Activity-related-attention (ARA), representing the arousal level, is proposed as an intervening variable linking job characteristics to job outcomes. Two initial studies evaluated a new ARA state questionnaire assessing job-related attentional states. Worker responses displayed high internal consistency and were related to job satisfaction as well as to differences between mundane and enjoyable activities. Student responses displayed high test-retest correlations over a 2-week period. The third study compared the relative role of attention/arousal vs. the critical psychological states (CPS) appearing in Hackman and Oldham's (1976) job characteristics model. Questionnaires completed by 119 employees dealt with (1) job characteristics, (2) job outcomes of work satisfaction, effort, and performance, and (3) ARA state, and CPS. Regression analyses indicated that CPS tended to have a stronger mediating role than ARA in the relation between job characteristics and outcomes. However, ARA was found to contribute significantly to the prediction of perceived effort over and above the contribution of CPS. The article discusses the differences between ARA and CPS both in theory and measurement, and displays the potential value of the ARA state in future research.

This book is the English translation of Gerald D. Feldman's contributions to the multi-author, two-volume study Österreichische Banken und Sparkassen im Nationalsozialismus und in der Nachkeriegszeit, which was originally published in German by C. H. Beck in 2006. Austrian Banks in the Period of National Socialism focuses on the activities of two major financial institutions, the Creditanstalt-Wiener Bankverein and the Länderbank Wien. It details the ways the two banks served the Nazi regime and how they used the opportunities presented by Nazi rule to expand their business activities. Particular attention is given to the role that the Creditanstalt and Länderbank played in the 'Aryanization' of Jewish-owned businesses. The book also examines the two banks' relations with their industrial clients and considers the question of whether bank officials had any knowledge of their client firms' use of concentration camp prisoners and other forced laborers during World War II.

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An operational understanding of Newton's third law is often elusive for students. Typical examples of this concept are given for contact forces that are closer to the students' everyday experience. While this is a good thing in general, the reaction force can sometimes be taken for granted, and the students can miss the opportunity to really think about what is going on. In the case of magnetic forces, however, the notion of action at a distance actually requires a careful inspection of the forces involved and thereby promotes a more detailed analysis of the situation. In this paper, a simple demonstration of Newton's third law is presented in the context of a magnet falling through a hollow conducting tube. The results are unambiguous and lead the students to an irrefutable verification of Newton's third law.

This history of the internationally prominent insurance corporation Allianz AG in the Nazi era is based largely on new or previously unavailable archival sources. Feldman takes the reader through varied cases of collaboration and conflict with the Nazi regime with fairness and a commitment to informed analysis. He touches on issues of damages in the Pogrom of 1938, insuring facilities used in forced labour camps, and the problems of de-Nazification and restitution. The broader issues examined in this study - cooperation with Nazi policies, the way in which profit, ideology, and opportunism played a role in corporate decision-making, and the question of how Jewish insurance assets were expropriated - are particularly relevant today given the ongoing international debate about restitution for Holocaust survivors. This book joins a growing body of scholarship based on free access to the records of German corporations in the Nazi era.