EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY: POLICY AND MEASUREMENT PARADIGMS

Abstract Equality of opportunity is a widely accepted principle of distributive justice and it is the leading idea of most political platforms in several countries. According to this principle, a society might institute policies that secure an equal distribution of the means to reach a valuable outcome among its members. Once the set of opportunities have been equalized, which particular opportunity, the individual chooses from those open to her, is outside the scope of justice. Ex ante inequalities, and only those inequalities, should be eliminated or compensated for by public intervention. The recent literature on the opportunity egalitarianism often merges these questions introducing two different economic issues. On one side the design of a public policy intended to implement the equality of opportunity view and on the other side the problem of measuring the degree of opportunity inequality in a society. We describe the basic setting and assumptions of some different approaches derived by Roemer’s algorithm for public policy and then we discuss some theoretical and empirical studies to separate and test alternative paradigms on the measurement of inequality of opportunity. Accordingly, an extended critique on the causality issue on policies and measurements is taken into account.     

A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between Procedural Justice and Distributive Justice: Implications for Justice Research

Although there are many studies that utilize the constructs of procedural and distributive justice, this research tends to ignore the implications of the bivariate relationship between the two constructs. The stronger the relationship between the two constructs, the more problematic ignoring this relationship becomes. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the relationship between procedural and distributive justice. We also conducted an initial assessment of extent to which the relationship between procedural and distributive justice was context sensitive. Finally, a series of methodological moderators was evaluated. Results indicated that the relationship between procedural and distributive justice is strong (= .64) across all studies. However, this relationship was moderated by research context, and even within research context, there was substantial evidence of variability. The results of the meta-analysis were discussed in terms of implications for theory, research methods, and construct measurement in justice research.     

Measuring workplace internationalization: incorporating self-reported measures of international engagement

This paper constructs a multi-criterion index to assess the degree of workplace internationalization in Canadian workplaces in a major nationally representative dataset – the Workplace and Employee Survey. The measure, referred to as the degree of workplace internationalization (DWI) index, is designed to capture an inclusive representation of internationalization consistent with globalization. It is made up of two parts: an observed measurement component and a self-reported component. The observed measurement component is the sum of two ratios: ‘foreign sales to total sales’ and ‘foreign ownership to total ownership’. The self-reported component is the summed result of two scale measurements: ‘importance of international competition’ and ‘importance of expanding into new geographic markets’. The value-added of the DWI index is the self-reported component, which integrates the consequences (importance of international competition) and opportunities (importance of expanding into new geographic markets) of globalization. The index is developed and verified in three stages. The first describes an effort to ensure measurement validity. The second stage examines the index's measurement reliability by subjecting the DWI index to statistical tests common to psychometric theory of index building. In the third stage, the index is decomposed into an observed measurement component and a self-reported component. In separate tests, these components, along with the DWI index as a whole, are regressed against two sets of measures with known relationships with internationalization: the propensity to innovate, and the use of conceptual training programmes. The main result is that the index as a whole serves as the better proxy of workplace internationalization. Finally, it is argued to be an improvement on existing measures of internationalization.     

Justice served: Mitigating damaged trust stemming from supply chain disruptions

This research examines the mitigation of damaged trust stemming from supplier-induced disruptions. We used the critical incident technique on 302 buying firms in China to capture two (one successful, one unsuccessful) supplier-induced disruptions (yielding a total of 604 incidents) to test our theorizing grounded in justice theory. We find evidence that different aspects of trust damage (ability, benevolence, and integrity) can be mitigated through the supplier's selective use of appropriate justice approaches (procedural, interactional, or distributive justice), which, in turn, foster relationship continuity intentions. Within this realm, we make a number of contributions. First, we find that procedural justice is the most effective mechanism (followed by distributive justice and interactional justice) to recoup the damage to buyers’ trust in the suppliers’ ability, benevolence, and integrity. Second, we find that mitigating damaged ability is the most powerful precursor (followed by recuperating damaged integrity) for locking in future business. Conversely, the mitigation of damaged benevolence is not found to affect future business intentions. Third, our post hoc results suggest that disruptions and consequent mitigation efforts pose relational threats as well as opportunities—yet the “double-edged” nature is affected by the “base” level of trust (i.e., the trust level prior to the disruption). Broadly, our study suggests that suppliers can overcome the negative relational repercussions of disruptions (that they caused) by employing well-developed, but nuanced, mitigation efforts and, in doing so, repair, solidify or even enhance the relationships.     

International human resource management: a North American perspective,a thematic update and suggestions for future research

This research explores the direct influence of pay referents and procedural justice on pay satisfaction, job satisfaction and organization satisfaction, and the mediating role of these three aspects of satisfaction between forms of justice and unionization propensity. To test the importance and directions of these relations, we used a LISREL-type structural equation model. The findings showed that the three equity referents of organizational justice (internal, external and individual) are linked to pay satisfaction, and that distributive justice is a better predictor of pay satisfaction than procedural justice perceptions. In contrast, procedural justice is a better predictor of organizational satisfaction and job satisfaction than are distributive justice perceptions. The final model suggests that job satisfaction and organization satisfaction significantly influence propensity to join a union compared with organizational justice perceptions. The paper also specifies the limitations of the study and its practical implications, and makes suggestions for future research.     

Contextualizing the subjectivist-objectivist debate in entrepreneurship using engineering,art, craft,and bricolage

The debate regarding the degree to which opportunities and resources are social constructions risks stagnation because it is difficult to argue that opportunities are either entirely constructed or entirely objective. In this paper we seek to contribute to this debate by introducing some overlooked aspects of the work of Lévi-Strauss (1962) as they relate to the discussion of entrepreneurial opportunities and resources. A categorization scheme of entrepreneurs based on Lévi-Strauss’ categories of art, craft, engineering and bricolage can be used to help differentiate the ways in which entrepreneurs view opportunities and resource acquisition, and how those views impact entrepreneurial action and ultimately entrepreneurial success. This contrasts with the more traditional entrepreneurship literature, which views opportunities as objective phenomena and opportunity identification and exploitation as completely rational.     

Rated to exhaustion? Reactions to performance appraisal processes

Performance appraisal systems are a popular tool within organisations to enhance employee commitment and productivity. This paper examines the consequences of three aspects of a performance appraisal system (distributive justice, procedural justice and the performance rating) on the level of emotional exhaustion reported by employees in a large public sector research organisation.     

National skill-creation systems and career paths for service workers: hotels in the United States,Germany and the United Kingdom

Creating sufficient opportunities for individuals to develop their capabilities and earn a living wage is one of the central challenges facing all countries. However, some types of vocational education and training (VET) institutions may be more effective than others in promoting the development of career-enhancing ‘transferable’ skills. In order to investigate the links between national skill-creation systems and individual career paths, this study focuses on three countries with very different VET systems: the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. The comparison is based on closely matched samples of three- and four-star hotels. The results suggest that individual career development and outcomes, such as wages and turnover rates, are strongly influenced by the interplay of three key elements – the breadth, relevance to employment and degree of standardization – of national initial VET systems. Our analysis identifies strengths and weaknesses of the different systems and key lessons for improvement.     

Efficiency of online football betting markets

This paper evaluates the efficiency of online betting markets for European (association) football leagues. The existing literature shows mixed empirical evidence regarding the degree to which betting markets are efficient. We propose a forecast-based approach for formally testing the efficiency of online betting markets. By considering the odds proposed by 41 bookmakers on 11 European major leagues over the last 11 years, we find evidence of differing degrees of efficiency among markets. We show that, if the best odds are selected across bookmakers, eight markets are efficient while three show inefficiencies that imply profit opportunities for bettors. In particular, our approach allows the estimation of the odds thresholds that could be used to set profitable betting strategies both ex post and ex ante.     

How employee perceptions of HR policy and practice influence discretionary work effort and co-worker assistance: evidence from two organizations

Drawing on social identity theory and organizational justice research, we model the impact of employee perceptions of human resource (HR) policies and practices on two important outcome variables – discretionary work effort (DWE) and co-worker assistance (CWA). Results based on 618 full-time employees in two organizations show that HR practices are positively related to procedural and distributive justice and that organizational identification mediates the relationship between procedural and distributive justice and DWE and CWA, respectively. Distributive justice is also shown to have direct effects on the two outcome variables suggesting the relevance of a social exchange perspective as a complement to social identity explanations. Implications for research and practice are briefly discussed.     

Educational presorting and occupational segregation

This article concentrates on the measurement of both occupational and educational segregation between men and women of the Dutch labour force. The majority of studies which have been conducted in this area are rather one-sided, concentrating on occupational segregation only. However, occupational segregation can be split into three components. The first component concerns presorting as a consequence of the different educational choices made by boys and girls. The second component concerns postsorting (given their educational status), as a result of the differing occupational choices and opportunities for promotion between men and women during their careers. If men and women with the same educational background are directed towards different occupations, then postsorting may add to the occupational segregation which was already induced by the earlier educational segregation. This kind of postsorting increases the gap between occupational and educational segregation. The third component, which we refer to as reintegration, is also a kind of postsorting but narrowing the gap between occupational and educational segregation. This occurs when men with a `male type' of education and women with a `female type' of education come together in one occupation. Given that educational segregation of the labour force is fixed in the short term, reintegration is the only effective, but probably difficult affirmative action program to reduce occupational segregation in the short term. More usual programs are ineffective and can even be counterproductive. A more detailed insight into these three components is relevant when choosing the policy instruments needed to achieve equal employment opportunities for men and women. The paper shows that from 1979 until 1993/1994 educational segregation increased, but occupational segregation decreased. Partly, this is explained by increased reintegration, but the main cause of these developments is a clear increase in presorting in education.     

Responsiveness of industry to eco‐efficiency improvements in the product chain: the case of Akzo Nobel11

Increasingly, arguments are being made concerning the benefits of a marriage between ecology and economy in life cycle management. This article provides insights into the business conditions under which market opportunities and eco‐efficiency improvements in the product chain can indeed go hand in hand. The study focuses on the differences in responsiveness of six different sub‐business units within the chemical company of Akzo Nobel to eco‐efficiency improvements in the product chain and how these differences can be explained. The comparative analysis shows the importance of the following three criteria: (i) the level of environmental pressure; (ii) the room for manoeuvre and (iii) the degree to which the environment can be used to obtain a competitive advantage. These criteria may also be valid for other companies. However, research needs to investigate whether additional factors (e.g. the culture of the company, its technological capabilities and market strength) also influence corporate environmental response. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Pay fairness and intrinsic motivation: the role of pay transparency

The fairness of managerial pay can be judged in terms of its distributive justice properties (‘is my pay fair when compared to others’) and its procedural justice properties (‘is my pay fairly determined’). While both types of justice have been studied extensively in the organizational literature, their relative importance in predicting work-related outcomes is still open to debate. In this paper, we provide field evidence that the relationship between pay justice and managers' intrinsic motivation is moderated by pay transparency, which is the extent to which managers know each other's pay levels. In a homogeneous sample of 139 Slovenian bank managers, we find that procedural justice is a better predictor of intrinsic motivation when pay transparency is low, and that distributive justice is a better predictor of intrinsic motivation when pay transparency is high. These findings that are congruent with fairness heuristic theory (Van den Bos, Lind, Vermunt and Wilke 1997a) suggest the importance of considering pay transparency for understanding and designing fair managerial pay systems.     

Variable population size issues in models of decentralized income redistribution

We examine the distributive implications of decentralized redistribution in a federation with mobility. From a regional perspective, redistribution involves variable populations. As distribution and population issues are normatively inseparable, regional social preferences should exhibit reasonable properties in both respects. Critical-level (CL) utilitarianism does so. In autarky, CL utilitarian governments implement an egalitarian solution. With free mobility some degree of inequality always proves optimal when critical levels are fixed. Egalitarianism can be reached as a Nash equilibrium if and only if average incomes are used as variable critical levels. Since this is unacceptable on efficiency grounds we conclude that under reasonable assumptions egalitarian outcomes do not survive in fiscal games.     

Positive psychological capital and emotional labor in Korea: the job demands-resources approach

This study examined the effect of organizational justice perception on service employees' positive psychological capital and the influence of positive psychological capital on surface and deep acting. Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model and the literature on positive work environment, the indirect effects of perceived distributive and procedural justice on surface and deep acting through service employees' psychological capital were hypothesized. Using data from 263 flight attendants of the largest airline company in South Korea, the results indicated that perceived distributive and procedural justice were positively related to service employees' psychological capital, which, in turn, fostered deep acting but not surface acting. Deep acting was negatively related to emotional exhaustion, while surface acting showed a positive relationship. Emotional exhaustion, in turn, increased turnover intention. This study offers contributions to our understanding of positive psychological capital and implications for emotional labor in service management. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

Structural Determinants of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Turnover Models

Using Meta-Analytical Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the relationships between structural determinants of job satisfaction and organizational commitment were investigated in the context of contemporary turnover models. Data for this study were obtained from nine empirical studies conducted under the direction of James L. Price and Charles W. Mueller at the University of Iowa. The results suggest that only three structural determinants (distributive justice, promotional chances, and supervisory support) are directly related to organizational commitment over and above their impact on job satisfaction. The effect size of these direct links, however, is small in that they are not detectable in smaller samples (e.g., n=244). On the other hand, most structural determinants are directly related to job satisfaction. The notable exception is the amount of pay employees received which is not related to either job satisfaction or organizational commitment. These findings and implications for future turnover research are discussed.     

The Compatibility of Laissez-faire With Distributive Justice

At least some of the more prominent proponents of laissezfaire advocate governmental intervention for the purpose of comprehensively and substantially redistributing income in order to achieve distributive justice. It is questionable, however, that a laissez-faire system would function in the way that is described by these same proponents if a leveling of income of the sort advocated were to be instituted. This is so because the postulates of human behavior on which the proper workings of the system are based would be rendered ineffectual as a consequence of such intervention. Indeed, if a system of laissez-faire is to work well, there is required a certain ethos which precludes significant intervention in the name of distributive justice.     

Autonomy of participation and ICT literacy in a self-directed learning environment (SDLE)

As web technologies gradually become versatile and more powerful, more flexible paths and opportunities are revealed for self-directed learning and online assessment. It is hoped officials and advocates recognize IT related certification programs (NSSB Recognizes First IT Certification Program 2002). The Internet and Computing Core Certification (IC^3®) certification program is designed for individuals to develop digital literacy skills, including fundamental computer and Internet use. The particular interest of the study is to explore the relative contributions of the Certification Recognition Program (CRP) and associated autonomy of participation and achieved literacy for internet computing & technology (ICT), as well as the interactive influences of the degree programs and grade levels. Five hundred and ninety six male undergraduates majoring in IT were invited to participate in the Certification Recognition Program for a calendar year. The certification recognition program covers a set of three standardized tests based on the IC^3® by Certiport^TM. The study found ICT literacy is predicated by the students’ autonomy of participation (AP) in the Certification Recognition Program (CRP), and SP was related to the grade level (GL) and the enrolled degree program (DP), indirectly affecting ICT literacy as a result of the transiting effect of AP.     

A Mathematical Programming Approach for Measuring Technical Efficiency in a Fuzzy Environment

A three stage approach is proposed to measure technical efficiency in a fuzzy environment. This approach uses the traditional data envelopment analysis framework and then merges concepts developed in fuzzy parametric programming (Carlsson and Korhonen, 1986). In the first stage, vague input and output variables are expressed in terms of their risk-free and impossible bounds and a membership function. This membership function represents the degree to which a production scenario is plausible. In the second stage, conventional efficiency measurement models (Banker, Charnes and Cooper, 1984; Deprins, Simar and Tulkens, 1984) are re-formulated in terms of the risk-free and impossible bounds and the membership function for each of the fuzzy input and output variables. In the third stage, technical efficiency scores are computed for different values of the membership function so as to identify uniquely sensitive decision making units. The approach is illustrated in the context of a preprint and packaging manufacturing line which inserts commercial pamphlets into newspapers.