Managing Middlescence

They make up more than half your workforce. They work longer hours than anyone else in your company. From their ranks come most of your top managers. They're your midcareer employees, the solid citizens between the ages of 35 and 55 whom you bank on for their loyalty and commitment. And they're not happy. In fact, they're burned out, bored, and bottlenecked, new research reveals. Only 33% of the 7700 workers the authors surveyed feel energized by their work; 36% say they're in dead-end jobs. One in three is not satisfied with his or her job. One in five is looking for another. Welcome to middlescence. Like adolescence, it can be a time of frustration, confusion, and alienation. But it can also be a time of self-discovery, new direction, and fresh beginnings. Today, millions of midcareer men and women are wrestling with middlescence-looking for ways to balance work, family, and leisure while hoping to find new meaning in theirjobs. The question is, Will they find it in your organization or elsewhere? Companies are ill prepared to manage middlescence because it is so pervasive, largely invisible, and culturally uncharted. That neglect is bad for business: Many companies risk losing some of their best people or-even worse-ending up with an army of disaffected people who stay. The best way to engage middlescents is to tap into their hunger for renewal and help them launch into more meaningful roles. Perhaps managers can't grant a promotion to everyone who merits one in today's flat organizations, but you may be able to offer new training, fresh assignments, mentoring opportunities, even sabbaticals or entirely new career paths within your own company. Millions of midcareer men and women would like nothing better than to convert their restlessness into fresh energy. They just need the occasion-and perhaps a little assistance-to unleash and channel all that potential.     

International briefing 6: Training and development in the United States

Increasingly, training and development is playing an important and strategic role in the economic success of US organisations (Marquardt, 1999, Tannenbaum and Yukl, 1992). US organisations recognise that they now operate in a new global economy, an economy which involves the use of advanced technologies and increased responsiveness to customers’ needs. It is becoming one that requires greater and greater innovation and flexibility in production, service delivery and market know‐how. American firms realise more than ever that employee knowledge gained through training and development has become a strategic necessity and more and more the source of strategic advantage (Drucker, 1994).     

The impact of banking sector reform in a transition economy: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan

We examine the impact of financial sector reform on interest rate levels and spreads using Kyrgyz bank-level data from 1998 to 2005. We find that, in addition to macroeconomic stabilization, structural reforms to the banking sector significantly contributed to lower interest rates. In particular, our results suggest that foreign bank entry and regulatory efforts to increase average bank size were important in reducing deposit rates. In contrast, we find little evidence that banking sector reform or macroeconomic stabilization has impacted interest rate spreads.     

Not telling the whole story: Teen deception in purchasing

Teenagers may engage in consumption behaviors that their parents may not approve of, as one way of asserting independence. Such behaviors may lead teens to attempt to deceive their parents about purchases. This research examined teens’ tendency toward such deception. The authors conceptualize deception as being related to the family communication environment and the shopping context in which it takes place. Some family communication environments may stifle open discussion of products and purchases, thereby encouraging teen deception. Moreover, certain patterns of family communication may socialize teens to focus on standards exogenous to the family that, in turn, lead to a greater propensity to deceive. Susceptibility to normative peer influence, the extent of television viewing, and teen materialism may partially mediate the effects of the family communication environment. Except for television viewing, the authors’ predictions are generally supported by the data collected from a sample of high school students. Terry Bristol (terry.bristol@asu.edu; Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) is an assistant professor of marketing in the School of Global Management and Leadership at Arizona State University. His research interests are in the areas of consumer socialization, social influence, and brand and promotions management. His work has been published in theJournal of Retailing, the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Consumer Affairs, and elsewhere. Tamara F. Mangleburg (tmangle@fau.edu; Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) is an associate professor of marketing in the College of Business at Florida Atlantic University. Her research interests include consumer socialization, family decision-making, and self-concept effects on persuasion. She has published work in these areas in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Retailing, theJournal of Advertising, the Journal of Business Research, and in other outlets.     

The interplay of effectuation and causation in decision making: Russian SMEs under institutional uncertainty

The institutional context of Russia and the recent regime of foreign trade sanctions makes it a natural laboratory to study change in decision making regarding the international activities of SMEs. This research explores how the increased institutional uncertainty is evaluated, enacted and responded to by SMEs that are heavily involved in relations with international suppliers. This longitudinal multiple-case study reveals that although firms simultaneously use both causation and effectuation in their decision making, an increase of institutional uncertainty boosts effectuation. The study shows that the intensity of both types of decision-making logic varies along the studied period in accordance to changing perceptions of institutional uncertainty. Also, the studied firms use effectuation logic differently enabling us to distinguish two types of effectuation with contrasting performance implications: opportunity-driven effectuation and survival effectuation.     

Does trade creation by social and business networks hold in services?

Recent literature on the border effect has shown that the intensity of trade in goods is positively correlated with the migration stocks between any pair of countries/regions. The number of references for business networks is more limited, but they are also related with a reduction on information costs. In this article we investigate whether such a relation holds also for Spanish domestic trade flows in consumer services. To this end, we use a gravity model rooted in the Dixit–Stiglitz–Krugman theoretical framework and a unique data set on interregional trade flows for some of the main tourism service sectors, namely, accommodations and restaurants. Our industry-specific analysis finds a large positive effect for restaurants but a more limited effect for accommodations. Forces driving the demand in each sector explain this result and suggest the idea that although social networks can act as a substitute of firms in some sectors at the same time they can enhance trade flows in other sectors. We perform the same kind of analysis with a data set (obtained by a similar method) for domestic trade in goods and discover a different response to social and business networks. Finally, we treat the potential endogeneity by taking the instrumental-variable approach of the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimator and thus obtain consistent results.     

‘Be global,go local’ – innovation and creativity in the development of alternative guiding services in Budapest

Based on qualitative research methods, the paper explores the emergence of creativity and innovation in the development of guiding services, and analyses the cultural and spatial characteristics of alternative guided tours developed for niche markets in Budapest, Hungary. The study is part of a 3-year (2011–2014) research programme entitled ‘Creativity and its contribution to niche tourism development – following and creating trends’ that aimed to investigate the potential of niche tourism products in the Hungarian market. In order to understand the development process, characteristics and significance of alternative guiding in the city, a complex methodology of interviews, participant observation and content analysis of service providers’ websites and customers’ feedback on social media sites was used. The analysis suggests that although the impact of these alternative guided tours on the city’s tourist image is currently limited, they contribute to the repositioning of the destination and enrich its ambiance.     

Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF): A Neglected Aspect of Farm Tourism in New Zealand

Despite the importance of farm tourism to many rural communities in New Zealand, there has been no attention given to the contribution of the Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) venture to farm tourism in New Zealand. While the primary objective of the venture is organic farming, the facilitation of tourism experiences on the farm remains an additional concern among WWOOF hosts. This paper is based on a postal survey of 67 WWOOF hosts located in four main regions of New Zealand's South Island. The study sought to understand the management of WWOOF farms in relation to their role in providing tourism opportunities, to determine the reasons for becoming a WWOOF host, to provide a demographic profile of hosts and evaluate the environmental values and attitudes held by hosts. The study findings highlighted that WWOOF hosting has over recent years provided an increasing contribution to farm tourism in New Zealand. The study also provided some evidence to suggest that the motivations and experiences of WWOOF hosts were notably different from that of other farm tourism hosts. In particular, environmental ethic and shared knowledge of organic practices were considered essential.     

Co-Morbidity and Other Complexities Affecting Black Women’s Health

This paper presents some of the major health concerns that affect black women, and examines how various individual health problems co-exist and coincide to create complex health concerns for women. It posits the idea that to effectively address a Black woman’s health, her mental, emotional, social, economic and even spiritual health must be considered as well as her physical condition. The paper focuses largely on the information from individual health-related research presentations at “The Invisible Woman” conference held at Bennett College in March 18–19, 2011 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At this event, scholars presented new research on HIV, obesity and mental health—three areas of critical concern for African–American women—examining ways in which these conditions affect Black women. The paper also addresses the role of health care access and policy in addressing these and other health concerns among women and within the black community. The review of the literature highlights the importance of examining health—perhaps especially Black women’s health—from social, cultural, behavioral, environmental and economic perspectives. It also points out the continued need for research that includes women and people of color.