The management of an ageing workforce: organisational policies in Germany and Britain

Demographic change as well as pressure from the European Union and national government are forcing organisations to change age‐discriminatory HRM approaches. Based on a qualitative analysis of eight British and German organisations, we found that commitment, scope, coverage and implementation of age management differ due to country‐specific institutions, particularly government, in nudging employers and unions to preferred age practices. This confirms the path dependency concept suggested by institutional theory. Nevertheless, we also found that industry‐specific factors mediate the implementation of age management, leading to some convergence across countries. This indicates that organisations deviate from the institutional path to implement practices that they deem important.     

The effect of information sources on technology adoption and modification decisions

This article focuses on adoption and modification decisions on improved maize storage technologies in southern Benin. Modification implies changing a technology to adapt to farmers' circumstances. A sample selection framework is used to account for selectivity bias as some farmers were not aware of the new technologies. Using this framework, the study investigates the effect of alternative information sources on adoption and modification decisions. Farmers are either informed by extension agents or by other farmers. The empirical results show that there are differences in adoption and modification decisions between these two groups.     

Organizational and environmental effects on innovation: A comparison of two countries

Significant changes in science and technology are the result of a complex interaction of environmental and organizational factors which are further contingent upon situational factors that may be culture specific. Numerous authors maintain that there are significant differences between Japanese and American organizations. These differences, it is proposed affect the innovativeness of organizations in both countries. The United States can be considered the leading innovator among industrialized nations as measured by its net exports of knowledge-intensive goods. However, the R & D trade balance, reflecting US export strength in technology-based manufactured goods, although increasing from 1960, has recently declined, while Japan has continued to increase its share of high-technology products. In this article factors are identified that affect the process of innovation within organizations and US and Japanese organizations are analyzed to clarify the contributing and inhibiting factors. Suggestions for improving the innovative climate within each country are offered.The author wishes to thank Professors Azumi, Nakamura, and Patrick, and the other members of theUniversity Seminar on Modern Japan, Columbia University for their suggestions on an earlier version of this paper in 1984.     

Opinion leaders and opinion seekers: Two new measurement scales

The authors describe the development and validation of multiple-item self-report scales to measure opinion leadership and opinion seeking for specific product or service domains. The concepts of opinion leadership and opinion seeking are defined, previous attempts to measure them are critiqued, and the scale development process is described. Five separate studies using data from 1,128 student and adult respondents provide ample evidence for the unidimensionality, the reliability, and the construct and criterion-related validity of the resulting scales. Finally, implications for consumer theory and marketing practice are discussed. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. Her research focuses on methodological issues in consumer research. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. His chief interest is in scaling consumer characteristics. where she directs the MBA program. She received her Ph.D. from Florida State University. Her research includes business ethics, scale development, and marketing to children.     

Managing through contracts: the employment effects of compulsory competitive tendering in Australian local government

This article brings new evidence to bear on the employment and human resource effects of competitve tendering and contracting. Drawing on a database of over two hundred workplace agreements, the article examines the impact of compulsory competitive tendering on employees’ pay and employment arrangements in the Australian local government sector. The findings are contextualised in the light of evidence on the outcomes of a similar contracting regime in Britain.     

Management Control as an Employee Resource: The Case of Front‐line Service Workers

ABSTRACT This paper argues that the conception of management control as an employee resource can enhance critical understandings of front‐line service work. The argument is developed first through a critique of the contemporary control literature and its prominent worker images of smiling docility and haggard exhaustion. Seeking to encourage accounts more sensitive to the subjectivity and agency of service workers, the paper calls for more research attention to the question of how these employees experience and evaluate management control in relation to their self‐defined interests. Analysis of the nature of contemporary service work suggests that one such perceived interest is likely to be interactive control, or the capacity of workers to control and influence those parties with whom they directly interact. Based on a close reading of the emerging empirical literature on services, the article explores various ways in which the bureaucratic, technical and normative regulation designed by management to control service workers is used in turn by workers to further their own control and influence over managers and customers.     

Detecting Asymmetric Price Transmission with Consistent Threshold along the Fish Supply Chain

The present study deals with asymmetric price transmission (APT) along the fish value chain by using a consistent threshold autoregressive (consistent TAR and momentum‐threshold autoregressive [M‐TAR]) model. A nonzero threshold captures strategic behaviors and adjustment costs that are not observable with small price changes around a zero threshold. Fish farming, because of greater control over supply, is expected to produce less asymmetry than wild harvesting. Asymmetry is notwithstanding found for both wild cod and farmed salmon marketed in France, but only with consistent thresholds and operating in opposite ways. The results are discussed with regard to the trade restrictions imposed by the Common Fisheries Policy. Cet article traite de l’asymétrie de transmission des prix (ATP) dans la filière des produits de la mer en utilisant un modèle autorégressif à effet de seuil (consistent TAR et M‐TAR). Un seuil non nul permet de révéler certains comportements stratégiques et des coûts fixes d’ajustement qui ne seraient pas observables sur de faibles variations de prix autour d’un seuil nul. On s’attend à ce que l’aquaculture, en vertu d’un degré de contrôle supérieur sur l’offre, engendre une plus faible asymétrie comparativement à la production halieutique. Une asymétrie de transmission est néanmoins observée à la fois dans le cas du cabillaud sauvage et du saumon d’élevage commercialisés en France, mais uniquement à partir de seuils endogènes et l’ATP agissant en sens opposé. Les résultats sont commentés au regard des restrictions commerciales imposés par la Politique Commune des Pêches européenne.