"A players" or "A positions"? The strategic logic of workforce management

Companies simply can't afford to have "A players" in all positions. Rather, businesses need to adopt a portfolio approach to workforce management, systematically identifying their strategically important A positions, supporting B positions, and surplus C positions, then focusing disproportionate resources on making sure A players hold A positions. This is not as obvious as it may seem, because the three types of positions do not reflect corporate hierarchy, pay scales, or the level of difficulty in filling them. A positions are those that directly further company strategy and, less obviously, exhibit wide variation in the quality of the work done by the people who occupy them. Why variability? Because raising the average performance of individuals in these critical roles will pay huge dividends in corporate value. If a company like Nordstrom, for example, whose strategy depends on personalized service, were to improve the performance of its frontline sales associates, it could reap huge revenue benefits. B positions are those that support A positions or maintain company value. Inattention to them could represent a significant downside risk. (Think how damaging it would be to an airline, for example, if the quality of its pilots were to drop.) Yet investing in them to the same degree as A positions is ill-advised because B positions don't offer an upside potential. (Pilots are already highly trained, so channeling resources into improving their performance would probably not create much competitive advantage.) And C positions? Companies should consider outsourcing them--or eliminating them. We all know that effective business strategy requires differentiating a firm's products and services in ways that create value for customers. Accomplishing this requires a differentiated workforce strategy, as well.     

Hedge commitments and agency costs of debt: evidence from interest rate protection covenants and accounting conservatism

We provide large sample evidence that credible hedge commitments reduce the agency costs of debt and that accounting conservatism enhances hedge commitments. We examine 2,338 bank loans entered into by 263 mandatory derivative users that are contractually obligated by interest rate protection covenants, 709 voluntary derivative users, and 1,366 non-users. We show that loan contracts are more likely to include interest rate protection covenants when borrowers are less likely to maintain the hedge position once the financing is completed. We find that borrowers who credibly commit to hedge using these covenants significantly reduce their interest rates. While we do not find an average interest savings for voluntary derivative users, we do find a reduction in their loan rates when they practice conservative financial reporting. Our results suggest that accounting conservatism helps borrowers resolve shareholder-creditor conflicts by committing to maintain their hedge positions after completing debt financing.     

On the treatment of persons with disabilities in organizations: A review and research agenda

Human resource practitioners play a crucial role in promoting equitable treatment of persons with disabilities, and practitioner's decisions should be guided by solid evidence‐based research. We offer a systematic review of the empirical research on the treatment of persons with disabilities in organizations, using Stone and Colella's seminal theoretical model of the factors influencing the treatment of persons with disabilities in work organizations, to ask: What does the available research reveal about workplace treatment of persons with disabilities, and what remains understudied? Our review of 88 empirical studies from management, rehabilitation, psychology, and sociology research highlights seven gaps and limitations in extant research: (a) implicit definitions of workplace treatment; (b) neglect of national context variation; (c) missing differentiation between disability populations; (d) overreliance on available data sets; (e) predominance of single‐source, cross‐sectional data; (f) neglect of individual differences and identities in the presence of disability; and (g) lack of specificity on underlying stigma processes. To support the development of more inclusive workplaces, we recommend increased research collaborations between human resource researchers and practitioners on the study of specific disabilities and contexts, and efforts to define and expand notions of treatment to capture more nuanced outcomes.     

Service worker role in encouraging customer organizational citizenship behaviors

Assessment of the role of the individual service worker in encouraging customer organizational citizenship behaviors (customer OCBs) is the primary focus of this paper. The researchers investigate this topic empirically across three service contexts. Customer OCBs are voluntary, outside of the customer's required role for service delivery, which provide help and assistance and are conducive to effective organizational functioning. In this paper, commitment to the service worker is the strongest predictor of customer OCBs. Further, personal loyalty to the service worker serves as a partial mediator of the effects of perceived benevolence of the service worker and commitment to the service worker on customer OCBs. Finally, theoretical, managerial and future research implications are included.     

Alternative measurement approaches to consumer values: The list of values and the rokeach value survey

Two methods of measuring consumer values, the List of Values and the Rokeach Value Survey, are compared. Both involve some social desirability responding but both have convergent, discriminant, and empirical validity for consumer research. The List of Values may be preferable for some types of research because it detects more daily influence in people's lives and because it is simpler to administer.     

Discrimination in rental markets: Evidence from Norway

This paper examines discrimination in the rental housing market. We analyze a rich data set on rental contracts from Norway. We find that tenants born abroad pay a statistically significant and economically important premium for their dwelling units after controlling for a comprehensive set of apartment, individual and contract specific covariates. Moreover, we find that the premium is largest for tenants of African origin. Finally, Norwegians whose parents were born abroad also face a statistically significant and economically important rental premium that is directly comparable to the premium paid by tenants born abroad.     

Teenagers’ use of alternative shopping channels: A consumer socialization perspective

The consumer socialization (CS) perspective is applied to explore factors that influence a developing consumers’ use of different shopping channels—mall and Internet. The effects of channel involvement, access to funds, access to the channel, and socialization agent communication on adolescent shopping and intentions are examined using a high school student sample. Results indicate that involvement with a channel has a major influence on agent communication, time and money spent, and future intentions to shop in that channel. Agent communication was also found to influence shopping behaviors and intentions. Differences between channels are noted. Additional findings, implications, limitations, and future research directions are also presented.     

The Impact of Service Characteristics on the Switching Costs–Customer Loyalty Link

This research investigates the interrelationship between service characteristics and switching costs and makes two contributions to the service retailing literature: (1) As a means of better understanding the effectiveness of switching costs, the study suggests a two-dimensional typology of switching costs, including internal and external switching costs and (2) it reveals that the effect of these switching costs on customer loyalty is contingent upon four service characteristics (the IHIP characteristics of service). We carried out a meta-analytic review of the literature on the switching costs–customer loyalty link and created a hierarchical linear model using a sample of 1,694 customers from 51 service industries. Results reveal that external switching costs have a stronger average effect on customer loyalty than do internal switching costs. Moreover, we find that IHIP characteristics moderate the links between switching costs and customer loyalty. Thus, the link between external switching costs and customer loyalty is weaker in industries higher in the four service characteristics (as compared to industries lower in these characteristics), while the opposite moderating effect of service characteristics for the internal switching costs–loyalty link is noted.