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In response to external conditions, organizations yearn to gain a competitive edge during unremitting change. Recognizing the importance of managing change, researchers have aggressively investigated organizational change at the macro level. This research, however, argues that an employee's ability to cope with change is a function of both micro (individual) and macro (contextual) factors.

The survey data were collected at an organization that was undergoing a significant internal change. Correlational and structural equation modeling techniques were used for data analysis.

The results suggest that individual differences (intolerance for ambiguity) and contextual factors (LMX, TMX receipts and TMX contributions) are important factors for understanding the ability to manage organizational change effectively. Additionally, it is argued that contextual factors not only have direct effects on coping with change but indirect effects through perceptions of work group effectiveness. Our results indicate that both micro and macro factors are important for understanding the ability to cope with and manage change.

The research leaves open some interesting questions around the role of contextual factors in coping with change, in addition to the interaction with individual differences.

Most sources discuss change as focused at the organizational level. Managers will be well served to understand that the degree to which employees cope effectively with change will be partly determined by the interaction of individual differences and the organizational and team level context.

This research extends our understanding of the relationship between social exchange relationships and how individuals cope with change in organizations and the mechanism by which that occurs.

This study examines how managers' human capital, time spent with employees and employees' human capital can influence employees' career advancement. While research tends to find a positive relationship between human capital and career advancement, less attention is paid the effect of managers' human capital on employee careers. A combination of human capital and social capital theories is used to develop hypotheses.

A five-year sample of American football players selected in the National Football League (NFL) draft is used to test the hypotheses. Archival data for human capital, social capital and career success measures are used, and OLS regression analyses test the hypotheses.

The authors find employees with higher levels of human capital experience greater career advancement. Managers' human capital moderates this relationship and the length of time worked together by the employee–manager dyad. The relationship between employees' human capital and career advancement is strengthened when managers have high levels of human capital.

The results of this study indicate that individuals with higher levels of human capital and social capital have greater career success. When individuals have higher levels of human capital it is important for them to determine how long they should work for a particular manager before advancing in their careers. Individuals with higher levels of human capital may need lees time working for a manager than those with lower levels of human capital before advancing in their careers.

This study contributes to careers and human resource management research by examining the moderating impact that manager human capital and time employees spend with a manager have on the relationship between employee human capital and employee career advancement.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of repatriate support practices in organizations within the context of the current literature in this field of study.

A total of 42 firms employing 3,234 expatriates were surveyed regarding human resource practices that support repatriation. Analysis focused on support practices as predictors of voluntary and involuntary turnover.

Results indicate that the majority of firms surveyed used two or fewer repatriate support practices. While 60 percent of firms offered logistical assistance, such as relocation services, less than 70 percent offered career and training support for repatriates. The most common cause of involuntary turnover is the lack of job openings in the home organization upon reentry, while the most common cause of voluntary turnover is the organization's poor utilization of the expatriate's skills acquired on the overseas assignment. Organizations with more support practices reported a lower average repatriate turnover compared to organizations with fewer support practices.

While previous literature suggests that repatriate support practices are critical, this research finds that few organizations are providing sufficient support to mitigate turnover.

In contrast to much of the research on repatriation that relies on individual perceptions, this paper utilizes organization level survey data provided by 42 firms that document their repatriate support practices.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the sixth international conference on occupational stress and health.

In March 2006, the sixth international conference on occupational stress and health was held jointly by the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Miami. The conference title was “Work, Stress, and Health 2006: Making a Difference in the Workplace” . Papers presented at the conference provided important insight on the growing body of diversity literature.

Specifically, researchers found that diversity plays a significant role in understanding the effects of occupational stress. Stress may be preceived differently, dealth with differently and may have different outcomes for minorities than with male Caucasians.

The session on Interpersonal violence suggested that researchers should consider the employment status and occupational level of victims. Furthermore, new research is trying to estimate the actual financial cost to organizations.

Overall, the conference was successful and provided future directions for research on diversity and occupational stress.

The purpose of this study is to explore post-acquisition compensation management and examine how the two most commonly used theories to explain CEO stock option exercise, agency theory and CEO overconfidence, expect CEOs to manage their stock options following an acquisition.

Using logistic regression analysis, the authors investigate whether CEOs are more or less likely to exercise options following an acquisition, and the effect which CEO tenure and acquisition history may have on option exercise.

The results suggest that CEOs are more likely to exercise options following an acquisition. The authors also find that CEO tenure and acquisition experience are both linked to an increase in option exercise.

The findings suggest that future research should expect agency effects to outweigh overconfidence effects when considering CEO stock option exercise behavior within the post-acquisition firm context.

This paper advises directors and shareholders about whether agency concerns or overconfidence are of greater concern and how CEO tenure and past acquisition history may influence post-acquisition CEO stock option exercise behavior, offering information valuable in designing effective corporate governance.

This paper is among the first to explore how CEOs manage their options following an acquisition and finds that CEOs are more likely to exercise stock options following an acquisition. Post-acquisition compensation management is an important, though overlooked, consideration in improving acquisition performance.

Library of Congress update The Urgent Supplemental Appropriations Bill for FY 1986 signed into law in July by Ronald Reagan contained an appropriation of $867 000 for the Library of Congress. This means that the general reading room is able to restore evening and weekend hours. The ten “Books Not Bombs” people who first protested the closure spent several weeks in July in a courtroom trial, where testimony was given by the Librarian of Congress and other officials. Since the “freedom readers”; as they are called in a newspaper article, face jail and/or a fine, perhaps appreciative scholars and researchers should start a fund to help defray the costs of their protest.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether individual demographic and socio-cultural factors affect actions taken by consumers in relation to ethical violations and failure (or perceived ethical violations and failure) by service operations firms.

Data collection was undertaken over a two-year period, from 2011 to 2013, and involved sampling 3,155 respondents from 19 countries. Data analysis was undertaken utilizing hierarchical linear modelling (HLM).

Findings suggest that although both individual demographic factors (age and gender) and societal differences do affect ethical actions taken by service consumers, inter-societal cluster variations have a more significant effect on the ethical action than individual demographic differences do.

For service operations firms, the study findings offer evidence on the need for constant readjustment of service attributes in line with the ethical dispositions of the different demographic and socio-cultural clusters within the consumer base.

This paper aims to provide a critical assessment of the Internet of things (IoT) and the social and policy issues raised by its development. While the Internet will continue to become ever more central to everyday life and work, there is a new but complementary vision for an IoT, which will connect billions of objects – “things” like sensors, monitors, and radio-frequency identification devices – to the Internet at a scale that far outstrips use of the Internet as we know it, and will have enormous social and economic implications.

It is based on a review of literature and emerging developments, including synthesis of a workshop and discussions within a special interest group on the IoT.

Nations can harvest the potential of this wave of innovation not only for manufacturing but also for everyday life and work and the development of new information and services that will change the way we do things in many walks of life. However, its success is not inevitable. Technical visions will not lead inexorably to successful public and private infrastructures that support the vitality of an IoT and the quality of everyday life and work. In fact, the IoT could undermine such core values as privacy, equality, trust and individual choice if not designed, implemented and governed in appropriate ways.

There is a need for more multi-disciplinary research on the IoT.

Policymakers and opinion formers need to understand the IoT and its implications.

If the right policies and business models are developed, the IoT will stimulate major social, economic and service innovations in the next years and decades.

This paper pulls together discussions and literature from a social science perspective, as one means to enable more multidisciplinary studies of emerging developments.

MR. ALBERT HILL has been fitter, shop steward, foreman and works manager. He is now managing director of the Yorkshire engineering group which proposes to negotiate a ‘job for life’ agreement with its workers. In a recent address to the Institution of Works Managers he commented on the views of an American consultant which we quoted on this page last month.