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The rapid internationalisation of companies has been one of the most significant economic and sociological developments in domestic, European and global markets over the last forty years. Growing numbers of British companies are intent on increasing their presence in both continental European and global markets in the 1990s. For example, 62% of a group of 171 UK organisations surveyed in 1990 planned to expand their business interests into Europe. At the same time, international careers are becoming increasingly common features of the working lives of British professionals, managers and their dependants.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the principal reasons why Emirate women are under‐represented in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) information technology (IT) sector; and the barriers and challenges that national women have encountered while working in this sector of the national economy.

The paper draws on data from 20 structured in‐depth interviews conducted with Emirate women who had worked for a minimum of five years in IT.

Although national women have made remarkable inroads into almost all professions and occupations in recent years, they are still noticeably under‐represented in IT, particularly in the private sector. In addition, very few are in senior‐level positions and there are, at the time of writing, no Emirate women technology‐entrepreneurs. The results show that cultural and familial factors still inhibit many young Emirate women from choosing careers in this profession, and negative gendered attitudinal assumptions about women are still prevalent within the local IT sector.

The sample size was small, so we were unable to test specific research hypotheses, or compare our results with quantitative cohort surveys conducted in other countries. Nevertheless, the findings warrant additional research, as increasing numbers of Emirate women graduate from local universities with IT/MIS degrees, and further research on this topic is described.

Five practical strategies are identified to encourage more young Emirate women to embrace IT careers in the future.

This is the first research on this issue conducted in the UAE/GCC region.

It is now well recognised by academic and organisational practitioners that the effective management of job changes and relocations will be among the most important tasks facing Human Resource Managers in the 1990s. To cope with the challenges of the 1990s many organisations will have to retain effective, committed, flexible and mobile managerial workforces. Hence, companies, personnel managers and individual employees can all benefit from a clearer understanding of the personal dynamics and outcomes of job changes and mobility. Also, whilst a number of guides to the legal and financial aspects of relocation are now available, none has systematically addressed the personal problems faced by employees, their families and other dependants. Hence, the focus is upon the personal and familial aspects of these dual transitions. The aim is to provide an understanding of the main issues and themes surrounding job changes and the personal side of relocation and provide detailed guides on “good practice” for employers, personnel managers, employees and their dependants.

The importance of story‐telling in organizational life has often been overlooked in contemporary organizational and leadership literature. Throughout history, leaders ‐ political and religious ‐ have used story‐telling as a powerful motivational tool, particularly during times of uncertainty, change and upheaval or in response to crises. This article looks at the role of story‐telling as an integral part of the human experience and at its applications in modern organizational life. The article concludes by suggesting that the art of story‐telling is still, despite recent advances in communication technologies, an essential managerial skill ‐ particularly for leaders of organizations.

This paper reports on the views that women academics have about their career prospects, equal opportunities and the conflicts they experience between their work and personal lives in one UK university. The university in question has formal equal opportunities policies and gender monitoring systems in place. However, very few women have progressed into senior academic roles. They continue to be handicapped by well‐ingrained structural and cultural barriers and by promotion systems that still largely rely on the publication records of candidates for appointments and promotions. But this is only half the story. Some of the women we interviewed reported that they had opted to put their careers on hold because of domestic and family responsibilities. A few have resigned themselves to never achieving senior positions because of these commitments. The wider implications of these findings are discussed, including the possible effects that this will have on recruiting women graduates into careers in higher education in the future.

This paper reports on the views that women academics have about their career prospects, equal opportunities and the conflicts they experience between their work and personal lives in one UK university. The university in question has formal equal opportunities policies and gender monitoring systems in place. However, very few women have progressed into senior academic roles. They continue to be handicapped by well‐ingrained structural and cultural barriers and by promotion systems that still largely rely on the publication records of candidates for appointments and promotions. But this is only half the story. Some of the women we interviewed reported that they had opted to put their careers on hold because of domestic and family responsibilities. A few have resigned themselves to never achieving senior positions because of these commitments. The wider implications of these findings are discussed, including the possible effects that this will have on recruiting women graduates into careers in higher education in the future.

New technologies are revolutionising the world of work. They have already become an integral part of organisations throughout the world, driving the growth of the two most powerful new forces in the global economy – cyberspace and computing power. In turn, these are creating formidable new challenges for all organisations. This article describes these new and emergent technologies. It then looks at their effects on traditional “second‐wave” organisations and management practices in recent years and their potential impact over the next 20 years. It goes on to examine some ways that leaders of organisations can deal with the impact of new technologies on their organisations and employees. It concludes by leaving the reader with some, as yet, unanswered questions about these new technologies and their possible effects on organisations in the near future.

The purpose of this study is to explore the adjustment model of expatriates in overseas projects by studying two overseas projects of a Chinese state-owned enterprise.

Based on the grounded theory, qualitative analysis was performed based on data compiled from 116 pieces of project briefings, 105 questionnaires answered by expatriate workers and 21 interviews conducted to those workers based on briefings and questionnaires.

The study found that the simulated home is a standard cross-cultural adjustment model for expatriates in Chinese engineering projects, which are project-oriented and often inattentive to employees' individual rights. The simulated home creates a unique work-place and social environment similar to that of expatriates' home country in the cultural setting of the host country, but it also establishes a cultural barrier, limiting the communication between expatriates and the local people, which is not conducive to the cultural exchange between the two sides, causing cultural clashes and consequently hindering the progress of projects.

This research puts forward the model of “simulated home.” And this study bears significance to the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriate workers in Chinese overseas projects.

The spirits industry is a major economic contributor worldwide, often requiring years of maturation in barrels that is associated with significant release of ethanol into the surrounding environment. This provides carbon nutrition for colonisation of black fungal growths, one type being Baudoinia compniacensis, or Whisky Black. Although growth is localised in production areas, numerous sites exist globally, and this paper's purpose is to investigate the extent and implications of colonisation.

The paper presents and discusses the results of a visual survey of the area surrounding a site where whisky is maturing in nearby bonded warehouses. The evaluation considers radial zoning distance from the ethanol source and material substrate types and surface textures. Classical key stages of Building Pathology, namely manifestation, diagnosis, prognosis and therapy, are considered.

Key findings are that the colonisation of the fungus is non-uniform and dependent on the substrate building material. Additionally, rougher-textured building materials displayed heavier levels of fungal manifestation than smooth materials. Aspects such as distance, wind direction and moisture are considered relative to the extent and level of fungal growth.

This investigation provides the first assessment of the extent and nature of the fungal growth in properties built in surrounding areas to bonded warehouses. Such information can facilitate open dialogue between stakeholders that recognise the aspirations of values of corporate social responsibility, whilst balancing the economic importance of distilling with recognition of the fungus's impact on property values and appropriate recurring remedial treatments.

Prison social environments play an important role in the health of prisoners. How they respond to imprisonment is partially dependent upon how effectively they integrate into an institution’s social structure, learn to fit in with others and adapt to and cope with becoming detached from society, community and family ‐ hence, how they personally manage the transition from free society to a closed carceral community. This paper reports on findings of an ethnography conducted in an adult male training prison in England, which used participant observation, group interviewing, and one‐to‐one semi‐structured interviews with prisoners and prison officers. The research explored participants’ perceptions of imprisonment, particularly with regard to how they learned to adapt to and ‘survive’ in prison and their perceptions of how prison affected their mental, social and physical well‐being. It revealed that the social world of prison and a prisoner’s dislocation from society constitute two key areas of ‘deprivation’ that can have important health impacts.