Contingency Factors in the Effects of Rater Training on Interrater Agreement: Some Lint in the Bellybutton of Past Research

Researchers, examining the need to train performance appraisal raters, have typically used a complex rating task with several dimensions. However, results of a recent training survey (Mealiea and Duffy, 1986) showed that a number of Canadian organizations use a simple one-item, global rating of employee performance, and they are satisfied with their rating process. The present study looks at the influence of the rating task and the type of measurement on the relationship between rater training and rater effectiveness. Subjects were 105 (approximately 50 per cent female and 50 per cent male) patrons of a tavern in upstate New York who served as contestants in a contest of belly button beauty. Four judges, randomly selected from the audience, served over a three week period. Interrater reliability was assessed using a version of the intraclass correlation coefficient, and the Spearman Brown formula was used to estimate the mean reliability of the four judges. The results indicated an absence of leniency and central tendency bias and high interrater reliability without benefit of training. During the three weeks of the study, the average interrater reliabilities were .85, .99, and .99, respectively. The results, as hypothesized, extend the rater training and measurement literature and can be most parsimoniously explained by adding a contingency factor of task/scale characteristics to the rater training effectiveness theory. Résumé Les chercheurs qui ont examiné le besoin de formation pour les évaluateurs de performance ont toujurs utilisé une tǎche d'évaluation complexe au cours de laquelle plusieurs dimensions étaient évaluées. Cependfant les résultats d'un sondage récent (Mealiea et Duffy, 1986) ont démontré qu'un grand nombre d'entreprises canadiennes utilisent un système global à composante unique pour l'évaluation de la performance et sont satisfaits de cette méthode. La présente étude évalue l'influence de la tǎche d'évaluation et le type de mesure sur la relation entre la formation de l'évaluation et son efficacité. Les sujets de cette étude étaient formés de 105 clients (moitié hommes et moitié femmes approximativement) d'un bar de l'état de New York qui participaient à un concours de beauté ombilicale. Quatre juges choisis au hazard dans la salle ont servi pendant une période de trois semaines. La fiabilité a été évaluée à l'aide d'une version du coefficient de correlation interclasse et la formule Spearman Brown a été utilisée pour estimer la fiabilité moyenne des quatre juges. Les résultats ont démontré l'absence de laxisme et de préjugé à tendance centrale et une fiabilité relative élevées des évaluateurs. Pendant les trois semaines de l'étude, les moyennes de fiabilité étaient de .85, .99, et .99 respectivement. Les résultats, tel que prévu confirment les ouvrages concernant la formation et l'évaluation des évaluateurs et peut ětre expliquée avec grand parcimonie en ajoutant un facteur de contingentement de caractéristiques tǎche/ échelle a la théorie d'efficacité de formation de l'évaluateur.     

Town centre management in the UK: A review,synthesis and research agenda

Despite rapid growth in the number of town centre management schemes in the UK there have been few attempts to consider this topic from an academic perspective. This article develops a typology of town centre management schemes, based upon a comprehensive review of existing literature. The criteria of organizational structure and resource origin are identified as primary influences in the initiation and development of such schemes. The article concludes by outlining a research agenda which considers both local governance and spatial and temporal themes in the initiation and development of town centre management. The analysis of such factors is vital to a fuller understanding of this area.     

Refractory Materials: The Global Market,The Global Industry

World demand for refractory products—heat-resisting ceramic materials used in metal refining, glass making, and other high-temperature industrial applications—will be slowing down considerably from an annual rate of 10.8 percent during 2002–07 to 3.5 percent during 2007–12. Such slower growth reflects many factors, but is due primarily to: unsettled economic conditions; better efficiencies in steelmaking (which accounts for about half of all end uses of refractories); and the preference of end-users for maintenance rather than new facilities. The four key markets or end uses for refractory materials are: iron and steelmaking; other metal-making; nonmetallic materials such as glass; and an all-other category. In 2007, world refractory demand was 38.1 million metric tons valued at $22.9 billion; the corresponding figures for 2012 are projected at about 45.2 million metric tons valued at $28.5 billion. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for about 45 percent of total weight in 2007; its share by 2012 should rise to about 69 percent, with China becoming the dominant producer and consumer of refractory materials.     

Happiness,income and poverty

There is considerable evidence from a variety of sources to suggest that well-being is a function of relative income. These findings have been used to explain the Easterlin Paradox, whereby a rise in income for all does not lead to a rise in average happiness in a country (even though the cross section relationship between income and happiness is positive). This relativity of utility has led to calls for policy to focus away from GDP. I here first discuss some of the evidence that well-being is indeed relative in income, but then consider two relatively little-analysed issues to suggest that there may continue to be a role for GDP per capita in happiness-based policy: the inequality of subjective well-being, and the specific case of those in income poverty.     

Dividends,research and development expenditures,and the value relevance of book value for UK loss-making firms

We extend prior research on the value relevance of accounting information for loss-making firms by allowing the coefficient of book value to vary across three distinct set of loss-making firm observations in our valuation model. Our key findings are, first, that book value is a less important determinant of equity value for either high R&D-intensive firms or dividend-paying firms, relative to firms with low R&D-intensity and zero dividends. Prior literature suggests that book value is a strong indicator of firm value for loss-making firms. This reasoning stems from book value's role as: (i) a proxy for the value of the possibility of abandoning or adapting the firms' net assets; and/or (ii) a proxy for expected future normal earnings. Our work suggests that this prior literature does not fully capture the valuation role of book value for loss-making firms. Second, we also find that dividends are value relevant, but generally only when the valuation role of book value is contextualised by allowing its coefficient to vary across high R&D-intensive firms, and dividend-paying, loss-making firms.     

Hard globalization

Many companies aspire to be players in the global marketplace, but the challenges to succeed are now greater than ever. Steve Tappin and Andrew Cave spoke with the CEOs of strongly globalized companies to learn their secrets.