developing countries, responsible entrepreneurship, small-scale individual entrepreneurs, social responsibility,

Although there are many potential causes of failed change, ‘resistance to change’ is widely recognised as a significant contributor to this problem. Much of the literature relating to resistance has focused on the context-specific antecedents which can be divided into those relating to change outcomes and those that focus on change implementation. Justice research acknowledges the importance of employee perceptions of fairness in change management, and identifies it as a key factor in developing positive employee attitudes toward organisational change. Using change process characteristics of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), participation and information as antecedents, the aim of the present study was to examine the influence of employee perceptions of justice on resistance to change. The results of a survey of 100 employees in an Australian workplace indicate that informational justice mediated the relationship between LMX and resistance to change.

This article examines patterns and determinants of the likelihood and financial burden of encountering out-of-pocket healthcare expenses in Sri Lankan households as, on average, more than 60% of households incur such costs. This percentage varies substantially across household categories in demographic properties, sectors and ability-to-pay. Households comprising more than one elderly person, pre-school children, members with chronic illnesses, and literate household heads are at significant risk of incurring out-of-pocket payments and bearing a higher financial burden. Rural and estate sector households are more likely to bear a higher burden. The marginal effects of household income show that the burden of private healthcare is less sensitive towards changes in household income and that households' burden in private healthcare was regressive in 2006/2007. Hence results imply that low-income households need to be protected. Analysis of supply side factors shows that availability of closer government hospitals, bed numbers and dentists in government hospitals reduce the burden of out-of-pocket expenses. However, more government doctors lead to higher likelihood and burden of incurring such healthcare expenses and create a government-doctor-induced cost. Therefore, the results show a convincing need for the expansion of healthcare infrastructure by government and a policy framework for its doctors that will lessen the financial burden in Sri Lankan households, particularly the poor.

It has been recognized that there is a need for a cross-country analysis that can be used to identify the factors that contribute to the problems of state incapacity in South and Southeast Asian nations. In taking up this challenge, we explore selected initiatives of new public management (NPM) in the region to analyse cross-country variations. For this purpose we have chosen four South and Southeast Asian countries, namely: Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This article examines how the contextual factors. namely political history, party politics, macroeconomic considerations, state tradition, role of International Development Agencies (IDAs) and the state of civil society, influence the nature and the outcome NPM initiatives in these four countries. We argue that contextual factors played a determining role for which Singapore and Malaysia are relatively successful on their own terms compared to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which failed to achieve the expected benefits from NPM reforms. Points for practitioners It has been argued that there is a need for a cross-country analysis to identify the factors that contribute to the problems of public sector reforms in South and Southeast Asian nations. In taking up this challenge, we have explored selected initiatives of new public management (NPM) to analyse cross-country variations using four South and Southeast Asian countries, namely: Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. We argue that unique country-specific contextual factors have played a determining role for which Singapore and Malaysia are relatively successful on their own terms compared to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in public management reforms.

Evidence from emerging scholarly investigations consistently points to managerial humor as fruitful new grounds to expand management knowledge and practice. In light of this, the present study examined managerial humor as an affective event at work that has short-term emotional and long-term psychological outcomes for employees. To test this empirically, we recruited a sample of 2498 Australian employees to participate in a field experience sampling study. We also considered the potential moderating effect of leader–member exchange on the humor–emotions relationship. Findings provide initial support for managerial humor as an affective event such that when employees perceived their manager’s humor as positive they reported experiencing positive emotions, and vice versa. Importantly, employees with high-quality relationships with their managers responded to their manager’s humor use with a greater number of positive emotions and fewer negative emotions than did employees with low-quality relationships with their managers. We argue that humor is an event that managers must responsibly manage in order to produce positive emotional experiences for employees and support healthy emotion regulation at work. We also discuss the conditions under which it is advisable for managers to use humor with employees, and suggest future research directions to develop this growing field of inquiry.