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Businesses today require more and better planning and more and better strategies than ever before. Yet, as some of us are painfully aware, planning departments, at least in many major organizations, are getting smaller and smaller. Some of this cut in department size can be attributed to the sophisticated new software that has replaced manual number crunching and forecasting. However, much of the cutback is related to management's increasing demand that line managers take over part of the planners' job. Nowadays line managers are expected to think and act strategically and fully understand how their operations “fit” the company's global plan. This requires the development of strategic management skills and thought processes normally associated with planners, planning departments, and staff functions.

There are multiple threats that cause consumers to be vulnerable in the marketplace, with poverty being a leading cause. Impoverishment often negatively impacts access to multiple categories of goods and services that consumers require to experience a reasonable quality of life. While there is research that explores the underlying factors that lead to resource deficits and marketplace restrictions, as well as their physical and emotional outcomes, an understanding of what is necessary to survive and thrive across societies is more elusive. To this end, our chapter carefully examines the concept of consumption adequacy (CA), which historically captures consumer needs for food and potable water, socially acceptable clothing adapted to weather conditions, safe housing that provides for privacy needs of occupants, preventative and remedial health care, and opportunities to grow and advance through education and training. After briefly summarizing the extant literature, each is described in turn, and ways of empirically investigating them across societies are advanced. This chapter closes with both marketer and public policy implications.

Teams in extreme and disruptive contexts face unique challenges that can undermine coordination and decision-making. In this study, we evaluated how affective differences between team members and team process norms affected the team's decision-making effectiveness.

Teams were placed in a survival simulation where they evaluated how best to maximize the team's survival prospects given scarce resources. We incorporated multisource and multirater (i.e., team, observer, and archival) data to ascertain the impacts of affect asymmetry and team process norms on decision-making effectiveness.

Results suggest that teams with low positive affect asymmetry and low process norms generate the most effective decisions. The least effective team decision performance occurred in teams characterized by high variance in team positive affectivity (high positive affect asymmetry) and low process norms. We found no similar effect for teams with high process norms and no effect for negative affect asymmetry, however, irrespective of team process norms.

These findings support the affect infusion model and extend cognitive resource theory, by highlighting how affect infusion processes and situational constraints influence team decision-making in extreme and disruptive contexts.

Safety data sheets are documents developed by chemical manufacturers to identify and label hazardous materials. The occupational safety and health administration regulations state that employers must make safety data sheets available for employees. When firms use hundreds of chemicals, tracking their safety data sheets becomes difficult. Safety Data Sheet Management Systems are developed to track safety data sheets. This paper aims to propose a multi-attribute decision-making framework for selecting a Safety Data Sheet Management System.

A total of 12 attributes are proposed based on a real-life project conducted at a firm in New York and the software selection models existed in the literature. Fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution is used to assess the proposed attributes and alternatives. A case study and sensitivity analysis are conducted to show the robustness of the proposed model. Fuzzy analytical hierarchy process is used for validation.

Safety Data Sheet Management System is important for firms to track and manage safety data sheets. The proposed framework is practical and easy to implement.

The proposed decision model is useful for firms to select a proper Safety Data Sheet Management System. The system developers can use the model to update their systems.

This paper develops a new multi-attribute decision-making model for selecting a Safety Data Sheet Management System. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has developed such a model.

In the United States, Black preschoolers are suspended at disproportionately high rates when compared to other groups. This chapter examines the causes behind the so-called “school-to-prison pipeline,” including the psychological predilection to not label a Black child’s behavior as “bad” but to label the child that way. We offer a personal narrative to ground our research in an approachable, anecdotal fashion in an attempt to remind researchers, policymakers, and educators that this is not just about statistics, although those are included as well. However, behind every statistic is a real child with a real family who is plagued by this pipeline. Furthermore, the personal narrative also sheds light on the overwhelming pressure and stress that simply comes from being Black, and raising Black children, in an America dismissively considered “post-racial.” Finally, and importantly, this chapter explores ways in which changes can help prevent the exploding Black prison population and investigates ways in which that change can functionally take place. It is not enough to acknowledge an ongoing injustice is occurring; we must fix it, no matter how uncomfortable that fix is or how challenging.

Most of my work focusing on educational systems – including universities, public elementary schools, private schools, and training programs in organizations – was supported by Stanford University centers and grants separate from the Training Program, for example, the Stanford Center for Research and Development in Teaching (1968–1977) and the Institute for Research on Educational Finance and Governance (1979–1986). Faculty collaborators in these studies included Elizabeth Cohen and Terrence Deal in the School of Education, and John W. Meyer, my colleague in Sociology. A number of NIMH trainees participated in these studies, including Andrew Creighton, Margaret Davis, and Brian Rowan. Other doctoral students involved in this research included Sally Cole, Joanne Intili, Suzanne E. Monahan, E. Anne Stackhouse, and Marc Ventresca.

This chapter provides an overview of the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in health, including disease, health behaviors, and access to health. The literature on the social determinants of health is reviewed. The chapter then provides a review of the health status of the homeless, poor, and near-poor. The incidence and mortality rates for leading diseases and health behaviors are reviewed, in addition to issues of environmental exposures, access to care, and health literacy. SES is one of the strongest predictors of health status (Kahng, 2010; Kawachi & Kennedy, 1997; Link & Phelan, 1996). SES is important to health regardless of a person's social status and in general, the more advantaged individuals are, the better their health, and the more disadvantaged individuals are, the greater their chances of increased morbidity and mortality (Adler et al., 1994; Adler & Coriell, 1997, Kidder, Wolitski, Campsmith, & Nakamura, 2007; Zlotnick and Zerger, 2009).

The chapter provides an overview of strategies and policies to address the health needs of the poor and vulnerable in our society, including workplace wellness strategies and school-based health clinics. The authors suggest ways to extend these innovative practices. This chapter emphasizes an approach to addressing the health of the poor and near-poor that acknowledges the significant role that access to social and economic resources plays in the acquisition and maintenance of health. Recommendations for health interventions are focused on strengthening the utilization of community institutions to deliver needed services.