Call to arms: time to fight an epidemic

According to the National Institutes of Health (2008), 108 million Americans are overweight and/or obese. In 1997, the World Health Organization noted that this was a major public health problem and it is no longer just an American problem. Clinically, nurses must find ways to have conversations with clients about weight and healthy lifestyles in ways that do blame the victim. Take a look at the vending machines for patients and their families in waiting rooms. Is there anything in those machines that we could consider healthy? Nurse leaders are in the ideal position to help their organizations consider the development and implementation of a wellness program. Most importantly, we have to start talking about the issue and find ways to develop multi-pronged approaches to confront the obesity epidemic.     

Retaining repatriates: the role of organizational support practices

The issue of repatriate turnover continues to be a challenge for many multinational companies today. This article describes several repatriate support practices offered by organizations—and how effective they are at lowering repatriates’ turnover intentions. We found that supportive repatriate practices offered by companies improved the repatriates’ general perceptions about their companies. Repatriates who were offered more of these supportive practices, and believed that such programs were relevant and important for their successful repatriation, felt as though their company cared about their overall well-being—and ultimately, had a greater desire to remain with the company upon repatriation. These findings were based on a study with 58 expatriates from four North American-based multinational organizations.     

Dynamic cross-cultural competencies and global leadership effectiveness

Analyzing data from a sample of 420 global leaders (matched with 221 supervisors), we found a combined effect of personality characteristics (extraversion, openness to experience, and lower neuroticism) and cross-cultural experiences (organization-initiated cross-cultural work experiences and non-work cross-cultural experiences) as predictors of dynamic cross-cultural competencies (tolerance of ambiguity, cultural flexibility, and reduced ethnocentrism). These competencies, in turn, are predictors of supervisors’ ratings of global leadership effectiveness. Our study suggests that developmental cross-cultural experiences occur through both work-related and non-work activities. The results suggest that both selection and development are critical for building a pipeline of effective global leaders.     

Ownership Structure and IPO Underpricing

Abstract:   Stoughton and Zechner (1998) and Brennan and Franks (1997) argue that underpricing can be employed to determine post IPO ownership structure, and thereby to influence monitoring and/or control of the company post issue. This paper employs unique data relating to shareholdings of firms listing on the London Stock Exchange, and provides compelling evidence that IPO underpricing does not arise from efforts to determine the ownership structure of the post IPO firm. It is suggested that research is directed elsewhere to find an answer to the underpricing phenomenon, and for means other than IPO underpricing to affect post IPO ownership structure.