Cross-national validation of the resources depletion-recovery model: An empirical study of Spanish and British theme park employees

Surface acting (SA) refers to the strategy whereby front-line employees hide their own emotions and fake those required of them within their role within customer service transactions. Although researchers have associated SA with burnout, evidence now suggests that this could be an indirect relationship. Building on the Conservation of Resources theory, it was hypothesised that the combined effect of emotional effort and lack of rewarding interactions with customers triggered by SA would explain the strong association between SA and burnout (Studies 1 and 2). Furthermore, building on psychological recovery literature, it was hypothesised that the effort invested in SA would be a weaker predictor of front-line employees’ burnout in cases when they reported higher levels of recovery ability as opposed to lower levels (Study 2). A cross-national and cross-sectional design was used, and participants were theme park employees from UK (Study 1, NUK =204) and Spain (Study 2, NSpain=211). The explanatory role of emotional effort and rewarding interactions was supported, and the buffering effect of recovery ability was confirmed. Strategies aimed at minimising burnout risk for employees who deal with customers on a regular basis in these countries are discussed

Human Resource Management Outsourcing in Spanish firms: Evolution over time and implication for devolution

Purpose: The paper aim to explore the evolution in the use of HRO in Spanish firms, and determine the differences in the degree of implementation of HRO since 1999 until 2014, and also analyze the relationship between HR outsourcing and devolution of HR responsibilities to line managers in Spanish organizations. Design/methodology: This paper combines quantitative and qualitative methods. Namely the article is based on international Cranet HRM survey data collected from private and public organizations and also interviews with HR external providers. Findings: The analysis of developments, based on the Cranet surveys and interviews with HR external providers shows that during the past few years there has been an increasing use of HRO in parallel with the tendency to devolve more HR responsibility to line managers. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of this research is the limitation of data about reasons for devolution that the CRANET questionnaire provides. However, the interviews carried out enrich the survey data with qualitative results. Practical implications: The findings can be used to guide management teams in outsourcing and devolution decisions to maximize benefits to their organizations. Originality/value: This paper is about the evolution of HRO in Spain as a European Union country where published research on HRO and also its implications is relatively limited. The originality of this paper is mainly the involvement of line manager in the outsourcing process which have been poorly analyzed until now.Peer Reviewe

Examining green production and its role within the competitive strategy of manufacturers

Purpose: This paper reviews current literature and contributes a set of findings that capture the current state-of-the-art of the topic of green production. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review to capture, classify and summarize the main body of knowledge on green production and, translate this into a form that is readily accessible to researchers and practitioners in the more mainstream operations management community. Findings: The existing knowledge base is somewhat fragmented. This is a relatively unexplored topic within mainstream operations management research and one which could provide rich opportunities for further exploration. Originality/value: This paper sets out to review current literature, from a more conventional production operations perspective, and contributes a set of findings that capture the current state-of-the-art of this topic

Oscillatory and Fourier Integral operators with degenerate canonical relations

We mostly survey results concerning the $L^2$ boundedness of oscillatory and Fourier integral operators. This article does not intend to give a broad overview; it mainly focusses on a few topics directly related to the work of the authors.Comment: 37 pages, to appear in Publicacions Mathematiques (special issue, Proceedings of the 2000 El Escorial Conference in Harmonic Analysis and Partial Differential Equations

Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of products of ideals

We discuss the behavior of the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity under certain operations on ideals and modules, like products or powers. In particular, we show that reg(IM) can be larger than reg(M)+reg(I) even when I is an ideal of linear forms and M is a module with a linear resolution. On the other hand, we show that any product of ideals of linear forms has a linear resolution. We also discuss the case of polymatroidal ideals and show that any product of determinantal ideals of a generic Hankel matrix has a linear resolution.Comment: 14 page

Food Lion and the Media’s Liability for Newsgathering Torts: A Symposium Preview

Abans de l'arribada de Pere Alberch a la catedral de Barcelona, el magisteri de l'orgue havia estat en mans de l'organista Joan Ferrer, el qual l'exercí entre 1515 i 1536, essent mestre de cant entre 1513 i 1517. La identitat de l'organista de la catedral de Barcelona correspon a la del compositor «Johannes Ffarer», autor del motet «Domine non secundum» del Cancionero musical de Segovia (CMS). La identificació entre «Johannes Ffarer» i Joan Ferrer, i la presència del seu motet processional «Domine non secundum» juntament amb la de l'himne «Conditor alme siderunt» de Marturià Prats, fan palesa la recepció que la capella flamenca va fer del repertori polifònic d'aquests dos compositors catalans, les obres dels quals es devien incorporar al cançoner durant el prolongat sojorn que la capella de Carles I va fer a Barcelona, en el transcurs de l'any 1519. D'altra banda, i gràcies a la documentació capitular de les seus de Vic, Tortosa i Tarragona, sabem que Marturià Prats, i també Antoni Marlet, romanien vinculats a la capella nobiliària que l'infant Enric, comte d'Empúries, mantenia al seu palau del carrer Ample de Barcelona. En el marc del context urbà, social i musical de la Barcelona de principis del segle xvi no costa gaire d'imaginar com devien sovintejar els contactes, i, amb ells, les avinences i els intercanvis musicals en- tre els músics de la capella flamenca i els de les capelles nobiliàries dels Cardona, l'infant Enric, els Montcada, a banda dels cantors de la catedral i dels de les grans parròquies de la ciutat. Un esdeveniment d'aquestes característiques pot ajudar a explicar el motiu de la presència de les dues obres de Joan Ferrer i Marturià Prats en el CMS, convivint amb la riquesa del seu repertori francoflamenc i castellà.Before Pere Alberch arrived at Barcelona Cathedral, the organ master had been the organist Joan Ferrer in the period between 1515 and 1536, and he had also been the magister cantus between 1513 and 1517. The identity of the organist of Barcelona Cathedral corresponds to that of the composer Johannes Ffarer, who was the author of the motet Domine non secundum of the Cancionero musical de Segovia. The identification between Johannes Ffarer and Joan Ferrer, and the presence of his processional motet Domine non secundum together with that of the hymn Conditor alme siderunt of Marturià Prats, evidence the Flemish chapel's reception of the polyphonic repertoire of these two Catalan composers, whose works must have been added to the cancionero or song-book during the long stay of Charles I's chapel in Barcelona in the course of the year 1519. Moreover, thanks to the chapter documents of the cathedrals of Vic, Tortosa and Tarragona, we know that Marturià Prats as well as Antoni Marlet remained attached to the noble chapel which Prince Henry, Count of Empúries, kept in his palace at Carrer Ample in Barcelona. Within the urban, social and musical context of the Barcelona of the early 16th century, it is easy to imagine how frequent the contacts must have been and consequently the understandings and musical exchanges between the musicians of the Flemish chapel and those of the noble chapels of the Cardonas, Prince Henry, the Montcadas, etc., as well as the singers of the Cathedral and those of the major parish churches of the city. An event of this type could help to explain the reason for the presence of the two works of Joan Ferrer and Marturià Prats in the CMS, together with the rich Franco-Flemish and Castilian repertoire to be found there

Do business games foster skills? A cross-cultural study from learners’ views

Purpose: This study seeks to analyse students’ perception of the effectiveness of business games as an e-learning method in management training. This analysis of games’ effectiveness is centred in the generic and managerial skills acquired, through the comparison of students’ opinions in different cultural contexts within Europe. Design/methodology: The analysis focuses on 120 management students at postgraduate level who use the same business game at different universities in five European countries: Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Germany. Findings: The results indicate that students positively assessed the generic and specific managerial skills fostered by the business game. The generic skills most valued were information and decision-making, and leadership. Regarding the specific skills, the most valued were management skills and the least valued, skills related to planning and the acquisition of theoretical knowledge. However, significant differences were found between students in different cultural contexts and education systems in the case of certain specific managerial skills. Practical implications: This finding suggests that the students’ perception of how a business game helps them acquire specific managerial skills is influenced by cultural aspects and previous exposure to experiential learning, which determine that the teachers’ role and the teaching process should be adapted to the students’ learning model. Originality/value: With this study, a better knowledge about the students’ perception of this e-learning method is obtained, not just considering a specific educational environment, but comparing opinions of students from different cultural contexts, which adds value to the analyses developed.Peer Reviewe