Management training in small and medium-sized enterprises: methodological and conceptual issues

The paper examines the impact of management training and development on the organisation and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), via a variety of quantitative and qualitative research techniques and including both crosssectional and longitudinal approaches to analysis. The paper demonstrates the value of management training and development in SMEs and demonstrates a series of one-off and longer lasting effects on their organization and performance. The paper also highlights the conditions under which management development projects are likely to be more successful. Finally, the paper extends the schema developed by Arthur and Hendry (1990) and Hendry et al. (1991), indicating the factors influencing training within businesses, and shows the indirect and complex links between management training and firm performance.     

工作特征如何影响员工创新行为:一个有中介的调节作用模型

员工创新行为是工作情境因素和个性特征因素交互作用的结果.以中国企业员工为对象,通过引入组织情境与个性特征——组织创新氛围与员工创新效能感,深入探讨了工作特征与员工创新行为的权变关系及作用机制.通过对近300名企业员工进行问卷调查,采用回归分析处理数据.研究结果表明:工作特征显著正向影响员工创新行为.组织创新氛围显著调节工作特征与员工创新行为间关系:组织创新氛围有利于创新时,工作特征正向影响员工创新行为,且影响较大;组织创新氛围不利于创新时,工作特征负向影响员工创新行为,但影响较小.组织创新氛围的调节效应部分通过创新自我效能感的中介作用实现.     

Relative educational poverty: conceptual and empirical issues

Quality & Quantity - This paper’s goal is to discuss implications for the empirical study of low educational status arising from the use of the concept of educational poverty in research....     

The process of regionalization: An appropriate conceptual and methodological approach

Socioeconomic planning often necessitates the development of a set of areal units. This spatial component of planning is regionalization, and it must be conceptually and methodologically compatible with its purpose. Many elements common to most traditional procedures (continguity constraints, predetermination of the number or size of regions, and mutual exclusivity of regions) jeopardize the validity of the regionalization. An alternative approach, factorial regionalization, produces intuitively meaningful regional types without imposing unrealistic constraints upon the regional landscape. In addition to being more objective, the procedure yields a greater amount of information than traditional methods. This in turn allows more flexibility in interpreting and employing the results of the regionalization.     

Job Performance and Turnover: A Review and Integrative Multi-Route Model

Research and theory on the elusive yet important relationship between individual job performance and employee turnover is reviewed. An integrative model of the relationship is proposed which argues that performance may lead to turnover through three different routes. One, performance may influence turnover through cognitive and affective evaluations of the desire to leave the organization. Two, performance may influence turnover through actual and perceived mobility in the job market. Three, performance may lead more directly to turnover in response to performance-related shocks to the system. Additionally, important moderators of these relationships, notably visibility and reward contingency, are highlighted.     

Foreign operation methods and switching costs: conceptual issues and possible effects

Although the issue of switching costs does appear in some of the frameworks for choosing modes of foreign operation, the treatment of these costs is fairly cursory. In this article we propose a simple classification of switching costs which distinguishes between “take-down” costs and “set-up” costs. A distinction is also made between measurable and perceptual switching costs. The article outlines the assumptions regarding switching costs that are embedded in current theoretical approaches to the internationalization of firms, and discusses the possible effects of such costs on the choice and timing of foreign operation methods.     

Exploring necessary conditions in HRM research: Fundamental issues and methodological implications

Although the notion that HRM activities are necessary conditions for achieving certain outcomes is widespread in HRM research, most empirical studies follow an additive sufficiency logic. That is, they analyse whether HRM activities increase an outcome, assuming that they can compensate for one another. However, this does not correspond to the idea of necessity where single HRM activities are required for an outcome to occur and cannot be compensated when absent. We discuss the differences between sufficiency and necessity logics in terms of theory, methodology, and practical relevance. Also, we suggest using a new approach and analysis technique in HRM research: necessary condition analysis. We illustrate the application of the method by analysing data on the relationship between ability‐, motivation‐, and opportunity‐enhancing HRM practices (i.e., high‐performance work practices) and employee performance. This illustrative example highlights that necessary conditions require particular theoretical attention and suitable empirical methods. The paper concludes by showing the value of studying necessary conditions, because such analyses allow straightforward recommendations to be given of high relevance for HRM practice, which differ from and add to recommendations based on additive sufficiency logic and analyses.     

A Model of Organizational and Job Environment Influences on Workplace Violence

A considerable amount of research on workplace violence has been conducted over the past two decades, resulting in a better understanding of its causes and consequences. Several models have been developed that consider the causes and consequences, as well as the organization??s policies that influence workplace violence. The source of violence (internal vs. external), hierarchical position (supervisory vs. line positions), formalization in terms of policies, and the external environment factors that affect organizations have rarely been considered in combination with one another in models to date. The present paper develops a model addressing these gaps in the literature by incorporating these factors as influences on the likelihood of experiencing workplace violence.     

工作重塑与员工幸福感的关系研究:基于自我决定理论的跨层次模型

在对西安等地区302名单位员工进行问卷调查的基础上,探索工作重塑是否影响、如何影响员工幸福感.以自我决定理论为切入点,构建了工作重塑、人—岗匹配、员工幸福感以及支持性人力资源实践四个变量间的研究模型.结果显示:工作重塑正向影响员工幸福感;人—岗匹配在工作重塑与员工幸福感之间起到了部分中介作用;支持性人力资源实践调节了工...     

我国注册会计师应对工作不满意情境的行为反应研究——基于对EVLN模型的有效性验证

文章收集了358份有效样本数据,运用EVLN模型考察中国注册会计师面对工作不满意的行为反应,分析结果如下:(1)EVLN模型在中国注册会计师样本中的信度较高,但维度和项目需进一步调整;(2)中国注册会计师面对工作不满意时,更多采用考虑型表达和耐心行为,而较少采用退出、进攻型表达和忽视行为;(3)各行为反应之间的相关关系支持了建设性-破坏性维度划分;(4)社会统计学变量也与行为反应存在一定关系。     

On FDH efficiency analysis: Some methodological issues and applications to retail banking,courts, and urban transit

The methodology of free disposal hull (FDH) measure of productive efficiency is defined and put in perspectivevis-à-vis other nonparametric techniques, in terms of the postulates on which they respectively rest. Computational issues are also considered, in relation to the linear programming techniques used in DEA. The first application bears on a comparison between a private and a public bank, in terms of the relative efficiency of their branches. Important characteristics of the data are revealed by FDH that are not by DEA, due to a better data fit. Next, efficiency estimates of judicial activities are used to evaluate what part of the existing backlog could be reduced by efficiency increases. Finally, with monthly data of an urban transit firm over 12 years, the FDH methodology is extended to a sequential treatment of time series, that supplements efficiency estimation with a measure of technical progress.     

Congestion, Land Use, and Job Dispersion: A General Equilibrium Model

In dispersed cities, congestion tolls would drive up central wages and rents and would induce centrally located producers to want to disperse closer to their workers and their customers, paying lower rents and realizing productivity gains from land to labor substitution. But the tolls would also induce residents to want to locate more centrally in order to economize on commuting and shopping travel. In a computable general equilibrium model, we find that the centralizing effect of tolls on residences dominates on the decentralizing effect of tolls on firms, causing the dispersed city to have more centralized job and population densities. Under stylized parameters, we find that efficiency gains from levying congestion tolls on work and shopping travel are 3.0% of average income. About 80% of such gains come from road planning and 20% from tolls.     

Job analysis and the sociotechnical approach to quality: A critical examination

Organizations in pursuit of quality have generally taken one of two paths. The traditional TQM path emphasizes managerial control over organizational systems, while the sociotechnical path seeks to deemphasize hierarchical control and transfer managerial functions to teams. Organizations structured around sociotechnical principles are less likely to have traditional jobs—relatively static sets of tasks independent of any particular individual. In contrast, employees, usually organized in teams, are often given only the broadest set of responsibilities and are asked to organize their own work. In such an environment, traditional forms of job analysis have very limited usefulness. This paper suggests ways in which job analysis may be developed in order to be useful in sociotechnical organizations.     

Gomulka on the soft budget constraint: A reply

Conclusion The preceding two sections of this note cover the main points at issue. There are some other, lesser matters, but these need not detain us here. To repeat: I have found Dr Gomulka's comments constructive and stimulating. They will, I am sure, be helpful both in my future research and in future expositions of my ideas.     

基于JDC、自我效能感与工作绩效的工作压力扩展模型

工作压力的产生与形成,不仅取决于工作要求与控制的交互作用,个体的自我效能感也将通过影响工作控制与工作要求的匹配程度而导致个体不同程度的压力;同时,自我效能感又是预测个体工作绩效的重要变量。因此,传统的JDC模型应充分考虑个体自我效能感。对于组织而言,可采取个体压力认知重建、压力应对技能培训、工作丰富化、个体参与管理等措施来改变个体自我效能感水平,继而有效降低个体压力并提高组织绩效。     

On the use and usefulness of theories and perspectives: A reply to Brunsson

The present paper is a reply to Brunsson (2021b), who wrote a commentary on the edited volume Theories and Perspectives in Business Administration (Eriksson-Zetterquist, Hansson & Nilsson, 2020). Although we agree with Brunsson on several points, we nevertheless argue that students need to learn about different theories and perspectives. First, the use of theories and perspectives as analytical tools will help students to describe and analyze a certain phenomenon. Second, to be able to theorize students need to acquire fundamental knowledge of the background and the specificities of the theory or perspective in use. Third, an awareness of the diversity of theories and perspectives that exists within the business administration discipline is a prerequisite to being able to contribute to the creation of new knowledge. Finally, we do not agree with Brunsson that the multitude of theories and perspectives in the business administration discipline is a sign of “an inferiority complex”. It is the outcome of the vitality and viability of the discipline.     

Applicant reactions to social media assessment: A review and conceptual framework

Applicant reactions to selection procedures have attracted much scholarly attention in the work and organizational psychology literature over the past three decades. While this body of literature is quite robust, scholarly research into applicant reactions to social media assessment more specifically is sparse. In this article, we develop a comprehensive theoretical framework to better understand applicant reactions to social media assessment. We explicate the process by which various individual, organizational, and labor market antecedents elicit different reactions from job applicants and the resulting behavioral consequences. We argue that SM assessments are very different from traditional assessments and thus require a new theoretical framework that is context specific to capture applicant reactions, and in so doing, add value to extant reactions frameworks. Our theorizing advances the applicant reactions literature by providing an expanded view of the significant role of social media in the hiring process and how applicants are likely to respond to this new assessment tool. Drawing on this conceptual framework, we offer propositions and discuss the implications for research and practice.