Strategic human resource management effectiveness and firm performance

This study tests whether strategic human resource management (SHRM) effectiveness significantly affects organizational level outcomes. Using the resource-based view of the firm, this study examines the effective use of human capital on organizational performance. Further, the role that a contextual factor - capital intensity - plays in modelling is explored. Results show that SHRM effectiveness significantly reduces employee turnover and increases overall market performance assessment. However, SHRM effectiveness affected both firm productivity and return on equity only when moderated by capital intensity.     

Global managers: no longer men alone

The reasons companies give for choosing to include women along with their male managers, how they expect women to contribute once hired, and the levels at which women managers are invited to contribute have been changing rapidly, but subtly, over the last fifty years. Companies' expectations have varied depending on their assumptions about the value to the company of diversity, the value to the company of men's and women's unique contributions, and to belief, or lack thereof, of the possibility of positive synergies. This article explores these issues in the context of global management.     

Experiences of women professionals abroad: comparisons across Japan,China and Turkey

The article reports on a series of studies that examined women professionals' experiences working outside their home countries, specifically Japan, China and Turkey. The studies investigated several dimensions: (1) areas where, regardless of setting, women reported similar experiences, (2) areas where their experiences seemed to differ, in part because of setting, and (3) areas in which the women disagreed on their experiences or insights, regardless of setting. Examples of findings were that, regardless of setting, women faced challenges of gaining credibility, faced high visibility and responsibility, needed keen interpersonal skills, were frustrated with social life outside of the workplace, and used networks extensively. The womens' experiences and perceptions differed most for their reasons for working abroad, their views on performance, and their experiences with sexual harassment. The article closes with ideas for future research.     

The Economics of Minimum Pricing for Alcohol

This article explores a wide range of issues that proponents of setting minimum prices for alcohol must resolve before they can safely claim their proposals improve public health and decrease public health care costs. Problems range from inability to know ‘correct’ prices and why tacking on pricing regulations to markets already taxed makes sense, to various unintended adverse consequences such as generating higher demand for illegal drugs and alcohol. It also remains unclear why advocates would not prefer to raise taxes since this is the typical method that economists propose to correct markets in which harm spills over to innocent parties.     

Personality traits discriminating between employees in public- and in private-sector organizations

Based on data collected from public and private organizations in Greece, this paper examines the differences in individual traits between public and private-sector employees, differences which eventually influence employees' attitudes and behaviours towards their organizations and their consequent performance, specifically in organizational commitment and neglect behaviour. The findings indicate that there are some differences between the two groups of employees. In only three out of ten personality characteristics examined here (security needs, pay needs and Protestant work ethic), are there no distinctions between the groups. These findings imply that, besides the environmental and structural characteristics of the two sectors which may be the source of attitudinal differences, it might also be that persons attracted to the public sector have different personality characteristics from those attracted to the private sector. Regardless of the source of differences, results point to the need for changing recruitment and selection practices in public organizations as well as for implementing a number of human resource management practices, the lack of which seems to drive junior qualified staff away from the public sector where they are mostly needed. The later seems to be the case in Greece where the lower pay and the non-competitive, non-challenging atmosphere prevailing in most public-sector organizations seem to play an important role in driving most dynamic employees away from the public sector.     

On Footloose Industries and Labor Disputes with Endogenous Information Asymmetry

If capital becomes internationally mobile but labor does not, are outcomes of labor disputes tilted in favor of workers or employers? In this paper, we show that the answer depends critically on how the information structure of the dispute changes endogenously with capital mobility, and in addition, whether international investment incentives selectively favor the outflow of capital from the most or the least productive firms. In doing so, this paper brings together three strands of literature that are not often seen together—incentive compatible contracting, wage and unemployment outcomes of labor disputes, and international capital mobility with heterogeneous firms.     

Blowing the Whistle on Poverty Policy

This comment on Rebecca Blank's “Poverty, Policy, and Ethics: Can an Economist be Critical and Caring?” celebrates her insights but argues for an even more critical analysis of the meaning of “caring” in economic discourse.     

The economic incidence of smoking laws

Although laws restricting smoking in restaurants are becoming commonplace, most research has focused on either the health benefits that laws may provide customers and workers or whether laws harm owners. But while smoking laws may directly alter profits, owners may alter prices, output, and other business attributes in ways that affect the welfare of customers and workers. This study examines whether restaurant and bar owners alter prices, entertainment, hours of operation and other business attributes in response to local smoking laws. Substantial support is found for these attribute changes in the Wisconsin hospitality industry. One implication is that an overall assessment of the desirability of smoking laws should consider economic effects imposed on owners, customers and workers, as well as health benefits that follow laws.     

The influence of special district governments on public spending and debt

Growth in special district governments is examined as a reason behind public sector expansion in the United States. A theoretical model is developed of the optimal mix of government suppliers which predicts how special district governments affect the overall provision of government policies. The hypothesis that expansion of special district governments leads to expansion of the public sector is expirically examined over two time periods.