P arty activists have played a leading role in "conflict extension"-the polarization of the parties along multiple issue dimensions-in contemporary American politics. We argue that open nomination systems and the ambitious politicians competing within those systems encourage activists with extreme views on a variety of issue dimensions to become involved in party politics, thus motivating candidates to take noncentrist positions on a range of issues. Once that happens, continuing activists with strong partisan commitments bring their views into line with the new candidate agendas, thus extending the domain of interparty conflict. Using cross-sectional and panel surveys of national convention delegates, we find clear evidence for conflict extension among party activists, evidence tentatively suggesting a leading role for activists in partisan conflict extension more generally, and strong support for our argument about change among continuing activists. Issue conversion among activists has contributed substantially to conflict extension and party commitment has played a key role in motivating that conversion.

Increasingly, human resource managers are recognizing the need to understand how the differences between men and women affect organizational culture and leadership. This study of 314 workers examines the influence of gender on the leadership and cultural dimensions identified in the acclaimed Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research program. The results show that gender is a significant predictor in two of the nine cultural dimensions—gender egalitarianism and assertiveness—and two of the six leadership dimensions—participative leadership and self‐protective leadership. These findings can help HR managers capitalize on the strengths of both male and female employees as they design policies and practices to achieve organizational objectives. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Scholars have long recognized the implications of the patterns of beliefs held by elite and mass partisans for a functioning democracy.' The study of mass-elite linkages originally took the form of a bifurcation of party activists into leaders and followers.* More recent attempts to study mass-blite linkages are more inclusive and recognize the importance of 'middle-level' activists.' One device used to describe and explain mass-elite relationships is the 'opinion structure' of political parties, the foremost vehicle for representation in democracie~.~ An opinion structure is a portrait of a political party's substantive opinions on political issues once the party's members are stratified by their level of activism. The description of a party's opinion structure, therefore, requires a measurement of the 'center of gravity' for different strata of partisans.' Once We would like to thank

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