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Several comprehensive reviews are united in drawing the conclusion that the cumulative research evidence on work team diversity is equivocal. Rather than review the extant state of diversity research, in this paper we redirect attention to the context of workplace diversity as a possible explanation for these mixed findings. We discuss how diversity context may be conceptualized, specify various aspects of this context at multiple levels of analysis, and consider how contextual variables can shape the outcomes of work team diversity. We present findings from a literature review (1999–2006) to identify key trends and patterns of results reported in recent research as well as contextual factors that have received attention to date. This paper also considers how the non-significant, positive, negative, and curvilinear effects of diversity reported in studies can be explained by the contextual factors outlined. Implications for future research are also discussed.

Ask leaders what their organizations need more of to thrive, and many will identify collaboration. Yet many collaborative efforts fail. A focus on the inner workings of teams, to the exclusion of the ecosystem in which teams work, has masked the importance of a collaborative context. We undertook a single case study of an exemplar firm with the intent of offering a nuanced illustration of the collaborative workplace. We illustrate how three contextual factors related to work, relationships, and behaviors shift the setting from a place where collaboration is hard to do, to one that embodies collaboration as a widespread competence.

The study of markets encompasses a number of disciplines – including anthropology, economics, history, and sociology – and a larger number of theoretical frameworks (see Plattner, 1989; Reddy, 1984; Smelser & Swedberg, 1994). Despite this disciplinary and theoretical diversity, scholarship on markets tends toward either realist or constructionist accounts (Dobbin, 1994; Dowd & Dobbin, forthcoming).¹ Realist accounts treat markets as extant arenas that mostly (or should) conform to a singular ideal-type. Realists thus take the existence of markets as given and examine factors that supposedly shape all markets in a similar fashion. When explaining market outcomes, they tout such factors as competition, demand, and technology; moreover, they can treat the impact of these factors as little influenced by context. Constructionist accounts treat markets as emergent arenas that result in a remarkable variety of types. They problematize the existence of markets and examine how contextual factors contribute to this variety. When explaining market outcomes, some show that social relations and/or cultural assumptions found in a particular setting can qualify the impact of competition (Uzzi, 1997), demand (Peiss, 1998), and technology (Fischer, 1992). Constructionists thus stress the contingent, rather than universal, processes that shape markets.

This chapter focuses on the middle level of organizations. It is a critical synthesis level for culture. The authors explain how this level is influenced by the higher and lower levels of the organizational culture. The authors discuss how factors from the higher and lower levels may affect this level. It is at this level that culture has the greatest effect on an organization’s business capabilities, and therefore its operations and performance.

Research on high-growth firms (HGFs) or gazelles is expanding due to their significant contribution to job growth and economic development. However, the knowledge about the conditions and factors that set these firms on their rapid growth trajectory remains fragmented. Therefore, this chapter provides an abreast inventory of the surging gazelle studies by systematically reviewing the international gazelle growth literature and consolidating firm-level, industry-level, and macroeconomic-level growth factors and their interactions as elaborated in the studies. Based on the review of 62 international empirical studies, this chapter finds that the gazelle growth is complex and multidimensional in its scope and nature. The firm’s growth intention and entrepreneurial nature emerge as necessary but not sufficient conditions to guarantee rapid growth as it results from the impact of and interaction between various firm-level and external factors. The different growth-influencing factors are summarized using a theoretical gazelle growth model, which supports the rare and temporal nature of the gazelle growth.

To investigate ethnic group differences in the utilization of preventive medical care services among U.S. Asian and Latino immigrant adults.

Using data from the 2002–2003 National Latino and Asian American Study, we examined whether differences exist in the reporting of any preventive physical care or dental/optician visit during the last year across Asian and Latino immigrant groups. Following, we applied Andersen’s (1995) Behavioral Model of Health Services Use to assess how ethnic disparities in preventive care use are a function of predisposing, enabling/impeding, and need-based factors.

Descriptive results showed that among Latinos, a much lower proportion of Mexican immigrants reported a preventive medical care visit during the last year than either Cuban or Puerto Rican immigrants. Asian immigrants show less variation in use, but significant differences still exist with Filipino immigrants reporting the highest level of use, followed by Vietnamese and then Chinese immigrants. Logistic regression models also indicated that predisposing characteristics, especially aspects of acculturation status, contribute strongly to ethnic group differences in preventive care use, while enabling/disabling and need-based characteristics are less important.

While studies of medical care use often treat Asians and Latinos as homogeneous groups, our findings illustrate the need for a more detailed view of the foreign-born population. Findings also highlight the role of acculturation status in shaping group differences in preventive medical care use – and as such, the importance of considering these differences when promoting the use of timely preventive care services among immigrant populations.

Corporate misconduct carries significant social and economic costs, and therefore regulators and other stakeholders seek to deter it. Despite the significant costs and deterrence efforts, corporate misconduct is widespread and our understanding of it is limited. As argued in this chapter, one key reason for this is the lack of understanding of the benefits and penalties of misconduct for the companies and individuals involved, as well as the detection of such behavior. This chapter seeks to advance our understanding of corporate misconduct and builds on the rational choice model (RCM) – where the decision to engage in misconduct hinges on a calculation of the expected costs and benefit – and links it to research in organization theory and strategy. Specifically, it sets a research agenda at the intersection of organizational and strategic perspectives, to deepen our understanding of corporate misconduct and shed light on opportunities for empirical and theoretical research which can potentially aid in developing effective deterrence strategies.

How are we to make sense of the attitudes of Social Democratic parties towards decentralisation? What do they think about what is a legitimate territorial allocation of power? What factors shapes this view? And what makes Social Democratic parties change their minds? This article addresses these questions by way of competing ideological traditions, the external strategic incentives and internal constraints. Empirically, the article presents a comparative case-study analysis of Social Democratic parties in four countries (Belgium, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom). On the basis of this analysis, I argue that the positioning of Social Democratic parties on decentralisation is influenced by strategic incentives created by the structure of political competition, whereas the policy shifts are more often produced by factors that are internal to the party. A decentralist policy shift is always associated with the capacity of regionalist parties to set the agenda by exerting pressures on Social Democratic parties. In addition, Social Democratic parties tend to shift their policy while in opposition to distinguish themselves from their centralist mainstream rival in government. The dominant mechanism found across four countries was one in which regional branches persuade the central party leadership to adopt a pro-decentralist position. This chapter illustrates how Social Democratic parties have an instinct for ‘adaptation and control’ in the face of social-structural changes, and it demonstrates that the prevalence of different ideological traditions will vary according to external strategic incentives and, crucially, by the party's internal ability to follow those incentives.

Sexual violence’s alarming prevalence demands action to challenge the gendered and generational relations that sustain injustice. This chapter introduces a nuanced model of consent that, if utilised to inform adults’ everyday practices with children, could empower children to identify and engage in healthy relationships and manage sexual victimisation. Inadequate sex education in adolescence engenders harmful beliefs about consent, which hinder young people’s abilities to navigate sexual relationships and limit the extent to which sexual assault survivors can understand their trauma. Accordingly, effective consent education is critical to protect and empower all human beings. Drawing on decades of childhood studies research that exemplifies the ways in which children learn through experience, this chapter argues that, by practising consent with children, adults can facilitate children’s knowledge of this moral concept. To equip adults with the thorough understanding of consent necessary to engage in truly consensual relationships, this chapter presents a theoretical explanation of children’s agency, recognising that structure, personal elements, and relationships collectively influence, and are shaped by, children’s participation. Based on a recognition of parents’ distinct role in children’s education, this model is examined in the context of children’s experiences in the home. Specifically, this analysis considers the ethics of corporal punishment and explores parental practices that could better facilitate children’s learning. The themes in this chapter emphasise the dangers of assumptions and raise fundamental questions about the ways in which society approaches human dignity and justice.