Human Resources Management Commons^™

Effects Of Management-Development Practices On Hospitality Management Graduates' Job Satisfaction And Intention To Stay, Edwin Torres, Howard Adler

Edwin Torres

Companies have long recognized the importance of training and developing their managers to prepare them for their short- and long-term careers. Formal management-development programs and other less formal means of management development abound in the hospitality industry. Therefore, one may ask whether the entry-level managers for whom these programs are designed perceive them to be effective. The present study explores management-development practices, procedures, and techniques, and their effects on job satisfaction and organizational commitment

Teaching Mindfulness For The Self-Care And Well-Being Of Student Affairs Professionals, Monica G. Burke, Lacretia Dye, Aaron W. Hughey

Lacretia Dye

The demands and expectations placed on student affairs professionals can lead to stress, burnout, a lack of work-life balance, and decreased job satisfactions. Accordingly, it could be beneficial to teach graduate students and professionals in student affairs graduate preparation program how to use self-care practices focusing on mindfulness. This mixed method study examined the perceptions of graduate students in a student affairs graduate preparation program regarding mindfulness training in increasing self-care, awareness, and coping strategies.

Exploring The Perceptions Of College Students On The Use Of Technology: What Do They Really Think?, Colleen Erin Marzilli, Julie A. Delello, Shelly Marmion, Rochell Mcwhorter

Julie Delello

Technology is an essential component of learning in the 21st century. College professors and teachers hold many assumptions regarding the technological skills and knowledge that students possess while learning in the college setting. In this article, we explore the technology use and attitudes towards technology held by students enrolled in a regional public university offering online, face-to-face and hybrid instruction. The understanding of students’ attitudes and use of technology is essential to informing the technological direction and pedagogical model in higher education from a traditional, lecture-based model to a technologically-enhanced model. In this study, we employed a mixed-method design using …

The Impact Of Supervisory Monitoring On High-End Retail Sales Productivity, Rajiv D. Banker, Seok-Young Lee, Gordon S. Potter, Dhinu Srinivasan

Gordon Potter

Based on a two-stage analysis of a panel of data on 12 outlets of a high-end retailer for 24 months, we investigate how the level of supervisory monitoring affects retail sales productivity. In the first stage, we use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to compute the relative productivity of retail outlets in using their labor and capital resources to generate store sales. In the second stage, we regress the logarithm of DEA scores on contextual variables to obtain consistent estimators of the impact of contextual variables on productivity (Banker and Natarajan in Operation Research 56:48-58, 2008). Contrary to agency theoretic prediction …

A Field Study Of The Impact Of A Performance-Based Incentive Plan, Rajiv D. Banker, Seok-Young Lee, Gordon S. Potter

Gordon Potter

Much management accounting research focuses on design of incentive compensation contracts. A basic assumption in these contracts is that performance-based incentives improve employee performance. This paper reports on a field test of the multi-period incentive effects of a performance-based compensation plan on the sales of a retail establishment. Analysis of panel data for 15 retail outlets over 66 months indicates a sales increase when the plan is implemented, an effect that persists and increases over time. Sales gains are significantly lower in the peak selling season when more temporary workers are employed.

Introduction: Bringing Jobs Back In: Toward A New Multi-Level Approach To The Study Of Work And Organizations, M. Diane Burton, Lisa E. Cohen, Michael Lounsbury

M. Diane Burton

In this paper, we call for renewed attention to the structure and structuring of work within and between organizations. We argue that a multi-level approach, with jobs as a core analytic construct, is a way to draw connections among economic sociology, organizational sociology, the sociology of work and occupations, labor studies and stratification and address the important problems of both increasing inequality and declining economic productivity.

An Empirical Analysis Of Continuing Improvements Following The Implementation Of A Performance-Based Compensation Plan, Rajiv D. Banker, Seok-Young Lee, Gordon S. Potter, Dhinu Srinivasan

Gordon Potter

Performance improvements subsequent to the implementation of a pay-for-performance plan can result because more productive employees self-select into the firm (selection effect) and/or because employees allocate effort to become more effective (effort effect). We analyze individual performance data for 3,776 sales employees of a retail firm to evaluate these alternative sources of continuing performance improvement. The incentive plan helps the firm attract and retain more productive sales employees, and motivates these employees to further improve their productivity. In contrast, the less productive sales employees’ performance declines before they leave the firm.

An Empirical Analysis Of Performance Impacts Resulting From Conversion To Franchise Operations, James Hesford, Mina Pizzini, Gordon S. Potter

Gordon Potter

Franchising is an important form of organizational control. Possible benefits of franchising include its ability to reduce agency costs that increase with costly monitoring, and provide incentives for the use of local information by onsite managers. However, these benefits may come at a cost, as franchisees may reduce quality by choosing to free ride. While many studies have investigated the reasons for franchising, few studies have documented the impacts of franchising on unit level operating performance. Using time-series data from a number of lodging properties that were converted to franchisee control from company control, this study documents the performance impacts …

Inside Sales Force And Gender: Mediating Effects Of Intrinsic Motivation On Sales Controls And Performance, Anne Gottfried, Scott Ambrose

Scott C. Ambrose

Exploring The Perceptions Of College Students On The Use Of Technology: What Do They Really Think?, Colleen Erin Marzilli, Julie A. Delello, Shelly Marmion, Rochell Mcwhorter

Rochell McWhorter

Technology is an essential component of learning in the 21st century. College professors and teachers hold many assumptions regarding the technological skills and knowledge that students possess while learning in the college setting. In this article, we explore the technology use and attitudes towards technology held by students enrolled in a regional public university offering online, face-to-face and hybrid instruction. The understanding of students’ attitudes and use of technology is essential to informing the technological direction and pedagogical model in higher education from a traditional, lecture-based model to a technologically-enhanced model. In this study, we employed a mixed-method design using …

Leveraging Green Computing For Increased Viability And Sustainability, Dominick Fazarro, Rochell R. Mcwhorter

Rochell McWhorter

Greening of computing processes is an environmental strategy gaining momentum in the 21st century as evidenced by increased virtual communications. Because of the rising cost of fuel to travel to meetings and conferences, corporations are adopting sophisticated technologies that provide a “personal” experience for geographically disbursed colleagues to interact in real time. This article highlights several companies and academic professional organizations that utilize video conferencing, virtual classrooms, and virtual worlds to create digital spaces for collaboration. The article compares the impact of face-to-face collaboration that includes business travel expenses to the impact of the same activity in a virtual space. …

73-Cents? This Doesn’T Feel Like Progress, Jennifer W. Keil

Jennifer Keil

Faculty Opinion article in the Hamline Magazine, a publication of Hamline University.

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

Accounting Research In The Cornell Quarterly: A Review With Suggestions For Future Research, James W. Hesford, Gordon S. Potter

Gordon Potter

An analysis of accounting-related articles published in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly shows a shift from prescription to description, with an increasing use of scientific research methods. The authors found that the literature has examined the industry’s use of the Uniform System of Accounts, cost management, and management control systems, including the effects of nonfinancial measures and the balanced scorecard. Although a uniform system of accounts offers consistency, it may limit a hotel manager’s ability to match costs with departmental revenues. Budgeting and capital budgeting are particularly difficult issues for the hospitality industry, due to the fact that most hotels involve …

Association Of Nonfinancial Performance Measures With The Financial Performance Of A Lodging Chain, Rajiv D. Banker, Gordon S. Potter, Dhinu Srinivasan

Gordon Potter

A test of nonfinancial measures used as part of a management-incentive program by a U.S.-based, full-service hotel chain found that improvements in the nonfinancial measures were followed shortly by increases in revenue and profit. The two nonfinancial measures are customer satisfaction as measured by guests’ comment card indications of likelihood to return and level of complaints. The lag between the nonfinancial measures and changes in revenue and operating profit was six months in this case. While the test applies directly to that one chain, the lesson is important to the rest of the hotel industry.

An Empirical Examination Of The Impacts From Termination Of A Performance-Based Incentive Plan, Rajiv D. Banker, Seok-Young Lee, Gordon S. Potter, Dhinu Srinivasan

Gordon Potter

This paper reports on the financial impacts from the termination of a pay for performance plan for the salesforce at a retail establishment. Using monthly panel data spanning more than eight years for 15 outlets of a major retailer, this study documents that store-level sales and operating profits decrease after the incentive plan is terminated. Individual performance data are then investigated to help identify the role of effort and selection effects in explaining the documented decrease. The analysis of the individual employee sales data reveals that virtually all of the declining store level sales can be explained by selection effects.

In The Hands Of Employees, Dow Scott, M Reilly, J Andrzejewski

Dow Scott

No abstract provided.

Challenges And Opportunities In Healthcare Volunteer Management: Insights From Volunteer Administrators, Sean Rogers Ph.D., Carmen M. Rogers, Karen D. Boyd

Sean Edmund Rogers

Volunteer administrators from 105 hospitals in five states in the northeast and southern United States provided open-ended survey responses about what they perceived to be the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing healthcare volunteer management. Taken together, these 105 hospitals used a total of 39,008 volunteers and 5.3 million volunteer hours during a 12-month period between 2010 and 2011. A qualitative content analysis of administrator responses suggests that primary challenges include volunteer recruitment and retention, administrative issues, and operational difficulties brought about by the current economic crisis. Key opportunities include more explicitly linking the volunteer function to hospital outcomes and …

Strategic Human Resource Management Of Volunteers And The Link To Hospital Patient Satisfaction, Sean E. Rogers Ph.D., Kaifeng Jiang, Carmen M. Rogers, Melissa Intindola

Sean Edmund Rogers

This article uses strategic human resource management theory to consider the ways in which volunteers can potentially enhance hospital patient satisfaction. Results of a structural equation modeling analysis of multi-source data on 107 U.S. hospitals show positive associations between hospital strategy, volunteer management practices, volunteer workforce attributes, and patient satisfaction. Although no causality can be assumed, the results shed light on the volunteer–patient satisfaction relationship and have important implications for hospital leaders, volunteer administrators, and future research.

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 …