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Examines the impact of cultural values on the effectiveness and use of 19 organization development interventions. Uses a qualitative, expert consensus methodology to collect data from seven culturally diverse countries: Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Denmark, the People′s Republic of China, Venezuela, and Japan. Results support the hypothesis that the more congruent a culture is with the values of organization development, the more interventions will have both greater use and effectiveness. Suggests that specific cultural values, i.e. masculine/feminine, appear to be closely linked to specific interventions′ effectiveness.

2010 marked the 50th anniversary of Douglas McGregor's publication of The Human Side of Enterprise. The purpose of this paper is to revisit McGregor's classic book to establish some of his principles that are still being utilized today, as well as some that have been forgotten or discarded.

This paper utilizes specific quotes to establish McGregor's “lessons”. They are placed in historical context, and evaluated, through a selected literature review.

Among the lessons learned is the fact that management can be systematically studied, successful management involves creating a particular type of environment, and employee diversity is a major asset for organizations. Included among the lessons lost are: management requires us to develop cause and effect models, management should focus upon the employees reaching self‐actualization, authority is a weak management tool, and management is the source of employee problems.

It behooves any scientific field to revisit its founding principles, particularly to review what essential lessons might have been misplaced over time.

McGregor's general “Theory X Theory Y” are well known, but seldom are the principles he laid out in creating the model explored, nor are they compared to modern management practices.

A major difficulty in controlling sexual harassment is that it is actually a perceptual phenomenon. A survey was created to determine what effects a perpetrator’s gender and management status and evaluator’s education have on whether fifteen behaviors are perceived as sexual harassment. Responses indicated a strong negative bias towards male superiors, while a positive bias appeared for female peers. Graduate degree subjects perceived more of the behaviors as harassing, but were much less biased than subjects with only undergraduate degrees. Sexual harassment is a critical concern for today’s managers. Although believed to be grossly under reported,the number of harassment complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) increased 71 percent during 1991 alone, and this trend is expected to continue (Kleiman 1992). In fact, where the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender, allowed relief only in the form of specific performance (such as reinstatement), the Civil Rights Act of 1991 allows for compensatory and punitive damages (Patterson 1993). The effect of this modification is to greatly increase the financial liability of employer wrong doers for harassment. The issue’s depth is staggering in that 42.5 percent of all U.S.working women and 12.5 percent of the working men feel they have been sexually harassed on the job (Bradshaw 1987) Niven 1992). While sexual harassment is not actually perpetrated by the organization, the EEOC holds the employer responsible for its prevention, and courts consequently hold the employer liable for its occurrence where the employer knew, or should have known, about the harassment (Ellison v. Brady 1991).

THE St. Venant theory as applied to long beams of constant cross‐section could generally be used with sufficient accuracy for the solution of the structures encountered in aircraft until the last few years. The wings of high‐speed aircraft, with smaller aspect ratios, large angles of sweep‐back, and small thickness/chord ratios, introduce a new problem. There is an extensive literature on the subject, and all the methods which have been proposed are necessarily studies of redundant systems, the degree of redundancy varying according to the accuracy required. As these solutions require that the scantlings of the structure be known in advance, it was thought interesting to establish a simple method which would determine to a good approximation the skin thicknesses required. This is based on the application of the theorem of least work, which gives exact solutions of elasticity problems so long as all the terms in the strain energy expression are taken into account.

For this third column in the IT I‐V (information technology interview) series, we interview library systems directors. While library directors (first column) and chief information officers (second column) addressed similar questions from a high‐level administrative perspective, this time we look at the practical aspects of these issues as told by systems directors working closely with the technologies themselves. Some of the questions were: “What challenges do you see libraries experiencing now and in the near future that could be assisted by information technology?”, “What would you like technologists/library automation vendors to work on that you do not see any progress in at this time?”, “What do you see as the ideal relationship between the library and the information technology offices of your campus or government unit?”, and “If you could explain one thing to technologists/library automation vendors that would help communication between you and them, what would it be?”.

There has been an upsurge of publications based on Hermann Witkin's ground-breaking work on cognitive styles and human perception differentiated into field-dependent and field-independent styles (Winerman, 2006; Nisbett & Miyamoto, 2005; Nisbett, 2003). This paper builds on current and past research of Witkin (1969) and applies his concepts to the study of global managers and OD practitioners. The goal is to describe core aspects of culture-related challenges, which global mangers and OD practitioners have to overcome, and ends with proposing future research on the possibilities of training global managers and OD practitioners in order to develop integrated perceptual-cognitive ability (IPCA). Such an IPCA competence would allow them to master both field dependent and field-independent perceptual-cognitive skills.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

Develops an original 12‐step management of technology protocol and applies it to 51 applications which range from Du Pont’s failure in Nylon to the Single Online Trade Exchange for Auto Parts procurement by GM, Ford, Daimler‐Chrysler and Renault‐Nissan. Provides many case studies with regards to the adoption of technology and describes seven chief technology officer characteristics. Discusses common errors when companies invest in technology and considers the probabilities of success. Provides 175 questions and answers to reinforce the concepts introduced. States that this substantial journal is aimed primarily at the present and potential chief technology officer to assist their survival and success in national and international markets.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.