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The introduction of the industrial robot into the American workplace has been received with mixed results. Management, whose decision introduced the new technology, invariably views the robot's presence as a cure for many of the organization's production and competitive problems. Conversely, management's panacea is more often viewed as a pyorrhea by the firm's workers. To the production workers, the presence of the industrial robot is perceived as a threat to their jobs and is, therefore, treated with suspicion and resistance. In some extreme instances, disgruntled employees have even resorted to sabotage.

Recent criticisms of organizational science theory have lamented a lack of depth and a growing “maturity” that is impeding empirical advances. The purpose of this paper is to propose that organizational scientists can address this problem by embracing “evolutionary awareness” (EA). EA builds on theories and constructs developed in the evolutionary sciences that serve to add depth to theory building.

The design of the paper is first to introduce the concept of EA and identify its four key constructs. Next, the authors apply EA to three areas of research within organizational science: human motivation, interpersonal communication and leadership. The authors’ intent is to show that EA constructs extend and deepen traditional organizational science theorizing. Thereby, the authors show that the problems noted above, i.e., lack of depth and maturing theories, can be addressed by embracing EA.

The findings are that EA substantially enhances and freshens theorizing in the organizational sciences in the areas of human motivation, communication and leadership. By extension, other areas of interest will also benefit by embracing the EA perspective.

The implications of the research are many. Organizational scientists can advance theory building, research and practical prescriptions by embracing EA. They can also engage in interdisciplinary research programs with scholars in the evolutionary sciences eager to see their work having practical implications. The limitation of this work is that the authors were only able to show a limited application of EA to three areas of interest to organizational science scholars.

The practical implications of this research are potentially far reaching. At this very moment, scholars in a wide array of disciplines are re-casting their views of humanity, cognition, values and other constructs based on the acceptance of evolution and its primary mechanism, variation and selection based on consequences. These changes will usher in new ideas about leadership, work-life balance, organizational purpose and many others.

A much-needed “consilience” across the human sciences through embracement of the EA perspective may provide insights that will advance human flourishing in organizations and beyond. The authors believe that an increasingly veridical understanding of humanity will produce substantial social impact.

This work will provide an encompassing perspective that will assist organizational scholars in advancing their theory building and research questions. A much-needed “consilience” across the human sciences may provide insights that will advance human flourishing in organizations and beyond.

Postmodernist ideas – most particularly those of Foucault but also those of Latour, Derrida and Barthes – have had a much longer presence in accounting research than in other business disciplines. However, in large part, the debates in accounting history and management history, have moved in parallel but separate universes. The purpose of this study is therefore one of exploring not only critical accounting understandings that are significant for management history but also one of highlighting conceptual flaws that are common to the postmodernist literature in both accounting and management history.

Foucault has been seminal to the critical traditions that have emerged in both accounting research and management history. In exploring the usage of Foucault’s ideas, this paper argues that an over-reliance on a set of Foucauldian concepts – governmentality, “disciplinary society,” neo-liberalism – that were never conceived with an eye to the problems of accounting and management has resulted in not only in the drawing of some very longbows from Foucault’s formulations but also misrepresentations of the French philosophers’ ideas.

Many, if not most, of the intellectual positions associated with the “Historic Turn” and ANTi-History – that knowledge is inherently subjective, that management involves exercising power at distance, that history is a social construct that is used to legitimate capitalism and management – were argued in the critical accounting literature long before Clark and Rowlinson’s (2004) oft cited call. Indeed, the “call” for a “New Accounting History” issued by Miller et al. (1991) played a remarkably similar role to that made by Clark and Rowlinson in management and organizational studies more than a decade later.

This is the first study to explore the marked similarities between the critical accounting literature, most particularly that related to the “New Accounting History” and that associated with the “Historic Turn” and ANTi-History in management and organizational studies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer emotions and the social science and observation measures that can be utilised to capture the emotional experiences of consumers. The paper is not setting out to solve the theoretical debate surrounding emotion research, rather to provide an assessment of methodological options available to researchers to aid their investigation into both the structure and content of the consumer emotional experience, acknowledging both the conscious and subconscious elements of that experience.

A review of a wide range of prior research from the fields of marketing, consumer behaviour, psychology and neuroscience are examined to identify the different observation methods available to marketing researchers in the study of consumer emotion. This review also considers the self report measures available to researchers and identifies the main theoretical debates concerning emotion to provide a comprehensive overview of the issues surrounding the capture of emotional responses in a marketing context and to highlight the benefits that observation methods offer this area of research.

This paper evaluates three observation methods and four widely used self report measures of emotion used in a marketing context. Whilst it is recognised that marketers have shown preference for the use of self report measures in prior research, mainly due to ease of implementation, it is posited that the benefits of observation methodology and the wealth of data that can be obtained using such methods can compliment prior research. In addition, the use of observation methods cannot only enhance our understanding of the consumer emotion experience but also enable us to collaborate with researchers from other fields in order to make progress in understanding emotion.

This paper brings perspectives and methods together to provide an up to date consideration of emotion research for marketers. In order to generate valuable research in this area there is an identified need for discussion and implementation of the observation techniques available to marketing researchers working in this field. An evaluation of a variety of methods is undertaken as a point to start discussion or consideration of different observation techniques and how they can be utilised.

Modern life is characterized by its hectic life-style, which invariably leads to high levels of stress having negative consequences for the mind-body. Thus, people are seeking for natural ways to achieve a sense of equilibrium and peace. Neuroscience has identified beneficial findings from contemplative practices like meditation, prayers and fasting. Within the Islamic framework, these practices were found to be beneficial for both the body and the mind. However, comparatively little research has been carried out on Islamic contemplative practices. Thus, there is a dire need to carry out further research, where the focus needs to be more on the inward aspects of Islam especially the contemplative practices.

The study took an integrated approach, whereby, objective experimental data from various sources were combined with the religious narratives from the Qur’an and the Hadiths or the practice of the Prophet in Islam. This was augmented by the subjective experiences of the participants of the study and all of these woven to present a case for Islamic contemplative practices.

Worship, be it Yogic, Buddhist and Islamic, seems to have positive mental and physical benefits for individuals. Much has been documented within the field of Yoga and Buddhist practices, and it is only recently that Islamic practices are beginning to be studied and are yielding similar results. It has been found that Islamic ritual prayers, fasting and meditation (dhikr) have an impact on the well-being of the worshipper. The communities of practice commonly known as “tariqas” and other religio-spiritual orders can serve as a vehicle to further these practices. This opens the door for more extensive research in this direction.

This study clearly indicates that Islamic practices have positive benefits; however, the number of studies are limited. Moreover, there are a whole system of practices as the contemplative tree in this paper points out, which needs more robust as well as longitudinal studies to outline more conclusive evidence to this effect.

Muslims have been looking at other traditions like Yoga and Buddhist meditation to find ways of improving their physical and mental health. This meta-study indicates that Islamic contemplative practices have positive benefits, and thus, there are a variety of practices like ritual prayers, fasting and meditation, which is found to demonstrate positive health benefits. Thus, it has direct practical reasons to pursue these practices and derive the innate benefits from them.

The data from the various neuroscience studies have demonstrated the neurological and physiological impact on individuals directly relating to worship. However, the studies on the Islamic ritual prayer (salat) cited in this study points out to its social implications, where congregational prayers was found to be more beneficial than the individual prayers. Thus, this indicates the social implications that collective worship can have. Further research is needed in terms of understanding the social impact on the various collective contemplative practices.

The originality of this literature review and analysis is bringing together the various strands of neuroscience and health data to demonstrate the positive impact of worship emanating from others faiths, while building a case for Islamic contemplative practices. This is further augmented by its integrated approach of weaving hard and soft data and synthesizing it to present health benefits of worship.

Teamwork is important for firms’ innovation and effectiveness, but often within-team conflicts arise. Prior literature reported inconsistent associations between conflict and team outcomes. This study aims to clarify these relationships and examine if team reflexivity improves outcomes and weakens intragroup conflict tendencies.

Data were collected through a survey questionnaire of 288 team members working on projects at 41 different high-tech firms in Jordan. The authors then built a model of intragroup conflict effects and used structural equation modeling to test for both direct and indirect effects.

Indirect effects of intragroup conflict were significantly associated with teamwork quality. Teamwork quality was also significantly related to improved team outcomes, and team reflexivity moderated this relationship. Furthermore, it was found that the direct effect of intragroup conflict was not significantly related to either teamwork quality or effectiveness. Finally, results supported the idea that some conflict is required for teams to remain viable, self-critical and innovative.

This is a cross-sectional study conducted in a single country and business industry, which limits the generalizability of results.

Team leaders should use reflexivity to create a sense of openness for collaborative interaction to improve group performance and member satisfaction.

This study provides a verified model to determine the circumstances in which conflict benefits team innovation and effectiveness. A central study contribution is that reflexivity reduces the negative impact of intragroup conflict.

Enterprise architecture (EA) aligns information systems with business processes to enable firms to reach their strategic objectives and, when effectively employed by organizations, can lead to enhanced levels of performance. However, while many firms may adopt EA, it is often not used extensively. The purpose of this paper is to examine how performance expectancy (PE) and training affect the degree to which organizations use EA.

The paper employed a survey method to gather data from IT professionals, senior managers, and consultants who work within organizations that have adopted EA. Covariance-based structural equation modeling was used to analyze the research model and test the hypotheses.

The paper found PE to be a significant predictor of EA use. In addition, training is also shown to enhance use of EA while also playing a mediating role within the relationship between PE and use of EA.

The study is limited by the focus only on training as an intervention. Other mediators and/or moderators such as top management support and organization culture may also play an important role and should be examined in future studies. Nonetheless, the study demonstrates the critical role that training can play in facilitating widespread use of EA within organizations.

Widespread use is a critical success factor for organizations that want to gain the maximum possible benefit from EA. To achieve extensive use, the study suggests that organizations that adopt EA should consider implementing a formal and robust education and training program.

This study extends the research on information technology training by examining the role of training as an intervention within the technology acceptance paradigm. The paper also contributes to the literature regarding post-adoption innovation diffusion by demonstrating the efficacy of organizational training in promoting widespread usage.

Political fund‐raising practices in the US have created what might be considered institutionalised bribery, resulting in growing concerns about the role of foreign money, entrenchment of politicians, an intergenerational shift of resources and consolidation of key industries. The new political environment has also spawned a growing sense that all votes and candidates are for sale. This paper reviews a bit of history about American political campaign financing, outlines current abuses, highlights implications of those abuses, and offers a few solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a multi‐robot solution to the problem of chemical source localization, in which a team of inexpensive, simple vehicles with short‐range, low‐power sensing, communication, and processing capabilities trace a chemical plume to its source emitter

The source localization problem is analyzed using computational fluid dynamics simulations of airborne chemical plumes. The analysis is divided into two parts consisting of two large experiments each: the first part focuses on the issues of collaborative control, and the second part demonstrates how task performance is affected by the number of collaborating robots. Each experiment tests a key aspect of the problem, e.g. effects of obstacles, and defines performance metrics that help capture important characteristics of each solution.

The new empirical simulations confirmed previous theoretical predictions: a physics‐based approach is more effective than the biologically inspired methods in meeting the objectives of the plume‐tracing mission. This gain in performance is consistent across a variety of plume and environmental conditions. This work shows that high success rate can be achieved by robots using strictly local information and a fully decentralized, fault‐tolerant, and reactive control algorithm.

This is the first paper to compare a physics‐based approach against the leading alternatives for chemical plume tracing under a wide variety of fluid conditions and performance metrics. This is also the first presentation of the algorithms showing the specific mechanisms employed to achieve superior performance, including the underlying fluid and other physics principles and their numerical implementation, and the mechanisms that allow the practitioner to duplicate the outstanding performance of this approach under conditions of many robots navigating through obstacle‐dense environments.

MANY and sundry are the worries which fall to the lot of the librarian, and the matter of book‐repair is not the least among them. The very limited book‐fund at the disposal of most public library authorities makes it imperative on the part of the librarian to keep the books in his charge in circulation as long as possible, and to do this at a comparatively small cost, in spite of poor paper, poor binding, careless repairing, and unqualified assistants. This presents a problem which to some extent can be solved by the establishment of a small bindery or repairing department, under the control of an assistant who understands the technique of bookbinding.