This study examines workplace issues of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) employees. Specifically, we analyze the effect of firm GLBT nondiscrimination policies on that firm's stock market value. Corporate equality index (CEI) is used as a proxy for how firms manage GLBT issues. Results reveal that changes in firms' standardized CEI scores are positively associated with changes in firms' standardized stock price trend during the following year. Our findings suggest that the stock prices of firms with more progressive GLBT nondiscrimination policies relative to competing firms in the same industry outperform otherwise equivalent firms with lower CEI scores.

As employees' international mobility has increased, implementing repatriation processes has become a significant human resource (HR) issue. Through an exploratory study using a semi‐structured interview method, we examine repatriated employees' views about HR activities that facilitate and hinder the repatriation process in the emerging economy of India. Respondents described lack of formal repatriation assistance, no contact person in HR to help with repatriation, and lack of re‐entry culture‐related training as characteristic of the repatriation process. Managing employees' expectations, along with creating a more sensitive, structured, and strategic HR function, are recommended to improve the repatriation process. From a theoretical perspective, results point to the multi‐dimensionality of the repatriation construct and provide evidence of the context‐specificity of HR practices.

Questions about diversity training's utility and effectiveness remain despite its widespread use and the significant investments many firms make in such training. As a result, some HR practitioners have doubts about its relevance in the workplace. In this paper, we envision a future state of diversity training whereby diversity is embedded into work practices and programs through direct knowledge transfer, continuous skill development, and accountability for learning. We recommend four specific guidelines that HR leaders can follow to achieve this “future state” called A.G.E.M.—Approach, Goals, Executive Commitment, and Mandatory Attendance. We suggest that following the A.G.E.M. approach will lead to the kind of transformative behavioral changes required for effective diversity training programs.

Today's workforce encompasses a wide variety of employees with specific needs and resources when it comes to balancing work and life roles. Our study explores whether various types of work‐life balance support measures improve employee helping behavior and performance among single employees, employees with a partner, and employees with a partner and children. Using a sample of 482 employees at 24 organizations, the results showed that the organization's work‐family culture improved work performance among parents but reduced performance among singles. Singles' work outcomes improved, however, when they had access to flexible work arrangements, whereas couples benefited from their supervisors' social support. The results stress the importance of the employee's household structure when considering appropriate support for balancing work and life roles.

Flexibility in a manufacturing firm is a strategic choice that advances the firm's superior performance. This is especially true in the emerging supply chain, which makes the firm's environment particularly turbulent. This paper examines the critical relationships between a manufacturing firm's human capital, the firm's flexibility, suppliers' flexibility, and the firm's competitive advantages. Based on questionnaire responses from 201 senior supply chain management professionals in several manufacturing industries, this study establishes direct links between a manufacturing firm's human capital and the firm's superior flexibility, and between a manufacturing firm's flexibility and its competitive advantages. In addition, this research finds that the firm's flexibility mediates the relationship between the firm's human capital and its competitive advantages, as does the connection between the suppliers' flexibility and the firm's competitive advantages.

Given the ubiquity, time investment, and theoretical relevance of meetings to work attitudes, this study explored whether organizational science should consider employee satisfaction with meetings as a contemporary, important, and discrete facet of job satisfaction. Using affective events theory, we postulated that meetings are affect‐generating events that meaningfully contribute to overall job satisfaction. Two surveys queried working adults: Study 1 used a paper‐based survey (n = 201), while Study 2 used an Internet‐based survey (n = 785). Satisfaction with meetings was positively related to and significantly predicted overall job satisfaction (p < .05) after controlling for individual difference variables (e.g., participant background variables, negative affect), traditional job satisfaction facets (e.g., work, supervision, pay), and other conceptually relevant constructs (e.g., satisfaction with communication, organizational commitment). Exploratory (Study 1) and confirmatory (Study 2) factor analyses provided evidence that meeting satisfaction is a distinct facet of job satisfaction. Finally, as hypothesized, the relationship between meeting satisfaction and job satisfaction depends in part upon the number of meetings typically attended. The relationship was stronger (more positive) when meeting demands were higher and weaker when meeting demands were lower. Implications for assessment, leadership development, on‐boarding, and high potential initiatives are discussed.

The aim of this research was to explore relations between work and family demands and resources, work‐to‐family conflict (WFC), and work and family outcomes in a cross‐cultural comparative context involving Taiwanese and British employees. Two‐hundred and sixty‐four Taiwanese employees and 137 British employees were surveyed using structured questionnaires. For both Taiwanese and British employees, work and family demands were positively related to WFC, whereas work resources were negatively related to WFC. Furthermore, WFC was negatively related to family satisfaction. More importantly, we found that nation moderated relationships between work resources and WFC, WFC and work, and family satisfaction. Specifically, work resources had a stronger protective effect for Taiwanese than British in reducing WFC, whereas WFC had a stronger detrimental effect on role satisfaction for British than Taiwanese. It is recommended that both culture‐general and culture‐specific effects should be taken into consideration in designing future WFC research and familyfriendly managerial practices.