Lessons from management–union partnership in teacher performance appraisal in the New South Wales public education system

Performance appraisal is frequently seen as one of the hallmarks of the ‘new managerialism’ in public sector human resource management. It is also commonly represented as a device for individualizing the employment relationship. Yet even appraisal offers scope for employee voice/participation, both individually and collectively, and for varying degrees of management–union cooperation. This study examines an unlikely case of management–union partnership in performance appraisal – that applied since 2000 to teachers in Australia's largest public schooling bureaucracy, the NSW Department of Education and Training, whose teachers have a long history of union solidarity and industrial militancy. The experiment can be seen as a union retreat from confrontationism, a concession to managerialism, and a resignation to the dominance of individualism over collectivism. However, we argue that it has also widened the scope for both union and employee voice at workplace level.     

‘Thinking Before Acting’ or ‘Acting Before Thinking’: Antecedents of Individual Action Propensity in Work Situations

We introduce the concept of ‘individual action propensity’ to examine the approach of individuals towards solving situations for which they lack knowledge and/or experience about what to do. We focus on a naturally contrasting pair of responses: ‘thinking before acting’ or ‘acting before thinking’, and associate low action propensity with thinking one's way into understanding how to act, and high action propensity with acting one's way into understanding such situations. We build on regulatory mode theory – with its dimensions of locomotion and assessment and the trade‐off between speed and accuracy – to examine individual characteristics as predictors of individual action propensity. We find that individual action propensity is associated with being a woman, having fewer years of formal education, not relying on help‐seeking behaviours, and having a positive attitude towards spontaneity. Our findings shed light on why individuals take action, or not, and provide implications for research on organizational action propensity.     

Linking people management and extra‐role behaviour: results of a longitudinal study

This article examines the validity of the assumption that employees' perceptions of those people management activities of their supervisor that impact on employees' abilities, motivation and opportunities to perform influence employee extra‐role behaviour. The results of a longitudinal survey with data from 3,368 employees provide support for this assumption. This study's distinctive features – the concept of people management that involves the management of HR implementation, the longitudinal research design, and the use of the AMO framework for specifying the linkages between HRM and performance – make it possible to address the core questions in the HRM‐performance debate that still remain unanswered according to Guest.     

Social capital and entrepreneurial process

The paper examines the relationship between social capital and entrepreneurial engagement of individuals in 35 nations from Europe and Asia. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical research that attempts to investigate the influence of three-dimensional social capital concept – trust, networks and norms – on three stages of entrepreneurial process – preference, trial and success – using such large and comprehensive cross-sectional micro data. In general, we find that all three dimensions of social capital matter in the entrepreneurship context, albeit differently. They become beneficial in different ways and at different stages of entrepreneurial involvement. For example, among trust variables, institutional trust in general, and trust in business-oriented and business-supporting actors in particular, exert significant positive effect on entrepreneurial process. Individuals with formal membership in professional associations are more likely to perceive entrepreneurial opportunities, while some close or strong-tie networks might prevent them from progressing in the entrepreneurship ladder. Finally, individual level civic norms appear to be negatively associated with early-stage entrepreneurship, while the success in becoming an entrepreneur is not found to be bound by people’s civic norms.     

The performance of performance appraisal systems: understanding the linkage between appraisal structure and appraisal discrimination complaints

Abstract

Employee perceptions of the fairness of performance evaluations are critical to the success of any appraisal system. Research on performance management includes extensive studies on how bias emerges in the appraisal process. Despite this, there is no empirical evidence linking formal discrimination complaint filings – a key measure of bias - and performance appraisals. To close this gap, we conduct an empirical analysis using information on appraisal systems and discrimination complaints from the US federal government. Our findings suggest that agencies with better-designed appraisal systems will experience higher appraisal-related discrimination complaints, contrary to expectations. In particular, an expansion of training and voice opportunities are associated with an increase in appraisal discrimination complaints, while increased differentiation between performers is not consistently associated with complaints. For managers struggling with performance management, it may be better to spend time on improving performance-focused interpersonal communication rather than redesigning appraisal systems.     

Smithian National Product and the Wealth of African Nations

Abstract . Given the contemporary interest in growth, conventional measures of economic growth (changes in real GDP or real GDP per capita) may be less preferable than a measure that is more plutological by design. The plutological measure presented in this paper is that of Adam Smith (1776 ). While Smith's work pre‐dated formal national income accounting, there was a macroeconomic accounting scheme implicit in his theorizing on economic growth. This study articulates Adam Smith's concept of national product (referred to as Smithian national product, or SNP). It uses current output data to compute SNP for a set of six African countries, and examines the growth experience of these countries when using SNP as opposed to the more conventional GDP measure.     

Managerial telework allowance decisions – a vignette study among German managers

Managers play an important role in the implementation of telework in organizations since they frequently have final approval over employees' requests for telework arrangements. Drawing upon March's (1994) dual-logic theory of decision making, the study examines antecedents of managers' responses to employees' requests for telework. Using a vignette study with a balanced experimental design, we investigated the impact of person-related, task-related and organizational context factors on managerial telework allowance decisions in German organizations. Several person- and task-related factors were found to be significantly related to managers' telework allowance decisions. Organizational context factors, such as a family-supportive organizational culture and formal policies were found to either directly or indirectly influence managers' responses to employees' requests for telework. More specifically, formal telework policies were important in stimulating favorable managerial telework allowance decisions when applicant criticality was low and the organizational culture was family-unsupportive. In line with March's (1994) theory of decision making, the study shows that utility maximization is only one perspective of decision making which managers apply to telework allowance decisions. Rule following and considerations of appropriateness are also taken into account by managers when deciding upon employees' telework requests.     

Contact points and flash points: Conceptualizing the use of justice mechanisms in the performance appraisal interview

There has been a great deal of performance evaluation research, but little has been directed toward understanding subordinate responses to this process and developing ways to manage these responses. In contrast, the justice literature has identified mechanisms that directly influence recipient responses to organizational decisions. The present paper attempts to integrate justice theory and research into the performance appraisal interview. A conceptual model is presented that examines the relationship between three key justice mechanisms in the performance appraisal interview. Propositions are presented regarding the influence of these mechanisms using contact points (episodes where justice mechanisms are expected) and flash points (combinations of justice mechanisms that might lead to problems) as a basis for understanding how justice works in this context. Research is recommended to test these propositions. Implications for conducting performance appraisal interviews are discussed.     

The relationship between ‘high-performance work practices’ and employee attitudes: an investigation of additive and interaction effects

In order to improve our understanding of mediating variables inside the ‘black box’ of the firm's labour management, this paper examines the relationship between high-performance work system (HPWS) practices and employee attitudes. Using a randomly selected, national population sample, clear evidence was found for a positive relationship between HPWS practices and the attitudinal variables of job satisfaction, trust in management, and organizational commitment, implying that HPWS can provide win-win outcomes for employees and employers. However, the study also tests – from an employee perspective – the ‘complementarities thesis’ and finds negative interaction effects among HPWS practices. This strengthens the argument that there are likely to be limits to the positive outcomes of HPWSs for employees. Evidence of sequencing in the employee attitudinal responses to HPWSs was also found, with job satisfaction as the key mediating variable.     

Partnerships and the private recruitment industry

This article, based on a postal survey and qualitative interview‐based research, examines the relationship between major private recruitment bureaux and their clients in the UK, with particular attention to the recruitment and selection of temporary workers. The private recruitment industry is growing and large bureaux are seeking closer partnership arrangements with clients. Contracts for labour services are being developed on a 'preferred' supplier basis – similar in type to the approach taken for the purchase or supply of goods or components. However, formal preferred supplier contracts with temporary work bureaux were used by only a minority of clients, usually larger organisations or those having projects or workplaces with high volume demand. While such bureaux seek models of relational contracting or partnering, many clients prefer less fully engaged or 'semi‐distanced' relations facilitated by the informal dimensions of inter‐organisational contacts.     

Time to invest in corporate social responsibility and the value of CSR operations: The case of environmental externalities

The radical restructuring of the German utility giants RWE and E.ON in the wake of Germany's shift to renewable energy motivates the need of a formal model of corporate social responsible (CSR) investment appraisal with environmental externalities. We offer in this paper a model that uses the tools of decision analysis to value the option to postpone the project. We show that adding a CSR dimension to projects generating negative environmental externalities can induce the firm to invest immediately, whereas it always postpones projects without CSR activities. According to the project's attributes, the paper also determines the optimal level of effort in CSR.     

The strategic use of contingent workers in Hong Kong's economic upheaval

This research examines strategy in the use and purposes of contingent employment in four retail firms under different economic conditions in Hong Kong. Data from in‐depth qualitative case studies found that the four firms – three Japanese and one British – had different organisational responses to the economic conditions caused by the increase of sales before the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and the shrinkage of sales afterwards. One such response concerned the companies' employment policies, especially in their use of contingent workers. Some tended to have an ad hoc opportunistic approach to the use of contingent workers, while others were more strategic and incorporate long‐term planning in their labour utilisation strategy. Implications are drawn relating to companies' use of contingent employment to changes in the contextual environment regarding their long‐term development.     

The success and failure of policy-implanted inter-firm network initiatives: motivations,processes and structure

This paper examines the processes and causes of inter-firm network success and failure, defined in terms of the ability of networks to become a sustained and valued form of business activity for their members. The paper examines four different case study network initiatives: (1) a failed informal ‘new entrepreneurs' network’ (2) a successful informal ‘local cluster group’ (3) a failed formal ‘defence contractors' network’ and (4) a successful formal ‘small-firm technology group’. It is shown that networks in business are often consciously developed and maintained by those managing directors who have recognized the importance of cooperative activities for achieving competitive advantage for their companies. The best network support consisted of brokers who are able to mix and overlap the ‘hard’ business and ‘softer’ social interests of participants. The case studies indicate that it is formal groups that are the most potent form of inter-firm network, but that it is through an initially informal structure that they are best facilitated. It is concluded that both economic and social rationalities are at play in the motivation of firms to join networks, and that their success is closely connected to pre-existing commonality between members.     

Looking Forward to Performance Improvement: A Field Test of the Feedforward Interview for Performance Management

This study examines the effectiveness of the feedforward interview for improving the job performance of employees relative to a traditional performance appraisal interview in a business equipment firm. Managers (n = 25) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. Employees (n = 70) who engaged in a feedforward interview with their manager were observed by an anonymous peer to perform significantly better on the job four months later than employees (n = 75) who received the company's traditional performance appraisal interview. The finding that the feedforward intervention increased performance relative to the performance appraisal indicates that the effect is a relatively enduring one. The results suggest that the feedforward interview should prove useful for human resource managers who are searching for ways to increase the performance of their organization's human resources over and above the traditional performance appraisal. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Age,employability and the role of learning activities and their motivational antecedents: a conceptual model

In today's time of demographic change and rapid innovation, age and employability as well as the role of learning and development are high on the agenda of human resource managers and chief learning officers. However, existing research has failed to integrate these concepts in a clear model and offers little explanation of how the concepts may be linked exactly. In this conceptual paper we show how chronological age, despite its poor characteristics as a predictor, might still affect employability indirectly. Specifically, we propose that employees' motivation – in terms of future time perspective and goal orientation – and formal and informal learning activities need to be considered. Since an individual's chronological age cannot be changed, it is important to recognize these mediating variables, which may be targeted more easily by human resource development or age management initiatives.     

关于物业税税基批量评估体系的版块区片划分的实证探究

物业税的改革立法是我国房地产发展改革的大势所趋。物业税税基的评估体系建立是近年来的正在热议的课题。建立物业税税基批量评估体系,自然地引出了划分评估区域版块及区段的概念。以往对划分版块和区段的研究仅限于对概念描述和理论的分析,对版块及区段划分的实证研究较少。以大连市作为实证研究的对象,通过对大连市区进行板块及区段的划分,为批量评估体系的研究提供基础的理论及数据支持。在进行版块和区段划分的同时,找出了影响房地产价格的各种宏观及微观的影响因素,利用房地产传统的估价方法,评估出版块及区段的基准价格,为批量评估的进一步研究工作提供了一定的实践经验。     

Technological evolution as creative destruction of process heterogeneity: evidence from US plant-level data

Change in evolutionary economics is predicated on the creative destruction of variety. Despite the importance of the concept of variety, or heterogeneity, in evolutionary economic theory, empirical work that examines the character of variety – its extent and its persistence – is still scarce. Drawing on unpublished, micro-level data from the US Bureau of the Census, this paper examines the characteristics of process heterogeneity in selected US manufacturing industries. More specifically the paper has three goals. First, to demonstrate that heterogeneity in plant technologies exists and that it persists over time even within relatively mature industrial sectors. Second, to examine the veracity of the processes that generate and destroy heterogeneity in production technology within narrowly defined industries. Third, to link the heterogeneity of plant-level techniques of production to the pace and direction of technological change at the level of the industry.     

The stigma of obesity and discrimination in performance appraisal: a theoretical model

We propose a theoretical model to study the effect of obesity stigma on performance appraisal. The model draws from the appraisal, obesity, stigmatization, and prejudice literatures to examine three sets of factors: individual factors in the appraiser(s) and the obese appraisee; factors in performance appraisal; and contextual factors. According to the model, these factors make it easier or harder for obesity stigma to affect the performance appraisal of obese employees, potentially biasing the process and resulting in discrimination. While examining the interplay of forces that facilitate or inhibit the expression of obesity stigma in the affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses of appraisers, we introduce the concept of ‘aversive weightism’. This concept enhances understanding of the tensions between the ethos of objectivity in performance appraisal and the deeply rooted, often unconscious influences of societal prejudice and stigma against obesity. We conclude with implications for research and practice.     

Antecedents of employee's preference for knowledge-sharing tools

This study examines individual antecedents of employees' preference for formal or informal knowledge-sharing tools. We propose that the preference for different tools is determined by the combined effects of willingness to share knowledge, trust and role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE). The findings of the empirical study, which was conducted at a medium-sized Chinese company (N = 860), revealed that willingness to seek knowledge was related to the usage of both formal and informal tools. Furthermore, the willingness to give knowledge was significantly related to the usage of formal tools. RBSE had a significantly positive impact on both formal and informal knowledge-sharing tools' usage, while its effects on formal tools' usage were stronger than those on informal tools. Affect-based trust had a significantly positive impact on the usage of informal knowledge sharing, which was also stronger than its impact on formal tools' usage. Cognition-based trust positively moderated the relationship between willingness to seek knowledge and the usage of formal tools, and the relationship between willingness to share knowledge and informal tools' usage.