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This research study set out to answer the following question: How does social class relate to social connectedness in college?

The authors operationalized a nonexperimental, cross-sectional and analytical study design to analyze 271 survey responses.

This study illustrates that discretionary income has the most dramatic practical significance on the social connectedness of undergraduate students at the research site. As the body of knowledge regarding effective measures of social class for collegians increases, institutions should consider more innovative measures like discretionary spending, perceived social class and others during this unique transitional period of life.

A widened perspective of social class in college could aid in supporting the university and college goals of student success and social well-being.

The relationship between team cohesion and individual well-being is clear. Being part of a highly cohesive team is likely to contribute to the well-being of individual team members. A multidirectional relationship is likely as individual well-being is also likely to contribute to team cohesion. This chapter examines such critical relationships in the context of team performance. To do so, we draw on the dominant literatures related to these concepts, focusing on two specific types of team cohesion – social cohesion and task cohesion – and two specific types of well-being – subjective well-being (SWB) and psychological well-being (PWB). We contend that social cohesion and SWB are likely to be strongly related, while task cohesion and PWB are likely to share a strong relationship. Therefore, the chapter focuses on the evidence regarding the transactional relationship between social team cohesion and SWB, and transactional relationship between task team cohesion and PWB. Of course, we also recognize the close relationships between social and task cohesion, and between SWB and PWB. We consider the practical implications of studying the relationships between these concepts and put forth a number of recommendations for future research in this area.

Using strikingly different managerial techniques from conventional organizations, 12 Step Fellowships, most prominently Alcoholics Anonymous, provide useful clues to producing more effective, functional and humane organizations in contrast with our many dysfunctional firms which abuse their employees, behave unethically towards their customers, damage their social and ecological habitat and find it difficult to complete in a turbulent global environment. The founding Fellowship, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), extends to 131 countries with 1,550,000 members while the second largest, Al‐Anon/Alateen, has 414,000 members in 84 countries. Without advertising, government support or experts, AA is widely considered the most effective method for treating alcoholism. This success story was produced by members who, prior to AA, were themselves severely dysfunctional and often unemployable. Examines facets of the Fellowships (organizational structure, culture, communication and problem solving techniques) to demonstrate a powerful, little studied model for organizational learning and transformation.

The 1899 book and the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz hold a permanent influence on US culture. In this article we describe how the Wizard of Oz’s story can serve as a metaphor for balancing energies and organizational transformation at all levels. Just as the spiritual transformation of a person must be initiated from within, so organizations must discover the inner power to balance energies and transform themselves into more humane systems.

Purpose – To examine potential sex differences among American Indian and Alaska Native peoples (AIANs) in diabetes prevalence, comorbidities, healthcare utilization, and treatment costs within the Indian Health Services (IHS).

Methodology/Approach – Data were drawn from the IHS Improving Healthcare Delivery Data Project with 437,608 persons in our analytical sample. We described sex and age differences in diabetes, comorbidities, healthcare utilization, and treatment costs among the adults with diabetes. We evaluated the statistical differences between men and women using confidence intervals calculated at the 95% level, with nonoverlapping confidence intervals indicating statistical significance.

Findings – The prevalence of diabetes among females was somewhat higher than that of males (10.82 vs 9.16%, respectively, p < 0.05). Among adults with diabetes, males had statistically higher prevalence of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and substance use disorders and fewer mental health disorders compared to females. Although males had overall lower average cost of services than females, males had higher utilization for hospital inpatient services than females, and females used more outpatient services.

Research limitations/implications – We are limited to one fiscal year of data and thus cannot predict the influence of healthcare utilization patterns on the overall health of this population. Although a large sample, the findings are only generalizable to the active users of the participating IHS Service Units.

Originality/Value of Paper – This study fills a major gap in our knowledge of sex differences in diabetes prevalence, comorbidities, healthcare utilization, and treatment costs among AIANs. Differences in the comorbidities that characterized the AIAN adult males and females with diabetes in this sample have important implications for mortality and cost of care. Diabetes management that addresses such gender-specific comorbidities, particularly substance use disorders among men and mental health disorders among women, promises to reduce these comorbidities and related complications.

Recently, total quality management (TQM) has attracted increasing interest throughout Chinese manufacturing industries and its programs have been widely implemented. Currently, there are few studies conducted about TQM implementation by small manufacturing firms in China, even though small firms are still dominant in many areas of manufacturing industries in China. This study analyzes survey results of Chinese small manufacturing firms to investigate the present status of TQM and its perception and development among them.

This study aims to investigate the effect of the virtual spokesperson type on the consumers' preference for new products. To meet the consumer needs of Generation Z, virtual spokespeople have become new assistants in brand marketing. However, how virtual spokespersons drive consumer preference for new products is minimally understood.

This research conducts three experiments to investigate the influence of virtual spokesperson type on consumers' preference for new products.

The research shows that, for radically new products, competent virtual spokespersons improve consumers' perception of self-efficacy and thus consumers' preference; for incrementally new products, warm virtual spokespersons improve consumers' perception of social connection and thus consumers' willingness to buy.

This study broadens research on brand spokespersons and virtual spokespersons. This research also enriches and expands research on the consideration of new product types in brand spokespersons.

In the age of the knowledge-based economy, innovation has become a significant factor in business competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between personality and employees' individual innovative behavior in the service industry.

The object of this research is the employee in service industry in Taiwan. A total sample of 626 employees in five service industry categories was taken in Taiwan's service industry. The descriptive statistical analyses and hierarchical regression were adopted.

The results show that job satisfaction positively affects individual innovative behavior, and also has moderating effect on personality traits and innovative behavior.

Innovative behavior is not only congenital, that can be stimulated by job satisfaction.