Coping Strategies in Call Centres: Work Intensity and the Role of Co-workers and Supervisors

It has been observed that customer service workers often develop mutually supportive coping strategies to protect themselves from the emotional strain of overwork. These strategies can receive tacit support from supervisors, who may accept them as a means of getting the work done. The study explores the impact of a number of different forms of support on emotional exhaustion among a group of 480 call centre workers focusing, in particular, on the role of supportive behaviours relating to absence taking. The research shows that a supportive co-worker absence culture and team leader absence permissiveness can lessen the effects of job demands on emotional exhaustion and improve worker well-being. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Unhappy Campers: Exploring Consumer Resistance to Change

This article provides an examination of consumers' reaction to change that is consciously initiated by firm managers. Despite the best of intentions, some change is not welcomed by consumers. This article provides an explanation regarding why consumers resist change and suggestions are offered regarding ways that organizations can proactively work with their client base when change is needed without damaging their brand. This topic was examined using in‐depth interviews of customers of an experiential service: a family camp resort. The themes identified in this research are directly applicable to a broad range of experiential services including travel and leisure services.     

Analyzing and organizing nanotechnology development: Application of the institutional analysis development framework to nanotechnology consortia

Governments and companies around the globe have embraced nanotechnology as a strategically critical pan industrial technology. Many view it as one of the essential foundation technology bases of the next Schumpeterian wave. A number of commercial and government sponsored groups have developed a variety of consortia centered on the commercial promise of nanotechnology. Yet the optimal management of these consortia has proven elusive to the point that some suggest that they cannot be managed at all. If these consortia are important, and their effective management crucial, then there is cause for concern. We utilize the case study method to create a nanotechnology consortia management diagnostic model based on institutional analysis development (IAD). Nanotechnology consortia are formed for a variety of purposes and their stakeholders include governments, industries, large firms, SME, entrepreneurial enterprises, and supporting firms.     

Combining forecasts: An application to elections

We summarize the literature on the effectiveness of combining forecasts by assessing the conditions under which combining is most valuable. Using data on the six US presidential elections from 1992 to 2012, we report the reductions in error obtained by averaging forecasts within and across four election forecasting methods: poll projections, expert judgment, quantitative models, and the Iowa Electronic Markets. Across the six elections, the resulting combined forecasts were more accurate than any individual component method, on average. The gains in accuracy from combining increased with the numbers of forecasts used, especially when these forecasts were based on different methods and different data, and in situations involving high levels of uncertainty. Such combining yielded error reductions of between 16% and 59%, compared to the average errors of the individual forecasts. This improvement is substantially greater than the 12% reduction in error that had been reported previously for combining forecasts.     

A research agenda for improving national Ecological Footprint accounts

Nation-level Ecological Footprint accounts are currently produced for more than 150 nations, with multiple calculations available for some nations. The data sets that result from these national assessments typically serve as the basis for Footprint calculations at smaller scales, including those for regions, cities, businesses, and individuals. Global Footprint Network's National Footprint Accounts, supported and used by more than 70 major organizations worldwide, contain the most widely used national accounting methodology today. The National Footprint Accounts calculations are undergoing continuous improvement as better data becomes available and new methodologies are developed. In this paper, a community of active Ecological Footprint practitioners and users propose key research priorities for improving national Ecological Footprint accounting. For each of the proposed improvements, we briefly review relevant literature, summarize the current state of debate, and suggest approaches for further development. The research agenda will serve as a reference for a large scale, international research program devoted to furthering the development of national Ecological Footprint accounting methodology.     

Lessons from Financial Crises: The Role of Clearinghouses

This article investigates the historical development of clearinghouses and their ability to deal with financial crises. The article first reviews the role of bank clearinghouses in the Panic of 1907, the final crisis of the National Banking Era that led to the founding of the Federal Reserve, and examines how the clearinghouses responded by issuing transactions media, despite legal obstacles, and providing coinsurance among the members. The article then traces the late nineteenth and twentieth century evolution of clearinghouses at futures exchanges to understand how they promote stability and withstand crises by mutualizing risks among members. The key feature of both bank and futures clearinghouses is the effective integration of the members during times of distress, illustrating how the private markets develop institutions and contracts to manage risk and respond to financial crises.     

The Impact of Product Market Competition on Employment Determination in Unionised and Non-Unionised Firms: Firm Level Evidence for the U.K.

In this paper we investigate the effect of increasedcompetition on employment inunionised andnon-unionised firms. We model product and labourmarket imperfections, and their interactions, in Nashequilibrium. The model predicts that employment lossin unionised firms in the face of increasedcompetition will be lower compared with non-unionisedfirms. This paradoxical outcome results from anoffsetting beneficial employment effect ofcompetition, which eliminates wage mark-ups inunionised firms. We find empirical support for thetheoretical prediction using U.K. firm level data overthe period 1985–1989.