Business Commons^™

Innovation In Human Resources: The Combination Of Hr Standards, Hr Auditing And Big Data., Neil Mccormick, Chris Andrews

Dr Chris Andrews

There are two radical changes emerging in the human resource space that are coming from entirely different directions but are destined to collide: HR Standards and Big [HR related] Data. They are radical because they will fundamentally change the performance evaluation of HR, the teaching of the profession, and the standing and credibility of practitioners. Worldwide, there are now 25 participating countries involved in the International Standards Organisation Technical Committee (ISO TC 260) looking into HR Standards, with a further 18 countries observing. In order for data analytics to provide maximum effect in the people space there is an underlying …

Myth: Hard Work And Credentials Determine Employment Opportunities

Alev Dudek

Technological Change At Work: The Impact Of Employee Involvement On The Effectiveness Of Health Information Technology, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

The link between employee involvement (El) and organizational performance is not clear-cut, and the diffusion of information technology (IT) in the workplace complicates this relationship. The author argues that new technologies offer an important avenue by which El can improve hrm performance. He also contends that those studies that do consider El in the context of technological change may be focusing exclusively on workplace-level features of the employment relationship, ignoring variation in functional- and strategic-level aspects of employment relations. To test this hypothesis, he uses Kaiser Permanente Northwest Region’s patient scheduling module as an exemplar to investigate the extent to …

The Future Of Human Capital: An Employment Relations Perspective, Thomas Kochan, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

[Excerpt] It is not surprising that most theories of human capital treat the firm as the key unit of analysis, given the deep imprint that Becker (1964 [1993]) left with his early efforts to distinguish between general and specific human capital. It is especially understandable for research that focuses on American institutions and practices. Ever since the passage of the New Deal employment policies of the 1930s, firms have been assigned central roles in the delivery and financing of a variety of labor-market services, including the provision of workforce training and development (Osterman et al, 2001). Most of the chapters …

The Quality Of Jobs Created By Entrepreneurs, Adam Seth Litwin, Philip Phan

Adam Seth Litwin

Few dare to challenge the conventional wisdom that small business is the engine of job creation. Indeed, in the United States, the image of the small business owner left largely unfettered to create novel products and services sits on the same cultural plane as baseball and apple pie, and one would be hard-pressed to find a policymaker who would openly question the wisdom that most new jobs arise either directly or indirectly from these small businesses. This near religious belief in the small business owner as job creator yields a steady stream of policies offering tax relief to small businesses, …

Measurement Error In Performance Studies Of Health Information Technology: Lessons From The Management Literature, Adam Seth Litwin, Ariel Avgar, Peter Pronovost

Adam Seth Litwin

Just as researchers and clinicians struggle to pin down the benefits attendant to health information technology (IT), management scholars have long labored to identify the performance effects arising from new technologies and from other organizational innovations, namely the reorganization of work and the devolution of decision-making authority. This paper applies lessons from that literature to theorize the likely sources of measurement error that yield the weak statistical relationship between measures of health IT and various performance outcomes. In so doing, it complements the evaluation literature’s more conceptual examination of health IT’s limited performance impact. The paper focuses on seven issues, …

Rethinking Work And Family Policy: The Making And Taking Of Parental Leave In Australia, Marian Baird, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

Despite the continued increase in female participation rates, Australia remains one of only two developed nations in the world without a paid maternity leave scheme. While research interest and public policy debate about paid maternity leave entitlements continues, little is known about the actual utilization of the 52 weeks unpaid parental leave that is currently available to all employees. Moreover, research and policy debate on the availability and provision of paid paternity leave has only just begun. This paper argues that, given the gendered nature of employee entitlements, it is time to re-evaluate all aspects of parental leave policy in …

Not Featherbedding, But Feathering The Nest: Human Resource Management And Investments In Information Technology, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

This study draws on employment relations and management theory, claiming that certain innovative employment practices and work structures pave the way for organizational innovation, namely investments in information technology (IT). It then finds support for the theory in a cross-section of UK workplaces. The findings suggest that firms slow to adopt IT realize that their conventional employment model hinders their ability to make optimal use of new technologies. Therefore, the paper advances the literature beyond studies of unionization’s impact on business investment to a broader set of issues on the employment relations features that make organizations ripe for innovation.

Quality Over Quantity: Reexamining The Link Between Entrepreneurship And Job Creation, Adam Seth Litwin, Philip Phan

Adam Seth Litwin

Although much has been written about the quantity of jobs created by entrepreneurs, scholars have yet to examine the quality of these jobs. In this article, the authors begin to address this important issue by examining nearly 5,000 businesses that began operations in 2004. They investigate the extent to which nascent employers provide what many think of as quality jobs—those offering health care coverage and a retirement plan. The authors find that because of small scale, constrained resources, and protection from institutional pressures, start-up companies do not provide their employees with either of these proxies for job quality, and their …

Explaining The Health Information Technology Paradox, Ariel Avgar, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

Excerpt] The substantial gap between the promise inherent in upgrading information systems in health care and the documented reality has baffled health care scholars. Why is a technology so clearly capable of creating efficiencies, increasing safety, and promoting greater information sharing and coordination across professionals failing to live up to expectations?

Review Of Cleaning Up: How Hospital Outsourcing Is Hurting Workers And Endangering Patients, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

[Excerpt] Researchers sensitive to the plight of low-wage workers in advanced industrialized economies have long sought to convey the magnitude of the problem by retelling sorrowful tales of worker exploitation. Sadly, even their most sympathetic readers have numbed to these accounts. Author Dan Zuberi has found a clever way to transcend this apathy in his new monograph based on about 100 interviews plus behind-the- scenes observations of the impact of hospital support staff outsourcing on patients and workers. Through a well-developed understanding of the work process and changes in the employment relationship, he ties outsourcing and the resulting exploitation of …

Counting The Global Aerospace Workforce, Betty Barnett, Kevin Long, Lydia Fraile, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

As researchers on MIT’s Labor Aerospace Research Agenda (LARA), we began our work with many questions. Are other nations—like the United States—facing a “demographic cliff” as their aerospace workforce’s age? What strategic decisions are other countries making to insure adequate skills and competencies? How are offsets affecting employment levels? Are American job losses in aerospace matched by job gains elsewhere?

As it turns out, just determining the size of the global aerospace workforce has proved far more complicated than we imagined, although the initial data—and the questions they raise—suggest that this is an important undertaking. The impact of the September …

Nose To Tail: Using The Whole Employment Relationship To Link Worker Participation To Operational Performance, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

Although many employers continue to adopt various forms of worker participation or employee involvement, expected positive gains often fail to materialize. One explanation for the weak or altogether missing performance effects is that researchers rely on frameworks that focus almost exclusively on contingencies related to the workers themselves or to the set of tasks subject to participatory processes. This study is premised on the notion that a broader examination of the employment relationship within which a worker participation program is embedded reveals a wider array of factors impinging upon its success. I integrate labor relations theory into existing insights from …

Drivers And Barriers In Health It Adoption: A Proposed Framework, Ariel Avgar, Adam Seth Litwin, Peter Pronovost

Adam Seth Litwin

Despite near (and rare) consensus that the adoption and diffusion of health information technology (health IT) will bolster outcomes for organizations, individuals, and the healthcare system as a whole, there has been surprisingly little consideration of the structures and processes within organizations that might drive the adoption and effective use of the technology. Management research provides a useful lens through which to analyze both the determinants of investment and the benefits that can ultimately be derived from these investments. This paper provides a conceptual framework for understanding health IT adoption. In doing so, this paper highlights specific organizational barriers or …

Organizational Strategy And Staffing, John Hausknecht, Patrick Wright

John Hausknecht

In this chapter, we draw linkages between theory and research from strategic human resource management (and its focus on predicting unit/firm performance) with the key issues and empirical findings from the staffing and selection literature (and its focus on predicting individual performance). We organize the chapter around the fit and flexibility framework (Wright & Snell, 1998) to discuss the dual concerns of fitting staffing and selection systems to strategic needs while simultaneously enabling flexibility to respond to future demands. Implications for research and practice explain how such an approach may alter and enhance conventional views regarding staffing system characteristics such …

Identity Work: Sustaining Transnational Collective Action At General Motors Europe, Ian Greer

Ian Greer

What are the conditions under which transnational collective action is initiated and sustained? This paper presents a case study of General Motors Europe, where labor leaders have mobilized the workforce and bargained with management at the transnational level repeatedly over more than a decade as a response to management whipsawing and threats of plant closures. In contrast to structuralist interest-based theories of union behavior, we identify a process of “identity work‟ that was necessary to sustain transnational worker cooperation.

World Champions In Hospital Privatisation: The Effects Of Neoliberal Reform On German Employees And Patients, Nils Böhlke, Ian Greer, Thorsten Schulten

Ian Greer

[Excerpt] Over the past decade, German hospitals have been privatised at a rate not seen in any other country. In response to massive public-sector debt and the resulting investment backlog, many state and local governments have been privatising hospitals. The most common arguments for privatisation are repeated in a recent study commissioned by the association of private hospital owners (Bundesverband Deutscher Privatkliniken - BDPK) namely that private hospitals manage in a more efficient manner and are economically more successful (Augurzky, Beivers et al., 2009). Indeed, in some cases, private for-profit hospital companies have invested generously and turned inefficient public hospitals …

Organisational Effectiveness: The Role And Benefits Of Human Resources Auditing, Chris Andrews Dr

Dr Chris Andrews

No abstract provided.

The Complexity Of Role Balance: Support For The Model Of Juggling Occupations, K Evans, J Millsteed, Janet Richmond, M Falkmer, T Falkmer, S Girdler

Janet E Richmond PhD

Objective: This pilot study aimed to establish the appropriateness of the Model of Juggling Occupations in exploring the complex experience of role balance amongst working women with family responsibilities living in Perth, Australia. Methods: In meeting this aim, an evaluation was conducted of a case study design, where data were collected through a questionnaire, time diary, and interview. Results: Overall role balance varied over time and across participants. Positive indicators of role balance occurred frequently in the questionnaires and time diaries, despite the interviews revealing a predominance of negative evaluations of role balance. Between-role balance was achieved through compatible role …

Embracing The "Two-Body Problem": The Case Of Partnered Academics, Cynthia Fisher

Cynthia D. Fisher

Extract: The focal article has given examples of children, other relatives, and friends as potential beneficiaries of preferential treatment and has discussed the counterbalancing likelihood of organizational gain from(properly) employing individuals who already share social connections. Surprisingly, there is minimal mention of spouses or domestic partners. From the 1970s through the 1990s, a number of articles were published on the legal and practical issues of applying antinepotism policies to spouses, but since 2000, the literature has been almost entirely silent. This is surprising given that, in 2013, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 47.4% of U.S. families involve husbands …

Assessing Stress At Work Across Occupations And Cultures Using The Occupational Stress Inventory Revised, Richard Hicks, Ali Sabanci, Mark Bahr

Mark Bahr

Workplace stress is common across occupations and across nations. However, there has been limited research examining the similarities and differences across cultures, and none that seem to have used a direct comparison across one professional area using the same extensive and validated questionnaire. One such questionnaire is the Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised (OSI-R: Osipow 1998) which assesses three main dimensions related to stress: "occupational roles" (stressors), "personal strain" (experienced stress), and "personal resources" (coping resources). The current study examined a cross-national application of the OSI-R among Australian and Turkish teachers to identify whether patterns of latent structure of the OSI-R were …

Assessing Stress At Work Across Occupations And Cultures Using The Occupational Stress Inventory Revised, Richard Hicks, Ali Sabanci, Mark Bahr

Richard Hicks

Workplace stress is common across occupations and across nations. However, there has been limited research examining the similarities and differences across cultures, and none that seem to have used a direct comparison across one professional area using the same extensive and validated questionnaire. One such questionnaire is the Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised (OSI-R: Osipow 1998) which assesses three main dimensions related to stress: "occupational roles" (stressors), "personal strain" (experienced stress), and "personal resources" (coping resources). The current study examined a cross-national application of the OSI-R among Australian and Turkish teachers to identify whether patterns of latent structure of the OSI-R were …

Transformational Teachership: How Principles Of Transformational Leadership Foster Student Outcomes (Poster), Janet M. Peters, Thomas M. Cavanagh, Samantha A. Stelman, Kyle J. Sandell, James W. Weston, Zinta S. Byrne

Thomas M. Cavanagh

Destructive Leader Behaviour: A Study Of Iranian Leaders Using The Destructive Leadership Questionnaire, Ben Shaw, Anthony Erickson, Farzaneh Nassirzadeh

Anthony Erickson

This study examines destructive leader behaviours among a sample of Iranian leaders. Destructive leader behaviour was measured using the Destructive Leadership Questionnaire (DLQ) developed by Shaw et al. (2011). Data from 700 Iranian subordinates who completed the DLQ were used to identify the dimensions of destructive leadership using principle components factor analysis. The factor analytic data were used to develop an Iranian version of the DLQ. Behavioural scale scores were then used to identify a typology of destructive leaders in the Iranian sample.

Exploring Factors That Influence Work Analysis Data: A Meta-Analysis Of Design Choices, Purposes, And Organizational Context, Amy Duvernet, Erich Dierdorff, Mark Wilson

Erich C. Dierdorff

Work analysis is fundamental to designing effective human resource systems. The current investigation extends previous research by identifying the differential effects of common design decisions, purposes, and organizational contexts on the data generated by work analyses. The effects of 19 distinct factors that span choices of descriptor, collection method, rating scale, and data source, as well as project purpose and organizational features, are explored. Meta-analytic results cumulated from 205 articles indicate that many of these variables hold significant consequences for work analysis data. Factors pertaining to descriptor choice, collection method, rating scale, and the purpose for conducting the work analysis …

The Future Of Hrm: A Psychological Perspective On A Thriving Workplace (In Press), J. Cleveland, Z. S. Byrne, Thomas M. Cavanagh

Thomas M. Cavanagh

An Ecological Approach To Organizational Cultural Competence, Judith Sabino, Jarret Patton, Erica Mahady, Lynn Deitrick, James Geiger, Marykay Grim, Debbie Salas-Lopez

Debbie Salas-Lopez MD, MPH

No abstract provided.

Workplace Bullying: What Can Be Done To Prevent And Manage It?, Sara Branch, Jane Murray, Sheryl Ramsey

Jane Murray

In recent decades workplace bullying has increasingly been recognized as an identifiable phenomenon, with an associated growth in understanding of its contributing factors, behaviors and negative effects on individuals and organizations. Despite this, however, the complexity of workplace bullying incidents and processes continue to challenge researchers and practitioners alike. Moreover, while interventions exist,"fragmentary information" on the effectiveness of such interventions are only beginning to emerge (Saam, 2010, p. 6). While there is recognition that multi-faceted approaches to addressing the phenomenon are needed, such solutions are not easy to develop, implement, or test. This chapter presents a review of the workplace …

Human Resource Consulting By Beginners: Applying Knowledge In The Real World, Cynthia Fisher, James Shaw

James B Shaw

No abstract provided.

Human Resource Management, Cynthia Fisher, Lyle Schoenfeldt, James Shaw

James B Shaw

No abstract provided.