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Matthew H. Roy reviews Spencer Johnson's Who Moved My Cheese?

This year, Benchmarking: An International Journal (BIJ) is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The purpose of this paper is to show the historical connections and professional impact of the journal over the years. This is accomplished through a detailed bibliometric analysis (BA) of its content from 1994 to 2018. This paper also identifies leading trends that have affected BIJ during this time frame.

In this paper, the authors employ BA on data retrieved from the Scopus database. The authors used various indicators such as the most productive authors, institutions and countries, as well as the most cited papers, citing journals and articles most cited by BIJ between 1994 and 2018. Additionally, the authors have used the Gephi, VOSviewer software to map journals, keywords and institutions with bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis.

The journal has improved its impact, productivity and reputation in the period under review. Articles published in BIJ have been cited in other journals more than 15,000 times. The most prominent themes among the articles published in BIJ are benchmarking, supply chain management and performance improvement. Significant contributions have come from authors and institutions around the globe. Co-authorships, though global, have centered around India, the USA and the UK. There is also a thematic similarity between articles from India and Thailand, and the USA and Germany, indicating high academic collaboration or prevalence of similar issues.

This paper provides evidence of the impact of BIJ, and in so doing, it helps authors to decide on the appropriateness of this publication for their research. The reader will also understand leading trends occurring in BIJ over the history of the journal.

This is the first paper that traces the progress of BIJ covering a time span of 25 years.

The purpose of this paper is to assess which communication channels are most frequently used by employees to gain corporate strategic information and the impact of seniority on communication channel chosen.

A Saudi Arabian manufacturing company employing a wide range of both professionals and rank and file workers was used as the source of data. A total of 187 responses (85 per cent response rate) to an empirical questionnaire provided the data for analysis.

There are indications that employees are not satisfied with what they currently know and are eager to learn more about strategic direction. Results also show that rich communication channels such as one‐on‐one dialog and group meetings are preferred to lean ones such as bulletin boards, memos, and newsletters. Finally, more experienced employees utilize a wider variety of communication channels in garnering strategic information.

Findings may not be generalizable to other populations or other companies within the same population.

Practicing managers need to consider the communication sources for strategic information. Further efforts must be made to maximize the communication of strategic intent through the use of rich communication channels for all employees.

Presently there is little research explaining the importance of different communication mechanisms for the transference of strategic information. This research fills that void as it shows the relationship between employee tenure and communication mechanism used to understand strategic direction. This research shows that practicing managers should use rich communication channels (face‐to‐face or group meetings) when communicating strategic intent.

There is a paucity of information on student perceptions of favoritism in a training setting. The purpose of this study is to explore specific individual, situational, and relationship variables associated with student perceptions of favoritism in the business classroom. Respondents were asked to react to a series of vignettes involving student‐initiated and trainer‐initiated comparisons. Other relationships analyzed include the correlation between student self‐esteem and favoritism, grade point average and perceived favoritism, etc. The study concludes with an assessment of the extent and magnitude of favoritism in the business classroom with recommendations for eliminating perceptions of partiality.

Observes that the nature of business and education is rapidly changing as collaboration takes over as the dominant form of interaction. Notes that the driving force behind these changes is advances in information technology. Focuses on the pedagogical aspects of a semester‐long collaboration involving business policy students from St. Norbert College and the University of Rhode Island using the Internet to produce virtual products. Discusses student and faculty reactions in light of the goal of increasing our understanding of technological influences on individual and group interactions.

Examines non‐linear adaptation to change in the high‐technology environment of the computer industry. These environments are defined, and the efficacy of different organizational adaptations is assessed with respect to these environments. Results from our analyses show that there is a direct and causal relationship between the employment of non‐linear organizational archetypes and organizational effectiveness within high‐technology industries.

Global competition and its resultant product proliferation have left a multitude of organizations scrambling to deal with their oft‐chaotic environment. Many organizations have responded to the changing nature of international business by developing new cooperative forms (joint ventures, self‐managed work teams, virtual corporations, etc.). The success of these relatively new organizational forms depends on clear communication between co‐workers. However, business practitioners and theoreticians have insufficiently researched the question “How do we group people to improve communication and performance?” This study seeks to fill that void by analyzing therelationship between individual cognitive flexibility, cooperative context, and communication competence. Results show that groups comprising individuals with similar cognitive processes outperform diverse thinking groups. Additionally, collaborative exercises appear to be an important precursor to the establishment of perceptions of communication competence. Recommendations for managers include front loading activities with collaborative exercises and evaluating cognitive flexibility prior to assigning individuals to groups.

Corporate universities, higher educational institutions, and training professionals have been using instructional technology (IT) tools and techniques for years. Institutions spend heavily to constantly update their instructional resources, computer labs, and library holdings. Unfortunately, most institutions have not studied the effectiveness of these investments in terms of student satisfaction or learning outcomes. This empirical analysis of 215 student responses provides some insights into the effectiveness of various IT tools and techniques. The findings show that some tools are more effective than others in achieving student satisfaction and positive behavioral outcomes. This study may be useful as a pedagogical tool for instructors planning learning ventures or to justify technological expenditures at the administrative level.

To introduce a conceptual model for increasing the likelihood that gainsharing plans will be successfully implemented.

The literature on gainsharing plans is rich in descriptions of how individual cases were successful or unsuccessful owing to various situational variables. Research on the effects gainsharing plans have on organizational effectiveness is much needed. The present paper builds on current research by providing a general model of factors that determine whether a particular gainsharing effort will increase organizational effectiveness. A review of the empirical literature provides support for the model presented.

Gainsharing can be an important and successful intervention for many organizations. The keys to success are involving all stakeholders in the development of the plan, developing an easy to understand formula for sharing gains, maintaining transparency, and ensuring that the plan's goals are in line with the organization's goals.

Develops a conceptual model which can be used by many organizations in an attempt to use gainsharing as a means to increase organizational effectiveness. Considerations for future research are discussed.