Meta-learning about business ethics: Building honorable business school communities

We propose extending business ethics education beyond the formal curriculum to the hidden curriculum where messages about ethics and values are implicitly sent and received. In this meta-learning approach, students learn by becoming active participants in an honorable business school community where real ethical issues are openly discussed and acted upon. When combined with formal ethics instruction, this meta-learning approach provides a framework for a proposed comprehensive program of business ethics education.Linda Klebe Trevino is Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Mary Jean and Frank B. Smeal College of Business Administration, The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on the management of ethical-unethical behavior in organizations and justice in disciplinary situations.Donald L. McCabe is Associate Professor of Management at the Graduate School of Management, Rutgers — the State University of New Jersey. His research focuses on decision making and interpretive processes under conditions of uncertainty, and the management of ethical behavior in organizations.     

Workplace bullying and employee outcomes: a moderated mediated model

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between workplace bullying and employee outcomes in a healthcare setting. Drawing on HR process theory, we investigate the mediating role of the perceived effectiveness of implementation of anti-bullying practices on employee outcomes and whether targeted line manager training was a moderator of that relationship. Our multi-level analysis (utilising responses from 1507 employees within 47 hospitals with matched HR Director interviews), finds that the relationship between workplace bullying and employee outcomes is partially mediated by employees’ perceived effective implementation of intended anti-bully practices. The mediated relationship is moderated by targeted line manager training in anti-bullying practices. The mediated moderation model illustrates that it is effective implementation of anti-bullying practices enhanced by targeted training that is required to reduce bullying probabilities and their associated negative employee outcomes. The paper contributes to resource based view of the firm, HR process and human capital theories. The implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

A meta-analysis of community-based studies on quality protein maize

Biofortification, or the improvement of nutritional quality in food crops, is a promising strategy to combat undernutrition, particularly among the rural poor in developing countries. However, traditional methods of impact assessment are inadequate for biofortified crops, as they do not consider their nutritional benefits. Evidence for the nutritional impact of maize varieties with improved protein quality, collectively known as quality protein maize (QPM), was evaluated using meta-analysis of randomized, controlled studies in target communities. A new and generalizable effect size was proposed to quantify the impact of QPM on a key outcome, child growth. The results indicated that consumption of QPM instead of conventional maize leads to a 12% (95% CI: 7–18%) increase in the rate of growth in weight and a 9% (95% CI: 6–15%) increase in the rate of growth in height in infants and young children with mild to moderate undernutrition from populations in which maize is the major staple food. The proposed effect size and use of bootstrapping to determine statistical significance addressed some methodological limitations in the existing studies.     

The reliability and rationale of Hackman and Oldham's Job Diagnostic Survey and Job Characteristics Model among seasonal hotel workers

This study examines the reliability of Hackman and Oldham's Job Diagnostic Survey and the validity of their Job Characteristics Model among seasonal hotel workers in the UK. One hundred and sixty-three useable questionnaires were returned. The analyses chosen (multiple and off-diagonal correlations, multiple and partial regressions) are similar to those used by the authors in their original assessment. In general, reliability scores were comparable with those of Hackman and Oldham, supporting the validity of the Job Diagnostic Survey and theoretical tenets of their theory of work motivation. In addition, hotel workers were satisfied with their jobs despite, in some cases, poor working conditions. This likely to be explained by the opportunity hotels provide for social interaction among workers rather than the p-11 resence of ‘tangible’ objective job elements espoused by popular notions of motivation.     

A sequential approach to testing for structural change in econometric models

The paper shows that the sequential approach to testing econometric models, particularly testing for structural change, is both feasible and potentially very useful. In fact, this paper makes clear the possibility of using the sequential approach as suggested by Dhrymes et al. (1972) and shows that the statistical dependence between successive tests can be overcome in some cases.Helpful comments by David Hendry, Grayham Mizon and Jan Kiviet, on an earlier version of a related Paper, are gratefully acknowledged.     

Female labor-force participation,occupational choice,and fertility in developing countries

A model is presented in which female labor-force participation, family size, occupation, and the demand for mother-substitutes are joindy determined under assumptions relevant to the less developed country (LDC) context. The model is tested using (1) household data from the 1970 Puerto Rican Public Use Sample and (2) an intercountry cross-section sample. Evidence is obtained that female potential wages rising pari passu with each other will be positively associated with both labor force participation and fertility. However, it is shown that this pronatalist effect may not hold for potential wage rate rises limited to specific occupations, because of differences in occupation-child-rearing compatibility.