Organizations are rapidly shifting the way that individuals conceptualize, participate, and engage in work. A significant change is how organizations are coordinating, arranging, and organizing the activities of their employees for the accomplishments of organizational goals. Communication, Relationships and Practices in Virtual Work characterizes the nuanced communication, relational, and practical dynamics that characterize virtual working in contemporary organizations. This reference work addresses virtual teams, peer relationships in virtual work, mentoring, vertical mobility, diversity in the virtual workspace, productivity and the postmodern aesthetic, and the communication practices and processes of dispersed work configurations.

Though creativity is considered an asset in the modern business world, it is currently not being promoted in educational programs. Developing, supporting, and sustaining creativity in individuals will shape the future of business and enrich the incoming workforce. Creativity in Workforce Development and Innovation: Emerging Research and Opportunities presents the latest scholarly research on the importance of creativity in this era of growing complexity and rapid change. Including relevant research on development and sustainability of creativity within businesses, this unique source provides coverage in areas such as teacher preparation, global workforce, and cognitive studies. This book is an important resource for educators, professionals, and students seeking current research on the best options for promoting creativity in education and the modern workforce.

Institutions such as trade unions that were once relied upon to protect workers' wages, conditions and job security are eroding. In response, new forms of worker protections are emerging. Protecting the Future of Work examines new forms of regulation that have emerged in response to increasing social concern about poor labour practices, growing inequality, and detrimental working conditions. It looks at how trade unions, community organisations and other actors have mobilised to raise public awareness and pressure businesses and governments to improve working conditions. Featuring a balance of texts on the changing nature of and the history of trade union change and transformation, the series Trade Unionism gives space for in-depth, detailed analysis and captures key themes on the nature of internationalism and trade unionism.

Working for pay is a common experience throughout North America for youth, with up to 80 percent of high school students working for at least a short duration of time through the course of a year. Once adolescents enter the labor market, they usually continue working, though they change jobs frequently through to their early 20s. Most working youth are employed during both the school year and the summer. Adolescents and young adults are exposed to a variety of workplace risks and hazards that include operating dangerous tools, machinery, and vehicles; handling cash in situations prone to robbery; and working with supervisors and co-workers whose own 'safe work practices' are suspect. Proper orientation and training is sometimes minimal; supervision can be limited and of questionable quality. Given that over the past fifty years the proportion of adolescents entering the workforce has increased six-fold for both males and females, and that the number of working youth is expected to continue increasing due to globalization and diffusion of new technologies, there is definite cause for concern. Why the large discrepancy between young people and adults when it comes to workplace injury? Why are our future workers being injured at all? Youth willingly enter work settings expecting to be guided and protected, yet many are exposed to work environments and safety cultures leading to quite different outcomes. Some answers may lie in better understanding the young worker experience or in the similarities and differences between the young worker and adult worker experience. We only know that a simplistic, rote answer will not suffice, especially when young people continue to be injured, some fatally, on the job. In an effort to begin answering some of these questions, we have developed this two part book. Part I is designed to provide the reader with an overview of what we know about young workers and some of the factors that may influence their ability to stay safe at work. The literature draws attention to areas ranging from the Nature of the Workplace, to Risk Perception, and finally to Management and System Support. Where appropriate, the findings from the Young Worker Young Supervisor (YWYS) project are brought into the existing literature on young worker health and safety. Part I sets the tone for Part II of the monograph by giving the reader an idea of what young workers find themselves facing when they enter the world of work, from characteristics of the workplace to unique conditions and relationships of young workers. To further illuminate the issues and situations youth face in the workplace, Part II presents a series of vignettes that were drawn from real life situations observed through the course of the YWYS project. The vignettes are brief, evocative descriptions, accounts, or episodes representing the types of experiences common to young workers. These vignettes are based on the case studies and interviews conducted during the course of the YWYS project. The circumstances presented in the vignettes reflect the conditions under which many young workers find themselves. As farfetched as some of the managers' and young workers' behavior may seem in the vignettes, the events are fictionalized versions of real workplace occurrences. Each vignette is followed by one or more 'scenario(s)', each presenting an open-ended problem taken from real life and faced by young workers. Each scenario ends with a series of questions intended to encourage the reader towards further discussion.

Identity matters. Who we are in terms of our intersecting identities such as gender, race, social class, (dis)ability, geography, and religion are integral to who we are and how we navigate work and life. Unfortunately, many people have yet to grasp this understanding and, as a result, so many of our work spaces lack appropriate responses to what this means. Therefore, Identity Intersectionalities, Mentoring, and Work?life (Im) balance: Educators (Re)negotiate the Personal, Professional, and Political, the most recent installment of the work?life balance series, uses an intersectional perspective to critically examine the concept of work?life balance. In an effort to build on the first book in the series, that focused on professors in educational leadership preparation programs, the authors here represent educators across the P?20 pipeline (primary and secondary schools in addition to higher education). This book is also unique in that it includes the voices of practitioners, students, and academics from a variety of related disciplines within the education profession, enabling the editors to include a diverse group of educators whose many voices speak to work?life balance in unique and very personal ways. Contributing authors challenge whether the concept of work?life balance might be conceived as a privileged -and even an impractical?endeavor. Yet, the bottom line is, conceptions of work?life balance are exceptionally complex and vary widely depending on one's many roles and intersecting identities. Moreover, this book considers how mentoring is important to negotiating the politics that come with balancing work and life; especially, if those intersecting identities are frequently associated with unsolicited stereotypes that impede upon one's academic, professional and personal pursuits in life. Finally, the editors argue that the power to authentically "be ourselves" is not only important to individual success, but also beneficial to fostering an institutional culture and climate that is truly supportive of and responsive to diversity, equity, and justice. Taken together, the voices in this book are a clarion call for P?12 and higher education professionals and organizations to envision how identity intersectionalities might become an every?day understanding, a normalized appreciation, and a customary commitment that translates into policy and practice.

There is significant research available on critical success and failure factors of Lean Six Sigma implementation in organizations, predominantly focusing on the technical side of this performance method. But many organisations have overlooked soft skill aspects and the responsibilities of the Executive Leadership of the organization to make deployment a success. Leading Lean Six Sigma: Research on Leadership for Operational Excellence Deployment assesses the impact of organizational leadership on the deployment of Lean Six Sigma in organisations. By identifying leadership as a critical success factor for Lean Six Sigma deployment in organizations, this book details what leadership traits are needed for a successful deployment, differentiating by industry sector, and presents a ground-breaking leadership dependency model. Alessandro Laureani and Jiju Antony's new research extends and refines the current understanding of Lean Six Sigma and leadership, identifying the traits a leader needs to display to increase the chances of successful deployment. This book offers new perspectives for researchers examining Leadership, Management and Operational Excellence, as well as presenting useful guidance for practitioners launching, managing or sustaining continuous improvement initiatives in their organisations.

Volume 40 of Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management offers several original scholarly contributions written by thought leaders in the field of human resources management. These chapters feature the latest research exploring emerging new areas of HRM management. Chapters include analysis of "other-rating" alternatives to traditional self-survey information gathering, how governance mechanisms might be utilized to help firms achieve a balance between alignment and disruption, multi-stakeholder approaches to constructive deviance in the workplace, and how thoughtfully constructed incentives can be used to improve other outcomes such as safety, quality, prosocial behaviors, and creativity.