Business Commons^™

The Indian Call Centre Industry: National Benchmarking Report Strategy, Hr Practices, & Performance, Rosemary Batt, Virginia Doellgast, Hyunji Kwon, Mudit Nopany, Priti Nopany, Anil Da Costa

Virginia Doellgast

Report of the Global Call Centre Industry Project The dramatic growth of the call center industry is a world-wide phenomenon, fueled by advances in information technologies and the precipitous decline in the costs of voice and data transmission over the last two decades. As part of this global industry, call centres in India have experienced spectacular growth in the last five years. They generate seventy percent of the revenues of the Indian Business Process Outourcing (BPO) industry, according to estimates by Mckinsey (www.nasscom.org). This rapid growth has also brought managerial challenges in terms of recruitment,staffing, training, and retention of workers …

U.S. Call Center Industry Report 2004 National Benchmarking Report Strategy, Hr Practices & Performance, Rosemary Batt, Virginia Doellgast, Hyunji Kwon

Virginia Doellgast

No abstract provided.

Managing People And Technology: The Challenges In Csr And Energy Efficient Shipping, Momoko Kitada, Aykut Ölçer

Aykut Ölçer

This paper addresses the challenges of managers in the shipping industry to implement energy efficient measures in ship operations and their roles of managing both people and technology under the fulfilment of their corporate social responsibility (CSR). An increasing pressure on shipping companies to concern about marine environment, including energy efficiency, has led managers to consider CSR as their ethical business practices. It is an accepted norm that shipping is generally the most environmentally friendly mode of transport in terms of CO2 produced per ton nautical mile. Despite an extensive amount of research available to improve energy efficiency in shipping, …

Innovation In Isolation: Labor-Management Partnerships In The United States, Kirsten S. Wever, Rosemary Batt, Saul Rubinstein

Rosemary Batt

In the United States, as in other advanced industrial countries, worker participation in management has taken on increasing importance, placing pressures on employers and unions to change how they deal with employees/members, and with each other. This paper examines two of the most impressive cases in the U.S.: the partnerships between General Motors (G.M.) and the United Autoworkers union (U.A W.) at Saturn and between BellSouth and the Communication Workers union (C.W.A.). We outline the evolution and the basic features of these innovations, as well as highlighting certain ongoing problems. These problems, we argue, confront the parties to employment relations …

Sticky It Workers: Discovering Why Information Technology Professionals Retain Their Employers, Phillip Michael Lewis

Mike Lewis D.Mgt.

In the current business climate and social technologies expansion era, Information Technology (IT) workers are important organization contributors that connect organizations into today’s data-driven, highly social, and always-on global economy. Thus, organizations need IT workers. Unfortunately, as a class, IT workers have developed a reputation that includes short organization tenures. However, not all IT workers suffer this stigma, some IT workers stick with one organization for a long time. Discovering why these Sticky IT workers retain their employers provides insights and direction for organization leaders and architects to help them shape their organizations into those that IT workers choose to …

The Role Of Benchmarking In Establishing Standards For The Evaluation Of Human Resources, Chris Andrews, Chris Hogan

Dr Chris Andrews

No abstract provided.

One Model For Creating A Career Ladder For Library Support Staff, Jane Fama, Elaine Russo Martin

Jane Fama

This article describes a unique career ladder model for library support staff. Major components include a promotion in place opportunity based on specified achievement levels, competencies, cross training, and measurable evaluation. The authors discuss the background, development, and program description of the career ladder model.

Agency Theory Implications For Strategic Human Resource Management: Effects Of Ceo Ownership, Administrative Hrm, And Incentive Alignment On Firm Performance, Theresa M. Welbourne, Linda A. Cyr

Theresa M. Welbourne, PhD

Agency theory is used to expand the research in strategic human resource management (SHRM) by viewing the construct underlying SHRM as control over all employees. We develop hypotheses on the effects of CEO ownership, administrative HRM, and incentive stock ownership on firm performance. The results indicate that administrative HRM has a negative effect on stock price. Incentive alignment via stock ownership has a positive effect on stock price and productivity. CEO ownership has a positive effect on sales but a negative impact on productivity. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Absenteeism And The Overtime Decision, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Upon reading the congressional hearing on the Overtime Pay Penalty Act of 1964, one cannot fail to be impressed by the emphasis that management places on absenteeism as a primary cause of overtime. The argument given is basically quite simple: Large firms, it is claimed, attempt to account for absenteeism by hiring standby workers; however because of the stochastic nature of the absentee rate, it is impossible for them to have replacements always available. Hence overtime must be worked by existing employees in order to meet production schedules. One concludes from this argument that the randomness of absenteeism is …

Flexibility And Fairness In Liberal Market Economies: The Comparative Impact Of The Legal Environment And High Performance Work Systems, Alexander Colvin

Alexander Colvin

This paper compares management flexibility in employment decision-making in the United States and Canada through a cross-national survey of organizations in representative jurisdictions in each country, Pennsylvania and Ontario respectively, that investigates the impact of differences in their legal environments. The results indicate that, compared to their Ontario counterparts, organizations in Pennsylvania have a higher degree of flexibility in employment outcomes, such as higher dismissal and discipline rates, yet do not experience any greater flexibility or simplicity in management hiring and firing decisions. One explanation for this result may lie in the finding that organizations in Pennsylvania experience greater legal …

Human Resource Management Practices, Workforce Alignment, And Firm Performance, Christopher Collins, Jeff Ericksen, Mathew Allen

Christopher J Collins

Small business leaders are charged with delivering high levels of company performance. There is no shortage of potentially fruitful investments available for consideration; these include developing new products or services, improving product or service quality, and enhancing marketing and sales. Another possible investment - improving the way a company manages its people - tends to receive less attention. This is somewhat surprising, however, when one considers that the human resource management practices a company uses can dramatically impact the bottom-line. One study of large publicly traded firms, for example, found that companies using "high performance" human resource practices have market …

Intellectual Capital Statement (Ics) As A Method Of Measurement And Management Of Knowledge Assets, Anna Ujwary-Gil

Anna Ujwary-Gil

The article describes empirical verification of an interesting model – Intellectual Capital Statement (ICS). ICS is an example of a method which emphasizes the European contribution into the developing trend of intellectual capital (IC) measure and evaluation, with particular attention paid to the SME sector (a strong presence of Scandinavian countries and the USA is noticeable here). ICS is presented here as a tool enabling us to manage and evaluate IC of a company and to demonstrate the dynamics of its changes. The article contains a case study of a company operating in the construction sector in Poland. It also …

Business And Non-Profit Organizations Facing Increased Competition And Growing Customers' Demands (Vol. 11), Anna Ujwary-Gil

Anna Ujwary-Gil

The monograph focuses attention on the description and analysis of new phenomena and processes for commercial and non-commercial organizations. Valid conditions are pointed out for the functioning of both commercial and non-commercial organizations and an attempt is made to explain their impact on these organizations. The analysis also examines the strategies used by organizations in the face of fierce competition and increasing consumer demands in their effort to gain and maintain a competitive edge. This case study below is segmented into four areas of interest: • commercial and non-commercial organizations as an object of research, • commercial and non-commercial organizations …

[Review Of The Book Personnel Economics], Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] What is personnel economics? Despite its name (non-economists may be put off by the use of the word “personnel,” which was left behind by what is now called human resource management about a quarter century ago), personnel economics deals with issues of fundamental importance in the workplace. As the editors explain in the introduction, “The literature is distinguished from other parts of labour economics primarily by its focus on problems that are central to business.” Thus, personnel economics is economics, it is that part of economics that deals with workplace issues, and it is firmly grounded in labor economics. …

The Impact Of Ehr On Professional Competence In Hrm: Implications For The Development Of Hr Professionals, Bradford S. Bell, Sae-Won Lee, Sarah K. Yeung

Bradford S Bell

[Excerpt] Information technology has been cited as a critical driver of HR’s transition from a focus on administrative tasks to a focus on serving as a strategic business partner. This strategic role not only adds a valuable dimension to the HR function but also changes the competencies that define the success of HR professionals. Interviews were conducted with HR representatives from 19 firms to examine the linkage between electronic human resources (eHR) and the reshaping of professional competence in HRM. Based on the findings, we draw implications for the development of HR competencies and identify learning strategies that HR professionals …

Distributed Learning System Design: A New Approach And An Agenda For Future Research, Bradford Bell, Steve Kozlowski

Bradford S Bell

This article presents a theoretical framework designed to guide distributed learning design, with the goal of enhancing the effectiveness of distributed learning systems. The authors begin with a review of the extant research on distributed learning design, and themes embedded in this literature are extracted and discussed to identify critical gaps that should be addressed by future work in this area. A conceptual framework that integrates instructional objectives, targeted competencies, instructional design considerations, and technological features is then developed to address the most pressing gaps in current research and practice. The rationale and logic underlying this framework is explicated. The …

A Typology Of Virtual Teams: Implications For Effective Leadership, Bradford S. Bell, Steve W. J. Kozlowski

Bradford S Bell

As the nature of work in today's organizations becomes more complex, dynamic, and global, there has been an increasing emphasis on far-flung, distributed, virtual teams as organizing units of work. Despite their growing prevalence, relatively little is known about this new form of work unit. The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical framework to focus research toward understanding virtual teams and, in particular, to identify implications for effective leadership. Specifically, we focus on delineating the dimensions of a typology to characterize different types of virtual teams. First, we distinguish virtual teams from conventional teams to identify where …

Adaptive Guidance: Effects On Self-Regulated Learning In Technology-Based Training, Bradford S. Bell, Adam Kanar, Xiangmin Liu, Jane Forman, Mila Singh

Bradford S Bell

Guidance provides trainees with the information necessary to make effective use of the learner control inherent in technology-based training, but also allows them to retain a sense of control over their learning (Bell & Kozlowski, 2002). One challenge, however, is determining how much learner control, or autonomy, to build into the guidance strategy. We examined the effects of alternative forms of guidance (autonomy supportive vs. controlling) on trainees’ learning and performance, and examined trainees’ cognitive ability and motivation to learn as potential moderators of these effects. Consistent with our hypotheses, trainees receiving adaptive guidance had higher levels of knowledge and …

Why High And Low Performers Leave And What They Find Elsewhere: Job Performance Effects On Employment Transitions, Charlie Trevor , John Hausknecht , Michael Howard

John Hausknecht

Little is known about how high and low performers differ in terms of why they leave their jobs, and no work examines whether pre-quit job performance matters for post-quit new-job outcomes. Working with a sample of approximately 2,500 former employees of an organization in the leisure and hospitality industry, we find that the reported importance of a variety of quit reasons differs both across and within performance levels. Additionally, we use an ease-of-movement perspective to predict how pre-quit performance relates to post-quit employment, new-job pay, and new-job advancement opportunity. Job type, tenure, and race interacted with performance in predicting new-job …

Are National Exit Examinations Important For Educational Efficiency?, John H. Bishop

John H Bishop

“This paper analyses effects of national or provincial exit examinations on education quality. On theoretical grounds, the paper argues that such examinations should increase high school achievement, particularly in examination subjects, and that teachers and students and parents and school administrators should focus more on academic achievement when making school-quality decisions. On the negative side, exit examinations may lead to a tendency to concentrate on learning facts, rather than understanding contexts.”

Labor Pains: Change In Organizational Models And Employee Turnover In Young, High-Tech Firms, James N. Baron, Michael T. Hannan, M. Diane Burton

M. Diane Burton

[Excerpt] Organizational theories, especially ecological perspectives, emphasize the disruptive effects of change. However, the mechanisms producing these effects are seldom examined explicitly. This article ex-amines one such mechanism-employee turnover. Analyzing a sample of high-technology start-ups, we show that changes in the employment models or blueprints embraced by organizational leaders increase turnover, which in turn adversely affects subsequent organizational performance. Turnover associated with organizational change appears to be concentrated among the most senior employees, suggesting "old guard disenchantment" as the primary cause. The results are consistent with the claim of neoinstitutionalist scholars that founders impose cultural blueprints on nascent organizations and …

A Descriptive Analysis Of Layoffs In Large U.S. Firms Using Archival Data Over Three Decades And Interviews With Senior Managers, Kevin F. Hallock

Kevin F Hallock

This paper uses data on over 4,600 layoff announcements in the U.S., covering each firm that ever existed in the Fortune 500 between 1970 and 2000, along with 40 interviews of senior managers in 2001 and 2002 to describe layoffs in large U.S. firms over this period. In order to motivate further work in the area, I investigate six main issues related to layoffs: timing of layoffs, reasons for layoffs, the actual execution of layoffs, international workers, labor unions, and the types of workers by occupation and compensation categories. The paper draws on literature from many fields to help further …

Compensation In Nonprofit Organizations, Kevin F. Hallock

Kevin F Hallock

Although the nonprofit sector is enormous, we know little about how workers there are compensated. This may be due, in part, to the fact that the literature is scattered across many fields including Human Resources Management, Accounting, Economics, Finance, Organizational Behavior, Political Science, and Sociology. The paper aims to synthesize the research on nonprofits from an economics point of view, while carefully considering the work in the many other areas. In addition to using data from the U.S. census to provide a description of employment and wages in the nonprofit sector as well as a comparison with the for-profit sector, …

Is There A New Hrm? Contemporary Evidence And Future Directions, Lee Dyer, Thomas A. Kochan

Lee Dyer

[Excerpt] Is there a new human resource management? Yo. That is, yes and no. A new perspective -- strategic human resource management -- emerged during the 80s to take its place alongside the more traditional operational and programmatic perspectives as a major influence on the field. This perspective has rapidly progressed in terms of theory and research (if not practice). But, it continues to take many shapes and forms, and even with its various permutations, is far from universally embraced by scholars or practitioners. What follows is a brief look at the strategic perspective of the field. It begins with …

Managing Transformational Change: The Role Of Human Resource Professionals, Thomas A. Kochan, Lee Dyer

Lee Dyer

[Excerpt] Can the United States maintain its traditional position of economic leadership and one of the world's highest standards of living in the face of increasing global competition? Concerned observers cite the following negative news: lagging rates of productivity growth, non-competitive product quality in key industries, structural inflexibilities, and declining real wage levels and flat family earnings (Carnavale, 1991). Further, they offer a plethora of proposed solutions covering both broad public policies and more specific firm-level policies and practices.

Toward A Strategic Perspective Of Human Resource Management, Lee Dyer, Gerald W. Holder

Lee Dyer

[Excerpt] The current decade has brought yet another transformation in the practice and study of human resource management (HRM). The field, for better or for worse, has discovered, and indeed begun to embrace, a strategic perspective. The intellectual energy currently being invested in discussions of the nature, extent, and desirability of this development is a clear indication that something of significance is afoot. Understand it or not, believe in it or not, like it or not, strategy is well on its way to becoming an important paradigm behind much of what HR professionals do and think.

Working It Out, Ken Margolies

Ken Margolies

[Excerpt] Every steward knows that it’s almost always better to work out problems with management informally, without having to resort to filing a grievance. And ever steward knows that if you do have to file a grievance, it’s better to win it at the first step than have to go through the headaches that come with moving higher up the food chain, or, even worse, risk leaving things in the hands of an arbitrator.

Telecommunications 2004: Strategy, Hr Practices & Performance - Cornell-Rutgers Telecommunications Project, Rosemary Batt, Alex Colvin, Harry Katz, Jeffrey Keefe

Rosemary Batt

This national benchmarking report of the U.S. telecommunications services industry traces the tumultuous changes in management and workforce practices and performance in the sector over the last 5 years. This is a follow-up report to our 1998 study. At that time, when the industry was booming, we conducted a national survey of establishments in the industry. In 2003, we returned to do a second national survey of the industry, this time in a sector that was recovering from one of the worst recessions in its history.

Human Resource Management, Service Quality, And Economic Performance In Call Centers, Rosemary Batt, Lisa M. Moynihan

Rosemary Batt

This paper examines the relationship between human resource practices, operational outcomes, and economic performance in call centers. The study draws on a sample of 64 call centers serving the mass market in a large telecommunications services company. Surveys of 1,243 employees in the 64 centers were aggregated to the call center level and matched to archival data on service process quality, as measured by customer surveys; call handling time, revenues per call, and net revenues per call. Our path analysis shows that human resource practices emphasizing employee training, discretion, and rewards lead to higher service quality, higher revenues per call, …

The Indian Call Centre Industry: National Benchmarking Report Strategy, Hr Practices, & Performance, Rosemary Batt, Virginia Doellgast, Hyunji Kwon, Mudit Nopany, Priti Nopany, Anil Da Costa

Rosemary Batt

Report of the Global Call Centre Industry Project

The dramatic growth of the call center industry is a world-wide phenomenon, fueled by advances in information technologies and the precipitous decline in the costs of voice and data transmission over the last two decades. As part of this global industry, call centres in India have experienced spectacular growth in the last five years. They generate seventy percent of the revenues of the Indian Business Process Outourcing (BPO) industry, according to estimates by Mckinsey (www.nasscom.org).

This rapid growth has also brought managerial challenges in terms of recruitment,staffing, training, and retention of workers …