Organizational politics and human resource management: A typology and the Israeli experience

This paper provides a critical examination of the meaning of organizational politics (OP) for human resource management (HRM). We develop our discussion in three main sections. First, we explain the commonly negative image of OP and argue that it also has some positive dimensions useful for understanding HRM. Based on this rationale and on previous writings we present a balanced and non-judgmental approach towards politics in HRM. We extend the discussion to suggest a specific typology and model that, in our view, better explains the meaning of OP for HRM than current definitions. The model includes aspects of positive/constructive HRM, negative/destructive HRM, ineffective HRM and virtual HRM. Finally, we examine the implications of the model in the context of the changing Israeli cultural environment. This historical–cultural analysis pertains to similar global shifts and points to future HRM challenges in Israel and around the world.     

Labor search and matching in macroeconomics

The labor search and matching model plays a growing role in macroeconomic analysis. This paper provides a critical, selective survey of the literature. Four fundamental questions are explored: How are unemployment, job vacancies, and employment determined as equilibrium phenomena? What determines worker flows and transition rates from one labor market state to another? How are wages determined? What role do labor market dynamics play in explaining business cycles and growth? The survey describes the basic model, reviews its theoretical extensions, and discusses its empirical applications in macroeconomics.The model has been developed against the background of difficulties with the use of the neo-classical, frictionless model of the labor market in macroeconomics. Its success includes the modelling of labor market outcomes as equilibrium phenomena, the reasonable fit of the data, and—when inserted into business cycle models—improved performance of more general macroeconomic models. At the same time, there is evidence against the Nash solution used for wage setting and an active debate as to the ability of the model to account for some of the cyclical facts.     

Career attitudes and success of managers: the impact of chance event,protean, and traditional careers

We propose a career model that focuses on the antecedents of career success for managers and professionals within organizations. The model includes constructs rarely represented in the literature, and is based on conservation of resources theory. Testing our model with a sample of 545 managers, we found significant effect of positive and negative social capital, perception of organizational politics, professional vitality, and protean career attitude on internal and external career success, mediated by organizational commitment and met expectations, and moderated by chance event effect. This original contribution includes incorporating new constructs and concentrates upon factors enabling support for successful careers.     

Macroeconomic policy lessons of labor market frictions

The paper explores the consequences of macroeconomic policy for labor market outcomes in the presence of frictions. It shows how policy may be useful in over-riding frictions, as well as how it might generate adverse outcomes. A partial-equilibrium, empirically grounded model is used to simulate policy effects.The key results are that policy has effects on the stochastic behavior of key variables - measures that reduce unemployment also reduce its persistence and increase the volatility of vacancies. Hiring subsidies and unemployment benefits have substantial effects on labor market outcomes, while employment subsidies or wage tax reductions are not very effective policy instruments.     

Destination marketing during and following crises: combating negative images in Asia

The goal of this study is to analyze which strategies Asian officials and marketers have adopted in order to combat stereotypes, negative perceptions, and crises in order to repair destination images and bring back visitors. The study includes qualitative content analyses of news reports, press interviews, and campaigns in order to uncover media policy, strategies, events, and marketing initiatives used since 2008. The conceptual framework used was the “multi-step model for altering place image”, which offers three types of strategies to use in order to repair a destination’s negative image during and after a crisis: source, message, and audience.     

On behavioral complementarity and its implications

We study the behavioral definition of complementary goods: if the price of one good increases, demand for a complementary good must decrease. We obtain its full implications for observable demand behavior (its testable implications), and for the consumer's underlying preferences. We characterize those data sets which can be generated by rational preferences exhibiting complementarities. The class of preferences that generate demand complements has Leontief and Cobb-Douglas as its as extreme members.     

Existence and Uniqueness of Ordinal Nash Outcomes

In this paper we present necessary and sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of ordinal Nash outcomes. These outcomes are derived from the ordinal Nash solution—a reinterpretation and an extension of the Nash bargaining solution that allows bargainers to have preference relations that are more general than expected utility. Our task is undertaken by the construction of a new notion called “induced utilities”. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Number: C78.     

Assessment of rapid growth ventures,an extension of Schwartz and Moon model

It is a challenge to incorporate randomness into financial projections that are at the core of new venture assessment. We present a model based on Schwartz and Moon ( 2001 ) and apply it to a real firm data. We find that our 10‐year projections conform to the actual realized values. The model allows addressing crucial questions regarding the venture survival, its extreme potential outcomes, and its sensitivity to its parameters. It facilitates identifying risk drivers and assessing potential remedies. To our knowledge, we are the first to propose such a comprehensive stochastic model for risky ventures' simulation and analysis.     

U.S. Labor Market Dynamics Revisited

The picture of U.S. labor market dynamics is opaque. This paper aims at its clarification by (i) listing data facts that can be agreed upon; these indicate that there is considerable cyclicality and volatility of both accessions to and separations from employment and hence both are important for the understanding of the business cycle; (ii) presenting the business‐cycle facts of key series; (iii) pointing to specific gaps in the data picture, showing that the definite characterization of labor market dynamics depends upon the closing of these data gaps.     

The nature of employee engagement: rethinking the employee–organization relationship

Research interest in the new concept of employee engagement has grown dramatically in recent years. Employee engagement represents a work-related state of mind characterized by feelings of vigor, fulfillment, enthusiasm, absorption and dedication. However, scholars are still ambivalent about its theoretical contribution to explaining the employee–organization relationship. The goal of the study is to strengthen the theoretical foundation of the employee engagement concept in light of this relationship. We first compared employee engagement to other close concepts such as psychological empowerment and psychological contract. We then examined its contribution to the explanation of work centrality over and above psychological empowerment and psychological contract. Our study is based on an interactive sample of 593 employees from both private and public organizations in Israel. Our findings demonstrate that employee engagement is distinct from psychological empowerment and psychological contract and has an incremental value for work centrality over and above psychological empowerment and psychological contract. Implications of our findings are discussed the light of the employee–organization relationship.