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In their review of research on organisational memory, Walsh and Ungson argue that the extant representations of the concept are fragmented and underdeveloped. It is argued that this is due, at least in part, to the dominance of psychological models of memory based on the individual which are employed by organisational memory system designers. In this article it is argued that the development of a more social psychological theory of memory not only helps us understand the roots of the present confusion surrounding the concept of organisational memory, but it also enables the development of a more coherent theoretical model to guide research on the transformational effects of computer‐based information systems on organisational memory.

This chapter discusses how the control and strategic management of resources plays a role in the occupational stress process. Building upon prior resource theories of stress, the idea is developed that control of external and internal resources, and not resource acquisition or maintenance, is a vital element that contributes to a strain response to workplace demands. This can occur at the level of objective resources (resources needed to cope with demands), and it can occur at the level of perceived resources (the individual’s perception of resource control). The chapter also discusses the importance of resource management strategies that individuals engage in, as well as both internal and external resource management resources. Several common stressors are discussed in resource control terms, and the role of power and politics in strategic resource management is discussed.

In a U.S. invested enterprise in China, the receptivity of Chinese employees to a participative work environment was examined. Structural equation analysis indicated support for a model in which job satisfaction mediates the relationships between elements of a participative work environment (i.e., tasks performed, the relationships individuals had with their work groups, and the nature of the decision making processes) and employee willingness to cooperate with co‐workers and intention to quit. Task interdependence also had a direct relationship with willingness to cooperate.

To examine the mechanisms through which downsizing affects employees' affective commitment to the organization in two Korean banks.

A total of 910 questionnaires were completed by bank employees. Data was analysed using hierarchical regression and LISREL path analysis techniques. Twenty semi‐structured interviews were also conducted.

The results show that the more severe the extent of downsizing, the lower employees' affective commitment to the organization. Moreover, downsizing has an impact on employees' affective commitment to the organization through several of the daily work experiences of employees. Thus, downsizing affects employees' affective commitment to the organization both directly and indirectly. However, its indirect impact is much stronger.

The research was conducted in Korea and may have limited generalizability to Western cultures.

Sympathetic management of downsizing can minimize the negative impact on the affective commitment of surviving employees.

This paper offers insights into organizational commitment in a (relatively under‐researched) Korean context.

This research investigated the effect of changing the workplace of a central administrative cell from a traditional bureaucratic structure to a team orientated quality focused unit. Responses from the members of an university administration group adopting a quality intervention were contrasted with reports from another similar service campus group which continued to operate with the functional structure. Questionnaires were administered annually, on three occasions, to these two groups as well as to the clients of the group that underwent the team quality orientated job redesign. The results showed that only the employees in the group, which adopted the team orientation, perceived features of their jobs improved as did their job satisfaction. Moreover, both objective data and perceptual responses, from the clients, indicated that after entering into the new work arrangements the group provided better service quality. The stimulus for this job intervention, and how it was installed, is described. The study findings are discussed in terms of challenges and issues confronting practitioners in the contemporary workplace.

Based on the latest research on the topic of integrated manufacturing (IM), attempts to integrate macro‐organizational and micro‐organizational factors which have been found to relate to the new manufacturing paradigm. Commences with a definition of IM and its three prominent components: advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) just‐in‐time inventory and total quality management. Follows with an evaluation of the moderating role of the organizational context in the relationship between IM and job design characteristics. Critically examines organizational performance, size, dependency as well as structure and culture and their effects on such implementation outcomes as: productivity, job satisfaction and job‐related strain. Investigates the impact of IM on human resource practices: staffing, training, performance appraisal and rewards. Concludes with a suggested implementation sequence which identifies critical elements and develops strategies and priorities for a successful transition to IM.

This paper reports on the first three years of a community forensic team in Birmingham working with individuals with learning disabilities who have offended or are at risk of doing so. Using an interprofessional model, the team provided assessment, intervention and management, enabling individuals to live in the least restrictive environment. There were 113 referrals, the majority (94%) of whom were males. Only 26 had been convicted. The problems this raised for the team are discussed, along with the cost‐effectiveness, impact on admission rates and benefits of providing such a service. Two case scenarios are presented to highlight some of the issues encountered by the team. The paper supports the development of such services.

In 2004/2005 local partnership boards requested West Midlands South and Birmingham & The Black Country Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) to review and report back on the circumstances of adults with a learning disability placed out of area. There are currently 623 known adults with learning disability living out of area at an annual cost to commissioning services of £35 million. In 1993 the Mansell Report predicted major problems and potential consequences relating to future planning of services for people with learning disabilities and complex needs. Twelve years on this has become a reality, as more people are living in highercost services away from their original district and families. There is no evidence from this review that out‐of‐area services are any worse or any better than local services. The review does not set out to make a direct comparison of out‐of‐area placements and services provided locally, nor does it reflect on the number of people being imported into the West Midlands. With lack of monitoring and reviewing of placements, many people have been left solely to the care of provider organisations. Commissioners of services are becoming reliant on the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) to raise any concerns with them. This review calls for specific action to be taken now to reverse this trend of increasing out‐of‐area placements and to make more cost‐effective local solutions.

When the dispute between Rupert Murdoch's News International (NI), publisher of the Times, Sunday Times, News of the World and Sun newspapers, and the major print unions erupted into what was almost universally known as ‘the battle’ of Wapping during the opening weeks of 1986, there was widespread concern not only at what appeared to be more evidence of the parlous state of British industrial relations, but that central to the confrontation were apparently wholesale abuses of power which allegedly subverted the concept of the ‘liberty of the Press’. The immediate reactions triggered by events at Wapping, and the ideological references used to try to contextualise those events, were for the most part superficial. Long‐run concerns about the trend of industrial relations, or more meaningful reflections on wider questions of ‘the freedom of the media’, rarely, if ever, entered the agenda. While since 1986–7 these issues have been addressed, they have usually been considered either in isolation from one another or crudely juxtaposed in terms of the effects on the economics of publishing. Moreover, industrial relations in the newspaper industry have not commonly attracted the attention of specialists in the field, and have traditionally been considered too peculiar to have much broader relevance. Yet events at Wapping have been seen as heralding a ‘revolution’ in Fleet Street, invested with far more substantial and broader material and symbolic meaning; for example, Andrew Neil, editor of the Sunday Times, recently projected Wapping as marking a decisive break with the discredited past of ‘this failed nation’.