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Describes how a computer disk and storage media company [KAO Infosystems of the USA]uses machine vision technology to maintain the quality of its products by isolating problems and identifying ways of improving the manufacturing process. Emphasises the need to fully define applications and evaluate the technology before introducing a new element to an automation process and stresses the need to integrate the vision system hardware with the plant’s existing manufacturing equipment.

The question of violence in hunter-gatherer society has animated philosophical debates since at least the seventeenth century. Steven Pinker has sought to affirm that civilization, is superior to the state of humanity during its long history of hunting and gathering. The purpose of this paper is to draw upon a series of recent studies that assert a baseline of primordial violence by hunters and gatherers. In challenging this position the author draws on four decades of ethnographic and historical research on hunting and gathering peoples.

At the empirical heart of this question is the evidence pro- and con- for high rates of violent death in pre-farming human populations. The author evaluates the ethnographic and historical evidence for warfare in recorded hunting and gathering societies, and the archaeological evidence for warfare in pre-history prior to the advent of agriculture.

The view of Steven Pinker and others of high rates of lethal violence in hunters and gatherers is not sustained. In contrast to early farmers, their foraging precursors lived more lightly on the land and had other ways of resolving conflict. With little or no fixed property they could easily disperse to diffuse conflict. The evidence points to markedly lower levels of violence for foragers compared to post-Neolithic societies.

This conclusion raises serious caveats about the grand evolutionary theory asserted by Steven Pinker, Richard Wrangham and others. Instead of being “killer apes” in the Pleistocene and Holocene, the evidence indicates that early humans lived as relatively peaceful hunter-gathers for some 7,000 generations, from the emergence of Homo sapiens up until the invention of agriculture. Therefore there is a major gap between the purported violence of the chimp-like ancestors and the documented violence of post-Neolithic humanity.

This is a critical analysis of published claims by authors who contend that ancient and recent hunter-gatherers typically committed high levels of violent acts. It reveals a number of serious flaws in their arguments and use of data.

The purpose of this article is to perform a literature review of the existing body of empirically‐based studies relating to the causes and implications of how the ethical climate of a company ultimately affects the incidence of workplace deviance.

The article examines the issue of ethical contexts and climates within organizations, as measured by the Ethical Climate Questionnaire developed in 1987 by Victor and Cullen , and their implications in the daily work lives of participants. The causes of unethical behaviour, including the presence of counter norms, the environment in which a firm operates, and organizational commitment, as well as the manifestation of this behaviour in the form of workplace deviance, are reviewed. Finally, current trends in preventing workplace deviance are investigated, including promoting a strong culture of ethics, and the use of “toxic handlers”, individuals who take it upon themselves to handle the frustrations of fellow employees.

Clearly, unethical and deviant behaviour problems are of great concern to organizations, which must take steps to solve them, at the same time as fostering strong positive ethical cultures. Feels that further studies are needed using more definitive and qualitative measurements to learn more about these behaviours.

This article would be useful to those who wish to obtain an overview of the current literature, specifically readers who do not specialize in the subject area.

Describes the impact of ongoing downsizing activities as an established organization attempts to develop a new corporate culture. Objective of this undertaking was to recommend an action plan and feedback loop to assist this complex procedure. An organizational climate survey was developed via a review of the literature utilizing a nonprobability sample design and utilizing an ordinal scale. A questionnaire (N = 30) was developed to explore downsizing practices, compensation, satisfaction and morale in this particular hybrid case and field study. Attention was given to changing culture leadership, communication systems, decision‐making, incentives ‐ satisfaction, gainsharing and the surveyor syndrome. The results indicated that corporate culture was incongruous with employee culture, thus impeding the downsizing process. Recommendations for management to correct this structural and process problem are given in addition to an action plan to implement all variables previously described in the literature and tested in this case study.

The current study examines the strategies that nonbinary people use to communicate their gender identities across contexts, including an exploration of how they modify their gender presentations in response to situations perceived as risky or unsafe. Data were drawn from interviews with 19 nonbinary people, and a modified grounded theory approach was used to identify prevalent or recurring elements in the data. Nonbinary people struggled to communicate their genders to others and felt constrained by the knowledge that others would inevitably interpret their gender presentations within the context of a strict binary. Moreover, they often felt pressure to enact normative, binary presentations in order to feel safer or less visibly gender-nonconforming, particularly in contexts in which social norms were experienced as heightened, such as when engaging with institutions or navigating public spaces such as restrooms or transit systems. This study contributes to the limited literature on nonbinary identities and highlights how dominant transnormative narratives constrain presentation and communication.

This paper seeks to argue that boards can be playing a more proactive role in contributing to organizational effectiveness and that their composition requires greater research attention. By integrating the organizational behaviour literature on teams with the governance literature, the paper empirically examines the relationship between key board composition variables and firm performance.

At this stage in the development of the approach, the focus is on a sub‐set of the elements proposed in the group dynamics literature. The population for this study comprises all companies included in the Canadian TSE 300 Composite Index (renamed the S&P/TSX Composite Index). This study uses cross‐sectional regression analyses to examine the nature of the relationships between board composition and firm performance.

The data analyses revealed that high levels of experience, appropriate team size, moderate levels of variation in age and team tenure were correlated with firm performance.

Boards of directors (BOD) are teams whose effectiveness can be assessed through group dynamic constructs in the organizational behaviour literature. Further research is needed to examine the intricate dynamics that might moderate or mediate the relationship between board characteristics and firm performance.

The findings provide a much‐needed benchmark to consider whether the composition of boards is optimal, given the functions and mandate. In addition, the study highlights the opportunity costs of boards, restricting their roles to agency issues.

This interdisciplinary paper tests some of the many variables that can be extrapolated from the group dynamics research. The paper calls on boards to examine what BOD functionality really entails, and argues for more proactive behaviours aimed at strategic firm issues.

The purpose of this ontologically qualitative research study was to (a) explore student narratives regarding their educational experiences in at-home internationalization programs; (b) provide an in-depth narrative analysis of student learning challenges and achievements; and (c) add valuable research-based knowledge of student-described experiences for use by program administrators.

Participants were selected with a form of four-stage non-proportional stratified sampling. 29 participants were interviewed using a basic demographic questionnaire and an episodic interview protocol. Data were analyzed in QSR NVivo software through open, axial, and selective coding stages under the framework of grounded theory.

The findings focus on student-identified links between the challenges they encountered and their achievements. In addition, student performance level and gender were associated with the challenges and achievements reported by students. In understanding the results, the student-learning concepts found in the learned optimism, growth mindset, grit and expectancy theory approaches provide potentially fruitful insights.

The findings of this research have instructive implications for program administrators regarding how student challenges can be strategically chosen and shaped to generate specific, positive student achievements.

Despite increasing interest and scholarship on authentic leadership, definitions of the construct remain contested. In addition, limited research exists on its enactment in practice and its sustainability in a global context. The purpose of this study was to explore the practice of authentic leadership and understand more about how it is cultivated and sustained.

To address these issues, an international sample of leaders nominated by peers as exemplifying authenticity in their leadership was interviewed. This study used consensual qualitative research (CQR; Hill, 2012; Hill et al., 1997), a team-based, exploratory methodology, to conduct data analysis.

This study describes the results of the analysis, highlighting leaders’ beliefs, values and behaviors; their leadership development and the barriers and supportive factors they experienced as leaders. The findings from this exploratory analysis across all cases, including subgroups, may help contextualize the complexity of authentic and sustainable leadership and provide better understanding of authentic leadership development.

Additional research on social identities and training in leadership are critical. The results of this study suggest new directions in studying the development of authentic leaders as well as in researching the experiences of organizations and team members.

This study provides insight and direction for individuals and organizations seeking to better understand the practice of authentic leadership, its development and how it can be sustained over time and across contexts and social identities.

This exploratory approach involving interviews with leaders around the globe provides information about the direct lived experiences of leaders identified as authentic by their peers. This study further highlights the leaders’ critical leadership beliefs and practices, as well as ways in which they cultivated and learned to sustain their leadership practices. This study also sheds light on ways in which experiences might differ across gendered and cultural contexts.