Subordinate perceptions of family‐supportive supervision: the role of similar family‐related demographics and its effect on affective commitment

Using survey data from 227 employees, we draw from shared reality theory to study subordinate perceptions of family‐supportive supervision, its antecedents and outcomes. We focus on similarity in salient subordinate and supervisor family‐related demographics as an antecedent to perceived family‐supportive supervision. As expected, female subordinates perceived more family‐supportive supervision from female supervisors than from male supervisors. Likewise, parent subordinates perceived parent supervisors, compared with nonparent supervisors, to be more family supportive. Subordinate perception of family‐supportive supervision also positively related to affective commitment – mediating the indirect positive relationship between similarity in family‐related demographics and affective commitment.     

Monitoring in service triads consisting of buyers, subcontractors and end customers

Organisations increasingly outsource service delivery to specialist subcontractors. These buyers, their subcontractors and their end customers operate in a triadic service relationship. In these triads, the buyer lacks direct control over service delivery and completely depends on the subcontractor for its performance towards its end customers. Subcontractors are confronted with two principals (buyer and end customer) who may have conflicting objectives.Although traditionally focusing on dyadic buyer–seller relationships rather than triads, Agency Theory provides valuable suggestions on the type of contract to be used and the type of monitoring to be employed. We adopt Agency Theory as a theoretical lens to look at the buyer–subcontractor–end customer triad and develop propositions on the design of contractual arrangements and monitoring activities. We use the results of two cases of service triads to provide some initial validation for these propositions.     

Mary Frank Fox, Deborah G. Johnson, and Sue V. Rosser, eds. Women, Gender, and Technology

This book adds a series of essays to the burgeoning theoreticaland empirical work on women, gender, and technology. Its intentionis to "encourage, facilitate and bring to an interdisciplinaryaudience such a range of theory, research and applications onwomen, gender and technology" (viii). In her introduction, DeborahG. Johnson maintains that a "co-creation" model frames the bookand that each chapter "explores how gender and technology workand are at work in     

Behind the Mask: Revealing the True Face of Corporate Citizenship

This paper traces the development of corporate citizenship as a way of framing business and society relations, and critically examines the content of contemporary understandings of the term. These conventional views of corporate citizenship are argued to contribute little or nothing to existing notions of corporate social responsibility and corporate philanthropy. The paper then proposes a new direction, which particularly exposes the element of "citizenship". Being a political concept, citizenship can only be reasonably understood from that theoretical angle. This suggests that citizenship consists of a bundle of rights conventionally granted and protected by governments of states. However, the more that governmental power and sovereignty have come under threat, the more that relevant political functions have gradually shifted towards the corporate sphere – and it is at this point where "corporate" involvement into "citizenship" becomes an issue. Consequently, "corporate citizens" are substantially more than fellow members of the same community who cosily rub shoulders with other fellow citizens while bravely respecting those other citizens' rights and living up to their own responsibility as corporations – as the conventional rhetoric wants us to believe. Behind this relatively innocuous mask then, the true face of corporate citizenship suggests that the corporate role in contemporary citizenship is far more profound, and ultimately in need of urgent reappraisal.     

How and why small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) engage with their communities: an Australian study

• While many studies address corporate philanthropy and corporate community involvement, limited work has been conducted internationally in small to medium businesses and even less has been elucidated about the Australian small business landscape.
• This article reports findings from qualitative research investigating giving to community causes by 52 small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) across Australia.
• Three key questions addressed in this article are: (1) why SMEs engage with community (2) how they engage with community and (3) obstacles they perceive in giving.
• Our findings suggest that SMEs have a preference to avoid cash gifts, prefer to support local causes and would benefit from the development of best practice giving guidelines and templates.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Will the renminbi become a world currency?

China has emerged as a major power in the world economy, so it seems natural to consider whether its currency will also have a major role. At present the renminbi is not used internationally. We look at the factors that contribute to the international use of currencies, and focus on the aspects of China's financial system that would have to change before the renminbi emerged as an important regional or world currency. Even with significant reforms, two questions would remain: whether the authorities would want to encourage its international use, and whether an economy with substantial party control could gain international acceptance for its currency.     

Reverse mentoring at work: Fostering cross‐generational learning and developing millennial leaders

Reverse mentoring is an innovative way to encourage learning and facilitate cross‐generational relationships. It involves the pairing of a younger, junior employee acting as mentor to share expertise with an older, senior colleague as mentee. The purpose is knowledge sharing, with the mentee focused on learning from the mentor's updated subject or technological expertise and generational perspective. In addition, there is an emphasis on the leadership development of the mentors. Reverse mentoring is situated in the mentoring literature as an alternative form of mentoring, with unique characteristics and support functions exchanged that distinguish it from other developmental relationships. A model is developed that focuses on key variables to consider and how reverse mentoring may benefit individuals and organizations. Generational differences are also presented, and the ways in which reverse mentoring capitalizes on millennial capabilities and preferences are highlighted throughout. Finally, theoretical and practical contributions are discussed, including essential components for creating a reverse mentoring program. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Export Market Performance of OECD Countries: An Empirical Examination of the Role of Cost Competitiveness

We investigate the relationship between export market shares and relative unit labour costs using a long panel of 12 manufacturing industries across 14 OECD countries. We ask how sensitive are export market shares to changes in relative costs and what determines this sensitivity? Both costs and embodied technology are important, but neither can fully explain changing export positions. We explore whether residual country-specific trends might be linked to 'deep' structural features of economies. Sensitivity to labour costs is lower in high tech industries and core ERM countries. Industry elasticities have increased, especially in industries subject to increasing product market competition.