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Recent press reports detailing the success of new industrial enterprises are often misleading. In actuality, failure rates remain high and the vast majority of new ventures will not survive for five years. Advances the notion that, while failure is sometimes beyond the immediate control of company owners (trade and embargo policies barring entry of products, natural disasters such as fire or earthquake destroying company facilities), an impressive number of potential crises can be prevented. Further, mitigation steps such as crisis marketing planning can minimize the negative impact on cash flow and company image that often emerges from disaster. A firm that integrates this planning into its strategic plan (and concurrently informs potential investors that it has pondered and planned for worst‐case scenarios) is ultimately better prepared to cope with crisis and reassure stakeholders.

The legal and economic value of intellectual property is under seige in much of the world. Creators of software find that, throughout much of the industrialized and Third World, their products are illegally copied and sold in breach of bilateral treaties and international protocols. Prosecutions of violators, though increasing in number, offer only a partial solution. Comparatively analyses how Western firms have responded to this issue, which transcends ethics, industrial management, data systems, profit and law. The analysis includes research into those nations which are often found to house a disproportionate share of violators of intellectual property rights.

With a global recession impacting employers in most industrialised nations, the management of most large organisations has been forced to trim the number of workers, reduce benefits and in some cases, eliminate entire divisions of their company. A surprising survivor during this difficult period is employer‐provided day care, a relatively new employment benefit that emerged just within the past two decades.

Provides an analysis of why facility managers need to have risk management in the business world today. Details how the risk manager′s duties differ from those of the crisis manager – while the risk manager assesses potential incidents, the crisis manager actually manages a crisis environment. Discusses stockholder business and legal environments, then analyses the chemical waste management and crisis response requirements of different organizations.

Sexual harassment is more than a social issue; it impacts on worker productivity, employee communication and organizational morale. These are direct costs to industry, combined with indirect costs such as worker discontent, absenteeism and stress. Discusses the challenge for management to respond to educating employees before charges are filed; this includes policies, training programmes and punitive measures. Cites the controversial nomination of US Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, which galvanized women′s groups, who believe that he had engaged in prior harassment of an assistant, as a case study worthy of examination. In addition, a survey of several hundreds of men and women underscores differences in how gender affects attitudes towards appropriate behaviour in the work setting.

Literature of trauma in the workplace after an organizational catastrophe often focuses on various aspects of a critical incident where data are more readily available because of organizational “pressure points” – public relations, technology and the financial impact of a disaster on a corporation. Highlights the fact that external public rarely express concern or even interest in the mental health of workers in an organization perceived as being responsible for a catastrophe. Provides results from recently published studies that reveal workers experience some trauma after a critical incident, ranging from mild depression, to the onset of manic disease, to suicidal thoughts. Scrutinizes the impact on departmental and organizational morale, production and sustainability of key projects to comprehend the organizational behaviour dimension of critical incidents in an appropriate context. Overviews the relationship of organizational behaviour to crisis management and analyses the impact of trauma upon workers at one department of large oil exploration company operating in Alaska. Reaches beyond anecdotal surveys to include an analysis of employee turnover in the immediate department of that company after four workers had been badly injured in a serious industrial accident. Results suggest attention must be paid to stress and trauma by employees who witness organizational catastrophes.

Assesses the extent to which corporate organizations in the US have responded to the working mothers and child care issue. Illustrates, through case studies and examples, how organizations have sponsored or offered financial benefits or provisions to workers; to ease the burden of the financial cost of child care and in so doing maintain a competitive edge by retaining skilled workers. The financial and social implications of the corporate organization as “family caretaker” are also raised for the present as well as for the next century.

This is the title of an article by Valerie Fawcett in Volume 15 Number 3 of Library Management. This programme has been helping many women in library and information work to fulfil their potential. Women who have taken part in this personal development course have become more confident and assertive, and their managers have found them more willing to put forward their ideas, take the initiative, and take on additional responsibilities. Many achieve promotion, but women set their own agenda on the course, decide what they want to achieve and the steps they need to take.

Crises are hitting our industries with alarming regularity. Yet the word crisis is usually used with little thought to its meaning. Examines the various meanings which have been proposed by authors in the field of crisis management, and contends that for a situation to develop into a crisis three elements must be present: a triggering event causing significant change or having the potential to cause significant change; the perceived inability to cope with this change; and a threat to the existence of the foundation of the organization.

This paper examines strategies to meet the communication challenge of change brought on through planned transitions, by the stress of a crisis, or as a result of the social transformation in work and the nature of work. It explores the cycles of change to create a foundation for understanding the communication of change to individual people in an organisation. It examines the impact of reengineering as a change vehicle, the role of trust in reengineering, and some reasons reengineering appears to have shortcomings for individuals coping with change. A reengineering case study is also presented. Successful communication of change demonstrates an understanding of the cycle of change, the importance of trust in the communication process, the essential personal nature of change, the necessity for continuous face‐to‐face communication, and a recognition that current global changes are symptoms of a shift in the human condition.