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The lack of conceptual approaches for organizing and expressing capabilities, usage and impact of intelligent machines (IMs) in work settings is an obstacle to moving beyond isolated case examples, domain-specific studies, 2 × 2 frameworks and expert opinion in discussions of IMs and work. This paper's purpose is to illuminate many issues that often are not addressed directly in research, practice or punditry related to IMs. It pursues that purpose by presenting an integrated approach for identifying and organizing important aspects of analysis and evaluation related to IMs in work settings. 

This paper integrates previously published ideas related to work systems (WSs), smart devices and systems, facets of work, roles and responsibilities of information systems, interactions between people and machines and a range of criteria for evaluating system performance.

Eight principles outline a straightforward and flexible approach for analyzing and evaluating IMs and the WSs that use them. Those principles are based on the above ideas.

This paper provides a novel approach for identifying design choices for situated use of IMs. The breadth, depth and integration of this approach address a gap in existing literature, which rarely aspires to this paper’s thoroughness in combining ideas that support the description, analysis, design and evaluation of situated uses of IMs.

This paper aims to present empirical results exemplifying challenges related to information security faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It uses guidelines based on work system theory (WST) to frame the results, thereby illustrating why the mere existence of corporate security policies or general security training often is insufficient for establishing and maintaining information security.

This research was designed to produce a better appreciation and understanding of potential issues or gaps in security practices in SMEs. The research team interviewed 187 employees of 39 SMEs in the UK. All of those employees had access to sensitive information. Gathering information through interviews (instead of formal security documentation) made it possible to assess security practices from employees’ point of view.

Corporate policies that highlight information security are often disconnected from actual work practices and routines and often do not receive high priority in everyday work practices. A vast majority of the interviewed employees are not involved in risk assessment or in the development of security practices. Security practices remain an illusory activity in their real-world contexts.

This paper focuses only on closed-ended questions related to the following topics: awareness of existing security policy; information security practices and management and information security involvement.

The empirical findings show that corporate information security policies in SMEs often are insufficient for maintaining security unless those policies are integrated with visible and recognized work practices in work systems that use or produce sensitive information. The interpretation based on WST provides guidelines for enhancing information system security.

Beyond merely reporting empirical results, this research uses WST to interpret the results in a way that has direct implications for practitioners and for researchers.

This editorial briefly aims to consider the implications of the words of the poem The Paradox of our Age attributed to HH The 14th Dalai Lama and a former pastor in the USA for information and records managers.

The article is a viewpoint based on a personal reflection of the powerful image and clear message conveyed in the words of this poem about what people have and do, what they have lost and do not do.

For those in education the words “we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgement” question whether academics and teachers, developing and discovering new knowledge are sharing it but not enabling and encouraging others to make best use of it to make appropriate judgements. For those working in information sciences the words “we build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication” echo the information overload syndrome but question if, with all the present technology, people – academics and teachers – communicate appropriately?

The editorial highlights the “paradox of our [information] age” captured in the 117 words of a poem from religious figures. Its value is in making academics and teachers stop and think, reflect on how well they are succeeding as information managers, records managers and archivists, in capturing, organizing, preserving or destroying the increasing quantities of information and copies in digital form. Are they supporting the appropriate communication and use of information to make decisions or judgements?

With major technical change taking place every two years, the control of old scientific management is now seriously challenged. This situation presents either an opportunity or frustration and must be addressed towards making order out of what otherwise would be chaos. It is high time that the matter of integrating advanced information systems (AIS) be seriously addressed. Over the short history of computer‐based information systems, professionals have gone through a series of generations which were initially based on heavy technical developments of hardware, soon followed by software, and later by peopleware. Information systems (IS) soon became a feature of major courses of action in carrying out business functions. A greater demand for applications led to the need for integrated systems where business processes were facilitated and enhanced by information technology (IT). Technology and systems are changing; opportunities for success as well as competitive pressures are cascading on management; and management concerns point to the need for new managerial guidelines. Addresses AISs which are more than just organizational re‐engineering. AISs change both the thinking and decision‐making processes requiring organizational changes.

Addresses the need for re‐engineering information systems (IS) in a rapidly changing environment, and the urgency of doing this to meet current and future needs of organizations whose existence is dependent on coping with rapidly changing requirements. Implicit in this view is the need for restructuring the industry to meet new applications including the creation of software for an era that has not quite arrived. Stresses the interdependence of technical, organizational, and human aspects in the integration of a broad range of new methodologies and tools needed to create software for the balance of this century. Re‐engineering is the examination and alteration of a system to reconstitute it in a new form and the subsequent implementation of the new form. Looks into the major management alternatives or options with particular focus on functional and information managers and their organizations.

This article features four disabled artists who are parents and center on their balance of artistic practice and family. As a disabled artist considering starting a family and becoming a parent, the question of balancing artistry with a child has been a consistent thought and inquiry. Especially as a disabled artist wrestling with the realities of managing one's bodily needs with a career and personal life, I realize it will be a challenging yet rewarding adjustment. Furthermore, artists often lead atypical work lives with atypical working hours, which can sometimes lend itself to parenting and take away from it in other ways. With the resultant interviews and article, I aim to provide critical insights into practicing disabled artists' viewpoints on parenting, ranging from the challenges to the dividends. I hope these insights will support a singular view of disability parenting and artistry, as well as the Journal's goal of a new paradigm in disability scholarship overall.

Since the Millennium, the world of TV horror has radically altered. Aided by newer production methods including streaming, downloading and narrowcasting, programmes like The Waking Dead, American Horror Story, Penny Dreadful and the reinvention of Doctor Who have shown how resilient the horror genre is to both television formats and platforms.

This conclusion ties together the chapters, whilst offering the idea that much more work is needed to fully comprehend the importance of gender studies linked to horror television.

Through all the villains that James Bond has encountered on his globe-trotting adventures – from Dr No to Auric Goldfinger, Drax to Le Chiffre and Rosa Klebb to Xenia Onatopp – one villain has remained a constant threat to both Bond and world security. Whether hiding behind a corrugated screen, living on a mountain top lair, working from a hollowed-out volcanic rocket site, or sitting in a wheelchair, Ernst Stavro Blofeld has proved time and time again to be a thorn in Bond’s side.

This chapter will investigate the changing appearances of Blofeld across the Eon Productions’ film franchise. It will consider the concept of Blofeld as Bond’s alter-ego, whilst offering in-depth analysis of just how – and why – this master-nemesis remains firmly rooted in Bond’s filmic adventures, whilst cementing his position as the villain most associated with the series.

In this paper, we aim to answer two questions. First, whether firms manipulate reported earnings via pension assumptions when facing mandatory contributions. Second, whether firms alter their earnings management behavior when the Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) mandates disclosure of pension asset composition and a description of investment strategy under SFAS 132R.

Our basic approach is to run linear regressions of firm-year assumed returns on the log of pension sensitivity measures, controlling for current and lagged actual returns from pension assets, fiscal year dummies and industry dummies. The larger the pension sensitivity ratios, the stronger the effects from inflated ERRs on reported earnings. We confirm the early results that the regression slopes are positive and highly significant. We construct an indicator variable DMC to capture the mandatory contributions firms face and another indicator variable D132R to capture the effect of SFAS 132R. DMC takes the value of one for fiscal years during which an acquisition takes place and zero otherwise. D132R takes the value of one for fiscal years after December 15, 2003 and zero otherwise.

Our sample covers the period from June 1992 to December 2017. Our key results are as follows. The estimated coefficient (t-statistic) on DMC is 0.308 (6.87). Firms facing mandatory contributions tend to set ERRs at an average 0.308% higher. The estimated coefficient (t-statistic) on D132R is −2.190 (−13.70). The new disclosure requirement under SFAS 132R constrains all firms to set ERRs at an average 2.190% lower. The estimate (t-statistic) on the interactive term DMA×D132R is −0.237 (−3.29). When mandatory contributions happen during the post-SFAS 132R period, firms tend to set ERRs at 0.237% lower than they would do otherwise in the pre-SFAS 132R period.

When firms face mandatory contributions, typically firm experience negative stock market returns. We examine whether managers manage earnings to mitigate such negative impact. We find that firms inflate assumed returns on pension assets to boost their reported earnings when facing mandatory contributions. We also find that managers alter earnings management behavior, in the case of mandatory contributions, following the introduction of new pension disclosure standards under SFAS 132R that become effective on December 15, 2003. Under the new SFAS 132R requirement, firms need to disclose asset allocation and describe investment strategies. This imposes restrictions on managers' discretion in making ERR assumptions, since now the composition of pension assets is a key determinant of the assumed expected rate of return on pension assets. Firms need to justify their ERRs with their asset allocations.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.