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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dimensions that distinguish high from low performing manufacturing companies in Great Britain with respect to controlling noise. The findings should assist regulators and industry to develop interventions that help organisations to effectively manage noise, particularly amongst the low performers.

The research uses quantitative and qualitative methods. Survey data was obtained from 215 manufacturers and supplemented with 15 qualitative interviews to assess performance and individual, social, environmental and organisational influences on duty holders' decision making for controlling noise.

Relative to low performers, decision makers from high performing companies had: greater in-depth knowledge of noise risks and controls; taken steps to promote positive health and safety attitudes and values; were large companies; and faced fewer resource barriers (time, costs, staffing). Managers in small, low performing companies sought simple interventions with a practical focus.

The differences reported between high and low performing companies showed a small magnitude of effect but these are considered significant in a health and safety context.

Improvements in training and education, and addressing workplace health and safety culture, are recommended as offering most potential to raise the standard of noise control.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to systematically assess the specific knowledge, attitudes, values and beliefs that employers hold about noise and the influence of social, environmental and organisational factors on manager’s decisions about noise controls.

The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of how information privacy concerns are derived from the combination effects of individual traits, compound traits, situational traits and surface traits that ultimately influence the consumer’s attitude toward data collection programs. The study investigates a hierarchical model of individual traits, information privacy orientation and consumer privacy concerns.

The empirical research utilizes structural equation modeling to analyze the responses from 964 respondents.

The results suggest that consumer attitudes toward data collection programs associated with personal shopping information (e.g. retail loyalty card programs) are determined through a hierarchical model of personal traits and contextual-dependent variables. Specifically, the authors find that the compound traits of risk orientation and need for cognition influence the situational trait of information privacy orientation which leads to the surface trait of consumer privacy concern and ultimately attitude toward the information collection program.

The results suggest several means to increase participation in data collection programs. Although high need for cognition and high risk orientation cannot be changed, communication plans can provide guarantees that mitigate perceived risk associated with sharing personal information and highlight the information value to the individual’s sharing of information.

While previous research focuses on either the internal traits or external traits, this research contributes to the current literature by offering insights into how privacy evolves from more abstract personality traits to more situational-specific behavioral tendencies, which then influence attitudes and behavior.

The questions addressed by this review are: first, what are the guiding principles underlying efforts to stimulate sustained cultural change; second, what are the mechanisms by which these principles operate; and, finally, what are the contextual factors that influence the likelihood of these principles being effective? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors conducted a literature review informed by rapid realist review methodology that examined how interventions interact with contexts and mechanisms to influence the sustainability of cultural change. Reference and expert panelists assisted in refining the research questions, systematically searching published and grey literature, and helping to identify interactions between interventions, mechanisms and contexts.

Six guiding principles were identified: align vision and action; make incremental changes within a comprehensive transformation strategy; foster distributed leadership; promote staff engagement; create collaborative relationships; and continuously assess and learn from change. These principles interact with contextual elements such as local power distributions, pre-existing values and beliefs and readiness to engage. Mechanisms influencing how these principles sustain cultural change include activation of a shared sense of urgency and fostering flexible levels of engagement.

The principles identified in this review, along with the contexts and mechanisms that influence their effectiveness, are useful domains for policy and practice leaders to explore when grappling with cultural change. These principles are sufficiently broad to allow local flexibilities in adoption and application.

This is the first study to adopt a realist approach for understanding how changes in organizational culture may be sustained. Through doing so, this review highlights the broad principles by which organizational action may be organized within enabling contextual settings.