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An employee who is eligible to make a complaint for unfair dismissal has to prove that he has been dismissed by the employer if the employer contests that the employee has in fact been dismissed. If the dismissal is not contested, all the employee has to do is to show that he has been dismissed. This constitutes the first stage of the proceedings in an industrial tribunal.

In part 1 of this paper the organisation was modelled as a socio‐cognitive agency with a normative personality, where patterns of behaviour occur through underlying trait control processes, and from which specific behaviours can be predicted. However, prediction is dependent on a stable agency orientation which occurs in normal conditions of homeostatic equilibrium. In post‐normal conditions the immanent dynamics of the agency have the potential to change its orientation leading to a lesser likelihood of predicting behaviour. Using information theory, this paper aims to further develop the model to show how it is possible to predict behaviour in post‐normal conditions. It also aims to consider the nature of agency pathologies.

The information theory approach of Frieden is harnessed to explain the immanent dynamics of the agency, and explore the likelihood of predicting its behaviour.

The outcomes of the research formulate the cognitive processes of normative personality such that its potential behaviour in given situations can be predicted, even potentially where the agency has pathologies.

There are no comparative approaches to explore organisational behaviour and their potential pathologies.

The Sanitary Committee of a certain County Council, strong with the strength of recent creation, have lately been animated by a desire to distinguish themselves in some way, and, proceeding along the lines of least resistance, they appear to have selected the Public Analyst as the most suitable object for attack. The charge against this unfortunate official was not that he is incompetent, or that he had been in any way negligent of his duties as prescribed by Act of Parliament, but simply and solely that he has the temerity to reside in London, which city is distant by a certain number of miles from the much favoured district controlled by the County Council aforesaid. The committee were favoured in their deliberations by the assistance of no less an authority than the “Principal” of a local “Technical School”;—and who could be more capable than he to express an opinion upon so simple a matter? This eminent exponent of scientific truths, after due and proper consideration, is reported to have delivered himself of the opinion that “scientifically it would be desirable that the analyst should reside in the district, as the delay occasioned by the sending of samples of water to London is liable to produce a misleading effect upon an analysis.” Apparently appalled by the contemplation of such possibilities, and strengthened by another expression of opinion to the effect that there were as “good men” in the district as in London, the committee resolved to recommend the County Council to determine the existing arrangement with the Public Analyst, and to appoint a “local analyst for all purposes.” Thus, the only objection which could be urged to the employment of a Public Analyst resident in London was the ridiculous one that the composition of a sample of water was likely to seriously alter during the period of its transit to London, and this contention becomes still more absurd when it is remembered that the examination of water samples is no part of the official duty of a Public Analyst. The employment of local scientific talent may be very proper when the object to be attained is simply the more or less imperfect instruction of the rising generation in the rudiments of what passes in this country for “technical education”; but the work of the Public Analyst is serious and responsible, and cannot be lightly undertaken by every person who may be acquainted with some of the uses of a test‐tube. The worthy members of this committee may find to their cost, as other committees have found before them, that persons possessing the requisite knowledge and experience are not necessarily indigenous to their district. Supposing that the County Council adopts the recommendation, the aspirations of the committee may even then be strangled in their infancy, as the Local Government Board will want to know all about the matter, and the committee will have to give serious and valid reasons in support of their case.

The paper aims to identify, analyze and discuss the links between information and communications technology (ICT) and knowledge management (KM), on the one hand, and job satisfaction (JS) and customer satisfaction (CSAT), on the other hand, in hospitals in Lebanon.

A mixed-methods approach has been adopted that utilizes both quantitative and qualitative primary data, along with supportive and peripheral secondary ones. Specifically, a survey measuring variables was conducted among health-care professionals, with whom interviews were also conducted for greater depth and to refine the findings and relationships under study.

The results of the quantitative study find no statistically significant relationships between the variables. The qualitative study suggests that this is likely because of the subjectivity of the evaluations and/or their mutual canceling. This is further partly explained not only through technical/functional deficiencies of the system but also through the impact of implicit and peripheral forces, adjacent to contextual aspects.

The research adds significant and focused knowledge on the subject of the linkage of ICT and KM with JS and CSAT, in the context of emerging economies.

There is a certain type of British trader who, with pharisaic unction, lifts up his voice and deplores the unhappy condition of “the heathen in his blindness,” including all persons of other nationalities and any of his own who may happen to differ in opinion from himself. On these collectively it is his habit to bestow his contemptuous regard when from his elevated position he condescends to thank Providence that as far as the methods and conduct of business are concerned he is “not as other men.” Of course, most people recognise that the attitude assumed by this type of person is one for which it is difficult altogether to blame him. Born as he was in an atmosphere reeking with traditions of insular supremacy, and nurtured from his youth up on notions of commercial arrogance, it is no miracle that he arrives at maturity with singularly inflated ideas of the greatness of his powers and person. If there is one thing more than another in which he feels particular pride it is the possession of a superabundant stock of what he is pleased to call “business acumen,” and to hear him, it might be imagined that no one could approach him in enterprise and general commercial ability.

The purpose of this paper is to replicate the dispositional source of job satisfaction (JS) in a different cultural setting on the backdrop of the recession of 2008‐2009 and to investigate the specific subjective job‐related aspects that influenced Indian IT professionals' overall evaluation of JS.

Data were collected from 221 IT employees. Pearson's correlation, partial correlation and stepwise regression analyses were used to test hypotheses.

Apart from confirming the dispositional source of JS, satisfaction with nature of work, as well as relations with one's supervisor, emerged as the most important situational contributors over and above that of personality factors during recession in the Indian IT sector.

As the personality factors of Neuroticism, Extraversion and Agreeableness showed a key role in JS of Indian software employees in adverse conditions, selection and recruitment of IT personnel should lay emphasis on these factors. Also, paying attention to making the nature of work more satisfying, as well as promoting positive relationships between team members and leaders could serve as a buffer during economic downturns in maintaining the JS of Indian IT employees.

Although previous studies have looked at how personality plays an essential role in JS, they have hardly looked at the person‐situation interaction with respect to type of industry and status of economy. The paper reveals that specific personality and job factors can matter more in a certain type of industry, particularly during a rough economic patch.

To develop a decision support system (DSS) and improved management criteria for operating dispenser‐based single‐piece automatic order picking systems (AOPS) in distribution centers, able to reduce the need for manual decision making based on personal experience or subjective judgement.

Simulation was utilized to analyze the relationships between stochastic demand, setup parameters and performances of an AOPS. A set of rules was then defined to cost‐effectively select the values of setup parameters. A DSS was built incorporating the heuristic rules to dynamically update the equipment setup.

Manual management of an AOPS can be poorly efficient even if largely practiced. Significant economic benefits may result from rule‐based equipment setup instead of the traditional manual decision approach. This was verified resorting to a case study referring to the distribution center of a leading pharmaceuticals distributor in Italy. Major performances improvements resulted regarding manual operation by an experienced logistic manager, including a 40 per cent reduction of the cost per picked order line.

The proposed DSS is able to monitor the system behaviour over a specified time window and automatically set the values of the state variables for the next period. It is able to automatically define the set of items to be allocated on to the machine, to select the number of storage locations allocated to each item and set reorder levels and maximum picking quantities for each item, thus greatly simplifying the task of the logistic manager. Utilization of this DSS enables one to maintain a high level of picking automation efficiency while drastically cutting the required support personnel, thus significantly improving profit margins of high‐volume high‐rotation distribution centers.

The paper addresses, with original methodology, a practically relevant issue which is neglected in the literature. The paper is aimed at distribution centers managers seeking to improve the performances of AOPS and reduce their operating costs.

Drawing from social exchange theory, this paper aims to examine the role of five mediating mechanisms between the relationships of critical constructs of frontline employees’ performance, and both transformational leadership and proactive personality to find out which mediating mechanism highly boosts frontline performance in 3-star hotels, Pakistan.

By testing parallel mediating linkages, this study used a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique using partial least square-SEM. This empirical investigation used a quota sampling technique to collect data from the frontline employees of 3-star hotels from the top five big cities of Pakistan. The study administered online survey questionnaires among 500 frontline workers in 3-star hotels.

The results of the study supported a substantial direct influence of transformational leadership and proactive personality on employees’ performance. Nevertheless, it was observed in the findings of this investigation, significant mediating relationships between frontline employees’ performance and the key constructs of transformational leadership and proactive personality. However, the construct of work engagement was not found to have a significant mediating relationship between front-line employees’ performance and both constructs of transformational leadership and proactive personality. Moreover, leader-member exchange was identified as the highest mediating mechanism among the five. It is noteworthy, the results of this study highlighted that the notion of leader-member exchange is extremely embedded in transformational leadership to enhance the frontline performance than proactive personality.

The empirical evidence of this study insinuates that the management may establish a system of collaborative learning and social exchange between leaders and followers. This approach might be the essence to improve the work outcomes of frontline employees specifically within the 3-star hotels and hospitality organizations at large.

This study contributes to novel findings particularly to determine the five mediating mechanisms, i.e. work engagement, job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, organizational commitment and leader-member exchange between frontline employees’ performance and the constructs of transformational leadership and proactive personality. It might be noteworthy, the empirical and anecdotal pieces of evidence of this study indicated a social exchange system within transformational leadership optimizes the frontline employees’ performance that ultimately contributes to the overall organizational outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how apparel employees’ analytic, creative and emotional intelligence (EI) influence their job (JS) and career satisfaction (CS) from the theory of EI perspective.

An online survey was administered to apparel employees with a response of 135 participants. Regression-based conditional process analysis using bootstrapped confidence intervals was employed to analyze the study’s hypotheses.

Findings indicated that, using EI, overall participants had higher JS and, therefore, CS. However, the degree of such relationships was different for the analytic and creative groups. Specifically, when the analytic group has high EI, the direct effect of EI on JS and CS was higher than the creative group had on high EI. That is, EI seems to help the analytic group to achieve their JS and CS more directly and, respectively, while the creative group gets more indirect benefit of JS between EI and CS.

This study is one of the first to empirically investigate the apparel work environment by assessing employees’ analytic, creative and EIs and their relationships with JS and CS. Implications for the apparel industry and academia show that apparel companies and educators may need to enhance EI for their current and future employees to help create a more positive and long-lasting career in the apparel industry.

This study aims to examine the impact of workplace happiness, coworker support and job stress on employee innovative behavior. The mediating effects of coworker support and job stress are also explored.

The study uses survey data from 328 employees from different departments in four- and five-star hotels in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Based on an extensive literature review, five main hypotheses were formulated and explored. These were tested through multiple regression analysis using the SPSS Process Macro plugin.

Workplace happiness is the most significant determinant of employees’ innovative behavior, while coworker support plays a significant mediating role. Contrary to the study hypothesis and assumption, job stress alone is not a significant mediator; it only plays a mediating role when combined with coworker support.

The sample is from a single sector (hotels) in a single country. Future research would benefit from examining the above relationships in other sectors (such as health and education) in the UAE. It could also explore the validity of these relationships in the tourism/hotels sector of other countries in the Middle East and Gulf regions.

Few studies have attempted to investigate factors that may promote or impede innovative behavior among employees in the hotels sector, particularly in the UAE. The data, model and findings of this study address this gap and add to the current state of knowledge.