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Using the example of the social housing sector, this paper seeks to evaluate the experiences of one organisation in attempting to learn more about a traditionally difficult to reach and engage group – young people – in order to develop more tailored services.

The research was undertaken as part of a Higher Education Funding Council for England‐funded University “Service by Design programme”, which was designed to enable the transfer of knowledge between the university and external agencies to improve service design. For this project, a focus group approach was adopted to capture the views of housing practitioners and young people. This was underpinned by reference to published literature and data held by the organisation.

The research led to an improved understanding of the attitudes and behaviours of young people, requiring service delivery staff and heads of departments to examine and change a number of organisational policies and practices. In addition, the research project contributed to evolving cultural change within the organisation and how young people were regarded.

The research was undertaken in partnership with one organisation and hence may have limited transferability. However, the findings reflect those of other more comprehensive studies referred to in this paper.

The paper argues that “customer insight” should underpin excellent customer service. Without a deeper understanding of diverse customer profiles and behaviours, attempts to improve service provision and customer relationships will have limited success.

The paper makes a contribution to ongoing public debates about how young people are currently perceived and about public sector reforms.

Effective change management is important for organizational development, but without knowing what features of change situations impact on employee behavior it is difficult to manage change successfully. Considering the changing age demographic of the Australian workforce and the shortage of skilled labor, the purpose of this study is to examine the important age group of young professionals and its perceptions toward organizational change.

Based on Lazarus and Folkman's cognitive phenomenological model of stress and coping, a framework of change perceptions was used to analyze young professionals' experience of change. A confirmatory factor analysis has been conducted surveying a sample of 261 young professionals from a diverse set of Australian organizations.

The analysis found that frequency of change and planning for change are significantly related to uncertainty, and in turn, that uncertainty is significantly related to job satisfaction and behavioral stress. Interestingly, it was found that although frequency of change is positively related to uncertainty, it is also positively related to job satisfaction. Findings indicate which features of change situations are related to poor well‐being outcomes and are therefore important for managers implementing change and working with young professionals.

The present study clarifies the relationship between young professionals and their perceptions of change. Practical implications of the findings for managers are discussed. Some recommendations for future research are provided.

The purpose of this study is to examine how individuals cognitively process work‐family conflict (WFC), specifically whether differences in tolerance for uncertainty and cognitive complexity influence individuals' affective response to WFC.

Using a sample of 157 employees who completed a survey on work‐family issues, the hypotheses were tested using correlation and regression analyses.

The results suggest that cognitive differences may moderate the negative impacts of WFC. It was found that while WFC (i.e. work interference with family) lowers job satisfaction, this effect is less strong for those high in tolerance for uncertainty. The same was true for the ameliorating effect of cognitive complexity and tolerance for uncertainty on the link between WFC and (i.e. family interference with work) organizational commitment.

Because of its cross‐sectional design, the causality of the findings cannot be confirmed. Further, while the sample contained both parents and non‐parents, and men and women, due to power concerns, our analyses did not account for these demographic differences. Future research should be designed to correct for these issues.

Organizations may need to rethink their programs and policies aimed at assisting employees in balancing work and family. Simple options (e.g. time off) may appeal to all employees; however others (e.g. job sharing and flextime) require complicated arrangements or behavior changes and may only appeal to or be utilized successfully by employees with high tolerance for uncertainty and cognitive complexity.

Within work‐family research, few studies look at how individual cognitive processes influence whether and how potentially conflictual situations are perceived and their impact on individual outcomes such as satisfaction and commitment. The research investigates two such cognitive differences and demonstrates the role that tolerance for uncertainty and cognitive complexity may play in reducing the negative impact of work‐family conflict.

The application of physiological methods to the study of psychological phenomena has garnered considerable interest in recent years. These methods have proved especially useful to the study of emotions, since evidence suggests that validly measuring a person’s emotional state using traditional, psychometric methods such as surveys or observation is considerably more difficult than once thought. The present chapter reviews the challenges associated with measuring emotions from a purely psychological perspective, and suggests that the study of emotions in organizations can benefit from the use of physiological measurement to complement traditional assessment methods. We review more established approaches to physiological measurement, including those related to hormone secretion, cardiovascular activity, and skin conductance. We then highlight somewhat more recent attempts to use neurological scanning. A theme of this chapter is that both psychological and physiological measures are relevant to understanding and assessing emotions in organizations. Accordingly, we propose a multi-method approach involving both types of assessment. Finally, we discuss the practical and ethical implications of employing various forms of physiological measurement in the study of emotions, specifically in the context of organizations.

The relationship between routine work stress and psychological distress was investigated among 733 police officers in three US cities, during 1998‐1999. The Work Environment Inventory (WEI) was developed to assess exposure to routine work stressors, while excluding duty‐related traumatic stressors (critical incidents). The WEI and its general properties are presented. The relationship between routine work stress exposure and psychological distress is then explored. Exposure to routine work stressors predicted general psychological distress (r = 0.46), as well as post‐traumatic stress symptoms following officers’ most traumatic career incident (rs = 0.26 to 0.39). Multivariate analyses found that these effects were independent of, and larger than, the effects of cumulative critical incident exposure. (Time since the most traumatic event, social support, and social desirability effects were also controlled statistically.) Routine occupational stress exposure appears to be a significant risk factor for psychological distress among police officers, and a surprisingly strong predictor of post‐traumatic stress symptoms.

When leaders critically examine their social identity, privilege, and positionality, they become clear about when to engage in self-promotion and when to use their power to lift up and liberate the skills and talents of others. This style of liberatory leadership invites leaders into humbled, courageous excellence that inspires greater equity and justice in organizations, systems, and society as a whole. This chapter highlights the author’s experiences grappling with both her gender and her race and how it has shaped her understanding of humility within personal relationships and organizations. It invites the reader to reflect on his/her/their own social identity and how it impacts their approach to leading and leadership with courageous yet humbled excellence.

The objective of this paper is to develop a better understanding of brand engagement by examining two of its antecedents: design benefits and consumer emotions. The authors explore the relationship between design and brand engagement and advance a model with emotional responses as mediator.

This paper integrates a range of theoretical works across design and marketing, including concepts of product design, types of design benefits, brand engagement, and brand communities.

The authors propose a conceptual model where emotional arousal, which differs across design benefits, mediates the relationship between design benefits and brand engagement. Brand engagement intensifies with emotional arousal as design benefits change from functional, to hedonic, to symbolic.

The conceptual model proposed in this paper can have significant applications in the areas of product design, branding strategies, and brand communications. However, it has not been tested empirically.

The resulting model improves understanding of how marketers can use design to elicit different forms of brand engagement. Implications for marketers include planning brand engagement outcomes early in the product or service development process; involving consumers in that process, clearly communicating the benefits of the design; and supporting venues where brand engagement of different types can be practiced.

Brand engagement is unique brand-related behavior that has received limited attention in the design and marketing literatures. The proposed model offers a look at brand engagement from a design perspective, while emphasizing the role of consumers' emotional responses to design benefits.

Using the National Football League (NFL) concussion crisis context, the purpose of this paper is to provide sports marketers with a strategic approach to sports crisis management through consideration of crisis media coverage and organizational reputation.

An online experiment assessed the impact of two crisis response strategies, fan involvement and exposure to crisis media coverage on emotional response, corporate message credibility, crisis perception and perceived corporate reputation.

The accident response strategy was associated with more favorable perceptions of the NFL and corporate message credibility. Sports fan involvement facilitated more favorable perceptions of the NFL’s reputation, while exposure to media coverage of the NFL’s crisis created negative perceptions of the NFL’s reputation. Exposure to media coverage of the NFL concussion crisis increased feelings of anger, which in turn decreased perceptions of corporate message credibility.

A limitation for this study is the specific crisis scenario that was used. The NFL concussion crisis is different from other crisis types in that it does not directly impact the audience’s well-being, but instead affects their perceptions of an iconic institution.

In light of study findings, it is suggested that sports marketers consider the following when dealing with crises: carefully determine proper framing methods when crafting a crisis response as different response types affect consumers in different ways; leverage public relations (PR) practices by engaging in media monitoring to inform an appropriate crisis response to control the narrative; and examine forces exernal of the organization that influence consumer emotions, paying special attention to feelings of anger as anger negatively impacts consumer perceptions of corporate credibility.

This paper addresses sports crisis strategy from both marketing and public relations perspectives. It describes how strategic efforts protect a sports organization’s reputation, thus increasing marketing effectiveness.