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The purpose of this article is to illuminate the relations of work-related practices of local managers of live music events in Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) and barriers and needs of vulnerable customers (VC) in order to explore possibilities to increase cultural participation of VC.

This article explores work-related practices of managers of live music events in OWL and asks if and to what extent these practices have an influence on the cultural participation of “vulnerable customers” (VC). It combines the findings of two studies: a) an explorative investigation on the work-related self-conceptions of managers of live music events in OWL (Study 1), and b) a sub-project on cultural participation of VC, which is part of the research project “kulturPreis. Increasing cultural participation through innovative and economically sustainable pricing concepts”, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Study 2).

It can be stated that there is an imbalance of knowledge: while VC tend to have a clear understanding of which barriers are the responsibility of managers of live music events, managers tend to lack knowledge regarding the needs of VC, and regarding the interrelationships between financial and social barriers facing them. Whether this knowledge and understanding can be developed in the future depends on the possibilities of exchanges between managers of live music events, cultural institutions, welfare organisations, political institutions and not least VC.

Based on these studies, this article combines different approaches by linking work-related practices of managers of live music events with cultural participation of VC.

The aim of this study is to investigate how workers' work‐related identity is related to various forms of workplace learning. The study also aims to show how changes in the organization affect both learning and the work‐related identity construction of employees.

In‐depth interviews with four design engineers were conducted in 2000 and 2007 in Finland. Narrative analysis was used to construct four stories that were compared at two different points in time to find out what changes and development took place in relation to experiences of learning and work‐related identity.

The findings suggest that learning and work‐related identity are related to one another in many ways. Usually this relationship is individually constituted, but many of its elements are socially shared. Work‐related identity is constructed strategically as one of many identities constituted in the other areas of life.

The findings of this study show that employers should bear in mind the importance of this interrelationship in order to promote employees' commitment and so facilitate their continuous learning and construction of their work‐related identity.

This paper provides useful information on how changes in the organization affect both learning and the work‐related identity construction of employees.

This paper investigates how a new entrepreneurial identity forms in conjunction with prior work-related identities during sponsored self-employment after an emotional job loss.

The authors empirically examine why some dismissed employees failed and others succeeded in transitioning from a wage-earner career via corporate sponsorship to a career as an entrepreneur, investigating how those employees meaningfully constructed (or did not) an entrepreneurial identity.

The authors' findings show that the simultaneous preservation of central attributes of prior work-related identities and the engenderment of new entrepreneurial attributes support the formation of an entrepreneurial identity and that a liminal state, in which people practice entrepreneurship at work, may facilitate identity transition.

This paper demonstrates that the initial entrepreneurial endeavor is based on prior work-related identity and identity congruence between prior work-related identities and a projected entrepreneurial identity is of great importance for the identity transition. However, the authors also show that incongruence may in some cases turn into congruence if entrepreneurs are given the opportunity to experiment with provisional entrepreneurial selves in a risk-free environment (so-called liminal states).

Self-report questionnaires are the predominant method used in human resource management (HRM) research to assess employees’ work-related psychological constructs (e.g., processes, states, and attributes). However, this method is associated with significant shortcomings, including the introduction of self-serving bias and common method variance when used exclusively. In this chapter, the authors challenge the assumption that individuals themselves are the only accurate source of the self-focused information collected in HRM research. Instead, the authors propose that other-ratings – ratings of a target individual that are provided by a workplace observer, such as a coworker, supervisor, or subordinate – can accurately assess commonly measured work-related psychological constructs. The authors begin by explaining the advantages of other-ratings for HRM research and practice, reviewing the history of other-ratings and how they emerged in the personality and person-perception literature, and outlining how they have been used in HRM research to date. Then, the authors build upon Funder’s (1995) realistic accuracy model to develop a theoretical argument detailing why workplace others should be able to accurately judge how another employee thinks and feels about work. Next, the authors highlight existing evidence in the literature on the accuracy of other-ratings and present the results of a preliminary meta-analysis on the ability of other-ratings to predict self-ratings of work-related psychological constructs. Finally, the authors discuss potential moderators of other-rating accuracy and reflect on a number of practical considerations for researchers looking to use other-ratings in their own work. The authors intend for this chapter to meaningfully contribute to the larger conversation on HRM research methods. Other-ratings are a simple, yet powerful, addition to the methodological toolkit of HRM researchers that can increase flexibility in research design and improve the overall quality of research.

Via an experimental approach, this study therefore seeks to examine the effects of outcome valence upon service perception in the higher education setting where academic services form the core service element. To further extend this inquiry, the purpose of this paper is to explore the carryover effect of these emotional states to a subsequent unrelated service encounter which is classified as a peripheral service element which is hedonic in nature.

By using a simulated laboratory experimental procedure involving 300 participants, the authors examined the extent to which a student’s feeling toward an online test result has a bearing upon the teaching evaluation and a subsequent service experience in a branded retail context.

The results gathered from this study highlight the variability of the carryover effect of outcome valence from a work-related service context that serves as incidental emotions to a subsequent unrelated service encounter which is hedonic in nature. From the results gathered, variations were observed in relation to the dynamics of outcome valence in affecting core service evaluation where teaching quality was assessed, and in the peripheral service context in the form of retail experience at a branded cafè. From the basis of these findings, the psychological role of retail stores operating in a valence-oriented industry such as the higher education is discussed in this study.

Essentially, this study contributes to the academic literature and managerial practices by extending the knowledge in the dynamics of valence and its impact upon service perceptions.

This study adopts a simulated experimental design to assess the transference effect of valence in specific service encounters. This methodological approach offers greater reliability compared to existing studies which undertake a retrospective approach via questionnaire survey to examine outcome valence in service experiences. The results from this study provide important managerial implications by assessing the impact of valence upon customer satisfaction ratings which are commonly used for performance appraisal of service staff members. Additionally, the outcome of this study potentially assist managers to account for incidental emotions which may have an impact upon customer’s service experience.

The purpose of this paper is to examine artists’ experiences of involuntary career transitions and its impact on their work-related identities.

Semi-structured interviews with 40 artists in the Netherlands were conducted. Self-narratives were used to analyze the findings.

Artists who can no longer make a living out of their artistic activities are forced to start working outside the creative realm and are gradually pushed away from the creative industries. This loss of their creative identity leads to psychological stress and grief, making the professional transition problematic. Moreover, the artistic community often condemns an artist’s transition to other activities, making the transition psychologically even more straining.

This study provides in-depth insights into how artists deal with changes in their work-related identities in the light of involuntary career transitions.

Despite over 50 years of expatriation research, the implications of expatriation for identity remains an under-researched topic in mainstream international human resource management (IHRM) literature. Expatriation can cause disruption to expatriates' familiar sociocultural environment, which can often pose challenges to their self-concept and identity. The study underpinned by identity and social identity theories explores the perceptions of Spanish self-initiated expatriate (SIE) nurses living in Germany and other Spanish nurses who repatriated from Germany to understand the influence of expatriation on their self-concept and identity.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Spanish SIE nurses in Germany (n = 20) and others who had repatriated from Germany (n = 10). Data analysis was assisted by NVivo software.

The study identified that low proficiency in the host country language (HCL) and the problematic workplace interactions that ensued, challenged the participants' self-conceptions as competent professionals and prompted their reliance on social networks of fellow Spaniards for social validation.

Although focused on a specific context, the study not only enhances practical understanding of Spanish SIE nurses in Germany but also offers valuable insights to organisations working with SIEs. It adds to extant knowledge on language and identity in the expatriation context and discusses the implications for global HRM related to underutilisation of SIEs' knowledge and skills within organisations.

The study contributes to theory building on the under-researched link between expatriation and identity, while adding to the growing literature on SIEs.

Work-family conflict is a rapidly developing field of research, considering the changes that have occurred in the structure of the family and of work in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to put forward a wide theoretical framework that encompasses the relationships between organizational justice, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), job stress, and the work-family conflict. The authors suggest an explanatory model that associates those variables.

The explanatory model was empirically examined by means of structural equation modeling. In all, 120 Israeli-Arab employees responded to the research questionnaires.

As hypothesized, organizational justice was found to relate positively to OCB, and stress was found to relate positively to the work-family conflict. However, contrary to the hypotheses, OCB was found to relate negatively to job stress and work-family conflict. Namely, the higher the OCB, the lower the job stress.

Theoretical implications and suggestions for possible future research were advanced.

Organizations that want to avoid the negative implications of the work-family conflict should encourage OCBs, which reduce the workers’ job-related stress and consequently reduce the conflict between the realms of family and work.

Almost all historical accounts of psychological work related to the self-concept begin with the pioneering work of William James (e.g., Harter, 1996; Pajares & Schunk, 2002, 2005; Roeser et al., 2006). James' distinction between the self as knower and agent (the I-self) and the self as known and object (the Me-self), in the famous Chap. 10, on self-consciousness, in his Principles of Psychology (1890), undoubtedly informs much subsequent work on the self-concept (a term that James never used himself). In particular, the general idea that the self is made up of different constituents (e.g., the Me-self contains material, social, and spiritual selves) arranged hierarchically is still very much a basic structural assumption in many contemporary theories of the self-concept, just as James' assumption that the I-self can create and monitor a variety of Me-selves anchors much self-concept methodology and process theorizing. With respect to the general aims of self-concept research, James' framing of self-esteem (a term he did use) also has been extremely influential on subsequent generations of both self-esteem and self-concept researchers. For James, self-esteem is a feeling that “depends entirely on what we back ourselves to be and do” (James, 1981, p. 310), a feeling that depends on the success with which we achieve those things we set out to achieve.²