What Determines Managers' Perceptions of Cash Flow Forecasting Quality? Evidence From a Multinational Corporation

In this article, we develop and test a model of the determinants of managers' perceptions of cash flow forecasting quality in nonfinancial companies. We expect and find that managers' perceptions of the quality of cash flow forecasts are determined by the perceived quality of the input data, the effort invested in forecasting, and the efficiency of the related processes, and ultimately by a company's orientation toward financial goals. Our empirical analysis is based on data from a worldwide questionnaire survey at a multinational industrial company. While we find that managers assess forecasting effort lower and forecasting efficiency higher for direct cash flow forecasting than for indirect method forecasting, our analyses reveal that the variables in our model, the postulated relationships between them, and the estimated effect sizes are equally valid for both forecasting methods.     

The (potential) demise of HRM?

This article seeks to provoke that human resource management (HRM), both as an academic field of study and as a form of professional practice, is at risk of impoverishment. The main reasoning for this is because of ideological individualism and marketisation with an attendant neglect on wider organisational, employee, and societal concerns. Following a review of the context of financialised capitalism, three contemporary developments in HRM are used to illustrate the argument: reward strategies, talent management, and high performance work systems. Implications for the practice of HRM and the way the subject area is taught in mainstream business schools are considered.     

Conflicting logics? The role of HRM in a professional service firm

HRM is considered of vital strategic importance in professional service firms, but professionals generally resist these managerial initiatives. In this article, I report on an in‐depth case study of a tax consultancy department in a major accounting firm by exploring the way professionals reconcile the logics of professionalism and HRM. Results indicate that the logics are reconciled in several ways as they are simultaneously replicated, revised, and rejected. Whereas current theories argue that the different logics balance each other, this study indicates that the professionals strengthen professional logic by acknowledging HRM and its procedures, simultaneously circumventing them through inverted appropriation. Results suggest that hybridity between conflicting logics may appear on an organisational level, whereas a single logic dominates in everyday work. The study contributes to in‐depth studies of institutional logics and to a detailed understanding of the workings of HRM in professional contexts.     

Accounting for Employee Stock Options: What Can We Learn from the Market's Perceptions?

The scope of this is paper is to provide new empirical evidence on the value relevance of employee stock options (ESOs) in Europe. We show, empirically, that the market participants when pricing a firm's equity place approximately the same valuation weights on the ESO‐deferred compensation expense (the so called “ESO asset”) and the compensation option liability (the so called “ESO liability”). Our empirical findings support the theoretical work of Ohlson and Penman who suggest that the deferred compensation expense be treated as a contra‐liability. The second contribution of our work rests on the nature of the ESO expense. We show that the distinction between persistent and non‐persistent ESO expenses is of critical importance for the market participants. Accordingly, an improved accounting disclosure should assist the investors in assessing the long‐term goals of the ESO plans at the firm level.     

How Do Developmental and Accommodative HRM Enhance Employee Engagement and Commitment? The Role of Psychological Contract and SOC Strategies

In the context of the changing workforce, this study introduced two perspectives on HRM and distinguished universalistic developmental HRM from contingent accommodative HRM. We predicted two separate pathways for the effects on two employee outcomes: work engagement and affective commitment. We expected that developmental HRM would universally relate to employee outcomes by rebalancing the psychological contract between the employee and organization into a less transactional to a more relational contract. We also predicted that accommodative HRM would relate to outcomes only when fulfilling specific needs of employees, associated with their selecting, optimizing, and compensating strategies. Results of a multilevel study among 1058 employees in 17 healthcare units fully supported our expectations regarding the role of the psychological contract. Additionally, we found support for the expected roles of selection and compensation, but not for optimization strategy. This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that HRM relates to employee outcomes through multiple pathways, which can be either universal or contingent.     

Decaf or double shot? The strength of franchisor control over HRM in coffee franchises

The franchise relationship presents a unique composition of autonomy and control. Franchisee autonomy is located somewhere between employed managers and independent business owners, while the franchisor regulates core processes such as marketing and product development. While heavy franchisor control over certain functions is customary and in fact integral to the franchise model, the delineation of HRM responsibilities in the franchise relationship is less clear. Using qualitative data from three Australian coffee chains, we examine the role of the corporate HR and the degree to which HRM activities are centralised, and develop a typology of franchisor HRM control. We find substantial variation between cases and demonstrate that it is the franchisor's strategic decision to prioritise brand protection or liability avoidance that ultimately determines whether their control over HRM can be described as ‘decaf’ weak or ‘double shot’ strength.     

What Does Objective Mean in a Dirichlet‐multinomial Process?

The Dirichlet‐multinomial process can be seen as the generalisation of the binomial model with beta prior distribution when the number of categories is larger than two. In such a scenario, setting informative prior distributions when the number of categories is great becomes difficult, so the need for an objective approach arises. However, what does objective mean in the Dirichlet‐multinomial process? To deal with this question, we study the sensitivity of the posterior distribution to the choice of an objective Dirichlet prior from those presented in the available literature. We illustrate the impact of the selection of the prior distribution in several scenarios and discuss the most sensible ones.     

The “Iron Law of Paternalism” in Employee Grievances and Arbitration? A Comparison of Disciplinary and Nondisciplinary Cases

In the criminology literature, the iron law of paternalism suggests that women receive less serious sanctions in the judicial system. This examination of three years of grievance outcomes (n= 1216) and arbitration outcomes (n= 1146) tests this iron law in the context of organizational disciplinary and dispute resolutions. These data, across several levels of outcomes (win, lose, compromise), controlling for the severity of grievances (disciplinary/nondisciplinary) and arbitrations (termination/nontermination) provide no support for the paternalistic thesis. Moreover, we find no support for the paternalistic thesis with regard to either the incidence or length of suspensions as a function of gender.     

More than mere fragments? The use of the Workplace Employment Relations Survey data in HRM research

This paper explores the use of the British Workplace Employment Relations (WERS) survey data in HRM research. While the WERS surveys contain much material of relevance to key debates in the HRM area, there is a prima facie case that there has not been as much WERS-based research in the HRM area as might have been consequently expected. This paper examines why this might be the case, and considers the prospects for the further use of WERS data by HRM researchers. While noting the limits of survey data to address key questions in the area, it suggests that there is a need for a programme of research that builds upon the valuable insights that can be obtained from WERS-based research by the complementary generation of more context-rich information via focused case studies and associated qualitative research.     

Women-friendly HRM good for QWL? The case of Hong Kong based companies

Organizations in Hong Kong were surveyed to gauge how women-friendly they were and how their human resource managers viewed the effect of women-friendly HRM policies and practices on employees' quality of work life. It was found that only about half of the policies mentioned in the questionnaire were practised by less than 10 per cent of the organizations. Principal component analysis conducted showed that organizational women-friendliness was multi-facet in nature. Using these facets - women friendly dimensions (WFDs) - as criteria and controlling for size, the study found that firms with American and European origins were more women-friendly than Hong Kong firms. Furthermore, when American companies were compared to Hong Kong companies, it was on the WFD of career development that the former were significantly higher than the latter. In contrast, when comparing European organizations with Hong Kong organizations, it was the WFD of flexibility on which the two differed most markedly.     

The tests of just cause: What price predictability in arbitral decision making?

The common law of just cause consists of the accumulated decisions of the arbitration profession rendered on the basis of commonly accepted principles of right and wrong. It constitutes the rules of the arbitration game pertaining to just cause, and, as such, guides decision making in disciplinary dispute resolution. Presumably it brings predictability to this aspect of arbitral decision making much as the principles of contract law bring predictability to nondisciplinary contract construction disputes. The best known component of this body of law is the checklist of seven tests devised by Carrol R. Daugherty. This article examines this element of common law, its origins, and whether it does, in fact, bring grater predictability to the disciplinary phase of arbitral decision making and, if so, at what cost. Besides questioning the degree of predictability achieved by Daugherty's tests, the paper cautions that greater predictability may only be possible at an unacceptably high cost: the sacrifice of those characteristics that make arbitration the preferred dispute resolution technique.     

Who Speaks,and in What Voice? The Challenge of Engaging ‘The Public’ in Health Policy Decision-Making

Abstract

Despite widespread calls for greater public involvement in governance, especially in relation to health policy, significant challenges remain in identifying any such legitimate ‘public’ voice. This research investigates this problem through a case study. It examines how actors experienced and interpreted a government-commissioned citizen’s jury on health spending prioritization in relation to the work of the local health care consumers’ organization. The analysis highlights an unproductive tension around this encounter, and points to more complementary ways in which such top–down and bottom–up efforts might be coordinated. It, therefore, contributes significantly to efforts to strengthen the public voice in contemporary health governance.     

Can Lawyers Take Parental Leaves and If So, with What Impacts? The Case of Québec

Lawyers are increasingly females, with women having gained a major entry in this profession and outnumbering males in legal studies and new rights have been put forward in some countries, such as parental leaves. Thus, the modalities by which lawyers use, or forgo, these new rights, in particular concerning parental leaves that can be shared between parents, raise questions in a profession characterized by significant time demands. Does this go so far as to challenge the traditional model of gender relations in the profession? Our analysis of the uptake of parental leaves indicates this is not the case and that firms do not support women and parentality more than was the case when only men dominated the profession. Surprisingly, things do not appear to have changed much over 20 years, as women are still not in the position to put in additional hours, to take on additional cases or responsibilities or to participate in social in evening activities. And still today, women affirm that their incomes are lower and that they get promoted less often than men. It appears that, although it is a right to take maternity and parental leave, those who do take these leaves have less career opportunities, for example less chances to make partner in a firm than those who choose not to take these leaves. While women tend to move to smaller firms with less constraints concerning work hours, male lawyers, contrarily to men in many other professions who take the paternity/parental leave at a rate of 80 % when they become fathers, feel this may be a high price to pay and those in large law firms tend not to take this leave or to reduce its duration.