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The subject of part‐time work is one which has become increasingly important in industrialised economies where it accounts for a substantial and growing proportion of total employment. It is estimated that in 1970, average annual hours worked per employee amounted to only 60% of those for 1870. Two major factors are attributed to explaining the underlying trend towards a reduction in working time: (a) the increase in the number of voluntary part‐time employees and (b) the decrease in average annual number of days worked per employee (Kok and de Neubourg, 1986). The authors noted that the growth rate of part‐time employment in many countries was greater than the corresponding rate of growth in full‐time employment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the pattern of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) by Irish MNCs, and more specifically, to investigate their approach to human capital development and how these correspond to foreign MNCs in Ireland. In particular, it seeks to investigate training and development expenditure, adoption of succession planning, use of formal development programmes for senior management “potential”, and also the presence of a specific “key group” development programme.

Data were obtained through the largest, most representative study ever conducted on multinational companies (MNCs) in Ireland. The most senior human resources practitioner in these firms completed a questionnaire, through the personal interview medium, on various facets of their human resource management (HRM) practices. In total 260 usable interviews were completed equating to an overall response rate of 63 per cent. This represents a 78 per cent response rate for Irish MNCs, the primary focus of this paper, and 60 per cent for foreign MNCs.

Overall, Irish MNCs tend to compare favourably with their foreign counterparts in terms of the human capital development mechanisms examined. Only one statistically significant association was found regarding differences between Irish and foreign owned MNCs, Irish MNCs were found to be significantly less likely to have formal management development programmes.

The study is the first large scale, representative survey to be conducted on MNCs in Ireland helping to address the research lacuna on Irish owned MNCs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of ill-treatment and bullying experienced by Irish workers and to explore individual and organisational predictors. The most recent national figures available are specific to bullying and predate the economic recession; therefore, this study is timely and investigates a broader range of negative behaviours.

A questionnaire survey study on a national probability sample of Irish employees was conducted (N = 1,764). The study design replicated the methodology employed in the British workplace behaviour study.

The results showed that 43% of Irish workers had experienced ill-treatment at work over the past two years, with 9% meeting the criteria for experiencing workplace bullying. A number of individual and organisational factors were found to be significantly associated with the experience of ill-treatment at work.

This study provides national-level data on workplace ill-treatment and bullying that are directly comparable to British study findings.

The findings indicate that a significant number of Irish workers experience ill-treatment at work, and that workplace bullying does not appear to have decreased since the last national study was conducted in Ireland.

This study is of use to the Irish regulator and persons responsible for managing workplace bullying cases, as it identifies high-risk work situations and contributing individual factors.

This study provides national Irish data on workplace behaviour and ill-treatment following a severe economic recession.

This paper aims to explore the challenges facing Irish organisations in the training and development of non-Irish workers. It analyses the importance of fluency in the host country’s language and the approach taken by organisations in relation to language training. In-depth semi-structured interviews provide significant insights for the policies and practices of multiple stakeholders.

The empirical research comprised 33 in-depth interviews conducted with employers, employees, trade unions and regulatory bodies, and an objective content analysis provided insights into the challenges Irish organisations face in the training and development of non-Irish workers.

The results indicate that Irish organisations are given little advice or support regarding the development of non-Irish workers. The study concludes that organisations should re-consider current approaches to cultural diversity training and development of these workers, prioritising the provision of English language training for these workers. The study maintains that an understanding of cultural differences is a vital component in the training of this cohort of workers.

Further research is required in this area. This could include an investigation into the levels of transfer of learning upon completion of training programmes for non-Irish workers, and an evaluation of the understanding of cultural learning styles among trainers.

Learning and development (L&D) initiatives are dependent on English language supports, which will ultimately be central to the successful training and development of non-Irish workers, and provision of affordable high-quality English language classes is crucial. An understanding of cultural differences, diversity and inclusion is equally important if this cohort of workers is to thrive in an Irish working environment.

The government's role must be considered a priority, assisting organisations in relation to their strategies for L&D.

There has been a paucity of research on the issue of L&D for migrant workers in an Irish context. This paper contributes to the discussion and provides guidelines for employers and opinions for policymakers.

Many researchers who have studied drinking in Ireland have worked under the assumption that the Irish have a particularly acute problem with alcohol. Through an investigation of historical and contemporary writings on the subject I demonstrate that the problem is more complicated than traditional images would lead one to believe. Generally it is not known that Ireland has one of the lowest rates of alcohol consumption in Europe and one of the highest percentages of abstainers, although it is also true that Ireland has one of the highest hospital admission rates for alcohol‐related illnesses. In an attempt to understand the complex variety of drinking behaviours in Ireland, I advocate the reinterpretation and use of the concept of ambivalence in the context of Irish drinking, adapting ideas of Barth (originally applied to Bah) in the process.

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of children in an emergent Irish consumer culture and advertising from 1848-1921. In particular, the significance of children's gender and reading materials in the process of consumption will be evaluated.

An analysis of primary sources, literature and secondary sources substantiates this research.

By evaluating advertisements, magazines, school textbooks and children's literature from the 1848-1921 period, this article argues that Irish children were encouraged to engage with an emergent consumer culture through reading. This article also evaluates the importance of gender in considering children as consumers and it focuses upon a number of critically neglected Victorian, Irish, female authors who discussed the interface between advertising, consumption and the Irish child.

This article is an original contribution to new areas of research about Irish consumerism and advertising history. Substantial archival research has been carried out which appraises the historical significance of advertisements, ephemera and critically neglected children's fiction.

This study aims to provide a modern perspective on the role of dividends in smaller developed countries such as Ireland by examining views regarding the determinants of payout levels, the role of taxation and the relevance of conventional signalling theory.

The study employs semi‐structured interviews with the financial directors of 20 leading Irish companies.

The results suggest support for the notion that dividend policy affects share valuations. However, views regarding this issue – and the role of taxation and signalling theory – vary markedly between quoted and unquoted firms as well as depending on firms' dividend histories.

The study suffers from the problem that in interview‐based research the participants are necessarily a self‐selecting group. Notwithstanding this point, the evidence suggests that the views of managers in a nation with a small, but highly developed, stock market are in line with those in countries with much larger exchanges. Further research could usefully extend the analysis and establish whether similar views exist in other countries with relatively small stock markets, but where the exchange is in an “emerging” rather than “developed” state.

The contribution of the paper comes from the uniqueness of the Irish setting: the Irish market is relatively small but, unlike many similarly sized markets, it is highly‐developed, with long‐term historical links to the London Stock Exchange. The results, therefore, provide evidence about the extent to which earlier findings based on the world's largest developed markets also prevail in those that are more modestly sized.

The purpose of this paper is to more closely examine the relationship between traditional cultural practices and the commercial products that are derived from and inspired by them. Existing institutional approaches to the cultural industries have been limited in their scope and empirical focus. This paper seeks to correct those oversights.

The paper utilizes a focused historical case study of traditional Irish music, drawing from the myriad resources on the subject housed in the Boston College Irish Music Collection.

A unique and parallel production system in traditional Irish music was identified – a symbiotic and mutually reinforcing relationship between traditional social practices and derivative commercial products that has not yet been articulated within institutional approaches to the cultural industries.

By applying DiMaggio and Powell's totality of relevant actors criterion in organizational fields the authors identify and describe the significant contributions of a class of social actors, who have been been marginalized in research on cultural industries.

The research has implications for practitioners in cultural industries – whether social entrepreneurs who wish to preserve or propagate traditional social practices or commercial entrepreneurs who wish to profit from them. The paper describes a symbiotic and sustainable relationship between these two classes of social actors and models a type of social entrepreneurship that can potentially be applied in other contexts.

Both empirically and conceptually, the paper offers fresh insights into cultural industries and institutional theory.