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Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to investigate the job satisfaction in relation to managerial attitudes towards employees and firm size using the linked employer-employee survey results in Britain. Design/methodology/approach -- The authors first investigate the management-employee relationships and the firm size using maximum likelihood probit estimation. Next various measures of job satisfaction are related to the management-employee relations via maximum likelihood ordered probit estimates. Four measures of job satisfaction that have not been used often are considered. They are satisfaction with influence over job; satisfaction with amount of pay; satisfaction with sense of achievement and satisfaction with respect from supervisors. Findings -- Main findings indicate that management-employee relationships are less satisfactory in the large firms than in the small firms. Job satisfaction levels are lower in large firms. Less satisfactory management-employee relationships in the large firms may be a major source of the observed lower level of job satisfaction in them. Practical implications -- These results have important policy implications from the point of view of the firm management while achieving the aims of their organizations in particular in the large firms in the area of management-employee relationships. Improving the management-employee relations in large firms will increase employee satisfaction in many respects as well as increase productivity and reduce turnover. Originality/value -- The nature of the management-employee relations with firm size and job satisfaction has not been investigated before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore information literacy amongst small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the UK and the USA and argue that information policy in the UK has not given sufficient attention to helping these companies navigate the ever-increasing volumes of information accessible over the internet. Design/methodology/approach - A combination of primary and secondary data have been used. The primary data consists of a survey of UK SMEs, which explored how these companies use the internet as a research tool. The results of the survey are compared to similar surveys carried out in the USA. Several significant UK policy documents are examined to find out how government policy in this area has addressed the issue of information literacy amongst SMEs. Findings - It is shown that UK SMEs wasted over £3.7 billion in 2005 in terms of time wasted through inefficient use of the internet as a research tool. Practical implications - It is argued that while government policies in this area have put resources into encouraging SMEs to adopt broadband and engage in e-commerce, they have not sufficiently addressed the issue of information literacy. Originality/value - Little research has been carried out into how SMEs use the internet as a research tool and this is the first time that a financial cost figure has been applied to inefficient searching by these organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]