Expanding The Conceptual Boundaries Of Work Effort

Today, companies are more than ever dependent on a highly motivated workforce and hard-working employees. The purpose of this book is to expand the conceptual boundaries of work effort (WE) in order to gain critical insights into what makes people work hard. In spite of the acknowledged importance of WE, the concept was hitherto weakly understood, inconsistently defined, and lacked a clear conceptualization due to a lack of theoretical and empirical research. At theoretical level, this dissertation enhances the understanding of the WE concept, notably with respect to its antecedents. At practical level, the refined understanding will increase the leaders’ ability to impact and manage their employees’ WE levels.

Health research has a wide scope, encompassing all influences on health from emotion to overcrowded living situations. This volume articulates the benefits of interdisciplinary exchange and the best strategies for working together.

Social critics and artificial intelligence experts have long prophesized that computers and robots would soon relegate humans to the dustbin of history. Many among the general population seem to have shared this fear of a dehumanized future. But how are people in the twenty-first century actually reacting to the ever-expanding array of gadgets and networks at their disposal? Is computer anxiety a significant problem, paralyzing and terrorizing millions, or are ever-proliferating numbers of gadgets being enthusiastically embraced? Machines that Become Us explores the increasingly intimate relationship between people and their personal communication technologies.In the first book of its kind, internationally recognized scholars from the United States and Europe explore this topic. Among the technologies analyzed include the Internet, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, networked homes, smart fabrics and wearable computers, interactive location badges, and implanted monitoring devices. The authors discuss critical policy issues, such as the problems of information resource access and equity, and the recently discovered digital dropouts phenomena.The use of the word become in the book's title has three different meanings. The first suggests how people use these technologies to broaden their abilities to communicate and to represent themselves to others. Thus the technologies become extensions and representatives of the communicators. A second sense of become applies to analysis of the way these technologies become physically integrated with the user's clothing and even their bodies. Finally, contributors examine fashion aspects and uses of these technologies, that is, how they are used in ways becoming to the wearer. The conclusions of many chapters are supported by data, including ethnographic observations, attitude surveys and case studies from the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Finland, and Norway. This approach is especially valuable