Workers’ Risk Tolerance and Occupational Injuries

This study explores the relationship between individuals’ risk tolerance and occupational injuries. We analyze data from a national representative survey of U.S. workers that includes information about injuries, risk tolerance, cognitive and noncognitive attributes, and risky behaviors. We measure risk tolerance through questions regarding individuals’ willingness to gamble on their lifetime income. We estimate zero‐inflated count models to assess the role played by such measures on workers’ recurrent injuries. We discuss some implications of our results for future research and occupational safety policies. Our results highlight the concurrent and changing role played by individual, work, and environmental factors in explaining recurrent incidents. They show that risk tolerance affects recurrent injuries, although not in the direction that proponents of the concept of proneness would expect. Our measure of risk aversion shows that individuals who are somewhat more risk tolerant have fewer recurrent injuries than those who are risk averse. But the estimated relationship is U‐shaped, not monotonic and, therefore, not easy to predict. At the same time, we find that individuals’ “revealed risk preferences”—specific risky behaviors—are related to higher injury probabilities. Demanding working conditions, measures of socioeconomic status, health, and safety problems experienced by workers during their youth remain among the most important factors explaining the phenomena of recurrent injuries. So our results contribute also to the important debate about the relationship between health and socioeconomic status.     

Insolvency Proceedings and Workers’Rights: the Italian Case

ABSTRACT: In this paper the author analyses different types of insolvency proceedings in the context of the Italian legal system, focusing on the possible effects of bankruptcy law on employment relationships. The concept of‘privileged workers’claims is discussed, taking into account their rank of preference as stated by statutory law and according to the interpretations offered by jurisprudence. One section is expressly devoted to the recent legislation providing a Guarantee Fund for severance allowance claims in case of insolvency, but also in the event of mere nonpayment by the employer. After having covered the concept of 'super-privileged claims', the paper discusses more widely possible forms of protecting workers in a situation of company crisis and links between social legislation on the one hand, and bankruptcy law on the other. Finally, the author emphasizes the more effective protection now offered by the Italian legal system to workers’claims, although the trade unions have considerable difficulty in keeping the workforce united when insolvency proceedings are opened.     

A ‘Rhizomic’ Model of Organizational Change and Transformation: Perspective from a Metaphysics of Change

We are not good at thinking movement. Our instinctive skills favour the fixed and the static, the separate and the self-contained. Taxonomies, hierarchies, systems and structures represent the instinctive vocabulary of institutionalized thought in its determined subordinating of flux, movement, change and transformation. Our dominant models of change in general and organizational change in particular are, therefore, paradoxically couched in the language of stasis and equilibrium. This paper seeks to offer an alternative model of change which, it is claimed, affords a better understanding of the inherent dynamic complexities and intrinsic indeterminacy of organization transformational processes.     

Workers’ Perception of Chemical Risks: A Focus Group Study

Workers’ perceptions with respect to health and safety at work are rarely taken into account when considering the development of prevention programs. The aim of this study was to explore workers’ perceptions of chemical risks at the workplace, in order to investigate the prerequisites for a workplace health program. A qualitative study was conducted involving seven focus groups of 5–10 participants (blue‐collar workers) each. All groups were homogeneous in terms of sex, work status, language, and company membership. Results showed that several factors have an important influence on workers’ perception of chemical risks. Workers assess risks by means of both sensory and empirical diagnosis and are concerned about the long‐term health consequences. They perceive the threat of chemical risks as high. Despite this, they are resigned to accepting the risks. Existing formal sources of information are rarely consulted because they are judged to be difficult to understand and not user friendly. Instead, workers tend to obtain information from informal sources. Communication problems with and lack of trust in prevention advisers and hierarchy are frequently mentioned. Workers feel that their specific knowledge of their working conditions and their proposals for practical, cost‐effective solutions to improve health and safety at the workplace are insufficiently taken into account. The use of focus groups yielded a useful insight into workers’ perceptions of chemical risks. Our findings suggest that training programs for prevention advisers should include topics such as understanding of workers’ perceptions, usefulness of a participatory approach, and communication and education skills.     

Performance Management,Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment1

A number of investigations have focused on aspects of human resource management policy and their impact on employees. The study reported here examines the extent to which the main elements of performance management systems are associated with positive employee attitudes. Questionnaire measures of performance management variables and of employee attitudes were obtained from 860 staff in nine organizations, all of which had been ascertained to be operating performance management systems. The findings indicate that most elements of performance management did contribute to positive employee attitudes, and that between them they accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in measures of organizational commitment and (especially) job satisfaction. Some differences in the data from public and private-sector organizations were found.     

Determinants of Foreign Workers’ Wages in Two Italian Regions with High Illegal Immigration

Since the end of the 1970s Italy has moved from being an out-migration country to being a foreign immigration country, but very few studies have addressed the factors determining the wages of immigrant workers, owing to the lack of available data. In this paper we analyse the determinants of the wages of immigrants in some areas of Latium and Campania, where the share of illegal immigration is relatively high, using the results of a set of sample surveys which collected information on several aspects of the immigration process in the years 1993–94. The purpose of the article is to shed some light on the factors underlying wage distribution among the immigrants using an estimation method that controls for sample selection problems. According to the empirical results, income differences seem to be relatively high among immigrants. Differences in labour market integration among sexes and area of origin clearly emerge from the results. Moreover, legal status plays an important role in the explanation of the wage gap between documented and undocumented immigrants, also because of the different occupational sector structure in the two groups.     

Organizational Justice and Job Satisfaction in Coaching

This study explored organizational climate perceptions within high school athletic departments from the point of view of coaches. Five key facets of job satisfaction and satisfaction with the job in general were assessed as well as the relationship between each facet and three distinctive dimensions of organizational justice. High school coaches (N = 392) indicated that their athletic departments maintained a fair operating climate and were satisfied with each of the five facets and their jobs in general. Also, a linear relationship (p ≤ 0.05) was found between each of the three fairness dimensions and each of the job satisfaction facets as well as the job itself.

Organizational Identity Formation and Change

Theory and research concerning organizational identity (“who we are as an organization”) is a burgeoning domain within organization study. A great deal of conceptual and empirical work has been accomplished within the last three decades—especially concerning the phenomenon of organizational identity change. More recently, work has been devoted to studying the processes and content associated with identity formation. Given the amount of scholarly work done to date, it is an appropriate time to reflect on the perspectives, controversies and outcomes of this body of work. Because organizational identity change has received the preponderance of attention, we first review that extensive literature. We consider the conceptual and empirical work concerning the three putative “pillars” of identity (i.e. that which is ostensibly central, enduring, and distinctive). We devote particular attention to the most controversial of these pillars—the debate pitting a view that sees identity as stable over time (a position we term as the “enduring identity proposition”) and a contrasting stance that sees identity as more changeable (the “dynamic identity proposition”). Following our review of the identity change literature, we next take up a review of the notably smaller compendium of work on identity formation. We consider the conceptual and empirical work devoted to studying the external influences on, as well as the internal resources used, to fashion a nascent identity. Finally, we discuss in more depth the controversies associated with the pillars of identity, assess the four prevalent views on organizational identity (the social construction, social actor, institutionalist, and population ecologist views), assimilate the research on both identity formation and change, and consider the prospects for future work on both phenomena.     

A ‘No Blame’ Approach to Organizational Learning

In high‐reliability organizations (HROs) even minor errors can seriously hinder the very existence of the firm and the safety of employees and customers. Field studies have shown that HROs encourage the reporting of errors and near misses, exploiting these incidents to improve their operative processes. In this paper, we describe this practice as a ‘no blame’ approach to error management, and link it to learning theory, showing how no blame practices can enhance organizational learning. By taking a cognitive perspective of organizations, we draw on existing contributions and on a set of empirical case studies to discuss the characteristics of no blame practices, and their applicability in traditional, non‐HROs. Our findings show that, in exploiting information from error‐reporting, no blame practices are beneficial in environments where learning and reliability issues are particularly relevant. Empirical evidence suggests that a no blame approach can be extremely constructive for organizations that want to enhance their learning processes. We conclude that a no blame approach is a valuable way to achieve an organization that has flexibility and variability. However, no blame practices imply a set of organizational issues and costs that pose significant challenges to firms operating in non‐high‐reliability settings. The findings from our study contribute to the literature on HROs and organizational learning.     

‘Investment’ in Union Membership: A Managerial Approach

This paper concerns wage formation in a unionized economy when union membership is endogenous and determined by employment. A union is run by a leadership which has as an objective to strengthen the union’s position in the labour market. This is achieved by building up membership. Among the results, it is found that since membership is determined by employment, the inclusion of the leadership’s preferences into a union’s objective function produces lower real wages than a static version would predict. It is also shown that an increase in the union’s rate of time preference increases the natural rate of unemployment, while an increase in the speed at which workers enter/leave a union has an opposite effect.     

心理契约违背、满意度对管理者行为的影响机制

运用结构方程建模对512位组织管理者数据进行验证发现:交易型心理契约违背完全通过管理者满意度的降低导致管理者退出行为增加,呼吁、忽略和组织忠诚降低;管理型心理契约违背既直接导致管理者退出和忽略行为增加、组织忠诚和呼吁行为降低,又通过满意度降低产生间接作用;关系型心理契约违背不对管理者EVNL行为产生显著影响.     

基于创业视角的组织变革与市场过程研究

在组织变革研究的文献中,适应观和生态观一直是占主导地位的两类研究视角,本文在回顾这两大学派观点的基础上提出一种新的研究范式——基于创业的视角。研究发现,行动领先的企业高管通过主动搜寻来进行机会识别,并通过双重联结过程实施创业型行动,而企业的行为又会更新其他市场参与者的信念体系从而达到推动市场过程的目的。本文最后在动态竞争研究的框架下进一步分析了企业与环境共同演化的过程。     

Let's be PALS: User‐Driven Organizational Change in Healthcare*

This paper explores user‐driven organizational change in the National Health Service (NHS). The NHS Plan ( Department of Health, 2000 ) created Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) to provide information, solve problems and drive user‐led change. Evidence is drawn from a study of PALS in London acute, primary care, mental health and specialist trusts, drawing on discussion forums, interviews with PALS officers and documentation. From context and role profiles, two conclusions are evident. First, organizational instability, boundary disputes, variable management support, resource limitations, financial insecurity and multi‐site working characterize the context in which PALS operate, and the officer role is characterized by problem diversity, overlap with complaints systems, monitoring problems, relationship building and ‘serial users’. Second, these context and role attributes restrict PALS to ‘repair and maintenance’, ensuring that established systems work correctly. While PALS sit on the bottom rung of a ‘participation ladder’, their contribution is more than tokenistic. However, a processual perspective demonstrates how a fluid, networked, and diversified context isolates PALS structures from management decision‐making, constraining their power base, and inhibiting the promotion of substantive change agendas.     

Organizational Change and the Importance of Embedded Assumptions*

‘Managing change’ appears a simple enough term. However, no common ontological assumption underlies either the notion of ‘managing’ or that of ‘change’. In this paper, we identify different assumptions about both what it means to manage and the nature of change outcomes. From these assumptions we derive six different images of managing organizational change: directing, navigating, caretaking, coaching, interpreting and nurturing. We show how each image is underpinned by different organization theories. We then take each image and show how the differing ontological assumptions about managing and change outcomes are associated with different research agendas. We illustrate this by focusing on three elements commonly associated with managing organizational change: vision, communication and resistance.     

Only Time Can Tell: Whether and When the Improvement in Career Development Opportunities Alleviates Knowledge Workers’ Emotional Exhaustion in the Chinese Context

Through extending the resource perspective, drawing on the temporal comparison theory, this study examines career development opportunities (CDOs), focusing on knowledge workers and considering the relative changes in CDOs before and after their job change in the Chinese context. Findings from a survey of 379 Chinese knowledge workers who have transferred their jobs at least once reveal that the improvement of CDOs can have a double‐edged‐sword effect on knowledge workers’ well‐being, shown as emotional exhaustion in this study. Although the improvement of CDOs negatively predicts knowledge workers’ emotional exhaustion in general, findings of a three‐way interaction reveal that offering more high‐quality CDOs can aggravate emotional exhaustion when knowledge workers have been working in their present position for a relatively long period, but have not received a pay rise. This study makes a theoretical contribution by introducing boundary conditions and testing their interactive influence. It helps broaden understanding of how CDOs can affect knowledge workers’ emotional exhaustion. It also has implications for enhancing the well‐being of knowledge workers, particularly in national and organizational contexts where there are significant skill shortages and retention problems.     

Subjective Perceptions of Organizational Change and Employee Resistance to Change: Direct and Mediated Relationships with Employee Well‐being

Researchers have focused on linking objective measures of change exposure, such as the number of downsizing activities implemented, with employee well‐being. This has meant that less attention has been paid to employees’ subjective experience of change. The authors examine relationships between employees’ perceptions of the extent of change and the frequency of change and insomnia and psychological well‐being. They propose direct and indirect relationships via resistance to change between employees’ subjective experience of change and well‐being. Data were collected from 260 employees from a range of different organizations and industries. Respondents completed surveys at two time points, separated by four months. Results revealed significant indirect relationships between subjective perceptions of change and insomnia and employee well‐being via affective resistance to change at Time 1 and Time 2. In addition, employees’ subjective reports that change was very frequent were initially positively associated with T1 behavioral resistance to change but also were negatively associated with T2 behavioral resistance to change. Discussion focuses on the importance of managing employees’ perceptions of change. Practically, the authors consider the difficult choices that confront managers when seeking to implement and ‘sell’ change within their organization.     

Mixed Results, Lousy Process: the Management Experience of Organizational Change

This paper reports the findings of a survey of 92 managers, from 14 public and 14 private-sector organizations. The aim was to explore the experience of change, extending the findings of a previous study (Buchanan, Claydon and Doyle, 1999). The survey addressed six themes: communication, evaluation, learning, attitudes and relationships, implementation and change and continuity. Overall, the results present a bleak picture of the process and outcomes of contemporary change. Most managers claim that change responsibility affords valuable personal learning. However, recent change has also been accompanied by stress, work intensification, command and control and management–employee distrust. A comparison of public and private–sector responses suggests that the experience of change in the public sector has been more pressured than in the private sector. Comparison of responses by management level indicates that senior managers are more likely to hold positive views of the change process and its outcomes. Explanations for these differences in experience and perception are considered, along with the implications. It is concluded that an adequate theory of organizational change must address the contradictions and tensions in the lived experience of those implicated, and that effective practice should consider the linkage of change implementation with organizational learning mechanisms which, on this evidence, are absent.     

工作满意感与建言行为的关系探索:组织承诺的缓冲影响

工作满意感与建言行为之间关系看似简单、实则复杂,以往研究支持正反关系的观点都有,为了调和这一矛盾,本研究提出"U"型关系假设,并认为组织承诺对它们之间有着正向缓冲作用。以长三角地区17家国有企业的282名白领员工为样本,问卷研究结果没有支持"U"型关系假设,而发现两者成正向线性关系,情感承诺对两者之间具有正向缓冲作用。文章讨论了研究结果并对未来研究做了展望。     

劳动关系氛围和员工工作满意度:组织承诺的调节作用

本文从组织行为层次探讨劳动关系氛围与员工态度之间的关系。基于60家企业1607名员工的问卷调查,本文探讨了劳资双赢、劳资对立和员工参与三种劳动关系氛围对员工内在和外在满意度的直接影响,以及员工组织承诺在上述关系中的调节作用。研究发现,劳资双赢氛围显著地提升员工的内在和外在满意度,劳资对立氛围显著地降低员工的内在和外在满意度,员工参与氛围仅能显著提升员工的内在工作满意度。同时,员工组织承诺中的情感承诺能显著增强劳资双赢氛围对内在和外在工作满意度的积极影响,但仅能显著降低劳资对立氛围对内在工作满意度的消极影响,而对员工参与氛围的影响不具有调节作用。此外,研究还发现交易承诺不存在调节效果。     

基于文化差异观的组织文化友好性和一致性对组织变革的影响

本文在组织文化的价值层面、事实层面及其两层面差异的视角上,研究组织文化友好性和一致性对组织变革的认知反应和行为反应的影响,并以我国302个中高级管理者代表的企业为样本进行实证研究。结果表明:相对于价值层面的组织文化友好性,事实层面的组织文化友好性对变革认知反应和行为都具有推动作用;两层面文化友好性的差异仅推动变革认知反应;相对于价值层面的组织文化一致性,事实层面的组织文化一致性仅对变革行为反应具有阻碍作用;两层面文化一致性的差异阻碍变革认知反应和行为反应。