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Drawing on the anthropological literature, this paper aims to develop a model of taboos (morality) that applies to the marketing, consumer behaviour and consumption contexts.

The paper is mainly conceptual but illustrates the general premises of the model with a case study of “dark” tourism and the contemporary marketing of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The paper shows that even extreme taboos can be commodified and traded-off, and that not even the horrific deaths and large-scale suffering that occurred at Auschwitz are “sacred”. This can occur through reframing and seeing the same taboo through different national lens.

Questions pertaining to consumer morality are relative rather than universalistic, and even the most extreme cases of taboo can still be successfully marketed.

The paper is among the first to attempt to conceptually design a model and then explain the taboo process as it applies to a marketing and consumption context.

Outlines briefly the history and progression of business systems in The Netherlands. Describes how human resources are produced and cultivated, in particular through the Dutch education system, and assesses its effectiveness. Looks at the integration of human resources in the work organization, pinpointing particular experiments which have been carried out. Outlines various shifts in emphasis from the post Second World War period in Dutch industry and human resource concepts. Concludes that the changes in industrial work organization and human resource management are in line with traditional Dutch ideals and are becoming increasingly effective.

Based on revenge theory and the three objectives of social interaction theory of aggression, the purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to answer why and when a subordinate’s own behaviour instigates abuse at the workplace. In particular, the authors argue that subordinate gossip behaviour instils in supervisors a thought of revenge towards that subordinate, which, in turn, leads to abusive supervision. Specifically, this hypothesised relationship is augmented when the supervisor feels close to the gossiper (i.e. psychological proximity).

The authors conducted two independent studies to test the moderated mediation model, which collectively investigate why and when subordinate gossip behaviour provokes abusive supervision in the workplace. A lagged study (i.e. Study 1: 422 supervisors and subordinates) in a large retail company and an experience sampling study (i.e. Study 2: 96 supervisors and subordinates with 480 daily surveys) in multiple organisations provide support for the moderated mediation model.

The two-study (i.e. a lagged study and an experience sampling study) findings support the integrated model, which has mainly focussed on instrumental consideration of abusive supervision that influences the supervisor–subordinate relationship.

The two-study investigation has important and meaningful implications for abusive supervision research because it determines that subordinate gossip behaviour is more threating to a supervisor when the subordinate and the supervisor are psychological close to each other than when they are not. That is because when they are close, the supervisor is not expecting gossip behaviour from the subordinate, thus giving rise to an abusive workplace.

Based on group development theories, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate student’s team behavior during different stages of team development.

A time-lagged survey method was used to collect data over a period of 18 weeks from 40 undergraduate students enrolled in an entrepreneurship course. Hierarchical linear regression and structural equation modeling were used for analysis.

Findings reveal that during the early stages of team development, a leader with an entrepreneurial approach directed student’s team behavior proactively. Analysis showed that lower level of task conflict strengthened the impact of leadership on team cohesion. It was also found that during the pre-final stages, students demonstrated knowledge-sharing behavior once they were characterized by team cohesion.

Data were collected from student teams, which may not generalize to organizational teams.

This research presents first of the few empirical studies investigating the above-mentioned interrelationships and provides insights on the order of events that contribute to perceived team performance. An attempt was also made to extend the group theories by exploring the effects of leadership on task conflict.

Showcasing the dynamics of student’s team behavior during the different stages of team development, this study highlights the importance of teamwork to students and provides useful insights to course facilitators and teachers. In light of the results, educators should take account of team dynamics when designing effective teaching methods and incentives.

Consistency theory and ego-defense theory have been used to examine the relationship between counterproductive work behavior (CWB) and self-esteem; however, these two theoretical approaches pose different directions for the expected relation. In line with this, previous research concerning the relationship between self-esteem and CWB has found inconsistent empirical results. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the relation between self-esteem and counterproductive behavior at work and draw conclusions about the merit of the competing theories. This study also examines the type of self-esteem as a potential moderator to this relationship.

The authors performed a psychometric meta-analysis of the relation between self-esteem and CWB using 21 correlations with a total n of 5,135.

The estimated population correlation was −0.26. The moderator analyses showed that global self-esteem had a stronger relation with CWB than organization-based self-esteem.

The relation between self-esteem and counterproductive behavior at work is important to organizations for two reasons. First, CWBs are very costly at all levels of the organization. Second, organizations and managers have some control over the level of their employee’s self-esteem.

Previous research has used both consistency theory and ego-defense theory to make predictions concerning the self-esteem and CWB relationship. This paper provides support for examining this relation using consistency theory due to the negative correlation the authors found between CWB and self-esteem.

Using job demands–resources (JD–R) theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of job demands (difficult performance appraisal (PA) objectives) and job resources (performance feedback and leader member exchange (LMX)) on employee reports of PA cynicism. The paper also investigates the consequences of PA cynicism on intent to quit and bad sportsmanship.

Survey data on PA demands and resources, PA cynicism and turnover intentions were obtained from employees. Supervisors rated their employees’ level of sportsmanship.

Contrary to the predictions of JD–R theory, the authors found that employees are most likely to be cynical when they experience high levels of job resources (LMX and performance feedback) and high levels of job demands (difficult objectives).

The study demonstrates that PA cynicism matters – employees with higher levels of PA cynicism were more likely to contemplate leaving the organization; employees with high levels of PA cynicism are rated as bad sports by their supervisors.

Employees are sensitive to gaps between the description and reality of a PA process which can trigger thoughts of organizational exit and ineffective work behaviors. human resource managers need to ensure that employees regard the PA process as valuable, useful and worth their time and effort.

The authors contribute to the PA literature by investigating the role of both job resources and demands. PA research has focused on the specification of job demands, underplaying the role of job resources in employee attitudes toward PA.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of antecedents and consequences of service excellence (SE) in the retail industry.

Based on an extensive literature review, this paper has come up with the definition of potential antecedents and their consequences for SE in the retail service.

While the seven factors, service leadership, service culture, quality management and business excellence, service innovation, customer engagement, service brand image and service encounters have been proposed as antecedents of SE in retail service, employee loyalty, employee pride, customer delight, customer commitment and brand love, have been identified as consequences.

A major limitation of the study is that the developed model is not empirically validated.

The current research asserts that leadership in service firms has to build a professional service culture system in order to achieve business/competition advantages of SE.

This paper has emphasised that businesses cannot only act with the perspective of gaining short-term profit on every customer transaction. Customers have to be valued and firms have to focus on building long-term relationships with their customers.

This study has extended the research on SE by developing a new model with possible antecedents and outcomes in the retail context.