Participation: 'bounded freedom' or hidden constraints on user involvement

User participation in information systems development is often surrounded by assumptions that the resultant system will be a success, will reflect user needs, and that the process results in an empowered workforce. This paper argues that underlying these foreground rational assumptions are instrumental, politically motivated justifications driving the need to involve users.     

Project Management Learning: A Comparative Study Between Engineering Students’ Experiences in South Africa and the United Kingdom

This study explores how engineering students studying project management perceive their learning experiences. To facilitate an understanding of the constituent components of engineering students’ experiences and to understand how these experiences influence preferred learning styles, a comparative study of university students studying engineering in South Africa and the United Kingdom is conducted. The study finds no significant demographic differences in learning experiences across the two student cohorts. However, the South African cohort reports higher levels of overall experiences. They also report higher usage of online learning materials but lower levels of blended learning and individual critical evaluation skills experiences.     

Consumer Expenditures and Home Production at Retirement – New Evidence from Germany

Abstract. This paper investigates consumer expenditures of German households pre‐ and post‐retirement. The widely observed distinct drop in spending upon retirement entry poses an empirical puzzle since life cycle theory predicts smoothing of the marginal utility of consumption over time. As one explanation, I explore the role of home production as a substitute for consumer expenses. Taking a combined look at consumer expenditures and time use pre‐ and post‐retirement, I find a significant drop of about 17% of pre‐retirement expenses at retirement which coincides with an increase in time spent on home production of an additional 89 minutes per day, accounting for 21% of average home production.     

There and back again – estimating equivalence scales with measurement error

Using income satisfaction data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we find large differences in the equivalence weight of a partner when it is being estimated by direct and reverse regressions. We argue that neither of the two models will produce consistent estimates when there is stochastic error in satisfaction and measurement error in incomes. We propose a correction of mismeasured incomes using a constructed alternative income measure. The corrected results are relatively close to those obtained from direct regression. We do not find evidence that previous studies, using the direct regression method, severely suffer from measurement error in incomes.     

Job Anxiety,Work‐Related Psychological Illness and Workplace Performance

This article uses matched employee–employer data from the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey to examine the relationship between employee psychological health and workplace performance in 2004 and 2011. Using two measures of work‐related psychological health — namely employee‐reported job anxiety and manager‐reported workforce stress, depression and anxiety — we find a positive relationship between psychological ill‐health and absence, but not quits. The association between psychological ill‐health and labour productivity is less clear, with estimates sensitive to sector, time period and the measure of psychological health. The 2004–2011 panel is further used to explore the extent to which change in psychological health is related to change in performance.     

Human capital enhancing HRM systems and frontline employees in Australian manufacturing SMEs

The current study seeks to answer a number of key questions concerning the strategic management of frontline employees (e.g. individuals who do not occupy an executive, managerial or supervisory role in functions such as production, maintenance, service and clerical functions) and their contributions towards the performance of small- and medium-sized manufacturing firms in Australia. This study adopts a human capital perspective to examine the employee and organisational performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Australia. We were also interested in seeking to examine the presence of the human resource management (HRM) function of SMEs in Australia and their contribution towards employee and firm performance. Findings from the partial least square analysis identified the antecedents and consequences of a human capital enhancing (HCE) approach for the strategic HRM of frontline employees in Australia's manufacturing industry. Strategic orientations of small- and medium-sized manufacturing firms mediate the contribution of the HRM function in adopting a set of HCE HRM systems. HCE HRM system was found to have a direct and indirect impact on manufacturing performance outcomes. Frontline employees' performance was found to mediate the impact of HCE HRM system on manufacturing performance outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in relation to the management of frontline employees in enhancing perceived employee and manufacturing performance.     

为财务报告“瘦身”

如果我们任由公司的财务报告往不断复杂的方向发展,那么这些报告将可能失去其本来的意义--与股东有效的沟通.这种风险的存在,促使英国财务报告委员会决定对公司的报告体系进行一次调查,目的是使公司报告的编制者和相关使用者能够了解报告的复杂程度,并提出可行性意见,以便找到切实可行的办法来简化它们.     

Die Arbeitszufriedenheit des kommunikations- und medienwissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses

The scientific landscape is subject to constant change but the recruitment problem within the field of communication science and media studies in the German-speaking countries persists. To explore this problem the present study investigates the working conditions of the non-permanent faculty (PhD students and postdocs). A special focus is set on job satisfaction because it presumably increases the likelihood for continuance in academia. An online survey among 504 PhD students and postdocs shows that they are, overall, satisfied with their jobs. However, occupational uncertainty is perceived as a major problem. OLS regressions reveal that the strongest predictors of job satisfaction are mentoring satisfaction and terms of contract. The relation between job satisfaction and publication output proves to be more complex than anticipated. Based on the results a set of recommendations is put forward.