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Previous studies of business‐government relations have tended to take either a macro approach (using a single theoretical framework to explain all business‐government relations) or a micro approach (one that fails to explain why business‐government relations have not improved over time). This article applies Lowi′s four‐part typology of policy types. In order to test the typology′s usefulness, a survey of business executives and government officials was carried out. The findings confirmed the thesis: business satisfaction with its relationship to government will be highest in the case of distributive policies, and decline to lowest in the case of constituent policies. A “meso‐level” theoretical framework is recommended to provide not only a better understanding of the multi‐levelled character of business‐government relations, but also future research with a practical orientation.

Government’s continuum of policy instrument choices historically has included nationalization of enterprise. Today, the additional choice exists of the privatization of state enterprises. Canada is examined as a country in the process of switching from growing state enterprises (Crown corporation) to privatizing them. Although ideology, accountability, efficiency and/or financing were all reasons for creating state enterprise ‐ financing is the most prevalent driver of privatization.

As in many countries today, health services across Canada are being restructured. Most jurisdictions within Canada are also restructuring and experimenting with the governance function of health‐delivery organizations. However, much of this governance reorganization is being done in a vacuum. New governance models have appeared lately that defy the first principles of good corporate governance. Identifies and examines the nine principles of good organizational governance as well as the five benchmarks of excellence in governance. An example of a governance “monster” – one of the latest experiments in corporate leadership in Canadian health care – is also critiqued. Presents conclusions, lessons and warnings which all health‐services managers – indeed, all public sector managers – should heed.

Using several frameworks for public policy analysis, documents how midwifery in Ontario evolved from being illegal in 1982 to being a self‐regulated health profession in 1990. In 1985, the Ontario Government agreed that midwifery should be “legalized”; but how to do it was the question. The lobbying efforts of two coalitions armed with research‐based evidence influenced the policy decision process. Coalition A favoured midwifery becoming a self‐regulated health profession based on their beliefs that: (1) childbirth should be “de‐medicalized” and (2) the parents have a right to choose. Coalition B favoured the medical model and believed that “treatment was better”; it opposed home births, in general, and midwifery being self‐regulated, in particular. Also examines future implications of the Midwife Act.

Interest in the nature of influence attempts in the performance evaluation process has increased in recent years. Researchers have conducted a number of important and revealing cross‐sectional investigations, but there remains virtually no longitudinal work in this area. The present study attempted to address this need by conducting a multi‐period investigation of influence tactics use and affect that addressed three questions: (1) Are individuals consistent in their use of influence tactics across evaluation periods? (2) Are prior‐period performance ratings reflected in subsequent influence tactic use? (3) What role does affect, both supervisor and subordinate, play in this process? A latent variable structural model was tested using longitudinal data from managers and employees of food services units. Our results indicated that there is a cycle of continued influence tactic use across time periods, performance ratings help to determine subsequent tactic use, and both supervisor and subordinate affect play a role in the influence‐evaluation process. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.

This study extends previous literature on social exchange by investigating the mediating effects of leader‐member exchange on the relationship between procedural justice, job attitudes and turnover in a unionized setting. Past research has shown that procedural justice and subordinate/supervisor exchanges are related to job attitudes and turnover. These relationships have normally been studied in non‐union settings, in which union contextual variables are not considered. The current study uses hierarchical linear modeling to test theoretical models of these relationships in a unionized setting, where procedures and managerial treatment are more clearly defined and regulated. Results reveal that both procedural justice and leader‐member exchange are related to organizational commitment and job satisfaction and leader‐member exchange is related to actual turnover. Leadermember exchange partially mediates the relationship between procedural justice and these job attitudes after accounting for the effects of union commitment (at the individual level) and union‐management relations (at the store level). From a managerial perspective, our results emphasize the importance of proper selection, training and performance appraisal of supervisors, with treatment and support of employees as a main focus.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to review empirical research on the relationship between organization-based social support and the success of international assignments (IAs).

Four search engines were used to obtain empirical studies relating organization-based social support to success criteria. Studies were compared based on type of theoretical foundation, criteria of success, source of social support and study design.

The reviewed studies draw on three theoretical paradigms – based on stress, social capital and relational exchange. The results demonstrate that expatriates receive social support from multiple organization-based sources and that these sources’ proximity to the expatriate influences the relationship between social support and success. Regarding geographical proximity, sources in the home and host countries fulfil different supportive functions and therefore stimulate different success criteria. Additionally, the success criteria stimulated by organizational support depend on the type of supportive practices offered. The impact of support from organizational members is further influenced by their hierarchical proximity to the expatriate, with supervisory support relating most strongly to success. In addition to proximity, characteristics of the expatriating employee and the assignment (e.g. expatriate motivation and assignment hardship) influence the value of social support. Finally, social support relates most strongly to expatriates’ satisfaction, commitment, and adjustment and these frequently mediate its effect on expatriates’ retention and performance.

Although only organization-based sources were considered, this review demonstrates that a multidimensional perspective is warranted when examining the effects of social support during IAs.

This review provides insights into the ways organizations could and should assist (self-initiated) expatriates when aiming for specific outcomes.

This in-depth examination of social support in the work environment of expatriates combines several theoretical paradigms and investigates multiple criteria of success.

The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the history and development of transaction log analysis (TLA) in library and information science research. Organizing a literature review of the first twenty‐five years of TLA poses some challenges and requires some decisions. The primary organizing principle could be a strict chronology of the published research, the research questions addressed, the automated information retrieval (IR) systems that generated the data, the results gained, or even the researchers themselves. The group of active transaction log analyzers remains fairly small in number, and researchers who use transaction logs tend to use this method more than once, so tracing the development and refinement of individuals' uses of the methodology could provide insight into the progress of the method as a whole. For example, if we examine how researchers like W. David Penniman, John Tolle, Christine Borgman, Ray Larson, and Micheline Hancock‐Beaulieu have modified their own understandings and applications of the method over time, we may get an accurate sense of the development of all applications.

Logisticians are trained to identify trade‐offs and to devise compromising solutions which produce the lowest total costs. For example, the economic batch size is a compromise between setup costs and inventory carrying costs. Presents a problem‐analysis technique which helps the analyst to eliminate the problem so that no compromise is necessary. For example, instead of balancing inventory‐carrying costs and setup costs a solution which produces both lower setup costs and lower inventory‐carrying costs would be sought. Discusses a description of the techniques and several examples of its application to logistical problems.