Projective testing: Historical foundations and uses for human resources management

The use of projective psychological measures has intrigued scientists and the general public for nearly a century. In the following, we provide the historical and conceptual foundations for a variety of projective measures and review empirical research using them in application to areas relevant to human resource management (HRM). From these reviews, we argue that the slowing of projectives research in HRM applications over the past two decades does not appear to be warranted given these findings. Based on this historical account, we note two major barriers to the use of these measures in HRM. The first is the lack of an HRM-centric literature on projectives, as most research has drawn on theories and measures designed in the context of abnormal attributes. Secondly, subgroups of researchers have historically become mired in what we call philosophical deadlock, wherein the evidence provided by one group does not address the concerns of another and vice versa. We humbly provide some suggestions and hint at future directions for projective measurement in HRM.     

Predicting teleworker success: an exploration of personality,motivational, situational,and job characteristics

This study explored personality and motivational traits related to teleworker performance and satisfaction, including sociability, need for achievement and autonomy, diligence and organisation. Situational factors were also compared between teleworkers and non‐teleworkers, such as number of children, job autonomy and job complexity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Progress and Challenges for International Financial Reform

Although the U.S. economy continues to gain strength, global growth is weak; and several important economies face deflationary risks. Financial markets have become global, but regulation is conducted at the national level. It is essential to have global cooperation on financial regulation if future global financial crises are to be avoided. The United States has led the effort to achieve this. This paper provides an overview of the efforts under way and discusses the main objectives of future international financial regulation.     

Using monthly returns to model conditional heteroscedasticity

This empirical study examines the extent of non–linearity in a multivariate model of monthly financial series. To capture the conditional heteroscedasticity in the series, both the GARCH(1,1) and GARCH(1,1)–in–mean models are employed. The conditional errors are assumed to follow the normal and Student– t distributions. The non–linearity in the residuals of a standard OLS regression are also assessed. It is found that the OLS residuals as well as conditional errors of the GARCH models exhibit strong non–linearity. Under the Student density, the extent of non–linearity in the GARCH conditional errors was generally similar to those of the standard OLS. The GARCH–in–mean regression generated the worse out–of–sample forecasts.     

William Huskisson and the bullion controversy, 1810 *

The debate concerning the return to the gold standard in England during and in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, and the subsequent resumption of convertibility in 1819, played a significant role in British monetary orthodoxy. Its impact culminated in the 1925 decision to return to gold at prewar parity. Examining the contribution of William Huskisson - one of the authors of the Bullion Report - to the bullion controversy I argue that he played a major role in shaping British monetary policy of the nineteenth century.     

Defining Market Dominance: A Study of Antitrust Decisions on Business Acquisitions in New Zealand

Information from the 207 decisions of the New ZealandCommerce Commission on business acquisitions for1991–96 are used to test how the Commission assessedmarket dominance. Dominance is found to emerge whereboth the market share of the merged entity and theentry barriers were high. A probit regression modelsuggests that there was a 50% probability thatdominance would be found when market share was 75%,in a market where the entry barrier was high. Theapplication of the US merger guidelines to a sub-setof markets finds that the dominance threshold ofanti-competitiveness applied to New Zealand mergerswas very much more lenient than the substantiallessening of competition threshold used in the U.S.     

Characteristics of UK firms related to timing of adoption of Statement of Standard Accounting Practice No. 20

This study examines whether the timing of adoption of the UK Statement of Standard Accounting Practice No. 20 ‘Foreign Currency Translation’ depended on firms’ financial characteristics. Consistent with US studies, we find that early adopters tended to be larger firms, and that variables, such as growth options, profitability, leverage and management payout, have strong predictive power. In general, the decision to adopt the Statement of Standard Accounting Practice No. 20 did not appear to adversely affect the profitability measures or dividend payout. Firms tended to adopt when the adverse economic consequences of the adoption were likely to be minimal. They also appeared to defer the adoption of the standard to influence their financial performance and, hence, to achieve certain corporate financial objectives.     

Double Deflation and the Measurement of Output and Productivity in UK Manufacturing 1979–89

The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of applying double deflation methods to the measurement of productivity growth in UK manufacturing between 1979 and 1989. A number of alternative indicators of output growth are considered and it is argued that double deflated value added is the superior concept to employ for the measurement of productivity. It is shown that output measured by double deflated value added fell by 0.05% over the period between 1979 and 1989 whereas the official series indicates that output rose by 12.2% over the period. Measuring productivity as output per person employed, the double deflated value added measure indicates that between 1979 and 1989productivity increased by 34%> whereas the official series indicates an increase of 51 %. Whereas the latter may indicate a productivity miracle the former does not     

Employee attitudes toward drug testing: Effects of individual characteristics and employment setting

Testing for the presence of drug continues to gain popularity as a method for controlling drug use in the workplace. It is important that employers understand how potential applicants and current employees will react to the various types and purposes of drug testing. Employees (n = 529) were interviewed to investigate the role of attitudes toward drugs and work setting characteristics in explaining acceptance or rejection of drug testing. Individuals believing users should be held responsible for becoming dependent on cocaine, who felt the primary cause of cocaine addiction was weak moral character, and those who felt cocaine users should be treated as criminals were more supportive of drug screening and the testing of current employees.