The effect of primed goals on employee performance: Implications for human resource management

Overwhelming evidence in the behavioral sciences shows that consciously set goals can increase an employee's performance. Thus, HR professionals have had little, if any, reason to be interested in subconscious processes. In the past decade, however, laboratory experiments by social psychologists have shown that goals can be primed. That is, people's behavior is affected by goals of which they are unaware. Because a conscious goal consumes cognitive resources, this finding has important implications for employee efficiency in the workplace. This paper discusses the results of priming a performance goal in two organizational settings. Call center employees who were primed using a photograph of a woman winning a race raised significantly more money from donors than those who were randomly assigned to a control group. A meta‐analysis revealed that a photograph can prime the subconscious to increase job performance. The results of the present study demonstrate that subconscious motivation is a concept worthy of exploration for both human resource scholars and practitioners. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The contours of employee voice in SMEs: the importance of context

This article develops a context‐sensitive approach to analyse how and why voice operates in small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), an area that remains under‐theorised and under‐researched. By building on a priori frameworks with proven ability to unpack complexity and take account of the wider context of SMEs, this article explores how resources (human and social capital) and constraints (product market, labour market and strategic orientation) interact to shape voice practices. The article finds significant differences between ‘reported’ compared with ‘actual’ practices in situ, and identifies different types of firms (‘strategic market regulation’, ‘strategic market‐led’ and ‘non‐strategic market‐led’) along with the factors that influence the form and practice of voice. Overall, the article argues that researchers should further pursue research that appreciates the layered nature of ontology and the role played by firm context to explain complex organisational phenomena, if we are to advance our understanding of voice practices in SMEs and beyond.     

Lean production,employee learning and workplace outcomes: a case analysis through the ability‐motivation‐opportunity framework

This study examines an implementation of lean production in fast‐moving consumer goods manufacturing, analysing how it has affected employee learning and job quality. We find major variation in these outcomes. Where line managers have relinquished significant control, and workers have had the requisite levels of literacy, more powerful forms of learning have occurred, and the outcomes are mutually beneficial. However, deeper learning has yet to take hold where production pressures are high, line managers are not enabling and workers lack self‐efficacy because of low literacy. Better outcomes depend on greater investments in the development and ongoing support of front‐line managers and in literacy development. The study shows how the ability‐motivation‐opportunity framework can be used to organise relevant theory and throw light on the systemic nature of workplace learning.     

Self-admissible sets

Best-response sets (Pearce, 1984 [28]) characterize the epistemic condition of “rationality and common belief of rationality.” When rationality incorporates a weak-dominance (admissibility) requirement, the self-admissible set (SAS) concept (Brandenburger, Friedenberg, and Keisler, 2008 [17]) characterizes “rationality and common assumption of rationality.” We analyze the behavior of SAS's in some games of interest—Centipede, the Finitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma, and Chain Store. We then establish some general properties of SAS's, including a characterization in perfect-information games.     

Health club use and ‘lifestyle’: exploring the boundaries between work and leisure

In this article I investigate the relationship between work and leisure for professional employees. Drawing on qualitative research I explore the motivation behind premier club use – a sector within the wider health club industry – to show that rather than being an activity firmly located within the domain of ‘leisure’, it is a complex activity, influenced by a person's occupation and experience within the workplace. Through the empirical discussion I show that professionals working within the city are often committed to a ‘project of the self’, fuelled by a desire to create a professional identity whereby the development and maintenance of a fit and healthy body symbolises characteristics that are valued within the professional workplace. Accordingly I propose the concept of a ‘workstyle’ as opposed to ‘lifestyle’, to suggest that the motivation behind premier club use is defined according to the social and cultural experience of working in the city and in turn, certain individuals may be consuming premier club membership for the benefit of their overall career. To this end, premier club use is portrayed as an activity defined according to the principles of work rather than as a definitive ‘leisure’ pursuit, thus blurring and mediating the boundaries between work and leisure.     

Mother and child constructions of risk in outdoor play

Managing the risks to which children are exposed in contemporary Britain is complex, requiring parents to balance opportunities for a child’s development with an appropriate concern for the potential consequences. Managing risk is particularly an issue for mothers, who, despite societal changes, tend to retain overall responsibility for the care of children. This paper explores the meanings mothers attach to risk and how this influences their children’s outdoor play. It also extends the scope of much existing literature by including children’s own perspectives on risk in outdoor play. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 12 mothers who had children aged between 9 and 11 years old who attended a north-east school. Two focus groups were also held, each with six of the children. Findings are analysed in relation to mother and child constructions of risk; mothers and children as risk managers; and negotiating mothering choices. The paper pays particular attention to the way in which mothers’ decisions were framed within risk cultures and dominant views of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mothering.     

On the relationship between hierarchy and type morphisms

Here, we establish a relationship between hierarchy and type morphisms. Both concepts have been used to relate the types in one structure to types in a second “larger” structure. In general, the two concepts may differ, in the sense that a hierarchy morphism need not be a type morphism. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition under which the two concepts coincide. We go on to provide situations under which this condition must be satisfied.     

Great Expectations: Benchmarking for Best Value

Many local authorities have embarked on benchmarking as one way of satisfying the Government's requirement that local authorities provide 'best value' services. This article suggests that the Government's initial enthusiasm for benchmarking was based on an incomplete understanding of the previous experiences of benchmarking in the local government sector. The most recent pronouncements make little mention of benchmarking, but there has been no explicit statement that it is no longer a key feature of best value. Local authorities are investing in developing benchmarking technology that may well fail to pay back in terms of meeting best value stipulations or in satisfying the authorities' own internal management needs. The authors suggest how local authority benchmarking efforts might be redirected to better effect.     

Benchmarking as a Tool for the Modernisation of Local Government

This paper examines benchmarking as a tool of the modernisation process in local government and the contradictory tensions in the Best Value scheme are explored. Benchmarking is shown to encapsulate the dichotomous nature of a modernising philosophy which espouses innovation and local solutions alongside the government's centralising tendencies. One consequence is the advancement of 'compulsory' and 'defensive' modes of benchmarking with local authorities benchmarking for external accountability reasons; issues of tangible improvement are secondary concerns. These tensions are viewed as irreconcilable, the implication is that local government will need to carefully manage and evaluate its benchmarking activities.     

Environmental Performance Reporting for Natural Area Tourism: Contributions by Visitor Impact Management Frameworks and Their Indicators

Environmental performance reporting is being increasingly demanded of many sectors of society, including those responsible for managing natural area tourism. Recent approaches include corporate reporting, state-of-the-environment reporting, and environmental management systems. This paper evaluates the usefulness of visitor impact management frameworks and associated resource and social indicators, both of which have a rich history of application to wilderness and backcountry management, for performance reporting on natural area tourism management. The evaluation draws on a recently developed evaluation framework for protected area management, plus detailed criteria, to address today's environmental performance reporting needs. Against these criteria, the visitor impact management frameworks rated well, with the Limits of Acceptable Change rating the highest. Resource and social indicators also showed great potential for performance reporting provided they are meaningful to senior managers, politicians and other stakeholders. Integrating these frameworks and their resource and social indicators into today's performance reporting, especially into state-of-the-environment reporting and environmental management systems, could significantly advance meaningful performance reporting for natural area tourism management.