Commitment: A mathematical model

The concept of commitment has received ever-increasing attention from social scientists during the past fifteen years. Its usage occurs in several seemingly disjoint problem areas, but it is typically introduced when available explanations fail to describe the tendency for individuals to persist on a given course of action, once started, without obvious motive for doing so. Until recently its theoretical status has been as a primitive term, often appearing in ad hoc explanations, and accepted without question. In sociology, the first major query into the nature of commitment was Howard Becker's “Notes on the Concept of Commitment” (1960), a particularly influential article in stimulating research on commitment. However, most subsequent empirical work has dealt with the correlates and effects of commitment rather than with its genesis. Regrettably, what was once a problem in ad hoc theorizing has come to be matched by ad hoc operationalization of the concept. The present paper is a response to a perceived need for a formal model of commitment whose features might make the concept amenable to uniform theoretical and empirical usage. The purpose of this paper is to present a mathematical model of a general commitment mechanism which complements some extant ideas about the formal role of commitment in explaining certain types of behavior. The first part of the paper concentrates on extracting ideas from sociological and social psychological literature which provide the foundation for the intuitions to be formalized later. The second part presents a mathematical model of commitment. The third part discusses commitment in the context of a turnover model, and in concluding suggests some possible revisions and extensions of the model.     

Attitudes toward employee and employer rights in the workplace

A large sample (N=692) of undergraduate business majors were surveyed in order to assess their attitudes toward 54 different employer activities that might impact on employee rights in the workplace. Demographic and lifestyle measures as well as one personality variable, authoritarianism, were also included in the survey. A factor analysis on attitudes toward employer activities revealed three distinct factors, which we labeled private, polydrug (i.e., polygraphs and drug tests), and normative activities. Mean levels of agreement with employer actions were highest for normative and lowest for private activities, with polydrug activities falling in between. All mean differences were highly significant. Authoritarianism proved to be the strongest predictor of attitudes toward both private and polydrug activities.     

When destructive deviance in the workplace becomes a liability: a decisional behavioral model

In recent years destructive deviant behavior in organizations has drawn increasing attention. However, surprisingly little work has been devoted to assessing when the economic value of deviant behavior is tolerable (i.e., the benefits from employing the deviant worker exceed the financial costs of his/her deviance) and when it becomes unbearable (i.e., the financial cost of the deviance exceeds the benefits accrued from his/her employment). The purpose of the present paper is to introduce a mathematical model which may resolve this lacuna. In addition, a simulation was conducted and its results were reported in order to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed mathematical model. In conclusion it is suggested that the present model be further examined empirically in the real workplace.     

Understanding customer satisfaction in opera: first steps toward a model

• Despite the frequent call for a strengthened customer orientation in performing arts organizations, no efforts have been made to investigate customer satisfaction in opera so far. The paper aims at filling this gap by suggesting a first integrative model of customer satisfaction in opera. This model integrates insights from both services marketing literature (i.e., general services marketing and performing arts marketing) and performing arts literature (i.e., music perception and theater studies). The model is tested in a field study interviewing 116 visitors of a public German opera house. Results reveal visitors' level of appraisal to be the main antecedent of their satisfaction, followed by their perception of the artistic quality, empathy/identification with the actors on stage, and recall from memory. Furthermore, differences within the audience regarding the relative importance of the antecedents of customer satisfaction in opera are investigated. Using gender and attendance frequency as segmentation variables, only minor differences are found, though. Managerial implications for opera marketing are discussed in conclusion. First, efforts in opera marketing should rather concentrate on the core service quality instead of the peripheral service quality. Second, professional opera companies may attract broader audiences if they focus on the emotional satisfaction of their customers. Third, since only minor and mostly insignificant differences between men and women, and occasional compared to frequent visitors are found, a need for further research to explore alternative segmentation variables in the opera context is identified.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Defining efficient policies in a general equilibrium model: a multi-objective approach

Macroeconomic policy makers are typically concerned with several indicators of economic performance. We thus propose to tackle the design of macroeconomic policy using Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques. More specifically, we employ Multi-objective Programming (MP) to seek so-called efficient policies. The MP approach is combined with a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. We chose use of a CGE model since it has the dual advantage of being consistent with standard economic theory while allowing one to measure the effect(s) of a specific policy with real data. Applying the proposed methodology to Spain (via the 1995 Social Accounting Matrix) we first quantified the trade-offs between two specific policy objectives: growth and inflation, when designing fiscal policy. We then constructed a frontier of efficient policies involving real growth and inflation. In doing so, we found that policy in 1995 Spain displayed some degree of inefficiency with respect to these two policy objectives. We then offer two sets of policy recommendations that, ostensibly, could have helped Spain at the time. The first deals with efficiency independent of the importance given to both growth and inflation by policy makers (we label this set: general policy recommendations). A second set depends on which policy objective is seen as more important by policy makers: increasing growth or controlling inflation (we label this one: objective-specific recommendations).     

Learning to save in a voluntary pension system: toward an agent-based model

Mandatory pension systems partially replace old-age income, therefore the government matches additional life-cycle savings in a voluntary pension system. Though the individual saving decisions are apparently independent, the earmarked taxes (paid to finance the matching) connect them. Previous models either neglected the endogenous tax expenditures (e.g. Choi et al., in: Wise (ed) Perspectives in the economics of aging, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 81–121, 2004) or assumed very sophisticated saving strategies (e.g. Fehr et al. in FinanzArchiv Pub Finance Anal 64:171–198, 2008). We create twin models: myopic workers learn (i) from farsighted workers using public information (analytic model) and (ii) also from each other (agent-based model). These models provide more realistic results on saving behavior and the impact of matching on the income redistribution than the earlier models.

     

Beyond banning the box: A conceptual model of the stigmatization of ex-offenders in the workplace

Ex-offenders comprise a significant percentage of the labor force but frequently face stigmatization at work. Previous research on the ex-offender stigma has focused almost exclusively on its deleterious implications during the selection process. We seek to provide insight by adopting a cross-disciplinary approach and drawing from theoretical foundations in social psychology to present a model of the process and outcomes of the stigmatization of ex-offenders in organizations. In doing so, we outline the relationships between stigmatization, labeling, stereotyping, and treatment discrimination in the employee-observer relationship, to suggest how stigma leads to employee outcomes such as reduced performance and satisfaction as well as higher turnover. Further, we offer critical boundary conditions along each step of the process and discuss strategies that ex-offenders can use to manage their stigma as well as organizational practices that may help employers and managers avoid negative outcomes for ex-offender employees.     

Organizational governance and the grievance process: In need of a new model for resolving workplace issues

This article begins by providing insights from the research literature on the union and nonunion grievance processes in the United States. We then take a look at the status of “voice” in the American workplace and identify both inherent and practical implementation problems in providing employee “voice” regarding workplace rules. Finally, we lay out the elements of a viable system that would best meet the criteria for procedural and substantive due process in the employment relationship.     

Liberalising the German model: institutional change,organisational restructuring and workplace effects

Institutional change at supranational, European Union level affects national and firm level institutions in various ways. This article traces effects of liberalisation measures in the airport industry enacted in two airport firms in Germany. The study, based on qualitative empirical research, found that EU liberalisation facilitated company creation of subsidiaries (subsidiarisation) and elevated shareholder interest in corporate governance. These factors affected institutional practices and cultural norms within the German industrial context that in turn influenced significant alterations in employment and workplace relations. Considerable disruption of the German social partnership model of corporate governance and industrial relations was observed. However, in addition to patterns of convergence towards neoliberal practices and outcomes frequently observed in Anglo‐Saxon systems, the study found some elements of effective retention of cultural institutional resources of the German model. Both ‘path departure’ and social embeddedness appear to coexist.     

Efficiency measurement for general network systems: a slacks-based measure model

Journal of Productivity Analysis - Traditional radial DEA models treat DMUs as black boxes, whose internal structures are ignored, and measure input and output changes proportionally. On the other...     

Beyond workaholism: Towards a general model of heavy work investment

Although the term workaholism is widely used, little consensus exists about its meaning, and there is a great need for further theoretical and methodological advancement. We attempt to address this need by introducing the concept of Heavy Work Investment (HWI), and viewing workaholism as only one of its subtypes. Furthermore, we propose a model consisting of four main components: HWI, its possible predictors, its types, and its outcomes.In this model, using Weiner's (1985) attributional framework, we differentiate between situational and dispositional types of HWI, each with its own subtypes, as based on the predictors of such an investment. For example, financial-needs-based and employer-directed are situational subtypes, whereas workaholism and work-devotion are dispositional subtypes. Based on the proposed HWI model, we compare dispositional investors with situational investors.Finally, the measurement of HWI, as well as future research directions (study of situational investors, research across time and cultures, and exploration of inter-generational similarity/difference) is also discussed.     

Fair allocation in a general model with indivisible goods

In this paper we study the problem of fair allocation in economies with indivisible goods, dropping the usual restriction that one agent receives at most one indivisible good. We show that most of the results obtained in the literature do not hold when the aforementioned restriction is dropped. Received: 13 July 1995 / Accepted: 2 December 1997     

AIDS in the workplace: Options and responsibilities

Scientists now believe that no one is safe from AIDS. AIDS is no longer “the disease” of a small fringe segment of society. It is now a disease that can touch us in our personal, family, and professional lives. AIDS is, as columnist Ellen Goodman has suggested, an “equal opportunity infector” that does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, sex, or sexual orientation. Although statistics indicate that most of us will probably not experience AIDS in our private or family lives, a significant number of us will be forced to grapple with AIDS in the workplace. This article is an attempt to examine the business community's response to AIDS, and the possible options and strategies that larger corporations especially might use in responding to the medical, legal, and ethical dimensions of the disease. According to Nancy L. Merritt, vice-president and director of equal opportunity for Bank of America, AIDS raises at least three fundamental issues in the workplace: How do you handle an employee with AIDS? How do you educate and ensure the safety and morale of your other employees? How do you balance the needs of business with the human, ethical considerations raised by the disease? Such questions, Merritt maintains, will become more and more pressing as the AIDS epidemic continues to spread.     

Listen carefully: transgender voices in the workplace

Abstract

We find that only 17% of FTSE 100 company websites refer directly to transgender (‘trans’) individuals, illustrating the extent to which trans voices are unheard in the workplace. We propose that these voices are missing for a number of reasons: voluntary silence to protect oneself from adverse circumstances; the subsumption of trans voices within the larger ‘LGBT’ community; assimilation, wherein many trans voices become affiliated with those of their post-transition gender; multiple trans voices arising from diversity within the transgender community; and limited access to voice mechanisms for transgender employees. We identify the negative implications of being unheard for individual trans employees, for organizational outcomes, and for business and management scholarship, and propose ways in which organizations can listen more carefully to trans voices. Finally, we introduce an agenda for future research that tests the applicability of the theoretical framework of invisible stigma disclosure to transgender individuals, and calls for new theoretical and empirical developments to identify HRM challenges and best practices for respecting trans employees and their choices to remain silent or be heard.     

Credibility and Monitoring: Outsourcing as a Commitment Device

We analyze an environment plagued by double moral hazard where the agent’s effort level and the principal’s precision in monitoring are not contractible. In such an environment, the principal tends to over‐monitor thereby inducing low effort. To ease the latter problem, the principal may choose to increase monitoring costs by outsourcing the activity. As a result equilibrium monitoring is reduced and incentives become more powerful. This choice is particularly likely when the worker’s effort is an important factor in determining output.