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The social scientific and humanities literature on house and home continues to grow (Perkins, Thorns, & Winstanley, 2002a; Perkins, Thorns, Winstanley, & Newton, 2002b; King, 2004; Mallett, 2004; Blunt & Dowling, 2006; Gorman-Murray & Dowling, 2007). Researchers have interpreted home in a number of ways. For some, it represents a centre, a place in which possessions and display represent identity. For others it is the existential space of being where the nature and limits of centre and universe, sacred and profane, are created and maintained. Home can also be a material place in which the production and organisation of housing and neighbourhoods necessarily entails certain kinds of social interaction and relations. The recognition here that housing has both a use and exchange value is crucially important. Depending on one's cultural group, home is imbued with greater or lesser degrees of privatism and home-centredness. Some writers see the growth of technologies that permit the development of home-based work and individualised leisure practices as factors likely to strengthen home as the centre of future activity. Homes are also important in the creation of privacy, tranquillity, stability, conventional behaviour, meaning and transformation.

Max Weber called the maxim “Time is Money” the surest, simplest expression of the spirit of capitalism. Coined in 1748 by Benjamin Franklin, this modern proverb now has a life of its own. In this paper, I examine the worldwide diffusion and sociocultural history of this paradigmatic expression. The intent is to explore the ways in which ideas of time and money appear in sedimented form in popular sayings.

My approach is sociological in orientation and multidisciplinary in method. Drawing upon the works of Max Weber, Antonio Gramsci, Wolfgang Mieder, and Dean Wolfe Manders, I explore the global spread of Ben Franklin’s famed adage in three ways: (1) via evidence from the field of “paremiology” – that is, the study of proverbs; (2) via online searches for the phrase “Time is Money” in 30-plus languages; and (3) via evidence from sociological and historical research.

The conviction that “Time is Money” has won global assent on an ever-expanding basis for more than 250 years now. In recent years, this phrase has reverberated to the far corners of the world in literally dozens of languages – above all, in the languages of Eastern Europe and East Asia.

Methodologically, this study unites several different ways of exploring the globalization of the capitalist spirit. The main substantive implication is that, as capitalism goes global, so too does the capitalist spirit. Evidence from popular sayings gives us a new foothold for insight into questions of this kind.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between organizational strategy, performance management and training and development in the context of the Jordanian banking sector.

Models of strategic human resource management developed in the west are considered for their relevance in Jordan. A mixed methods approach is adopted employing interviews with senior managers and training and development managers, employee questionnaires and documentary analysis. It examines all banks in Jordan including foreign and Islamic banks.

Findings indicate that training and development is not driven by human resource strategy and that it is reactive rather than proactive. Training and development does improve skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors but there is little evidence that it increases commitment and satisfaction nor that it contributes to strategic aims in any significant way. The linkages between strategy and training and development are not explicit and strategies are not interpreted through performance management systems. Consequently there is a lack of integration in organizational HR systems and the measurable contribution of training and development to competitive advantage is minimal

The paper offers suggestions as to how greater integration between strategy, performance management and training and development might be achieved in the Jordanian context.

This paper is the first detailed empirical study of training and development in Jordan to include considerations of transferability of western models to an Arab culture.

Presents 31 abstracts, edited by Johanthan Morris and Mike Reed, from the 2003 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, held at Cardiff Business School in September 2003. The conference theme was “The end of management? managerial pasts, presents and futures”. Contributions covered, for example, the changing HR role, managing Kaizen, contradiction in organizational life, organizational archetypes, changing managerial work and gendering first‐time management roles. Case examples come from areas such as Mexico, South Africa, Australia, the USA, Canada and Turkey.

Specialty contractors have knowledge to contribute to the early design of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) products. In current practice, however, they are seldom involved in early design, but evidence suggests that their early involvement is increasing. Lean construction theory advocates such involvement. The practice of involving suppliers in product development efforts and manufacturing has proven to be highly successful. The paper reports on empirical research that identified the contributions of specialty contractor (SO knowledge to early design, which led to gains in process efficiency and improvements in product quality. These contributions are categorized and illustrated by means of examples that stem from current practice or present potential opportunities for improvement. Reasons are given why SC knowledge is often ignored in design. Changes in AEC practices nevertheless suggest that organizations are creating conditions to increase interaction between designers and SCs. Such interactions will help AEC organizations to retain and share the knowledge of individuals as well as learn to develop new knowledge.

This chapter draws on 17 months of ethnographic observations in the Parade department at an American theme park that I call Wonderland. The Parade department is a homonormative workplace, numerically and culturally dominated by gay men. I examine how this work culture challenges the dominance of heteronormative masculinity often embedded at work through an exploration of backstage interactions among performers. I also explore the gendered and racialized meanings of the camp aesthetic that performers embody. I argue that while Parade culture undermines workplace heteronormative masculinity, it also reproduces the epistemology of the closet through its reliance on the gay/straight binary.

OUR good custom, as we deem it, to wish our readers a larger measure of happiness and success than heretofore we repeat for 1947. There are many signs in the libraries to give encouragement to the hope that they, the libraries, are now so well established everywhere that the old evils of complete disregard, penury and restriction will not recur and that, gradually but surely, the aims and the purpose for which we stand will be realized. That they may be so for all readers of The Library World is, we believe, the best possible New Year wish.