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Transitions – including mergers, acquisitions, downsizings, and restructurings – are used by organizational leaders to accelerate the achievement of strategic objectives. However, the manner in which most transitions are implemented runs counter to research findings on the process of effective change management and, in particular, disregards the natural process of human adaptation. As a result, mismanaged transitions tend to have negative consequences for organizations and their members. Ironically, the characteristic of transitions that prompts individual and organizational strife – the capacity to disrupt the status quo – also enables an opportunity for individual and organizational renewal. For that to occur, however, members must make progress through the natural process of adaptation. This paper aims to propose a framework for facilitating adaptation to organizational transition, to both overcome the undesirable consequences of transitions and to accelerate achievement of the transition's strategic objectives.

This is a conceptual paper based on a review of the literatures on adaptation and transition and the author's own experience as a researcher or consultant in over 100 major organizational transitions.

The framework presented here should contribute to both the practice of organizational change management and empirical studies of interventions to facilitate individual adaptation to major organizational transitions.

The framework introduced in this paper should have a direct and substantial impact on transition management, employee well being and organizational effectiveness. It should minimize the negative consequences of transitions and accelerate the process of adaptation to organizational transition.

Mergers and acquisitions occur frequently in organizations, but rarely achieve their desired financial and strategic objectives. Personal experience gained in more than 50 corporate combinations shows that many factors account for the dismal track record of mergers and acquisitions, including underestimating the multitude of integration issues and problems that arise as organizations come together and the pervasiveness and depth of human and cultural issues triggered in a combination. These dynamics have been found in combinations involving organizations of all sizes, in all industry sectors and across international boundaries. Reviews the human, organizational and cultural dynamics affecting mergers and acquisitions, and reports recent trends influencing interventions to enhance merger and acquisition success. Describes consulting approaches and methods required to minimize employee stress, management crisis and culture clash and to enhance the desired financial and strategic results of mergers and acquisitions.

Mergers and acquisitions are something that everyone who's been in the business world for more than a few years is extremely, if not intimately, familiar with. But can anyone synthesize all the knowledge that's out there and figure out the right ways to do handle a merger, or tell you when forming an alliance or even walking away might be the best path?

The purpose of this paper is first, to overview the current research situation on job embeddedness (JE), including the theoretical underpinning of JE, the definition and dimensions of JE, its comparisons with similar constructs, and its global and composite measure; second, to intergrate the unfolding model, JE and image theory to better understand voluntary turnover – and indicate future research directions.

An extensive literature search covering several separate electronic databases, including ScienceDirect, EBSCO, Kluwer and Emerald, was conducted. Most of the articles can be acquired online from The University of California Riverside. The validity and reliability are compared between global and composite scales. The authors summarized and categorized the findings of current research.

JE can be differentiated from those similar constructs and measures already in the literature. Almost all of the studies on JE have found that it predicted voluntary turnover better than job attitudes and perceived ease of movement from traditional models of turnover. Along with extended research on it, JE was disaggregated into two major sub‐dimensions, namely, on‐the‐job and off‐the‐job embeddedness, and it has been extended to occupational and career level.

In this paper, the authors use qualitative methods to evaluate the current studies on JE, only. Meta‐analysis, as a reviewing method, should be used in future research on clarifying the relationships between JE and other constructs in organizational behavior.

This research reviews almost all of the studies on JE from 2001 to 2009 and organizes and categorizes them into three kinds: cause, consequence and theoretical extension. The authors also summarize its relationships with other constructs (e.g. turnover, turnover intention, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior) in various settings. Finally, based on discussion, the authors indicate future research directions.

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of cooperative and competitive personalities on tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) by exploring the mediating role of organizational identification (OI) and the moderating role of perceived organizational support (POS) among Chinese employees.

Conducting a network survey of ordinary employees from Chinese listed companies (2019) as the research objects, the authors collect 298 valid samples for research. The authors apply confirmatory factor analysis to test the reliability and validity of the constructs, structural equation modeling to verify the direct effect and the PROCESS macro to test the mediating and moderating effects.

The results show that there is a positive relationship between cooperative personality (COP) and TKS, and there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between competitive personality (CMP) and TKS. OI plays a mediating role between COP and TKS, while POS plays a negative moderating role between COP and TKS.

This paper only takes Chinese employees as the research sample, and future research can make a cross-cultural comparison between the impacts of cooperative and competitive personalities on employees’ behaviors.

The results of this study suggest that enterprises should actively cultivate the COP of employees, and managers should refrain from intervening in the behaviors of employees with COP. At the same time, for employees with CMP, managers should guide them to control their competitive tendency at a reasonable level. The conclusions of this paper also suggest that managers should pay attention to the cultivation of employees’ OI.

This study plugs the gap in research on the impacts of cooperative and competitive personalities on TKS. It makes a contribution to the research development of COP and CMP and their influence mechanisms on employees’ behaviors. In addition, the negative moderating effect of POS on COP–TKS link verifies the correctness of Y theory. Studying the relationships among personality traits (cooperative and competitive personalities), cognition (OI) and behaviors (TKS), this paper makes a contribution to such a research stream.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of marketing practice in Britain from the ancient to the early twentieth century. It builds upon the author’s chapter in the 2016 Routledge Companion to the History of Marketing.

This paper is based on a review of secondary history and archaeology literature supplemented by digitised historic newspaper and magazine advertising. The literature is frameworked using a modified version of Fullerton’s 1988 periodization which has been extended to include the medieval and Roman eras.

One of the significant findings of this paper is the key role the state has played in the development of marketing practice in Britain, the construction of pavements being a good example.

Apart from Nevett’s 1982 history of British advertising and the author’s Routledge Companion to the History of Marketing chapter, this is the first survey of the historical development of British marketing practice. It assembles and presents in a useful way important information. This paper will be of interest to marketing historians, especially students and researchers new to the subject.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

The introduction of roller‐milling rendered it possible to utilise any variety of wheat, since the grain in this process is not subjected to severe attrition, and pulverisation of the bran is avoided as far as possible. In roller‐milling the wheat grain is reduced to flour in gradual stages (gradual reduction process), during which the offal is continually removed by sifting and by the use of air currents. In this way a more complete removal of branny and other undesired particles can be effected, and a greater yield of highly refined flour can be obtained than in stone‐milling.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.