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Anyone who has followed the literature of management in recent years knows that self‐directed work groups (SDWGs) are being used by a growing number of companies. In fact, about one‐fourth of the companies responding to a recent survey reported using them (Wellins, Byham, and Wilson, 1991). An SDWG is a work team that is responsible for a complete work process, including the planning, organising, and controlling of the team's own efforts. One study says that the SDWG “… represents the most extensive use and richest fulfilment of the team concept…” in business today (Stoner and Hartman, 1993, p.71).

All of us who have taught leadership to either our regular business students or to attendees in continuing education courses have probably covered the situational view of this “management function”. Both the basic management texts and the texts on organisational behaviour note the advantages of the situational view over the earlier trait and behavioural theories. Further, all the colleagues I have talked to seem to agree that the situational view is more valid, realistic, and practical than either of the earlier views.

The article considers the present trends occurring in the field of management development. One of the biggest problems today is the lack of a systemmatic approach to developmental needs. Practitioners and researchers are now considering the improvement of the design of management development programmes and the influence of organisational culture on their effectiveness. Specifically, they are discovering ways to conduct meaningful evaluation despite the constraints imposed by the typical organisational setting.

Looks at the collapse, in 1989, of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the opportunities and problems which were [are] occurring. Discusses how the managers in these areas are learning (with assistance) how to manage their companies in Hungary in particular. Sees how cultural barriers can be overcome and looks at the complications for universities and training organizations.

From one angle, abortion law appears to confirm the regime politics account of the Supreme Court; after all, the Reagan/Bush coalition succeeded in significantly curtailing the constitutional protection of abortion rights. From another angle, however, it is puzzling that the Reagan/Bush Court repeatedly refused to overturn Roe v. Wade. We argue that time and again electoral considerations led Republican elites to back away from a forceful assertion of their agenda for constitutional change. As a result, the justices generally acted within the range of possibilities acceptable to the governing regime but still typically had multiple doctrinal options from which to choose.

The premise that the U.S. Supreme Court never veers too far off from the dominant national political coalition (Dahl, 1957) has become widely accepted among social scientists today. To fulfill that promise, however, the confirmation process for justices must serve as a plebiscite through which the public can ratify or reject future justices based on their views. Unfortunately, modern confirmation hearings have become an exercise in obfuscation, providing little meaningful dialogue on important issues. Because conservative Republican presidents have made the lion's share of appointments in recent times, social conservatives have most often benefited from a process that has severed the link between Supreme Court nominees and the polity they must serve.

In the academic field of business management, several potential theories were established during the last decades to explain companies' decisions, organizational behavior, consumer patterns, and internationalization, among others. As a result, businesses and scholars were able to analyze and decide based on theoretical approaches to explain the current conditions of the market. Secondary research was conducted to collect more than 36 management theories. This chapter aims to develop the most famous theories related to business applied in the international field. The novelty of this chapter relies on the compilation of recognized previous research studies from the academic literature and evidence in international business.

PORN IS IN THE NEWS AGAIN. The Bishop of Coventry has suggested that good citizens form vigilante groups (literary lynch mobs?) to fight ‘the rising tide of filth’, while Lord Longford has announced the names of the people to serve on his very own enquiry into the subject of pornography. One would suggest that the membership of the committee would invalidate any conclusion that it might reach. A sanctified pop singer, an ageing tv guru and assorted clergymen cannot be said to be a representative selection of the community. Not one member of the unofficial commission appears to have an open mind on the topic.

Three decades of academic and professional discourse on HR technologies (HRTs) have produced continued disagreement over construct definitions and research streams that are highly fragmented. These realities suggest that greater consistency in meanings is sorely needed if we are to integrate and upgrade knowledge in this area. This chapter draws on the findings of a systematic research review to properly define the content domains of human resource information systems (HRIS), virtual human resources (virtual HR), electronic human resource management (e-HRM), and business-to-employee (B2E) systems. An integrative synthesis was performed on 242 system-level writings that appeared in the literature from 1983 to 2017. The weight of the evidence strongly supports treating HRIS, virtual HR, e-HRM, and B2E systems as independent, complimentary constructs. While the first three comprise a firm’s HRT system, the fourth construct is more appropriately positioned in the business-collaborative system. The sample was further evaluated with an analytic framework to detect patterns of practice in research designs. This revealed that much more attention has been focused on system actions and outcomes than on attitudes and system characteristics. Different units of analysis were well represented aside from trans-organizational studies. Finally, a case is made for better contextualizing HRT research by recognizing differences in assimilation stage, functional penetration, and collective proficiency. These factors are rarely mentioned, let alone studied, raising additional concerns about measurement error. Detailed suggestions are offered on ways to incorporate them. Together, these materials should promote more sophisticated and generalizable assessments of technology, improving our ability to understand its impacts.

As the field of history expands with each passing decade, so does the number of reference works on historical events. Many fine reference works have been released in recent years, and the following is an annotated list of some of those that librarians ought to consider purchasing. The materials included were published in the decade beginning with the American Bicentennial. The scope of the bibliography is also limited to certain subjects deemed appropriate by the author, and excludes a number of excellent works that were considered too limited (bibliographies of individuals, for example), even though they might well be proper purchases for a library's reference collection. Also excluded, generally, are those works that are revisions of earlier works. The range of subjects included within the larger context of “American history” is somewhat dependent on the materials actually published, and the author has attempted to select only those materials that have received favorable reviews.