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The purpose of this paper is to show how the viable system model (VSM) and de Sitter's design theory can complement each other in the context of the diagnosis and design of viable organizations.

Key concepts from Beer's model and de Sitter's design theory are introduced and analyzed in order to show how they relate.

The VSM provides insight into the related systems necessary and sufficient for viability. As such, it specifies criteria supporting the diagnosis and design of organizational infrastructures, i.e. of organizational structures, HR systems, and technology. However, it does not explicitly conceptualize and provide a detailed heuristic for the design of organizational structures. De Sitter's theory fills in this gap.

The paper illustrates how, based on a rudimentary model of organizational viability, de Sitter's design theory positively addresses the question of how to diagnose and design organizational structures that add to the viability of organizations.

Cannabis use continues to increase worldwide, and a number of nation states are changing their cannabis policies. Policy changes require research into key populations, namely, people who use cannabis. This study aims to examine sociodemographic differences of young Finns who reported using cannabis mainly for self-medication versus mainly recreationally, as well as their reported effects of cannabis use.

The data come from an anonymous online survey (N = 247, 70.0% males, 25.9% females, 4.1% other) that was analysed using multiple logistic regression. The authors focused on whether various demographic indicators differed between those who reportedly used cannabis mainly for recreational purposes and mainly for self-medicinal purposes. The authors also qualitatively examined the respondents’ experienced effects of cannabis, both desired and undesired.

Being older and female, living in a smaller city and earlier age of initiation of cannabis use were statistically significant in predicting the medicinal use of cannabis. The majority of recreational effects were related to themes such as relaxation and pleasure, but many participants also reported desired medical effects. Similarly, many participants reported several undesired effects.

Understanding especially young people’s motivations to use cannabis, which include using it for various medical effects, can improve the design of harm reduction and treatment programmes as well as enhance the well-being of people who use cannabis.

This study gives a nuanced account of sociodemographic factors and motivations of young people who use cannabis in Finland as well as the reported effects it has on them, which complements data from national drug surveys.

Off-farm employment is an important factor associated with fertility transition in many developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of female off-farm employment on their fertility desire in rural China.

Based on the data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey, the authors adopt an instrumental variable approach to address the endogeneity issue. Desired number of children and desire for a second child are used to measure fertility desire.

The results show that off-farm employment participation significantly reduces women's desired number of children and the likelihood of their desire for a second child. Moreover, off-farm employment reduces women's fertility desire mainly through pathways including the weakening of son preference and a decrease in job autonomy, rather than the changes in leisure hours. Further evidence suggests that social health insurance plays an important role in moderating the adverse relationship between off-farm employment and the desire for a second child. The fertility-reducing effects are more pronounced among younger women, among those participating in off-farm wage employment and among families with only wives' participation in the off-farm labor market.

This paper contributes to the existing research by investigating the causal impact of off-farm employment on fertility desire in a rural developing context and the possible underlying mechanisms responsible for this relationship. This study provides important insights on this topic in developing countries and may have important implications for theory and practice.

Research on empowerment and service co-production assumed that customers want more control and that more control is better. An empirical test of this assumption, however, is lacking. The purpose of this paper is to test this assumption by not only focussing on the customer’s capacity and opportunity for control, but also taking into account the customer’s desire for control.

This study uses an experiment employing video clips depicting a service encounter in a banking context in which control beliefs are manipulated.

This study shows that more control in services is not always better because individuals vary in their desire for control; that state measures of control are effective predictors of relevant attitudinal and behavioral effects like satisfaction and loyalty, and that the mechanism which produces these effects is the consistency between control beliefs.

Future research on customer empowerment and service co-production should acknowledge the pivotal role of variations in desire for control, focus on inconsistencies in control beliefs to predict effects and measure control beliefs as varying states rather than as stable personality traits.

Enhancing customer control of a service may primarily mean: giving the customer the option to control or not to control the service.

This study contributes to literature and marketing practice by demonstrating that more control may have negative effects and by demonstrating the mechanism by which these effects occur.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of self‐congruence on consumer satisfaction with services and to develop and test a conceptual model of the antecedents and consequences of consumer satisfaction in the hospitality industry.

The conceptual framework consists of the following constructs: actual self‐congruence, ideal self‐congruence, desires congruence, service quality, consumers' overall attitude to a service firm, and intention to return. Moreover, 12 hypotheses were developed and tested. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used to test the validity of the measures, while PLS was used in hypotheses testing. Data were collected from 185 consumers who had recently visited a restaurant or hotel.

Strong support was found for 11 of the 12 hypotheses. Findings reveal that ideal self‐congruence and desires congruence have positive effects on consumer satisfaction. In contrast, it is shown that actual self‐congruence is not related to consumer satisfaction. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the two dimensions of service quality – physical quality and staff behaviour – have a positive impact on both desires congruence and consumer satisfaction. Importantly, consumer satisfaction is found to be a better indicator of the consumers' overall attitude to the service firm than service quality. The study confirms that consumer satisfaction mediates the relationship between the two service quality dimensions, ideal self‐congruence, and intention to return.

This study makes four important contributions. First, satisfaction research is advanced by integrating self‐concept theory into the postpurchase evaluation of services. Second, the relationship between the multidimensional nature of service quality and consumer satisfaction is examined by testing paths from two posited dimensions of service quality – physical quality and staff behaviour – to satisfaction. Third, the consumers' overall attitude to a service firm is integrated into existing models of satisfaction and its impact on behavioural loyalty (intention to return) is tested. Finally, a contribution is made to the satisfaction research literature by testing the effect of service quality on desires congruence, and the effect of desires congruence on consumer satisfaction.

Posits that disappointing results from the implementation of best practices are due to a failure to link practices to specific measurable objectives, failure to prioritise best practices, and a lack of analysis of necessary infrastructure practices. Describes the development of a framework for selecting practices which will improve operational performance in the area of manufacturing planning and control. Suggests that selection should be based on strength of relationships between practices and performance objectives and take into account dependency relationships between practices. Integrates theory and empirical data to investigate links between practices and performance, thereby providing a framework for selecting practices based on objectives and dependency relationship between practices. Case studies, structured interviews and postal questionnaires were used to develop and validate the framework presented.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the effect of aligning HR practices horizontally and vertically to support organizational strategic goals.

Hypotheses were tested using 85,840 employees’ responses collected from a single, large public organization’s annual employee survey. Factor analysis with principal axis factoring and varimax rotation was used to confirm the variables being studied. The relationships were analyzed using ordered logistic regression.

Results suggest that compensation practices, workforce planning, and work/life balance-focused HR practices can be used to predict job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Additionally, when the combined effects of the three HR practice types are considered together, an increased reduction in turnover intention is indicated.

To achieve optimal performance organizations should be diligent in their efforts to align their functional area HRM strategies and practices with each other and with the overall strategic goals and objectives guiding the organization.

While the positive effect of alignment has been proposed by many scholars, empirical examinations of the binary approach are rare. This paper contributes to the field by providing a unique empirical examination of an organization’s implementation of HR practices designed to achieve stated strategic objectives through a large scale study.

This study seeks to investigate the nature and extent of employee retention and turnover for metropolitan police and fire departments.

In order to maximize the system production, the weakest link must be improved and all other links in the processes regulated to the speed of the weakest link. The weakest link is the constraint. In the case of public safety employee retention, there are several reasons given why employment is terminated. In order to increase the number of public safety personnel that are retained, all steps must be examined together to determine the constraint; the core problem for termination. Since the constraint is not always obvious, Goldratt developed the thinking process. This is a series of steps used to locate the constraint, determine the solution, and how to implement the solution. These steps are actually referred to as the thinking process.

Findings suggest that a proper cause and effect process will produce a desired path to change. It was determined how one type of organization could contain employee turnover by using the logic of Goldratt's thinking process.

This procedure is practical and can be applied to any problem anywhere at any time. This allows further research into other settings.

This process underscores the importance for a systematic process of problem‐solving by pin‐pointing the problem, determining a workable solution, and implementing the solution. The key is to begin by looking for the underlying causes of the problem which produces an undesirable effect. Using this structured cause and effect process, a future reality tree is then developed with the desired effect. This research reveals how the Goldratt thinking process can be applied to business problems with multiple variables.

This research is based on an actual situation in which employee retention was a problem for five years. By improving employee retention, additional human resource expenses are significantly reduced.

This paper compares two approaches to the moral justifications for killing in war: the forfeiture approach, which sees killing as justified when the victim has forfeited his or her right not to be killed, and the double-effect approach, which argues that even if intentional killing is absolutely prohibited, that killing can still be morally acceptable under certain conditions, most notably if it is not the intended, desired outcome of a person’s chosen action. The double-effect approach is considered out of fashion in contemporary military ethical literate. I argue that it warrants equal attention as an internally viable and coherent account of the morality of killing, and is preferable in at least one way: that it protects combatants from being necessarily culpable of killing merely by serving in active combat positions.

By defending an alternate framework to the forfeiture approach to killing which is most popular in today’s military ethical literature, I provide an opportunity for new and increased philosophical reflection and discourse on the ethics of killing, as well as new opportunity for defenders of double-effect to make a substantive contribution to the field. This paper demonstrates the internal consistency of arguments that seek to utilise DDE, including its relevance to individual self-defence and individual killing in war.