New methods of evaluating physical demand at work areas

The manufacturer's requirement of increasing productivity results in the need to design work stations that are increasingly more effective and specialized. However, this procedure can bring about an overloading of the worker, a lack of motivation, and, consequently, a reduction in productivity.Ergonomics adapts the work station to the worker with the object of improving his welfare and satisfaction at his post. One aspect that this science concerns itself with is the evaluation of physical demands connected to productive tasks. Mechanical movements are also studied in order to perform tasks efficiently.We here propose a new method of physical demand analysis that determines the risk factor for muscular skeletal lesion. This method uses, as a base, the system of predetermined times, MTM-UAS. It includes a computer system that allows us to easily analyse the operations at a work station and generates charts similar to those of UAS, but, instead of times, it measures the quantity of mechanical work necessary for each movement.The information that the method provides can be used by different divisions within companies in making decisions about improvements at work stations.     

Convergence in OECD countries: technical change,efficiency and productivity

The aim of this study is to analyse labour productivity convergence in the OECD countries over the period 1975-90. A nonparametric frontier approach is used to calculate the Malmquist productivity index. By breaking it down, the contribution in the growth of labour productivity of technical progress, of changes in efficiency, and of the accumulation of inputs per worker are quantified. Unlike other studies, the results obtained show that technical change has worked against labour productivity convergence, since it has always been greater in the countries with higher labour productivity.     

Why some firms adopt telecommuting while others do not: A contingency perspective

Using a contingency perspective and data from 122 CEOs of Spanish firms, this paper examines what makes a firm likely to adopt telecommuting. We hypothesized that employer adoption of telecommuting would depend on organizational constraints (age and size of the firm), the international composition of the workforce, and the top executives' leadership style. In turn, we argue that firms adopting telecommuting would emphasize outcome‐based control systems. Our empirical evidence showed that telecommuting correlated with small organizational size, a high proportion of international employees, and variable compensation. A contingent reward leadership style at the top moderated the effects of firm age and internationalization on the adoption of telecommuting. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Supervisor and coworker support: a source congruence approach to buffering role conflict and physical stressors

The buffering effects of supervisor support on the stressor–strain relationship have proven elusive in prior research (Beehr, Farmer, Glazer, Gudanowski and Nair (2003), ‘The Enigma of Social Support and Occupational Stress: Source Congruence and Gender Role Effects,’ Journal of Occupational and Health Psychology, 8, 220–231). We built on emerging work on source congruence and conservation of resource theory to test a series of hypotheses intended to clarify these mixed findings. Using a sample of 768 employees from 45 organizations in North America, results from moderated regression analyses, showed that the effects of supervisor support on the stressor–strain relationship depended on source congruence. In accordance with our predictions, although we found buffering effects for the physical stressors–strain relationship, we found a reverse buffering effect for the role conflict–strain relationship. These differential buffering effects did not emerge when considering coworker support. We discuss the implications of our results for shedding light on the mixed evidence regarding buffering work stressors reported in prior research.     

Central Bank Independence and Private Investment in the Developing World

We argue that central bank independence (CBI) can raise private investment through signalling commitment to reform and suggest that such an effect might be larger in democracies where CBI can also limit populist access to economic policy-making. Random effects regressions on private investment behavior in a sample of 20 developing countries support these hypotheses.     

A Quasi-Malmquist Productivity Index

The Malmquist productivity index is based on distance functions, which are reciprocals of radial Debreu-Farrell efficiency measures, and which have a number of desirable properties. Linear programming techniques are frequently employed to calculate the efficiency measures. However these techniques can leave slacks, which constitute a non-radial form of inefficiency which is not incorporated into the analysis. Thus a radial efficiency measure overstates true efficiency, the reciprocal distance function understates the distance to the relevant efficient subset, and the Malmquist productivity index is adversely affected, although in an analytically indeterminate direction. This has led us to consider a new definition of one-sided efficiency, and to develop a new nonradial efficiency measure which incorporates all slacks on the selected side. Replacing conventional radial efficiency measures with our new non-radial efficiency measures generates what we call a quasi-Malmquist productivity index. We illustrate our quasi-Malmquist productivity index with an application to productivity change in Spanish banking.