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There is a vast literature on managers' values and beliefs. However, there have been very few attemps to identify British managers' values or beliefs and relate them to employee relations practice. Marsh's survey of practice included questions on managerial values but this researcher did not attempt to develop a set of values which could explain differences between organisations. The objective of the current research reported here was to identify a paradigm of values and beliefs about employee relations as a basis for understanding differences in practices. The central proposition for the research was: There are among British managers identifiable values and beliefs about work, employment, management, effective organisations and the role of government in employee relations to explain, in part, differences in employee relations practice.

To examine consumers' beliefs about organic foods and their relationship with socio‐demographics and self‐transcendence (universal, benevolence) personal values.

A random questionnaire‐based mail survey of 500 Australian (Victorian) adults (58 per cent response) was used. The questionnaire included items on organic food beliefs, the importance of self‐transcendence values as guiding principles in life, and socio‐demographics. Statistical analyses included cross‐tabulations of organic food beliefs by socio‐demographics and multiple regression analyses of positive organic food beliefs with personal value and socio‐demographic items as the independent variables.

The majority of participants believed organic food to be healthier, tastier and better for the environment than conventional food. However, expense and lack of availability were strong barriers to the purchasing of organic foods. Generally, women were more positive about organic food than men (e.g. women were more likely to agree that organic food has more vitamins/minerals than conventional food). The personal value factor related to nature, environment and equality was the dominant predictor of positive organic food beliefs, followed by sex. These predictors accounted for 11 per cent of the variance.

A survey response bias needs to be taken into account. However, the response rate was adequate for reporting and differences in age and education between participants and the Victorian population were taken into account in data presentation. Future understanding of consumers' use of organic foods will require the inclusion of a fairly extensive set of potential influences.

Communication appeals based on psychographics may be a more effective way to alter consumers' beliefs about organic foods than those based on demographic segmentation.

To the best of one's knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between personal values, socio‐demographics and organic food beliefs in a random population sample. This study is relevant to producers, processors and retailers of organic food and those involved with food and agricultural policy.

This chapter defines culture and explains the different conceptual models developed by critical researchers in the field. First, the authors explain why it is essential for us to learn to see our cultures. Next, the chapter breaks the conceptual model of culture into its essential elements, including assumptions, beliefs, values, behaviors, and artifacts. The authors explain why and how each organization’s culture is unique – and walk through the factors that influence our organizational cultures. Finally, the chapter reminds us that it is hard to deliberately change an organization’s culture, because it is inherently dynamic. Instead, each organization should strive to understand how these factors affect our organizations.

Expectancy-value theory is prominent in different areas in psychology, and a number of educational and developmental psychologists who study the development of achievement motivation have utilized this theory in their work (see Schunk, Pintrich, & Meece, 2006; Weiner, 1992; Wigfield & Eccles, 1992; Wigfield, Tonks, & Klauda, 2009 for overviews). In this chapter, we discuss current expectancy-value theoretical models of achievement motivation and review research based on these models. Much of this research has focused on the development of children's expectancies and values, and how expectancies and values relate to performance, choice of different activities, and emotions. We discuss the major findings from each of these areas of research. We also provide suggestions for future research based in this theory for the next decade. We focus our review and suggestions for future research primarily on elementary and secondary school students, but include some relevant work done with college students.

The purpose of this paper, in the context of the employment equity (EE) field, is to explore the relationship between individual values/beliefs and simulated hiring decisions of minority candidates in Canada, France and Ireland.

Individual values/beliefs were elicited using Likert type scales; subjects responded to a series of simulated hiring scenarios.

The link between individual value and belief systems and EE‐related HR decision making on recruitment of minority candidates is modestly supported by the findings presented here. The values/beliefs of students from leading business schools influenced, if in part, their simulated hiring decisions on minority candidates presented in the scenarios. National context also matters as EE institutions differ at the societal level of analysis.

The subjects were business school students of limited work experience addressing scenario situations, not practicing managers making real hiring decisions. The use of self‐reports leads to the usual issues related to common method variance, the consistency motif, social desirability bias, and so on and we note the limits due to the reverse ecological fallacy. Research findings provide modest support to this argument but should be treated with caution.

Individual values and beliefs matter in HR decision making on recruitment of minority candidates.

Much EE research focuses on antecedents of values/beliefs; this paper is one of a handful of investigations that attempts to establish possible outcomes of values/beliefs towards EE.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on one product category, organic wine, to provide a possible explanation for consumers' purchase behaviors regarding organic wine. Specifically, the authors consider the role of environmental protection and hedonistic values and their impact on organic wine purchases.

Hypotheses are proposed to examine relationships between environmental and hedonic values in organic wine purchasing. Online survey data were collected from 321 wine drinkers in the USA. Partial least‐squared analysis was used to test hypothesized paths between latent variables.

In total, ten of the 13 proposed linkages were supported by the data. Values reflecting the need for environmental protection and for living a hedonistic life were found to lead to belief systems that influence the purchase of organic wines.

The results demonstrate that hedonistic and environmental protection values and beliefs can partially explain the propensity to purchase organic wines. The study is limited in that only two values were investigated.

The results indicate several marketing implications for professionals around communication, promotion, and point‐of‐sale information for organic wine.

This is the first study to integrate environmental and hedonistic values to explain the purchase of organic wines.

Organizations are implementing sustainability initiatives in different countries with varied socio-cultural systems. The literature on sustainability, however, does not present a clear picture of how national culture can influence interpretations of the meaning of sustainability and how these differences in interpretation can result in different sustainability practices. The purpose of this paper is to build upon the current literature by identifying mechanisms (i.e. sustainability beliefs and perceptions) that mediate the relationship between national cultural values and organizational sustainability initiatives.

The authors examine the literature on culture and sustainability practices, and develop a conceptual model that identifies how cultural values influence the sustainability initiatives of organizations. Several propositions are identified that specify relationships among the constructs, and guidelines are provided for testing the model in future research.

The model posits that national culture influences sustainability beliefs and perceptions, which in turn influence the quantity and scope of sustainability initiatives. The relationship between sustainability beliefs and organizational sustainability initiatives is moderated by sustainability orientation and organizational capacity.

The model can help researchers and practitioners better understand the meaning of sustainability in the context of international business by identifying the mechanisms that explain the link between culture and sustainability. It can also help researchers generate hypotheses for future research. Finally, the model can guide multinational corporations attempting to drive sustainability programs through their subsidiaries as well as international developmental agencies trying to develop programs in partnership with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of moral philosophy on the ethical beliefs of auditors. The paper argues that an individual's moral philosophy is the key factor in how one views ethical issues and largely determines the ethical choices one makes. The paper also seeks to discover the influence of personal values on the reasoning processes associated with ethics and to explore whether the personal value preferences of auditors, as a manifestation of their moral philosophy, influence their ethical beliefs and (presumably) their subsequent actions.

The authors designed a survey instrument to assess the value preferences, moral philosophies, and reactions of practicing auditors to judgment dilemmas. They then employed structural equation modeling to examine the sensitivity of auditors to the competence and integrity of clients with the aim of gaining insight into the ethical beliefs of auditors in general.

These results show that value preferences alone fail as predictors of ethical beliefs. Instead, personal values have an indirect influence on ethical beliefs via moral philosophy. Moreover, auditors strongly motivated by values based on self‐enhancement were negatively associated with idealism in ethics and positively associated with relativism. Therefore, it can be concluded that idealist auditors were more likely to condemn the actions of clients that violated moral norms, while relativist auditors were more permissive.

The results identify the role of moral philosophy as a mediator for the personal values and ethical beliefs of auditors, shedding light on how personal values can influence ethical sensitivity.