Do family resources matter? Educational attainment during transition in Poland*

We analyse the relationship between family background and children's educational attainment in the 1990s in Poland. If parental poverty affects children's educational prospects, the increase in social inequalities observed in the Polish transition process will be transmitted between generations. We apply an ordered probit model of educational attainment on longitudinal data from the Polish Labour Force Survey. Surprisingly, parents’ income and their labour market status have only a weak impact on children's education. Parents’ schooling, however, is strongly related to children's, and so are household structure, city size, and region of residence. We conclude that, if transmission of inequality takes place between generations, this seems to be primarily caused by the inheritance of human capital rather than by pure wealth effects.     

Beyond the boundaries of AsiaPacific area studies

The peculiarly American study of the ‘non-Western’ world—going under the rubric of interdisciplinary ‘area studies’—is in crisis. Its origins date back to the postwar and Cold War period and may be best understood as a political and policy-driven scholarly endeavor that flourished in the 1960s, 1970s and well into the 1980s. There have been many critiques from both within and outside the field. This article discusses the impacts of major globalizing trends on the field as well as new directions for the future. It focuses on the ‘Moving Cultures’ project of the School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Hawai'i¹ that was part of a larger Ford Foundation's initiative to revitalize area studies. This ongoing project utilizes computer-based and other interactive technologies to link students and classrooms across the Pacific divide as part of a pedagogy intending to decolonize area studies. The promises and perils of technology as a beacon for the future of area studies is critically assessed.     

The influence of political skill on the acceptance of foreign nationals at the home country organization: an examination of cultural stigmatization

The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of the four dimensions of political skill (i.e. social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability and apparent sincerity) on the relationship between the cultural stigmatization of a foreign national and their level of acceptance by headquarter personnel as measured by the frequency of interaction. Grounded in self-congruity theory, we examine the dynamics involved in overcoming various stigmatizing marks of foreign nationals as they interact in a home country organization environment. Implications for practitioners are consequently discussed.     

Die neuen Elterngeld-Komponenten: Will money trump gender?

Empirical evidence on couples’ decision making has shown that the partners’ sharing of resources (particularly of time and money) is driven by their respective bargaining positions and gender role behaviour. Against the background of an asymmetric specialisation risk carried by the person that takes care responsibilities, we discuss the potential effects that the recently proposed extensions of the German parental leave system, particularly the “ElterngeldPlus” and “Partnerbonus”, may have on the partners’ work division and their individual welfare levels in the long run.     

Developmental network structure and support: gendered consequences for work–family strain and work–parenting strain in the Australian mining industry

Developmental networks enhance career success through the support received by the protégé via the network structure. This paper extends developmental network research by exploring the extent to which strain is associated with developmental network structure and support in the Australian mining industry, a highly volatile and unique context. Our research tests the popular notion of ‘the more support you get, the better’ which is in need of further exploration in the developmental networks literature particularly in specific work contexts with strain (vs. success variables) as outcomes. Results indicate that bigger, broader networks with more career, psychosocial and role modelling support are not always beneficial for protégés in this context. A smaller network with a broader range of developers is associated with reduced work–parenting strain, but not work–family strain. Increased career support reduced work–family strain, but this was not the case for increased psychosocial support and role modelling support. Further, gender moderated the relationship between psychosocial support and work–family strain possibly due to token group effects.     

Evaluation of an intervention on socio cultural communication skills of international nurses

International nurses face a myriad of challenges in their transition, adaptation, and integration into the U.S. health care environment. This pilot intervention study examined socio-cultural competence regarding communication in a sample of international nurses working in two community hospitals in southern Nevada. Significant improvement in communication behaviors of the sampled international nurses with regard to socio-cultural skills of communication after the workshop intervention were not found. Similarly, there were no remarkable differences in standardized patient comments for most items on the checklist. However, the sampled international nurses demonstrated some highly desirable qualities such as being very personable, caring, and compassion that appeared to lay a foundation for an effective nurse-patient relationship.     

The role of operational flexibility in the expansion of international production networks

Volatile factor cost developments urge manufacturing firms to increase production efficiency by building up facilities in multiple countries. Differing from previous work that examines the quality of individual locations for investment, the study evaluates the net present value, the growth option value, and the operational flexibility value of the existing production network to predict the establishment of a new site. The results on a sample of 352 German manufacturing firms suggest that the direction, uncertainty, and diversity of labor cost movements in the extant locations influence the propensity to set up a new production subsidiary. Analyzing the international production network after the expansion shows that the new location increases the value of the network regarding these dimensions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Supply-chain corporate venturing through acquisition: Key management team retention

Acquisitions are often used as a way to engage in corporate venturing. The value of these ventures tends to reside in the knowledge and capabilities of the key management team members who have and maintain key inter-organizational relationships. Because their knowledge and/or relationships may be tacit and therefore difficult to transfer, retaining the key managers in the acquired organization is often a critical issue for the human resource management of the acquiring organization. They are also frequently thought to be critical elements in the future performance in global supply chains and therefore, should be a key concern of human resource management after the acquisition has been culminated. Using a unique dataset of corporate acquisitions in supply-chains, we examine how the development of the psychological contract elements affects retention of critical key global managers. We find that higher retention of the key management team members leads to higher performance after acquisition. We also find that the development of the psychological contract has a positive impact on the retention of key managers with global supply-chain relations.