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Urban beekeeping is spreading as an answer to promote bee conservation and to develop local economies. This study aims to highlight nutritional properties of polyfloral honeys produced in urban landscape and to compare them to the countryside counterparts.

This research has examined polyfloral urban honeys from a restricted area in Central Italy, for antioxidant capacity, total phenolic content and 15 polyphenols profile. Physicochemical parameters have been also determined to assess the overall quality of the samples. Results were compared with polyfloral honeys produced in surrounding countryside and monitored in two harvest years, 2018 and 2019. Principal component analysis was applied to the data to disclose significant differences among honeys and harvest years.

Urban honeys revealed up to threefold higher total amount of polyphenols with respect to rural honeys, and in the 2019 harvest, despite water scarcity that affected the national production, demonstrated 50% higher antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content. The majority of the 15 polyphenols studied resulted in more abundant urban honeys, in particular in the 2019 harvest. The multivariate analysis evidenced how honeys could be successfully separated according to their production area and harvest year by their different polyphenols profile.

Limited data are available on nutritional properties of urban honeys and on their content in antioxidants. The present results suggest that the cultivated urban environment, with its large floral biodiversity, can provide extra nutrition for bees, resulting in the production of a honey rich in nutraceutical compounds.

The leaders of almost every kind of institution — business, government, church, professional body, university, school, even the family — are learning that there must be more effective involvement by the members of the institution if it is to remain a cohesive unit. But in some cases, the attempts now being made to give people more involvement in the making of decisions that affect them may fail because they offer involvement without influence. The Task Force concept assumes that a good manager is innately a problem‐solver and that to restrict his involvement in the real problems which affect him is to deny him the fulfilment of a fundamental human need. This team approach has proved to be a practical way of meeting a real need by offering involvement with influence. In this way, the Task Force, particularly in the context of management by objectives, has proved instrumental in improving the effective use of that most scarce and poorly used resource — management talent.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

The early decades of the twentieth century witnessed a significant transformation in managerial control practices within the US department store. New principles of scientific management, already employed on the factory floor, were now implemented on the retail “shop floor”. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into this transition by examining three such scientific management initiatives introduced by store management during this era. The paper draws on a number of sources in its historical examination of early department store scientific management initiatives. These include archival records, published literature of the era, and particularly the proceedings of meetings of the annual Controllers Congress of the National Retail Dry Goods Association (US). The paper finds how notions of the rationality of science reined over such store operations as inventory valuation, credit control and overhead expense allocation. Traditional positions of power were recast and new managerial roles created in the name of science. The paper illustrates the insights that can be gained from an examination of scientific management practices in an alternative arena to the factory floor. Further historical research in the area of retail management may prove productive not only for our understanding of this site but also our knowledge of the process by which new managerial initiatives become assimilated. The study of the managerial practices of such vast organizational forms proves fruitful not only for the history scholar. Given the centrality of the department store in the creation of a contemporary culture of consumption, such examination becomes all the more insightful.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

This paper aims to identify and fill a gap in the knowledge of the contribution of Henry S. Dennison toward management and organization studies and problematize the assumptions underlying the mainstream understanding of scientific management and human relations.

Primary sources are in the guise of archival papers, as well as published journal articles, books and book chapters; secondary sources in the guise of material about Dennison, as well as interviews with family and friends.

The paper concludes that Dennison made an original and enduring contribution to management theory including, but not isolated to, personnel management, organizational behavior and corporate governance that influenced key thinkers of his times.

Dennison was a practicing manager – in fact, he was the president of (what was) his family company which operates today as Avery Dennison – but he still found the time and energy for active public service and to peripatetically articulate his management “praxis”. The paper reveals that much of Dennison’s thoughts and deeds have much relevance today. Among other issues, in his concern with reducing labor turnover and unemployment, in devising and implementing effective personnel management and in his pioneering work on human motivation, group dynamics, goal congruence, worker empowerment and executive compensation, issues of profound importance to business leaders today can be found.

To date, only piecemeal attempts have been made to chronicle Dennison’s contributions to management and organization theory, but these have been scattered across the social sciences. There has been neither any systematic, consolidated synthesis of his contributions to management and organization studies nor of his impact on the thinking of key thinkers of his times.

In the past 100 years production management has evolved from a set of heuristic ideas to a portfolio of somewhat developed concepts and principles. “Just‐in‐time” and “total quality management” integrate most of the modern concepts and principles in the field. Furthermore, seminal studies carried out within production, such as the Gilbreth/Taylor, Hawthorne and Tavistock studies, have given significant contribution to the evolution of management theory. This paper presents the context of production management evolution and assesses the application of some heuristic production approaches within construction sites of Brazil and England. The study revealed that, although the production management theory evolved significantly, construction practices do not apply the theory in a systemic and comprehensive manner. Clearly, lack of motivation and poor instruments for enabling “learning” are the central cause of this problem.

Recently, significant shifts of competitive edge in industry have been sharpening the needs for quality education and training (QET). “Quality” is conformance to requirements and customer satisfaction. In this context, the authors initiated a two‐stage empirical study to investigate the managerial views about the requirements and provision status of QET in Hong Kong. A random sample of 130 organizations was selected. Through a focus group study, 30 QET elements were consolidated under four categories of customer value and market focus, quality engineering and management, process analysis and improvement, and human resource focus. A subsequent mass survey examined the hypothesized links between the QET needs and provisions, and investigated specific QET requirements of top management, middle management and front‐line personnel. This paper contributes to identifying the needs of, assessing the provision of, and garnering company‐wide support and commitment towards QET in relation to sustaining organizational performance and competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse a sustainable business model (SBM) implemented by an Alternative Food Network (AFN), namely the Italian Food Assembly, with the goal of exploring its drivers of success and explaining how it can contribute to enhance sustainable and anti-consumption behaviours. This research aims at combining principles from both SBM innovation and user-driven anti-consumption and well-being habits, in order to develop more successful, comprehensive and community-centred sustainable value propositions.

Given the research goal, an exploratory case study was prepared where multiple sources of data were employed, namely in-depth interviews, participant observation, focus groups and document analysis.

In the light of the Bocken et al. (2014) framework, this paper provides evidence on the implementation of an AFN where it is possible to observe a strong sharing of knowledge regarding sustainable consumption behaviours and an effective dissemination of best practices between members. The authors developed four propositions that support the creation of a sustainable food supply chain, laying the foundation for spreading consumer behaviours and motivations so that they become more sustainable in their consumption habits.

Even though the case study is very rich in the amount of data gathered, it cannot be generalised. Further research will overcome this limitation by adding more cases within a comparative approach and through a quantitative methodology.

It adds value to recent literature and practice by focussing on how networks of producers, consumers and other actors could act to improve food anti-consumption behaviours, by embodying alternatives to conventional food systems.