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The role of empowerment of subordinates has been an ongoing argument since the 1950s and 1960s following the work of social scientists like Likert and Herzberg. It is argued that empowerment can improve the productivity of the organization. The catch cry of the 1900s and 2000s has been that organizations must be more productive: this could be partly achieved by reducing the workforce and empowering the survivors to make decisions affecting them. The data for this study were collected by the federal government from workplaces across Australia and released in late 1997. It seems that having influence on decisions affecting a person and type and speed of work seems to alter the perceived level of job satisfaction rather than the level of job stress. This study investigates these findings further and discusses the influence of some demographic variables on job satisfaction. The final area of the study will look at how all these variables will impact on the perceived productivity of the organization.

Organizational change is a complex phenomenon with potentially devastating consequences if not done correctly. Organizations in the global marketplace continue to experience tremendous change. This paper examines data from a survey, which examined approximately 2,000 workplaces on whether they had introduced change and the effects of these changes on the employees at the workplace. The paper considered these changes, which included such issues as downsizing, delayering and the introduction of new plant and/or technology, reason for changes and who decided to introduce the changes. It further considered the level of perceived consultation, which accompanied the change, the perceived barriers to the changes and the possible influence on productivity. Examination of the data indicates that there is no relationship between downsizing and productivity.

This study examines the influence of perceived work‐related stress levels and levels of job satisfaction on work‐related injury/illnesses. Further, the influence of demographic data on these variables is also considered. The data were collected in a Federal Government study on Workplace Industrial Activities across Australia (AWIRS 95). It appears, from the data, that there is a significant relationship between low levels of job satisfaction and the reporting of work‐related injury/illnesses in the previous 12 months. This is also true for people who reported high levels of job stress. The data show that women seem to be more satisfied than their male colleagues and have fewer injuries and/or illnesses. One reason for the low level of injury/illness may be due to the occupations that men and women occupy. It seems that people who work in such occupations as labourers, plant and machine operators and tradespersons and apprentices are the most likely to have work‐related accidents and/or illnesses than other occupations and many of the people in the high injury incident occupations appear to be males. The study draws tentative conclusions on the influence of demographic data on levels of job satisfaction and job stress and the relationships with work‐related injury and/or illnesses.

From previous research it appears that training of employees is strongly related to profit. The Australian Government collected data on approximately 10,000 registered small and medium enterprises conducting business in four studies over a four‐year period. A panel of 3,867 firms were measured over the four years and the influence of strategic decisions made in year one (such as increase production) could be plotted on how they inclined decisions on other issues such as training. It seems that the amount of training is an important precursor for firms who wish to improve their productivity. Those firms who have desired to increase production in the following three years are also more likely to be involved in training whilst those who have decided to reduce their production levels tend to reduce their levels of training.

This paper is a historical review of the development of private primary and secondary education in Hong Kong from 1841-2012. The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolving relationship between the state and private schools in Hong Kong.

This paper utilizes sources from published official documents, public data available on government websites, archival documents and newspapers. The authors also carried out a few individual interviews with legislators, government officials and principals who were familiar with the history of private education in Hong Kong.

The colonial Hong Kong Government adopted laissez-faire policy in greater part of its rule until 1970s. The year 1978 marked the period of “state control” until the 1990s when privatization and deregulation emerged as a world trend in the governance of education. The role of government changed to that of “supervision” instead of “control.” Further, it is shown that the change of sovereignty did not avert the trend of decentralization, deregulation and privatization in education which is entrenched in the management of public affairs in human societies.

The findings provides an illuminating look into the development of a society and how it grapples with the fundamental questions of the degree of social control and proper use of political power in a colonial setting.

Women Sales Managers Volume 11 Number 2 of The Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing includes an article by Alan J. Dubinsky, Lucette B. Comer, Marvin A. Jolson and Francis J. Yammarino entitled “How should women sales managers lead their sales personnel?”

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

To examine the impact of transformational‐leadership on job stress (JS) and the impact of (JS) on burnout.

Hospitality industry employees were interviewed regarding the type of leadership used by their managers, the stress they felt due to their jobs, and the degree to which they felt they were “burned out.”

Degree of perceived burnout is related to degree of perceived stress and degree of perceived stress is related to type of leadership employed by managers.

If employees perceive that their managers are using transformational‐leadership, (JS) is perceived as less than if it is perceived as not being used. Given the costs associated with employee replacement, reduced burnout means a reduction in those costs. And, the social and economic cost to society of treating employees who are “burned out” is reduced.

This paper shows that the relationship between type of leadership, (JS) and burnout is not only the province of “white collar” employees but extends to lower levels in the organizational hierarchy as well. Customer‐contact workers in hotels/motels and restaurants are subject to the same feelings as nurses or other professionals. It may not be the degree of stress that causes burnout. Both higher paid and lower paid workers understand that there is stress associated with their jobs and understand that change, by definition, is stressful; but the methods their managers use to encourage acceptance of change play a large role in how stressful such changes are perceived. The paper also points out how hospitality managers can mitigate stress and burnout of their employees by implementing transformational leadership methods and techniques and the challenges that they might face through this implementation process.

This paper presents an evaluation of three Web based prototypes for bibliographic displays developed as part of an ongoing research project at the Faculty of Information Studies of the University of Toronto. The development of these prototypes builds upon results obtained in earlier phases of the project that addressed issues of both the content and form of bibliographic displays in Public Access Catalogues (Chan 1995; Luk 1996). Anticipation of continued growth in the number of catalogues available through the World Wide Web, combined with evidence (Cherry and Cox 1996) that existing Web based displays have not shown improvement over their text‐based counterparts, motivated the development of these prototypes for use on the Web. The findings from a focus group evaluation of the three prototypes are also reported, and suggestions made for future research.

Business practitioners are increasingly concerned about stakeholder issues. Although stakeholder orientation (StkO) has important bearings on a company's performance, to date no systematic attempt has been made to develop a valid scale of StkO, or to assess its influence on business performance. The present paper aims to look into ecological validity by attempting to construct and validate the StkO scale developed in China.

Given the literature reviewed, a model is proposed of company performance based on StkOs, which is identified as a one‐dimensional construct consisting of four components. Using a survey design, data were collected from 400 firms in three most important commercial cities of Mainland China with a response rate of 25 percent. Both item analysis and split‐half method were used to purify the measurement scale and to assess its stability. An exploratory factory was used to assess the dimensionality. Its result was subject to a confirmatory factory analysis using AMOS 4.01, which examined the construct, convergent and discriminant validities of StkO. The nomological validity of the scale was assessed by constructing a structural equation model with encouraging indices of goodness of fit.

The findings support the assertion that StkO is a multi‐facet construct consisting of four dimensions. The data indicate that these components are convergent on a common construct and that the relationship of the scale developed in this paper has acceptable discriminant validity and nomological validity.

For practicing managers, the findings reconfirm the long‐held belief that StkO is a crucial factor for business performance. First, the proposed scale could be used as a diagnostic tool to identify areas where the specific improvements are needed and to pinpoint aspects of a firm's StkO that require work. Second, the four components in the StkO model may serve to identify training needs by helping human resources managers so as to better develop a relationship with various stakeholders. Finally, firms may use this framework to develop relevant and effective business strategies and tactics and to set clear policies that balance the relationships and benefits among customers, shareholders, and employees.