Contextual Factors Affecting Quality of Work Life and Career Attitudes of Gay Men

With the current political environment (such as new legislation recognising gay and lesbian couples) and societal changes (such as increasing disclosure of sexual identity in the workplace) in countries such as the USA and Australia, organizations are increasingly recognising the existence of their gay and lesbian employees. This paper reports on an on-line survey of 581 working gay men, examining their quality of work life and career attitudes. The findings of the research provide a strong indication that contextual factors affect the quality of work life and work attitudes of gay men.     

International spillover effects of consumption taxation

This paper investigates the international spillover effects of a revenue-neutral increase in consumption taxes coupled with a reduction in wage taxes in a two-country open economy. Many economists feel that the consumption tax would be an improvement over the income tax. This paper provides counterexamples to the conventional wisdom. We show that conversion to a consumption tax may reduce capital accumulation and may transmit a negative externality to the rest of the countries in the world economy under certain conditions: endogenous labor supply and bequests.     

The perceived legitimacy of managerial influence: A twenty-five year comparison

The study examines perceptions of managers, nonmanagerial employees, students, and union officers regarding the legitimacy of managerial influence over various subordinate behaviors and beliefs. The results indicate that: (1) perceived legitimacy has decreased since a comparable study by Schein and Ott in 1962, (2) perceived legitimacy is generally related to proximity to the managerial role, (3) there is a high degree of consensus on the relative legitimacy of influencing various behaviors and beliefs, and (4) only issues of direct relevance to work and task performance are currently perceived as legitimate areas for managerial influence. Theoretical, research, and managerial implications are discussed. Blake Ashforth is Assistant Professor of Management at Concordia University in Montreal. His research interests include the adjustment of newcomers to work, organizational socialization, and the dysfunctions of organizational structures and processes. His work has appeared in the Academy of Management Review, Human Relations, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.Raymond Lee is a doctoral candidate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Wayne State University in Detroit. His research interests include occupational stress and adjustment, work climate, and organizational socialization. His dissertation examines the antecedents and consequences of job burnout among supervisors in a large public welfare agency.The authors are indebted to Gary Johns and Ed Schein for their helpful comments on an earlier draft, and to Barrie Gibbs, Ed Schein, Hal Stack, and Susan Taylor for very kindly assisting in the collection of data at their respective campuses. The data were collected while the first author was at Wayne State University, Detroit. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the 1988 meeting of the Council on Employee Responsibilities and Rights in Virginia Beach, VA.     

Spatial dimensions of precision agriculture: a spatial econometric analysis of millet yield on Sahelian coversands

The identification of local soil variability caused by within‐field differences of macronutrients and ecological features is of paramount importance for the effectiveness of precision agriculture. We present several spatial statistical and econometric techniques to capture local differences in soil variation, ecological characteristics, and yield more effectively than the analytical techniques traditionally used in agronomy. The application of these techniques is illustrated in a case study dealing with precision agriculture in the West African Sahel. The production of millet on acid sandy soils constitutes a typical example of low soil fertility areas exhibiting small absolute but large relative differences in crop production conditions over short distances.     

Bovine Brucellosis Programs: An Economic/Epidemiologic Analysis

This report analyzes the economic and epidemiologic impact of eight alternative bovine brucellosis programs in terms of their costs and benefits to society, consumers, producers and related agricultural industries. BRUSIM, a systems simulation model, was developed to measure the impact of various program components upon selected epidemiologic parameters and for determining associated costs and physical losses of brucellosis control/eradication programs for 1976 through 2005. The United States was delineated into 16 regions based upon such factors as prevalence, producer characteristics and cattle population. TECHSIM, an econometric model, was used for determining the total and net benefits accruing to society, consumers, producers, and related industries as a result of changes in beef and milk losses from alternative programs compared to a base program. The discounted values and associated program costs were used for determining benefit/cost ratios and related economic decision criteria. Cette étude analyse le choc économique et épidémiologique de huit programmes alternatifs de la brucellose pour bovine en termes de leurs coûts et avantages pour la société, les consommateurs, les producteurs et les industries agricoles reliées. BRUSIM, un modèle de simulation de système, a été développé pour mesurer le choc de divers composants d' un programme sur les paramètres épidémiologiques choisis et pour déterminer les coûts associés et les pertes physiques des programmes de contrôle ou d' éradication de la brucellose de l' année 1976 à travers 2005. Les Etats-Unis ont été divisés en 16 régions dependant des facteurs tels que la prévalance, les caractéristiques de producteur et la population de bétail. TECHSIM, un modèle économétrique, a été utilisé pour déterminer les bénéfices totals et nets que retirent la société, les consommateurs, les producteurs, et les industries reliées à cause des changements dans les pertes de rendement de viande et de lait dû aux programmes alternatifs en comparaison avec le programme de base. Les valeurs escomptées et les coûts associés des programmes ont été utilisés pour déterminer les rapports coûts-bénéfices et les critères de décisions économiques reliés.     

ASSISTING DEMOBILIZED RUSSIAN OFFICERS OBTAIN HOUSING: THE HOUSING CERTIFICATE OPTION

Under the dwelling purchase certificate program a retired or demobilized Russian officer returning from the "near abroad" is given a certificate which he can use to purchase a new housing unit in the market. The certificate is priced at estimated market price of dwellings, and prices vary by unit size and location (region). There was great uncertainty when the program was launched as to whether officers would find units available for purchase. In fact, most officers succeeded in using their certificate and most contacted several sellers in searching for housing.     

A Classification of Dutch Manufacturing based on a Model of Innovation

Summary The paper studies the degree of homogeneity of innovative behavior in order to determine empirically an industry classification of Dutch manufacturing that can be used for policy purposes. Defining homogeneity in terms of an economic model distinguishes our classification from existing taxonomies such as those of the OECD, Pavitt and the various classifications based on a principal components analysis. We use a two-limit tobit model with sample selection, which explains the decisions by business enterprises to innovate and the impact these decisions have on the share of innovative sales. The model is estimated for eleven industries based on the Dutch Standard Industrial Classification (SBI 1993). A likelihood ratio (LR) test is then performed to test for equality of the parameters across industries. We find that Dutch manufacturing consists of three groups of industries in terms of innovative behavior, a high-tech group, a low-tech group and the industry of wood. The same pattern shows up in the three Dutch Community Innovation Surveys. The empirical part of this study has been carried out at the Centre for Research of Economic Microdata at Statistics Netherlands. The authors wish to thank Statistics Netherlands, and in particular Bert Diederen, for helping us in accessing and using the Micronoom data set. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors. The authors also wish to thank Fran?ois Laisney, Patrick Waelbroek and participants at presentations in Maastricht, Strasbourg, Leuven and Lille for their helpful comments. The first author acknowledges financial support from METEOR.     

Applicability of the market appeal—robusticity matrix: a case study of heritage tourism

Hong Kong is a city where contemporary global culture coexists with traditional Chinese heritage. One way of promoting Hong Kong's traditional built heritage is to develop a number of linked sites as a heritage trail. For helping the development of such, this study evaluates the applicability of the market appeal—robusticity matrix on heritage tourism development, by assessing the potential for tourism in the single-surname villages of Hong Kong's New Territories. The study techniques include documentary research, questionnaire survey and interviews. The findings indicate the matrix is effective for enabling the assessment of heritage tourism potential because it simultaneously demonstrates the importance of two major considerations for both tourism industry and heritage managers, namely market appeal—an asset's appeal to tourists, and robusticity—its ability to endure visitation. The shortcomings of the model includes the inappropriateness of the technical term “product design needs” in the market appeal subset and lack of community concerns in the robusticity subset of the matrix.