Credit Where Credit is Due: A Field Survey of the Interactive Effects of Credit Expectations and Leaders’ Credit Allocation on Employee Turnover

Today's human resource management community has a strong interest in the issue of how HR practice is implemented by managers and leaders in the workplace. In this article, we investigate how one specific practice, leaders’ public recognition of a job well done (i.e., credit allocation), impacts employee turnover. Based on expectancy violations, psychological contracts, and turnover research, we predicted that subordinates would be more likely to leave an organization if their leader took credit for their work, but only if the credit taking violated subordinates’ expectations. In a field survey of organizational employees, we found that the effects of credit taking on turnover were negated when subordinates’ expectations and leaders’ credit allocation behavior were aligned. However, when leaders’ credit behavior came as a surprise, participants responded negatively when expectations were not met and positively when expectations were exceeded. We discuss the implications of these results for both theory and practice. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A note resolving the debate on “The weighted average cost of capital is not quite right”

Miller (2009a) derives a weighted average cost of capital for the special case where the cash flows to equity and the cash flows to debt are annuities. The paper attracts debate. We show that the weighted average cost of capital is redundant in a world where interest paid is not tax deductible. The required rate of return on unlevered equity will consistently and reliably estimate the net present value of any project no matter the idiosyncratic beliefs of the analyst as to the year-by-year leverage of the project, or of the firm. We recommend that the weighted average cost of capital method is discarded.     

A Perspective‐Based Understanding of Project Success

Answering the call for alternative approaches to researching project management, we explore the evaluation of project success from a subjectivist perspective. An in‐depth, longitudinal case study of information systems development in a large manufacturing company was used to investigate how various project stakeholders subjectively perceived the project outcome and what evaluation criteria they drew on in doing so. A conceptual framework is developed for understanding and analyzing evaluations of project success, both formal and informal. The framework highlights how different stakeholder perspectives influence the perceived outcome(s) of a project, and how project evaluations may differ between stakeholders and across time.     

A true simulation study of three estimators at equal protection of respondents in randomized response sampling

In this study, three different estimators for estimating the proportion of a sensitive attribute in survey sampling are compared at equal protection of the respondents. The three estimators considered are due to Odumade and Singh (2009, Comm. Statist. Theory Methods) , Singh and Sedory (2011, Sociological Methods and Research) and a new estimator obtained by minimizing a chi‐squared distance. A SAS Macro is developed to compare these three estimators using a simulation study at equal protection of the respondents. A set of data from a real face‐to‐face interview was collected using two decks of cards and has been analyzed. The results are discussed.     

Shrinking the state or the Big Society? Public service employment relations in an era of austerity

The Big Society is an integral part of the coalition's plans for public service retrenchment, but it is premature to dismiss it as exclusively concerned with expenditure cuts and privatisation. The Big Society signals the government's ambition to transform public services and it is the rubric that is being used to shrink the state and undermine long‐standing systems of public service employment relations. This article considers the origins and meaning of the Big Society and then assesses its consequences for public service provision and the workforce. The Big Society is integrally connected to deficit reduction with the voluntary sector and an increased emphasis on volunteering promoted as a more user‐centred and cost‐effective way of delivering public services in tough times. For the workforce, more competition between diverse providers in conjunction with budget cuts is placing downward pressure on terms and conditions and encouraging employers to question the continuation of national pay determination in many parts of the public sector.     

Does the Gender Preference for Competition Affect Job Performance? Evidence from a Real Effort Experiment

Experimental evidence has documented that competition may enhance the performance of male subjects in some tasks when competition is imposed exogenously by the experimenter. This note describes data for a task where a simple agency relationship is established in the laboratory between two groups of agents, managers, and workers. The manager chooses from either the piece rate or tournament payment scheme for the worker. The results show that male performance decreases when the tournament is chosen for them by the manager and also suggests that the gender of the manager may be an important facet of the agency relationship. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Formalized Program Review: An Evolution

From the beginning, the same or similar opportunities and concerns have arisen at each step in International Leadership Association (ILA)–sponsored conversations and actions related to guidelines, standards, and accreditation of leadership education programs in higher education. Opportunities include increased legitimacy, program development, and more robust responses to external accreditation requirements. Concerns include dampening autonomy and creativity, skepticism that such a diverse field could be evaluated by a common program review model, increased bureaucratization, and, with regard to external review, ethical concerns. Because these conversations and actions have occurred over the past 8 years and have culminated most recently with preliminary recommendations of the ILA's Task Force on Formalized Program Review, we can learn from the history of the debates around these issues and the solutions that were derived to address them. The most salient of these solutions is found in the logic of the process order of Guiding Questions: Guidelines for Leadership Education Programs. The first step in Guiding Questions is for program faculty to produce a written conceptual framework that is grounded not only in theory but also in the context of the institution, college, and department. This should preserve local autonomy and creativity. Further, emphasis for evaluation purposes on program content, teaching and learning methods, and assessment and outcomes measures that are coherent and consistent with these locally derived conceptual frameworks should allow broad application across the diversity of the field. Local control should also minimize bureaucratization and help mitigate ethical concerns. The trend is toward increasing support for formalized program review. Concerns as well as opportunities remain. However, others, including external accrediting organizations and institutional effectiveness offices, should not be determining the terms of our legitimacy and accountability. We must do that for ourselves. Building on what we have learned over the past 8 years shows the way forward.     

HOUSEHOLD INCOME PLUS HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION: THE DISTRIBUTION OF EXTENDED INCOME IN THE U.K.

This paper provides new estimates of the distribution of extended income amongst non-elderly, one-family households in the U.K. by combining household money income data and valuations of household production time. Extended income is substantially more equal than money income and extending the income definition changes income relativities significantly between families with and without earners and between married couple families and singles.     

Regional and Global Responses to the Asian Crisis

This paper examines how economic policy-making changed as a result of the Asian crisis of 1997–1998, in the countries affected, in the region, and at the global level. It is perhaps surprising how little change has occurred in the broad approach to economic policy, but there is a much greater awareness of the vulnerabilities posed by large international capital flows. The broad tenets of the Washington Consensus, with its market-based policies, remain in place, but there is a recognition that well-functioning markets require complex institutions, rules, and procedures, and that these take time and effort to develop. Most of this institutional development will have to take place at the national level, but regional arrangements can offer support, and multilateral agencies, such as the International Monetary Fund, have learned from the crisis.