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This study aims to explore behavioural differences between women and men in managerial positions and suggest explanations for differences and similarities.

In order to eliminate any effects of organizational differences on leadership behaviour, this study had public managers responding to questionnaires that measured their leadership style, decision‐making style, and motivation profile.

Statistical analyses of data from three groups of Swedish public managers (n=385) revealed virtually no significant differences in behaviour between female and male managers. Regardless of whether there is a female or male majority of employees or a female or male majority of managers, no effect on leadership behaviour occurs.

A number of studies indicate that managers' behaviour is different in different types of organizations. This study suggests, therefore, that, independent of gender, organizational and demographic characteristics modify leadership behaviours, thus explaining similarities in leadership behaviour.

The purpose of this paper was to assess the economic impact of investment in different animal welfare–enhancing flooring solutions in Swedish dairy farming.

The authors developed a bio-economic model and used stochastic partial budgeting approach to simulate the economic consequences of enhancing solid and slatted concrete floors with soft rubber covering.

The findings highlight that keeping herds on solid and slatted concrete floor surfaces with soft rubber coverings is a profitable solution, compared with keeping herds on solid and slatted concrete floors without a soft covering. The profit per cow when kept on a solid concrete floor with soft rubber covering increased by 13%–16% depending on the breed.

Promoting farm investments such as improvement in flooring solution, which have both economic and animal welfare incentives, is a potential way of promoting sustainable dairy production. Farmers may make investments in improved floors, resulting in enhanced animal welfare and economic outcomes necessary for sustaining dairy production.

This literature review indicated that the economic impact of investment in specific types of floor improvement solutions, investment costs and financial outcomes have received little attention. This study provides insights needed for a more informed decision-making process when selecting optimal flooring solutions for new and renovated barns that improve both animal welfare and ease the burden on farmers and public financial support.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Turkish students’ perceived relevance of Facebook, the value of Facebook advertisements and the ethics of Facebook targeting users with advertisements.

Latent class cluster analysis is estimated to determine whether segments exist and whether covariates differ among segments.

Segments differ on Facebook relevance and advertisement targeting ethics and usefulness and the covariates gender, hours spent on Facebook during the week and personality. The segment that finds Facebook most relevant and uses it the most disapproves of Facebook’s targeted advertisements. Facebook is an organization that relies heavily on advertising dollars for survival. This fact should be emphasized; otherwise, Facebook may not be able to sustain itself.

The paper provides an understanding of Facebook from a marketing perspective for a country at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.

This paper aims to explore and analyse how shifting frontiers of control emerge and change the labour process so that restrictions to output become diminished, subsequently affecting organisational performance.

Multiple case study design. Interviews with 104 respondents. Analysis of productivity statistics in order to test for the statistical significance of the closedown effect. Single multiple regression analysis of the comparative strength, of the closedown effect, between cases.

Shifting frontiers of control arise during the closedown process, a control system characterised by markedly unrestricted autonomy for the workers as the management frontiers of control abate. This provides an operative space for informal work practices, innovation and emerging new industrial relations, accounting for the higher levels of output.

A multiple case study of three different manufacturing organisations, with comparably long closedown periods. The authors do not analyse the sustainability of the increase in output or the generalisibility of the closedown effect to other industries.

It is possible to anticipate improved productivity if shifting frontiers of control are rapidly replacing the old. If management abandons the old control mechanisms, previous to the closedown decision, and provides operative space for workers' initiatives and informal leadership during the closedown process, it is possible to expect good performance, enabling a scope for extended closedown periods.

This is the first study that analyses the comparative strength of the closedown effect and how restricted work practices change under the process of closedown.

This systematic literature review integrates the findings of existing studies regarding technical efficiency (TE) in dairy farms. The purpose of this paper is to offer a research framework that assembles TE descriptors, a classification of previous literature that provides the basis for the synthesis and research agenda.

This paper systematically reviews 86 survey research studies using rigorous and reproducible procedures. The review is applied to published survey research.

The framework relates context, inputs, outputs and metrics of TE. There is no agreement among the authors on the context and determinants of TE. The main determinants of TE are geographical location, farm size, investments in veterinary care, feeding and milking practice, TE model estimation techniques, public policy, and management-related variables. This paper offers ten propositions for future research on the controversial results on the determinants of TE. The authors also explore the reasons for the discrepant results based on the Debreu-Farrell’s definition of TE, the contingency theory and the resource-based view of the firm, elucidating the literature and serving as a basis for future investigation. Implications for dairy farmers and researchers close the review.

Meta-analysis and meta-regression studies were long at the forefront of reviews in the TE of dairy farms. This paper offers a novel qualitative research synthesis with frameworks and the classification of previous literature and a research agenda, which provides a new and different perspective for analysis, by innovating over the available quantitative procedures to combine statistical results.

Gauges the attitudes of Canadian executives towards countertrade with East European trade partners. Discusses the origin, types and scale of countertrade as a portion of world trade, together with a review of the literature. Describes a research study and presents the findings. Offers potential business strategies and responses based on these findings.

The principal aim of this paper is to develop an instrument to measure quality of care in the psychiatric setting from an in‐patient perspective and to describe quality of care by means of this instrument. A further aim is to investigate the influence of background variables and expectations on the experience of care.

The instrument “Quality in psychiatric care” consists of two parts: one for measuring the patient's expectations regarding quality of care, the other for measuring his or her experiences regarding it. The instrument was derived from an earlier interview study of patients' perceptions of the quality of psychiatric care. A sample of 116 patients from eight in‐patient wards in Sweden participated in the present study.

Results indicate a generally high quality of care. Experienced quality of care was significantly lower, however, than expectations in all the dimensions of the instrument: total dimension, dignity, security, participation, recovery and environment. Patients who perceived that the time of discharge was consistent with the stage of their illness experienced significantly higher Recovery; patients with good psychiatric health experienced this too, but also significantly higher participation.

This new instrument needs to be further tested before the psychometric properties can be established.

The value of the research is that instruments for measuring the quality of in‐patient psychiatric care from the patient's perspective and with a theoretical foundation are less common.

In present context of globalization, maintenance of production systems is very important. Many of the organizations are facing a lot of problems in maintenance management. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to identify the main barriers in maintenance management and to rank them for effective maintenance strategies.

To rank the main barriers in maintenance management, technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution is used. For giving score to different factors a team of three experts was made. All experts were having more than ten years of experience in area of maintenance management.

Lack of top management support, lack of measurement of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and lack of strategic planning and implementation have emerged as top three barriers in implementation of maintenance systems in industries.

Findings imply that for successful maintenance, top management should be very supportive for taking different initiatives, training programmes, etc. Organizations should try to improve overall performance of machines known as OEE rather than only machines productivity.

These findings will be highly useful for professionals from manufacturing sector in implementing effective maintenance management system.

This study examines the pricing of knowledge‐based firms compared with firms that are less dependent on human resources. The results show that an increasing dependence on human resources is followed by a rise in abnormal return. The results indicate that investors are not able to distinguish personnel investments from expenses, leading to an underestimation of earnings and return. The findings suggest that investors may need accounting information on human resources to help improve investment decisions. There is no evidence in the present material to suggest that investors perceive knowledge‐based firms as more risky compared with firms with more accountable (tangible) assets.

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