PRICING NIKKEI PUT WARRANTS: SOME EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

The newly created Nikkei put warrants represent a recent innovation in security development. These privately issued puts enable investors to hedge or speculate on price movements in the Japanese market. Understanding the pricing behavior of these new securities provides U.S. investors and issuers with valuable information to assess potential benefits and costs. In this research two alternative pricing models are used to explain the observed prices of several privately issued Nikkei put warrants. While results from the two models indicate some pricing biases, pricing errors are very small overall.     

DIVERSIFICATION AND SKEWNESS IN OPTION PORTFOLIOS

Skewness in returns is relevant to option investors. Because options possess positively skewed distributions, the traditional maxim of diversification, which can destroy positive skewness, is not necessarily consistent with investment objectives. The results indicate that the majority of skewness in option portfolios is diversified with a relatively small portfolio size, suggesting a strategy of antidiversification for option investors. Even though the investment performance of options is inferior to stocks on a risk-return basis, the data indicate the suitability of option portfolios in an environment where an investor's utility is measured by the return, risk, and skewness of the return distribution.     

Managing margins through physician engagement

Hospitals should take the following steps as they seek to engage physicians in an enterprisewide effort to effectively manage margins: Consider physicians' daily professional practice requirements and demands for time in balancing patient care and administrative duties. Share detailed transactional supply data with physicians to give them a behind-the-scenes look at the cost of products used for procedures. Institute physician-led management and monitoring of protocol compliance and shifts in utilization to promote clinical support for change. Select a physician champion to provide the framework for managing initiatives with targeted, efficient communication.     

When Employees Engage in Workplace Incivility: The Interactive Effect of Psychological Contract Violation and Organizational Justice

The primary objective of this research was to examine both procedural and interactional justice perceptions as moderators of the relationship between psychological contract violation and workplace incivility. Affect Infusion Model (AIM) was used as a theoretical basis for predicting an interaction in which there was, in general, a positive relationship between violation and incivility. However, a stronger relationship between contract violation and incivility was predicted under high-justice conditions, compared to low-justice conditions, due to the deeper, more elaborate information processing needed to reconcile a psychological contract violation occurring in an otherwise just organization. An online survey was administered to 975 U.S. respondents. The hypotheses were confirmed. Results indicated that the positive relationship between violation and instigated incivility was stronger among employees reporting a just work environment. Implications for applying AIM to organizational settings are discussed.     

The effect of adverse impact in selection practices on organizational diversity: a field study

Based on a sample of 154 organizations across Canada, we examined the influence of the use of different employee selection methods on workplace minority representation rates. Results indicated that usage of cognitive ability and personality testing significantly influences minority representation after controlling for other diversity management practices. In particular, cognitive ability testing appears to be associated with lower levels of minority group representation in organizations as a whole and in their management ranks; personality testing is associated with higher levels of minority representation in organizations. To advance our understanding of the organizational factors that influence minority group representation and the use of different selection practices, we also examined HR manager perceptions of test bias and the effects of employment equity (EEA) legislation on selection test usage. Results indicated that firms covered under employment equity legislation were less likely to use cognitive ability tests. Interestingly, HR managers reported that personality tests may be more biased against minorities than cognitive ability tests. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

The glass ceiling in context: the influence of CEO gender,recruitment practices and firm internationalisation on the representation of women in management

This study examines macro‐level organisational determinants of women in management. Specifically, we examined organisational characteristics and strategies, including firm levels of internationalisation, firm foreign ownership, chief executive officer gender and the active recruitment of women, as predictors of an organisation's level of representation of women in management. Results from a survey of 278 firms indicated that the presence of a female chief executive officer and an organisation's active recruitment of women are positively associated with a firm's percentage of women in management while firm internationalisation and firm foreign ownership are negatively associated with the representation of women in management. Overall, these findings suggest that although firms exercise discretion with respect to hiring and promoting women, they are also constrained by the external environment and organisational characteristics. For example, firms with higher levels of firm internationalisation and that are foreign‐owned may limit their efforts and investment in the advancement of women into management.