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Leaders have a profound impact on the work lives of the employees they supervise. This chapter explores the experiences of employees whose leaders exhibit toxic behaviors and the impact of this toxicity on employee engagement. The authors report the findings of a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews with 13 participants. First, the authors describe the participants’ experiences before and after experiencing toxicity. Next, the authors outline three critical toxic leadership styles: the nightmare (leaders who have unbalanced emotional control and who are overly fond of power), the pretender (leaders whose authenticity and integrity seem low, who play different characters depending on the circumstances), and the runaround (leaders who change directions too often or give unclear instructions). Finally, the authors address organizational, leadership, and individual strategies to identify and remove toxic leaders from the workplace.

The striking number of persons with low levels of literacy in the United States is a major public-health concern. This study examines the relationship between literacy levels and both (1) access to health care and (2) use of specific health care services among adults. The data are collected from in-person interviews with a representative sample of adults aged 18–44 in Portland, Oregon, who are proficient English speakers, and have not completed high school nor have a GED. Adults with lower levels of literacy are less likely to have a usual provider, to have health insurance, and they have trouble understanding written medical directions, more difficulty getting needed care, and poorer health. They also use physician services, overnight hospital stays, and emergency rooms more frequently, controlling for education, access, health, and sociodemographic characteristics. Literacy is conceptually distinct from education and independently affects the way in which adults seek health care.

The purpose of this study is to propose a framework for developing standards for knowledge management education programs from primary through tertiary levels. The lack of standards for knowledge management education is a significant challenge for the advancement of the field, for the sustainability of institutional programs, the future competencies of knowledge workers and the effective growth of knowledge organizations.

The research adopts and adapts the framework and methodology used to establish educational standards in computer science. The framework is presented as a focal point for discussion across the profession. Nine strands are derived from historical treatment of the discipline. Seven levels of learning are identified. Learning goals and objectives are developed for each level.

The research suggests that a lifelong learning model is definable for the field of knowledge management, just as it has been for other disciplines. The progressive learning model may produce high school graduates who are better prepared for knowledge work, a larger population of knowledge practitioners and professionals prepared to support and lead knowledge organizations and increased quantities and improved quality of knowledge management research. Finally, the progressive learning model may generate a new and increased demand for lifelong learning opportunities in the field of knowledge management.

The research is intended as a focal point for discussion and review by knowledge management professionals and particularly educators around the globe. The research represents an important stage of development, but adoption is the final stage of this research.

While this research draws upon established theories and practices in the field, and learning frameworks from other domains, the context and the research results are unique.

The purpose of this paper is to perform a psychometric evaluation of the internal green marketing (IGM) scale in the context of consumer, industrial and service industry from a developing economy. Drawing on IGM theory, this study validates the measurement scales to operationalize IGM as green internal communication (GIC), green skill development (GSD) and green rewards (GRs).

The sample was drawn from the consumer, industrial and service industries in Jammu and Kashmir, India, using a random sampling method. Data were collected from consumer, industrial and service industries in two phases through a self-administrated questionnaire-based survey. In total, 137 managers responded during the first phase, and 368 managers responded during the second phase. During the first phase, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to uncover the underlying dimensions of IGM, and during the second phase, data were analyzed to test the validity of the IGM scale through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

EFA suggested a three-dimension scale (green internal communication (GIC), green skill development (GSD), and green rewards (GR)) which was confirmed by CFA. The findings of the study demonstrate that IGM is a valid and reliable scale to capture the individual-level perception of the employees with respect to the green internal marketing of an organization.

This paper is expected to provide valuable insights into the area of internal green marketing (IGM) about an industry that can be of immense help to domestic and international marketers in formulating human resource (HR)/marketing strategies. Further, it provides a wide-ranging scale that can act as a base for future research studies that aim to explore internal green marketing (IGM) in different organizational settings.

IGM is embedded in three underlying elements as GIC, GSD and GRs. It is suitable to the practitioner and researchers to operationalize IGM as a second-order construct in future studies.

Small to mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) are underrepresented in market orientation and internet-related research. Yet, marketing-related issues represent some of the most important problems for SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to explain why SMEs use the internet in business processes and to explore the relationship between market orientation and internet usage.

The study amalgamates the technology acceptance model, the motivation model and the integrated model of technology acceptance into one model. Hypotheses are tested with survey data from Belgian SMEs using partial least squares.

One of the findings is that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are positively significantly related to internet usage intention. No significant relationships were found between behavioural norms and perceived ease of use and between perceived ease of use and the intention to use the internet.

Managerial implications include that SME-internet training providers should focus on methods to increase the user’s perceived enjoyment (intrinsic motivation) instead of emphasizing the perceived ease of use of the internet.

Researchers as well as practitioners have stressed the gains from implementing market-orientated strategies in firms. Together with the prominence of studies about patterns and characteristics of internet usage, this calls for studies that integrate these two streams of literature. The study shows in what way market orientation is related to the capability to use internet to a firm’s long term advantage. Up till now the relationship between market orientation and internet use has hardly received attention.

Previous research suggests that inefficiencies in the small business market exist surrounding the availability of capital by Small and Microenterprises (SMMEs). Using data from the 1992 Characteristics of Business Owners Survey (CBO), the 2002 Survey of Business Owners (SBO), and the 2003 Survey of Small Business Finance (SSBF) this paper empirically estimates the "capital gap"- that is the unmet capital demand for business by SMMEs. We find that there is in fact a capital gap as the supply of capital available in the SMME market is not large enough to meet market demand. Given the importance of small businesses to economic vitality, growth, and recovery of the United States economy, the research provides critical and timely findings for policymakers and public finance managers seeking economic development and recovery

Self-evaluated access and accessibility has been found to be associated with healthcare seeking and quality of life. Studies have shown that, however, a vast majority of individuals with disability living in poor countries have limited access to healthcare influenced by several barriers. The purpose of this paper is to compare the perception of general accessibility of health care services and its association with access barriers and other contextual factors between people with physical disabilities and counterparts without disability.

This study is a cross sectional survey involving 213 individuals with physical disabilities and 213 counterparts without disability sampled using a multi-stage method. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire with sections on socioeconomic and living conditions, education, health, employment and access to health care. Data analysis involved using χ² for proportions and T-test and multiple regressions (stepwise) method to determine significant factors that influence perception on accessibility.

The study finds that people with disabilities fared worse in various socioeconomic factors such as education, employment, income and assets possession. People with disabilities also experience more dimensional barriers and reported poor health system accessibility. The difference in accessibility continued after adjusting for other variables, implying that there are more inherent factors that explain the perception of access for people with disabilities.

Governments should ensure equitable access to health care delivery for people with disabilities through equitable health policies and services that are responsive to the needs of people with disabilities and promote the creation of enabling environment to enhance participation in health care delivery.

The authors confirm that the paper has neither been submitted to peer review, nor is in the process of peer reviewing or accepted for publishing in another journal. The author(s) confirms that the research in this work is original, and that all the data given in the paper are real and authentic. If necessary, the paper can be recalled, and errors corrected. The undersigned authors transfer the copyright for this work to the International Journal of Health Governance. The authors are free of any personal or business association that could represent a conflict of interest regarding the paper submitted, and the authors have respected the research ethics principles.