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The International Journal of Conflict Management 2005, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 102–127

Although there is clear evidence that particular words and phrases evoke emotional reactions, little research has explored these in the context of negotiations. In two studies, we identify words that trigger emotional responses in the other party in conflict‐laden negotiations and demonstrate how the perception of negotiators is affected by the use of those words. Words that elicit emotional responses are likely to increase the perception that the party using them is unfair but paradoxically increase the optimism of observers that the conflict will be successfully resolved. This effect is influenced by the gender of the observer.

In small businesses, the owner is typically the dominant decision‐maker. An area of largely neglected consideration is the impact of the individual decision‐maker's “self monitoring” behavior, i.e., the degree to which he/she actively scans the business' external environment. This is an especially critical issue in the international business arena, where cultural differences are significant factors.

The use of portable computers connected to high-speed networks is changing the way groups do their work. Such systems reduce the need for teams to be co-located by allowing team members to communicate with one another and access a wide range of databases. Despite the growing use of such systems, relatively little research has looked broadly at how these systems affect aspects of group process and performance. We interviewed individuals in 10 firms that are implementing mobile computing in work groups. Based on those interviews, we describe how mobile computing is changing interdependent work and speculate on how it may influence job scope and team empowerment, group composition, supervisory practices, and socialization processes. We also conclude that attention to both the functional and informal characteristics of knowledge management systems associated with mobile computing can influence group processes and performance.

Organizational commitment and perceived management styles were examined using survey responses from 1418 employees from both public and private sector organizations, operating in Australia. Comparisons between public (n=474) and private (n= 944) sector employees revealed significantly higher levels of commitment amongst private sector employees. These differences were consistent with differences in perceived management styles. The concept of organizational commitment was found to incorporate the notion of “corporate loyalty/citizenship” and the notion of “attachment to the organization”. Management styles (as perceived by respondents) were found to relate to four main sub‐dimensions: (1) the degree of “emphasis on flexibility and adaptation”; (2) the degree of “emphasis on rules and regulations”; (3) the degree of emphasis on “hierarchy and role specialization” and (4) the degree of “work‐group discontinuity/change”. For both sectors, statistical analysis (regressions) revealed that the degree of organizational commitment as well as the extent of loyalty and attachment to the organization were affected positively by perceptions of greater (perceived) emphasis on “flexibility and adaptation” and by lesser (perceived) emphasis on “rules and regulations”. Salient implications of these findings on management practice are discussed. In recent years, a great deal of attention has been invested in identifying the various causes and implications of organizational commitment. The main thrust was to afford reasonable explanations of the development process of organizational commitment defined as the strength of an individual's identification and involvement with an organization. One of the most contended views is that positive organizational commitment, including feelings of affiliation, attachment and citizenship behaviour, tends to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness by contributing to resource transformations, innovativeness, and adaptability (Williams & Anderson, 1991). As such, organizational commitment has important implications for both individual and organizational outcomes and is central to organizational life. In general, the antecedents of commitment have been grouped into two categories: personal characteristics and situational attributes. However, previous research has not reached any substantial agreement on the precedence of the above characteristics. While some researchers have found (and argued) the prevalence of personal characteristics (Brooks & Seers, 1991) others have tended to emphasise situational effects (Grau et al, 1991), while still others have underlined equal effects of both types of characteristics (O'Reilly et al, 1991). In an attempt to contribute to the research debates and suggestions, the present article examines the potential impact of management styles (as perceived by members) on the degree of organizational commitment. The notion of management style is considered from the organizational standpoint (Burns & Stalker, 1961; Shrader et al, 1989). The article draws on an empirical study focusing on a sample of 1418 public and private sector employees from a variety of industries based in Australia. Management style can significantly influence the degree of workers commitment to organizational values and goals. In general, it has widely been shown and argued that the more flexible and participative management styles can strongly and positively enhance organizational commitment (Gaertner & Nollen, 1989). These styles tend to decrease role stress and thereby significantly increase employee commitment. The organic style of management emphasising flexibility and adaptation (Burns & Stalker, 1961; Gonring, 1991) might provide greater concern for workers as human beings, and for the work organization as a total social and cultural system. The success of this type of management style lies with its flexibility and adaptability to changing conditions while maintaining organizational consistency and continuity. Because of its greater reliance on worker loyalty and trust, this style of management might also be geared to enhance organizational citizenship behaviours (Williams & Anderson, 1991).

Hayek favored both classical hermeneutics and science. His scientific reasoning shows the logical necessity of methodological dualism. Bruce Caldwell and Viktor Vanberg oppose hermeneutics and methodological dualism in favor of science. Their arguments depend on inappropriate interpretations of the doctrine of methodological dualism and an impoverished understanding of hermeneutics that fails to distinguish classical hermeneutics from universal hermeneutics. Hayek showed that “scientific” and “humanistic” approaches to social science can and should be compatible and complementary. Opposing (classical) hermeneutics in favor of science may cause a loss of knowledge by tending to deprive “scientific” social science of insights arising from more “humanistic” traditions.

During the last years of his life, the mathematician Karl Menger worked on a biography of his father, the economist and founder of the Austrian School of Economics, Carl Menger. The younger Menger never finished the work. While working in the Menger collections at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, we discovered draft chapters of the biography, a valuable source of information given that relatively little is known about Carl Menger’s life nearly a hundred years after his death. The unfinished biography covers Carl Menger’s family background and his life through early 1889. In this chapter, the authors discuss the biography and the most valuable new insights it provides into Carl Menger’s life, including Carl Menger’s family, his childhood, his student years, his time working as a journalist and newspaper editor, his early scientific career, and his relationship with Crown Prince Rudolf.

This chapter explores the ways in which cybernetics influenced the works of F. A. Hayek from the late 1940s onward. It shows that the concept of negative feedback, borrowed from cybernetics, was central to Hayek’s attempt to explain the principle of the emergence of human purposive behavior. Next, the chapter discusses Hayek’s later uses of cybernetic ideas in his works on the spontaneous formation of social orders. Finally, Hayek’s view on the appropriate scope of the use of cybernetics is considered.

The paper offers a number of vignettes surrounding Friedrich A. Hayek’s receipt of the Nobel Prize. It examines Hayek’s life before he got the prize, describes the events in Stockholm, and offers a summary of the main themes of his Prize Lecture. It then examines the subsequent impact on Hayek’s life and career. It concludes by looking at the impact of the Prize on scholarship about Hayek and the Austrian movement.

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