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This paper provides an overview of an improvement project that explored whether the implementation of IoRN2, a validated freely available tool designed for any health or social care professional to use, resulted in improved conversations across professions within an integrated rehabilitative reablement service.

A qualitative descriptive evaluative approach was applied underpinned by quality improvement Lean and Total Quality Management (TQM) to capture perceptions, variables and IoRN2 value-add. Professionals' (N = 8) across Nursing, Allied Health Professions, Social Work, Quality Improvement and Support Workers participated in one-to-one semi-structured <1 h interviews. Recurring themes and experiences were identified.

IoRN2 improved collaborative conversations. The evaluation of the tool demonstrated greatest impact when all professionals were IoRN2 trained. Participants, regardless of profession, believed that their conversations, professional relationships and outcomes improved when using IoRN2. When differing judgments arose with colleagues who were not IoRN2 trained, fear and tension emerged around trust, cultural manners and power play causing disconnects. Incorporating IoRN2 led to psychologically safe environments where trust, confidence and motivation to explore new creative conversations enhanced strength-based outcomes and helped to generate transformational change.

The small sample size offered transferable learning worthy of larger future study. The project lead was also the reablement service manager, which may have generated unintended influence.

IoRN2 has the potential to improve how HSC professionals converse, acting as a catalytic tool for system-level integration, transformation and sustainable improvement.

Emphasizes that without management that is active and astute, brand “intent” will not translate into what might be called the “customer experience” – the feelings and thoughts of people who learn, buy and purchase etc. Recommends four fundamental blueprints for building a solid internal foundation: create the brand intent; align the organization; deliver the customer experience; and measure and refine. States in summary that, when a company makes and fulfils its promises re its brands, customers will stick with that company, such as Heineken, Wal‐Mart, Dell Computers, Audi, FedEx and Wendy’s, which are all at the top of their categories’ growth in sales.

With the job market as it is for many college graduates, it is more important than ever that students choose those professional and graduate schools which will best meet their individual needs and help them achieve their goals. The process of graduate school selection is often difficult, but libraries can facilitate the process with a good collection of specialized guides to graduate schools, frequently obtainable at little cost.

This paper reviews brand equity and customer satisfaction as they relate to customer loyalty and relationship marketing in an effort to understand and mitigate some of the challenges facing quick‐service restaurants (QSRs) today.

The authors reviewed over 30 articles on the subjects of brand equity, customer equity, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, communal relationships, relationship marketing, and pseudo‐relationship marketing, as well as researched and evaluated current marketing techniques used by selected QSRs.

It is concluded by the authors that customer satisfaction, brand equity, and loyalty are invaluable to the formation of customer loyalty, as is the understanding that customers' relationships with companies need to be treated with the same respect as personal relationships.

Customer loyalty has been shown to be beneficial to a company, both tangibly and intangibly. Companies are cautioned in their use of relationship marketing techniques used to foster customer loyalty and encouraged to use methods that benefit both themselves and their customers.

This paper analyzes many different factors that affect customer loyalty, as well as discusses how relationship marketing techniques can be utilized by the QSR industry.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between and corporate environmental responsibility (CER) and audit risk.

A survey participation request was mailed to 5,008 US auditors at random. The request provided a link to an electronic survey. The final sample consists of anonymous responses from 163 auditors.

The authors find that auditors, on average, do not perceive a significant relationship between corporate environmental strengths and audit risk; however, they do perceive an increase in audit risk among firms with corporate environmental concerns. Use of CER in the risk assessment process also varies across types of CER: 15 per cent of auditors use corporate environmental strengths to assess audit risk, while 43 per cent of auditors use corporate environmental concerns to assess audit risk. Perception of the CER/audit risk relationship is a significant determinant of CER use. Finally, both types of CER are found to have average usefulness in the risk assessment process.

The findings are limited to US auditors; results may not be transferable to other countries.

Studies involving the impact of CER on earnings generally involve archival data. By examining the impact of CER on audit risk, using a unique dataset, the authors present a different and timely setting to study the CER/earnings relationship. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to document the relationship between CER and audit risk.

The purpose of this paper is to examine an initial set of characteristics and traits that may reduce officer recruitment turnover by increasing a cadet’s decision to contract vs those that do not contract (contracting represents a written commitment to commission into an US Armed Services Organization after graduation). This paper is the first of a larger, long-term project. The factors of particular interest in this initial study are generalized self-efficacy, grit, and perceived organizational support (POS).

Computer-based surveys containing variables of interest were administered to a random sample of freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior cadets over a period of three years. Data for 517 cadets responding to the survey were analyzed using logistical regression to test hypotheses examining whether or not self-efficacy, grit, and POS were positively related to cadets’ decisions to contract.

Logistical regression results indicated that self-efficacy and grit were not significantly related to contracting decisions. However, cadets’ decisions to contract were significantly related to POS.

A significant limitation of this study is the fact that data were collected using a self-report, single survey methodology. However, there were no patterns of significant correlations between self-report variables that seemed to indicate that this was a major issue in the current study. The primary implication of this study is that cadets’ perceptions of support (i.e. POS) provided by the organization do seem to influence their decisions to contract, with this influence being particularly notable in their freshmen year.

The current study represents a unique context where individuals are making decisions to commit to an organization for a minimum of four years after graduation. Further, the commitment is being made to a military organization. The initial findings of this analysis provided the organization in this study with keen insight regarding possible factors to address or be aware of in relation to cadets’ decisions to contract. This approach and these findings can be extended to other organizations in understanding factors impacting decisions related to long-term commitments of individuals.

The purpose of this paper is to engage the ecological model as a conceptual tool to examine the ethics of conducting research on LGBTQ+ individuals in the workplace. In particular, it focuses on outness and the act of outing in research.

Established methodologies for studying LGBTQ+ persons in the workplace are examined using a critical outness lens. The ecological model is used to identify a critical path forward for researchers working with LGBTQ+ participants and to improve LGBTQ+ workplace experiences more broadly.

The tension between the ethics of coming out of the closet and the ethics of outing someone for the greater good is problematized. It suggests that organizational and diversity scholars approach research methods with an understanding of the role played by the body and sexuality in LGBTQ+ workplace research.

Researchers should recognize that workers may have varying degrees of outness within their organization and/or across their private and public lives.

Research on LGBTQ+ persons in the workplace is limited, and research examining the ethics of relevant methods is scarcer still. This paper begins a discussion on how researchers can trouble current hegemonic approaches to LGBTQ+-centered research in organizations.

Addresses the issue of cultural diversity in the workplace. Covers the subjects of gender, multiculturalism and age‐related issues, providing a number of statistics for examples. Looks at the impact of technology in areas such as intranets, e‐mail and Web marketing, customer relationship management, virtual offices, automation and virtual teams. Examines the implications of these relationships for corporate America today and in the future.

This paper aims to explore how and why volunteers share knowledge and engage in other related knowledge activities. The paper offers an interpretation of participants’ multiple realities to enable a better understanding of managing volunteer knowledge, which ultimately underpins organisational performance and effectiveness.

A qualitative, hermeneutic phenomenological study of volunteers (n = 28) at UK music festivals was conducted through in-depth interviews (n = 9), diaries (n = 11) or both (n = 8). This interpretivist approach adopted purposive sampling to recruit participants through (social) media.

The findings illustrate how and why volunteers share knowledge that is attributed to a successful process of volunteering, which enables effective knowledge management and knowledge reproduction. Where volunteers’ motivations are satisfied, this leads to repeat volunteering. Knowledge enablers and the removal of barriers create conditions that are conducive for knowledge sharing, which have similar characteristics to conditions for continuance commitment. Where volunteers do not return, the organisation leaks knowledge.

Although high-quality research standards were maintained, participant self-selection may result in overly positive experiences. Future research might explore the impact on knowledge sharing of negative volunteering experiences.

Practical recommendations include factors that contribute to effective volunteer co-ordination and volunteering experiences, which are enablers for knowledge sharing. These fall within two categories, namely, areas for continuance (i.e. those aspects that should be maintained because they contribute to effective volunteer co- ordination and experiences) and areas for improvement (i.e. those aspects of volunteer co-ordination that are either currently lacking or require development or enhancement).

This paper’s original contribution is demonstrated through the use of hermeneutic phenomenological methods in the exploration of individuals’ perspectives of knowledge sharing in the context of temporary organisations. This paper provides value to academics studying knowledge management and volunteer management, and practitioners managing volunteers.