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Barnard was acutely aware of the social factors present in organizations and their influence on the effectiveness of organizations. He realized that cooperation, and more specifically that systems of cooperation, were a critical, essential element of effective organizational functioning. This paper extends Barnard’s conception of cooperative systems into what we call the coworker effect. The coworker effect is as an important factor linking positive individual behavior with the broader social context of the work group. In this article we will discuss the outcomes of the coworker effect and the sources that give it its power. In so doing, we can show how cooperative systems behaviorally impact on organizations and how organizations might be able to marshal this important resource more effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how individual interviewers’ dispositional cognitive motivations may influence interview interactions and outcomes. More specifically, this study explores the influence of the need for cognition, need for cognitive closure, and accountability on the relationship between first impressions and selection decisions.

In total, 41 graduate students were assigned the role of interviewers and were tasked to interview 331 undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university. The selection interview was designed to recruit qualified undergraduate students to the MBA program of the university.

First impressions significantly influenced selection decisions, but did not influence interviewers’ behaviors. Moreover, multilevel analyses reveal that interviewers’ need for cognition and accountability moderate the relationship between first impression and selection decisions, albeit in different direction. Need for cognition strengthens, whereas accountability weakens the relationship between first impression and selection decision.

A potential interviewer bias is apparent, where interviewers high on need for cognition tend to weight first impressions more in the decision process. However, this bias was not directly observable, since interviewers’ behaviors during the interview were not affected by first impressions.

The present study goes beyond previous research on first impressions in the employment interview, finding that dispositional differences account for the tendency to weigh first impressions in the selection decision.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate scholarship on personality, mentoring, developmental relationships, and social networks in delineating how employees with particular personality characteristics are more or less likely to be involved in four types of developmental networks.

The paper reviews scholarship on personality characteristics and developmental relationships to identify a set of distinct personality characteristics proposed to be related to employees' tendencies to develop four types of developmental networks. These network types are defined based on high or low relationship strength and high or low relationship diversity in employee ties with others. We develop propositions delineating the nature of expected relationships of these personality characteristics with developmental network types.

The paper identifies five personality characteristics – interdependent/independent self‐construal, core self‐evaluations, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and extroversion/introversions – and explained how each should be related to employees' tendencies to develop the four types of developmental networks. These networks have been described as opportunistic, entrepreneurial, receptive, and traditional developmental networks, based upon the strength and the diversity of network relationships.

The paper suggests that personality variables are potentially valuable for understanding how individuals develop particular types of developmental relationships, an area that deserves more research attention. It is noted that developmental relationships have been shown to be related to both employees' objective career outcomes such as promotions and salary progress, and subjective outcomes such as career and job satisfaction.

There are many different views and opinions held about the value of training. Some people, of course, reach the top without any formal training whatsoever and expect others to do the same. This is all well and good if, presumably, you are able to train yourself. Most need the support of formally organized training courses or continuous learning, working on the assumption that there are always things to learn. It does not matter how old or experienced you are, there will always be a gap in your knowledge that requires attention. Beware the people who know it all as they will be the ones who have the blind spots and just cannot see trouble ahead. If these people are at the top of the organization and just happened to be in the right place at the right time, which could happen if an organization has been particluarly successful, then this could have disastrous consequences on the business. Business means change, and if you cannot cope or are not prepared to accept or adapt to this change, the end result is inevitable.

Discusses, in this special issue, material grouped under four main headings: tomorrow’s executive challenges; effective organizational learning; the virtual university model; and effective training capabilities. The items included are brief and to the point allowing the reader to take on board ranges of ideas and issues. Includes studies on IKEA; mentoring; Whitbread; Polaroid; BAA; Sema Group; Starbucks and McDonalds, among others.

Organizations have become increasingly interested in developing their human resources. One tool that has been explored in this quest is mentoring. This has led to a surge in mentoring research and an increase in the number of formal mentoring programs implemented in organizations. This review provides a survey of the empirical work on mentoring that is organized around the major questions that have been investigated. Then a conceptual model, focused on formal mentoring relationships, is developed to help understand the mentoring process. The model draws upon research from a diverse body of literature, including interpersonal relationships, career success, training and development, and informal mentoring. Finally, a discussion of critical next steps for research in the mentoring domain is presented.

This paper seeks to develop a mid-range theory of how change recipient sensemaking processes affect the realization of strategic flexibility during simultaneous change in professional service firms.

The research presented is based on an exploratory embedded case study adopting a qualitative interpretive methodology, conducted at a professional service organization. A sensemaking lens was adopted in order to study organizational change processes. Data was collected through semi-structured open-ended in-depth interviews, and analyzed using first and second order analysis, inspired by the methodology used by Corley and Gioia (2004).

We identified four determinants of change recipient sensemaking: professional identification, dominant organizational discourse, equivocality of expectations, and cross-understanding between thought worlds. Case findings indicate that cognitive and affective dimensions of change recipient sensemaking are strongly interwoven in their effect on realizing strategic flexibility.

We contribute to the competence-based strategic management literature by introducing the concept of change recipient sensemaking in understanding the realization of strategic flexibility; by identifying four major determinants in a context of simultaneous change in a professional service organization; and by highlighting the interwoven and mutually reinforcing cognitive and affective dimensions of professional’s process of constructing meaning.

Evidence suggests that community colleges worldwide adhere to a culturally-embedded institutional charter that celebrates and accommodates local cultural norms and social, political and economic needs in communities around the world. Using this as a foundation, the authors present a dilemma to readers because there are both many communities and nations where the community college model has expanded and established itself while simultaneously many communities and nations around the world where community colleges do not exist or have been resisted. This unique phenomenon of both global expansion and targeted indifference becomes the focus of this chapter and an introduction to the chapters to follow.