The relationship between HRM avenues of political influence and perceived organizational performance

This article explores the relationship between the human resource management function's access to avenues of political influence and perceived organizational performance. We examine responses from 441 Australian senior HRM managers who participated in an online survey of a national HRM professional association. Drawing from political influence theory, we develop a model and related hypotheses to investigate the impact of opportunities for the HRM function to manage and control the shared meaning of HRM on perceived organizational performance. Although there was no evidence of a moderating effect of avenues of HRM political influence, CEO support and organizational support for HRM predicted perceived organizational performance. HRM representation on the board of directors appears to serve a symbolic function only. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in response to the identified importance of CEO and organizational support. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Identifying and Managing Control System Benefits and Costs

A well‐functioning management control system is essential to ensure the organization's strategy is executed as planned. While accounting students are provided many opportunities to master the design of management control systems, students are provided fewer opportunities to practice applying management control systems. This interactive role play allows students to experience the challenges managers face when applying organizational control systems. The role play fits best at the end of the unit where instructors have reviewed management control system design and application and is best suited for undergraduate and MBA students who have little or no supervisory experience. Students rated the role play as highly effective, as 97 percent (n = 38) of the students recommend that instructors at other institutions adopt this exercise.     

Exploring the power dimensions of the human resource function

While a large body of literature has investigated the content of human resource management (HRM) practices, this research explores the process through which the HRM function impacts on organisational performance. Specifically, the research explores the reasons for the success or failure of HRM initiatives that have been associated with organisational outcomes and classifies the reasons as dimensions of HRM power. Based on 26 interviews conducted in Australia with senior HRM executives, top management team (TMT) executives and two management consultants, we found that, in order to contribute to organisational performance, HRM professionals can effectively utilise three dimensions of power, namely power of resources, power of processes and power of meaning. The findings offer new insights to the relationship between dimensions of HRM power and organisational performance.     

Advertising strategy and effective advertising: comparing the USA and Australia

A considerable body of research makes cross-cultural comparisons of advertising content and executional factors. Much of this work compares very different cultures. This study compared the strategic elements found in television commercials that have received industry recognition for effectiveness in two similar cultures, the USA and Australia. The study found that effective messages were similar in terms of selling propositions, tone and positive versus negative appeals. Specifically, the messages were similar in terms of their emphasis on product attributes and performance and a heavy reliance on humour. Effective campaigns differed in their creative strategy, rational versus emotional appeals and the presence of a brand-differentiating message. It is suggested that the differences in advertising arose from differences in the marketplace and cultural environment.     

The Concept of Trust and the Political Economy of John Maynard Keynes,Illustrated Using Central Bank Forward Guidance and the Democratic Dilemma in Europe

Trust is an issue to which Keynesians and post-Keynesians have paid relatively little attention. However, properly understood it is an aspect of almost all activity, including key elements of socio-economic reality. Without trust, market exchange is at the very least problematic, if not impossible. Moreover, trust is intrinsic to a variety of issues with which Keynes, and subsequent Keynesianism have been concerned. In this paper we provide a general social theory conceptualisation of trust and then set out some of the areas where this concept resonates with the work of Keynes in terms of the role of conventions. Conventions quintessentially involve trust and that trust can be unstable, can be withdrawn and can require rebuilding. We illustrate this with reference to central bank policy and the Bank of England's introduction of Forward Guidance. Exploring the problem of trust in the context of banking also highlights a challenge for the continued relevance of Keynes' work. We now live in a neoliberal world and this provides a quite different context for state intervention than was previously the case. Keynes' work is now an argument for the alternative, and as such it requires more than a technical economic argument, it must also address the problem of trust in state policy-makers. We briefly illustrate the challenge this poses with reference to Europe.     

Economic growth and the return to capital in developing economies

An important stylized fact of economic growth is that the rateof return to capital is relatively constant across countriesand over time. This paper provides an explanation using a modelof growth for a developing economy that has a dualistic structure.Three conditions are derived, each of which may account forthe observed stability of the return to capital. The resultsaddress Lucas' criticism of conventional growth models and supportrecent growth accounting studies of East Asian economies, whichemphasize the role of increased factor inputs.     

“Tax” and “Fee” Frames in Green Advertisements: The Influence of Self-Transcendence in Reusable Bag Usage

Increasing the use of reusable shopping bags is one of many actions that consumers can take to reduce waste and conserve energy. However, this goal is somewhat daunting because it requires a significant behavior change on the part of consumers. Taking their self-transcendence into consideration, the current study used an experimental method to examine which type of message frame best influenced shoppers to use reusable bags: a fee (gain) or a tax (loss). Findings show that high self-transcendent participants were more environmentally conscious and that, overall, a penalty framed as a tax was more effective. Implications are discussed.     

The influence of workgroup identification on turnover intention and knowledge sharing: the perspective of employees in subsidiaries

Abstract

Turnover intention and knowledge sharing of local employees in multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiary workgroups have received relatively little attention in IHRM research, yet are central to everyday operation of the organisation. Drawing on optimal distinctiveness theory, we consider the influence of workgroup identification on two important employee attitudes and behaviours, turnover intention and knowledge sharing, by examining the influence of the supervisor on workgroup identification. Participants included 306 employees in an Australian and New Zealand subsidiary of an MNE headquartered in Europe. The results indicate that employees’ tendency to identify with their workgroup is enhanced by the distinctiveness of a supervisor from a different national or cultural group, which in turn leads to decreased turnover intention and increased knowledge sharing among workgroup members. Higher supervisor prototypicality however, that counterbalances distinctiveness through higher inclusion, weakens the mediation effect. An important practical implication of this research is that the HR function could play a valuable role in training or group development to raise supervisors’ and employees’ understanding and management of needs for both inclusion and distinctiveness.     

Land Speculation in Southern California: Energy Monopoly, Fiscal Crisis and the Future

A bstract . Increasing automobile traffic congestion and longer trip times on interurban trolley lines in southern California after the second world war led to the contruction of freeways. The trolleys were denied access and the efficient electric railway system was sold to bus lines , partly as a result of a conspiracy between bus manufacturers, tiremakers , and oil companies. This producecl "the golden age of land speculation" in the region. Floodplains, earthquake zones, blowsand areas and the tops and sides of crumbling cliffs were dotted with sprawled residential developments. The energy crisis of 1973, produced by the oil companies and the Arab oil cartel , turned boom into bust. As inflation and rising taxes produced by soaring property values put intolerable pressure on urban homeowners , they forced legislators to limit increases in assessed values and to restrict government spending. Now the public is challenged to produce order out of fiscal chaos and speculative ruin.