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The article examines the nature of pressure groups, their effect on corporate action and on managers. The importance of seeking an understanding of pressure groups is emphasised. Although pressure groups can be responsible for constraining corporate action, they can also sometimes present business opportunities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of peer pressure on joint consumption decisions among emerging adults. Building on prospect theory and characteristics of emerging adulthood, the authors propose that influence from peers (i.e. informational and normative influence) serves as a channel to understand how peer pressure shapes joint consumer behaviors at different levels of social capital.

An online survey is distributed to the emerging adults, aged 18 to 25, in the south, west, east and middle of the USA. Construct validity and reliability are tested by using confirmatory factor analysis. Structural equation modeling is used to test the mediating and moderating effects.

The results show that social capital moderates the relationship between peer pressure and group-oriented consumer decisions, such that the relationship is positive in groups with high-level social capital but negative in groups with low-level social capital. Furthermore, such effects tend to be achieved via peer influence. And peer influence is stronger in groups with high-level social capital than those with low-level social capital.

The current literature has shown contradictory results: it is usually believed that emerging adults may conform to pressure and engage in group-oriented decisions; however, some research has reported the opposite result. To better understand this relationship, the authors aim at a group-level factor – perceived social capital – as a boundary condition. This research contributes to the young consumer decision-making literature by involving the interplay among peer pressure, perceived social capital and peer informational and normative influence.

Research and theory on diversity in organizations tends to examine relations between the majority and minority and to overlook relations within the minority. In this chapter we explore the dynamics within a minority that represents a token percentage (less than 15%) of the larger group (Kanter, R. M. 1977b). We argue that members of a minority sub-group are subject to inter-group and intra-group pressures and that these pressures are greatest for a minority of two. We introduce the term “duo-status” to describe this two-token situation and examine the positive, neutral, and negative dynamics that result depending on the coping strategy chosen by each member of the duo.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to explore the question of whether there is an optimal level of time pressure in groups.

Design/approach – We argue that distinguishing performance from productivity is a necessary step toward the eventual goal of being able to determine optimal deadlines and ideal durations of meetings. We review evidence of time pressure's differential effects on performance and productivity.

Findings – Based on our survey of the literature, we find that time pressure generally impairs performance because it places constraints on the capacity for thought and action that limit exploration and increase reliance on well-learned or heuristic strategies. Thus, time pressure increases speed at the expense of quality. However, performance is different from productivity. Giving people more time is not always better for productivity because time spent on a task yields decreasing marginal returns to performance.

Originality/value of chapter – The evidence reviewed here suggests that setting deadlines wisely can help maximize productivity.

Business is increasingly coming under attack by pressure groups. Many managers, and particularly those in marketing functions, are having to respond to these challenges. Others are at least having to take cognisance of pressure groups. The nature of pressure groups, their role, the different types that may be found and how they operate are considered. Pressure group actions involving business are also discussed, but activity is emphasised. Managers are urged to seek an understanding of pressure groups, especially those groups likely to take an interest in their business.

Organisations produce effects that go beyond the economic framing within which they operate, referred to as overflows in this paper. When an organisation comes under pressure to address these overflows they must decide how to respond. Previous research has placed social and environmental reporting as an important tool organisations mobilise in their attempts to mediate these pressures and the groups that give rise to them. However, these reports are typically only released once a year while the pressures that organisations face can arise at any time and are ongoing and constant. The purpose of this paper is to explore situated organisational practices and examine if and how management controls are mobilised in relation to the actions of pressure groups.

This paper takes a case study approach to understand how an organisation attempts to mediate the pressures from a number of overflows: carbon emissions, changing lifestyles, aspartame and obesity. To undertake this research a performative understanding of management control is utilised. This focusses the research on if and how management controls are mobilised to assist with attempts to mediate pressures.

Analysis of the data shows that many different management controls, beyond just reports, were mobilised during the attempts to mediate the pressure arising from the actions of groups affected by the overflows. The management controls were utilised to: identify pressures, demonstrate how the pressure had been addressed, alleviate the pressure or to dispute the legitimacy of the pressure.

This paper shows the potential for new connections to be made between the management control and social and environmental accounting literatures. It demonstrates that future research may gain much from examining the management controls mobilised within the situated practices that constitute an organisations response to the pressures it faces.

To analyze the direct and combined effects of the communication media and time pressure in group work on the affective responses of team members while performing intellective tasks

A laboratory experiment was carried out with 124 subjects working in 31 groups. The task performed by the groups was an intellective one. A 2 × 3 factorial design with three media (face‐to‐face, video‐conference, and e‐mail) and time pressure (with and without time pressure) was used to determine the direct and combined effects of these two variables on group members' satisfaction with the process and with the results, and on members' commitment with the decision.

Results show a direct effect of communication media on satisfaction with the process, which confirms the prediction of the media‐task fit model, and a negative effect of time pressure on satisfaction with group results and commitment to those results. Most interestingly, the interaction effects for the three dependent variables are significant and show that the most deleterious effects of time pressure are produced in groups working face‐to‐face, while groups mediated by video‐conference improve their affective responses under time pressure.

Some limitations are the use of a student sample, so generalizability of the findings is limited, and the use of only one task type.

It can help one to know how to design work to improve satisfaction and implication of workers.

This paper shows some innovations as the combined effects of media and time pressure, controlling for the task type on group members' affective responses to their work and achievements.

Since it has been regarded as an effective method to evaluate clothing pressure comfort with physiological and psychological techniques the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect on people s inhibition ability caused by the oppression from clothing on the body through event-related potentials (ERPs). A trial application of ERPs technology was made to evaluate clothing pressure comfort and investigate the relationship between some physical indexes of brain wave and clothing pressure. This research would also reveal the influence of clothing pressure on the thinking ability and mental activity of young women.

Stroop color-naming task was utilized to test the inhibition ability of participants. In the present research, some components of ERPs (e.g. N1, P2, N2 and N450) and behavioral indexes (RTs, and errors rates) were detected to verify the change of physiology and psychology caused by the pressure imposed by girdle on the body.

At behavioral level RTs were slower for the group under pressure rather than pressure-free group with no significant difference in errors rate between the two groups. Based on the early component statistics of ERPs the Stroop effects of both groups were similar. Besides there was no prominent difference in the latencies and amplitudes of N1, P2 and N2 components except the N450 components. The inhibition ability of young women who had worn girdle for 8 hours decreased causing them unable to make a timely response and thus affecting their attentiveness and executive ability.

This study would clarify that it is feasible to evaluate clothing pressure comfort with ERPs as a physiological technique, and enrich relative methods.

Time pressure impacts the information that emerges in a group discussion. Executives need help managing the challenges posed by time pressure to arrive at the best decisions. In particular, we address two common biases that impact the group decision making process: the confirmation bias and the common information effect. Strategies are presented for overcoming these two biases, particularly the advantage of privately collecting information from group members within a meeting to surface unique information and disconfirming information. We also acknowledge that an executive’s goal may not always be to surface information; rather, an individual may be attempting to use a group meeting to push through a particular decision. We discuss the role of time in accomplishing this objective as well.

This study examined the relationships among ethnocentrism, group cohesion, and constituent pressure in either competitive or collaborative directions within the context of a complex simulation of intergroup conflict. The simulation elicited both a value and an economic conflict over scarce resources and their development in which pairs of groups negotiated through representatives to reach a settlement. The results from 32 four‐person groups of college males were based on self‐report questionnaires and behavioral codings from videotapes of the simulation sessions. With the questionnaire data, ethnocentrism, group cohesion, and constituent pressure were significantly related at three different measurement points and when averaged over the entire simulation. Behavioral ratings of ethnocentrism were positively correlated with behavioral measures of constituent pressure to compete and negatively with pressure to collaborate. These results provide empirical support for the effects of cohesion and ethnocentrism on conflict management behavior in line with realistic group conflict theory.