Contextual factors in the success of reduced‐load work arrangements among managers and professionals

The purpose of this study was to consider the role of contextual factors, particularly those related to HR policies and practices, in the success of eighty‐two professionals and managers working on a reduced‐load basis. Results revealed agreement among senior managers, coworkers, direct reports, and reduced‐load managers and professionals themselves that the alternative work arrangements were successful. The key factors seen as facilitating success included individual characteristics and behaviors as well as contextual factors related to job content, work group, organizational culture, and human‐resource policies and practices. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Probabilistic Population Projections for India with Explicit Consideration of the Education-Fertility Link

Among the different sources of uncertainty in population forecasting, uncertain changes in the structure of heterogeneous populations have received little attention so far, although they can have significant impacts. Here we focus on the effect of changes in the educational composition of the population on the overall fertility of the population in the presence of strong fertility differentials by education. With data from India we show that alternative paths of future female enrolment in education result in significantly different total fertility rates (TFR) for the country over the coming decades, even assuming identical fertility trends within each education group. These results from multi-state population projections by education are then translated into a fully probabilistic population projection for India in which the results of alternative education scenarios are assumed to expand the uncertainty range of the future TFR in the total population.
This first attempt to endogenize structural change with respect to education—which is the greatest measurable source of fertility heterogeneity in Asia—has resulted from a larger exercise of the Asian MetaCentre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis to collect empirical information, scientific arguments as well as informed opinions about likely future population trends in Asia from a large number of population experts in the region. In this process, future changes in the educational composition of the population have been identified as a key driver of future fertility.
The actual probabilistic population projections for India show that with high certainty, the Indian population will continue to grow to about 1.3 billion over the next quarter of a century. After that the uncertainty will get much wider, ranging from a continued strong increase to the beginning of a population decline in India.     

A multi-level model for studying the context and impact of work–family policies and culture in organizations

The purpose of this paper was to provide an integrative multi-level framework that could help scholars study the impact of work–family policies on individual employees as well as assist practitioners in making informed decisions regarding the adoption, design, implementation, and allowance of these policies. This multi-level model illustrates the various macro- and mesolevel factors that may influence individual perceptions (i.e., equity perceptions, negotiation power, sense of entitlement) regarding work–family policies. By providing such a model, a common language may be developed for researchers from various disciplines studying this issue and better insight into the various linkages that are involved. Additionally, the framework can provide HR practitioners with a deeper understanding of the contextual factors that may influence the effectiveness of work–family policies in their organizations.     

Assumptions on Fertility in Stochastic Population Forecasts*

In recent years Statistics Netherlands has published several stochastic population forecasts. The degree of uncertainty of the future population is assessed on the basis of assumptions about the probability distribution of future fertility, mortality and migration. The assumptions on fertility are based on an analysis of historic forecasts of the total fertility rate (TFR), on time‐series models of observations of the TFR, and on expert knowledge. This latter argument‐based approach refers to the TFR distinguished by birth order. In the most recent Dutch forecast the 95% forecast interval of the total fertility rate in 2050 is assumed to range from 1.2 to 2.3 children per woman.     

Employee and management rights and responsibilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): An overview

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) significantly expands the rights of disabled individuals in their access to employment opportunities, services, telecommunications, public accommodations, and transportation. This article provides an overview of the ADA with a particular emphasis on employment issues under Title I of the Act affecting the rights and responsibilities of disabled employees and employers. Permitted and prohibited actions by employers are discussed, as well as factors used to determine the definition and application of key terms under the Act. Some potential impacts of the ADA on the interests of disabled individuals and employers are discussed. Recommendations for effective management policies to comply with the employment provisions of the ADA are also included.     

Managing Challenging Organizational Change: Introducing active labour market policies in Italian public employment agencies

Abstract

Managing organizational change in the public sector is extremely challenging when adverse conditions hamper the introduction of novel organizational practices. This study builds on the case of the implementation of active labour market policies in in Italy, in an attempt to help explain the process of managing organizational change in the public sector. The case study shows how, despite contrary conditions that originate from the political context, the interplay between designed policy interventions, initial conditions, and features of the policy process can result in effective change of employment service practices.     

Is positive action ‘positive’? Collective bargaining and gender relations in the Irish civil service

Participation in the EC has given Irish unions the clout to press for equality policies. However, economic factors combined with an entrenched sex-gender system hinder women's progress in achieving employment equity. Within the civil service, positive action policies have tended to perpetuate women's marginal status and discourage their labour force attachment.     

Promoting the informal sector as a source of gainful employment in developing countries: insights from Ghana

Although the informal sector continues to be the main source of employment in developing countries, little empirical research has been conducted into the human resource management (HRM) issues surrounding this sector in sub-Saharan Africa. Against this background, this study seeks to highlight the HRM issues, such as training and employment strategy, which are assuming increasing importance in the informal sector in developing countries. After reviewing the marginalist and structuralist debates on the informal sector, the paper looks at the Ghanaian government's attempt to transform the sector into a source of national economic development, entrepreneurship and self-employment. As part of this examination, the paper explores the question of whether the government's strategies can provide jobs for all who need them.

Based on the evidence of the empirical research, the paper argues that although the current Ghanaian government's informal employment strategy is a product of political expediency and, therefore, prone to pitfalls, it nevertheless constitutes a worthwhile attempt to combat unemployment in the long term. The paper also contends that in environments of perpetual economic crisis, which undermine the ability of sub-Saharan African (SSA) governments to generate adequate growth, it makes good socio-economic sense to promote the informal sector as a significant source of employment. The government's strategy should, therefore, be seen as an attempt to help the informal sector generate a level of employment above the marginal and survival. In this respect, the Ghanaian experience provides useful lessons for other SSA countries grappling with similar unemployment problems.     

An economic-demographic approach to forecasting national and subnational birth rates

This paper conceptualizes and tests an economic-demographic fertility projection model, founded in the prevailing microeconomic theories of fertility behavior and embracing both economic and demographic determinants. Through a simulataneous system approach, the focus is on the linked decision areas for women concerning marriage, childbearing, employment, carreer and education. National age-race fertility rate projections are generated for the period of 1978–1985. An approach is explored whereby these can be adjusted to subnational levels and this is illustrated for the state of Illinois. The multivariate model appears to capture the key factors affecting fertility. It supports the Easterlin forecast that a turnaround from the steep decline of fertility rates during the past two decades will occur by the early 1980s. However the upturn will be relatively modest though sustained due to strong offsetting forces. The results justify further research on the potential and form of the economic-demographic approach to projecting the direction of fertility at the various geographic levels.     

Women's occupational status in Britain,France and the USA: explaining the difference

Using directly comparable data this article explores the lower occupational status overall of British employed women indicating the importance of social and employment policies to the amount of part-time working by women and the occupational status of women's part-time jobs in the three societies.     

A mathematical approach to study and forecast racial groups interactions: deterministic modeling and scenario method

Globalization and migratory fluxes are increasing the ethnic and racial diversity within many countries. Therefore, describing social dynamics requires models that are apt to capture multi-groups interactions. Building on the assumption of a relationship between multi-racial dynamics and socioeconomic status (SES), we introduce an aggregate, contextual, and continuous index of SES accounting for measures of income, employment, expected life, and group numerosity. After, taking into account that groups’ SES assumes the form of a logit model, we propose a Lotka–Volterra system to study and forecast the interaction among racial groups. Last, we apply our methodology to describe the racial dynamics in the US society. In particular, we study the kind and the intensity of Asians–Blacks–Natives–Whites interactions in the US between 2002 and 2013. Moreover, we forecast the evolution of groups’ SES and how interracial relations will unfold between 2013 and 2018 and in three alternative stylized scenarios.

     

Employer Policies and Organizational Commitment in Britain 1992–97

An important current of thinking in the last decade has emphasized the need for a shift from control to commitment as the central objective of management employment policies. This paper is concerned to assess whether there was a significant increase in British employees' commitment to their organizations in the 1990s, using comparative data from two large-scale and nationally representative surveys carried out in 1992 and 1997. It finds that there was no evidence of an increase in commitment over the period. As in the early part of the decade, employees had only a weak level of attachment to their organizations. The analysis examines a number of factors that have been seen as important determinants of such commitment: changes in the level of skill, task discretion, controls over work performance, and forms of employee involvement. While there were changes in some of these factors that encouraged higher commitment, these were largely cancelled out by a notable decline in the discretion that employees were allowed to exercise over their work.     

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.     

Can child care policy encourage employment and fertility?: Evidence from a structural model

We develop a structural model of female employment and fertility which accounts for intertemporal feedback effects between these two outcomes. To identify the effect of financial incentives on employment and fertility we exploit variation in the tax and transfer system, which differs by employment state and number of children. Specifically, we simulate in detail the effects of the tax and transfer system, including child care costs. The model provides estimates of the structural preferences of women that can be used to study the effect of various policy reforms. Results show that increasing child care subsidies, conditional on employment, increases the labor supply of all women as well as the fertility rates of the childless and highly educated women.     

外贸顺差会降低就业水平?——基于匹配模型的实证分析

通过借鉴Pissarides匹配模型的思想,构建包含净出口额与就业等因素在内的模型框架,在此基础上利用2004~2008年中国行业面板数据,实证分析外贸顺差对就业的影响机制与程度。结果表明:已经拥有庞大贸易顺差的基础上,顺差的进一步增加不能提高就业水平,反而会造成就业人数的下降。本文研究表明,应该通过制定相应的进口支持政策,保障出口与进口的协调发展,减少顺差来优化国内经济发展结构,促进国内经济发展质量提升和就业水平提高。     

Exploring the role of the spouse in expatriate failure: a grounded theory-based investigation of expatriate' spouse adjustment issues from India

This paper applied the grounded theory method in a study of the expatriates' spouses' relocation adjustment process and the impact of such adjustment problems in expatriate failure. A qualitative enquiry approach using open-ended questions in the form of personal interviews was adopted. Iteratively, the questions were changed to reach theoretical saturation and we allowed the respondents to lead us through the data collection process during our eventual theory development process. An action diagram technique was used to help structure and process the data. The study was conducted with 26 Indian origin spouses who had to encounter relocation issues one time or the other. We found the spouses' perceived gender role ideology to play a critical part in their adjustment process. Other factors that influenced the adjustment process in expatriate assignments were personality factors such as extraversion, organizational and family support, country demographics and pre-departure training.     

The impact of fertility policy on the actuarial balance of China’s urban employee basic medical insurance fund–The selective two-child policy vs. the universal two-child policy

This study aims to investigate the impact of the change in China’s fertility policy from its selective two-child policy to a universal two-child policy on the balance of its Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) fund. This study uses data obtained from the 2013 and 2015 China General Society Survey to estimate the Poisson model, and then adopts a bisexual Leslie matrix, estimated adjusted coefficients, and an actuarial model to forecast the current balance and accumulated balance of the UEBMI fund under each of the selective two-child and universal two-child policies up to the year 2060. The primary finding of this study is that this change in fertility policy results in the current balance of the UEBMI fund registering a lower deficit and eventually a surplus. Although this policy change cannot prevent the UEBMI from facing bankruptcy, the deficit in terms of the accumulated balance of the UEBMI fund will decline.     

Estimating the Consequences of Unintended Fertility for Child Health and Education in Romania: An Analysis Using Twins Data*

We use the natural experiment of twins at first birth to estimate the effects of unplanned fertility on the nutritional status and school enrolment of children in Romania, a country with a unique fertility history. A first‐birth twins shock has negative impacts on children's human capital investments, particularly for later‐born siblings. We infer that harsh pronatalist policies prior to the 1989 Revolution had adverse consequences for the human capital of Romanian children, and that policies to make fertility control easier will have significant positive impacts on children's health and schooling.     

Neo-pluralism as a theoretical framework for understanding HRM in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper discusses the 'social' nature of employment management problems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). 'Applied' Western HRM is largely based on unitarist conceptions of organizational reality. Where conceptions suggest a 'stakeholder' perspective, they tend to follow orthodox formulations of pluralism. In that regard, notions of 'stakeholding' refer to the divergent internal organizational interests (mainly economic) of labour and management. In the SSA context, however, the broader social and moral issues of the wider community have a decisive influence on the employment relationship. And internal employment relations structures, such as trade unions, do not constitute the main representative channels for employee grievances. Consequently, established Western employment frames of reference do not represent suitable theoretical frameworks for analysing all the relevant social factors that influence the SSA employment relationship. This paper proposes a modified version of Ackers' (2002) 'neo-pluralist' theoretical framework as the basis for understanding and resolving some of issues involved in HRM in SSA. From this analysis, it proposes a model of HRM that attempts to institutionalize some elements of the 'African social system' into formal HRM policies and strategies.     

The adoption of HIV/AIDS policies and practices in businesses in Botswana: an exploratory study

This paper contributes to an under-researched area through an exploration of the factors motivating the adoption of HIV/AIDS policies and practices in businesses in Botswana. The focus of analysis is a developing country where HIV/AIDS is acknowledged to have had a detrimental impact on its human resources. The objective of this research was to assess whether a voluntary, non-legally binding National Policy on HIV/AIDS is an adequate motivator for the adoption of HIV/AIDS policies in businesses. The study engaged employers and managers across a number of key sectors in Botswana. The findings are explored through a theoretical lens that acknowledges institutional isomorphism and rational economic decision-making as potential motivating factors. The data indicate that the National Policy on HIV/AIDS had motivated certain businesses to adopt such policies, but a variety of other factors were also found to be involved in this process. There was, however, lack of engagement with the National Policy and with issues surrounding HIV/AIDS by a high number of the participating organisations. The research findings reveal the complexity of factors involved in adopting HIV/AIDS policies in a developing country, and therefore provide an insight in an under-researched area. They can serve as a foundation for future research on human resource management policies and practices in relation to HIV/AIDS in African economies.