SOCIAL CHANGE AND ECONOMIC LIFE IN BRITAIN IN THE 1980s

Books reviewed in this article:
Duncan Gallie, Catherine Marsh, and Carolyn Vogler (eds.) (1994) Social Change and the Experience of Unemployment.
Jill Rubery and Frank Wilkinson (eds.) (1994) Employer Strategy and the Labour Market.
Alison McEwan Scott (ed.) (1994) Gender Segregation and Social Change: Men and Women in Changing Labour Markets.
Roger Penn, Michael Rose, and Jill Rubery (eds.) (1994) Skill and Occupational Change.
Michael Anderson, Frank Bechhofer, and Jonathan Gershuny (eds.) (1994) The Social and Political Economy of the Household.
Duncan Gallie, Roger Penn, and Michael Rose (eds.) (1996) Trade Unionism in Recession.     

Strategic human resource management at Herman Miller

This article describes the Human Resource Management system in place at Herman Miller, Inc. (HMI). HMI's HR strategy is comprised of three primary goals: (1) building employee capabilities, (2) building employee commitment, and (3) improving the professional capabilities of the HR function itself. Key emphases of HMI's HR management infrastructure include (1) employee competency identification and development, (2) building employee participation, (3) building business literacy, (4) creating a “corporate community” through strong values and a sense of “belonging”, (5) community responsibility and environmental protection, (6) competently delivering the HR “fundamentals”, and (7) developing innovative partnerships with suppliers. Key challenges for the future include (1) change management, (2) clarifying HR's strategic role throughout the firm, and (3) attracting and retaining a diverse workforce. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

一类含四个未知函数的方程的非平凡解的存在性的研究

本文利用亚纯函数值分布论的思想方法,对函数方程f117(z)+f127(z)+f317(z)+f147(z)=z非平凡解的状况进行研究,得到如下结果:函数方程f117(z)+f217(z)+f317(z)+f417(z)=z不存在级小于117的非常数亚纯函数解。     

An exploratory analysis of the influence of human resource management activities and organizational climate on job satisfaction in Turkish banks

This study aims to explore the influence of human resource management (HRM) activities and organizational climate on job satisfaction in Turkish banks. The study first examines the relative influence of eight HRM activities of: (i) behavior and attitudes (in recruitment and selection); (ii) teamwork; (iii) extensive training; (iv) written policies; (v) training in multiple functions; (vi) incentives; (vii) performance appraisal; and (viii) feedback on performance on job satisfaction. Second, the influence of six factors relating to organizational climate are examined, again from the view point of their influence on job satisfaction. The second group factors are: (i) support for innovation; (ii) managerial competence and consistency; (iii) workload pressure; (iv) cohesion; (v) organizational boundaries; and (vi) organizational ethics. The data collected through interviews from 346 employees from 19 banks show that in addition to the positive impact of HRM activities, organizational climate in particular makes a significant contribution to job satisfaction. The paper presents the influence of the two groups of factors on job satisfaction and the mechanisms through which these factors foster job satisfaction and their implications for practitioners.     

基于“C-2P”模式的薪酬设计研究——以某药业公司销售支持人员的薪酬设计为例

目的:为某药业公司销售支持人员构建薪酬设计方案.方法:分析某药业公司目前薪酬方案存在的问题,构建“C-2P”模式的薪酬设计框架,确定有关参数,并采用层次分析法(AHP)和Delphi法确定相关指标的权重和等级评分.结果:岗位重要性(v)、工作量饱和度(s)和适岗性(m)三个指标加权得到岗位系数(α),综合素质(d)和岗位职责(r)各项指标加权得到绩效系数(β),实际薪酬(W)为工资基数(B)、岗位系数(α)和绩效系数(β)的乘积.结论:此套薪酬设计方案能普遍提高销售支持人员的岗位标准工资,引入绩效考核机制,体现薪酬的公平性和激励性,促进营销团队的稳定与发展,降低企业人才管理成本.     

On two properties of an unequal probability sampling scheme

Summary For an inclusion probability proportional to size (IPPS) sampling scheme recently proposed by Saxena, Singh and Srivastava (1986), it is shown that under certain simple verifiable conditions (1) the Horvitz-Thompson (1952) estimator based on it has a smaller variance than the variance of the Hansen-Hurwitz (1943) estimator based on probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling with replacement (WR) both involving the same size-measures and the expected sample size in the former being equal to the number of draws in the latter and (2) the Yates-Grundy (1953) estimator for the variance of the Horvitz-Thompson estimator based on this IPPS scheme is uniformly non-negative.     

国际羟基磷灰石纤维的新颖制备方法综述

目前在国际上已开发出制备羟基磷灰石(Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2:HAp)纤维的新颖方法。羟基磷灰石纤维可通过在空气中1000℃的温度加热一种压缩块来成功地加以合成,这种压缩块由β-磷酸钙(β-Ca(PO3)2)纤维和(Ca(OH)2)颗粒组成,压缩之后用稀盐酸水溶液加以处理。压缩块中的β-Ca(PO3)2纤维和Ca(OH)2经过加热就转变成了纤维性的HAp和CaO相,其中的CaO经过酸洗而除去。在这种情况下获得的HAp纤维长度为40～150μm、直径为2～10μm。它们与β～Ca(PO3)2纤维的尺寸大小几乎差不多。     

Monotonicity of the (reversed) hazard rate of the (maximum) minimum in bivariate distributions

It is well known that in the case of independent random variables, the (reversed) hazard rate of the (maximum) minimum of two random variables is the sum of the individual (reversed) hazard rates and hence the onotonicity of the (reversed) hazard rate of the marginals is preserved by the monotonicity of the (reversed) hazard rate of the (maximum) minimum. However, for the bivariate distributions this property is not always preserved. In this paper, we study the monotonicity of the (reversed) hazard rate of the (maximum) minimum for two well known families of bivariate distributions viz the Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern (FGM) and Sarmanov family. In case of the FGM family, we obtain the (reversed) hazard rate of the (maximum) minimum and provide several examples in some of which the (reversed) hazard rate is monotonic and in others it is non-monotonic. In the case of Sarmanov family the (reversed) hazard rate of the (maximum) minimum may not be expressed in a compact form in general. We consider some examples to illustrate the procedureResearch of the second author is supported by a grant from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the research of the other two authors is partially supported by a travel grant from the Canadian American Center of the University of Maine     

The new multinational corporations from transition countries

In the last decade, outward foreign direct investment (FDI) from transition countries (TCs) has emerged. The new multinational corporations (MNCs) from TCs are quite different from the former “red multinationals” (1), we describe the emergence of these new MNCs (2) and then provide econometric testing of the relationship between outward FDI and the level of economic development in home country that fits with TCs (3).     

Major EEO issues relating to personnel selection decisions

This paper examines recent EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) case law precedents relating to personnel selection, most notably hiring, training, promotion and downsizing. The statutes referenced include Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 as amended by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), Constitutional claims, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (CRA-91), and Executive Order 11246 on Affirmative action. Seven topics are featured, including: (I) disparate treatment theory, (II) adverse impact theory in the ADEA, (III) adverse impact theory in Title VII, (IV) affirmative action based on operational needs, (V) key ADA rulings and the ADA amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), (VI) retaliation, and (VII) mandatory binding arbitration agreements. The case law surveyed reveals costly mistakes employers and HR managers can make, but which can be avoided with proper methods and policies. Some issues may require professional help (e.g., developing and validating selection tests), whereas others (e.g. retaliation), can be addressed in-house with knowledge of policies and procedures recommended by the EEOC to prevent problems from occurring, and to quickly correct them if they occur.     

Henry George's Political Critics

A bstract .   Twelve political criticisms of George were paramount after he formed his own political party in 1887: (1) his refusal to join with other reformers to link his proposals with theirs, or to absorb theirs into his own campaign; (2) his singular focus on ground rent to the exclusion of other forms of monopoly income, such as that of the railroads, oil and mining trusts; (3) his almost unconditional support of capital, even against labor; (4) his economic individualism rejecting a strong role for government; (5) his opposition to public ownership or subsidy of basic infrastructure; (6) his refusal to acknowledge interest-bearing debt as the twin form of rentier income alongside ground rent; (7) the scant emphasis he placed on urban land and owner-occupied land; (8) his endorsement of the Democratic Party's free-trade platform; (9) his rejection of an academic platform to elaborate rent theory; (10) the narrowness of his theorizing beyond the land question; (11) the alliance of his followers with the right wing of the political spectrum; and (12) the hope that full taxation of ground rent could be achieved gradually rather than requiring a radical confrontation involving a struggle over control of government.     

Restricted maximum likelihood estimation under Eisenhart model Ill

For a balanced two-way mixed model, the maximum likelihood (ML) and restricted ML (REML) estimators of the variance components were obtained and compared under the non-negativity requirements of the variance components by L ee and K apadia (1984). In this note, for a mixed (random blocks) incomplete block model, explicit forms for the REML estimators of variance components are obtained. They are always non-negative and have smaller mean squared error (MSE) than the analysis of variance (AOV) estimators. The asymptotic sampling variances of the maximum likelihood (ML) estimators and the REML estimators are compared and the balanced incomplete block design (BIBD) is considered as a special case. The ML estimators are shown to have smaller asymptotic variances than the REML estimators, but a numerical result in the randomized complete block design (RCBD) demonstrated that the performances of the REML and ML estimators are not much different in the MSE sense.     

会计准则的性质:多视角的理论评述

围绕会计准则的性质,从管理学和经济学两个视角进行诠释,试图通过会计准则性质的全新和全面释义,求解会计准则的管理意义和经济价值,并进一步为会计准则的后续研究提供新的命题与研究路径。从九个角度给出了会计准则性质的确认,研究认为:会计准则是一种经济规制(历史观)、是一组分配标准(经济后果观)、是一种平衡机制(企业定价观)、是一种决策和制衡机制(公司治理观)、是一种博弈均衡制度(博弈观)、是一种产权制度(产权观)、是一种契约装置(信息观)、是一种公共物品(公共选择观)、是一种评价利益关系的风险配置(契约观)。     

Accurate estimation of expected coverage: revisited

As noted in several studies (Batta et al., Transp. Sci. 23 (1989) 277), (Burwell et al., Comput. Opns. Res. 20 (1993) 113), (Daskin, Network and Discrete Location, Wiley, New York, 1995), (Marianov and ReVelle, Eur. J. Opns. Res. 93 (1996) 110), (Saydam et al., Socio-Econ. Plann. Sci. 28(2) (1994) 113), the accurate estimation of expected coverage is an important and open issue. Although the maximum expected coverage model is empirically shown to prescribe a robust set of “optimal” locations, earlier findings suggest that it could also over or underestimate the coverage by a significant margin. In this study, we present a genetic algorithm (GA) that combines the expected coverage approach with the hypercube model (Jarvis, Mgmt. Sci. 31 (1985) 235), (Larson, Comput. Opns. Res. 1 (1974) 67), (Larson, Opns. Res. 23 (1975) 845) to solve the maximum expected coverage location problem with increased accuracy and realism. Our findings suggest that the GA provides at least as good solutions 94% of the time making it a viable alternative to the two-step procedures stipulated earlier.     

STRATEGIC DECISIONS IN ORGANIZATIONS: RATIONAL AND BEHAVIOURAL VIEWS

Various models or lenses have been used to predict and understand strategic decisions in organizations. This article examines four classes: (1) the unitary rational; (2) the organizational; (3) the political; and (4) the contextual. They are conceptualized as stemming from different assumptions about goal congruency and co-ordinative efficiency. the contextual view is especially highlighted, as it is a relatively new perspective, both organizationally and cognitively. A brief discussion is offered of disciplines and findings that either support or refute some of these models. Possible syntheses and reconciliations of the four views are explored, focusing on: (1) assumptional fit; (2) level of analysis; (3) cost of fashioning collective rationality; (4) information processing limits in organizational design; and (5) the role of adaptation lags and disequilibrium. the article concludes with a call for a meta-theory that places the various perspectives in a larger framework.     

Bipolarity and/or duality of social survey measurement scales and the question-order effect

When measuring (complex) attitudes within a social survey, researchers often use balanced lists of positive and negative items. The purpose of the present research is to investigate: (a) whether a specific order of measurement scale items can lead to the bipolar (single-dimensional) concept (attitude) being recognised as a dual (bi-dimensional) concept and vice-versa; and (b) whether item order can affect the consistency (metric characteristics) of a measurement scale. An experiment on a group of social science students was conducted: students were randomly split into three subgroups and three different version of a questionnaire (with three differing item orders) were applied. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (‘CFA’) and a single group CFA for each item order separately were applied. The final conclusion of the experiment is that there is no general rule about how and when respondents form separate (dual) or unidimensional (continuous) representations of measured concepts. Item-order effects are possible, but they are not as important as one would expect. The results of the experiment also suggest that other factors should be taken into account: the content of the measured concept and the cognitive sophistication of the respondents.     

A COMPARISON OF SOME INTRODUCTORY AND UNDERGRADUATE ECONOMETRIC TEXTBOOKS

Books reviewed in this article:
William H. Greene (1993) Econometric Analysis (Second Edition)
William E. Griffiths, R. Carter Hill and George G. Judge (1993) Learning and Practicing Econometrics
George G. Judge, R. Carter Hill, William E. Griffiths, Helmut Lütkepohl and Tsoung-Chao Lee (1988) Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Econometrics (Second Edition)
G. S. Maddala (1992) Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Econometrics (Second Edition)     

Using CARRX models to study factors affecting the volatilities of Asian equity markets

The range of daily asset prices is often used as a measure of volatility. Using a CARRX (conditional autoregressive range with exogenous variables) model, and the parsimony principle, the paper investigates the factors affecting the volatilities of Asian equity markets. Since the beginning of the new Century, emerging Asian markets such as Taiwan and Shanghai have been undergoing various stages of financial globalization. The volatility of the equity market may not be explained solely by its own dynamics. In this paper, we examine volatility using the following factors: (i) lagged returns; (ii) lagged absolute returns; (iii) own trading volume; (iv) U.S. factors; (v) European factors; and (vi) regional (Asian) factors. Points (i) and (iii) are by and large significant, while (ii) is not. Controlling for (i), (ii) and (iii), we find evidence that the volatility of European markets has spillovers on to both the Taiwan and Tokyo markets, mild evidence that the volatility of the U.S. market has spillovers on to the Hong Kong market, but there are no spillovers from the European or U.S. markets on to the Shanghai market.     

INDIVIDUAL DETERMINANTS OF SELF‐EMPLOYMENT ENTRY: WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW?

The analysis of the decision to enter into self‐employment is a hot topic in the economic literature. Among the elements that most directly influence this decision, individual factors are central. This study produces a comprehensive survey of the impact of these factors, covering both the theoretical arguments and the main conclusions emerging from the empirical studies. We analyze 12 critical determinant factors of the entry into self‐employment grouped into seven categories: (1) basic individual characteristics (gender, age, marital status, and children); (2) family background (parents and spouse); (3) personality characteristics; (4) human capital (education and experience); (5) health condition; (6) nationality and ethnicity; and (7) access to financial resources. While for some of the factors solid conclusions can be found, for others additional research is still needed in order to shed further light on their influence.     

Business Groups: An Integrated Model to Focus Future Research

abstract    Business groups are the primary form of managing large business organizations outside North America. This paper provides a systematic and integrative framework for understanding business groups. We argue that existing theoretical perspectives of business groups pay attention to four critical external contexts, each of which draws from a specific theoretical perspective: market conditions (transaction cost theory), social relationships (relational perspective), political factors (political economy perspective), and external monitoring mechanisms (agency theory). Business groups adapt to these external forces by deploying various internal mechanisms along two key dimensions: one focuses on the distinctive roles of the group affiliates (horizontal connectedness) and the other focuses on coupling and order between the parent firm and its affiliates (vertical linkages). Based on these two dimensions, a typology of business group forms is developed: network (N-form), club (C-form), holding (H-form), and multidivisional (M-form). Utilizing this model we provide research questions which facilitate an improved future research agenda.