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Introduction Consider a hi‐fi loudspeaker manufacturing company acquired on the brink of insolvency by an American multinational. The new owners discover with growing concern that the product range is obsolete, that manufacturing facilities are totally inadequate and that there is a complete absence of any real management substance or structure. They decide on the need to relocate urgently so as to provide continuity of supply at the very high — a market about to shrink at a rate unprecedented in its history.

This study aims to examine how public accounting firms can use developmental mentoring to increase knowledge sharing (KS) among employees directly and indirectly through affective organizational commitment.

This study uses a survey of public accounting professionals to elicit participants’ demographics and their perceptions of KS, mentoring relationships and organizational commitment in their workplace.

The findings support that two categories of challenges found in developmental mentoring, demonstrating dedication and resilience and career goal and risk orientation, are directly associated with increased KS and they, along with a third, measuring up to mentor’s standards, indirectly influence KS through their positive effect on organizational commitment. Applying social exchange theory, these challenges contribute to a reciprocal relationship between the protégé and mentor, which builds the relationship between the protégé and organization.

This study provides information about developmental mentoring that human resource professionals and managers in public accounting firms can use to address two persistent challenges facing them: increasing employees’ organizational commitment and encouraging employees to share their knowledge with others at work.

This study examines the concept of developmental mentoring, adopting three categories of mentoring challenges and applying them in the context of public accounting to examine their effect on KS.

The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent service delivery in the Canadian federal government actually improved after a decade of reform efforts, and how employee empowerment accounted for any improvements that arose.

Five focus group interviews were conducted in 2002 with federal government employees involved in service delivery. Interview transcripts were content analyzed. The employee empowerment and service quality literatures, including critical perspectives, provide the theoretical underpinnings of the study.

Productivity and service enhancement did materialize, but little empowerment occurred. Work intensification was revealed. The shortcomings of applying private sector‐style definitions of productivity to the public sector were identified.

Study findings have limited generalizability due to small sample size. Findings must be verified through additional research. Comparative findings from countries that introduced service reforms more comprehensively than did Canada would be of interest.

Public sector efforts to improve service delivery should address possible material barriers affecting service delivery and pay more attention to employee needs. The efficacy of quantitative performance targets should be re‐examined.

The outcomes of a public service reform initiative intended to improve service quality by allegedly empowering front‐line workers are presented from an employee perspective. As there is limited empirical research done on this topic from that perspective it should be of general interest to researchers in the fields of public policy and human resources management.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the programs of status leveling – such as through the elimination of executive washrooms, reserved parking, and so forth – are a taken‐for‐granted feature of many workplace involvement and quality improvement programs, yet no prior research has investigated the presumed effects.

This conceptual paper enumerates devices commonly used to level status in organizations, and presents a number of propositions intended to capture the major effects. The paper draws on extant literatures from social psychology, sociology, and organizational theory to account for processes and effects of leveling.

Leveling devices lead to several proximate outcomes: increased cross‐status interaction and contact, literal blurring of status, role flexibility, and low power distance perceptions. These in turn mediate the relation between leveling and several broader organizational outcomes, including distributive justice based upon equality, community, communication, and empowerment. Factors moderating the effects of leveling are explored.

While the salutary effects of leveling tend to be taken for granted, it is possible to specify how leveling generates specific behavioral, attitudinal, and performance related outcomes. The model should be empirically tested.

The findings provide managers with a fine‐grained understanding of this important set of organizational practices.

No prior scholarship has focused on this most important topic.

This chapter traces the author's journey of change research from positivism to pragmatism and how different types of “engaged scholarship” shape how we know and do change. It takes readers through the ontology, epistemology, and methodology of different types of research and how these were expressed in studies of planned change interventions, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), cynicism and its consequences, “soul work” and community building in business, organizational transformation, and the development of more socially and environmentally conscious people, purposes, and practices. The paper reflects on the author's research as it relates to regulatory versus radical change and whose interests are and might be served by change research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore intrinsic and extrinsic factors impacting the job satisfaction of casino hotel chefs, and whether chefs' background characteristics are associated with their overall and specific facets of job satisfaction.

A total of 152 surveys were analyzed using a randomly selected sample of 25 major casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada. The sample selection represented chefs working in various types of foodservice operations within the hotel segments.

Overall, the casino hotel chefs were satisfied with their jobs (M=3.9). Among intrinsic factors, the chefs were most satisfied with the “work itself” and least satisfied with “growth and recognition” they received. Among extrinsic factors, they were most satisfied with “supervision” and least satisfied with “company policy” pertaining to sick leave and paid vacation. Highest job satisfaction levels were found among chefs who worked in the fine dining kitchens and supervised between 21 and 30 employees.

Results reinforce the value of recognition at work and creation of specialized incentive programs. In order to be most effective, these programs should be tailored to chefs working in different kitchen types and with various levels of management and supervisory responsibilities.

Job satisfaction of casino hotel chefs has been minimally studied, yet they have significant roles in successful hotel operations. This study is unique in directing attention to the “back of the house leaders” – hotel chefs, in a top tier gaming and tourism city.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.