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The purpose of this study is to understand more of online anonymity in the global file sharing community in the context of social norms and copyright law. The study describes the respondents in terms of use of VPN or similar service related to age, gender, geographical location, as well as analysing the correlation with file sharing frequencies.

This study is to a large extent descriptively collecting data through a web‐based survey. This was carried out in collaboration with the BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay (TPB), allowing the authors to link the survey from the main logo of their site. In 72 hours the authors received over 75,000 responses, which gives the opportunity to compare use of anonymity services with factors of age, geographical region, file sharing frequency, etc.

Overall, 17.8 per cent of the respondents use a VPN or similar service (free or paid). A core of high frequency uploaders is more inclined to use VPN or similar services than the average file sharer. Online anonymity practices in the file sharing community are depending on how legal and social norms correlate (more enforcement means more anonymity).

The web‐based survey was in English and mainly attracted visitors on The Pirate Bays' web page. This means that it is likely that those who do not have the language skills necessary were excluded from the survey.

This study adds to the knowledge of anonymity practices online in terms of traceability and identification. This means that it shows some of the conditions for legal enforcement in a digital environment.

This study adds to the knowledge of how the Internet is changing in terms of a polarization between stronger means of legally enforced identification and a growing awareness of how to be more untraceable.

The scale of the survey, with over 75,000 respondents from most parts of the world, has likely not been seen before on this topic. The descriptive study of anonymity practices in the global file sharing community is therefore likely unique.

The understanding that theorists and practitioners hold of self‐directed learning can vary depending on the context in which they find themselves. In an effort to understand these variations, attempts to synthesize theoretical understandings of the concept of self‐directed learning in the workplace. Includes an empirical study involving 21 white‐collar employees in four Australian businesses. Reveals six variations in the workers′ conception of the experience of self‐directed learning in their jobs. Provides a brief comparative discussion of the results of synthesis of the literature and those from the empirical study.

It is often assumed by management in different workplaces that the people who work there acquire their training before they take up a job or that they are trained in their job. Learning is a lifelong process that should be embraced by all workers. Increasing interest is being placed on companies as learning organisations in which the employees collectively contribute to the improvement of the workplace enterprise. However, modest attention has been paid to the ways by which people learn in their work. This article indicates, based on considerable worksite research, that how people learn in their work is a complex process characterised by a range of variations. Management in different worksites needs to understand the diversity of approaches by workers to learning in their jobs and offer opportunities for such activities to be continuous, reflective, individualised and/or collective. A more effective workforce will result if the workers can maximise learning in their work.

This paper aims to report an interview study investigating knowledge protection practices in a collaborative research and innovation project centred around the semi-conductor industry. The authors explore which and how knowledge protection practices are applied and zoom in on a particular one to investigate the perspective of three stakeholders which collaborate: the SUPPLIER of a specialised machine, the APPLIER of this machine and a SCHOLAR who collaborates with both, in an effort to develop a grey-box model of the machine and its operation.

A total of 33 interviews have been conducted in two rounds: 30 interviews explore knowledge protection practices applied across a large project. Qualitative content analysis is applied to determine practices not well covered by the research community. A total of three follow-up interviews inspect one specific collaboration case of three partners. Quotes from all interviews are used to illustrate the participants’ viewpoints and motivation.

SCHOLAR and APPLIER communicate using a data-centric knowledge protection practice, in that concrete parameter values are sensitive and hidden by communicating data within a wider parameter range. This practice balances the benefit that all three stakeholders have from communicating about specifics of machine design and operations. The grey-box model combines engineering knowledge of both SUPPLIER and APPLIER.

The line of thought described in this study is applicable to comparable collaboration constellations of a SUPPLIER of a machine, an APPLIER of a machine and a SCHOLAR who analyses and draws insights out of data.

The paper fills a research gap by reporting on applied knowledge protection practices and characterising a data-centric knowledge protection practice around a grey-box model.

Scholars typically view cross-legacy boundary spanners – employees who develop and maintain social relationships with coworkers from both legacy organizations – as the key integrators in mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Organizations even formally appoint employees with cross-legacy responsibilities to support the post-merger integration process. Recent research has started to emphasize, however, how difficult it can be to reap the benefits of a boundary-spanning position. Building and maintaining formal or informal boundary-spanning ties is costly because it requires time, attention, and political savviness. To better understand the perks and pitfalls of cross-legacy boundary-spanning, the authors identify and describe its structural and sociocultural dimensions and explain how they influence cross-legacy boundary-spanning in M&A contexts. The authors argue that the two dimensions can be seen as boundary conditions to the positive relationship between cross-legacy boundary spanning and post-merger integration. This chapter highlights the potential dark side of cross-legacy boundary-spanning and proposes a multi-dimensional model to explain how cross-legacy boundary spanners can avoid the pitfalls and promote the perks of their position in support of successful post-merger integration.

The purpose of this paper is to examine gender differences regarding the experience of workplace health and quality management. In this context, we include some factors of work environment that have previously been shown to be related to health such as workplace learning, stress, flow and sense of coherence.

A questionnaire based on previous research was constructed. It was delivered to a population of Swedish upper secondary school teachers. Three hundred eleven responses were returned. They were analysed for gender differences with t-tests and chi-square tests.

The results show that women's experience of their health is worse than men's despite having a generally better experience of the quality management values, workplace learning and flow. Moreover, women experience more stress, and they are more often subjected to sexual harassment while men more frequently had been exposed to physical violence.

The study has implications for research in that it indicates that although women have better experiences of many of the factors that previous research has shown to be related to workplace health, their health is actually worse. A limitation is that the response rate was low.

The findings should be useful for managers attempting to improve the workplace health of their staff. The finding that women report less health than men even though experiencing quality management values more, means that women's health need a particular focus in secondary schools.

The connection between health and quality management has not been previously studied from a gender perspective.

In previous research, quality management practices have been found to be related to better health for employees. Dimensions of health-promoting quality leadership have been defined. The purpose of this study was to identify dimensions of workplace health in the wellness industry and relate them to the dimensions of health-promoting quality leadership.

An empirical study involving seven leading spa-hotels in Sweden has been carried out. The first part of the study consisted of quality cafés carried out at each of the hotels. The quality café is a novel method, which has the World Café-method as its basis, combined with quality management techniques. Based on the findings from the quality cafés, an employee survey was developed.

The findings from the study include a definition of five major health dimensions for the employees, namely, happiness, kinship, respect, physical health conditions and control. The dimensions were found to be statistically consistent and correlated with the self-reported health of the respondents.

The findings are related to health promotion theory and the dimensions of health-promoting quality leadership. A framework for health leadership in the wellness industry is proposed. The study was only carried out in one country.

The framework and the findings should be useful for managers, particularly in the wellness sector, when designing their operations and health promotion activities.

Workplace health in the wellness sector, which is growing worldwide, is very scarcely researched.

The public activity of controlling land use is exerted through the planning process. The purpose of this paper is to examine how housing developers perceive different aspects of the planning process, and if these perceptions might act as a constraint for the development of new housing projects.

A survey, based on a questionnaire, has been conducted with housing development companies having at least one project initiated during the period 2001‐2004 and with municipal housing companies with responsibility for providing affordable rental housing. The study focused on the assertions contained in the questionnaire, which were measured statistically with a t‐test, to establish if the respondents agreed with the stated assertions. Additional information was achieved from factual and open questions to the respondents of the survey.

The study shows that the housing developers do perceive the planning process as a factor of uncertainty in the development of new housing projects. Responsibility for making the planning process less uncertain lies both with planning officials and housing developers. However, housing developers cannot directly affect how the planning process is organised and controlled. Thus, housing developers need to decrease the uncertainty by performing stakeholder and risk analysis before acquisition of land.

The study has found that there is evidence of reasonable concern on the part of housing development companies that should be taken seriously by planning authorities. The findings imply that greater transparency in the process would go hand‐in‐hand with a more consistent approach and thus more certain outcomes.