Keeping Work in Perspective: Work–Nonwork Considerations and Applicant Decision Making

The work–nonwork supportiveness of an organization may influence applicant decision making among young applicants. This possibility was tested using a phased narrowing decision making task and three organizational attributes (salary, number of work–nonwork supportive policies/benefits and their related culture supportiveness). Data gathered from a sample of 110 graduating college business majors partially supported the hypotheses (p < 0.05), revealing a dynamic influence of the organizational attributes across decision making stages and a differential impact of the attributes depending on their framing as family-friendly or life-friendly. Salary was especially important in initial screening of organizational options, and the organizational culture support of work–nonwork challenges was increasingly influential as the final choice was formed. Implications for young applicant attraction are discussed. The research presented here (a portion of the author’s master’s thesis at Bowling Green State University) was presented at the 2006 Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology in Dallas, TX. Thanks go to Dr. Steve M. Jex, Dr. Scott Highhouse, and Dr. Cathy Stein for their assistance in the development of this study. Thanks are also owed to Dr. Michael Doherty for his thoughtful comments on an earlier draft.     

Impact of selected policy and market factors upon student flows from high school to competing destinations

The impact of selected policy and market factors upon high-school leavers' decisions regarding three competing alternatives—labor-force entry, university education, non-university education—is examined using Ontario data on grade 13 students covering 1965–1978.The specific policy and market factors selected include tuition fees, student-aid, family income, graduates' wages, youth unemployment. Based upon economic-related theories of investor and consumer behaviour, predictions regarding how these factors influence students' choices are presented. Empirical tests of these predictions are then obtained by computing transition-rate elasticities estimated from a multinomial logistic model using maximum-likelihood techniques.The results suggest that both policy and market factors influence students' choices on the margin, and therefore exercise control over the flows from high-school to various competing destinations. The implications of these results are examined for policy-making and planning at the post-secondary level.     

What is the value of human resource certification? A multi-level framework for research

We make a contribution to narrowing the science–practice gap by adopting a multi-level theory-based approach to investigating an important issue for practitioners in human resource management: human resource (HR) certification. Despite the facts that more than 150,000 individuals in more than 70 countries have become certified and that HR certification has turned into a million-dollar industry, there is no scholarly evidence regarding the impact of certification on any important individual- and organizational-level outcomes (e.g., individual's career progression and HR department-level effectiveness). First, we distinguish among certification and licensing. Second, we describe the purported benefits of HR certification. Third, we review the existing literature on perceptions of HR certification; including a survey we conducted with 189 HR professionals. Finally, we present a research agenda, including 14 testable propositions, to guide future scholarly research on HR certification with the goal to gather evidence, which to date is not yet available, regarding the value of HR certification for individual practitioners, organizations, and the HR profession.     

International graduate students' perceptions and interest in international careers

This research developed and tested a comprehensive model of the antecedents of international graduate students' interest in an international career. Based largely on Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), the model included elements that pertain to perceptions of external constraints (perceptions of the labor market, family pressure to return), international student experience (adjustment in the foreign country during graduate studies, exposure and immersion to the international context) and individual factors (self-efficacy with respect to working abroad and outcome expectancy). Participants were 139 international graduate students in the UK. Individual factors and perceived constraints were directly related to interest in an international career. The factors that comprised current international student experience were indirectly related to interest via their relationship with self-efficacy, while adjustment moderated the relationship between self-efficacy and interest. Although the hypothesized moderating role of family pressure to return did not materialize, the findings suggest that perceptions of constraints play a more substantial role in the formation of interest than has been assumed by SCCT theory thus far. The findings are discussed with respect to their implications for the literature and for the policies of host country stakeholders.     

Service Climate in Self-Managing Teams: Mapping the Linkage of Team Member Perceptions and Service Performance Outcomes in a Business-to-Business Setting

abstract    Drawing from the organizational behaviour and services marketing literature, we develop a conceptual model of self-managing team (SMT) service climate, taking into account characteristics of the organizational context, the SMT, and the individual employee. In order to assess the impact of SMT service climate, we include a number of internal consequences (i.e., in-company performance data) and external service performance outcomes (i.e., customer-perceived service quality). As a result of the hierarchically nested data-structure (i.e., groups and individuals), we investigate the antecedents of SMT service climate in service groups using a multi-level approach. Our results reveal that organizational and group factors have a significant cross-level influence on individual employee perceptions of SMT service climate. Furthermore, we demonstrate that employee perceptions of SMT service climate are positively related to customer-perceived service quality, while there is no relationship with service productivity measures.     

Forecasting the term structure of government bond yields

Despite powerful advances in yield curve modeling in the last 20 years, comparatively little attention has been paid to the key practical problem of forecasting the yield curve. In this paper we do so. We use neither the no-arbitrage approach nor the equilibrium approach. Instead, we use variations on the Nelson–Siegel exponential components framework to model the entire yield curve, period-by-period, as a three-dimensional parameter evolving dynamically. We show that the three time-varying parameters may be interpreted as factors corresponding to level, slope and curvature, and that they may be estimated with high efficiency. We propose and estimate autoregressive models for the factors, and we show that our models are consistent with a variety of stylized facts regarding the yield curve. We use our models to produce term-structure forecasts at both short and long horizons, with encouraging results. In particular, our forecasts appear much more accurate at long horizons than various standard benchmark forecasts.     

Buyer–supplier relationship's influence on traceability implementation in the vegetable industry

The increasing importance of food safety has made traceability a crucial issue in the agri-business industry. In this article, we have analysed the factors that shape buyer–supplier relationships, and how they influence the traceability of raw materials. In order to do so, first, we have reviewed the literature to develop an analytical framework. Next, we have carried out four case studies on vegetable firms with the purpose of uncovering the variables that characterise buyer–supplier relationships, and their influence on traceability in this sector. Finally, we have compared the observed links with the conceptual framework derived from the literature in order to build an improved model.     

Pride,prejudice and performance: relations between HRM,diversity and performance

Today, managing diversity is considered one of the main challenges for HRM in modern organizations. In this article, a framework is developed to suggest that the design and implementation of HRM activities should be influenced by strategic choices on the management of diversity which are themselves shaped by environmental factors. The HRM activities lead to four types of outcomes (affective, cognitive, symbolic and communicative) that affect individual, group and organizational performance. This framework is used to explore the effects of workforce diversity in two cases and to provide answers to three central questions: how does diversity influence the interactions in and the performance of diverse groups, and what is the relation between management diversity and other HRM policies in the two companies? The findings indicate that an organization's strategy for managing diversity influences both the process of meaning formation regarding diversity and the perception of performance effects. The availability of an organizational vocabulary and of instruments to interpret interactions in terms of diversity make a crucial difference. The stories and incidents from the two cases show how diversity affects both the daily interactions and the functioning of diverse groups.     

A behavioral study of supply manager decision-making: Factors influencing make versus buy evaluation

This paper investigates behavioral factors influencing a supply manager's decision to insource or outsource the manufacture of a product component. To do so we posit a theoretical framework that integrates the heretofore distinct operational make–buy literature and the behavioral decision-making literature. Within the framework three factors influencing the make–buy decision are brought into account: the decision-maker's perception of supply risk or “strategic vulnerability”, the degree of core competency represented by the product component under consideration and the formality of the information about supply alternatives. The results of a controlled experimental survey show that: strategic vulnerability and core competency do influence the make–buy decision, strategic vulnerability has greater influence than core competency and information formality moderates the make–buy decision when the strategic vulnerability and core competency conditions are mixed. The practical implications of these results include the notion that management can ensure a more rational make–buy decision if they understand the biases that influence the decision and point these biases out to the decision maker.     

Employee recruitment and job search: Towards a multi-level integration

This study describes an attempt to develop an integrative model of job search and employee recruitment. Inevitably multi-level in nature, the model demonstrates the interplay between organizational-level factors and individual-level factors in influencing the outcomes of employee recruitment and job search activities. According to the model, influenced by job seeker and organizational characteristics, job search and recruitment activities jointly create job awareness, which is the first step in organizational attraction. Next, depending on the job seeker's current job situation, this attraction leads to job pursuit intention and behavior. The model also emphasizes the longitudinal nature of the process by which individuals gain employment. Finally, since each organization's applicant pool consists of job seekers with some common characteristics attracted to the same position, the model proposes that recruitment and job search can be examined by utilizing a multilevel framework.     

A Multilevel Appraisal and Conceptualization of Company Downsizing

Downsizing is widely used to improve corporate efficiency and competitiveness. Although downsizing can be useful, the process has a number of associated disadvantages, and companies commonly overlook the negative impact on society, the business profession, the company, and employees' collective attitudes and perceptions. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to present a multilevel framework that examines the impact of societal, institutional, organizational, and individual factors on corporate downsizing. The potential negative effects of downsizing on each of these domains are also examined, and recommendations regarding the successful implementation of employee reduction programs are presented based on information highlighted in the framework.     

Managing work-life policies: disruption versus dependency arguments. Explaining managerial attitudes towards employee utilization of work-life policies

What factors shape managerial attitudes towards the utilization of work-life policies? The influence of disruptiveness (Powell and Mainiero 1999) and dependency (Klein, Berman and Dickson 2000) arguments on managerial attitudes is examined using a vignette design. In this study, managers in four financial firms in the UK and the Netherlands were asked to judge hypothetical requests from employees to utilize work-life policies. Findings indicate that managers are mainly interested in the performance of their department or work unit, and work-life policies are often seen as disruptive. However, when the least disruptive request is considered (short-term leave), we find that dependency arguments also play an important role and managers are more likely to respond to their employees' personal and family needs.     

A field study of corporate employee monitoring: Attitudes, absenteeism, and the moderating influences of procedural justice perceptions

Managers are responsible for creating and enforcing company policies governing organizational practices, and one practice that is on the rise in organizations involves monitoring of employees for security purposes. The research literature on security behaviors has focused almost exclusively on compliance with or obedience to such policies; however, compliance with prescribed behaviors is not complete in terms of organizational performance. People may comply with policies with which they disagree, but harbor resentments and exhibit counterproductive and even destructive behaviors in protest. We conducted a field study of organizational monitoring policies and practices using factors from the threat control model and found that perceptions of threat, self-efficacy, and trust in the organization were key factors in attitudes about monitoring, and that these factors interacted with employee perceptions of organizational procedural justice such that high perceptions of organizational procedural justice moderated negative attitudes toward corporate monitoring, and better attitudes about monitoring was found to associate with reduced employee absences from the job.     

Small entrepreneurial ventures culture, change and the impact on HRM: A critical review

Effective management of people is increasingly recognized in the literature as a vital contributor to organizational performance and indeed survival. Nevertheless, studies of the dynamics of human resource management in small entrepreneurial ventures are relatively sparse. In this paper we draw upon a range of behaviourally-informed research publications to demonstrate that a culture of owner-influenced individualism and informality pervades these ventures, affecting prime human resource issues such as performance related practices, training and development, work–life balance and other critical dimensions of employee welfare. A preference for informality and an absence of strategy to inform owner–employee relations sits uneasily alongside growing political pressures toward codification of the management of employees in small entrepreneurial ventures. The response to these pressures may have significant implications both for relationships with employees and for organizational performance.     

Why academics attend conferences? An extended career self-management framework

Academics, like many other professionals, such as accountants, lawyers, and medical doctors, are primarily responsible for their own ongoing professional development. One of the ways academics are expected to pursue their professional development is by attending conferences structured around their professional associations. However, professional development is a broad construct and we lack a framework for understanding the numerous, specific motivations and goals related to why professionals choose to attend these conferences. To address this issue, we extend King's (2004) career self-management framework in three ways: a) we apply and extend the positioning behaviors of King's model for the situation of academics, b) extend the antecedents of these positioning behaviors from a single to a multi-level framework (including individual, university, and national level antecedents), and c) discuss cross-level effects of these antecedents. Implications and guidance for HR practitioners and future research are also discussed.     

Monopsonistic discrimination, worker turnover, and the gender wage gap

Motivated by models of worker flows, we argue in this paper that monopsonistic discrimination may be a substantial factor behind the overall gender wage gap. Using matched employer–employee data from Norway, we estimate establishment-specific wage premiums separately for men and women, conditioning on fixed individual effects. Regressions of worker turnover on the wage premium identify less wage elastic labour supply facing each establishment of women than that of men. Workforce gender composition is strongly related to employers' wage policies. The results suggest that 70–90% of the gender wage gap for low-educated workers may be attributed to differences in labour market frictions between men and women, while the similar figures for high-educated workers ranges from 20 to 70%.     

Utilization of family-friendly policies in Hong Kong

Employees in Hong Kong, like those in many other industrialized societies, face the competing demands of work and family. Long working hours and the associated problem of work–family conflict is a serious problem for the workforce. Although a number of family-friendly policies, such as the five-day working week, paternal leave and so on, have been introduced, they are not necessarily used to their fullest extent. This paper examines the utilization of family-friendly incentives using a telephone survey of 661 employees in Hong Kong with access to such measures. Its major strength is the use of a well-established model of health care utilization, the Andersen model, to conceptualize the factors associated with the uptake of family-friendly policies. The results indicate that the Andersen model works very well in this context, and further demonstrate that access to family-friendly policies in Hong Kong is not equitable. The study makes a number of significant contributions to the literature on work–life balance and the uptake of supportive measures, and shows that enabling (such as perceived effectiveness) rather than need factors explain most of the variance in such use.     

Speculative hyperinflations and currency substitution

We propose a rational expectations framework for understanding speculative hyperinflations that end in response to ‘orthodox’ stabilization programs. Motivated by a strong degree of hysteresis in the stock of real balances after the end of hyperinflations, we provide a cash-and-credit model in which the money demand exhibits persistence because individuals can establish long-lasting credit relationships. We use the model to show that if hysteresis in real balances is possible then a fiscal–monetary reform that successfully stops a speculative hyperinflation may fail to prevent it. We argue that speculative hyperinflationary equilibria are consistent with some key stylized facts observed in extreme hyperinflations.     

Paid Parental Leave: An Employee Right or Still An Ideal? An Analysis of the Situation in Québec in Comparison with North America

Over recent years, parental leave policy in Canada has evolved quite considerably. Since 2001, Canadian employees have a right to a 1 year paid parental leave; those in the province of Québec have a better paid, more flexible regime. This paper first shows that Québec is somewhat of an exception in the North American context, with its inclusive mode of governance which contributes to positive policies in terms of family and childcare. This is due to a few elements: the recognition of a declining birthrate, but more importantly the significant involvement and actions of women’s advocacy organizations, in the context of an inclusive governance of family policy. We will defend the hypothesis that Québec has adopted a cumulative (or work–family balance) model in the field of work–family relation, while the US and English Canada tend to still resort mainly to a laissez-faire attitude, which to this day has limited employee rights in terms of parental leave, but also in terms of child care.     

Depletion or expansion? Understanding the effects of support policy use on employee work and family outcomes

Past research on the effects of employees' use of work–family support policies tends to draw on a depletion perspective suggesting that using these policies may reduce work–family conflict. The emphasis on depletion fails to consider the expansion perspective that assumes that using work resources may enrich family functioning. Using a sample of 113 matched employee–supervisor pairs and a 1‐month separation between predictor and criterion measurement, we found support for the expansion rather than the depletion perspective. Specifically, the relationships between support policy use and employee job satisfaction and family efficacy (but not organisational citizenship behaviour) were mediated by work‐to‐family enrichment; these effects were realised only for employees with high levels of family identity. In contrast, no support was found for family‐to‐work conflict as a mediator of the model.