This thesis explores the notion of the employer in English employment law. It seeks to develop a functional reconceptualisation of that notion in the hope of overcoming the theoretical and practical problems resulting from the tensions inherent in the current approach. The first part of the thesis analyses the notion of the employer as counterparty to the contract of employment. Two conflicting strands emerge: the employer is simultaneously identified as a single party to a bilateral contract (the unitary strand) and defined through the exercise of a range of employer functions (the multi-functional strand). As a result of this tension, full employment law coverage is restricted to a narrow paradigm scenario where a single legal entity exercises all employer functions. Modern economic developments, from the rise of employment agencies and service companies to corporate groups and Private Equity investors, have however increasingly led to the joint exercise of such functions across multiple entities. The second part illustrates the practical implications of these developments: regulatory obligations are placed on inappropriate entities, and workers may even find themselves without recourse to any employment law protection. An additional chapter compares this situation with the notion of the employer in German law, where a sophisticated apparatus has been developed in order to address the particular challenges of employment in multi-entity scenarios, in particular in corporate groups. On the basis of these observations the final part of the thesis then proposes a reconceptualised notion. The employer is defined as the entity, or combination of entities, exercising functions regulated in a particular domain of employment law. Each of the two strands of the current notion is addressed in turn to demonstrate how this more openly multi-functional approach addresses the rigidities of the current notion without abandoning an underlying unitary conceptualisation. It is hoped that the resulting notion of the employer will be able to place employment law obligations on the entity, or combination of entities, exercising the relevant employer functions, regardless of the formal legal organisation of the enterprise in question.

Résumé indisponible. / A healthcare network or health system consists of all organizations, actions and people who participate to promote, restore or maintain people’s health. The health care systems in many developed countries are facing increasing costs. The major reason is the changing age distribution of the population with more elderly people in need of support. Increasing healthcare costs has created new alternatives to traditional hospitalization in which one is Home Health Care (HHC). Home health care or domiciliary care is the provision of health care and assistance to people in their own homes, according to a formal assessment of their needs. HHC has attained a specific place in healthcare network. HHC programs have now been successfully implemented in many countries. The purpose of HHC is to provide the care and support needed to assist patients to live independently in their own homes. HHC is primarily performed by means of personal visitations of healthcare workers to patients in their homes, where they provide care assistance according to patients’ needs. In this thesis we have considered different aspects of planning problems for home health care services. The efficient use of resources is necessary in continuous healthcare services. To meet the increased demand of HHC, operation research specialist can play an important role by solving the various combinatorial optimization problems arising in HHC. These problems can be tactical, strategic or operational with respect to planning horizon. Strategic problems are those which help in attaining long term goals or objectives, e.g. higher level of quality for HHC patients and efficient use of resources. These strategic objectives can be achieved through tactical i.e. medium term panning and operational planning i.e. short term planning. The main purpose of our thesis is to identify these potential optimization problems and solve them via recent metaheuristics. HHC is an alternative to traditional hospitalization and has got a significant share in the organization of healthcare in developed countries. The change in aging demographics, recent development in technology and the increase in the demand of healthcare services are major reasons for this rapid growth. Some studies show HHC as a tool to reduce costs of care, which is a major preoccupation in developed countries. Some others reveal that it leads to the improvement of patients’ satisfaction without increasing the resources. Home health care, i.e. visiting and nursing patients in their homes, is a flourishing realm in the medical industry. The number of companies has grown largely both in public and private sectors. The staffing needs for HHC companies have been expanded as well. Also they face the problem of assigning geographically dispersed patients to home healthcare workers and preparing daily schedules for these workers. The challenge of this problem is to combine aspects of vehicle routing and staff rostering. Both of them are well known NP- hard combinatorial optimization problems, it means the amount of computational time required to find solution increases exponentially with problem size. Home healthcare workers scheduling problem is difficult to solve optimally due to presence of large number of constraints. These are two types of constraints: hard constraints and soft constraints. The hard constraints are the restrictions to be fulfilled for the schedules to be applicable and soft constraints are preferences to improve the quality of these schedules. (...)

[pt] Esta tese aborda o tema Gestão da Variedade de Produtos (GVP), designado pelo seu correspondente em inglês Product Variety Management (PVM). GVP é um campo do conhecimento que é, por essência, multidisciplinar, cujo efeito pode ser sentido nas mais diversas áreas de uma empresa. Se por um lado algumas áreas são mais propensas a sentirem os efeitos benéficos do aumento da variedade de produtos ofertada, outras, por sua vez, tendem a associar o aumento da variedade de produtos como um aspecto negativo. As áreas de marketing e de vendas tendem a ter uma visão positiva em relação ao aumento da variedade de produtos, já que associam uma maior variedade à customização do produto frente às necessidades dos cliente, ao aumento na receita, melhor visibilidade da imagem da marca da empresa, entre outros benefícios. Por outro lado, as áreas de produção, logística, compras e ambiental verificam um aumento na complexidade dos produtos, de seus processos e dos resíduos gerados a partir do aumento do mix de produto oferecido, gerando assim inúmeros desafios. Este episódio leva estas áreas a possuírem um receio em relação ao aumento da variedade de produtos. Neste sentido, a GVP é um conjunto de práticas gerenciais cujo objetivo é coordenar as ações dentro da empresa e ao longo da cadeia de suprimentos, buscando o melhor alinhamento das áreas e elos da cadeia. Esta tese tem por objetivo desenvolver um modelo conceitual (framework) para a GVP e de aplicá-lo por meio de estudos empíricos para analisar o uso desta gestão na indústria. A contribuição acadêmica é a de oferecer à literatura uma integração dos trabalhos dispersos sobre o tema e o de indicar como a compreensão de pesquisadores tem se desenvolvido ao longo do tempo. Membros da indústria também podem se beneficiar deste trabalho com os resultados da aplicação do modelo na indústria automotiva e de cosméticos. Para a construção do modelo conceitual utilizou-se uma revisão sistemática na literatura nas bases de dados Science Direct e Emerald. Nestas, 87 dos 455 artigos selecionados foram utilizados e, a partir daí, chegou-se às dimensões que compõem o modelo conceitual (input, structure and processing, measures e outcomes). Vale a pena destacar que foi verificada uma ausência de sínteses anteriores na literatura que abordem a GVP. Poucos artigos tratam a GVP de forma holística limitando-se, em geral, a um conjunto restrito de aspectos que compõe a GVP. Outra descoberta interessante é que grande parte dos artigos que abordam GVP o fazem em ambiente de manufatura. A vertente empírica desta tese reside nos estudos realizados em empresas. O objetivo destes estudos é validar empiricamente o modelo conceitual desenvolvido. Para tal foram realizados quatro estudos de caso que estão nos capítulos 5 e 6. No capítulo 5 foram realizados dois estudos em profundidade na indústria automotiva entre empresas contendo um relacionamento cliente-fornecedor em uma cadeia de suprimentos (fabricante de chassis de ônibus e encarroçadora). No capítulo 6 foi realizado um estudo comparativo na indústria automotiva e na de cosméticos, com o intuito de verificar a validade do modelo conceitual além do contexto vivido dentro da indústria automotiva. A criação de um modelo conceitual para a GVP e sua posterior aplicação empírica trouxe à tona importantes aspectos relacionados à GVP. O primeiro deles é a própria avaliação do modelo com suas dimensões e variáveis. Por se tratar de um dos primeiros esforços em organizar e sistematizar o conhecimento acerca da GVP, sua aplicação demonstrou aderência com a GVP realizada nas empresas (vertente empírica) bem como com a literatura acadêmica (vertente teórica). Por fazer parte do cotidiano de todas as principais áreas de uma organização, o caráter interdisciplinar da GVP foi ratificado. A partir da aplicação percebeu-se que áreas como a de operações e a ambiental buscam mitigar os efeitos negativos oriundos da variedade de produtos. Já as áreas de marketing e comercial focam aspectos positivos, em geral, alinhando a GVP como parte de suas estratégias para aumentar a receita e/ou participação de mercado. O pioneirismo desta tese não a exclui de possuir limitações. Dentre estas limitações a utilização de duas bases de dados (Science Direct e Emerald), um horizonte de sete anos (2005-2011) e duas indústrias (automotiva e de cosméticos) acaba dificultando a generalização dos resultados. Não obstante, estas limitações podem contribuir como ponto de partida para estudos futuros, seja ao ampliar as bases de dados, o horizonte temporal ou número de indústrias pesquisadas. / [en] High product variety is a reality in many industries. The automotive and cosmetic industries are among those most affected. Within this context, companies need to manage their product variety to compete and to achieve success in the market. Although product variety is an important issue, the literature lacks models and frameworks that help its management. The main goal of this thesis is the development of a conceptual framework for product variety management (PVM) and its use to analyze this management in the industry. The academic contribution is to offer a framework to the literature that integrates the highly dispersed works on product variety and to indicate how researchers’ understanding of this topic has developed. Practitioners can also benefit from the results, as this framework is applied to different cases via empirical studies within the automotive and cosmetic industries.

A resiliência, conceitualmente, tem sendo vista como a capacidade de reinventar dinamicamente os modelos de negócios e as estratégias, na mesma frequência com que as circunstâncias mudam, ou seja, um recurso para antecipar e se adaptar continuadamente às mudanças que ameaçam a capacidade financeira ou o núcleo de poder das empresas. Levando em consideração o contexto da cana-de-açúcar e o conceito de resiliência foi estabelecido como objetivo principal, desta pesquisa, contribuir para o entendimento de como reconhecer ou identificar uma cadeia de suprimentos resiliente. Para tal, a abordagem metodológica municiou-se da construção de um modelo de simulação da cadeia de suprimentos da cana-de-açúcar no Brasil, para os elos agrícola e industrial. Avaliou-se empiricamente o conceito de resiliência na cadeia de suprimentos da cana-de-açúcar, por meio do Triângulo da Resiliência, proposto por Bruneau et al. (2003). Para este fim, utilizaram-se margens econômicas extraídas do modelo de simulação construído. Foi adaptado e estabelecido uma definição de cadeia de suprimentos resiliente compatíveis com Eventos Perturbadores Identificados de Longo Efeito. Analisou-se a relação da resiliência com os fatores de capacidades e fatores de vulnerabilidades na cadeia de suprimentos da cana-de-açúcar no Brasil. Criou-se uma curva de experiência partilhando as reduções de custos específicos, dentro dos elos agrícola e industrial, procurando identificar avanços tecnológicos e caracterizar a aprendizagem responsável. Os resultados apontaram que foi possível identificar uma cadeia de suprimentos da cana-de-açúcar resiliente pelo método proposto. Identificaram-se as Razões de Progressão, os eventos deflagradores mais significativos, as estratégias adotadas e os resultados das estratégias. Finalmente, compararam-se as fontes de resiliência e alteração de custos e margens identificadas, criando um quadro onde se agregava três naturezas de fatores de influência: tecnológicos, políticos e mercadológicos. Para cada um deles foi detalhado e examinado, criando uma tipologia de fatores capazes de influenciar os custos e margens da cadeia de suprimentos da cana-de-açúcar. Os resultados, também, retratam uma redução de custos ao longo do tempo, com efeitos de curto prazo para a cadeia. O trabalho se destaca pela inovação no método de uso da resiliência, além de sua aplicação inédita na cadeia de suprimentos da cana-de-açúcar, uma ampliação do conhecimento no desenvolvimento de um modelo capaz de gerar margens econômicas, dada certas tecnologias, dentro de uma usina produtora de etanol, açúcar e bioenergia, assim como uma extensiva identificação retrospectiva de todas influências que podem afetar os custos e margens, contribuindo para o maior entendimento da cadeia de suprimentos da cana-de-açúcar. / Conceptually resilience has been seen as the ability to dynamically reinvent business models and strategies at the same frequency as circumstances change, that is, a resource to continually anticipate and adapt to changes that threaten financial capacity or the core of business power. Taking into account the context of sugarcane and theconcept of resilience it was established as themain objective of this research is to contribute to the understanding of how to recognize or identify a resilient supply chain. Therefore, the methodological approach was based on the construction of model of simulationof the sugarcane supply chain in Brazil, for the agricultural and industrial links. The concept of resilience in the sugarcane supply chain was empirically evaluated through the Resilience Triangle proposed by Bruneau et al. (2003). For this purpose, economic margins extracted from the constructed simulation model were used. A resilient supply chain definition that is compatible with Long-Term Identified Disturbing Events has been adapted and established. The relationship among resilience, capacity factors and vulnerability factors in the sugarcane supply chain in Brazil was analyzed. An experience curve has been created by sharing the specific cost reductions within the agricultural and industrial links, seeking to identify technological advances and characterize responsible learning. The results showed that the proposed method can identify the sugarcane supply chain resilience. The Progression Ratios, the most significant triggers, the strategies adopted and the results of the strategies were identified. Finally, the resilience sources, the changes in costs, and the identified margins were compared, creating a framework where three types of influence factors were added: technological, political and market. Each one of them was detailed and examined, creating a typology of factors capable of influencing the costs and margins of the sugarcane supply chain. The results also portray a cost reduction over time, with short-term effects for the chain. The work stands out for its innovation in the method of using resilience, as well as its unprecedent application in the sugarcane supply chain. That means, an expansion of knowledge in the model of a development capable of generating economic margins, due to certain technologiesin an ethanol, sugar and bioenergy plant, as well as an extensive retrospective identification of all influences that may affect costs and margins.This contributes to a better understanding of the supply chain of sugarcane.

Fóruns mundiais para a troca de informações de práticas e operações sustentáveis entre governos, pesquisadores e sociedade, têm sido organizados com foco no desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias e práticas gerenciais que visam o desenvolvimento sustentável (econômico, ambiental e social) da produção. Cenário de destaque e que também tem evoluído expressivamente no agronegócio nacional e mundial. Em razão da expressiva representatividade do setor leiteiro no Brasil, este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a sustentabilidade de fazendas produtoras de leite na principal bacia leiteira do país. A partir da revisão de literatura, foi escolhido o modelo de análise de sustentabilidade utilizado por Dolman et at. (2014) aplicado na avaliação de fazendas de leite na Holanda. Este mesmo ferramental foi ajustado e utilizado na avaliação da produção de leite em Minas Gerais, com base no banco de dados do Projeto EDUCAMPO/Sebrae. Para o desempenho econômico, foi calculada: a renda da atividade e a relação das receitas sobre os custos da atividade. Para o desempenho ambiental, foram calculados indicadores ambientais derivados da ACV (Análise de Ciclo de Vida), cujo perímetro do estudo foi do berço à porteira, sendo estes: a ocupação da terra (OT); o uso de energia não renovável (UENR); o potencial de aquecimento global (PAG); o potencial de acidificação (PA) e o potencial de eutrofização (PE), todos na unidade funcional de um quilograma de leite corrigido pelo teor de gordura e proteína (FPCM). Para o desempenho social, foi considerada a relação da área de mata nativa em cada fazenda, a bonificação recebida pelo leite comercializado e o número de folgas mensais que os funcionários possuem. Ao comparar os indicadores das fazendas de leite de Minas Gerais com os resultados das fazendas holandesas de Dolman et al. (2014), verificou-se um melhor desempenho das fazendas europeias em praticamente todos os indicadores calculados, com exceção dos indicadores de desempenho econômico, esta diferença pode ser atrelada ao tipo de sistema de produção adotado e ao nível de intensificação da produção existente nas duas realidades. Após o comparativo, foi realizada uma análise de clusters entre as fazendas do EDUCAMPO. Com essa análise foi possível verificar diferenças nas características estruturais e de produção entre os clusters formado a partir dos indicadores de sustentabilidade. Os resultados mostram a grande relevância deste tema na produção de leite, destacando a necessidade do acompanhamento desses indicadores para o melhor direcionamento da gestão nas operações de produção de leite. A sustentabilidade é um direcionamento complexo que exige a junção e a sinergia de diversas áreas para o seu entendimento e desenvolvimento / World forums for information exchange of best practices and sustainable operations among governments, researchers and society have been organized focusing on the development of new technologies and management practices aiming the sustainable (economic, environmental and social) production development. This featured scenario has also evolved significantly in discussing sustainability in the domestic and global agribusiness operations. Therefore, due to the significant representation of the dairy sector in Brazil, this study aims to analyze the sustainability of dairy farms in the main dairy region of the country. In the literature review, the main frameworks for assessing the sustainability of milk production around the world were assessed. Within this range, it has been chosen the model proposed and utilized by Dolman et at. (2014) to evaluate the sustainability of dairy farms of EDUCAMPO Program database in Minas Gerais, Brazil. For economic performance it has been calculated: income of activity and the ratio of revenue over the costs of the activity. The environmental performance indicators have been derived from a cradle to farm-gate LCA (Life Cycle Assessment): land occupation (LO); non-renewable energy use (NREU); global warming potential (GWP); acidification potential (AP) the eutrophication potential (EP), and all those indicators were calculated in the functional unit of one kilogram of fat-protein-corrected milk (FPCM). For social performance, it has been considered the amount of native forest present in the farm, plus the bonus received by the milk sold and the number of monthly days off that the employees have. When compared with the results of the Dutch milk farms of Dolman et al. (2014), there has been a better performance of almost all indicators of the European reality than the calculated for the Brazilian farms. Nevertheless, the economic performance has been better in the Brazilian reality. This difference can be linked to the type of production system and the level of intensification of existing production in both realities. The analysis of clusters between farms in MG showed that structural and production characteristics affects each sustainable cluster performance. These results shows the great importance of this matter in milk production. Hence, the need for monitoring these indicators could lead to the better management of the operations in the sustainability view. Sustainability is a complex focus that requires the addition and synergy of several areas for its understanding and development. Projects like EDUCAMPO are critical to keep the continuously improvements in the farming operations of the national milk industry.

Fóruns mundiais para a troca de informações de práticas e operações sustentáveis entre governos, pesquisadores e sociedade, têm sido organizados com foco no desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias e práticas gerenciais que visam o desenvolvimento sustentável (econômico, ambiental e social) da produção. Cenário de destaque e que também tem evoluído expressivamente no agronegócio nacional e mundial. Em razão da expressiva representatividade do setor leiteiro no Brasil, este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a sustentabilidade de fazendas produtoras de leite na principal bacia leiteira do país. A partir da revisão de literatura, foi escolhido o modelo de análise de sustentabilidade utilizado por Dolman et at. (2014) aplicado na avaliação de fazendas de leite na Holanda. Este mesmo ferramental foi ajustado e utilizado na avaliação da produção de leite em Minas Gerais, com base no banco de dados do Projeto EDUCAMPO/Sebrae. Para o desempenho econômico, foi calculada: a renda da atividade e a relação das receitas sobre os custos da atividade. Para o desempenho ambiental, foram calculados indicadores ambientais derivados da ACV (Análise de Ciclo de Vida), cujo perímetro do estudo foi do berço à porteira, sendo estes: a ocupação da terra (OT); o uso de energia não renovável (UENR); o potencial de aquecimento global (PAG); o potencial de acidificação (PA) e o potencial de eutrofização (PE), todos na unidade funcional de um quilograma de leite corrigido pelo teor de gordura e proteína (FPCM). Para o desempenho social, foi considerada a relação da área de mata nativa em cada fazenda, a bonificação recebida pelo leite comercializado e o número de folgas mensais que os funcionários possuem. Ao comparar os indicadores das fazendas de leite de Minas Gerais com os resultados das fazendas holandesas de Dolman et al. (2014), verificou-se um melhor desempenho das fazendas europeias em praticamente todos os indicadores calculados, com exceção dos indicadores de desempenho econômico, esta diferença pode ser atrelada ao tipo de sistema de produção adotado e ao nível de intensificação da produção existente nas duas realidades. Após o comparativo, foi realizada uma análise de clusters entre as fazendas do EDUCAMPO. Com essa análise foi possível verificar diferenças nas características estruturais e de produção entre os clusters formado a partir dos indicadores de sustentabilidade. Os resultados mostram a grande relevância deste tema na produção de leite, destacando a necessidade do acompanhamento desses indicadores para o melhor direcionamento da gestão nas operações de produção de leite. A sustentabilidade é um direcionamento complexo que exige a junção e a sinergia de diversas áreas para o seu entendimento e desenvolvimento / World forums for information exchange of best practices and sustainable operations among governments, researchers and society have been organized focusing on the development of new technologies and management practices aiming the sustainable (economic, environmental and social) production development. This featured scenario has also evolved significantly in discussing sustainability in the domestic and global agribusiness operations. Therefore, due to the significant representation of the dairy sector in Brazil, this study aims to analyze the sustainability of dairy farms in the main dairy region of the country. In the literature review, the main frameworks for assessing the sustainability of milk production around the world were assessed. Within this range, it has been chosen the model proposed and utilized by Dolman et at. (2014) to evaluate the sustainability of dairy farms of EDUCAMPO Program database in Minas Gerais, Brazil. For economic performance it has been calculated: income of activity and the ratio of revenue over the costs of the activity. The environmental performance indicators have been derived from a cradle to farm-gate LCA (Life Cycle Assessment): land occupation (LO); non-renewable energy use (NREU); global warming potential (GWP); acidification potential (AP) the eutrophication potential (EP), and all those indicators were calculated in the functional unit of one kilogram of fat-protein-corrected milk (FPCM). For social performance, it has been considered the amount of native forest present in the farm, plus the bonus received by the milk sold and the number of monthly days off that the employees have. When compared with the results of the Dutch milk farms of Dolman et al. (2014), there has been a better performance of almost all indicators of the European reality than the calculated for the Brazilian farms. Nevertheless, the economic performance has been better in the Brazilian reality. This difference can be linked to the type of production system and the level of intensification of existing production in both realities. The analysis of clusters between farms in MG showed that structural and production characteristics affects each sustainable cluster performance. These results shows the great importance of this matter in milk production. Hence, the need for monitoring these indicators could lead to the better management of the operations in the sustainability view. Sustainability is a complex focus that requires the addition and synergy of several areas for its understanding and development. Projects like EDUCAMPO are critical to keep the continuously improvements in the farming operations of the national milk industry.

In 2008, 33.7 million Americans teleworked from home. The Telework Enhancement Act (S. 707) and the Telework Improvements Act (H.R. 1722) of 2009 were designed to increase the number of teleworkers. The research problem addressed was the lack of understanding of factors that influence home-based teleworkers' job satisfaction. Job dissatisfaction has been found to have a significant impact on voluntary turnover. The purpose of the study was to assess the relationship among telework frequency, information communication technology (ICT), and job satisfaction. The research questions were designed to answer whether correlational relationships exist among telework frequency, ICT, and job satisfaction and to identify primary concerns of home-based teleworkers regarding social interaction, recognition, and career advancement. Sociotechnical theory was the theoretical framework used in this quantitative correlational study. Data were collected from 218 home-based teleworkers via an online survey. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were performed to test the hypotheses. A Pearson product-movement analysis showed a significant positive relationship between ICT usage and job satisfaction. There was no significant relationship between telework frequency and job satisfaction. Pattern matching analysis indicated that teleworkers' concerns centered on a perceived desire for increased face-to-face communication with managers and coworkers. Organizational leaders could use the results of this study to develop strategies that leverage ICT media to enhance communication and collaboration and improve the quality of work life in virtual organizations.

In the financial turmoil of 2008, U.S. firms reported debt-ratios that differed from the debt-ratios calculated from balance sheets. The problem is that investors bought common stock expecting initial investment return and lost money when companies delisted. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine sample securities pricing with the application of synthetic assets and debt accrued. Addressed in the research questions was whether those securities were (a) underpriced compared with return-on-assets (ROA), (b) overpriced compared with ROA, (c) a debt-ratio higher than 60% and also overpriced, (d) underpriced with a synthetic asset added, or (e) related by relative pricing to variant pricing and market capitalization. The study's base theory was Pan's efficient market hypothesis (EMH) of security price prediction of market prices versus model prices. The data from the financial statements of 16 publicly traded U.S. electric utility companies were analyzed via correlations and multiple regression analyses to determine securities pricing and suitability. The findings from the analyses of the sample's variables of market price, book value, market-to-book, and study constructed variables from those variable data were statistically significant. The alternate hypotheses were accepted for all 5 research questions since the analytical operationalization of the hypothetical constructs led to significant relationships. Results suggest that the use of more pricing determinants in securities evaluation may lead to investors losing less money and earning the expected returns for a more efficient capital market, leading to a stronger economy and macroeconomic stability.

The success rate of information technology projects is on a downward trend, with reported losses in the billions of dollars. Recent studies indicate a 50--56% project success rate based on quality, budget, and on-time criteria. Building upon the conceptual framework of the emotional intelligence and knowledge management theories, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how project management practitioners apply self- and cultural-awareness competencies to affect project outcomes. Using a purposeful sampling method, 24 experienced U.S.-based project management practitioners participated in a web-based questionnaire. Following Giorgi's data reduction process resulted in numeric data coding. Thematic analysis revealed themes of (a) awareness and redirection of negative emotions, (b) cultural intelligence, and (c) balanced diverse teamwork. The findings from this research study support increasing awareness, training, and application of emotional and cultural intelligence competencies within the multidimensional knowledge-centric global business environment. Increased awareness and ability to use emotional and cultural competencies can lead to enhanced business outcomes. Improved people-based business practices may increase the economic stability for the organization, employees, and specifically the project management practitioner as a knowledge manager. Implications of social change from this study include increasing success of knowledge-based information technology solutions, expanding employment opportunities, and supporting socially-responsible integrated change.

Servant leadership, which promotes virtuousness and altruism, is gaining attention as a potential solution to the perceived leadership crisis, as evidenced by the ethical breakdown of some of America's largest corporations. Entrepreneurs, who represent 99% of all employers, play a significant role in the American economy as innovative risk takers and early adopters. As such, it is important to understand how they relate to servant leadership. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore research questions related to (a) the extent to which servant leadership is practiced by small business entrepreneurs, and (b) the relationship between their levels of spirituality (i.e., virtuousness) and servant leadership. The study was grounded in both servant leadership theory and motivation (expectancy value and self-efficacy) theories. To address the research questions, the Spirituality Assessment Scale and the Servant Leadership Profile (Revised) were used to measure the levels of spirituality and servant leadership, respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics (i.e., simple linear regression) were used to analyze data from surveys completed by a representative sample of 48 small business entrepreneurs. This analysis revealed (a) a 21% level of servant leadership practice among the sample of small business entrepreneurs, and (b) a statistically significant, negative correlation between spirituality and servant leadership. These findings suggest that (a) a positive connection between spirituality and servant leadership should not be presumed, and (b) servant leadership research should take its place among nonreligious perspectives on leadership. This study contributes to social change by fostering the growth of servant leadership in a broader segment of the leadership population, thus addressing the perceived leadership crisis more effectively.