investigates whether a personality test based on the Five-factor model (FFM) is also able to identify hemispherical bias. It does so by testing five hypotheses on personality differences related to handedness. The aim is to contribute to the instantiation of the FFM in neuroscience by testing its validity against the neuroscientific literature on brain laterality. The findings pointed to no statistically significant differences due to handedness in three out of five personality traits (namely, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness and Extraversion). As to the other two traits – Openness and Agreeableness – the hypotheses were only partially confirmed by the data, as the relevant difference found was not between left-handed and right-handed groups, but between ambidextrous and the others.

Upon the outbreak of the COVID-19, countries worldwide developed policies with the goal to introduce restrictive measures geared towards mitigating the spread of the virus. Although these health initiatives were put in place through top-down public directives, they relied heavily on the cooperation of citizens who had to be willing to carry them out. As a consequence, we could observe differences in compliance with governmental restrictions within and between countries. Increasing policy stringency was the method adopted overall to promote people’s compliance. This article used survey data from 10308 participants in Brazil to examine whether there was a positive correlation between policy stringency and compliance with restrictive measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The results revealed, however, that there was no direct influence of policy stringency on people’s health behaviors. Accordingly, I hypothesized that individual differences in personality traits were one of the drivers behind policy compliance, as they would support self-interests such as the duty to support authorities as well as the perceived health risks of certain behaviors and ultimately motivate compliance. The findings’ implications for both compliance research and for authorities wanting to nurture voluntary compliance with public health orders are discussed and suggestions are provided.

In England and Wales, Liaison and Diversion (L&D) services work to facilitate integrated rehabilitative interventions orchestrated between Criminal Justice and Welfare systems to improve health and social care outcomes. A new L&D national model was introduced in 2014 to unify practice across all L&D sites. This chapter analyses the L&D’s historical activity before, during and after the process of implementation of this national model and provides a timeline whereby potential tensions and their underlying contradictions within and between the L&D and neighbouring services activity systems are identified. A case study of an L&D service in southern England is used by way of illustration and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) articulates the complexity of interactions between the professionals at the street-level. Our findings showed that fragmented information technology (IT) systems, both intra- and interagency, have been particularly problematic in this setting and that the national model was not apt to transform this situation. Fragmentation hinders information sharing and ultimately affects professionals’ capacity to collaborate. We suggest service providers at a local level engage in a dialogue with one another and that they are in a better position to govern local practices instead of having policy enforced unilaterally top-down.

In recent years, the English government has been using competitive elements in the process of allocating public funds through policy. Front-line workers struggle with the limitations imposed by such a model. A qualitative case study was conducted to investigate the impact of a new performance-based policy on front-line workers of a public service called Liaison and Diversion. The findings demonstrated that professionals have been adapting the policy to local circumstances found at the street level. We argued that adaptation is a form of employee-based innovation that optimises the use of scarce resources and customises services to the clients.