An International Investigation of Problem‐Solving Performance in the Semiconductor Industry*

Using a unique survey of engineers in major semiconductor companies located in Japan, South Korea, and the United States, this article analyzes how a firm's human resource (HR) system (i.e., practices that structure work, develop skills, and reward performance) and knowledge system (i.e., information access, sharing and control) are related to the problem‐solving performance of engineers. Because of the short product market life cycles in the semiconductor industry, expeditious problem solving is an important performance goal. Therefore, this article examines the performance of engineers in terms of the time it takes them to solve problems in the context of their firms' HR and knowledge systems. It was anticipated during this study that externally oriented organizational systems, which support individual career performance and mobility (an externally oriented HR system) and the use of private knowledge sources (an externally oriented knowledge system), would be associated with superior performance in terms of problem‐solving speed. The findings support this hypothesis and demonstrate the importance of externally oriented HR systems and at the same time suggest the surprising insignificance of the orientation of the knowledge systems. These findings are applicable to engineers in the sample from the United States, whereas the findings for the Korean and Japanese engineers are inconclusive. International variation is found where the U.S. engineers work under the most externally oriented and the Japanese engineers under the least externally oriented systems, and the Korean engineers fall in between. The findings of this article suggest that when constructing a work environment for new product development, managers should take into account how the underlying components of their organizational systems contribute to an internal or external focus, and how this orientation may influence performance.     

‘When the Going Gets Tough’ . . . : Recession and the Resilience of Workplace Partnership

Drawing on longitudinal research in an engineering multinational corporation, this article considers the resilience of workplace partnership under conditions of retrenchment. In line with extant literature, the twin influences of trade union power and competitive strategy are seen to significantly shape the durability of partnership. Beyond these determinants, trust and managerial skill and political sensitivity are deemed important moderators. The findings nonetheless suggest that the favourable alignment of these factors may not represent a sufficient bulwark in those situations where the axis of partnership is local, within the context of otherwise centrally coordinated industrial relations.     

Appropriate statistical methodology for testing the efficiency of betting markets involving spread and totals

This paper compares the accuracy of commonly used tests of market efficiency and provides a recommendation for future research.     

Towards Economic Literacy

Following Fred Hankins's initial article on the approach to economics teaching in schools, two educational specialists involved in the 14—16 Project for school economics curricula, outline their approach to the fostering of economic literacy.     

Labour hoarding in a disequilibrium model of the Dutch labour market

Summary This paper presents a method to integrate labour hoarding into a disequilibrium model of the labour market. Disequilibrium indicators for the labour market that include labour hoarding are constructed. These indicators, being important determinants of policy multipliers with respect to employment, are found to be less volatile than the corresponding disequilibrium indicators for the goods market which are available from business surveys. The lower volatility reflects the role of labour hoarding as a buffer between actual and efficient employment levels. Our results indicate that labour hoarding in Dutch enterprises ranges from a minimum of 0.5 per cent of employment in early 1985 to a maximum of 7.0 per cent in 1975. Furthermore, the paper pays special attention to the modelling of mismatch unemployment and to the simulation results of an empirical disequilibrium macromodel of the Dutch economy.The authors thank M.M.G. Fase and two anonymous referees for their useful comments.     

Obstacles to Federal Tax Reform: An Exploratory Inquiry Into the Fiscal Attitudes of a Small Group of Taxpayers

A bstract . An exploratory inquiry was conducted to identify legislative goals of Washington-based tax reformers and to learn bow a small group of taxpayers (n = 54) from various socio-economic backgrounds felt about some of these goals. On a general level most informants claimed they supported elimination of tax loopholes. However, on a more specific level informants tended not to see any tax provision they used to avoid taxes as a "loophole," According to these semi-structured conversations, these taxpayers held no allegience to any particular principle of tax equity or tax justice except that, believing that other taxpayers engage widely in avoiding taxes, they are anxious to lose no importunity to do so.     

Beyond third party role: Disputes and managerial intervention

This article reviews the research findings on managerial third party intervention and the factors that affect role choice. It explores the implications of research findings and advocates using a political approach to investigate the ways that managers enter into disputes, both directly and indirectly, and through such roles as conflict orchestrators. It calls for reexamining the assumptions that underlie this research and for focusing on the process of defining conflicts, uncovering coalitions and networks of relationships, and linking third party intervention to the ideology that underlies organizational disputes.