Choose, Choose, Choose, Choose, Choose, Choose, Choose: Emerging and Prospective Research on the Deleterious Effects of Living in Consumer Hyperchoice

The ideology of consumption and the imperative of consumer choice have washed across the globe. In today's developed economies there is an ever-increasing amount of buying, amidst an ever-increasing amount of purchase options, amidst an ever-increasing amount of stress, amidst an ever-decreasing amount of discretionary time. This brief essay reviews research suggesting, for example, that hyperchoice confuses people and increases regret, that hyperchoice is initially attractive but ultimately unsatisfying, and that hyperchoice is psychologically draining. Future research is then discussed, including how and why hyperchoice may have other toxic effects on people, including the degrading of moral emotions and behavior.     

Perceptions of Power Within a Membership-based Seniors' Community Center

As opportunities for citizenship diminish in everyday life amid increasing consumption and privatization, there is a growing realization of the importance of participation and citizen power, particularly for older adults. Gaventa's (1980) Gaventa, J. (1980). Power and powerlessness: Quiescence and rebellion in an Appalachian Valley. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. [Google Scholar] concepts of visible, invisible, and hidden power and Arnstein's ladder of citizen power (1969) framed this study, which used participatory methods, including creation and facilitation of a members' group at a small seniors' center, to address the question: What are the factors that undermine or cultivate citizen power at a small community center for seniors? The data were organized under three power-related themes: powerlessness, reluctance to claim power, and claiming power. Findings suggest that negative social constructions associated with aging act as instruments of invisible power. Further, community center membership, to be considered meaningful, should be imbued with visible power, so that seniors can be involved in decision making and leadership.     

An evaluation of ecotourism in Amazonas, Brazil

Registered “ecotour” lodges were studied using observation and interviews with visitors, employees, and local people. Findings were evaluated using proposed ecotourism principles. Besides providing employment, lodges improve access, stimulate new services (health utilities, etc.), and make valued but limited local purchases. In other ways, lodges fall short of the ideals inherent in the principles. They contribute little to conservation education, resource protection, or the involvement and empowerment of local people. Tourists wish to see and would support conservation and community development programs both financially and via their future selection of ecotour operators. Numerous implications for concessions, protected area management, and rural development in Amazonas are discussed.     

Profiling consumers of own brands and national brands using human personality

Traditional methods of market segmentation based on demographic variables have shown mixed results in differentiating between those who are more likely to buy own brand products and those who prefer national brands. Taking advantage of the emerging convergence in human personality research on the Big Five dimensions, we focus on the potential of human personality as a method of identifying different customer segments. Two types of own brands are considered, those labelled with the retailer's corporate name and those labelled with a name independent of the retailer. Two product categories are included, cola as an example of a low-involvement product and cosmetics as an example of a high-involvement product. The personality profiles of buyers of these and the leading national brands in each category are compared. Stepwise regression is used to identify those aspects of shopper personality that predict purchase rates of all products. Individuals who are more ‘open to experience’ report higher purchases of corporately named products, while individuals who are more ‘extrovert’ report higher purchases of national brands. Those reporting higher rates of purchase for own brands with independent names tend to be more ‘agreeable’ and ‘extrovert’. The positioning of the three types of brands against the 5 dimensions of human personality is illustrated using correspondence analysis. The clear potential to use human personality to segment and profile markets for own brands and national brands is discussed.     

Light pollution,sleep deprivation,and infant health at birth

We conduct the first study to examine the fetal health impact of light pollution based on a direct measure of skyglow, an important aspect of light pollution. Using an empirical regularity discovered in physics (called Walker's law) as an instrumental variable, we address the potential endogeneity problem associated with the skyglow variable. We find evidence of reduced birth weight, shortened gestational length, and increases in preterm births. Specifically, increased nighttime brightness, characterized by being able to see only one‐fourth to one‐third of the stars that are visible in the natural unpolluted night sky, is associated with an increase of 1.48 percentage points in the likelihood of a preterm birth. Our study adds to the literature on the impact of early‐life exposure to pollution, which so far has focused primarily on air pollution. Our study has important policy implications regarding the necessity of minimizing skyglow that is, for example, contributed by streetlights.     

Downsizing and the changing role of HR

This paper examines the changing role of HR in the specific context of downsizing. It highlights the key dilemmas facing HR professionals - on the one hand, the contribution of HRM to the achievement of business results has come under increasing scrutiny and, on the other hand, most of the challenges of downsizing are people-related issues that require sophisticated HR interventions. The paper reports the key findings of a pilot study conducted in sixty organizations in the UK that downsized in the last three years. The key conclusion of the study is that the role of HR has become wide ranging, covering the strategic as well as implementation aspects. The clear message from the study suggests that, unless there is alignment between the two aspects, the envisaged benefits of downsizing are unlikely take place. Key challenges facing HR professionals are managing middle managers, managing careers and managing employee expectations. There are indications to suggest that the process role of HR is likely to become more important in the medium and longer terms.     

The effect of ethnic diversity on expatriate managers in their host country

Expatriate managers often encounter considerable obstacles in their overseas workplaces. While there is significant research on expatriate management and adjustment, relying on social identity and acculturation theories, little research addresses the expatriate experience of ethnic diversity in the host country. To address this gap, the aim of this study is to explore how Australian expatriate managers interpret their experience of working in a new and ethnically diverse workplace in Malaysia. The qualitative analysis suggests that the key to performing in such a context lies in the individual's ability to change and adapt beyond culture and language skills. The key managerial implication is that cross-cultural training can assist with the development of personal attributes by expatriate managers involved in ethnically diverse workplaces. Implications for future research are provided.     

Ten years after: Interference of hospital slack in process performance benefits of quality practices

We investigate the long-term relationship between an organization's quality management practices and process-level performance. Further, we examine whether availability of organizational slack over the study interval interferes with the relationship between quality practices and process performance. Organizational slack consists of the available and accessible resources in an organization; we focus here on unabsorbed slack in the form of financial resources. We investigate the quality practices of U.S. general acute care hospitals, measured by their depth of implementation of practices characterizing a total quality management system, and use them to predict process performance related to four medical conditions. Analysis reveals differing effects that are dependent on hospital slack conditions. In hospitals with high slack, quality practices significantly predict three of four studied process performance measures. In contrast, in hospitals with low slack, quality practices predict only one of the four process performance measures, while other factors outweigh the effects of quality practices. This study lends support to management taking a long-term perspective related to implementation of quality management systems, and highlights the relevance of slack conditions in garnering the benefits of such systems.