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A striking feature of Jaques' work is his “no nonsense” attitude to the “manager‐subordinate” relationship. His blunt account of the origins of this relationship seems at first sight to place him in the legalistic “principles of management” camp rather than in the ranks of the subtler “people centred” schools. We shall see before long how misleading such first impressions can be, for Jaques is not making simplistic assumptions about the human psyche. But he certainly sees no point in agonising over the mechanism of association which brings organisations and work‐groups into being when the facts of life are perfectly straightforward and there is no need to be squeamish about them.

Reports the results of an interview and field survey study on management issues in 25 Sino‐foreign joint‐venture companies. Joint ventures are shown to have three special characteristics: transformation, system and management. Compatibility issues, in terms of values, motives, leadership styles, are cultural, social and structural. Proposes three managerial psychology strategies to improve management of joint ventures further. Suggests some useful predictors and criteria for the assessment and evaluation of joint‐venture effectiveness.

Introduction What do the following people each have in common:

Middle level managers, a typical feature of large hierarchical organisations, are a critical resource for ensuring performance and growth. Few studies, however, have specifically examined the nature of middle managerial roles, their causes and consequences for organisational performance and change. This research is based on in‐depth case studies of four Indian manufacturing companies. The study examines the nature of middle managerial roles in these organisations and their impact on current performance and change. It also discusses factors which have led to the evolution of these middle managerial roles. The study concludes with suggestions for improving utilisation of middle management potential in such organisations.

The notions of procedural justice and factor analysis have been applied to the identification of the key criteria for fair managerial selection. The subjects were 87 personnel professionals in New Zealand. A second study used a videotaped interview design and showed that two job‐relevant criteria (work experience and academic qualification) identified in the first study as determinants of fair selection, were not utilised consistently by manager interviewers in their selection decision making.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how managerial trustworthiness and social exchange with the organization integrate with perceived organizational support to relate to supervisor‐rated job performance and self‐report organizational commitment.

A sample of 119 full‐time employees from a variety of occupations at a single organization completed surveys. Their supervisor rated job performance.

This paper finds that managerial trustworthiness was positively related to job performance and organizational commitment via POS and social exchange with the organization; and that POS was related to organizational commitment through social exchange with the organization.

Limitations include cross‐sectional data from a single organization. Strengths include non self‐report ratings of job performance. Future research should consider experimental and longitudinal designs to capture causality.

Organizations may improve job performance and organizational commitment by increasing the trustworthiness of the manager, which might lead to increases in perceived support and social exchange. Trustworthiness can be increased by incorporating policies to encourage the integrity of managers, increasing managers' ability via training, and fostering a climate of benevolence.

This study is the first to examine the trustworthiness of the manager, a central figure to employees, at the same time as support and social exchange in the employee‐organization relationship.

The present study consists of managers and professionals in 26 countries including seven from Central and Eastern Europe. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether culture dimensions predict country differences in the relationship between gender and organizational commitment. The study integrated theories of social learning, role adjustment and exchange that link commitment to organizational roles to explain such differences in gender effects. Findings indicate that an alternative modernities perspective on theories of gender and commitment is better warranted than is a traditional modernities perspective.

This study examined the relationship between gender and organizational commitment using primary data collected in 26 counties. The cross-level moderating effects of individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, power distance and restraint vs indulgence was examined using hierarchical linear modeling.

Organizational commitment is found to be higher among men than women in four countries (Australia, China, Hungary, Jamaica) and higher among women than men in two countries (Bulgaria and Romania). Results shows that large power distance, uncertainty avoidance, femininity (social goal emphasis) and restraint (vs indulgence) predict an association between being female and commitment. These all suggest limitations to the traditional modernity-based understanding of gender and the workplace.

This study is unique based on the three theories it integrates and because it tests the proposed hypothesis using a multi-level nested research design. Moreover, the results suggest a tension between an alternative modernities perspective on top-down governmental effects on commitment through exchange and bottom-up personal effects on commitment through social learning with role adjustment in an intermediate position.

Adaptors and innovators exhibit distinct approaches to problem solving and derision making: a finding which has far‐reaching implications for managerial psychologists who intervene in business and other organisations.

In language that the practising manager can use, findings from several years of important research on managerial decision making are summarised. Four major traps of faulty decision making are identified and managers are shown how to avoid these traps and to improve their decision‐making skills.

Unlike general codes of conduct, little is known about whether peer reporting policies achieve their intended purpose – that is, to increase the base rate of peer reporting counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). The purpose of this paper is to use a person-situation perspective to examine if and when peer reporting policies impact the base rate of peer reporting CWBs.

The authors collected data from 271 employed participants and used moderated regression to examine whether policy presence and strength (situational variables) enhanced the relationship between a subjective obligation to report CWBs (person variable) and the base rate of peer reporting CWBs. This study also explored whether these interactions differ by CWB target (i.e. the organization vs coworkers).

Both situational variables – policy presence and policy strength – moderated the relationship between an obligation to report CWBs and the base rate of peer reporting CWBs. The interactions also differed by CWB target.

This study represents one of the initial academic investigations into the effectiveness of peer reporting policies. It primarily draws on the person-situation perspective to explain why peer reporting policies should influence the base rate of peer reporting CWBs. The results support the impact of peer reporting policies, but also suggest the benefit of examining different targets of CWB to help clarify when peer reporting policies are actually effective.