Proposals for a Minimum Programme for Statistics in Developing Countries

Statistical offices in developing countries are confronted with the challenge of introducing, with limited means, methods and tools ensuring the production of durable statistics satisfying regional, national and international requirements. Taking into account the evolution, over the last years, in the attitude of national authorities, funding partners and statisticians themselves regarding the building up of relevant and durable statistics, the present paper's proposal is to have, in each developing country, a Minimum Programme for Statistics (MPS) and that this programme be centred on four domains: coordination, national accounts, economic and social short term analysis, and dissemination.     

《前厅服务与管理》课程教学初探

通过对现行高职类高校中《前厅服务与管理》课程教学中存在的问题进行初步分析,提出前厅课程应当注重管理理论知识与技能的传授,课程教学增加前厅英语、前厅计算机软件应用、收银技能。探索出将课堂理论教学与前厅技能大赛相结合的新的教学方式。     

Externalization of employees: thinking about going somewhere else

Externalization of employment relations was a general trend among businesses in the 1990s. As a consequence we observe an increasing use of temporary workers, outsourcing and insourcing. This paper is concerned with the consequences of externalization of employment relations from the perspective of employees. The paper is based on an in-depth empirical study of a corporate adjustment programme in a large government-owned energy producer in Sweden. The company is trying to stimulate internal mobility by means of training programmes, adjusting its workforce to changes in market demand without lay-offs. I argue that externalization of employment relations is not only a matter of temporary, administrative or geographical distance between employer and employee. Instead a complementary form - externalization of responsibility - is suggested. The results may have consequences for the understanding of human resource policies aiming at employability.     

Sustainable employment: the importance of intrinsically valuable work and an age-supportive climate

The aging workforce emphasizes the importance of sustainable employment, that is the extent to which workers are able and willing to remain working now and in the future . This raises the question how organizations can design work contexts that contribute to sustainable employment. This study investigated the role of a intrinsically motivating job (intrinsic job value) and an age-supportive climate for three indicators of employees’ sustainable employment: employability, work engagement and affective commitment. The questionnaire was completed by 119 office employees (response 35%) of a Dutch public transport organization. A SEM analysis revealed that intrinsic job value was strongly and positively related with all three indicators of sustainable employment for employees of all ages. In contrast, an age-supportive climate was especially important for older employees’ work engagement and affective commitment. This study has implications for practice and for research of sustainable employment, HRM and aging.     

New Pedagogy and New Content: The Case of Statistics

Statistical education now takes place in a new social context. It is influenced by a movement to reform the teaching of the mathematical sciences in general. At the same time, the changing nature of our discipline demands revised content for introductory instruction, and technology strongly influences both what we teach and how we teach. The case for substantial change in statistics instruction is built on strong synergies between content, pedagogy, and technology. Statisticians who teach beginners should become more familiar with research on teaching and learning and with changes in educational technology. The spirit of contemporary introductions to statistics should be very different from the traditional emphasis on lectures and on probability and inference.     

The effect of integration policies on the time until regular employment of newly arrived immigrants: Evidence from Denmark

We analyse the effect of active labour-market programmes on the hazard rate into regular employment for newly arrived immigrants using the timing-of-events duration model. We take account of language course participation and progression in destination country language skills. We use rich administrative data from Denmark. We find substantial lock-in effects of participation in active labour-market programmes. Post programme effects on the hazard rate to regular employment are significantly positive for wage subsidy programmes, but not for other types of programmes. For language course participants, improvement in language proficiency has significant and substantial positive effects on the hazard rate to employment.     

Combining Matching and Nonparametric Instrumental Variable Estimation: Theory and An Application to the Evaluation of Active Labour Market Policies

We show how instrumental variable and matching estimators can be combined in order to identify a broader array of treatment effects. Instrumental variable (IV) estimators are known to estimate effects only for the compliers, representing a subset of the entire population. By combining IV with matching, we can estimate the treatment effects for the always‐ and never‐takers as well. Since in many cases these groups are the (endogenous) outcome of some assignment process, such estimates also help in judging the implications of such a selection process. In our application to the effects of participation in active labour market programmes in Switzerland, we find large and lasting positive employment effects for the compliers, whereas the effects for the always‐ and never‐participants are small. In addition, the compliers have worse employment outcomes without treatment than those who participate in the programme with or without the intervention under investigation. This suggests that the earlier assignment policy of the caseworkers was inefficient in that the always‐participants were neither those unemployed who would experience the highest expected treatment effects nor those unemployed who had the largest need for assistance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Statistics in Business and Industry: Implementation

There are many statistical tools available to be utilized for general business improvement and industrial problem solving. However, there is a wide gap between the tools available and those that are actually used in business and industrial organizations. Thus it is important for statisticians to direct serious attention to bridging this gap if statistics is to be relevant in business and industry. In this paper we look at some ideas for implementing statistical methods in business and industry.     

Impact of individual coping strategies and organisational work–life balance programmes on Australian employee well-being

This paper examines several individual coping strategies and employees' perception of organisational provision of work–life balance (WLB) programmes with a sample of 700 Australian employees. The combined effects of individual coping strategies and organisational provision of WLB programmes on employee affective well-being are examined, using structural equation modelling. Results indicate that individuals with positive attitudes and life coping strategies were more capable of achieving overall well-being. Both monetary- and non-monetary-based organisational WLB provision had no direct association with employee well-being, but had indirect effects via individual coping strategies to help employees achieve better well-being. Employee well-being was found to have a stronger association with individual effort than organisational deliberation in providing WLB programmes. Theoretical and practical implications of these study outcomes are discussed.     

Does subsidised temporary employment get the unemployed back to work? Aneconometric analysis of two different schemes

Subsidised employment is an important tool of active labour market policies to improve the reemployment chances of the unemployed. Using unusually informative individual data from administrative records, we investigate the effects of two different schemes of subsidised temporary employment implemented in Switzerland: non-profit employment programmes (EP) and a subsidy for temporary jobs (TEMP) in private and public firms. Econometric matching methods show that TEMP is more successful than EP in getting the unemployed back to work. Compared to not participating in any programme, EP and TEMP are ineffective for unemployed who find jobs easily anyway or have a short unemployment spell. For potential and actual long-term unemployed, both programmes may have positive effects, but the effect of TEMP is larger.     

The spatial impact of employment centres on housing markets

The spatial impact of employment centres on housing markets. Spatial Economic Analysis. Local economic growth tends to affect neighbourhood house prices unevenly. It has been observed that prime locations experience price hikes far in excess of the surrounding local area. Yet, this phenomenon is not well captured by existing economic models. This research provides a model of spatial and temporal interactions between housing and employment markets. The results show that rapid growth of employment centres increases house prices in neighbouring locations even after adjusting for fundamentals. It is concluded that spatial clustering of companies creates an option value for existing and potential employees that goes beyond ease of access for commuting purposes.     

Employment security and employee organizational citizenship behavior: does an ‘iron rice bowl’ make a difference?

Empirical evidence linking employment security to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is equivocal. Limited research has considered the effect of employment status. Using data from 217 subordinate–supervisor dyads in a large state-owned enterprise in China as basis, our research found significant association between overall perceived employment security and employee OCB. However, this relationship may vary depending on employment status. Further analysis suggested a curvilinear relationship for permanent employees with an ‘iron rice bowl’ (lifetime employment) and a linear relationship for contractual employees without an ‘iron rice bowl’. Our study contributes to a thorough understanding of the relationship between employment security and positive behaviors in terms of OCB by integrating the literature on social exchange, psychological contract, and proactive behavior.     

Do Labour Market Programmes Speed up the Return to Work?*

We evaluate the impact of labour market programmes on unemployment durations in Norway, by means of a distribution‐free mixed proportional competing risks hazard rate model. We find that programme participation, once completed, improves employment prospects, but that there is often an opportunity cost in the form of a lock‐in effect during participation. The average net effect of programme participation on the length of the job search period is found to be around zero. For participants with poor employment prospects, the favourable post‐programme effects outweigh the negative lock‐in effects.     

The returns to formality and informality in urban Africa

This paper addresses the questions as to the size and causes of earnings differentials in two urban African labor markets, those of Ghana and Tanzania. We have panel data so we can ask how far time invariant unobservables, market ability for short, matters in the determination of earnings. We also have information on whether the individual is own self-employed, self-employed with employees, a private or public sector wage employee and the size of the enterprise in which wage employees work or which the self-employed owns. We find, mirroring work on developed economies, that unobserved individual market ability is by far the most important factor explaining the variance of earnings. With controls for such ability the gap between private wage employment and civil servants is about 50%. With controls for enterprise size we find that wage employees earn the same as the self-employed in both Ghana and Tanzania. Enterprise size matters. At most half of the OLS effect of size on earnings can be explained by unobservable ability. Workers in the largest firms are the high earners with wage rates which exceed those of civil servants. These results all assume exogenous movement. We find evidence that endogeneity bias may be serious and may be understating the extent of both the size effect and the private sector wage (negative) premium. The implications of our results for understanding the nature of formal and informal employment in Africa are discussed.     

Varying biases in matching estimates: Evidence from two randomised job search training experiments

We compare various matching estimators with the results from two randomised field experiments that evaluate the employment effects of job search training programmes. We find that commonly used non-experimental matching estimators tend to overestimate the programme effects, especially in the first experiment in which participation in the programme is voluntary. In the second experiment, where caseworkers assign unemployed persons to the training programme, the matching methods produce estimates that are close to the experimental results.     

无机非金属材料本科毕业生就业跟踪调查分析

无机非金属材料本科毕业生数量大幅度上升,而企业招聘人数越来越少,日益激烈的竞争压力使得大学生面临越来越严峻的就业形势。而无机本科毕业生的就业形势和已就业学生的发展情况是本文研究的焦点,所以以e-mail邮件、电话调查和走访的方式对洛阳理工学院无机毕业生及其就业单位进行就业跟踪调查。就这次调查研究的基本情况和统计结果进行分析,目的是了解该校的专业教育、就业指导等与毕业生就业和岗位发展的关系,为该校改进教学方法和调整就业指导策略提供决策数据。     

用工灵活化策略的背后:中国上市快递企业非典型雇佣配置效率研究

快递业的蓬勃发展与非典型雇佣之间存在着极为密切的关系。本文运用数理统计方法研究了非典型雇佣对快递业产出的作用机制,指出非典型雇佣规模的增加促进快递市场拓展;运用数据包络分析等方法 ,对上市快递企业非典型雇佣的配置效率进行了探查,检讨了各上市快递企业非典型雇佣配置非效率的特征,并计算得出配置效率改进的目标;通过构建非典型雇佣灵活性测量模型,对非典型雇佣灵活化机制进行了解构,指出非典型雇佣需在收入灵活性、规模灵活性以及结构灵活性三个方面综合统筹,才能组合、创新出有利于快递企业、快递员工以及快递客户的非典型雇佣策略。     

THE BENEFITS OF LARGE-SCALE,MULTI-SITE INTERNATIONALLY FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECTS: An Example of New Academic Insights and New Funding Possibilities

There are a number of benefits to large-scale, multi-site, internationally funded urban research projects if they are operationalized in ways that acknowledge forms of knowledge incommensurability and allow for space to explore the commensurability of different forms of knowledge across different geographies. Such projects are especially important in the context of the precarity of research funding, as such projects can provide the space to explore new urban research avenues that may not have formed core components of the existing urban studies canon and may also bring with them significant and new funding possibilities. In this intervention I use the example of the GCRF-funded PEAK Urban programme to consider how new urban research questions related to sexuality and health were brought to the fore during the life of the programme, which offer not only new research avenues, but also potential access to significant new funding sources. Programmes such as PEAK Urban therefore have the potential to build the long-term resilience of urban research. Cutting funding to such programmes may therefore limit the efficacy of the programmes themselves and the long-term sustainability of urban scholarship.     

Company‐based education programmes: what's the pay‐off for employers?

This article addresses the question of whether company‐based programmes of education repay employer investment in terms of learning transfer to the workplace. Building on earlier work by the authors, we use an in‐depth longitudinal case study of a long‐standing programme of continuous education sponsored by the US‐based NCR corporation in Scotland. As educators, we expected to find that the programme would have been associated with positive outcomes, based on the belief that 'embrained' or formal, abstract knowledge can be transferred to the workplace. We were aware, however, that research in this area has not been promising in demonstrating learning transfer, in part because such a process is mediated by the quality of the transfer climate. Drawing on survey data and in‐depth interviewing of a sample cohort, we found that the programme of company‐based education had significant implications for learning transfer. Surprisingly, however, transfer climate had little influence on the willingness of employees to use their knowledge to make improvements or generate innovations at work. Finally, we found that these data supported situated learning theory, stressing the importance of tacit knowledge, informal learning, the communal nature of workplace learning and the difficulties in evaluating learning transfer. We believe that these results have important implications for the literature on the evaluation of HRD interventions, for human resource development (HRD) specialists interested in developing programmes of so‐called lifelong learning and for practitioners working in the area of organisational learning and learning organisations.     

Differentiating emotional intelligence in leadership

Leadership has received considerable attention since the 1990s. We claim that leaders can be found at all levels of employment, and at the very least, all managers are expected to be leaders. Yet managerial status does not guarantee leadership. Leadership is a necessary component of and a filter for successful management. Effective managers demonstrate leadership capabilities. Leadership attributes are well captured in measures of emotional intelligence (EQ). Hence, leadership can improve if managers work to develop their EQ. We show how EQ, and hence leadership, can vary by level of employment among a composite international group of 3,305 employees with the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment. The relationship between six leadership groups, as based on their EQ performance, across different employment levels was statistically examined, suggesting that leadership is realized in different ways depending on level of employment. It appears that employees become more skillful in emotional literacy and consequential thinking as they progress up the employment ladder. Intrinsic motivation and optimism are best leveraged by nonmanagerial rather than senior employees. The diminishing incorporation of empathy with an increase in employment level seems to stand in sharp contrast. Nonmanagerial employees, specialists, and entrepreneurs will benefit from developing their competence in pursuing their objectives with an overarching sense of purpose. The finding that high‐EQ leaders seem to dominate in the managerial levels may be viewed as encouraging.