Observes that the published literature on resistance to organisational change has focused more on organisational issues rather than individual psychological factors. The present study investigated the role of both adaptive and maladaptive defence mechanisms in individual resistance. Surveys were conducted in nine organisations undergoing major change and responses were obtained from 615 employees. The results indicate that five maladaptive defence mechanisms are positively correlated with behavioural intention to resist change, namely, projection, acting out, isolation of affect, dissociation and denial. The adaptive defence mechanism of humour was found to be negatively correlated with resistance intention. Identifies two intervention strategies which can be used by management to address the effects of defence mechanisms on resistance during periods of change in organisations.

PurposeThis paper aims to review the concept of mindfulness and to show how it can be extended from psychology into management. Also, it seeks to introduce a new model of the psyche which incorporates two types of mindfulness (“meta‐mindfulness” and “supra‐mindfulness”) which can be used by managers to increase their capacity to handle emotional reactivity and to reduce stress.Design/methodology/approachIt is proposed that the “meta‐self” or Managing Ego plays a key role in emotions management and stress reduction by using meta‐mindfulness to actively monitor one's sub‐selves which react with the external world. The current approach also postulates that an individual's “supra‐self” or inner‐observer is crucial in reducing stress by passively exercising neutral observation of all psychic activity via the above‐mind state of supra‐mindfulness.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper indicates how the proposed models of the psyche and of the dynamics of mindfulness in emotions and stress management can be tested empirically in future management research.Practical implicationsMindfulness techniques are recommended for use by managers in practice to avoid emotional reactivity and to manage stress.Originality/valueThe present approach builds on existing theory to provide new constructs and models that help to explain the dynamics of mindfulness in managing emotions and in reducing stress.

This paper presents systematic data on downsizing and delayering trends in Australia and New Zealand. It is based on comparative survey data of 1321 private and public sector organizations. The distribution and depth of downsizing is similar in the two countries. The article compares the outcomes of downsizing in relation to key HRM variables. Our results indicate opposing trends between New Zealand and Australia: in Australia firms have suffered negative human resource outcomes following downsizing, whereas in New Zealand employee motivation and commitment have tended to increase after downsizing. Why are there such wide discrepancies between the outcomes in New Zealand and Australia? The article concludes that discrepancies arise partly because of the restructuring cycle and partly because the frequency of downsizing in Australian organizations has created a severe case of 'survivor syndrome'. These conclusions have implications for the management of downsizing. this paper is part of a broader project on organizational restructuring, downsizing, delayering and management labour markets co-ordinated by Professor Craig R. Littler in conjunction with Professor Richard Dunford, Dr Tom Bramble, Dr Retha Wiesner (USQ) and Professor Leo Vermeulen (University of Pretoria).We would like to thank Elizabeth O'Brien for her assiduous efforts with the AAA database; Evan Stewart and Peter Innes for their assistance with data analysis; Don Smith for his help with the Australian survey; and Chris O'Reilly for her patient work. The sampling frame for the Australian survey was derived from the membership of AHRI. We would also like to thank AHRI for their support. Finally, we would like to thank the editor, Dr Helen De Cieri, for her comments and constructive criticism.

Negative impacts of noise exposure on health and performance may result in part from "learned helplessness," the syndrome of deficits typically produced by exposure to uncontrollable events. People may perceive environmental noise to be uncontrollable, and several effects of noise exposure appear to parallel "learned helplessness" deficits. In the present socioacoustic survey (N = 1,015), perceived control over aircraft noise correlated negatively with some effects of noise (though not others). Furthermore, these effects were better predicted by perceived control than by noise level. These observational data support the claim that "learned helplessness" contributes to the effects of noise exposure.

Background: Meditation has developed over many centuries within a diverse range of religious traditions including Middle-Eastern, Indian, and East-Asian. Of these, mindfulness meditation from the Buddhist (Indian) tradition, has been the most extensively adopted in the Western secular world primarily with applications in health and well-being as pioneered by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Review: While originally developed to treat chronic pain and stress in the U.S., mindfulness training was later coupled with cognitive-behavioral therapy to treat depression in the U.K. and beyond. The present review of the literature confirms the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation in these medical applications. The various models of mindfulness that have been advanced are here reviewed and are shown to be generally based on an underlying unitary model of the human psyche. By contrast, the present model distinguishes between two modes of mindfulness, an active form and a passive form. Theory: The foundations of these two modes of mindfulness are two of three posited types of self comprising the tripartite psyche, namely, the 'intra-self' (underpinning 'active mindfulness') and the 'supra-self' (underpinning 'passive mindfulness'). The binary model of mindfulness advanced here shows how these two types of self can potentially form the basis of an effective two-stage approach to managing depression. Application: By combining both cognitive decentering using active mindfulness and existential disidentification using passive mindfulness, individuals can learn to manage their cognitive dysfunction and distorted self-identity and thereby reduce the effects of depression in their lives. A design for an empirical study is provided to test the proposed model.