Coaching has received considerable attention in recent years as the responsibility for employees' learning and development has been increasingly devolved to line managers. Yet there exists little published empirical research that measures specific coaching behaviors of line managers or examines the linkages between line managers' coaching behavior and employee performance. This survey study integrates the perceptions of supervisors and their respective employees to examine supervisory coaching behavior in an industrial context and to assess its association with employee job satisfaction and performance. Findings suggest that supervisory coaching behavior is positively associated with employees' job satisfaction and performance. Implications for research and practice are presented.Recently, scholars have acknowledged that many human resource practices that have traditionally been performed by human resource professionals are being devolved to supervisors and line managers (de

Strategy identifies two primary sets of processes through which the firm creates value for its customers by moving goods and information through marketing channels: demand-focused and supply-focused processes. Historically, firms have invested resources to develop a core differential advantage in one or other of these areas-but rarely in both-often resulting in mismatches between demand (what customers want) and supply (what is available in the marketplace). This paper suggests that successfully managing the supply chain to create customer value requires extensive integration between demandfocused processes and supply-focused processes that is based on a foundation of value creation through intraorganizational knowledge management. Integrating demand and supply processes helps firms prioritize and ensure fulfillment based upon the shared generation, dissemination, interpretation and application of real-time customer demand as well as ongoing supply capacity constraints. We draw upon literature in marketing, logistics, supply chain management and strategy to introduce a conceptual framework of demand and supply integration (DSI). We also offer insights for managerial practice and an agenda for future research in the relatively under-researched, but strategically important, area of demand and supply integration.

Despite the considerable scholarly attention that has been devoted to the concept of the learning organization, Jacobs (1995) Note: The authors wish to thank the editors and three anonymous reviewers for their insightful and helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. The authors also wish to thank Drs. Karen E. Watkins, Victoria J. Marsick, and Judy O'Neil for allowing the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) instrument to be used for this research study.

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The need for theoretical development in logistics and the strategic repositioning of the discipline have been suggested as major challenges for logistics researchers (Stock, 1990). Despite recent advances made by logistics, the requirement for further theoretical development on the strategic role of logistics remains a key priority (Mentzer and Kahn, 1995;Stock, 1996). Today's turbulent competitive environment mandates that a firm must have agility in the marketplace to survive and succeed. Therefore, logistics has become an increasing area of strategic concern for firms (

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Functional areas within a firm must effectively interact and work together to plan, coordinate, and implement strategic initiatives. Interfunctional integration is believed to be directly related to a firm's competitiveness and profitability. The current research was undertaken to gain a greater understanding of the association between interdepartmental integration and performance. Results of a recent survey examining the marketing/logistics interface are reported. Analysis provided support for positive associations between the frequency of collaborative integration between marketing and logistics departments and logistics managers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the relationship between departments, as well as, departmental performance relative to competitors.