Employee Participation and Equal Opportunities Practices: Productivity Effect and Potential Complementarities

The relationships between employee participation, equal opportunities practices and productivity are explored. Data from the British Workplace Employee Relations Survey of 1998 provide strong evidence that equal opportunities practices improve productivity overall, and increasingly so as the share of female and ethnic minority employees increases. However, short‐term effects may be negative in segregated workplaces. Non‐financial participation schemes are negatively associated with productivity, but in most cases the joint presence of these participatory schemes and equal opportunities practices significantly increases productivity. Interactions between participatory and equal opportunities schemes are also affected by work‐force composition and by the level of equal opportunities policies implemented.     

Labour productivity change: Drivers, business impact and macroeconomic moderators

This paper focuses on the operational drivers of labour productivity changes. We consider two sets of drivers: (a) current working practices and (b) changes in working practices through management programs. The relationship between these two sets of drivers and productivity changes are analysed. We also investigate the importance of productivity growth by looking at the impact of labour productivity changes on business performance changes. Finally, the moderating effects of industry and country on the use of drivers of productivity changes are examined. Data from an international survey, IMSS-IV, are used for the analysis.     

Works Councils and Labour Productivity: Looking beyond the Mean

After more than 25 years of empirical investigation, the analysis of works council effects on establishment productivity is still an active field of economic research. I present first evidence for works council regression coefficients along the unconditional log labour productivity distribution in Germany. The highest (lowest) coefficients were found at the bottom (top) of the distribution, which suggests that works councils have the most beneficial effects at low levels of productivity. Importantly, coefficients are positive at each productivity level. The results shed light on a classical theoretical argument concerning moderating factors for the productivity effect of employee participation.     

How Workers Fare When Employers Innovate

Complementing existing work on firm organizational structure and productivity, this article examines the impact of organizational change on workers. We find evidence that employers do appear to compensate at least some of their workers for engaging in high-performance workplace practices. We also find a significant association between high-performance workplace practices and increased wage inequality. Finally, we examine the relationship between organizational structure and employment changes and find that some practices, such as self-managed teams, are associated with greater employment reductions, whereas other practices, such as the percentage of workers involved in job rotation, are associated with lower employment reductions.     

The university entrepreneur: a census and survey of attributes and outcomes

This study looks at 400 technology transfer disclosures and their inventors over a 10‐year period at a large US research university. We find that faculty productivity in terms of patenting is not related to commercialization success, but entrepreneurial qualities are significantly correlated. Results indicate that the significant factors in successfully forming a university spin‐out are the level of experience of the faculty member and participation in an industry sponsored research agreement. We also find that the academic inventor's entrepreneurial experience and inclination toward commercialization have the most positive impacts on the formation of a new venture.     

Knowledge Sharing through Face‐to‐Face Communication and Labour Productivity: Evidence from British Workplaces

We investigate whether the adoption by workplaces of human resources management (HRM) practices that enhance face‐to‐face communication (FTFC) among employees is associated with productivity gains. The analysis is based on a nationally representative sample of over 500 British trading establishments drawn from the linked 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey and Annual Business Inquiry, for which objective measures of labour productivity (value added per employee) are available. We find a positive association between productivity and FTFC in problem‐solving groups, teams and meetings of senior or line managers and employees, provided that FTFC is adopted on a continuous basis. Our finding suggests that British workplaces in the trading sector could increase their productivity by implementing HRM practices in such a way as to enhance knowledge sharing through employees' personal interactions.     

Innovation and productivity in R&D: associated individual and organizational variables

The relationships of organizational variables with innovation and productivity of scientists and engineers in R&D laboratories were explored. Peer ratings of innovation (original and useful output) and productivity (quantity of output) were utilized as criteria. Information was obtained on 154 scientists/engineers in 35 work groups in three Air Force R&D laboratories, Significant relationships found between organizational variables and innovation and productivity included: rewards for innovation, communication on technical matters with other scientists/engineers within the work group, and an age-education demographic group of variables. Level of participation in goal setting and group leader's level of empathy were also consistently related to level of productivity.     

Crosscurrents in Workers Participation

As I contemplate developments in recent years relating to participation in management, I am impressed by the uncertainties, the shifting tides of thought, the atmosphere of experimentation. At the level of participation theory, there is more rather than less doubt. A few years ago in the United States, optimistic theories like those of McGregor and Likert regarding workers needs and desires for self-actualization seemed to be sweeping the field; today they are regarded as psychologically inadequate and faulty. In England the theory of joint consultation is confronted with something of a polarization - either toward apathy or toward codetermination. In Israel the ideology of participation, derived originally from socialist theory, has been subjected to increasing challenge from pragmatic considerations of efficiency and profitability. Profit-sharing plans, after a hundred years of experience and a widening acceptability, do not necessarily entail increased worker participation. At the level of practice, the dominant note once again is uncertainty rather than a clear progression toward either success or failure. Neither the Scanlon Plan in the US nor the Glacier Metals experiment in England have generated many followers. Joint consultation schemes appear generally to have declined in number. In Israel Koor experiments in joint management at the plant level have frittered away. Participation has not even been seriously tried in Australia. Reports from Yugoslavia and Germany, where participation programs have been most fully developed, raise questions about the impact of participation on the productivity and efficiency of the enterprises involved, as well as the degree of involvement of workers. On the other hand, there are some positive currents. The spread of collective bargaining to the local level in England and other European countries, the rising interest in productivity bargaining, the absorption of joint consultation committees by unions - all point in the direction of more worker participation in management, although the model may be one of bargaining rather than integration. Out of these crosscurrents we can distinguish some of the main problems confronting the advocates of greater workers participation in management:

• 1 How to persuade managers that their professional interests are best served by cooperating, if not taking the lead, in different types of participation schemes.
• 2 How to convince workers that “participating” is worth the effort, and how to educate them in various forms of the process.
• 3 How to involve worker representatives in both administration and policy-making on a basis other than bargaining that will not estrange them from their constituents.

Resolution of these problems will depend in part at least on recognition that participation is a multi-dimensional process, that different types of participation may work better with regard to different issues or subjects (depending on requirements of technical knowledge and time), and that participation expectations and arrangements may vary with the different levels of an enterprise.     

Capturing context: An exploration of service delivery networks in complex case management

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the participation practices of stakeholder networks inform an understanding of context functioning in complex service exchange settings. We adapt the concept of the service delivery network (SDN) as a suitable approach to investigate how context is made within collaborative healthcare projects. Case management reviews in a UK Learning Disability service are the focus of study as an area of significant practical interest, and as suitable exemplars of healthcare case management. Based on a template analysis, we describe the SDN related to stakeholder participation and co-participation at the intersection of patient, commissioner and clinician networks. We identify notable variations to SDN profiles and degrees of participation of the different stakeholder networks involved. Our findings suggest a fresh focus for researching complex service settings and for case management practice. We discuss the impact of this perspective for understanding and researching context functioning and developing service theory based on mid-range empirical studies.     

The Determinants of Participatory Management

This paper analyses self-reported participatory management data from a survey of over 900 private-sector employees in Australia and New Zealand. We test for causal linkages between employee desires for participation, while distinguishing between participation at the shop-floor and at higher managerial levels. At higher levels, where there is a significant excess demand for participation, firms often respond to employee desires with formal programmes which in turn create de facto participation at this level. At the shop-floor level, employee desires are more often met through the informal provision of de facto participation. Participation also changes employee desires, with participation at higher levels increasing employee demands for it and participation at lower levels reducing demands for high-level participation. We conclude that shop-floor programmes may favour managerial interests while higher-level co-operative programmes may favour employee interests.     

Union Presence and Corporate Productivity Practices: Evidence from Singapore

This paper explores the influences that unionisation may have on managerial processes to improve productivity. Unionisation is cast as a contextual variable, along with sector, size and culture. A recently established Singapore data base of employees' perceptions of corporate productivity practices is used to detect such possible influences. Regression analysis, with productivity practice as a dependent variable, suggests that unionisation explains some of the variations in such practices.     

Smallholder productivity and weather shocks: Adoption and impact of widely promoted agricultural practices in Tanzania

We investigate the impact of maize-legume intercropping, soil and water conservation practices (SWC), organic fertilizers, inorganic fertilizers and high yielding maize varieties on maize productivity under weather shocks in Tanzania using panel data. First, we estimate the determinants of adoption by applying a multivariate panel data model capturing their complementarities and/or substitutabilities. Second, after testing for their potential endogeneity, we study the impact of these practices (and combinations of them) on maize productivity controlling for weather shocks. Finally, we disaggregate results by presence/absence of seasonal rainfall and temperature shocks to explore the heterogeneous impact of adoption under weather shocks. We find strong complementarities between agricultural practices both in terms of adoption and yield impacts. Long-run variability in rainfall decreases the adoption of organic fertilizers and increases that of improved seeds. Farmers in areas where the cropping season’s rainfall has been highly variable and temperature has been unexpectedly high have significantly lower maize yields. SWC emerges as one of the most important practices in increasing yields with significant benefits by itself, in combination with other practices, under average weather conditions as well as under rainfall and temperature shocks. Overall, increasing the adoption of SWC appears a promising policy option to buffer food security from increasingly frequent weather shocks in Tanzania.     

Japanese Research Consortia: A Microeconometric Analysis of Industrial Policy

Despite the existence of much theoretical research analyzing the potential benefits and costs of R&D consortia, there has been little corresponding empirical work on their efficacy. In this paper, we undertake a large-sample econometric study of Japanese government-sponsored research consortia. We find evidence that frequent participation in these consortia has a positive impact on research expenditure and research productivity. These results hold after controlling for the potential endogeneity of intensity of participation in consortia to participating firms' research productivity. Furthermore, we find evidence that part of this impact arises from the increased knowledge spillovers that take place within these consortia.     

Productivity effects of worker participation in management,profit-sharing,worker ownership of assets and unionization in U.S. firms

In this paper we provide our first econometric estimates of the effect of worker participation in decision-making, ownership and profits on productive efficiency. Participation has the potential for exerting several conflicting influences on firm performance simultaneously. As a result both the direction and magnitude of its impact are empirical issues. Previous studies have empirically measured the impact of each of these forms of participation; however, no prior study has controlled for the influence of the other forms. Because of the potential for correlation among these forms of participation, it is possible that omitted variables bias has affected the previous results. Using a new panel data set with simultaneous measures of all four types of participation in U.S. manufacturing establishments, we model participation as disembodied technical change, and estimate production function coefficients for each type while controlling for the others. We use both OLS and instrumental variables in order to guard against potential simultaneity. The IV results indicate that participation in decision-making has a large positive productivity effect while the impacts of unionization and profit-sharing depend upon regression specification. Moderate amounts of indirect worker ownership affect productivity positively, while the estimated effect of direct worker ownership is negative. However, this last result may reflect the industrial concentration of the direct ownership firms in our sample.     

Partnership at Work: Mutuality and the Balance of Advantage

A framework for the analysis of partnership at work is presented, emphasizing the principles, practices and outcomes of partnership. A survey using matched samples of 54 UK management and employee representatives found a link between partnership principles and practices, between practices and ratings of employee attitudes and behaviour, between these and estimates of positive employment relations and quality and productivity, finally between productivity and sales and profitability. The findings support a mutual gains model but show that the balance of advantage is skewed towards management and reflects generally low management trust in employee representatives.     

Human Resource Management’s Effects on Firm‐Level Relative Efficiency

Using stochastic frontier production functions methodology with data from 1579 private‐sector establishments, we demonstrate that HR practices are significantly associated with differences in relative firm‐level efficiency. Supplemental analysis implies that this efficiency analysis is substantively different than the common approach to evaluating HRM’s relationships with firm‐level labor productivity. The results suggest that HR practices’ contributions to relative firm‐level efficiency are an important but heretofore overlooked factor in the relationship between HRM and firm performance.     

人工智能与中国企业参与全球价值链分工

人工智能是各国构筑核心竞争力的重要模块,更是关乎产业转型和价值链升级的主要抓手。本文使用International Robot Federation提供的机器人数据、中国海关数据库和中国工业企业数据库提供的企业数据构成了研究使用的高度细化的微观企业数据,在实证层面检验了人工智能对中国企业全球价值链参与的影响,数据跨度为2000—2013年。本文的主要结论是:①人工智能显著促进了中国企业参与全球价值链分工,且在多重稳健性检验和考虑工具变量的因果识别后仍然显著。②人工智能对中国企业全球价值链嵌入的影响目前主要集中在加工贸易企业。③2008年国际金融危机以后,人工智能对中国参与价值链的促进效应得到进一步释放。④人工智能对价值链参与的影响主要是通过两个渠道实现:一是替代从事低端环节生产的劳动力来降低企业成本;二是提高企业的生产率来增强企业的竞争力。⑤针对行业层面的数据分析发现,人工智能会显著促进行业的全球价值链位置提升。因此,在劳动力成本不断提高的现实情况下,重视创新发展,就是要抓住人工智能高速发展的契机,减少人工投入、提高企业的生产率,从而助力中国企业以更高水平融入全球价值链分工体系。     

Coffee value chains on the move: Evidence in Ethiopia

Important changes have happened to the upstream segment of the coffee sector in Ethiopia - Africa’s biggest - in the last decade, as illustrated by the increasing adoption of improved production, harvest, and post-harvest practices. Upstream marketing has also improved and there have been large investments in processing capacity, shown by the extended coverage of wet mills. These improved practices are shown to be associated with positive impacts on coffee productivity and prices. Changes appear to be linked with multiple factors including local market reform, greater presence of public extension agents, high international prices, and a push for certification by international buyers. On the other hand, a combination of production (lack of improved seedlings, weather and disease shocks) as well as institutional issues (saving constraints and lack of vertical integration and traceability) have seemingly impeded more widespread uptake of improved practices and therefore better farm performance. The study illustrates the significant complexity in obtaining transformation at the farm level in these settings.     

The effects of workers' participation on enterprise performance: Empirical evidence from French cooperatives

The results of estimating production functions augmented by various measures of workers' participation on a large enterprise level data set of French cooperatives are reported. Value added is found to be an increasing function of participation in profits, in collective membership and in ownership, even when a wide assortment of enterprise specific and environmental factors are taken into account. This finding is very robust, surviving tests between alternative specifications of technology, for reverse causality, for simultaneous equation bias and for multicollinearity. The typical productivity effect from participation, however, is small, around 5% of output. The results suggest that Western policymakers should investigate ways to increase workers' participation in capital stakes and profit shares.     

The Relationships of Informal High Performance Work Practices to Job Satisfaction and Workplace Profitability

Recent empirical evidence reveals considerable divergence between management reports and employee reports regarding organizational high performance work practices (HPWPs). This divergence implies that employees may not participate in some HPWPs that are formally present in their organizations, but also, that employees may participate in HPWPs that are not formally present in their organizations. In this study, we examine the implication of the latter case (i.e., employee participation in “informal” HPWPs) for employee‐level and organization‐level outcomes. Our analyses, using data from the Statistics Canada Workplace and Employee Survey, suggest that employee participation in informal HPWPs is associated with enhanced job satisfaction and workplace profitability in a similar way as employee participation in formal HPWPs is associated with these outcomes.