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Examines the reward structures used by private-sector firms in different locations.

Analyzes the prevailing incentive pay practice configurations in 14 countries over four continents. Investigates the extent to which local factors constrain firms’ use of personal and team bonuses or profit-sharing.

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do” – an old saying but still relevant for the growing number of firms operating in several countries. A well-thought-out incentive scheme encourages employees to think and act in ways that support company objectives. But people in different places can have different ideas about what is fair and appropriate. Human resource professionals have to decide whether to follow the local norms or to introduce the firm’s established practices – and an informed decision can make the difference between having a motivated workforce or making an expensive mistake.

Observes that organizations in some countries show a strong preference for a particular bundle of incentive options. Warns that introducing a different approach may prove counter-productive unless combined with a careful process of change management.

Highlights the importance of institutional context and social norms in determining the incentive pay configurations adopted in different countries.

Provides an international guide to prevailing patterns of incentive payment adoption. Shows that external constraints specific to individual countries can have a significant impact on the flexibility of incentive system design.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of employer branding on company attractiveness to younger workers.

The paper analyzes the relative importance attached to symbolic and functional company attributes using a survey conducted at a large North American university. It considers the impact of differing levels of work experience on responses to employer branding.

The best employers get nearly twice as many job applications compared with other organizations. So when they are recruiting, they can pick and choose from a bigger talent pool and select the very best applicants. The “baby boomer” generation is retiring from the workforce, and later generations are smaller in size. The result of these demographic factors has been to increase fears of labor shortages. Competition for a shrinking talent pool of younger workers means that employers need to focus on the things that make their company attractive to potential applicants.

The study suggests ways in which human resources professionals can maximize the effectiveness of employer branding as a means of attracting job applications from young workers.

It notes that symbolic attributes are more strongly predictive of company attractiveness than functional attributes and that this effect becomes more marked with work experience.

This paper aims to show how marketing concepts can be applied in a human resource context.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of introducing an involuntary wellness program (IWP) on employee attitudes and willingness to participate.

The paper analyzes responses to a survey of office workers employed by a US education and media company when the existing wellness program was replaced by a new IWP.

It’s estimated that two out of three Americans are now overweight – and that’s bad for business. Having a fit and healthy workforce not only benefits the individual, it also means less time off sick, lower costs and better organizational performance. Firms that encourage a “wellness culture” are showing that they care about their employees – and can expect a payoff in terms of morale, motivation and productivity. What’s harder to predict is whether wellness can be made compulsory – and if compulsory, whether it still delivers a “win-win” result.

The study indicates aspects that may require particular care when introducing an IWP to ensure that employees appreciate the health benefits of this approach rather than joining the program for purely economic reasons.

It provides an insight into the effects of expanding health insurance plan wellness incentives under the US Affordable Care Act of 2010.

This paper aims to raise the question of whether individuals can be incentivized to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the factors affecting the success of succession planning in family businesses.

The study reports on a panel discussion in which the former chairman of the William Jackson Food Group describes the processes put in place to manage succession at this family firm and his own experience of handing over to his successor.

Once upon a time, saying that you were going into the family business marked the end of any career discussion. Now it’s just the beginning – interest in family firms has never been greater. Succession planning is a subject guaranteed to generate questions – everyone wants to know how to get it right. Fortunately, it’s an area where some are happy to share their experience.

The paper highlights the need for more longitudinal research on family firms.

This paper provides a practical guide to structures and processes that can facilitate succession planning in family firms.

It draws attention to the emotional and psychological impact of succession on the retiring individual and the need to create life structures to replace former business involvement.

This paper aims to present a frank discussion of the approach to succession planning taken by one family business and the broader research questions that it raises.

To examine the impact of employing temporary contract workers (“temps”) alongside permanent employees on the social capital of the organization.

Uses discourse analysis to analyze data from semi-structured interviews with both temporary workers and permanent employees in a range of occupations at seven companies in different industries in Finland.

Agency workers, temporary workers or just “temps” – call them what you like, but reliance on individuals employed on a short-term contract basis appears to be here to stay. Since the 1990s, the use of temps has doubled across Europe and is still rising. The argument is that this provides the employer with a cheaper, more flexible workforce. But asking temporary and permanent employees to work together has a significant impact on the social fabric of the organization.

Suggests that human resource managers review contracts with agencies providing temporary workers. Notes that practices that leave temps feeling like “second-class citizens” can damage the social fabric of the workgroup and undermine team effectiveness.

Highlights potentially harmful effects on social capital and organizational performance resulting from an unequal treatment of temps and permanent employees doing the same job within a workgroup.

A qualitative study focusing on the feelings and emotions evoked by the growing use of temporary contract workers from the viewpoint of both the temps and the permanent employees they work with.

In previous efforts I have indicated that Social Catholicism, qua Roman‐Catholic Social Economycs or Économie politique chrétienne, is now at the one and a half century mark, given its formal introduction with the publication of Charles de Coux's Essais d' économie politique at Paris/Lyon in 1832. This was soon to be followed by Alban de Villeneuve‐Bargemont's Christian Political Economy, or Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of Poverty in France and Europe, etc, (1837), the subsequent founding of the Société d'Economie Sociale in 1856 and publication — inter alia — of La réforme sociale (1864) and Exposition of Social Economics (1867) by P. G. Frédéric Le Play; and, contemporarily, by the separate but related efforts of a host of other “thinkers and doers” to both the left or more radical (“Catholic/Christian‐Socialist”) and the right or “individualist” (cum Christianised individuals!) of Le Play's more centrist‐traditional (and, hence, “reactionary”) position. All this was well prior to the promulgation of the first great social encyclical, Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum (RN), in 1891.

In previous efforts the author has examined the various “men” of economics or human‐nature assumptions of “economic thinkers” as a way of treating the history and philosophy of the discipline. Here, under the thematic penumbra of “Man as the Centre of the Social Economy”, and hoping to incorporate the fruits of further inquiry into the matter, those “creatures” and their fashioners are critically reconsidered with a view towards arriving at a more adequate conception of a truly human “economiser” and – accordingly – science of human economy. In Part II, having presented homo oeconomicus in both his/her “impudent” and “honourable” versions, we shall attempt to transcend homo socioeconomicus and even our own (former) homo oeconomicus humanus as well.

This is the title of an article by Sheila Rothwell in Vol. 91 No. 1 of the European Business Review. The developments in working trends, problems, legislation, and research in the context of equal opportunities in employment in the 1980s are examined. Attempted policy changes are detailed in the following areas: education, training, employment, trade unions, and social policy. There is discussion of three themes which have been the subject of debate: conforming to the male career model; obtaining greater recognition for “female” qualities, skills and attributes; and emphasis on a common humanity and maximising choices for both women and men. The likelihood of the success of each is discussed, and the third approach is supported. The implications for management development specialists are examined.

WITH this issue we are commencing the twenty‐seventh year of our career as an independent Library Journal and trust that we shall carry on the tradition of our illustrious founder and continue to criticise or praise without fear or favour. During the past twelve months our editorial staff has successfully produced special numbers dealing with Bookbinding, Book Selection, Children's Departments, Classification, and Colonial Libraries. Judging by the correspondence we have received, our efforts have been greatly appreciated by the majority of our readers. Naturally we have not pleased everybody and we have even been dubbed the “little contemporary” in some quarters. However, we can point to an unbroken record of twenty‐six years' endeavour to serve the library profession and we ourselves are justly proud of the contemptible “little contemporary” that did not cease to appear even during the darkest hours of the dread war period.

TECHNICAL Education, after looming before the British public for half a century, is now with us a recognised factor in our national life. The passing of the Technical Instruction Acts of and 1891, and the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act of gave an impetus to the movement, and has produced results of a most gratifying character. Technical schools, or institutions bearing other names in which technical instruction is given, are now considerably more numerous than Public Libraries. According to a return of the National Society for promotion of Technical Education in England (excluding London), 319 technical schools, under municipal and public bodies, have been erected at a cost of £3,186,102—an average of £10,000 per school in round numbers—and of this sum, one quarter of a million has been involved since 1901. In order to obtain an adequate idea of the extent to which technical instruction is given, it is necessary to take into account the higher grade schools and other institutions which are used for this purpose. But if technical schools be numerically stronger than Public Libraries, the former institution is incomplete without the latter. In such isolation, its relative position to the student, is like a conservatory without a garden to the botanist. A Public Library, with carefully selected books of reference, bearing on the subjects taught in the technical school as well as on all the industries carried on in the neighbourhood, is an indispensable condition to the success of the technical school, and I hope County Councils will, in the near future, use their influence to promote the establishment of Public Libraries in every locality where a technical school is considered essential.