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The ability of traditional economic order quantity (EOQ) models to successfully determine optimum purchase and process batch sizes has declined in recent years. These models are simplistic in nature in that they make assumptions that are no longer valid in practice, in addition, they cannot take into account the wide variety of cost and other factors that influence inventory control decisions. Presents an alternative method for identifying economic batch quantities that uses genetic algorithms (GA) based on the underlying mathematical processes that control the reproduction of genes within biological species. Using genetic algorithms it is possible to successfully deal with complex inventory situations and there are no limits on the type and number of variables that can be used to influence the batch‐sizing decision.

Outsourcing of services has been receiving increasing attention in management literature and praxis. It is considered that greatest attention has been given to the enhanced efficiency of transaction costs through outsourcing. In contrast, this paper explores what is being outsourced, the drivers for outsourcing and the IT commodification influence on outsourcing. Particular attention is given to examining supplier‐client relationships and the consequently new emerging outsourcing arrangements and organisational forms. The benefits and costs of outsourcing and client satisfaction are discussed as well as outsourcing in the public sector. The paper highlights that a fundamental paradigm shift is underway from strictly provider/supplier relationships to an emerging array of partner based relationships comparable with the Japanese kieretsu relationship model. The paper concludes by identifying areas for further research for increasing understanding of the paradigm shift that is highlighted.

This paper, based on forty in‐depth interviews with teachers and principals in Hong Kong, utilizes the insights of feminist organization studies to explore the persistence of gender inequalities in primary school teaching. Two common practices, namely the assignment of women and men to teach lower and higher grades respectively and the monopoly of men in positions of disciplining and authority, are centered. The data suggest that schools and teachers actively construct and reproduce gender inequalities by trivializing teaching of young children as babysitting, naturalizing women as natural caregivers, and normalizing the use of threat in disciplinary control. My analysis also argues that these routine and pervasive gendering processes are not often acknowledged or challenged, which have the effects of marginalizing caring work, overlooking the emotional labor of women, valorizing a masculine view of authority, encouraging men and boys to compete for power via aggression, and hence producing a masculinist workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to review the scholarship on political skill and political will so that the authors might inspire future work that assesses these constructs individually and in tandem.

The “political skill” and “political will” concepts were introduced about 40 years ago, but they only have been measured and produced empirical results much more recently. Since that time, substantial research results have demonstrated the important roles political skill and political will play in organizational behavior. This paper provides a comprehensive review of this research, draws conclusions from this work and provides a meta-theoretical framework of political skill and political will to guide future work in this area.

Scholarship in this area has developed quite rapidly for political skill, but less so for political will. The authors hope that recent developments in a political will can set the stage for scholars to create a theoretical and empirical balance between these two related constructs.

The authors corral the vast and widespread literature on political skill and will and distill the information for scholars and practitioners alike.

The most significant change in the Dublin retail scene over the past year has been the arrival of the discount food store, with Albert Gubay, formerly of Kwik Save, as the foremost operator. Three Guys, originally set up in Auckland, New Zealand, has now arrived in Dublin and Gubay plans to open five stores in eight months.

Questions whether companies are in danger of becoming too narrow in their focus making their views too simplistic and perhaps ignoring other strategic factors which may be important. Lists arguments for a more focused simplistic strategy but then states that as organizations become more complex a wider view is required. Presents the results of a survey of 156 US chief executives suggesting that vertically integrated companies need a more complex strategy but product diversity leads to a more simplistic strategy and international scope appeared to have little effect. Concludes further research is required but initial findings suggest that a company’s structure and market may define the optimum simplicity of its strategic view.

In the present chapter, we present the case study of the only woman film director who has ever won an Academy Award for Best Director, Kathryn Bigelow. We analyzed 43 written interviews of Kathryn Bigelow that have appeared in the popular press in the period 1988–2013 and outlined eight main themes emerging regarding her exercise of leadership in the cinematic context. We utilize three theoretical frameworks: (a) paradoxical leadership theory (Lewis, Andriopoulos, & Smith, 2014; Smith & Lewis, 2012); (b) ambidextrous leadership theory (Rosing, Frese, & Bausch, 2011), and (c) role congruity theory (Eagley & Karau, 2002) and show how Bigelow, as a woman artist/leader working in a complex organizational system that emphasizes radical innovation, exercised paradoxical and ambidextrous leadership and challenged existing conventions about genre, gender, and leadership. The case study implications for teaching and practice are discussed.