Human Resources Management Commons^™

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, …

Social Dumping As Marketization: Management Whipsawing In Europe’S Auto Industry, Ian Greer, Marco Hauptmeier

Ian Greer

[Excerpt] The focus of this paper is one slow-burning change in the organization of capitalism in Europe, marketization (Greer and Doellgast 2013, Hauptmeier 2011). We argue that a specific species of marketization, management whipsawing, is causing social dumping in the automotive sector. By management whipsawing we mean the staging of economic competition by large corporations with several production units in a way that extracts labor concessions by pitting local workers against each other in contests for investment and production. Multinational companies (MNC) were the first movers and developed various management whipsawing practices; however, the term was also used historically to …

Organized Industrial Relations In The Information Economy: The German Automotive Sector As A Test Case, Ian Greer

Ian Greer

This paper explores the effect of the information economy on industrial relations through the lens of the restructuring of German automotive sector. Historically, this sector has generated important insights about national “models” and the political economy of work. I argue that vertical disintegration has created new market-mediated boundaries that have undermined existing patterns of organized industrial relations.

Political Entrepreneurs And Co-Managers: Labour Transnationalism At Four Multinational Auto Companies, Ian Greer, Marco Hauptmeier

Ian Greer

This paper examines labour transnationalism within four multinational automakers. In our sample, we find different forms of labour transnationalism, including transnational collective bargaining, mobilisation, information exchange and social codes of conduct. We explain these differences through the interaction between management and labour in the context of the company structure; of particular importance are transnational coercive comparisons by management and the orientations of worker representatives as political entrepreneurs or co-managers. We conclude that, although intensified worker-side crossborder cooperation were not preventing wage-based competition in general (due to the lack of between-firm coordination), they have reshaped employment relations within these MNCs.

The Presence Of Equivalent Models In Strategic Management Research Using Structural Equation Modeling: Assessing And Addressing The Problem, Amy Henley, Christopher Shook, Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

The use of structural-equation modeling (SEM) in strategic-management research has grown dramatically during recent years. Although this statistical technique offers researchers a valuable tool for testing hypothesized models, certain challenges accompany the use of SEM. The current article examines one of these challenges, equivalent models, and its prevalence in strategy research. An equivalent model is an alternative model that fits the data equally well, thus producing the same covariance or correlation matrix but often differing significantly in theoretical interpretation. We examined the application of SEM in 109 strategic-management studies and found that equivalent models are a cause for concern in …

How Institutions And Business Strategies Affect Wages: A Cross-National Study Of Call Centers, Rosemary Batt, Hiroatsu Nohara

Rosemary Batt

This paper, drawing on a 2003-2006 establishment-level survey of 1,819 call centers in 15 countries, examines effects of industrial relations institutions and employer strategies on wage variation across coordinated, liberal, and emerging market economies. The authors find several contradictory patterns, which confirm theoretical predictions for some countries and contradict them for others, suggesting diverse institutional reactions to the emergence of a new economic activity. Consistent with prior research, Denmark, France, and Sweden exhibit patterns of low wage dispersion and no union wage premium, and the United States, Canada, and emerging market economies exhibit quite high levels of dispersion. Contrary to …

From Bureaucracy To Enterprise? The Changing Jobs And Careers Of Managers In Telecommunications Service, Rosemary Batt

Rosemary Batt

[Excerpt] In response to technological change and product market deregulation, longstanding U.S. telecommunications firms are radically restructuring their business strategies and organizations to improve competitiveness. While the popular and business press as well as academic researchers have focused attention on the dramatic changes occurring in the collapse of industry boundaries, megamergers, and the rise of new strategic alliances, they have largely ignored how these structural changes are profoundly altering the employment and careers of employees. In the Bell operating companies, where bureaucracy is seen as the major obstacle to competitiveness, managerial workers have become a significant target of reform because …

Groups, Teams, And The Division Of Labor — Interdisciplinary Perspectives On The Organization Of Work, Rosemary Batt, Virginia Doellgast

Rosemary Batt

The purpose of this chapter is to survey and critique this varied landscape of research on groups at work, drawing out common themes and selective weaknesses with the goal of suggesting a more synthetic and informed future agenda. Our discussion is not encyclopedic, but rather focused on three quite different research traditions: those based in psychology, in industrial relations, and in critical sociology. We outline the intellectual landscape of each case and highlight areas of agreement and disagreement. We argue that this project of cross-disciplinary theory building encounters substantial challenges, but is rich in potential. These traditions differ in their …

Human Resource And Employment Practices In Telecommunications Services, 1980-1998, Rosemary Batt, Jeffrey Keefe

Rosemary Batt

[Excerpt] In the academic literature on manufacturing, much research and debate have focused on whether firms are adopting some form of “high-performance” or “high-involvement” work organization based on such practices as employee participation, teams, and increased discretion, skills, and training for frontline workers (Ichniowski et al., 1996; Kochan and Osterman, 1994; MacDuffie, 1995). Whereas many firms in the telecommunications industry flirted with these ideas in the 1980s, they did not prove to be a lasting source of inspiration for the redesign of work and employment practices. Rather, work restructuring in telecommunications services has been driven by the ability of firms …

New York State Teacher Salary Report, Alexander Colvin, Sally Klingel, Simon Boehme, Susanne Donovan

Alexander Colvin

Teachers are central to the success of any education system and the salaries paid to teachers are among the most important issues for both school districts and the unions that represent teachers. For school districts, teacher salaries are a major com- ponent of district budgets. Teacher salary levels are also a crucial factor in attracting and retaining quality educators. This report presents data on teacher salary levels based on teacher contracts throughout New York State. In addition to reporting overall statewide salary levels, it also documents the wide variation in teacher salary levels across New York State. This New York …

The Liberating Consequences Of Creative Work: How A Creative Outlet Lifts The Physical Burden Of Secrecy, Jack Goncalo, Lynne Vincent, Verena Krause

Jack Goncalo

A newly emerging stream of research suggests creativity can be fruitfully explored, not as an outcome variable, but as a contributor to the general cognitive and behavioral responding of the individual. In this paper, we extend this nascent area of research on the consequences of creativity by showing that working on a creative task can contribute to feelings of liberation— feelings that can help people to overcome psychological burdens. We illustrate the liberating effects of creativity by integrating the embodied cognition literature with recent research showing that keeping a secret is experienced as a psychological and physical burden. While secrecy …

Remote Work: Examining Current Trends And Organizational Practices, Bradford Bell

Bradford S Bell

[Excerpt] Although remote work offers a number of potential benefits, it is not without risks and challenges. Companies can find it difficult to build a culture that is accepting and supportive of remote work. It can also be difficult to track exactly who is working remotely, particularly when remote work is adopted more informally, and to measure the business impact of these initiatives. Remote workers can face a number of personal and professional challenges. For instance, they may struggle for exposure and access to professional opportunities and there is the risk that those working outside the office can become socially …

E-Learning In Postsecondary Education, Bradford Bell, Jessica Federman

Bradford S Bell

Over the past decade postsecondary education has been moving increasingly from the class room to online. During the fall 2010 term 31 percent of U.S. college students took at least one online course. The primary reasons for the growth of e-learning in the nation's colleges and universities include the desire of those institutions to generate new revenue streams, improve access, and offer students greater scheduling flexibility. Yet the growth of e-learning has been accompanied by a continuing debate about its effectiveness and by the recognition that a number of barriers impede its widespread adoption in higher education.

Training And Personal Development, Thomas M. Cavanagh, Kurt Kraiger

Thomas M. Cavanagh

Narcissism In Organizational Contexts, W. Keith Campbell, Brian Hoffman, Stacy Campbell, Gaia Marchisio

Gaia Marchisio

The literature on narcissism in organizational contexts is reviewed. We begin by describing the context of narcissism and several relevant theoretical approaches to understanding it. We next describe research on narcissism in a range of organizational topics, from leadership to meta-organizational issues. We conclude by highlighting several reoccurring themes involving the role of narcissism in organizational contexts, with an emphasis on articulating directions for future research.

‘Campus Connect’: An Infosys Program To Develop India’S Information Technology Ecosystem, Arnoud De Meyer, Peter Williamson, Havovi Joshi, Christopher Dula

Arnoud De Meyer

This case is set in April 2013, and discusses the key elements that have contributed to the success of Infosys Ltd’s Campus Connect Program (CC) in developing India’s IT talent over the past eight years. The CC programme had been developed by Infosys in response to a growing belief among India’s IT industry majors that the large number of fresh graduates they were looking to recruit from engineering colleges were neither readily employable nor sufficiently industry-ready. The programme was envisaged to address this problem through an industry-academia initiative that would architect the education experience of engineering students. The goal was …

Rolls-Royce In Singapore: Harnessing The Power Of The Ecosystem To Drive Growth, Arnoud De Meyer, Peter Williamson, Havovi Joshi, Christopher Dula

Arnoud De Meyer

This case is set in April 2013, and discusses the key elements that have contributed to the successful operations of the Rolls-Royce Singapore Seletar Campus. The new facility has clearly succeeded in its objective to develop a talent ecosystem of engineering excellence, which would be a key factor in enabling the Group to significantly increase in size as the decade progresses. In 2006, Rolls-Royce had decided to expand its production capacity and set up operations outside the UK to meet growing customer demands and future growth. Asia was the Group’s largest and fastest growing market, with almost half of their …

From Maternalism To Accountability: The Changing Cultures Of Ma Bell And Mother Russia, James Shaw, Cynthia Fisher, W Randolph

James B Shaw

This article is about organizations changing from cultures of maternalism to cultures of accountability, and changing from environments of monopolistic security to competitive uncertainty. We examine these change processes using two seemingly diverse situations -- the American Telephone & Telegraph (At&T) divestiture and the Soviet Union under perestroika.

Quantine: Virtualising The Interview Process, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Adina Wong

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

The case is set in January 2012, and begins with Kenneth Yap, the founder of Quantine Pte Ltd, strategising on an effective growth plan for his company. Quantine was a job candidate pre-screening service provider, which specialised in asynchronous video interviews. In the three years since its inception, market forces and internal factors had necessitated a change in its original corporate strategy. The business had started out in 2009, focusing on competency assessments for testing technical skills for the information technology industry. It also provided aptitude tests for companies to assess candidate qualities such as numerical skills and the ability …

Strategic Dependence On The It Resource And Outsourcing: A Test Of The Strategic Control Model, Detmar Straub, Peter Weill, Kathy Schwaig

Kathy S Schwaig

Using resource dependency theory (RDT), this research analyzes how organizations control their information technology resources to improve organizational performance. According to RDT, organizations must manage their dependency on external organizations and limit external dependencies when resources are considered critical. The current study proposes and tests a portion of a Strategic Control Model positing that managers seek to control important, strategic resources in order to create value for the firm and to avoid dependency on external entities. Utilizing a research design that captured extensive quantitative data on the control of IT functions and services, the research team gathered 5 years of …

When Do Female-Owned Businesses Out-Survive Male-Owned Businesses? A Disaggregated Approach By Industry And Geography, Arturs Kalnins, Michele Williams

Michele Williams

Studies have invoked several theoretical perspectives to explain differences between female-owned businesses and male-owned businesses. Yet, few have considered the possibility that differential outcomes between female-owned businesses and male-owned businesses vary from setting to setting, an insight that we derive by combining social constructionism with feminist theory. We articulate hypotheses regarding the outcome of business survival duration based on this insight. Then, using a dataset of one million Texan proprietorships, we test these hypotheses by estimating separate gender effects for many individual industries and geographic areas. We find that female-owned businesses consistently out-survive male-owned businesses in many industries and areas.

Cheating On Online Assessment Tests: Prevalence And Impact On Validity, Thomas M. Cavanagh

Thomas M. Cavanagh

Job Interview Essentials, Matt Mcginniss

Matt McGinniss

Why should we hire you? How do you handle pressure? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Why do people get nervous during job interviews when they’re asked questions like these? The answer is simple. People feel nervous because they know they’re being judged. They’re being judged on their personality, their body language, the logic behind their responses and the quality of their clothes. This is why extensive preparation before a job interview and the implementation of strategic answers is vital for your chances of success.

Empirically Derived Competency Profiles For Australian Business Graduates And Their Implications For Industry And Business, Denise Jackson, Elaine Chapman

Denise Jackson

Two hundred and eleven Australian employers were surveyed to produce a set of business graduate competency profiles which accurately reflect the current needs of Australia employers. Three distinct clusters (or ‘types’) of graduates were identified: the ‘Manager’, ‘People Person’ and ‘Business Analyst’. They provide an overview of the required balance of cognitive and affective competencies important in the modern Australian business graduate. The preferred ‘types’ align with recent literature in the area of employability skills and historical research on managerial competencies. Desired competency profiles did not differ significantly across a range of background and demographic characteristics or business activity/work area …

Maintaining Momentum: The Challenge Of A Workplace Physical Activity Program To Sustain Motivation And Activity, Pascal Scherrer, Nadine Henley, Lynnaire Sheridan, Ruth Sibson, Maria Ryan

Maria M Ryan

Physical inactivity is one of the major contributors to ill health and, hence, productivity costs in Australia. While the workplace is increasingly recognised as an appropriate site for promoting healthy behaviour, the effectiveness of workplace physical activity programs remains to be demonstrated, particularly with regards to participants’ motivation to achieve sustained positive physical activity behaviour change. This exploratory study examined how participation in the Global Corporate Challenge (GCC) affected participants’ motivation to sustain regular physical activity. The GCC is a commercially operated four-month program based on the 10,000 steps-a-day concept. Three distinct phases in terms of participant motivation were identified …

Entrepreneurial Motivation, Scott Shane, Edwin Locke, Christopher Collins

Christopher J Collins

Recent research on entrepreneurship has focused largely on macro-level environmental forces. Although researchers adopting this focus have rightly criticized much of the existing empirical research on the role of human motivation in entrepreneurship, we believe that the development of entrepreneurship theory requires consideration of the motivations of people making entrepreneurial decisions. To provide a road map for researchers interested in this area, we discuss the major motivations that prior researchers have suggested should influence the entrepreneurial process, as well as suggest some motivations that are less commonly studied in this area. In addition to outlining the major reasons for exploring …

Contemporary Issues In Employment Relations—A Roundtable, David Lewin, Adrienne Eaton, Thomas Kochan, David Lipsky, Daniel Mitchell, Paula Voos

David Lewin

For the 2006 LERA research volume, leading scholars were assembled in a roundtable for the purpose of eliciting their views on key contemporary industrial relations issues. The roundtable members were Adrienne E. Eaton, professor and director of labor extension in the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations; Thomas A. Kochan, the George M. Bunker Professor of Management and director of the Institute for Work and Employment Research in the MIT Sloan School of Management; David B. Lipsky, the Anne Evans Estabrook Professor of Dispute Resolution and former dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University; …

O*Net's National Perspective On The Greening Of The World Of Work, Erich Dierdorff, Jennifer Norton, Christina Gregory, David Rivkin, Phil Lewis

Erich C. Dierdorff

No abstract provided.

Do Economics Departments With Lower Tenure Probabilities Pay Higher Faculty Salaries?, Ronald Ehrenberg, Paul Pieper, Rachel Willis

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

The simplest competitive labor market model asserts that if tenure is a desirable job characteristic for professors, they should be willing to pay for it by accepting lower salaries. Conversely, if an institution unilaterally reduces the probability that its assistant professors receive tenure, it will have to pay higher salaries to attract new faculty. Our paper tests this theory using data on salary offers accepted by new assistant professors at economics departments in the United States during the 1974-75 to 1980-81 period, along with data on the proportion of new Ph.D.s hired by each department between 1970 and 1980 that …

The Impact Of Retirement Policies On Employment And Unemployment, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] This paper has focused on the impact of retirement policies on the level and distribution of employment and unemployment. All of the policies discussed, except for early retirement provisions in privately negotiated collective bargaining contracts were seen to have adverse effects on the level and distribution of employment. Hence, the paper illustrates the more general point that policies designed to promote one social goal may well detract from achieving other goals and suggests that more explicit attention should be given to the employment effects of social programs and legislation prior to their adoption.