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The purpose of this paper is to present an exploratory study of employee voice and silence in international auditing firms. The authors examine two key questions: what is the propensity of employees in training to speak up on workplace problems and how would management react to employees in training speaking up on workplace problems?

The authors compare and contrast the views of employees on training contracts with management including partners. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight managers/partners and 20 employees working in six large auditing firms in Ireland.

The authors find that employees on training contracts have a high propensity to remain silent on workplace problems. Quiescent and acquiescent forms of silence were evident. Management expressed willingness to act on employee voice on workplace problems concerning business improvements and employee performance but were very resistant to voice in regard to a change in working conditions or a managers’ performance. Employees and management couched employee voice in terms of technical knowledge exchange rather than being associated with employee dissatisfaction or having a say in decision making.

The authors highlight how new professional employees are socialised into understanding that employee voice is not a democratic right and the paper provides insight on the important role of partners as owner/managers in perpetuating employee silence. Previous research on owner/managers has tended to focus on small businesses while the auditing firms in this study have large numbers of employees.

The paper's purpose is to examine the propensity of recent immigrants to join Irish trade unions compared to Irish workers.

The analysis is based on the 2005 Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS), a quarterly survey carried out by the Central Statistics Office.

Results show that immigrant workers are less likely to join Irish trade unions than comparable native workers. Length of residency is an important factor in the likelihood of immigrants being unionised but employment in the public or private sector assumes even greater importance than nationality in determining union membership.

While the QNHS is generally a robust representative sample survey of the population, errors may occur in the proportion of non‐Irish nationals surveyed due to difficulties of ensuring their inclusion in the sample population. Language may also be an obstacle, particularly for recently arrived immigrants.

From a trade union perspective the results highlight the need for trade unions to regularly conduct organising campaigns targeted at immigrants. Government policy aimed at integrating immigrants into the Irish labour force and ensuring adequate labour standards would be well served by ensuring greater union availability to immigrant workers.

The paper provides a profile and analysis of the extent to which immigrants are joining trade unions compared to Irish workers.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue, which brings together five papers exploring the changing anatomy of HRM at organisational level. Design/methodology/approach – This overarching paper briefly contextualises the theme and introduces the five selected empirical papers. Findings – The findings in this paper vary according to the core theme of each of the five contributions. The first paper highlights whether the mix of distributed HR activities between the HR department and internal/external agents may be understood to be less a product of contextual influences and more a matter of corporate choice. The second paper establishes that role dissonance is a very real issue for middle managers with HR responsibilities. The third paper unearths the complexities and challenges involved in changing existing HRM procedures and practices in a post‐merger scenario. The fourth paper provides an understanding of the management of human resource supply chains and outlines five, empirically derived, generic models of HR outsourcing. The final paper finds that human resource IT diffusion and take‐up is primarily fuelled by interpersonal communication and network interactions among potential adopters. Originality/value – Combined, the papers offer insights on the changing anatomy of the HRM function against the backdrop of a dynamic contemporary organisational landscape and showcase cross‐national research on the theme.

This paper seeks to explore the recruiting and organising methods used by Irish full‐time union officials to recruit new members in the private sector of the economy.

The analysis is based on a survey of full‐time union officials in eight Irish trade unions.

Results indicate that the use of organising techniques by officials had no significant impact on changes in membership numbers but did have a significant and positive impact on reported changes in new members. However, the variance explained was extremely modest.

A potential limitation is that the organising model is assessed solely from the perspective of full‐time union officials. An area for future research would be to capture the attitudes and experiences of local activists involved in organising.

The demands of the organising approach require great commitment in terms of time and financial resources for unions. Yet the returns from this investment may be slight as only a relatively weak relationship was found between the number of organising methods used and changes in membership numbers and the recruitment of new members.

To date there has been little systematic study of either the recruitment methods used by Irish trade unions or the relative success of different approaches. Based on a survey of Irish full‐time union officials, this paper attempts to address this lacuna.

It is known from research that the right context can help managers develop an ambidextrous approach. But just as few of us are naturally ambidextrous, many managers fail to balance conformity and change during strategy implementation. This paper aims to investigate why.

Through a qualitative study of managers of an international airline, the authors examine a series of cultural barriers that constrain managers’ agile decision-making and stop managerial ambidexterity.

The authors identify six culturally ingrained practices that block managerial ambidexterity: top management’s unwavering emphasis on cost control when survival hinges on fresh investments; little or no scanning of the environment for new areas of opportunity; intensive planning oriented toward efficiency issues; functional structures characterized by extensive division of labor; centralized control; and formal hierarchical communication channels.

Managers find it difficult to put into practice new initiatives, particularly when the proposed initiatives counter the underlying cultural world of the organization. The authors suggest that this dark side of culture can pose tough barriers for ambidextrous action.

There is an urgent need for organizations to be aware of the possible misalignments between ambidextrous pursuits and the cultural forces that actually drive action. A deep understanding of their organization’s cultural universe is a crucial first step for managers aspiring to better engage with ambidexterity and outwit and outperform competitors.

Different strategic approaches need not be viewed as irreconcilable. If cultural elements do not block it, managerial ambidexterity can showcase innovative approaches to reconciling trade-offs in strategic decision-making.

To examine the strategies of the intelligent design (ID) movement and their impact on the selection policies for high school libraries and the science curriculum.

Examines the process four public high school libraries in the US took to determine whether to accept a gift offer by a parent of two books, dealing with ID. This article deals with the importance of applying selection criteria to all materials, whether gifts or recommendations.

School libraries are not immune to the tactics used by the ID movement to influence curriculum and collection development decisions.

While this article is a case history of the ID movement's strategy to influence school curriculum, its implications and possible impact on other schools and their libraries.

Provides advice to practicing school librarians on what criteria to use when selecting materials and poses the question of who should be involved in selecting materials for the school library.

This article explores the critical aspects and the differences between selection and censorship. Emphasizes the importance of having and following board‐approved policies that deal with gifts and the selection of library and instructional materials.

This paper explores if and how Artificial Intelligence can contribute to marketing strategy formulation.

Qualitative research based on exploratory in-depth interviews with industry experts currently working with artificial intelligence tools.

Key themes include: (1) Importance of AI in strategic marketing decision management; (2) Presence of AI in strategic decision management; (3) Role of AI in strategic decision management; (4) Importance of business culture for the use of AI; (5) Impact of AI on the business’ organizational model. A key consideration is a “creative-possibility perspective,” highlighting the future potential to use AI not only for rational but also for creative thinking purposes.

This work is focused only on strategy creation as a deliberate process. For this, AI can be used as an effective response to the external contingencies of high volumes of data and uncertain environmental conditions, as well as being an effective response to the external contingencies of limited managerial cognition. A key future consideration is a “creative-possibility perspective.”

A practical extension of the Gartner Analytics Ascendancy Model (Maoz, 2013).

This paper aims to contribute knowledge relating to the role of AI in marketing strategy formulation and explores the potential avenues for future use of AI in the strategic marketing process. This is explored through the lens of contingency theory, and additionally, findings are expressed using the Gartner analytics ascendancy model.

Popular representations of the workplace have tended to construct women as unsuited to management and leadership roles. In their reflective capacity these popular fictional texts illustrate the workplace. In their capacity to construct popular perceptions of “reality”, the texts offer an important insight into women’s and men’s understandings and expectations of their workplace relationships. In this article we reflect on how popular films, plays and television shows can make visible some manifestations of the kinds of resistance women continue to experience in non‐traditional domains such as management. While these kinds of texts have not been central to the analysis of workplace relations within the management literature, we argue that as social documents they have much to contribute to an understanding of the limited advancement of women.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a shiitake mushroom extract as a potential natural taste enhancer in low-sodium beef burgers by means of sensorial and physico-chemical assays because nowadays there is a trend in the market for the development of clean-label products.

Ten formulations of beef burgers were developed, varying in the percentage reduction in NaCl (0-75 per cent) and mushroom water extracts (obtained from a 5, 12.5, or 20 per cent mushroom homogenate). Sensory characterisation was performed by time-intensity (TI) and acceptance tests. In addition, physico-chemical analyses (pH, yield, shrinkage, shear force, and colour) were conducted.

Extracts obtained from 5, 12.5, or 20 per cent mushroom homogenate (E1, E2, and E3, respectively) did not enhance the salty taste in formulations with a 0 or 75 per cent reduction in NaCl. In formulations with a 50 per cent reduction in NaCl, all the extracts enhanced salinity perception, with E3 being the most effective. E3 also increased acceptance of colour, aroma, texture, flavour, and overall perception, although it caused changes in some physico-chemical characteristics (pH, yield, shrinkage, shear force, and colour).

The shiitake mushroom extract is a natural ingredient with a potential to serve as a taste enhancer in meat and other food products, for the purpose of reducing sodium content without compromising sensory acceptability. Therefore, this extract will enable the development of healthier products (owing to a reduction in sodium) with preserved sensory quality and will meet consumers’ requirements for the minimal use of chemical additives in food.