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Podcasts have become a main content delivery platform in the last decade. Since not enough studies examined the wider population adoption patterns of podcasts in general and outside the USA in particular, the purpose of this paper is to examine the socio-demographics of podcast listeners and the uses and gratifications fulfilled by listening to podcasts using Israel’s most popular podcast as our case study.

The authors uploaded a survey on the podcast platforms aiming to identify their socio-demographic profiles of listeners (n=960) and where they listen to the podcast. Next, the authors conducted follow-up interviews with 100 respondents to understand their main uses and gratifications fulfilled while listening to the podcast.

The findings of this survey indicate podcast listeners in Israel as mostly male, with self-reported high income, under the age of 45, highly educated and nearly half work in the high-tech sector. Follow-up interviews identified that the main uses and gratifications from listening to podcasts were cognitive – acquiring new knowledge, social – a desire to share new data with friends, entertainment, hobby and a way to assist falling asleep.

The findings of this study indicate that access to podcasts in Israel is utilized mostly by members of already advantaged and technology-oriented groups, thus potentially widening existing societal gaps.

The study examines the podcast adoption in a country whose podcast adoption patterns were not yet explored, thus contributes toward mapping of the global usage of podcasts. It portrays podcasts in Israel as a platform used mostly by members of privileged and technology-oriented groups, which is similar to findings regarding the demographics of podcast listeners in the USA. Some of the uses and gratifications are similar to that in the USA while others, such as the desire to share knowledge and efficient time management, are unique and reflect the impact of the local culture and conditions on podcast adoption.

By applying a non‐parametric Malmquist Productivity Index to a sample of all post‐merger Malaysian banks over 2001‐2003, this paper attempts to investigate to what extent the inclusion of OBS items in the output definition of banks affect the estimated total factor productivity change indexes. It is found that the inclusion of OBS items results in an increase in estimated productivity levels for all banks under study. However, the impact seems to be the largest on technological change rather than efficiency change.

By combining the influence tactics and team development literatures, this paper aims to propose a new team-level approach to influence tactics in self-managed teams and a temporal account of the extent to which team-level influence tactics are associated with team performance as a dynamic process.

Using 75 self-managed teams, we examined the relationship between the proportion of team members who tend to use each influence tactic to a high degree and team performance at initial versus advanced stages of team development.

Results demonstrated at initial stages of team development, a high proportion of team members who tend to use assertiveness was detrimental to team performance, whereas at advanced stages of team development, a high proportion of team members tending to use ingratiation was detrimental, while rationality was positively associated with team performance. Additionally, a Fuzzy Qualitative Comparative Analysis showed that at advanced stages of team development, tactics configuration matters.

This study sets the stage for a team-level theory of influence tactics by examining the relationship between the proportion of team members who tend to use influence tactics to a high degree and team performance at initial versus advanced stages of team development, and the configurations of tactics associated with better team performance at these developmental stages. While the individual-level literature on influence tactics is based on notions of power and politics, in a team context and specifically with self-managed teams, there is a need to integrate theories of team processes and dynamics to understand how influence tactics are associated with performance.

The existing research on service climate emphasizes its benefits for customers, employees and organizational outcomes. Service climate translates into organizational expectations from service employees to continuously show appropriate emotions when engaging with clients. However, these expectations may also take a toll on employees, who need to regulate their emotions using emotional labor strategies in order to conform to the organization’s expectations. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the service climate and employees’ use of emotional labor strategies, and investigate how service employees’ service knowledge, skills, abilities and other attributes (KSAOs) affect this relationship.

In two separate studies, one with a sample including 100 nurses working in 15 wards, and the other comprised of 244 luxury hotel chain employees working in 39 departments, participants were surveyed about their perceptions of the service climate and their use of emotional labor strategies. In addition, each participant’s direct manager assessed his/her service KSAOs.

Results demonstrated a positive association between the service climate and the use of surface emotional labor strategies for employees who had limited service KSAOs.

Organizations may choose to hire service employees based on their service-related KSAOs and develop training and development programs for those who have fewer capabilities in these areas. In addition, organizations may want to rethink the traditional climate-induced emotional display rules and emphasize instead more authentic service encounters in order to lessen the toll that service climate takes on certain employees.

While service climate depicts the core values and beliefs of the organization about service, and helps employees to translate them into behaviors that promote high service performance, the current paper points to a potential toll it may have on employees well-being due to their use of surface emotional labor strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of politicians’ facial attractiveness on their online popularity as reflected in audience engagement with their Facebook posts during the 2015 Israeli election campaign.

Using Israel’s 2015 election campaign as the case study, the authors analyzed all messages posted (n=501) on 33 politicians’ official Facebook pages during the week leading to Election Day.

The results demonstrate that audiences do engage more with posts of the more facially attractive politicians. These posts generated more shares, more comments and more participants in their discussions – but not more likes – relative to posts of less attractive politicians. These effects became even stronger when the posts were accompanied by one or more visual image, and remained significant even after controlling for other engagement predictors, such as a politician’s gender, seniority or the timing of a post’s publication.

The findings emphasize the importance of attractive looks for politicians. The findings highlight that attractive politicians’ posts attract more attention, allowing them to better spread their ideas. Thus, politicians should aim to post aesthetic images and visuals to promote better engagement with their ideas on social media.

The study expands our understanding of online presentations of politicians, focusing on the effect of politicians’ facial attractiveness on their online popularity. Recent studies have demonstrated that physically attractive politicians enjoy more and better media attention on television news, but not in non-visual media such as radio and newspapers. This effect has not been examined in the social media environment, a central arena for today’s political debates and one that involves many visual messages.

Outlines the underlying rationale for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, Mexico and the USA; and evaluates its impact from 1987 to 2000. Examines statistics on trade between the three countries and discusses changes in trade patterns and growth rates, providing a breakdown of US exports by state and industry. Shows an improved pattern and volume of trade, considers the impact on employment and admits that assessment of NAFTA’s costs and benefits is difficult. Sees Mexico as its main beneficiary so far, but predicts that this will change in the long run.

Compares the values underlying the behaviour of a sample of 87 US, 56 Jamaican, 42 Bahamian, 106 Colombian, and 12 Israeli managers and professional staff. Refers to literature defining individualism and collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity/femininity; as well as literature establishing these values as instrumental or terminal. Hypothesizes that each country‘s respondents will record different instrumental values, with the US respondents being ambitious, independent, intellectual and logical (vertically individualist); the Colombian, Jamaican and Bahamians being ambitious, cheerful, forgiving, helpful, loving, obedient and polite; and the Israelis also valuing the latter six qualities. Describes the methodology used and data analysis. Indicates expected results from the findings, other than the Jamaicans and Bahamians were found to value ambition and independence more highly than hypothesized, and the Israelis valued love and obedience but not cheerfulness and forgiveness. Discusses the implications of the findings in the light of the high failure rate of expatriate assignments.

Coaches as leaders of sports teams should identify the causes of conflict between the athletes and handle conflict effectively. The aim of this study was to examine the methods and ways coaches use to handle conflict in professional teams in Greece. The sample consisted of 42 professional football‐soccer, basketball and volley ball coaches, which were surveyed using questionnaires. Using the descriptive statistics and the one‐way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), it was found that: a) coaches are using five styles in order to manage conflict, and b) the most effective styles that can resolve team conflicts are the collaborating style, the compromising style and the avoiding style and the least effective styles from those suggested are the competing style and the accommodating style.

Explores the way that men and women through autobiography have charted the private self. Shows the depiction of life as a voyage or journey to self‐perception. Looks at the value and purpose of using autobiographical accounts and life reviewing in adult educational work especially with older women. Suggests this can be used extremely effectively within this area and provides a number of examples of its usage.

This chapter addressed the professional, interpersonal, and functional experiences of teachers with physical disabilities and their employers. To obtain different perspectives on these issues, I conducted 67 in-depth interviews with teachers with disabilities (motor disabilities, sensory disabilities, and chronic health conditions), their colleagues, principals, disability researchers, and two individuals who hold positions of leadership in the educational system. In addition, I analyzed 10 YouTube videos featuring teachers with disabilities. The findings reveal the organizational and personal barriers teachers with disabilities face. Tackling these barriers is important since teachers with disabilities have unique opportunities to contribute both personally and socially.