Visibility in the workplace: still an essential ingredient for career success?

This article explores the extent to which a variety of different absences from the workplace affect perceptions of employee commitment and loyalty, and ultimately, how this ‘temporary invisibility’ might affect career success. Data were derived from 40 interviews (12 women and 28 men) in a public sector agency in Australia. Findings reveal that absences attract substantial career penalties for many employees, not only in relation to gendered flexible work options such as part-time employment and parental leave, but also traditionally uncontested entitlements such as annual and long service leave.     

Economic performance and international trade engagement: the case of Portuguese manufacturing firms

By combining economic and financial data for Portuguese manufacturing firms with data on their exports and imports, we uncover some aspects of the relationship between international trade engagement and firms’ performances. In line with recent theoretical and empirical developments in the international trade literature: (i) we testify that Portuguese international trade is highly concentrated, especially on the import side, and both in inter- and intra-sector terms; (ii) we corroborate previous studies and theses according to which two-way traders outperform only importers, only exporters and above all domestic firms; (iii) we find that the greater the diversification of markets and goods (especially with regard to imports), the better the performance achieved by internationalised firms; (iv) we notice that the higher the intensity of firms’ international trade (especially imports), the better their performance; (v) we also present evidence that destination markets for exports and origin markets for imports are also important in explaining firm’s performance.     

Segmentation by benefits sought: the case of rural tourism in Madeira

Rural tourism has been promoted as an effective catalyst for growth in rural areas severely hit by the rural structuring process. However, with regard to islands, rural tourism has been mainly advertised and promoted as a counterpoint to mass tourism. While in most Western countries rural tourism has been in place for decades, islands have been pursuing a rural tourism agenda only since the 1990s. Consequently, we face a dearth of research regarding motivation factors that attract tourists to the rural hinterland on islands. The purpose of this study is to segment and profile rural tourists based on benefits sought in order to gain a better understanding of the current demand trends. The data collection procedure were based on a self-administered survey applied to a sample of 180 tourists, and four clusters were identified. The relaxer cluster which comprises individuals attracted by opportunities to relax and recharge batteries, are the most dominant, suggesting that the sector mimics, to a large extent, the main tourism market. This is a problematic outcome because the sector is failing to attract a more diverse and wealthy clientele. Due attention should also be paid to other clusters. The ruralist segment values relaxation in natural segments to escape from daily routine, the ‘want it all segment’ is composed of tourists interested in all kind of activities and the family-oriented cluster is mainly interested in socialising with the family. Implications of our preliminary conclusions for theory and practice are discussed.     

An IR perspective on collective bargaining

In examining collective bargaining, industrial relations (IR) emphasizes a number of things of interest to HR scholars. First, IR adopts a different level of analysis from HR — that of the economy and the broader society — in contrast to HR's primary focus on the employing organization. Second, IR has an understanding of workplace conflict that emphasizes its collective and inherent nature, complementing HR's focus on managing individual conflict for the good of the organization. Finally, IR addresses the value of collective bargaining in promoting democracy and correcting “labor problems” arising from competitive markets, even in situations in which there is excellent personnel management.     

Sexual harassment in organizations

Sexual harassment is now recognized as a potential problem for most organizations. The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the various aspects of sexual harassment as a problem: its definition (including both the economic injury and hostile environment types of harassment), its characteristics, and a discussion of how to deal with such problems in the workplace. Organizations are encouraged to act affirmatively by (1) establishing a policy prohibiting sexual harassment in the organization; (2) establishing and making employees aware of a grievance procedure for sexual harassment complaints; and (3) educating employees about the problem of sexual harassment through a combination of awareness and experiential training techniques.     

Is it all about awareness? The normalization of coastal risk

Coastal risk is already high in several parts of the world and is expected to be amplified by climate change, which makes it necessary to outline effective risk management strategies. Risk managers assume that increasing awareness of coastal risk is the key to public support and endorsement of risk management strategies – an assumption that underlies a common worldview on the public understanding of science, which has been named the deficit model. We argue that the effects of awareness are not as straightforward. In particular, awareness of coastal hazards might not lead to more technically accurate risk perceptions. Based on research on risk perception normalization, we explored the hypothesis that coastal risk awareness reduces coastal risk perception – in particular the perceived likelihood of occurrence of coastal hazards – through its effect on reliance on protective measures to prevent risk. Individuals can rely on protective measures, even when those are not effective, as a positive illusion to reduce risk perception. This effect might be stronger for higher probability hazards and for permanent residents of costal zones. Data from 410 individuals living in coastal zones corroborated most of our expectations. Global results demonstrated a risk normalization effect mediated by reliance on current measures. Additional analyses made clear that this effect occurred in 2 of the 5 high-probability hazards (flood and storm), and not in the low-probability hazard (tsunami). Normalization might be more likely among high-probability hazards which entail catastrophic and immediate impacts. This effect was also found among permanent residents, but not among temporary residents. Results imply that coastal risk management might benefit from (a) taking risk perception normalization effects into account, (b) tailoring strategies for permanent and temporary residents and (c) promoting a higher public engagement, which would facilitate a more adaptive and effective coping with coastal risk than the use of positive illusions.     

The impact of diverse measures of default risk on UK stock returns

A number of recent papers examine the relationship between default risk and equity returns, and the results are mixed. These studies employ different measures of default risk and we find that correlations between eight diverse measures of default risk tend to be less than 50%. Nonetheless, we find that the relationship between stock returns and diverse measures of default risk tends to be consistent; default risk is a significant determinant of stock returns and this relationship is “hump backed”, as predicted by Garlappi and Yan (2011).     

Work–family enrichment and satisfaction: the mediating role of self-efficacy and work–life balance

Although the direct effects of work–family enrichment on satisfaction are well-documented, previous theoretical predictions and empirical findings of the relationship have been inconsistent. Drawing on social cognitive theory, the current research examined how work–family enrichment contributes to job and family satisfaction by exploring the mediating mechanisms of self-efficacy and work–life balance. This study also empirically validated a new self-efficacy measure using the work–life interface nomological network. A heterogeneous sample of Australian employees (N = 234) from four different organisations responded to two waves of data collection separated by a 12-month interval. Using structural equation modelling, the results of the statistical analysis provided preliminary support for the hypothesised chain mediation model and the newly developed five-item self-efficacy to regulate work and life scale. Specifically, work-to-family enrichment and family-to-work enrichment were positively related to self-efficacy, which in turn had a positive effect on work–life balance. Similarly, work–life balance had a positive impact on job and family satisfaction. Evidence of these relationships over time was demonstrated, thereby emphasising the importance of person–cognitive resources (e.g. self-efficacy) in influencing life outcomes. Validation of the self-efficacy scale also demonstrated robust psychometric properties and criterion validity. Implications of these results were subsequently discussed.     

Option implied cost of equity and its properties

The estimation of the cost of equity capital (COE) is one of the most important tasks in financial management. Existing approaches compute the COE using historical data, i.e. they are backward‐looking methods. This study derives a method to calculate forward‐looking estimates of the COE using the current market prices of stocks and stock options. Our estimates of the COE reflect the expectation of the market investors about the COE during the life of the investment project. We test empirically our method and compare it with the Fama/French (1993) three‐factor model for the S&P 100 firms. The empirical results indicate that our COE estimates (1) are plausible and stable over the years as required by appropriate discount rates for capital budgeting, (2) yield an equity risk premium close to the market equity risk premium reported by Fama E. F. and French K. R. (2002), (3) generate strong return‐risk relationships, and (4) are significantly related with investor sentiment. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 29: 599–629, 2009