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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of various commuting modes on stress and mood upon arrival at work.

Data on stress and mood were collected after 123 employees arrived at work by bike, car, or public transit. In order to account for the natural fluctuation of stress and mood throughout the day, the assessment of the dependent variables was made within the first 45 minutes of arrival at work.

As hypothesized, those who cycled to work were less stressed than their counterparts who arrived by car. However, there was no difference in mood among the different mode users.

A lower level of early stress among cyclists offers further evidence for the promotion of active commute modes.

This study underscores the importance of being sensitive to time-based variations in stress and mood levels when investigating the impact of commute modes.

This study investigates the relationship between personal values and feedback‐seeking behaviors. Feedbackseeking behaviors, or the way by which individuals in organizations actively seek information about their performance, has recently become an important research topic in the management literature. However, the large majority of this research has been conducted in the United States. This study aims to test the relationships between the personal values of a multinational sample and feedback‐seeking behaviors. An integrated set of hypotheses regarding the influence of values on feedback seeking are outlined and tested empirically using samples from Canada, China, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. As predicted, results indicate that significant aspects of feedback seeking were related to personal values. The perceived cost of feedback seeking, the clarity of the feedback from others, and the use of feedback‐seeking behaviors were all linked to personal values. The study also uncovered substantial variations in feedback‐seeking behaviors across nations. The implications of these findings for research on feedback‐seeking behaviors and for feedback practices are discussed.

Although research on multisource ratings indicates that different rater sources provide different information, little research has investigated how ratees attend to such information. Understanding how ratees attend to feedback information from different rater sources is important because such attention likely impacts subsequent behavior. Using a policy‐capturing design, managers (n = 213) completed scenarios in which supervisor, peer, and subordinate ratings were varied across different performance dimensions. Results indicated that ratees attended to all three rater sources, with supervisor ratings being attended to more than peer or subordinate ratings. Further, results indicated a significant interaction between rater source and performance dimension such that some rater sources were attended to more, for certain dimensions, than for others.

In order to determine the usefulness of multi‐source rating in different types of organizations, this study explored differences among organization types in four areas: leniency, interrater agreement, relationships between these ratings and effectiveness, and the relationship between agreement and effectiveness. Used self, subordinate, peer, and supervisor ratings for 1,080 target managers in six types of organizations: education, military, government, manufacturing, finance, and health. Interrater agreement was measured in three ways: an index of variance, a point‐difference categorization method, and categories of self‐other agreement. Results indicated that a leniency bias was present in educational institutions, after controlling for demographic characteristics. Interrater agreement was lowest in government agencies and highest in education and manufacturing organizations. In private sector organizations, more poor‐performing managers tended to over‐estimate their performance relative to the perceptions of others. Interrater agreement was positively related to effectiveness especially in education and finance organizations. Results suggest that multi‐source feedback may work differently in different types of organizations, and such differences may need to be taken into account by researchers, practitioners, and feedback recipients.

Recent investigations on multi‐source feedback have focused on rating congruence. The extent to which self ratings are in agreement with the ratings of others has been linked to various individual outcomes such as derailment, likelihood of promotion and overall managerial effectiveness. This study takes this line of investigation one step further and investigates possible determinants of rating congruence. Using a series of regression analyses, various demographic and personality variables are shown to predict the extent to which self ratings converge with the ratings of supervisors, peers, and subordinates. Moreover, some of these predictors were found to be specific to congruence within specific rating dyads (e.g. self‐supervisor). The implications of these findings are discussed.

This study focused on the relationship between 360‐degree (multi‐source) survey feedback to managers and subsequent selection of development goals. We hypothesized that performance ratings would be negatively related to setting development goals, that supervisor ratings would have a greater effect than ratings from peers or subordinates in the selection of developmental goals, and that self‐other discrepancies would be related to goal selection. Data from 2,163 managers showed that multi‐source feedback contributed to the selection of developmental goals. However, contrary to expectations, subordinate ratings were most important to goal setting compared to ratings from any other sources. Direct feedback itself affected goal selection, not its relationship to self‐perceptions. For several goals, the relationship between performance ratings and goal selection was stronger for lower level managers. Implications of the results for the practice of 360‐degree feedback and related research are discussed.

Research on feedback acceptance typically has not focused on feedback given in developmental contexts nor has this research used sources other than self‐reports to measure feedback acceptance. This study examined recipient characteristics as influences on receptivity to management development feedback. Racial similarity of the feedback recipient and giver was the most consistent predictor of receptivity. Self‐report, feedback giver, and outsider ratings of receptivity evidenced little congruence. Implications for understanding receptivity in developmental contexts are discussed.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

A recent study of workers in the city of Montreal showed that the mode of transport chosen by commuters has a major influence on their well-being at work, with cycling having far more positive outcomes than driving.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.