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The established role of communication in sustainability studies is mainly to transmit information, about or for sustainability: disciplinary knowledge or mobilization of popular support. This chapter addresses the sustainability of communication itself, with a performance accounting framework for sustainability of organizational communication. The organizational emphasis derives from incorporating basic concepts from the work of James R. Taylor and the “Montreal School” approach to theorizing organizational communication. Communication as “text” (discursive formats and genres) and “conversation” (interactive, situational sense-making, and exchange) is assessed according to narrative and dramatistic logics in addition to instrumental ones; and sustainability standards are applied to “triadic” dimensions of communications: (1) the physical-artifactual substratum, or “carriers” of communication, including technologies, (2) symbolic forms that convey information, meanings, and ideologies, and (3) relations and interactions of communicative role-playing. The goal is to provide for sustainable knowledge, meaning, and participation mainly in organizational settings.

Contemporary emphasis on language and communication in mental health research and practice establishes the need for a communication model that addresses the variety of contexts – institutional, social, and cultural – in which attribution of mental disorders, treatment, and recovery occur. A ‘triadic’ approach to communication considers sufferers’: (1) transactions with environmental circumstances; (2) interpretive engagement with symbolic/discursive resources; and (3) relational interactions with others. Foundations for the model derive from pragmatism, systems theory, and theories of dialogue. A brief case study of depressive illness illustrates the value of the model. Implications for the organization of professional expertise in mental health fields are discussed.

Although a significant body of work has amassed that explores the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of employee turnover in organizations, little is known about how employees go about quitting once they have made the decision to leave. That is, after the decision to voluntarily quit their job is made, employees must then navigate through the process of planning for their exit, announcing their resignation, and potentially working at their company for weeks after their plans to resign have been made public. Our lack of understanding of the resignation process is important as how employees quit their jobs has the potential to impact the performance and turnover intentions of other organizational members, as well as to harm or benefit the reputation of the organization, overall. Moreover, voluntary turnover is likely to increase in the coming decades. In this chapter, we unpack the resignation process. Specifically, drawing from the communication literature and prior work on employee socialization, we develop a three-stage model of the resignation process that captures the activities and decisions employees face as they quit their jobs, and how individual differences may influence how they behave in each of these three stages. In doing so, we develop a foundation upon which researchers can begin to build a better understanding of what employees go through after they have decided to quit but before they have exited their organization for the final time.

In this chapter, the authors review talent management in the research university sector, business schools in particular. The authors adopt an “exclusive” perspective on talent management, assuming that some scholars contribute disproportionately to organizational performance. The authors identify two particular groups of scholars likely to be the target of exclusive talent management practices in business schools: (i) faculty on a tenure track career path and (ii) “star” tenured faculty with exceptionally strong track records. Focusing on these current and potential future “stars,” the authors review and discuss talent management practices related to talent identification, recruitment and selection, performance management, talent development, benefits and rewards, and tenure, promotion, and retention. In the extant literature, these topics have been mostly examined in the general university environment and less so in the business school context. This is somewhat problematic given that business schools have their own special characteristics. Moreover, some of the reviewed topics – especially talent development – have received only marginal scholarly interest thus far. Based on this literature review, and by drawing on their own experience working in different roles in academia, the authors highlight some of the gaps in the current body of knowledge and propose an agenda for future research.

Previous studies of business‐government relations have tended to take either a macro approach (using a single theoretical framework to explain all business‐government relations) or a micro approach (one that fails to explain why business‐government relations have not improved over time). This article applies Lowi′s four‐part typology of policy types. In order to test the typology′s usefulness, a survey of business executives and government officials was carried out. The findings confirmed the thesis: business satisfaction with its relationship to government will be highest in the case of distributive policies, and decline to lowest in the case of constituent policies. A “meso‐level” theoretical framework is recommended to provide not only a better understanding of the multi‐levelled character of business‐government relations, but also future research with a practical orientation.

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

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

This study, using a longitudinal design, examined the relationship of perceived organizational support (POS) and job satisfaction among hospital‐based nursing staff survivors of significant healthcare restructuring. In addition, the role of both restructuring processes and restructuring stressors in affecting POS, and the potential mediating role of POS in the relationship between both restructuring processes and stressors and job satisfaction, was considered. Data were collected from 393 respondents at two points separated by three years. Levels of POS were relatively low on both occasions and declined slightly over the three year period. POS and job satisfaction were found to have a bi‐directional relationship over time. Both restructuring processes and stressors had significant relationships with POS, positive and negative respectively. POS fully mediated the relationship between restructuring processes and job satisfaction and partially mediated the relationship between restructuring stressors and job satisfaction.

The use of organisms as a parallel to enable better understanding of organisations has been used infrequently in marketing. The organismic metaphor is brought to the attention of the marketing community. The power of the metaphor is established by making physical and functional parallels between organisms and organisations. Different types of organisations can be viewed as species and some discussion is made about the usefulness of Darwin′s Theory of Natural Selection. The importance of Marketing Information Systems (MIS) is viewed in terms of providing sensory information about the external and internal environment. The existence of systems in nature which can be likened to information‐gathering systems in business suggests a “natural” need for marketing information systems.