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Despite apparent consensus about the importance of leader rhetoric, the topic has not received systematic attention from leadership scholars. The purpose of this article is to advance the study of the relationship between rhetorical behavior and charismatic leadership in three ways: first, by presenting theoretically derived propositions about the expected contents of charismatic leaders’ speeches; second, by offering a thematic content analysis of a representative speech by a charismatic orator, in order to demonstrate the content themes suggested by the propositions; and third, by specifying the requirements for more systematic studies of the relationship between speech content and charisma.

In this study, the concept of career, which is one of the most significant functions of human resources, is examined. Toward the end of the twentieth century, restricted models, in which individuals work in a workplace in a classical manner, have been replaced by more flexible models. Due to certain reasons such as changing environmental conditions, increasing education levels, and the impact of employee’s values on his/her work life, individuals’ work life have been dramatically changed. Therefore, some career approaches oriented for these changing conditions and current requirements have been proposed by both academicians and professionals. These approaches mostly include removing workplace limits, offering the opportunity to work from anywhere, using various skills at different departments without any limitations. Basing on the aforementioned changes in theory and practice, this study investigates up-to-date career approaches in a holistic manner. In this context, the background and practicability of these theoretically framed approaches are also discussed in the present study

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on a broad body of work that responds to the boundaryless career concept, first introduced in 1993, and to anticipate new theory-building and research.

Covers the origination of the concept, its meaning and definition, the underlying influence of an earlier group of careers scholars from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the importance of an interdisciplinary perspective.

Identifies three categories of activity – involving internal debates, fresh theoretical contributions, and new collaborative opportunities – that have occurred citing boundaryless career scholarship.

Suggests how scholars can build on the legacy of both organizational and boundaryless careers research in their future work.

Links between foundational MIT work on careers, boundaryless careers and current debates to suggests future research directions.

The empirical literature on charismatic or transformational leadership demonstrates that such leadership has profound effects on followers. However, while several versions of charismatic leadership theory predict such effects, none of them explains the process by which these effects are achieved. In this paper we seek to advance leadership theory by addressing this fundamental problem. We offer a self-concept based motivational theory to explain the process by which charismatic leader behaviors cause profound transformational effects on followers. The theory presents the argument that charismatic leadership has its effects by strongly engaging followers’ self-concepts in the interest of the mission articulated by the leader. We derive from this theory testable propositions about (a) the behavior of charismatic leaders and their effects on followers, (b) the role of followers’ values and orientations in the charismatic relationship, and (c) some of the organizational conditions that favor the emergence and effectiveness of charismatic leaders.

This paper reviews and compares six theoretical explanations of the effects of charismatic leaders on their followers. Of the six explanations two are based on psychoanalytic theory, two on attribution theory, one on a sociological theory of symbolic centers, and one on the social psychology of the self-concept. The review exposes differences among the explanations in their motivational assumptions, their predictions regarding leader behaviors and effects on followers, and the mediating mechanisms they posit between leader behaviors and effects on followers. The most critical differences are highlighted and suggested as foci of future research on charismatic leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate career change intention and its predictors among career change seekers interested in a career opportunity in the information technology (IT) industry.

Ajzen's theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used to predict career change intention in this group. In addition, we examined the role of professional identity in predicting career change intention. Data were collected in a sample of 225 aspiring IT professionals from four European countries: Austria, Greece, Italy and The Netherlands.

The findings showed that among four variables assumed to predict career change intention, only professional identity appeared to be a significant predictor.

The study is limited by the use of career change seekers registered in one web‐based recruiting system.

The paper suggests a higher importance of professional identity in prediction of career change intention compared to other factors that constitute Ajzen's theory of planned behavior.

This paper aims to study careers across cultures, distinguishing among international career, cross‐cultural and globalization perspectives.

The conceptual development is based on a review of four empirical papers in this special issue with a focus on “Careers in cross‐cultural perspective” and other recent research in this area.

Work on international careers has traditionally looked at careers that cross national boundaries, such as those involving expatriate career assignments or self‐initiated international careers. Research into cross‐cultural careers reflects the primary work of this special issue's articles, primarily by looking at differences between two or more cultures. Career research into globalization is more recent and more tentative. It covers how careers interact with the economic, political, social and environmental changes commonly associated with the term globalization.

The proposed framework is a reflection of current theoretical and empirical debates.

The framework offers new guidance for both interpreting existing and developing new research.

This study aims at providing exploratory insights into the initiative and capabilities of Chinese SMEs to develop and utilize diverse networks to support internationalization. Such network development and utilization efforts are fundamental to the analysis and explanation of Chinese firms’ internationalization patterns and outcomes. Extending from the existing network studies in the Chinese context that generally put emphasis on strong‐tie and ethnic‐oriented networks, this paper investigates and explains explicitly the use and effects of both strong‐ and weak‐tie networks in the international development of Chinese SMEs. Indepth case studies on four rapidly internationalized Chinese SMEs are conducted. The case findings demonstrate that weak‐tie networks are essential to the firms’ business development in foreign markets; and were proactively developed and utilized in the course of the firms’ development. The cases also provide alternative perspectives to the beliefs and values underpinning strong‐tie networks presumed in existing literature. The findings draw attention to the changing business values and approaches of the Chinese firms aiming at developing internationally. Managerial implications concerning the significant influence of effective networking on internationalization are pinpointed.