Behavioral dimensions of channels of distribution: Review and synthesis

This paper reviews and synthesizes the past research in the area of behavioral dimensions of channels of distribution. The authors explore the focal points of works on bargaining, conflict, cooperation, power, performance, member roles, member satisfaction and political economy. Suggestions for future research are supplied.     

A new approach to the construction of family equivalence scales

The question of the money compensation which should be given to families of different sizes in order that they enjoy equal welfare levels is considered. By comparison of individual welfare functions, estimated for 3,000 individuals in the Netherlands, family welfare equivalence scales are derived. The obtained equivalence scale depends on family size and the ages of the family members. There are considerable ‘economies of scale’. The method employed may be used to derive money compensations for other situational differences. Evidence was found that people adapt their needs to situational changes. That effect was quantitatively assessed. Results are obtained and compared for various social subgroups.     

Health and the welfare of U.S. business

Business leaders continue to blame the skyrocketing cost of health care for jeopardizing the global competitiveness of U.S. industries, and they continue to turn to Washington for the solution. Yet after a study of 16 countries, Wharton researchers David Brailer and R. Lawrence Van Horn have discovered that health care costs do not directly hinder U.S. competitiveness. Their conclusion: there is indeed a health care crisis in the United States as well as a competitiveness crisis. But the two are unrelated, and confusing them makes it difficult to solve either one. The real problem, according to the authors, is the hands-off approach that employers typically adopt when it comes to health care. No matter how Washington responds to the health care crisis, employers must explore their own role in ensuring the health of their work force. And they must realize that their role can be a strategic one. Instead of containing costs by fine-tuning benefits packages, companies can control costs and improve health care delivery by treating health care like any other crucial component of production. Brailer and Van Horn propose three strategies for managing health care delivery: First, companies must intervene in the supply side of the health care market. This may mean creating a clinic alone or with other companies, or joining with other companies to procure health care. Second, companies need to translate corporate health benefits into the most cost-effective set of services at the local level. Finally, companies must encourage and educate employees to participate in decisions regarding health care delivery.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Fairness and the Main Management Theories of the Twentieth Century: A Historical Review, 1900–1965

Although not always termed “organizational justice,” the fairness of organizations has been a consistent concern of management thinkers. A review of the 1900–1965 time period indicates that management theorists primarily conceptualized organizational justice in utilitarian terms, although each theory emphasized distributive and procedural justice to different degrees. There is clearly a need for contemporary scholars to consider non-economic rationales for organizational justice, but the willingness of earlier scholars to make utilitarian arguments about organizational justice and productive efficiency helped legitimize the idea of fairness in organizations as an arbiter of value. Further, each theory tempered absolute managerial autonomy with some inherent check thereon. Researchers interested in organizational justice should therefore take a historical perspective in considering how management theory includes consideration of justice-related concerns.     

Enhancing Employee Voice: Are Voluntary Employer–Employee Partnerships Enough?

One of the essential ethical issues in the employment relationship is the loss of employee voice. Many of the ways employees have previously exercised voice in the employment relationship have been rendered less effective by (1) the changing nature of work, (2) employer preferences for flexibility that often work to the disadvantage of employees, and (3) changes in public policy and institutional systems that have failed to protect workers. We will begin with a discussion of how work has changed in the last 20 years in countries like Australia and the United States, and then take up the issue of employees as organizational stakeholders and the ethical duties that are owed them, with special attention given to issues of power. We will then consider whether voluntary action by employers such as social auditing is sufficient to ensure equity for employees, and conclude with a discussion of how changes in public policy might ensure greater fairness in the employment relationship by bringing employers and employees together in partnership.     

The language of business: a key nurse executive competency

The ability to interpret fiscal data pertaining to patient outcomes, human resources, customer satisfaction, and financial positions is a vital evidenced-based nurse executive competency. The ability of nurse leaders to influence and contribute in health system executive decision making requires fluency in accounting, "the language of business." After examining challenges faced by nurse executives, faculty at the Loewenberg School of Nursing at the University of Memphis integrated intensive accounting education into a new executive MSN program. Woven throughout the management accounting course is the concept that accounting data must be relevant and accurate for use by organization decision makers. Evidence-based decision making is emphasized when teaching planning and control activities. In addition, fluency in accounting is enhanced which leads to greater skill in patient and nursing advocacy. As competency in management accounting increases through the semester, executive MSN students are encouraged to apply cost accounting course content to their practice settings and to analyze how planning or control activities improve quality outcomes.     

Endogenous groups and dynamic selection in mechanism design

We create a dynamic theory of endogenous risk sharing groups, with good internal information, and their coexistence with relative performance, individualistic regimes, which are informationally more opaque. Inequality and organizational form are determined simultaneously. Numerical techniques and succinct reformulations of mechanism design problems with suitable choice of promised utilities allow the computation of a stochastic steady state and its transitions. Regions of low inequality and moderate to high wealth (utility promises) produce the relative performance regime, while regions of high inequality and low wealth produce the risk sharing group regime. If there is a cost to prevent coalitions, risk sharing groups emerge at high wealth levels also. Transitions from the relative performance regime to the group regime tend to occur when rewards to observed outputs exacerbate inequality, while transitions from the group regime to the relative performance regime tend to come with a decrease in utility promises. Some regions of inequality and wealth deliver long term persistence of organization form and inequality, while other regions deliver high levels of volatility.     

Examining the relationship between language divergence and word-of-mouth intentions

More than half of the countries in the world are multilingual, and more than half the world's consumers speak more than one language. Thus, bilingual consumers often receive services provided in a second or nonnative language. This article examines these consumers' word-of-mouth intentions after a service provision in a second language. Two studies show that consumers served in a second language are less likely to spread positive word of mouth. The results also reveal a negative halo effect, such that consumers served in a second language perceive the service provider as less responsive in general. Furthermore, the service provider's perceived responsiveness appears far more important for determining positive word-of-mouth intentions than other factors, such as service reliability. This study therefore contributes to the fields of service and sociolinguistics, with important implications for managers as well.