Dubious cycles: a methodological critique of the Namenwirth/Weber thesis on cultural change with an introduction into filter design methods

In a series of studies based on content analyses of political documents, J. Zvi Nam-wirth and Robert Ph. Weber have advanced the thesis that in modern society culture changes in theoretically meaningful cyclical patterns. In our article we question the empirical evidence presented by these authors and look at some of the more general methodological and technical problems involved in identifying cycles with time series data.     

Layoff victim's employment relationship with a new employer in Korea: effects of unmet tenure expectations on trust and psychological contract

Existing studies of psychological contract have largely focused on the effects of contract breach on employees' attitudes and the contract itself involving the same employer. Given that both workforce mobility and downsizing activities are increasing, it is important to understand how individuals' past employment experiences shape their relationships with their employers. The present study focuses on the effect of prior layoffs on relationships with new employers. We posit that furloughed workers experience layoff as a breach of the psychological contract of job security they have entered into with their employer. Longitudinal data collected from individuals who were re-employed following a layoff revealed that unmet tenure expectations in an employment relationship result in reduced trust in a new employer, which in turn negatively impacts the quality of psychological contracts with the new employer. The results also show that the relationship between unmet tenure expectations and trust was moderated by individual attributions regarding the cause of the layoff. The present findings suggest that the negative impact of contract breach experienced with one organization may carry over to subsequent organizational contexts.     

Omission of an observation from a regression analysis: A dicussion on efficiency loss,with applications

A scalar measure of loss of efficiency is defined for the case of a single observation omitted from a regression analysis. This measure is used to algebraically analyse the structure of loss of efficiency, and shows that it arises from a multiplicative relationship between three distinct components. The theory is applied to (a) assessment of the effect of the next observation when time series data is used, (b) the likely advantage to be gained from the use of mixed estimation, and (c) the efficiency of the Cochrane-Orcutt procedure.