Human Capital Spillovers within the Workplace: Evidence for Great Britain*

In this paper, we use a unique matched worker–workplace data set to estimate the effect on own earnings of co‐workers’ education. Our results, using the 1998 GB Workplace Employee Relations Survey, show significant effects. An independent, significantly positive effect from average workplace education is evident; own earnings premia from years of education fall only slightly when controlling for workplace education. This result suggests that the social returns to education are strongly positive – working with colleagues who each had 1.2 years (1 standard deviation) of more education than the average worker, boosts own earnings by 11.1%. An additional year of any single co‐worker's education is worth about 3.2% of an additional own year of education. We also test for interactions between own and co‐worker education levels and for ‘skills incompatibility’ when worker education levels are heterogeneous. The interactions appear negative: own education is not much valued at workplaces where co‐workers’ education levels are already high. There is no evidence that workplace heterogeneity in worker education levels adversely affects own earnings. This result runs counter to theoretical predictions, and suggests that workers compete in tournaments for high‐paying jobs.     

The political economy of the ‘recurrent cost problem’ in the West African Sahel

The syndrome of development projects in agriculture and the social sectors languishing after completion of their foreign-aided establishment phase, due to lack of host government budget support, is particularly characteristic of, though by no means limited to, the eight countries of the West African Sahel. A two-year study of the problem by a multilateral working group attributed the problem substantially to donor policies causing recipients to attach a low opportunity cost, only a fraction of nominal value, to project-specific aid resources, as against the high opportunity cost, corresponding to a shadow price well over 1.0, attached to use of their own uncommitted budget resources.     

Reporting on a colleague's conduct cost this doctor plenty

When an ophthalmologist questioned another M.D.'s professional ethics, he found himself facing a protracted lawsuit--one with disturbing implications for all physicians.     

The Impact of Moral Stress Compared to Other Stressors on Employee Fatigue, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover: An Empirical Investigation

Moral stress is an increasingly significant concept in business ethics and the workplace environment. This study compares the impact of moral stress with other job stressors on three important employee variables??fatigue, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions??by utilizing survey data from 305 customer-contact employees of a financial institution??s call center. Statistical analysis on the interaction of moral stress and the three employee variables was performed while controlling for other types of job stress as well as demographic variables. The results reveal that even after including the control variables in the statistical models, moral stress remains a statistically significant predictor of increased employee fatigue, decreased job satisfaction, and increased turnover intentions. Implications for future research and for organizations are discussed.     

Corporate Psychopaths,Conflict, Employee Affective Well-Being and Counterproductive Work Behaviour

This article explains who Corporate Psychopaths are, and some of the processes by which they stimulate counterproductive work behaviour among employees. The article hypothesizes that conflict and bullying will be higher, that employee affective well-being will be lower and that frequencies of counterproductive work behaviour will also be higher in the presence of Corporate Psychopaths. Research was conducted among 304 respondents in Britain in 2011, using a psychopathy scale embedded in a self-completion management survey. The article concludes that Corporate Psychopaths have large and significant impacts on conflict and bullying and employee affective well-being; these have large and significant impacts on counterproductive work behaviour. There is no difference between male and female degrees of negative reaction to the presence of managers who are Corporate Psychopaths.     

Logistics Information System Evaluation: Assessing External Technology Integration and Supporting Organizational Learning

Firms often outsource the development and acquisition of logistics information systems (LIS) needed to improve logistics processes. Managers tasked with such outsourcing decisions often struggle to understand and balance the external technology's impact on existing logistics processes, individual stakeholders, firm strategies, and the financial and operational performance of the firm. Unfortunately, research is limited on (1) methods for evaluating the performance capabilities of systems from external sources prior to full implementation, and (2) the impact of external technology integration (ETI) on organizational behavior and learning related to a firm's logistics processes. Through the lens of organizational learning (OL) theory, this research uses a case study approach to examine the transportation division of a major U.S.‐based fuel retailer to gain insights on the management control of ETI efforts. The study builds theory to fill important literature gaps then develops a conceptual framework and supporting propositions to inform future research on logistics ETI. The findings highlight important OL implications for firms involved in ETI efforts and also provide a practically relevant management control tool that can be used by logistics practitioners.     

Marketing education without borders: Exploiting the new information technologies

The recent literature on management education has been highly critical of the provision and delivery of educational offerings. In particular, by the failure of educators to address the international dimensions. This article outlines and evaluates a collaborative attempt to address these issues via the use of the new information technologies.