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Investigates the extent to which it is possible to fake a personality questionnaire to match the ideal candidate’s profile. Previous research suggests that responses to personality measures can be faked with relative ease. It was anticipated that the amount of information available to the candidate might make faking‐to‐profile easier. Therefore this study manipulated the information available to participants through three experimental conditions: job title, job description and person specification. The results show that the participants can selectively manipulate their responses on scales, rather than inflating all scales. There was not, however, any effect of information manipulation. All groups, regardless of which information was given, produced similar profiles suggesting all three groups were faking to the same stereotype. Participants were unable to fake their responses to match the ideal profile for the job. Suggests that this is encouraging news for people using personality questionnaires as part of their selection process.

Belbin’s Team‐Role Theory is extensively used as a counselling and team development tool by organisations and management consultancies in the UK. However, there is little empirical support for his work, largely because there has been scant research. This study sought to redress this situation by testing Belbin’s proposal that teams in which a wide range of team‐roles are represented perform better than those where there is an imbalance of roles because certain roles are over‐represented. The task performance of six teams of four individuals identified as shapers by the Team‐Role Self‐Perception Inventory (Belbin, 1981), was compared with that of six mixed teams of four individuals; one co‐ordinator, one plant, one completer finisher, and one team worker. It was found that consistent with Belbin’s proposal the “mixed” teams performed better than teams consisting of shapers alone. Some possible explanations and implications of the findings are discussed.

Reports on a study conducted to examine the factor structure of the occupational personality questionnaire (OPQ) on two independent samples of 1,000 participants (2,000 for the study in total) drawn from the general population of Great Britain. The results suggest that there may be too many dimensions in the 31‐scale concept model and too few in the 14‐scale factor model. An alternative 21‐factor solution seems to be more satisfactory, both in psychometric terms and by providing personality test users with a sufficient number of scales. This means that the OPQ could be more sensitive in discriminating real differences in personality traits between individuals than is currently the case. If the 21‐factor model were adopted, the OPQ would be a more sensitive tool for use in personnel selection, development and counselling. However, the use of personality tests in selection still remains controversial.

The purpose of this paper is to understand what motivates consumers, in particular consumers of local food products or locavores, to purchase in local retail channels vs traditional supermarkets. Using the Theory of Reasoned Action, and reviewing the literature on traceability, social relationships, involvement, values, motivation, and distribution channels, the authors propose a model explaining the antecedents and consequences of local food consumption for both locavores and traditional supermarket consumers.

Face to face interviews were conducted in supermarket and farmers market contexts in a mid-sized city in France. A structural equation modelling was used to explain the relationship between the examined variables.

The results suggest that consumers in traditional food distribution channels are not very involved with local food products. Alternatively, this research shows that for locavores, traceability and social links are positively related to involvement with local food products, which lowers price perceptions and positively influences utilitarian shopping value.

The research provides a first empirical and academic perspective on local food consumption within different food retail channels in Europe. Much of the recent results on locavores and their behaviours have been conducted in North America and/or have remained rather conceptual.

Coordination between military and civilian agencies has previously been found to be a significant issue that affects the efficiency of multi‐agency system responses to large‐scale emergencies. The purpose of this article is to present the findings derived from a case study focussing on the problems that abound when the military attempts to work with civilian organisations.

An integrated framework of human factors methods was used to analyse a Military Aid to the Civilian Authorities training exercise, involving the army and seven other responding agencies.

A range of factors that hinder coordination between agencies during multi‐agency emergency responses were identified. Potential solutions for removing these barriers and augmenting coordination levels are proposed.

This research suggests that much further work is required in training and designing multi‐agency response systems and procedures in order to optimise coordination between responding agencies.

This article presents the first attempt to apply structured, theoretically underpinned human factors methods, to understand the problems that abound when the military works with civilian agencies during large‐scale emergency responses.

In recent years, practitioners have identified a number of problems with traditional performance management (PM) systems, arguing that PM is broken and needs to be fixed. In this chapter, we review criticisms of traditional PM practices that have been mentioned by journalists and practitioners and we consider the solutions that they have presented for addressing these concerns. We then consider these problems and solutions within the context of extant scholarly research and identify (a) what organizations should do going forward to improve PM practices (i.e., focus on feedback processes, ensure accountability throughout the PM system, and align the PM system with organizational strategy) and (b) what scholars should focus research attention on (i.e., technology, strategic alignment, and peer-to-peer accountability) in order to reduce the science-practice gap in this domain.

IN order to be able to discriminate with certainty between butter and such margarine as is sold in England, it is necessary to carry out two or three elaborate and delicate chemical processes. But there has always been a craving by the public for some simple method of determining the genuineness of butter by means of which the necessary trouble could be dispensed with. It has been suggested that such easy detection would be possible if all margarine bought and sold in England were to be manufactured with some distinctive colouring added—light‐blue, for instance—or were to contain a small amount of phenolphthalein, so that the addition of a drop of a solution of caustic potash to a suspected sample would cause it to become pink if it were margarine, while nothing would occur if it were genuine butter. These methods, which have been put forward seriously, will be found on consideration to be unnecessary, and, indeed, absurd.