REAÇÕES LITERÁRIAS À CULTURA DE RECIPROCIDADE DO ANTIGO MUNDO MEDITERRÂNEO: UMA LEITURA DA LINGUAGEM ECONÔMICA DO EVANGELHO DE MATEUS

Este trabalho de pesquisa parte do pressuposto de que o Evangelho de Mateus é um documento literário produzido no final do século I EC, em algum ambiente urbano do antigo Mundo Mediterrâneo, e que se diferencia dos demais evangelhos do Novo Testamento pela ênfase econômica presente em sua linguagem e conteúdo. Procura-se demonstrar a importância dessa particularidade para o desenvolvimento do próprio discurso mateano e para compreendê-lo, trata das proximidades que há entre esse discurso e os modelos socioeconômicos conhecidos no mundo real dos grandes centros urbanos de então. Dessa pesquisa conclui-se que o autor de Mateus se insere num debate abrangente entre os judaísmos do período, que mantinham relações conflituosas com a cultura Greco-romana e a própria herança cultural. Mateus, em especial, rejeita a apropriação plena dos padrões clientelistas para as relações interpessoais dos discípulos de Jesus ao mesmo tempo que se apropria desse modelo socioeconômico estrangeiro para desenvolver seu imaginário religioso. Defende-se que em Mateus, Deus assume, como personagem, as características de um patrono divino que protege e beneficia seus fieis clientes, que em retribuição deviam praticar boas obras para com os pobres. Em contrapartida a essa relação religiosa vertical que é desejável, o evangelho rejeita os vínculos clientelistas que hierarquizam os seres humanos, vendo-as também como traição àquele primeiro e soberano patrono.

Chinese host country nationals' willingness to support expatriates:the role of collectivism, interpersonal affect and Guanxi

The willingness of host country nationals (HCNs) to provide support to the expatriate has received a lot of attention in the literature on international assignments. Surprisingly, though, the number of empirical studies examining this relationship is extremely limited. This study examines the role of HCNs' collectivistic orientation, interpersonal affect, and guanxi in relation to their willingness to support expatriates. Using data from 212 HCNs in China, it is found that HCNs' perceived relationship quality with the expatriate has a significant impact on their willingness to provide assistance, both role information and social support, to expatriates. Further, it is found that relationship quality is related to perceived cultural similarity. The results reinforce the importance of paying attention to the perceptions and reactions of HCNs towards expatriates. Implications of the findings are discussed, and suggestions are offered for future research.

Affect networks:a structural analysis of the relationship between work ties and job-related affect

The relationship between organizational networks and employees' affect was examined in 2 organizations. In Study 1, social network analysis of work ties and job-related affect for 259 employees showed that affect converged within work interaction groups. Similarity of affect between employees depended on the presence of work ties and structural equivalence. Affect was also related to the size and density of employees' work networks. Study 2 used a 10-week diary study of 31 employees to examine a merger of 2 organizational divisions and found that negative changes in employees' affect were related to having fewer cross-divisional ties and to experiencing greater reductions in network density. The findings suggest that affect permeates through and is shaped by organizational networks.

The impact of national cultures and interpersonal factors on managerial communication

This study was undertaken for two primary purposes. The first was to discover whether or not two of the four cultural dimensions depicted by Hof-stede (1980), namely Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance, could be repeated using samples from seven organizations operating in three distinct cultural settings. The second was to assess the degree to which these dimensions affect superior-subordinate communication across the culturally-different groups. Also, the impact of the three interpersonal factors: Trust in Superior, Upward Influence and Mobility Aspirations was investigated cross-culturally. Participants were 291 managers from seven organizations; four Sudanese, two white British and an organization in Britain run by a group of British citizens of Pakistani extraction. It was hypothesized that the Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance of the three groups would replicate Hof-stede's. Specific implications of these dimensions for organizational communication and in particular for superior-subordinate communication were also hypothesized. Multiple regression analyses were performed with items of the two cultural dimensions and the three interpersonal factors (each in turn) forming the independent variables, while the organizational communication aspects formed the dependent variables. T-tests between means were also used to compare and contrast issues such as directionality of information flow across organizations operating in these settings. Work-related values of each of the three cultural groups provided support for Hofstede's model. However, only tentative support was given to the hypothesized relationships between the cultural dimensions and organizational communication. Similarly, weak associations were found between the three interpersonal factors and superior-subordinate communication behaviour. Some practical and theoretical implications are offered. An evaluation of the study and recommendation for further research are also given.

The development and operation of the effective interpersonal relationship skills relevant to career development problems from staff assessment at an industrial research laboratory

This study concerns the application of a model of effective interpersonal relationships to problems arising from staff assessment at I.C.I. Ltd. Corporate Laboratory between 1972 and 1974. In collaboration with academic and industrial supervision, the study commenced with a survey of management and supervisor opinions about the effectiveness of current staff (work) relationships, with particular reference to the problem of recognising and developing creative potential. This survey emphasised a need to improve the relationships between staff in the staff assessment context. A survey of research into creativity emphasised the importance of the interpersonal environment for obtaining creative behaviour in an organisation context. A further survey of theories of how inter­personal behaviour related to personal creativity (therapeutic psychology) provided a model of effective interpersonal behaviour (Carkhuff, 1969) that could be applied to the organisation context of staff assessment. The objective of the project was redefined as a need to improve the conditions of interpersonal behaviour in relation to certain (career development) problems arising from staff assessment practices. In order to demonstrate the application of the model of effective interpersonal behaviour, the research student recorded interviews between himself and members of staff designed to develop and operate the dimensions of the model. Different samples of staff were used to develop the 'facilitative' and the 'action oriented' dimensions of bahaviour, and then for the operation of a helping programme (based on vocational guidance tests). These interactions have been analysed, according to the scales of measurement in the model ana the results are presented in case study form in this thesis. At each stage of the project, results and conclusions were presented to the sponsoring organisation (e.g. industrial supervisor) in order to assess their (subjective) opinion of relevance to the organ­ isation. Finally, recommendations on further actions towards general improvement of the work relationships in the laboratory were presented in a brief report to the sponsor.

How habits, social ties, and economic switching barriers affect customer loyalty in contractual service settings

While existing literature acknowledges positive effects of satisfaction and economic switching barriers for building customer loyalty, studies analyzing interactions of these antecedents reveal mixed findings. Prior research does not consider, as antecedents of switching barriers, either habits or social ties that result from shared service-usage within a family or community. This paper contributes to the literature, first, by replicating the effects of satisfaction, economic switching barriers, and their interaction with customer loyalty and word-of-mouth of subscribers to a contractual service. Second, the study empirically tests the role of social ties as a social switching barrier. Third, the study introduces and tests the effects of habits as a precursor of economic and social switching barriers. Results reveal significant positive effects of satisfaction, economic switching barriers, and social ties on customer loyalty and word-of-mouth. Additionally, economic switching barriers and social ties interact significantly with satisfaction and habits act as a precursor of economic switching barriers and social ties.

Global marketing of industrial products:are interpersonal relationships always critical?

The present paper examines the issue of whether interpersonal relationships are critical for global marketing of industrial products. The fields of relationship marketing, IMP group research, sales research, and network theory have stressed the importance of interpersonal relationships in the business-to-business or industrial marketing context. In contrast to this emphasis on interpersonal relationships, we argue that industrial firms can both conceive and enhance marketing strategies based on developing high quality and consistent processes, products, services or outcomes (consistent processes and outcomes). Such strategies are especially important given the fact that developing interpersonal relationships is expensive due to their reliance on frequent and/or face-to-face communications. In this paper, we examine industry and country contexts that lead to the choice of alternative industrial product marketing strategies and highlight some future research directions and managerial implications.

Overcoming network overload and redundancy in inter-organizational networks:the roles of potential and latent ties

This paper builds on Granovetter's distinction between strong and weak ties [Granovetter, M. S. 1973. The strength of weak ties. Amer. J. Sociol. 78(6) 1360–1380] in order to respond to recent calls for a more dynamic and processual understanding of networks. The concepts of potential and latent tie are deductively identified, and their implications for understanding how and why networks emerge, evolve, and change are explored. A longitudinal empirical study conducted with companies operating in the European motorsport industry reveals that firms take strategic actions to search for potential ties and reactivate latent ties in order to solve problems of network redundancy and overload. Examples are given, and their characteristics are examined to provide theoretical elaboration of the relationship between the types of tie and network evolution. These conceptual and empirical insights move understanding of the managerial challenge of building effective networks beyond static structural contingency models of optimal network forms to highlight the processes and capabilities of dynamic relationship building and network development. In so doing, this paper highlights the interrelationship between search and redundancy and the scope for strategic action alongside path dependence and structural influences on network processes.