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Almost all libraries collect fiction. Of course the nature, scope, and organization of the collection varies with the type of library and its clientele. In this column scholars, fans, and just plain readers of diverse fiction formats, types, and genres will explore their specialty with a view to the collection building needs of various types of libraries. In addition to lists of “good reads,” authors not to be missed, rising stars, and rediscovered geniuses, columnists will cover major critics, bibliographies, relevant journals and organizations, publishers, and trends. Each column will include a genre overview, a discussion of access to published works, and a core collection of recommended books and authors. Janice M. Bogstad leads off with a discussion of science fiction. In the next issue of Collection Building, Ian will focus her discussion on the growing body of feminist science fiction with an article entitled, “Redressing an Interval Balance: Women and Science Fiction, 1965–1983.” Issues to follow will feature Kathleen Heim on thrillers, and Rhea Rubin reviewing short story collection building. Should you care to suggest an area or aspect of fiction collection building for discussion or try your hand as a columnist contact the column editor through Neal‐Schuman Publishers.

The US General Services Administration (GSA) sought to identify innovative and best practices in real property management at the state level, with the intent that sharing these practices may lead to creative new approaches throughout all levels of government. The resulting study focused on four aspects of real property management and identified the following states as exemplars: (1) Acquisition and construction (Maryland, Minnesota, Utah) (2) Operations and maintenance (Michigan, Missouri, Utah) (3) Web‐enabled software (Texas, Washington) (4) Public‐private partnerships (Arizona, Washington) Many of these best practices have resulted in streamlined operations, cost savings, and innovative solutions to complex problems. They offer new ideas for real property management. In order to perform the study, GSA contracted with George Washington (GW) University. The GSA study team included the following members: Marjorie Lomax, Director of the Evaluation and Outreach Division, Andrea Wohlfeld Kuhn, Project Team Leader, and team members Dennis Goldstein, Sheldon Greenberg,Robert Harding, Jonathan Herz and Rebekah Pearson. The GW team was under the direction of Dr Kathryn Newcomer, PhD, Principal Investigator, with Robin Kane and Howard Smith as Research Associates. The following paper is an excerpt of the study. The entire document can be downloaded at http://www.gsa.gov/statesrpbp

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the three principles in the SysTrust^® service converge on a single construct to measure potential users' trust in the reliability of a system, and whether trust in the reliability of a system, as defined by the three SysTrust principles, affects potential users' intent to use the system.

In this study, the authors provide potential users with hands‐on experience with the online accounting system offered by Oracle Small Business Suites^®. The authors subsequently assess their perception of the extent to which the system meets the three SysTrust principles, and their intent to use the system.

The results show that potential users' perceptions of the three SysTrust principles converge on one factor, suggesting that they are indicative of the trust in system reliability as proposed by the AICPA and CICA. Moreover, the study shows that trust in system reliability, as defined by the three SysTrust principles, influences potential users' intent to adopt an online system.

This study is the only one to provide evidence that the SysTrust principles provide a valid means to holistically assess system reliability as needed by potential users of a system. This study also extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by including two unique trust components in the examination of online behaviors. The extended TAM shows that potential users' trust in system reliability and their trust in the internet interactively influence the intentions of these users to adopt online systems.

This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.

Investigates primary differences between employee motivation in the USA and Japan. Spotlights how workers in both countries work towards promotion and advancement. Stresses that Americans are individualists and that the Japanese are organization‐loyal. Concludes self‐actualization is likely to mean different things to employees in both cultures.

Issues of performance measurement are ubiquitous in modern organizations and are often concerned with evaluations of outputs or efficiency (which encompasses both inputs and outputs) of an entity or process. Examples of output measures include revenue generated, defective units produced, on-time shipments, etc. Efficiency examples include standard cost variances, machine up-time rate, and efficiency scores from input–output models such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA).

Difficult-to-measure outputs are often included even though they cannot be measured with precision. When outputs of a production process are not easy to measure, serious dysfunctional decision-making can be expected and these problems may be particularly acute when efficiency measurements from input–output models are directly tied to rewards and incentives. Both for-profit firms and public sector organizations may share output measurability problems.

In this paper, we examine the possible problems of using input–output models (such as DEA) when outputs are difficult to quantify within an agency theory perspective and illustrate the potential problems using recent proposals in the UK for evaluating and rewarding police unit performance. We conclude that although input–output models, particularly those such as DEA may be useful as a diagnostic tool to assist decision-makers in altering future operating strategies and policies, it has serious limitations when rewards and incentives are attached to the DEA performance evaluations. In our view, overreliance on mechanical, formula-based approaches is potentially a serious threat to improving performance in these situations.

Gives reports and surveys of selected current research and developments in systems and cybernetics. They include: Scientific research and warfare; Cybernetics and psychology; Combating computer rage; Communication systems; Cybernetics and automation; Management cybernetics – human resources development; Innovative systems.