Business Commons^™

A New Job For The '90s: The Productivity-Gainsharing Coordinator May Be The Answer To Improved Employee Productivity, Dow Scott, Steve Markham

Dow Scott

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Employee Age And Interpersonal Trust Within An Organizational Context, Dow Scott, Brian Cook

Dow Scott

No abstract provided.

Employment Testing: The U.S. Job Service Is Spearheading A Revolution, Robert M. Madigan, Dow Scott, Diana L. Deadrick, Jil A. Stoddard

Dow Scott

No abstract provided.

Selecting The Right Employee: Examining The General Validity Of Employee Testing Can Lead To Solid Recruitment, Dow Scott, Robert M. Madigan, Diana L. Deadrick

Dow Scott

No abstract provided.

Attaining Legitimacy By Employee Information In Annual Reports, Pamela Kent, Tamara Zunker

Tamara Zunker

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to provide evidence on the category, quantity and quality of voluntary employee-related information Australian listed companies disclose in their annual report. An explanation is also sought to determine whether companies adopt employee-related disclosures to legitimise their relationship with society. Voluntary adoption of corporate governance best practice recommendations is used as a measure of companies’ attempts to attain ex ante legitimacy. Media agenda setting theory is used as a measure of an attempt to gain legitimacy ex post following adverse publicity from the media. Design/methodology/approach – The annual reports of all companies with …

Attaining Legitimacy By Employee Information In Annual Reports, Pamela Kent, Tamara Zunker

Pamela Kent

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to provide evidence on the category, quantity and quality of voluntary employee-related information Australian listed companies disclose in their annual report. An explanation is also sought to determine whether companies adopt employee-related disclosures to legitimise their relationship with society. Voluntary adoption of corporate governance best practice recommendations is used as a measure of companies’ attempts to attain ex ante legitimacy. Media agenda setting theory is used as a measure of an attempt to gain legitimacy ex post following adverse publicity from the media. Design/methodology/approach – The annual reports of all companies with …

The Role-Based Performance Scale: Validity Analysis Of A Theory-Based Measure, Theresa M. Welbourne, Diane E. Johnson, Amir Erez

Theresa M. Welbourne, PhD

This study introduces a theory-based measure of employee performance (Role Based Performance Scale, RBPS) that is supported with results from a validation study using 10 data sets from six companies. In contrast to traditional, job-related measures of employee performance, we propose an alternative measure of performance based on role theory and identity theory. Because our results support the validity of the scale, we think that the instrument can be used for future research that requires a generalizable measure of performance. The scale demonstrates diagnostic properties that make it useful for practitioners as well as researchers.

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.

Group Incentives And Pay Satisfaction: Understanding The Relationship Through An Identity Theory Perspective, Theresa M. Welbourne, Daniel M. Cable

Theresa M. Welbourne, PhD

The goal of this paper is to develop a conceptual model based on identity theory to specify the relationship between group incentives and pay satisfaction. Pay satisfaction, as currently measured, does not include items that directly assess group-based rewards, therefore, any changes in pay satisfaction associated with group incentive implementation would be the result of some spillover effect. Identity theory is employed to model this effect by delineating how group incentives tap salient work-related roles; the theory also has implications for various behavioral consequences. The research described in this paper tests two hypotheses derived from the conceptual model. These hypotheses …

Protecting Employee Rights And Prosecuting Corporate Crimes: A Proposal For Criminal Cumis Counsel, Josephine Sandler Nelson

J.S. Nelson

Human Resource Practices, Knowledge-Creation Capability And Performance In High Technology Firms, Christopher J. Collins, Ken G. Smith, Cynthia Kay Stevens

Christopher J Collins

This study examines the relationship among key HR practices (i.e., effective acquisition, employee-development, commitment-building, and networking practices), three dimensions of knowledge-creation capability (human capital, employee motivation, and information combination and exchange), and firm performance. Results from a sample of 78 high technology firms showed that the three dimensions of knowledge creation interact to positively affect sales growth. Further, the HR practices were found to affect sales growth through their affect on the dimensions of knowledge-creation capability.

Diversity Management In Australia And Its Impact On Employee Engagement, Pat Skalsky, Grace Mccarthy

Grace McCarthy

Diversity, defined as differences relating to gender, ethnicity, age, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability or any other source of difference can have a major impact on employee engagement. In this article, the authors examine the results of a recent survey and uncover how diversity is managed in Australia.

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 …

The Evolution Of Strategic And Coordinated Bargaining Campaigns In The 1990s: The Steelworkers’ Experience, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Tom Juravich

Kate Bronfenbrenner

"With the refocusing of attention of the labor movement on organizing, an increasing number of scholars have been directing their research toward the nature and practice of current union organizing efforts. These scholars have begun updating a literature that had grown sorely out of touch with the organizing experience of America’s unions and have provided the foundation for a more sophisticated understanding of the organizing process. While we applaud this resurgence in organizing research, there has not been a comparable resurgence in research on collective bargaining…"

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 …

Internal Marketing: An Antidote For Macau's Labor Shortage, Sudhir Kale

Sudhir H. Kale

Gaming scholars the world over are in consensus about Macau's bright future as a gaming Mecca. The phenomenal growth in gaming facilities over the last three years has created an acute labor shortage in this Special Administrative Region of China. Moreover, around twenty additional gaming and hotel projects have been committed so far, all slated for completion in the next five years. Expansion on such massive scale will further intensify competition among employers to recruit and retain employees, particularly if the provincial government maintains its current restrictions on importing labor into the region. One, and arguably the only way to …

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.”

Is The Test Score Decline Responsible For The Productivity Growth Decline?, John H. Bishop

John H Bishop

[Excerpt] The test score decline between 1967 and 1980 was large (about 1.25 grade-level equivalents) and historically unprecedented. New estimates of trend in academic achievement, of the effect of academic achievement on productivity and of trend in the quality of the work force are developed. They imply that if test scores had continued to grow after 1967 at the rate that prevailed in the previous quarter century, labor quality would now be 2.9 percent higher and 1987 GNP $86 billion higher.

Some Thoughts On The Cost Effectiveness Of Graduate Education Subsidies, John H. Bishop

John H Bishop

[Excerpt] How much should doctorate training be subsidized? The answer proposed is, "Doctorate training should be subsidized to the extent and only to the extent that it produces externality or public benefits – i.e. benefits received by people other than the one receiving the diploma." This value judgment derives from three propositions: (1) In general, an adult knows better than anyone else what is best for himself; (2) the price (measured in both time and money) he is willing to pay for graduate education is the best measure of how much he values it relative to other offerings; and (3) …

On-The-Job Training Of New Hires, John H. Bishop

John H Bishop

This paper presents an analysis of a unique data set containing measures of the time devoted to training during the first three months on a job and the productivity consequences of that training. The major findings derived from the analysis of the data on new hire training may be summarized as follows.

In Search Of A Niche, John H. Bishop

John H Bishop

"As enrollment in secondary vocational education programs declines and employers re-evaluate the attributes needed for success in today’s job market, some observers of the U.S. education system have called for schools to limit – or even eliminate – the teaching of occupational skills. Does this mean employers don’t reward such training?"

Making Vocational Education More Effective For At-Risk Youth, John H. Bishop

John H Bishop

"Occupationally specific vocational training pays off for disadvantaged students, but only if graduates work in the jobs they were trained for. Implication: Vocational educators must help make sure that the skills they teach are used."

What We Know About Employer-Provided Training: A Review Of Literature, John H. Bishop

John H Bishop

While the importance of on-the-job training is recognized by everyone, it is a phenomenon that is very difficult to study. Most training is informal and hard to measure and its effects on productivity are even more difficult to quantify. An elegant theory explaining how the quantity of training is determined and who pays for and benefits from it has been available for more than a third of a century (Becker 1962). However, the absence of data on the key theoretical constructs of the theory--general training, specific training, informal training and productivity growth--means that the only predictions of the theory that …

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, …

The Evolution Of Strategic And Coordinated Bargaining Campaigns In The 1990s: The Steelworkers’ Experience, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Tom Juravich

Kate Bronfenbrenner

"With the refocusing of attention of the labor movement on organizing, an increasing number of scholars have been directing their research toward the nature and practice of current union organizing efforts. These scholars have begun updating a literature that had grown sorely out of touch with the organizing experience of America’s unions and have provided the foundation for a more sophisticated understanding of the organizing process. While we applaud this resurgence in organizing research, there has not been a comparable resurgence in research on collective bargaining…"

Worker Turnover And Part-Time Employment At Ups, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

Over the last ten years we have seen a dramatic increase in the utilization of part-time workers by the United Parcel Service (UPS). This increase has been coupled with a stunningly high turnover rate of 150 percent among these workers. This study documents the deteriorating work environment for part-time workers at UPS and finds that a lack of full-time opportunities, a pervasive pattern of management mistreatment, and an alarmingly high injury rate are the primary determinants of the high turnover rate.

Human Resources As A Source Of Competitive Advantage, Lee Dyer

Lee Dyer

[Excerpt] For business it's a tough world that's getting tougher. The reasons are familiar enough: global competition, deregulation, finicky and tough customers, concerned and demanding stockholders, and a dizzying pace of constant change. Rare indeed is the company which has found a comfortable niche in this chaotic world.

Crafting A Human Resource Strategy To Foster Organizational Agility: A Case Study, Richard A. Shafer, Lee Dyer, Janine Kilty, Jeffrey Amos, G. A. (Jeff) Ericksen

Lee Dyer

A decade ago, the CEO of Albert Einstein Healthcare Network (AEHN), anticipating a tumultuous and largely unpredictable period in its industry, undertook to convert this organization from one that was basically stable and complacent to one that was agile, “nimble, and change-hardy”. This case study briefly addresses AEHN’s approaches to business strategy and organization design, but focuses primarily on the human resource strategy that emerged over time to foster the successful attainment of organizational agility. Although exploratory, the study suggests a number of lessons for those who are, or will be, studying or trying to create and sustain this promising …

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.

Health Hazards Manual For Custodians, Janitors And Housekeepers, Nellie J. Brown

Nellie J. Brown, MS., C.I.H.

[Excerpt] We will look at the principal occupational health hazards and exposures themselves and some of the related issues. We will look closely at the chemical composition of cleaning products to see what components appear to be particularly hazardous, how you are exposed to them, and what you can do to minimize exposure.