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Based on role theory, this paper seeks to investigate the impact of HR devolution characteristics (number of devolved HR tasks), characteristics of the HR devolution context (level of support from the HR department, and presence of institutionalised incentives to perform the allotted HR tasks well), and personal characteristics of the front‐line managers (HR competency) on front‐line managers' perceptions of two HR role stressors, i.e. HR role ambiguity and HR role overload.

The paper uses a sample of 169 front‐line managers from 47 organisations. The results are based on two moderation regression analyses, taking into account the nested nature of the observations.

The results suggest that the execution of a high number of HR tasks does not lead to the occurrence of HR role stressors among front‐line managers. However, for the HR department it is important to create an appropriate environment in terms of giving HR support and advice to line managers, and training line managers regarding their HR competencies.

This research opens up interesting lines of inquiry regarding the conditions under which the partnership between the HR department and line management can be successful.

The paper provides HR practitioners with insights into the conditions needed to avoid perceptions of HR role stressors among front‐line managers.

The paper applies role theory in a new context, i.e. the HR role of front‐line managers.

Since Bram Stoker’s tale of Count Dracula struck a chord with a sensation-hungry public, vampires have remained a popular part of horror in cinema. Since the turn of the millennium, vampires have now become a mainstay of horror TV. Programmes like True Blood (2008–2014) and The Vampire Diaries (2009–2017) have propelled the vampire into the home.

This chapter will investigate the problematic, but often sympathetic relationship between vampires and humans in The Vampire Diaries.

South America, Central America and the Caribbean. 1st ed. 1986. $90. London: Europa Publications, Ltd., 1985. Available in North America from Gale Research Co. ISSN 0258‐0661. ISBN 0‐946653‐11‐9. OCLC 12956657. This work is a welcome and overdue companion to the Europa volumes on other regions. It combines statistics, analysis, history, maps, directories, and bibliography in one reference tool.

The paper raises the question of a persisting masculine dominance in engineering disciplines and the reasons behind it. Rather than addressing gender‐specific socialisation as a cause of the under‐representation of women in engineering education, it aims to focus on the social and cultural practices of engineering itself, asking to what extent these practices are gendered and/or gendering.

The paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in two departments at a technical university in Switzerland: mechanical engineering and materials science. An exemplary piece of field data is analysed in order to generate relevant concepts for characterising and contrasting cultures in engineering disciplines. Results are discussed in the framework of Bourdieu's theory of the scientific field.

Group culture in materials science values individuality and plurality, hence leaving more scope for gender diversity; group culture in mechanical engineering values the subordination of individual needs to group norms and tends to reproduce features of homosocial male worlds. The results support the hypothesis that disciplinary cultures in engineering are gendered and have a gendering effect of their own.

Case studies in other disciplines and national contexts are needed to broaden the empirical basis of the argument.

Policies to achieve gender balance in higher education should not only aim at supporting women, but also at changing disciplinary cultures.

The paper presents a shift of focus from women's socialisation to gendering practices in engineering disciplines.

This is paper is concerned with the learning outcomes associated with connectivity through online networks, open online exchange and wider changes associated with contemporary information practices. The theme of connectivity is used here to capture both the detailed specificity of relations that define networks of learners and the ambient effect of wide accessibility to resources and people through open, online forums.

The paper follows the idea of a network from the ground up, outlining the social network perspective as a way to consider the foundational bases of learning and networks, as well as the effect of ambient influence. The paper addresses the ways learning may be viewed as a social network relation, an interpersonal relationship and an outcome of interaction and connectivity, and how network connectivity can be used as input for design for learning.

The paper presents a range of perspectives and studies that view learning from a social network and connectivity perspective, emphasizing both the person-to-person connectivity of a learning tie and the impact of contemporary data and information sharing through the dynamics of open contributory practice.

The outcome of connectivity in the service of learning is bound up with digital information practices, including individual practices of search, retrieval, participation, knowledge dissemination, knowledge construction and more. This paper provides a network perspective on learning relations that accommodates analysis in online and offline environments, but incorporates attention to the open, online retrieval and contributory practices that now influence learning practices and which may support design of new learning environments.

This paper offers insight into the way social networks and connectivity combine to show network relations, relationships, outcomes and design input at the actor, network and societal levels.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how users on social media view brands with a heritage. Consumers commonly post opinions and accounts of their experiences with brands on social media. Such consumer-generated content may or may not overlap with content desired by brand managers. Drawing from “The medium is the message” paradigm, this study text-mines user narratives on Twitter1 to shed light on the role of social media in shaping public images of brands with heritage through the lens of the stereotype content model.

The study uses a data set of almost 80,000 unique tweets on 12 brands across six categories, compares brands high versus low in heritage and combines dictionary-based content analysis with sentiment analysis.

The results indicate that both user-generated content and sentiment are significantly more positive for brands low rather than high in heritage. Regarding warmth, consumers use significantly more positive words on sociability and fewer negative words on morality for brands low rather than high in heritage. Regarding competence, tweets include more positive words on assertiveness and ability for low-heritage brands. Finally, overall sentiment is more positive for brands low rather than high in heritage.

Important from co-creation and integrated marketing communication perspectives, the findings provide brand managers with actionable insights on how to more effectively use social media.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to examine user-generated content in a brand heritage context. It demonstrates that heritage brands, with their longevity and strong links to the past, need to be aware of how contemporary social media can detract from their image.

The purpose of this study was twofold: to explore the everyday experiences and interpretations of verbalised self-criticism in emergent adult males (ages 18–25) in social contexts and, secondly, to explore the utilisation of vignettes in phenomenological research exploring social processes.

Four Australian male participants participated in semi-structured interviews to share the participants' experiences and sense-making of self-criticism in social contexts. Vignettes of verbalised self-criticism were used to prompt attentive reflection. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the data.

Four superordinate themes emerged from participant responses: (1) searching for context, (2) self-improving or self-attacking, (3) self-criticism as a social tool, and (4) engaging and distancing responses.

This study provides useful insights into how verbalised self-criticism in social contexts was experienced by four emergent adult males. Furthermore, this study provides a working example of how vignettes can be used within an interpretative phenomenological analysis frame to prompt attentive reflection on sensitive, nuanced social phenomenon. Implications for future research are discussed. Further research could use this study's findings to explore female responses to verbalised self-criticism and potential causality between contextual factors and the nature of responses.

This study aims to analyze the effects of psychological capital on the transfer of knowledge from accounting students to business organizations. A descriptive study was carried out, with 210 students from the Accounting Sciences course of two universities of the Itajaí Valley, Santa Catarina, and a quantitative data approach.

To compose the sample, the academics who were attending from the third semester of the course and working in business organizations were exclusively selected. Data collection was carried out by means of a questionnaire. and the analysis was conducted with the aid of modeling of structural equations. Ten hypotheses were established to investigate the theoretical relations object of analysis and to reach the objective of the study, of which only three were refuted.

The results showed an indirect relation between psychological capital and knowledge transfer, mediated by the acquired knowledge and the absorptive capacity of the students. It has been found that accounting academics transfer knowledge to the business organizations in which they work, which indicates that their experiences, skills and knowledge gained from the studies, are put into practice in their workplace. This transfer of knowledge depends on the knowledge acquired, the students’ absorptive capacity and, indirectly, on their psychological capital. In general, it was verified that motivational factors can contribute to the transfer of knowledge.

In general, it was verified that motivational factors can contribute to the transfer of knowledge, however, unlike that found in other studies developed on the subject, these are not direct determinants to the transfer of knowledge, being elements predictors for it to occur learning through its acquisition, which will influence this transfer. Thus, in the sample investigated, the evidences found revealed that the motivation for learning indirectly influences the transfer of knowledge, through the acquired knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to uncover the effect of psychosocial safety climate (PSC – a climate for psychological health) on managerial quality and the mediating processes explaining that association. It is posited that the alignment between what is said (espoused PSC) and what is done (enacted PSC via managerial quality) is important for successful organizational interventions. Managers’ own psychosocial work factors act as resources to facilitate the enactment of managerial quality.

Two waves of survey were administered over a three-month period (n at Time 1=144, n at Time 2=166, overall n=115) in a study of four organizations involved in implementing the Quebec Healthy Enterprise Standard (QHES). A cross-lagged panel analysis was used to determine the temporal direction of the PSC–managerial quality relationship. A longitudinal mediation model of PSC as a determinant of managerial quality was tested using job demands, job control, social support and quality of relationships with subordinates as mediators.

The cross-lagged panel analysis showed that PSC is temporally prior to managerial quality in that the relationship between PSC at T1 and managerial quality at T2 was stronger than the relationship between managerial quality at T1 and PSC at T2. A two-wave mediation analysis showed that PSC was positively associated with managerial quality, and that job control partially mediated this relationship. Contrary to expectations, managers’ workload, their social support and the quality of their relationships with subordinates did not mediate the PSC–managerial quality relationship.

Despite the small sample size and short timeframe of this study, it contributes to knowledge on the resources facilitating managerial quality, which is important for employees’ psychological health. Little is known regarding the mediating processes that explain how managers’ own context and psychosocial work factors affect their management practices during organizational health interventions.

From a practical view point, this study contributes to the literature showing that managers need to be supported during the implementation of health interventions, and need the leeway to pursue the organization’s prevention objectives.

Whereas previous studies have focused on describing the impact of leadership behaviors on employee health outcomes, the study offers insights into the resources that help managers translate PSC into action in the implementation of a national standard, the QHES.