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This study found that 10 of 16 measures of interpersonal communication showed statistical significance between male and female administrators in a university environment. Using the FIRO‐B questionnaire, females preferred to initiate more inclusion and affection in interpersonal activities; also, they wanted other people to include them and to be friendly to them in inter‐personal relationships. Beyond the comparison of males and females, however, it is evident that all scores (both male and female) exist within the mid‐range categories. Thus, it is concluded that interpersonal communication capacity is lacking throughout the sample, and definite actions are needed to increase interpersonal communication effectiveness in organisations.

Communicating with subordinates in a helpful and empathic manner is a skill often needed by supervisors in organisations. A model is outlined here which discusses subordinate‐oriented communication at five levels of effectiveness. A supervisory training programme is also discussed emphasising the use of role playing in teaching effective and empathic communication responses. And finally, various training techniques are suggested which will help the trainee supervisor in implementing the concepts learned into actual practice Pre‐ and post‐test scores from a recent training programme are presented and discussed.

Every organisation has an existing set of values, an “organisational culture”. Could a richer set of values improve the organisation? If so, how is the organisation better. What are some ways of enriching the existing values, and who can do it? These issues are examined and their application is explored through examples.

The study focusses on explaining why advocates for reform to state audit in the United Kingdom (UK) in the early 1980s, focussed on improving the links between the new National Audit Office (NAO) and Parliament, rather than on traditional notions of audit independence. The study shows how this focus on the auditor's link to Parliament depends on a particular concept of liberty and relates this to the wider literature on the place of audit in democratic society.

Understanding the issue of independence of audit in protecting the liberties and rights of citizens needs addressed. In this article, the authors investigate the creation of audit independence in the UK in the National Audit Act (1983). To do so, the authors employ a neo-Roman concept of liberty to historical archives ranging from the late 1960s to 1983.

The study shows that advocates for audit reform in the UK from the 1960s to the 1980s were arguing for an extension to Parliament's power to hold the executive to account and that their focus was influential on the way that the new NAO was established. Using a neo-Roman concept of liberty, the authors show that they believed Parliamentary surveillance of the executive was necessary to secure liberty within the UK.

The neo-Roman republican concept of liberty extends previous studies in considering the importance of audit for public accountability, the preservation of liberty and democracy.

Public sector audit can be a fundamentally democratic activity. Auditors should be alert to the constitutional importance of their work and see parliamentary accountability as a key objective.

The neo-Roman concept of liberty extends previous studies in considering the importance of audit for public accountability, preservation of liberty and democracy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the causes of the failure of the Larkin Company (Buffalo, NY), once one of the nation's largest mail‐order houses in the decades surrounding 1900.

Borrowing conceptual frameworks from both recent management and historical scholarship on organizational failure that integrates exogenous and endogenous factors, this study employs traditional historical methods to explain the causes of Larkin's failure. The main primary sources include the Larkin Company records, government documents, personal papers, trade journals, and other primary sources.

Begun as a modest soap manufacturer by John D. Larkin, in Buffalo, in 1875, the Larkin Company grew to become one of the largest mail‐order houses in the USA in the decades surrounding 1900 owing to its innovative direct marketing practices, called the “factory‐to‐family” plan, that relied on unpaid women to distribute its products. In 1918, anticipating the chain store boom, Larkin established two grocery store chains (other retail ventures followed). The company regularly lost money in these ventures and, combined with a shrinking mail‐order economy, struggled during the 1920s and 1930s, and eventually liquidated in 1941‐1942. A number of exogenous and endogenous factors, acting alone and in various combinations, proved too challenging to second‐ and third‐generation family members who ran the company after 1926.

This research paper tries to understand the decline of an important progressive firm during the interwar period. Whereas Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward were able to make the transition from mail order to stores, Larkin Company failed to navigate this transition successfully. It also adds to the small but important literature in management and business history on organizational failure and may serve as a cautionary tale for family businesses.

The paper aims to examine and compare two understandings of liberty that have dealt successfully with the normative and analytical challenge of reconciling liberty with social justice: Philip Pettit's republican liberty as nondomination and Hobhouse's concept of liberty as personal growth available to all. The paper focuses on one particular question: how successful each of these thinkers has been in resolving the tension between voluntariness of action, implicit in the “primary” meaning of liberty (as defined by T.H. Green), with the often heavy demands of social justice policies aiming at social equality and entailing economic redistribution.

The paper analyses two theories of liberty by spelling out the difficulties they aimed to deal with and by assessing the level of success they have achieved in resolving these difficulties, with the objective to demonstrate their originality in the broader context of conceptualising liberty.

The paper criticises Pettit's republican theory from a new perspective and develops an original critique of it; it spells out the achievements of Hobhouse's understanding of liberty in a new light – related to the specific critique of Pettit's republican liberty; and by spelling out the analytical and normative achievements of Hobhouse's liberty as “personal growth available to all” it offers a viable concept of liberty that fits with contemporary conceptualisations but overcomes their shortcomings.

As the project is based on analysing texts that have been easy to access, there have not been significant research limitations.

The two theories of freedom assessed here (the contemporary republican and the “new liberal”) entail some subtle, but potentially significant differences in public policy implications. While both can justify extended state action, the latter could tailor specific policies in a manner more mindful of the well-being of all parties, even those on the wrong side of social justice.

The paper makes an original contribution in three areas: contemporary republican theory of liberty, Hobhouse's theory of liberty and conceptualisations of liberty in general.

The paper aims to develop a strategic conceptualization and measurement scale of organizational resilience to support researchers examining how small firms prepare and respond deliberately to general disruptions in the operating environment over more extended time frames.

The paper uses a four-step process to develop, present and test (for predictive validity) a scale of strategic organizational resilience for frequent events or those needing long-term responses.

The resulting seven-factor measurement scale of organizational resilience consists of readiness, slack, problem-solving, flexibility, connectedness, adaptiveness and proactiveness.

The literature on organizational resilience explains how organizations recover from rare but catastrophic events by focusing on adaptation principles and short-term survival. The broader conceptualization presented here enables the study of organizational resilience in small-medium size enterprises (SMEs) across more frequent and pervasive events, such as financial crises, industry downturns and other forms of structural change and technological disruption. This is operationalized in a measure that includes new strategic factors associated with forward-planning and more traditional operationally focused elements.

The Northfleet Group of Gravesend, Kent — UK market leaders in retail display systems — has appointed Gary B. Pettit to head the company's projects division as major accounts manager. This is a new position within the group which is aimed at the continued expansion and development of the division in serving the company's multiple retail and wholesale outlets. In this capacity, Mr Pettit reports directly to the sales director and leads a team of four managers and a further 16 sales and administrative personnel.

This study explores the critical success factors (CSFs) in humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) by focussing on flood disaster management (FDM) in Ghana.

An in-depth semi-structured interview and questionnaire surveys in a sequential data collection approach were used to collect data from definitive stakeholders of humanitarian organisations. The data was analysed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factors analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques.

Seventy-four factors were identified as success factors of HSCM of flood disaster management. However, 41 of these factors were statistically significant and considered as critical. In descending order, these factors relate to management practices, education and training, stakeholder involvement and cooperation, infrastructure, innovation and technology, materials and resources, administrative practices, socio-cultural and economic. Whilst some factors are internal to the humanitarian organisations, others are external factors that are beyond the control of humanitarian organisations.

Even though this study offers empirical results that could guide policymakers in their decision-making about humanitarian operations, care needs to be taken since the data is within one country and within a specific disaster context – hence, policymakers need to consider the local contextual dynamics. Future studies could look at different disasters context to make a comparative analysis of various types of disaster operations.

Institutions such as World Health Organization, Red Cross organisations and UN seeking to curbs global-warming-related disasters and the reduction of the effects of flood disaster can use findings as a guide during the formulation of HSCM policies and strategies.

Unlike previous studies of humanitarian operations that focussed extensively on theoretical expositions, simulations, conceptual frameworks and models, this present study offers empirical evidence of humanitarian operations in the context of SCM. Further, by highlighting on the HSCM CSFs, this study contributes to disaster reduction and their effects on humanity in the context of FDM. This research could be used as guide by governments and FDM organisations to make informed decisions on SCM areas to focus the most during FDM.

Unforeseen events can disrupt the operational process and negatively impact emergency resources optimization and its supply chain. A limited number of studies have addressed risk management issues in the context of emergency supply chains, and this existing research lacks inbuilt and practical techniques that can significantly affect the reliability of risk management outcomes. Therefore, this paper aims to identify and practically analyze the specific risk factors that can most likely disrupt the normal functioning of the emergency supply chain in disaster relief operations.

This paper has used a three-step process to investigate and evaluate risk factors associated with the emergency supply chain. First, the study conducts a comprehensive literature review to identify the risk factors. Second, the research develops a questionnaire survey to validate and classify the identified risk factors. At the end of this step, the study develops a hierarchical structure. Finally, the research investigates the weighted priority of the validated risk factors using the fuzzy-analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) methodology. Experts were required to provide subjective judgments.

This paper identified and validated 28 specific risk factors prevalent in emergency supply chains. Based on their contextual meanings, the research classified these risk factors into two main categories: internal and external risk factors; four subcategories: demand, supply, infrastructural and environmental risk factors; and 11 risk types: forecast, inventory, procurement, supplier, quality, transportation, warehousing, systems, disruption, social and political risk factors. The most significant risk factors include war and terrorism, the absence of legislative rules that can influence and support disaster relief operations, the impact of cascading disasters, limited quality of relief supplies and sanctions and constraints that can hinder stakeholder collaboration. Therefore, emergency supply chain managers should adopt appropriate strategies to mitigate these risk factors.

This study will contribute to the general knowledge of risk management in emergency supply chains. The identified risk factors and structural hierarchy taxonomic diagram will provide a comprehensive risk database for emergency supply chains.

The research findings will provide comprehensive and systemic support for respective practitioners and policymakers to obtain a firm understanding of the different risk categories and specific risk factors that can impede the effective functioning of the emergency supply chain during immediate disaster relief operations. Therefore, this will inform the need for the improvement of practices in critical aspects of the emergency supply chain through the selection of logistics and supply chain strategies that can ensure the robustness and resilience of the system.

This research uses empirical data to identify, categorize and validate risk factors in emergency supply chains. This study contributes to the theory of supply chain risk management. The study also adopts the fuzzy-AHP technique to evaluate and prioritize these risk factors to inform practitioners and policymakers of the most significant risk factors. Furthermore, this study serves as the first phase of managing risk in emergency supply chains since it motivates future studies to empirically identify, evaluate and select effective strategies that can eliminate or minimize the effects of these risk factors.