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This study aims to explore how placement of lean practices (removal of waste from all areas of an organization’s value stream) (Worley and Doolen, 2006) within different organizational strategic contexts can affect the factors that lead to lean implementation success.

The authors use empirical data to examine how strategy affects various factors that are identified as prerequisites for successful lean implementation. Specifically, this study uses Venkatraman’s (1998) measures to examine various types of strategy within organizations, how they correlate with both the workers’ mindset (perceived job security and perceived personal benefits of lean) and the processes in implementation (training on lean concepts and techniques).

Findings indicate that a relationship exists between strategy and factors needed for lean implementation success. Perceived job security had a positive relationship with all four types of strategies examined (proactiveness, defensiveness, analysis and futurity) (Venkatraman, 1998). Moreover, perceived personal benefits of lean had a positive relationship with futurity but negative relationships with proactiveness and defensiveness strategies. Finally, training on lean concepts and techniques was positively related to analysis and futurity strategies but negatively related to proactiveness strategy.

The authors’ research illustrates the positive impact of aligning lean with strategy. This topic may be of particular interest to executives, especially middle managers, looking to improve firm performance.

This study aims to examine how students in business colleges across three countries, the United States, India and China, interpret environmental sustainability. This study also explores where students from different cultures believe responsibility lies in caring for the environment and how these beliefs represent their cultural and millennial values. The purpose of this study, then, is to investigate millennial business students’ perspectives toward the environment across the three countries holding the largest ecological footprint.

College of business students from the United States, India and China were surveyed. Student responses regarding environmental sustainability were compared to values of the millennial generation and placement of responsibility compared to national culture dimensions.

An average of 66.3 per cent of the coded responses reflect the optimism of the generation. Concern for future generations was a frequent theme. Most responses assigned responsibility for environmental sustainability to “all”. Results support the work of Husted (2005) and Park et al. (2007) as well as the expectations of the millennial generation’s values related to environmental sustainability.

The authors connect national cultural research to environmental sustainability. This study explores where students from different cultures believe responsibility lies in caring for the environment and how these beliefs represent their cultural and millennial values. National cultural combined with millennial opinion is an important area of research for understanding the assignment of responsibility related to environmental sustainability.

This study aims to examine why students choose to or choose not to take and their perspectives of online courses, by obtaining responses from both students who have and have not taken online classes.

A survey methodology is used, including both open‐ended qualitative questions as well as a quantitative question.

Support for past research was found through students indicating the importance of flexibility and convenience in online courses. Countering past research was the high level of consistency between the two populations’ perspectives of online courses. Two key distinctions were found between the populations: the amount of focus on the cost of courses by those choosing not to take online classes, and the awareness of the need of self‐motivation needed in online courses by those who had taken them.

This research was conducted at just one organization, so generalizability across institutions would need to be confirmed.

Institutions need to be aware of what constitutes students’ choices and perspectives between the various methods of taking courses.

Students may need additional preparation and realistic expectations in order to increase the likelihood of being successful in an online course. Institutions also need to maintain the rigor of their online courses to maintain an overall positive social perception of online education.

This study made a distinction between perspectives of students having had an online course and those who had not, as well as a distinction between choice in selecting online courses and student perceptions of online courses. These perceptions were explored through both quantitative and qualitative responses.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how one hospital safety coordinator socially constructs a complete environment of care. Specifically, it applies Shotter's “practical author” framework to examine the author‐response interaction between the safety coordinator and other mid‐level supervisors.

Qualitative methodology is employed to examine this authorship. Data include printed materials employees receive upon hire, an observation of an environment of care orientation presentation, and semi‐structured interviews with the safety coordinator and mid‐level supervisors.

The paper reveals how the safety coordinator uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to balance the tensions between mandating compliance with environment of care requirements and facilitating buy‐in to the idea of compliance as a moral and ethical imperative. This creates an ethos among the employees where they feel authorized to go beyond the requirements and act on their own to construct a safer culture.

The paper has multiple practical and theoretical implications that may be useful to health care and other organizations when examining the broader need for a complete, supportive environment where employees not only comply with but actually live and believe in the values of their organizations' cultures. A limitation is that employee perspective and behavior are primarily inferred based on supervisor reports.

The paper extends theory on communication and developing organizational environments and provides practical application possibilities for organizations.