Consistency vs Flexibility: The Impact of Employee Voice in Rule-Based and Discretionary Decision Procedures

Consistency and flexibility are desirable, but incompatible, features of decision-making procedures. A comparison of a rule-based decision procedure (maximizing consistency) with a discretionary decision procedure (maximizing flexibility) was conducted. Employee voice was predicted to interact with decision procedure in impacting fairness perceptions. Student participants (N = 128) in a 2 × 2 laboratory simulation viewed videotaped depictions of a supervisor discussing a positive drug test result with an employee. The employee was given, or not given, an opportunity to explain; the supervisor was permitted discretion in determining the consequence or was completely bound by company policy. The proposed advantages of each decision procedure were obtained under contrasting levels of employee voice. Voice was desirable when the supervisor had discretionary authority; voice was unnecessary or even detrimental when a rule-based procedure was used. No overall preference between these two decision procedures was evident.     

The global compact: The conservative politics of international tourism

In response to any distributive outcome, politics asks, “who benefits?” and its corollary, “who loses?” Tourism, the world's largest industry, must have a politics; its presence changes the distribution of power and wealth, and promotes some values and groups over others. Yet tourism is deeply depoliticized. A few key characteristics of tourism, combined with basic aspects of the international system, create tendencies and patterns at three levels: the local, the national, and the international. The industry's elasticity means that quantitative projections are less helpful in understanding what politics is, and for identifying prospective winners and losers, than are qualitative sketches outlining how power relationships are elided in different spheres. This essay considers the current state of international tourism, and the infrastructure, national and international, that support and guide it, emphasizing the ideas and practices that keep politics out, and arguing that tourism is to a considerable degree about elites justifying, or mystifying, the status quo, and destinations playing into those expectations.     

How Good are Small Firms are Predicting Employment?

This paper utilises some data from an interview survey of very small firms in the North of England to examine the relationship between actual and forecast employment in small firms over a twelve month period. The paper first provides some summary statistics on actual and forecast employment for the survey firms over the reference period. It then looks at how successful the firms are in their short term forecasts, and finds that there is systematic over-estimation. The causes of the systematic forecast error are investigated. It is suggested, tentatively, that the firms may in some way be incorrectly interpreting the information embodied in their own employment figures when making their forecasts. The paper concludes with a brief review of the results and possible policy implications. Avenues for future work are also proposed.     

Workplace contextual supports for LGBT employees: A review,meta‐analysis,and agenda for future research

The past decade has witnessed a rise in the visibility of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This has resulted in some organizational researchers focusing their attention on workplace issues facing LGBT employees. While empirical research has been appropriately focused on examining the impact of workplace factors on the work lives of LGBT individuals, no research has examined these empirical relationships cumulatively. The purpose of this study was to conduct a comprehensive review and meta‐analysis of the outcomes associated with three workplace contextual supports (formal LGBT policies and practices, LGBT‐supportive climate, and supportive workplace relationships) and to compare the relative influence of these workplace supports on outcomes. Outcomes were grouped into four categories: (a) work attitudes, (b) psychological strain, (c) disclosure, and (d) perceived discrimination. Results show that supportive workplace relationships were more strongly related to work attitudes and strain, whereas LGBT supportive climate was more strongly related to disclosure and perceived discrimination compared to the other supports. Our findings also revealed a number of insights concerning the measurement, research design, and sample characteristics of the studies in the present review. Based on these results, we offer an agenda for future research.     

Designing Agricultural Technology for African Women Farmers: Lessons from 25 Years of Experience

African women farmers are less likely than men to adopt improved crop varieties and management systems. This paper addresses two issues: How does gender affect technology adoption among African farmers? How does the introduction of new technologies affect women's well-being? Three conclusions come out of an extensive and critical review of the literature. First, African households are complex and heterogeneous. Second, gender roles within African households and communities cannot be simply summarized. Third, gender roles and responsibilities are dynamic; they respond to changing economic circumstances. The paper demonstrates the complexity and importance of efforts to design interventions for African women.     

Crafting an environment to foster integration in new product teams

The integration of functionally diverse members in new product teams is a long-standing managerial challenge. This study addresses two questions to help meet this challenge: 1) how can the environment around teams be crafted to foster integration, and 2) does integration help teams to create superior or more advantageous new products? Based on a survey of 206 cross-functional new product teams, we learned that certain environmental factors (market-oriented reward system, planning process formalization, managerial encouragement to take risks, and managerial involvement in new product projects) facilitate integration in teams, which, in turn, leads to the creation of superior or more advantageous new products.     

The Economics of Controlling Insect-Transmitted Plant Diseases

A framework is developed to analyze a spatially dependent economically significant pest problem emanating from a source and spreading via a carrier such as an insect. Transmission and/or source control to combat the pest or disease problem are explored. Alternative assumptions about the effectiveness of transmission control and the feasibility and costs, both social and private, of reduction of the pest population at the source are examined in an application of the model to controlling Pierce's disease in California wine grapes.     

Modelling intervention options to reduce GHG emissions in housing stock — A diffusion approach

The building sector is regarded as having one of the highest benefit-cost ratios from greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction strategies. However, because of uncertainties around household behaviour patterns, it is very difficult to assess and compare the GHG reduction impacts of different intervention schemes for whole housing stock. Intervention schemes include policy instruments such as incentives or rebates for energy efficient appliances or renewable energy, and regulatory building code requirements for energy efficiency. This paper presents a decision support tool based on mathematical diffusion that evaluates the adoption levels of different schemes or pathways towards reducing GHG emissions in housing stock. It is an extension of the Bass diffusion model that accommodates financial and non-financial benefits, ceilings of adoption and interactions between intervention options. The model capability was tested using a case study of seven suburbs in Brisbane, Australia, comprising of 25,000 houses and units. Estimates of GHG emission reductions to 2019 of a household rebate scheme for solar panels and a rebate scheme for solar hot water compared to a base case of no rebates were presented and analysed. Modelling also allowed identification of important characteristics of adoption trends that could assist policy makers and industry to substantially improve the design of effective intervention options.