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This paper aims to investigate whether values enactment could be increased through frame-of-reference (FOR) training configured around values prototyping and behavioural domain training for managers within an Australian public sector organisation.

Employees from an Australian public sector organisation were studied to ascertain the effect of values training and development via a three-way longitudinal design with a control group.

The findings indicate that FOR training can increase employee values enactment clarity and, thereby, have a positive impact upon organisational values enactment.

The application of FOR training constitutes a new approach to supporting the development of employee values clarity, which, in turn, can support the achievement of organisational values enactment. Through FOR training, employees can learn to apply organisational values in their decision-making and other behaviours irrespective of whether they are highly congruent with their personal values.

Empirical research into values management is limited and there is a lack of consensus to what is needed to create a values-driven organisation. The article shows that FOR training can be a beneficial component of a broader human resource strategy aimed at increasing organisational values enactment. With reference to the resource-based view of the firm, it is argued that values enactment constitutes a distinctive capability that may confer sustained organisational advantage.

The fields of organizational behavior (OB)/strategy and marketing have taken different paths over the past two decades to understanding organizational learning. OB/strategy has been pre-occupied with theory development and case study illustrations, whereas marketing has taken a highly quantitative path. Although relying on essentially the same foundation theory, the two disciplines have had minimal crossfertilization. Furthermore, both fields tend to blur or usually ignore the distinction between structural and informal knowledge processes. The purpose of the paper is to highlight the distinction between informal and structural knowledge acquisition and dissemination processes and propose new definitions to differentiate them. Future research should bring together cross-disciplinary studies from OB/strategy and marketing to develop an organizational learning framework to test structural knowledge processes alongside informal knowledge processes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the pluralist contours of Canadian management “knowledge” using the discourse “official” bilingualism – the English and French languages – to understand the impact of socio-historical-political differences on the development of management knowledge production.

Drawing upon an archival collection of management textbooks as historical data, the authors critically explore and analyze the development of Canadian “schools” and management theory. Using narrative analysis and critical hermeneutics, the paper considers the socio-historical-political context of the various “Canadian” scholars that sought to establish a unique business academy distinct but paradoxically akin to the management schools in the USA.

Mirroring the struggle of Francophones in a dominant English imperative, French management textbooks appeared decades later than English titles. When French texts began to disseminate, it remained in the shadows of American management ideologies.

As only Canadian organizational behavior texts published within the previous 50 years were used as data in this study, it may be incautious to draw broader conclusions. The empirical element of this research relied upon convenience sampling of textbooks.

Management educators weld a considered level of socio-political power that they may or may not knowingly possess, especially in terms of selecting a textbook and other course materials. Regardless of background, management students are somewhat a “tabula rasa;” open to learning new content to make sense of the world. This “open state” places a great deal of responsibility on the professorate in shaping management students’ theoretical understanding of everyday life in organizations. The authors suggest practitioners be reflexive, aware of how textbooks serve as an important vehicle in education that in times past, have promoted or reified mono-cultural agendas.

The research in this paper builds on recent research that considers the role of socio-historical-political context in how management knowledge and theory is performed, as well as contributes to understanding textbooks in how they may shape a pluralist account of Canadian management “knowledge”.

The topic of organizational learning is populated with many theories and models; many relate to the enduring organizational learning framework consisting of knowledge acquisition, knowledge dissemination, and knowledge use. However, most of the research either emphasizes structural knowledge acquisition and dissemination as a composite construct, or focuses solely on the structural aspect of knowledge acquisition and dissemination. The primary objective of this study is to develop and test a model of organizational learning that incorporates both structural and informal knowledge acquisition and dissemination and as separate processes. The predictors of these processes are also proposed

A model of organizational learning that incorporates both structural and informal knowledge acquisition and dissemination constructs, along with three predictors of these organizational learning constructs were developed and quantitatively tested.

An inference to the research questions and hypotheses suggests that informal knowledge acquisition and dissemination have significant paths to market knowledge use, whereas structural knowledge acquisition and dissemination have, at best, a weak association with market knowledge use. Although the results were based on exploratory analysis, they provide tentative quantitative evidence that informal knowledge processes are at least as important as structural knowledge processes in market‐based organizational learning.

While the hypothesized model did not satisfy the goodness‐of‐fit tests, data‐driven exploratory analysis helped to refine two separate structural and informal models for future testing. The statistical explanation provided and procedures used to remedy the non‐fit issues should help future researchers to deal with structural equation‐modeling issues when similar non‐fit problems arise.

Affirming Diversity R.R. Thomas in Vol. 68 No. 2 of Harvard Business Review, in an article entitled From affirmative action to affirming diversity', argues that affirmative action in the recruitment of women and minorities is based on premises no longer appropriate. White males are no longer dominant at every level of the corporation (statistically, they are merely the largest of many minorities), while decades of attack have noticeably weakened racial and gender prejudices. At the intake level, affirmative action sets the stage for a workplace that is gender‐, culture‐, and colour‐blind. But minorities and women tend to stagnate, plateau, or quit when they fail to move up the corporate ladder, and everyone's dashed hopes lead to corporate frustration, usually followed by a crisis and more recruitment. The traditional American approach to diversity has been assimilation and the author suggests that this is no longer valid. Companies are faced with the task of managing unassimilated diversity and getting from it the same commitment, quality, and profit they once got from a homogeneous workforce. To reach this goal, organisations need to work not merely toward culture and colour‐ blindness but also towards an openly multicultural workplace that taps the full potential of every employee without artificial programmes, standards, or barriers. The author gives his own ten guidelines for learning to manage diversity by learning to understand and modify the company's culture, vision, assumptions, models, and systems.

In order to succeed in an action under the Equal Pay Act 1970, should the woman and the man be employed by the same employer on like work at the same time or would the woman still be covered by the Act if she were employed on like work in succession to the man? This is the question which had to be solved in Macarthys Ltd v. Smith. Unfortunately it was not. Their Lordships interpreted the relevant section in different ways and since Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome was also subject to different interpretations, the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice.

Work‐zone delay is very costly to the movement of goods and people. It is increasingly problematic for logistics management if the travel time or delay information cannot be estimated in an accurate way. This paper describes a study to investigate the effects of work zones, enhance computer‐based capability to estimate the associated work‐zone delays, assess the interrelationship of significant factors that affect work‐zone delays and develop a user‐friendly tool to assist transportation operations and logistics planning. A computerized information system, called lane‐occupancy‐delay estimation system (LODES), is developed to assess work‐zone delays that may affect short‐ or long‐term logistic activities. The results from trials and their implications are discussed and, finally, areas of further research are proposed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate causes of high staff turnover among production workers at a large‐scale retail case meat processor. The paper aims to cover the field research that was subsequently conducted to determine if the relationship outlined in the hypotheses in part 1 of the paper could be confirmed and provide insight into the relationships.

Three hypotheses were developed to investigate six independent variables as possible factors of high job turnover. The research is based on a two‐step process consisting of a literature review and field research. The literature review served to establish empirical links among the variables and construct an appropriate questionnaire for the field research. The field research consisted of 38 employees (out of 475) completing a 41‐question survey. Individual interviews were also conducted with 20 of the 38 respondents.

The results demonstrate that the employees' organizational commitment affects employee turnover. The findings also suggest that organizational commitment can be improved through increased effective communication between management and employees and ensuring that the organization's vision is shared and understood by employees. The link between job satisfaction and turnover was not supported by the research.

Sample size was affected due to the limited availability of employees during production hours. Increased sample size would allow further investigation within specific departments and shifts. Additional research could also have been done on how the company's HR policy mandated from their US head office fits the needs of a Canadian based workforce.

The paper provides insight on the causes of employee turnover and low organizational commitment. The paper recommends four actions to address communication and vision sharing to improve organizational commitment and ultimately turnover.

The purpose of this paper is to study and provide a large national publicly traded company with realistic solutions for succession planning. The name of the actual company where all data were collected has remained anonymous and been replaced with Millennium Dynamics, Inc. As a large number of their workforce consists of “Baby Boomers”, 50 percent of their employees will be of retirement age within the next five years. Having acknowledged the company's concerns about efficiency of new employees and the loss of morale in senior employees, this two‐part article sets out to provide motivational tools for management and suggest solutions to restructure and reorganize in a way to prevent the inevitable – loss of corporate knowledge via succession planning.

A survey and individual interviews were conducted within the company to measure current job satisfaction and company culture as well as how the different generations of employees view each other and themselves. Employees were also questioned about their legacy in the organization and their thoughts about transferring corporate knowledge from one generation to another. This is a two‐part article. Part 1 covers the background to the case under investigation, a review of relevant literature and the hypotheses to test the problem to be studied and solved. Part 2 will describe the methodology and data related to demographics, the testing of the hypotheses and conclusions and recommendations.

The study found a correlation between job satisfaction and effective communication and a negative correlation between pre‐retirees and their lack of motivation as they approach retirement. Also, it was found that senior employees possess a willingness to share and transfer knowledge to younger generations.

The article relies on limited survey and interview data of one particular regional department within a large organization. Certain demographic questions were omitted to preserve confidentiality. The selected department and interview subjects were chosen by the organization and therefore the occurrence of a sampling error is possible.

This study monitored the impact that recent retirees will have on the remaining staff of a company. The act of effective succession planning is of paramount importance since the “Baby Boomer” generation is comprised of 76 million North Americans and the threat of the loss of corporate knowledge will inevitably increase as the population ages. This article offers recommendations as to how an organization can better manage the impact of a large number of retirees on the remaining workforce and what it can do to maximize efficiency.

The article offers practical solutions for dealing with the impact of retiring Baby Boomers and identifies models for a proactive approach in dealing with an issue that will affect the North American economy within the next five years.