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The paper investigates the implications for gendered power relations at work of Nitaqat, a workforce localization policy operating in Saudi Arabia which, by regulating the employment of Saudi nationals in private sector firms, has stimulated greater feminization of employment.

Based on an interpretivist, phenomenological research approach, rich qualitative data were collected in two case study organizations – a retail company and an architectural firm. The mixed-method design involved in-depth interviews with managers and women workers and extensive non-participant observation.

In exploring gendered power relations in Saudi private sector workplaces under the Nitaqat regime, the paper highlights the importance of patriarchal power. However, increased feminization of employment provides women workers with access to power resources of their own, producing complexity and variation in gendered workplace power relations.

Drawing on Bradley's (1999) relational conception of gendered power, the paper illuminates how a Nitaqat-inspired feminization of employment, by increasing firms' dependency on women workers, has influenced the dynamics of gendered power relations in Saudi workplaces.

One of the most prominent developments in vocational education and training in recent years has been the development of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in England and Wales, based on the assessment of an individual’s competence at work. However, the initial implementation of the NVQ policy generated a considerable amount of criticism. The standards of occupational competence on which the NVQs are based were attacked for being too narrow; employers appeared reluctant to take up the new qualifications; and the introduction of NVQs appeared to exacerbate, rather than mitigate, the “jungle” of vocational qualifications. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with key informants and an analysis of relevant documentation this article ascribes the initial failure of the NVQ initiative to progress in the manner that its planners had originally anticipated to the existence of certain institutional constraints: the political imperative to manage high levels of youth unemployment; inadequate accountability and supervision in policy implementation; the presence of a renewed ethos of voluntarism in UK labour market policy; and the weakness of employers’ representative structures.

This paper aims to propose an alternate, efficient and scalable modeling framework to simulate large-scale bike-sharing systems using discrete-event simulation. This study uses this model to evaluate several initial bike inventory policies inspired by the operation of the bike-sharing system in Mexico City, which is one of the largest around the world. The model captures the heterogeneous demand (in time and space) and this paper analyzes the trade-offs between the performance to take and return bikes. This study also includes a simulation-optimization algorithm to determine the initial inventory and present a method to deal with the bias caused by dynamic rebalancing on observed demand.

This paper is based on the analysis of an alternate and efficient discrete-event simulation modeling framework. This framework captures the heterogeneity of demand and allows one to experiment with large-scale models. This study uses this model to test several initial bike inventory policies and also combined them with an optimization engine. The results, provide valuable insights not only for the particular system that motivated the study but also for the administrators of any bike-sharing system.

The findings of this paper include: most of the best policies use a ratio of bikes: docks near to 1:2; however, it is important the way they are initially allocated; a policy that contradicts the demand profile of the stations can lead to poor performance, regardless the quick and dynamic changes of bike locations during the morning period; the proposed simulation-optimization algorithm achieves the best results.

The findings are limited to the initial inventory of the system under study. The model assumes a homogeneous probability distribution function for the travel time. This assumption seems reasonable for the system under study. This paper limits the tested inventory policies to simple practical rules. There might be other sophisticated methods to obtain better solutions, but they might be system-specific.

The insights of this paper are valuable for operators of bike-sharing systems because this study focuses on the analysis of the impact of the initial inventory assuming that dynamic rebalancing may not be existing during the morning peak-time. This paper finds that initial inventory has a great impact on the performance, regardless of how quickly the bikes are dispersed across the system. This study also provides insights into the effect of dynamic rebalancing on observed demand.

Increasing knowledge about the operation of the bike-sharing system has a positive effect on society because more cities around the world could consider implementing these systems as a public transportation mode. Furthermore, delivering suggestions on how to increase the user service level could incentivize people to adopt bikes as a mobility option, which would contribute to improve their health and also reduce air pollution caused by motorized vehicles.

This paper considers that the contributions of this work to existing literature are the following: this study proposes a novel efficient and scalable simulation framework to evaluate initial bike inventory policies; the analysis presented in the paper includes an approach to deal with the bias in the observed demand caused by dynamic rebalancing and the analysis includes the value of demand information to determine an effective initial bike inventory policy.

Dave Williams has taken over as CEO for MBC Corporation and wants to change the mission statement of the company. However, he needs to get approval from four shareholders: a former board chairman, his father and current board chairman, and two members of his own executive team. Williams must navigate the varying dynamics and opinions of the shareholders to gain their buy-in and create a new mission statement that will take MBC on a new path for the future.

The concept this case addresses is that of the mission statement and how it is used to align an organization and its stakeholders. After students have analyzed this case, they will be able to:

• Communicate the importance of a mission statement

• Engage stakeholders in the creation of a mission statement

• Implement a new mission and culture at an organization

Communicate the importance of a mission statement

Engage stakeholders in the creation of a mission statement

Implement a new mission and culture at an organization

The effects of affect, as measured by the dispositional traits of positive affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA), on risk perceptions and risk intentions were tested among 149 managers from a variety of industries and companies. A risk‐assessment instrument consisting of systematically varied business scenarios was used to measure managerial perceptions of the risk dimensions of uncertainty, gains/losses, framing and personal involvement. Findings suggest that positive affect (high PA) managers viewed risk‐related uncertainty and personal involvement more optimistically, but were not more willing to seek risk. Negative affect (high NA) decision makers perceived risk‐related gains more negatively and were also significantly more likely to avoid risk.

Community rugby clubs are now becoming small businesses, which are mostly led by volunteers. This paper aims to document a case study on the Leadership Academy developed by the Rugby Football Union to improve the effectiveness of community rugby club leaders.

The programme content is explained, and written evaluations and observations analysed to assess the effectiveness of the Leadership Academy as a tool in helping to develop the community rugby club leaders.

The results showed that the Leadership Academy helped the leaders to build stronger local relationships with other rugby clubs and to improve confidence levels. These outcomes are also factors that help small business owners become more effective as leaders.

The findings from this paper provide useful input for any other organisations or governing bodies that want to improve the effectiveness of their current or future leaders.

Since 1965 Japan has been a significant market for Australian “wild‐caught” shrimp taken from fisheries off northern Australia. Recent developments in shrimp culture, however, have resulted in the entry of high‐quality, lower‐priced shrimp into the Japanese market from North‐east and South‐east Asia, displacing the Australian product from its previously competitive position. Australian (and other) “wild” shrimp producers now face a situation of falling prices, rising costs, and dramatically different shrimp consumption and distribution patterns in Japan. The response of Australian producers has been to divert the product elsewhere to less “difficult” markets (e.g. the USA) and to form the Australian Prawn Promotion Association (APPA). The aim of this association is to implement a costly ($A1,000,000) promotional campaign in Japan aimed at Japanese consumers with the hope that it will reduce the price elasticity of demand for Australian product and allow producers to raise prices. Here, information gained from a review of the literature on primary product promotion, and primary data gained from interviews with “key informants” in the Japanese shrimp trade are used to assess the prospects of the proposal.

Since the 1950s, the closet has been the chief metaphor for conceptualizing the experience of sexual minorities. Social change over the last four decades has begun to dismantle some of the social structures that historically policed heteronormativity and forced queer people to manage information about their sexuality in everyday life. Although scholars argue that these changes make it possible for some sexual minorities to live “beyond the closet” (Seidman, 2002), evidence shows the dynamics of the closet persist in organizations. Drawing on a case study of theme park entertainment workers, whose jobs exist at the nexus of structural conditions that research anticipates would end heterosexual domination, I find that what initially appears to be a post-closeted workplace is, in fact, a new iteration: the walk-in closet. More expansive than the corporate or gay-friendly closets, the walk-in closet provides some sexual minorities with a space to disclose their identities, seemingly without cost. Yet the fundamental dynamics of the closet – the subordination of homosexuality to heterosexuality and the continued need for LGB workers to manage information about their sexuality at work – persist through a set of boundaries that contain gayness to organizationally desired places.

Japan is the world's largest and most valuable market for shrimp. Per capita annual consumption is over 2kg annually, far greater than the United States (1kg) and the European Community (0.5kg).

The aim of this paper is to examine the significance and the implications of efforts to institute workforce modernization within the police service in England and Wales.

The approach taken uses an analysis of the modernization proposals advanced by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary as its starting point.

The development of workforce modernization in the police service would appear to have eroded the hitherto “reform‐resistant” nature of policing, however political factors continue to impede reform.

Although more evidence concerning the scale and the outcomes of the reform process would be desirable, the main implication of this paper is that workforce modernization in the police is viable, but constrained by political factors.

Empirically, the paper focuses on developments in a sector – the police service – that has been neglected by the existing literature on workforce modernization; theoretically, it demonstrates the important influence often exercised by political contingencies over public sector workforce reform.