Does Project Management Affect Business Productivity? Evidence From Australian Small to Medium Enterprises

A fundamental assumption of project management practice and research is that using project management to achieve organizational objectives improves organizational performance. However, there is little published research that directly questions this assumption. This paper tests the hypothesis that using project management increases the productivity of small to medium enterprises, using data from two longitudinal surveys of Australian businesses with less than 200 staff members. These data were used to create models of the relationship between productivity and business skills using binary logistic regression. The models demonstrate that project management has a significant impact on small to medium enterprise productivity.     

From immersion to intention? Exploring advances in prosocial storytelling

Little empirical work has explored the psychological processes triggered by immersive technologies and how they might lead to more effective desirable prosocial outcomes. Thus, the current study explores two different modalities for presenting 360 videos—YouTube and head-mounted display (HMD)—as strategies for engaging audiences with cause-related stories. Across three stories, using these technologies led to the highest levels of presence, but there was no association between presence and increased attitudes towards the story content. Only narrative engagement impacted prosocial attitudes towards the video content. Data suggest that regardless of the technology used, telling engaging narratives that increase the viewer's self-efficacy is key to behavioral intentions—immersive technologies help viewers feel closer to the physical location of the narrative, but not the narrative itself.     

Collective and individual voice: convergence in Europe?

This paper uses longitudinal survey data from Britain, Germany and Sweden to examine whether, as some researchers have suggested, there has been a convergence internationally towards individual forms of employee voice mechanism and, if so, to measure the extent and trajectory of change. The paper begins by examining the importance of the employee voice issue. It then reviews competing accounts of the utility of different forms of employee voice and their manifestations within different varieties of capitalism. It is hypothesized that there has been a general trend away from collective and towards individual voice mechanisms; this reflects the predominant trajectory of managerial practices towards convergence with the liberal market model. This hypothesis is largely rejected. The data showed only very limited evidence of directional convergence towards individual voice models in the three countries. Collective voice remains significant in larger organizations, and although it takes a wide range of forms that include but go beyond unions and works councils, this is a positive finding for proponents of those institutions.     

Governance Restructuring in Los Angeles and Toronto: Amalgamation or Secession?

Towards the end of the 1990s, a perplexing situation occurred in two large North American cities. In Toronto, Ontario, and Los Angeles, California, conservative political forces undertook to restructure the system of urban governance. While initiated by conservatives in both cases, in Toronto the result was consolidation; in Los Angeles secessionism is rampant. In both cases the political debate on amalgamation and secession is tied in with discourses on size, efficiency and form of urban government. In both cases, also, the shift from government to governance has been a central theme. This article investigates how local governance has changed in these two cities by comparing historical traditions of governance. Each city has a specific set of external relationships with other geographical and political scales and a set of characteristic internal contradictions. Internally, Los Angeles' tradition of splintered governance stands in contrast to Toronto's metropolitan governance model. Amalgamation and secession have been introduced as strategic options of governance restructuring in both cities in the late 1990s. Both (projected and realized) scalar changes of governance processes and institutions have been accompanied and characterized by social struggles and widespread political debate. The article outlines these debates and discusses the respective political alliances which have formed in both urban regions on the issue of amalgamation/secession. Vers la fin des années 1990, une situation troublante se produisit dans deux grandes villes d'Amérique du Nord: Toronto, en Ontario, et Los Angeles, en Californie. Les conservateurs y avaient entrepris de restructurer le système de gouvernance urbaine. Bien que l'initiative revienne aux mêmes forces politiques dans les deux cas, le résultat fut à Toronto une unification et à Los Angeles un sécessionnisme rampant. Dans les deux villes, le débat politique sur l'amalgamation et la sécession est lié aux discours sur la taille, l'efficacité et la forme d'un gouvernement urbain. De même, dans les deux villes, le passage de gouvernement à gouvernance s'est trouvé au centre des propos. Cet article recherche comment la gouvernance locale a évolué dans ces deux villes en comparant les traditions historiques. Chaque ville présente, d'une part, un ensemble particulier de relations extérieures avec d'autres échelles géographiques et politiques et, d'autre part, un ensemble de contradictions intérieures caractéristiques. Sur le plan intérieur, la tradition de gouvernance éclatée de Los Angeles s'oppose au modèle de gouvernance métropolitaine de Toronto. Vers la fin des années 1990, amalgamation et sécession ont été présentées dans les deux villes comme des options stratégiques pour la restructuration de la gouvernance. Les changements d'échelle –à la fois prévus et réalisés – concernant les processus et institutions de gouvernance ont été accompagnés et caractérisés par des conflits sociaux et un débat politique général. L'article expose ces discussions et aborde les alliances politiques respectives qui se sont formées dans les deux zones urbaines sur la question d'amalgamation/sécession.     

What Do Cities Have to Do with Democracy?

The relationship between urbanization and democratization remains under‐theorized and under‐researched. Radical urban theory has undergone a veritable normative turn, registered in debates about the right to the city, spatial justice and the just city, while critical conceptualizations of neoliberalism present ‘democracy’ as the preferred remedy for injustice. However, these lines of thought remain reluctant to venture too far down the path of political philosophy. The relationship between urban politics and the dynamics of democratization remains under‐theorized as a result. It is argued that this relationship can be usefully understood by drawing on lessons from avowedly normative styles of political theorizing, specifically post‐Habermasian strands of critical theory. Taking this tradition seriously helps one to notice that discussions of urbanization, democracy, injustice and rights in geography, urban studies and related fields invoke an implicit but unthematized democratic norm, that of all‐affected interests. In contemporary critical theory, this norm is conceptualized as a worldly register of political demands. It is argued that the conceptual disaggregation of component values of democracy undertaken through the ‘spatial turn’ in recent critical theory reorients the analysis of the democratic potentials of urban politics around the investigation of the multiple forms of agency which urbanized processes perform in generating, recognizing and acting upon issues of shared concern.     

Does Dividend Policy Affect Earnings Management?Evidence From France

The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of the dividend policy on earnings management in France.Note that in recent years,research on the determinants of earnings management has multiplied.However,little work has really looked into this issue.The empirical research is based on a sample made up of French companies listed on the CAC All Tradable index for the period 2008-2015.The empirical results show that the dividend policy is a determinant of earnings management in the French context.     

Common Good HRM: A paradigm shift in Sustainable HRM?

As organizations increasingly claim to have become more sustainable and to have contributed to global sustainable development, demands for Human Resource Management (HRM) to become sustainable intensify. In the past decade, the concept of Sustainable HRM received increasing attention in both practice and research. However, academics' views about what Sustainable HRM means are diverse, and the effectiveness of Sustainable HRM practices is uncertain. We reviewed key articles in the literature on Sustainable HRM and as a result highlight how the purpose of HRM has been transformed in the search for sustainability. We present four Sustainable HRM types and describe how HRM can effectively contribute to solving todays “grand” sustainability challenges by applying ideas from a common good economy perspective. We propose that a new type of Sustainable HRM – Common Good HRM – could be essential in driving progress toward addressing sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Sustainable HRM.     

Liquefied Natural Gas: Redefining Nature,Restructuring Geopolitics,Returning to the Periphery?

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry began as a means of making use of natural gas resources in socially remote regions and of natural gas associated with oil production. Natural gas was transformed from a waste product into LNG that could be moved thousands of miles to market, redefining “waste” as a valuable raw material. As the newest large-scale LNG exporter, the United States entered the LNG industry based on another redefinition of nature: the extraction of natural gas previously economically and technologically inaccessible in shale formations. Hydraulic fracturing and new drilling technologies have created reserves of natural gas that are driving down prices with excess production and provoking a search for new markets via LNG exports. Liquefied natural gas is reshaping economies, communities, industries, and ecosystems in the United States and in other parts of the world. This article analyzes the role of the LNG industry with a particular focus on the economic and geopolitical consequences for the United States. The United States is returning to its historical role of energy exporter. Some view the return to this role as an economic and geopolitical boon that will enhance the U.S. economy and the nation’s global standing. A contrasting interpretation sees the United States sliding into the extractive periphery, serving the energy demands of a growing China, much like the United States once did for Europe and especially Great Britain. This view condemns what it views as the exploitation of U.S. natural resources to meet China’s energy needs while leaving large areas of the United States with depleted resources, damaged ecosystems, and disrupted communities.     

Retirement timing in Europe: does sector make a difference?

This study uses Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe data and event history analysis to determine the effect of sector of employment on retirement timing of older workers aged 50+ in 11 European countries. The findings suggest that older workers in the industrial and financial sectors retire earlier than those in the service sector.     

European Universities as Complete Organizations? Understanding Identity,Hierarchy and Rationality in Public Organizations

Abstract

This article investigates the form of European universities to determine the extent to which they resemble the characteristics of complete organizations and whether the forms are associated with modernization policy pressure, national institutional frames and organizational characteristics. An original data set of twenty-six universities from eight countries was used. Specialist universities have a stronger identity, whereas the level of hierarchy and rationality is clearly associated with the intensity of modernization policies. At the same time, evidence suggests limitations for universities to become complete, as mechanisms allowing the development of some dimensions seemingly constrain the capability to develop others.     

Decentralized Welfare: Will There Be Underprovision?

This paper develops an Asymmetric Nash Equilibrium model of welfare provision by states when the benefit payment is a local public good and a fixed population of welfare recipients distributes itself between states with logistic “migration” function. The model shows that state size is an important demand shifter across states because it alters the supply elasticity of recipients. The model provides estimates of how the degree of benefit under provision varies with this migration elasticity. Other demand instruments (such as taxpayer resources and “generosity”) likewise generate positive correlation between benefits and recipients, while supply shifters generate negative correlation between benefits and recipients. The model's predictions are closely matched empirically, when examining the reduced form impact of these instruments on the pattern of welfare benefits and recipients across states. Using these impacts to assign the instruments to either supply or demand sides of the model, it is possible to estimate the model's structural elasticities. These turn out to be high enough so that simulated solutions to the model generate considerable welfare underprovision and thus raise concern about a race to the bottom with decentralized control over AFDC.     

From Quality Circles to Self-Managed Work Teams: Are Employee Teams Legal in the United States?

This paper focuses on the legal status of employee teams, such as quality circles, that are commonly used within organizations in the United States. At present, the National Labor Relation Act (the Act), which governs labor–management relations, also has direct implications for the types of employee teams that can be legally implemented within organizations. This paper reviews the governing sections of the Act and analyzes how they apply to the use of employee teams. Suggestions for avoiding or dealing with illegally formed employee teams are offered.     

From pay to praise? Non-cash employee recognition in Canadian and Australian firms

Despite deep theoretical roots, a prominent place in the practitioner literature, and increasing use by organizations, non-cash employee recognition plans have thus far received relatively little empirical study by academic researchers. Drawing on survey data from 349 Canadian and Australian firms, this study examines the incidence of individually based and group-based non-cash recognition (NCR) programmes, ascertains whether there are relationships between use of non-cash and cash-based reward practices, and identifies possible predictors of NCR programmes. Results indicate that non-cash plans are indeed common in both countries, but do not appear to substitute for cash-based performance plans, contrary to enthusiasts' suggestions. The most important predictor of non-cash programmes is unionization, which is negatively related to both individually based and group-based NCR programs in Canada, and to group-based programmes in Australia.     

A Smooth Ride? From Industrial to Creative Urbanism in Oshawa,Ontario

In mainstream media, policy circles and academic scholarship, economic discourses have highlighted the importance of knowledge, creativity and innovation for generating economic growth. This has been translated into an urban planning and policy agenda which favours the establishment of research parks, innovation clusters, and especially universities along with amenities to attract creative‐class workers. In much of this literature universities are invested with an almost magical power to spur economic growth, and the benign language of ‘transition’ is used suggesting a rather seamless progression from one urban economic engine to another. Through analysis of policy documents and key informant interviews related to the establishment of a new university in Oshawa, Ontario, this case study seeks to challenge the straightforward relationship that is assumed to exist between universities and local economic development. Like other lagging regions across the OECD attempting to repair their economies through creative and knowledge urbanism, Oshawa's recent achievements are tempered by growing concerns about poverty, homelessness and inequality. Planners and policymakers that mistake the complexities of economic restructuring for a smooth ‘urban transition’ put their cities and citizens at risk of creating new problems out of efforts to improve local conditions.     

Are systems of innovation in Eastern Europe efficient?

This paper explores the determinants of productivity in the countries of Eastern Europe (EE) through the perspective of ‘narrow’ and ‘broad’ national systems of innovation (NSI). Based on panel econometrics, it examines the extent to which systems in EE could be considered ‘(in)efficient’. Our results suggest that the EE countries have lower levels of productivity than might be expected given their research and development (R&D), innovation and production capabilities. The inefficiencies of ‘broad’ NSI are compounded by the inefficiencies of ‘narrow’ NSI in terms of generating numbers of science and technology publications and resident patents relative to R&D employment compared to the rest of the world. Our results point to an important distinction between technology and production capability as the drivers of productivity improvements and provide some policy implications.