Workplace heterogeneity and wage inequality in Denmark

Wage inequality is on the rise in most developed economies, and this phenomenon has fostered a growing body of research on its potential drivers. Using German data over the period 1985–2009, Card et al. (The Quarterly Journal of Economics 2013, 128(3), 967-1015) argue that rising workplace heterogeneity has contributed substantially to the rise in wage inequality. I revisit their findings in two ways. First, because the generalization of their findings remains an open question, I apply their methodological approach to Danish register data and test whether rising workplace heterogeneity explains a significant share of the rise in wage inequality in Denmark. I find that, contrary to Germany, workplace heterogeneity remained practically stable over time, and this pattern contributed slightly negatively to the rise in wage inequality. Second, I complement Card et al.'s (2013) methods with the variance decomposition exercise proposed by Song et al. (2019) to identify more precisely the sources of the rise in wage inequality in Denmark. Although the rise in wage inequality is partly a between-establishment phenomenon, I show that the strengthening of assortative matching patterns and the rising heterogeneity of workers within establishments are the main drivers of growing inequality.     

Earned income tax credit policies: Impact and optimality: The Adam Smith Lecture, 2005

In this lecture I consider the impact and optimality of Earned Income Tax Policies. The policy issue addressed is the low labour market attachment and high incidence of poverty among certain groups. These policies have taken a central position in EU labour market policy debate and I focus on reforms over the last decade in the UK.     

Workplace mindfulness: An integrative review of antecedents,mediators, and moderators

In recent years, research on and the practice of mindfulness have received greater attention in organizational scholarship. Much of the prior work in this area is directed at the workplace outcomes of mindfulness interventions in terms of employees' well-being, relationships, and performance. Meanwhile, there is an absence of work that integrates research findings concerning individual and workplace factors that affect workplace mindfulness and determine when and how they influence workplace outcomes. This article reviews current organizational literature concerning potential antecedents of workplace mindfulness as well as mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship between workplace mindfulness and workplace outcomes. Based on 32 selected studies, an integrated framework of workplace mindfulness is developed, helping us to summarize the extant scholarship in this area. The framework provides a foundation for an emerging research area and outlines key directions for future research.     

Functioning, Capability and Freedom: A Framework for Understanding Workplace Disabilities

Work-related disability issues have been central in many of the U.S. public policy debates since the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although there is a robust business, legal, and public policy literature dealing with such issues philosophical analyses are not common. Accordingly, the paper examines, from a broadly philosophical perspective, some of the issues associated with restricted workplace employment opportunities due to the presence of one or more real or perceived disabilities. Following a review of the concept of disability, the paper examines disabilities and impairments using the concepts of functionings and capabilities developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. The paper then connects the capabilities approach to disabilities with the concepts of negative and positive freedom developed by Isaiah Berlin. The paper concludes by suggesting how to address employment and workplace discriminations of disabled people.     

Efficiency,Equity, and Voice as Moral Imperatives

The thesis of this book is that efficiency, equity and voice are all human rights and should be treated as such by individuals, corporations and governments. The author reviews a wide range of philosophical and religious material that affirms the human rights nature of these aspects of employment relations. He also assesses a broad spectrum of approaches to employment relations against the standards of efficiency, equity and voice. Of particular note is the author’s critique of contemporary mainstream economics for subordinating voice to efficiency.     

Workplace isolation: salespeople and supervisors in USA

Virtual work is becoming the norm in sales organizations because it is cost effective for the firm and can benefit customers and salespeople. However, along with these benefits, virtual work brings new challenges to organizations. One critical issue is workplace isolation (WI). This study uses responses from a sample of 346 salespeoples in the pharmaceutical field to test a model that investigates the relationships among WI, self-efficacy, leadership style, extra-role performance (ERP), satisfaction with the supervisor, and turnover intentions. Salespersons perception of managers as considerate leaders are associated with lower WI levels. Salespeople with higher levels of self-efficacy are less likely to believe that they are isolated from the company and their colleagues. WI, in turn, is significantly related to satisfaction with the supervision and ERP. Managerial implications and future research directions are presented.     

Burned by Bullying in the American Workplace: Prevalence,Perception, Degree and Impact*

abstract This study assesses the prevalence of workplace bullying in a sample of US workers, using a standardized measure of workplace bullying (Negative Acts Questionnaire, NAQ), and compares the current study's prevalence rates with those from other bullying and aggression studies. The article opens by defining bullying as a persistent, enduring form of abuse at work and contrasting it with other negative workplace actions and interactions. Through a review of the current literature, we propose and test hypotheses regarding bullying prevalence and dynamics relative to a sample of US workers. After discussing research methods, we report on the rates of bullying in a US sample, compare these to similar studies, and analyse the negative acts that might lead to perceptions of being bullied. Based upon past conceptualizations, as well as research that suggests bullying is a phenomenon that occurs in gradations, we introduce and provide statistical evidence for the construct and impact of bullying degree. Finally, the study explores the impact of bullying on persons who witnessed but did not directly experience bullying in their jobs.     

Workplace innovation,employment relations and HRM: two electronics companies in South Korea

Analysing two electronics companies (unionized LG Electronics and non-union Samsung SDI) in Korea, the present paper investigates the impact of union status on workplace innovations and the effects of workplace innovations on organizational performance. Both case firms are considered highly innovative, model companies in terms of their sophisticated human resource management (HRM) and cooperative employment relations (ER). We first provide a conceptual framework and generate three propositions. The framework is composed of three main components: input, organizational system and output. The major findings include: (1) the adoption of high performance work organizations (HPWO) is highly dependent upon top management and union/employee representatives; (2) the two case firms adopted two different production modes (a team production mode in LG Electronics and a lean production mode in Samsung SDI); and (3) alignment among organizational design and work processes, ER systems and HRM systems would lead to high organizational performance. We also discuss the transferability of HPWO to other cultural settings in a universalism-contingency context.     

Inherent constraints and creative possibilities: employee participation in Kenya

We present findings from a study of employee participation in seven International NGOs (INGOs) operating in Kenya. The inherent constraints of hierarchy and the need to accommodate a range of stakeholder interests imposed a strict ceiling on the degree of participation even in this propitious environment. Being headquartered in a liberal market economy, the low salience of trade unions among Kenyan employees and/or individual management styles within the INGOs meant that some of the agencies fell short even of that ceiling. Contrary to the normative aspirations of both the HR and international development literatures, our study suggests that the co-determination and employee control styles of participation are undesirable and unrealistic goals. On the other hand, a consultation style of participation was appropriate to the seven INGOs, and may also be in other sectors and countries.     

Workplace values and beliefs: an empirical study of ideology,high commitment management and unionisation

This study is unique in that it examines both managers' and workers' values and beliefs about employment relationships. It found that managers consider the employment relationship in their own workplaces unitarist rather than pluralist, but have mixed ideologies when considering society as a whole. Workers are strongly pluralist when considering society as a whole, but their workplace ideology is somewhat unitarist. A modest union impact on workers' perspectives is found, but little evidence to suggest union's effect commitment to the employing organization. Workers' commitment is to personal careers first and the organization second, while managers put the organization ahead of personal careers. Correlations exist between unitary views of the employment relationship, increased High Commitment Management (HCM) practices, and high levels of commitment. The purpose and contribution of this study is that it reports an assessment of the relation between workplace attitudes and beliefs and the efficacy and influence of management and union initiatives designed to impact them.     

Workplace bullying and employee outcomes: a moderated mediated model

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between workplace bullying and employee outcomes in a healthcare setting. Drawing on HR process theory, we investigate the mediating role of the perceived effectiveness of implementation of anti-bullying practices on employee outcomes and whether targeted line manager training was a moderator of that relationship. Our multi-level analysis (utilising responses from 1507 employees within 47 hospitals with matched HR Director interviews), finds that the relationship between workplace bullying and employee outcomes is partially mediated by employees’ perceived effective implementation of intended anti-bully practices. The mediated relationship is moderated by targeted line manager training in anti-bullying practices. The mediated moderation model illustrates that it is effective implementation of anti-bullying practices enhanced by targeted training that is required to reduce bullying probabilities and their associated negative employee outcomes. The paper contributes to resource based view of the firm, HR process and human capital theories. The implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Smoking in the Workplace: Balancing Smoker and Nonsmoker Rights

The tobacco industry presents an interesting American dilemma. While warning against the use of tobacco and striving for a smokeless society the U.S. government subsidizes the growth of tobacco. The economic impact of smoking is, on balance, negative for users, nonusers and society. The federal government does not legislate the use of tobacco but most states and many municipalities have smoking laws. Although such laws vary they normally attempt to protect the rights of both smokers and nonsmokers. Workplace smoking policies also vary but generally focus on applicable laws, health research findings, employee preferences, involvement in policy determination, formalization and communication, and smoking cessation programs.     

Build Coalitions to Fit: Autonomy Expectations,Competence Mobilization,and Job Crafting

Job crafting offers several beneficial organizational outcomes, yet little is known about what makes employees engage in it. In particular, the role of leaders in influencing their subordinates to engage in job crafting has been insufficiently studied. Drawing on role theory, we suggest that the congruence of leader‐subordinate autonomy expectations nurtures subordinates’ experiences of having their competences adequately utilized in their jobs. This experience, which involves the competence mobilization of their work roles, subsequently fosters subordinates’ engagement in job‐crafting behavior. A two‐stage field study of 145 leader‐subordinate dyads using cross‐level polynomial regression and response surface analysis supported the (in)congruence hypotheses. The results also demonstrated that subordinates’ perceived competence mobilization mediates the relationship between autonomy expectation (in)congruence and job crafting. In addition, leader coalition as a moderator strengthens the effect of perceived competence mobilization as a psychological condition for job crafting. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Economic growth and inequality: The role of public investment

The relationship between growth and inequality is complex. After discussing some general background issues, motivated by extensive empirical evidence this paper focuses on public investment as a key determinant of the relationship. Two alternative frameworks, each offering sharply contrasting perspectives, are presented. The first employs the “representative consumer theory of distribution” where agent heterogeneity originates with wealth endowments. It yields an equilibrium in which aggregate dynamics drives distributional dynamics. In the second, agent heterogeneity arises from idiosyncratic productivity shocks and generates an equilibrium in which distributional dynamics drive growth. The impact of government investment on growth and inequality are shown to contrast sharply in the two approaches, thus illustrating the complexity of the growth-inequality relationship.     

金融发展、创新不平等与区域经济差距的实证研究

构建1990年至2010年地区经济差距、金融发展不平等和创新不平等三者的基尼系数。以总产出模型作为基础,运用E-G两步法构建三者之间的协整关系和误差修正模型。通过Granger因果关系检验最终得到结论:金融发展不平等是产生地区经济差距显著因素;创新不平等是缩小地区经济差距的因素,但是这种影响在短期是不显著的。     

The intercultural communication motivation scale: An instrument to assess motivational training needs of candidates for international assignments

The Intercultural Communication Motivation Scale (ICMS) is a tool to assess the intercultural communication motivation of candidates for international assignments. The ICMS performed well in four studies conducted with undergraduate students in New Zealand, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and Germany. Generally showing a stable fi ve‐factor structure, high test‐retest correlations, very high Cronbach's alphas, and almost no social desirability bias in self and peer evaluations, the ICMS is sensitive enough to detect test‐retest differences. Thus, socially responsible strategic international HR programs can use this scale to reliably evaluate employees and their families for specifi c international locations. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Income risk, macroeconomic and demographic change, and economic inequality in Japan

Using an OLG model with heterogeneous households, we investigate the relationship among income risk, macroeconomic and demographic changes, and economic inequality between 1980 and 2000 in Japan. By decomposing the primary factors in earnings and consumption inequality into macroeconomic variables and the demographic variable, we find that our model replicates the evolution of economic inequality in Japan. By performing counterfactual simulations, we demonstrate that two factors—changes in time-varying macroeconomic factors and the unexpected decline in the total factor productivity growth rate—played important roles in the increase in earnings and consumption inequality in the 1990s.     

IFRS,financial development and income inequality: An empirical study using mediation analysis

Income inequality continues to be an issue of concern. Early work on economic development suggested that, as a country’s economy grows, incomes would rise and reduce any income disparities. However, there is growing evidence that as countries develop, income inequality actually worsens. Some studies argue that this is the result of financial development and the growth of the financial sector. Although there is a good deal of empirical research on the relationship between financial development and income inequality, there is no prior work that examines how accounting standards, in particular International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), might influence this relationship. This study examines the relationship of IFRS and financial development with income inequality using mediation analysis over the period from 1998 to 2018. The results indicate that the impact of IFRS on income inequality is mediated by financial development. Moreover, there is a direct relationship between IFRS and inequality.     

Upward influence tactics and their effects on job performance ratings and flexible working arrangements: The mediating roles of mutual recognition respect and mutual appraisal respect

Supervisor's human resources (HR) decisions have a significant impact on the employees they manage but have been found to be subject to bias. The upward influence tactics use by subordinates can play a role in this. We investigated the effects of seven upward influence tactics on supervisor job‐performance ratings and the extent of subordinate flexible working arrangements (FWAs). Supervisors are often responsible for determining whether employees are granted FWAs. We posit an alternative theoretical mechanism by which upward influence tactics bring about their effects, mediated through two distinct types of respect, mutual appraisal respect and mutual recognition respect. We collected data from 389 matched supervisor–subordinate dyads, and found that both mutual appraisal respect and mutual recognition respect mediated relationships between several upward influence tactics and both job‐performance ratings and FWAs. Our findings show that upward influence tactics affect the quality of the relationship between employees and their supervisors, specifically, these two forms of mutual respect. Further, both mutual appraisal respect and mutual recognition respect may explain why supervisors show favoritism to some subordinates over others, in reaching HR decisions in these areas.