Repatriation: what do we know and where do we go from here

Abstract

The unparalleled growth in multinational corporations in recent decades has witnessed a commensurate rise in the deployment of expatriates to foreign subsidiaries and their subsequent repatriation. However, despite considerable progress in our understanding of the expatriation phase of international assignments, the literature on repatriation remains fragmented and incomplete. Plagued with problematic re-adjustments, high turnover rates, and a range of other obstacles, there is an urgent need for an improved understanding of repatriation. This study systematically reviews the repatriation literature over the previous four decades, identifies its major themes, gaps and limitations, and provides a framework that consolidates the literature and prompts future work in several important new directions.     

Pay for performance and work attitudes: The mediating role of employee–organization service value congruence

This study examined the mediating effects of employee–organization service value congruence on pay for performance and work attitudes. Using a sample drawn from the hotel industry, we found that when employees perceived a high PFP link they tended to exhibit more positive work attitudes. We also found that the relationship between PFP link and work attitudes was mediated by P–O fit. These findings offer new insights into the important role that reward practices such as PFP play in the alignment of employer–organization service quality values. In doing so, they also pave the way for future contributions in this novel and important area of service value congruence.     

Social protection for people with disabilities in Tanzania: a mixed methods study

People with disabilities are more vulnerable than others to poverty and exclusion from key services, such as health and education. Consequently, they particularly need social protection, yet may have difficulties accessing these programmes. This study aims to assess the need for, and inclusion in, social protection programmes among people with disabilities compared to those without, in three districts in Tanzania. Using a mixed methods approach, our study finds that although the need for social protection programmes was higher among people with disabilities compared to the general population, this was not matched by higher enrolment. People with disabilities were aware of social protection programmes in their area but were not targeted specifically, and benefit packages offered by the programmes were not adapted to their needs. Modifying mainstream social protection schemes to be inclusive of people with disabilities may therefore be an important step towards addressing poverty alleviation goals, including those set out in the recently adopted sustainable development goals (Goal 1, target 3).     

Exploring Effects of CSR Initiatives in Strategic Postcrisis Communication Among Millennials in China and South Korea

ABSTRACT

This study explored what types of postcrisis CSR activities can make corporate crisis management effective and why. Eighty-one in-depth interviews with Chinese and South Korean millennials showed that they perceived postcrisis CSR positively even when they perceived an underlying self-serving motive. The interview data also revealed that postcrisis CSR initiatives relevant to the company’s business (CSR fit) and to the crisis at hand were more effective in both countries than the other CSR initiatives. Millennials in both countries valued CSR’s impact (benefiting the society as a whole), continuity (being long-term planned and sustainable), uniqueness (with few precedents), and transparency (fully disclosing detailed information) when evaluating various postcrisis CSR initiatives. Controllability (CSR being under full control of a company) was a significant criterion for South Korean millennials only. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Credit Ratings and CEO Risk‐Taking Incentives

This study examines the sophistication of rating agencies in incorporating managerial risk‐taking incentives into their credit risk evaluation. We measure risk‐taking incentives using two proxies: the sensitivity of managerial wealth to stock return volatility (vega) and the sensitivity of managerial wealth to stock price (delta). We find that rating agencies impound managerial risk‐taking incentives in their credit risk assessments. Assuming other things equal, a one standard deviation increase in vega (delta) will lead to an approximately one‐notch (two‐notch) rating downgrade. In addition, we evaluate the significance of credit ratings in the design of CEO compensation. Our findings suggest that rating‐troubled firms will gear down managerial incentives of risk seeking. In particular, other things equal, a rating downgrade to the lower edge of the investment category (i.e., BBB?) in the immediate prior year will bring about an approximately 51 percent reduction of vega incentive from options newly granted to the CEO in the current year. However, we find no evidence that firms' rating concerns significantly affect delta. Given the significance of credit ratings in the marketplace and their close connection to accounting, the findings of the current study advance our understanding, not only of how sophisticated rating agencies are in incorporating forward‐looking information (i.e., vega and delta) into risk assessments, but of how influential the raters are in changing firms' compensation policies. The findings also have implications on the role of accounting in constraining excessive managerial risk taking with improved disclosures on managerial compensation.     

Roland Mouret Launches Australian Merino Wool Collection

Acclaimed fashion designer Roland Mouret has partnered with The Woolmark Company to develop an eight-piece ready-towear Australian Merino wool collection exclusively for Australian retailer Myer.     

Developing and Utilizing Network Resources: Roles of Political Skill

This study examines the role of political skill in the development and utilization of network resources at the individual level. Drawing on the behavioural and network perspectives as well as political skill literature, we propose that political skill increases one's network resources (developing network), which will benefit his/her performance and career success. Moreover, political skill is hypothesized to strengthen the relationships between network resources and performance and career outcomes (utilizing network). A two‐wave study on a sample of 281 supervisor–subordinate dyads from six electronic firms in China confirms our hypotheses. Our examination of the dual role of political skill facilitates a better understanding of the networking process from the perspective of individual skill/behaviour, thus enriching the behavioural theory and network literature. Implications are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.     

Making the Shift: Moving from "Ethics Pays" to an Inter-Systems Model of Business

For several decades, business has operated according to the tenets of neoclassical economic theory, where the primary obligation of corporations is to maximize profit for shareholders. However, the larger social mandate for business has changed, represented by the rise of language such as "sustainable development", "corporate social responsibility" (CSR) and "stakeholder groups." Nevertheless, the theoretical shift implied by the use of such language has not occurred. Issues of sustainable development and CSR continue to be justified in the terms of neoclassical economic theory through the rationalization of "doing well by doing good".Within this economic paradigm, CSR cannot move beyond enlightened self-interest (acting in socially responsible ways in order to further one's own ends) because all behavior must be justified economically. This implies that corporate socially responsible behavior will simply cease when it becomes uneconomic, regardless of the impact on interrelated systems which in turn will re-impact the business realm.Faced with bitter realities arising from complex interactions among social, political, cultural, eco-nomic and natural environments, we may better comprehend and negotiate these problems by moving out of a neoclassical economic justification of the stakeholder model of the corporation to an inter-systems model, shifting from a narrow comprehension of a single economic independent system analyzed apart from its larger context to a fuller understanding of business as one of a number of interrelated systems.Operational differences between the old and new mandates are described, and two ways to practically shift towards the new mandate are identified as a modified version of scenario planning and the introduction of the voice of the critic.     

Performance-vested stock options and interest alignment

This paper investigates the effects of performance-vested stock options (PVSOs) in aligning management interests and shareholder wealth. Using 4238 executive-level observations for 1383 executive directors from the largest 244 UK non-financial firms over the 1999–2004 period, we find that the use of PVSO schemes in executive compensation contracts is associated with greater interest alignment. The evidence also shows that PVSOs outperform traditional stock options (TSOs) in providing incentives. Moreover, the results suggest that difficult vesting targets negatively affect managers' choice of effort, resulting in the divergence of managers' and shareholders' interests.     

The moderating roles of job control and work-life balance practices on employee stress in the hotel and catering industry

This study investigated the relationships among job stressors, coping resources, and job stress. Data were collected from food service employees (n = 255) in the hotel and catering industry. Hierarchical regression showed main significant effects of job demands and job control and three-way (job demands × job control × work-life balance practices) interactions on job stress. The results further demonstrated that high job demands coupled with low job control and the availability of work-life balance practices resulted in a higher level of stress. Implications for Karasek's job demand–control model, managerial practice and future research are provided.