Does Rent‐sharing Profit Female and Male Workers? Evidence from Israeli Matched Employer–Employee Data

This paper analyses the impact of workplace characteristics on individual wages based on a unique cross‐section matched employer–employee data set for the Israeli private manufacturing sector in 1995. Specifically, we examine the effects of the interaction between profit‐sharing and wages on the gender wage gap. The empirical findings show that individual compensation is significantly and positively correlated with firms’ profits‐per‐employee, even when controlling for all of the following: group effects in the residuals, individual and firms’ characteristics, industry wage differentials and endogeneity of profits. Wage–profit elasticity is found to be 11 per cent and it does not significantly differ between genders. With respect to the overall gender wage gap (on average women earn 28 per cent less than men), the results show that within firms there is no gender discrimination and that 12 per cent of this gap can be explained by the wage–profits profile and by the fact that women are more likely to be employed in less profitable firms than men.     

How Selective Are Real Wage Cuts? A Micro‐analysis Using Linked Employer–Employee Data

Using linked employer–employee panel data for Germany, we investigate whether firms implement real wage reductions in a selective manner. In line with insider–outsider and several strands of efficiency wage theory, we find strong evidence for selective wage cuts with high‐productivity workers being spared even when controlling for permanent differences in firms' wage policies. In contrast to some recent contributions stressing fairness considerations, we also find that wage cuts increase wage dispersion among peers rather than narrowing it. Notably, the same selectivity pattern shows up when restricting our analysis to firms covered by collective agreements or having a works council.     

Too Negative to Take Risks? The Effect of the CEO's Emotional Traits on Firm Risk

Except for some recent survey and experimental studies, strategic management research has tended to neglect the influence of emotions on managers' strategic choices. This paper analyses the influence of the stable, long‐term emotional traits of CEOs on an actual business outcome: risk taking. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 51 Spanish banks and savings banks. Our results show that CEO affective traits influence banks' risk taking. Specifically, our analyses show that managers' negative affective traits are related to lower risk taking as reflected in a lower variability in performance, a lower level of credit risk and a less risky composition of the loan portfolios of the banks they manage. Positive affective traits do not seem to influence the level of risk. These findings partially support ‘affect congruency and generalization’ arguments, and show the need to consider the role of affects when analysing CEOs' strategic choices.     

Human Resource Management–Performance Research: Is Everyone Really on the Same Page on Employee Involvement?

Differences in the treatment of involvement in the human resource management (HRM)–performance research stream have been underplayed, as commentaries concentrate on showing that HRM produces a performance premium, and more recently on exploring the mechanisms explaining this. This paper first identifies the two initial concerns of the research stream – the value of employee involvement and the holistic treatment of HRM – and the way these are joined to present a unified view of the area. It then reviews the studies, confirming that involvement has been underplayed or neglected completely, and is only prioritized in a minority. A divide is identified between HRM as an orientation towards fostering employee involvement – seen as a managerial philosophy – and as a technology – a set of practices constituting high‐performance work systems. The paper then argues that acknowledgement of this divide matters, and concludes by drawing out some implications for how we should progress the research stream.     

The Effect of Mergers and Acquisitions on Employees: Wealth Transfer,Gain‐Sharing or Pain‐Sharing?

This paper considers whether gains made by shareholders from corporate takeovers are achieved at the expense of employees, as proposed by the ‘wealth transfer’ perspective. It analyses the contribution of employee lay‐offs, along with employment and wage changes, to the takeover premium and abnormal share price movements. The analysis draws on a unique dataset of British takeovers, combining documentary, share price and accounting data. The results show that lay‐offs planned at the takeover have either no effect or adverse effects on shareholder returns. Wages growth is positively, not inversely, related to shareholder returns from the second year after the takeover, whilst positive employment changes have a similar effect in the following year. Closer scrutiny indicates that labour and shareholders share gains when the firm does well, but share pain when it does not. There is evidence, therefore, that labour and shareholder interests can be complementary, rather than antagonistic, after takeovers.     

Does Future PC Use Determine Our Wages Today? — Evidence from German Panel Data

Abstract. Using 1985–99 data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel Study (GSOEP) we confirm the hypothesis that existing computer wage premiums are determined by ability or other unobserved individual characteristics rather than by productivity effects. In addition to the conventional longitudinal regression analysis, the two competing hypotheses were tested by employing future PC variables in the wage regressions in order to obtain a further control for worker heterogeneity. The finding that future PC variables have a statistically significant effect on current wages leads us to conclude that computer wage differentials can be attributed to worker heterogeneity rather than to computer‐induced productivity.     

Better Safe than Sorry? The Effects of Income Risk and Unemployment Risk on Wages

We study the effects of income risk and unemployment risk on individual wages simultaneously. Starting point for the empirical analysis is a portfolio model for the labor market. This model shows positive wage effects for both risks but also a negative interaction effect. Using German administrative panel data we estimate the effects of the income risk, the unemployment risk and their interaction on individual wages separately for men and women in East and West Germany. We find the expected positive wage effects for both risks as well as a negative interaction effect. The marginal effect of income risk on wages is positive, whereas the marginal effect of unemployment risk is negative.     

The Long‐term Unemployed: A New Protected Class of Employee?

Since the onset of the latest United States (U.S.) recession (beginning in December 2007), the U.S. economy has been posting high unemployment levels consistently exceeding 8 percent. Of specific interest, the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), reports on a specific subset of the U.S. unemployed: the long‐term unemployed, defined as those who are unemployed for 27 weeks and over. Since December 2009, the share of the long‐term unemployed of the total U.S. unemployed has exceeded 40 percent (through April 2012), the highest level since 1948 when data was first collected. A phenomenon of this recession is an alleged public bias by American private sector employers against hiring the long‐term unemployed, or even simply those unemployed. While the authors support the removal of discrimination against the unemployed in job advertisements, they cannot support the larger notion of including those who are unemployed as a protected class of employees. Becoming or being unemployed is a state that one can change, and based on the lack of research on how widespread this discrimination is (beyond anecdotal stories or limited research surveys), they believe that extending protection under equal employment opportunity legislation would be overreaching and inappropriate at this time.     

Inept or Badly Matched? — Effects of Educational Mismatch in the Labor Market

Negative wage effects of educational mismatch have become a stylized fact. Whether these are explained by differences in unobserved productivity or poor matching is still to be answered conclusively. In an empirical analysis based on data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel and the International Adult Literacy Survey, a broad econometric strategy is applied to solve the problem of unobserved heterogeneity and reveal the mechanism underlying wage differences between matched and mismatched workers. Results show that wage differentials can be explained by a poor matching in the labor market, rejecting the hypothesis that mismatched workers compensate for unobserved productivity differences.     

Complements or Substitutes? Culture–Technology Interactions in Healthcare

The U.S. government recommends that hospitals adopt Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) systems to improve the quality problems that plague U.S. hospitals. However, CPOE studies show mixed results. We hypothesize that CPOE effectiveness depends on the prevalence of patient safety culture within a hospital. Using organizational information processing theory, we describe how patient safety culture and CPOE enable healthcare organizations to better process information. Specifically, we posit that CPOE complements some aspects of patient safety culture and substitutes for others. Using ridge regression, we empirically test this proposition using data from 268 hospitals and multiple data sources. Results show that while CPOE complements the patient safety dimensions of handoffs and transitions, feedback and communication about error, and organizational learning, CPOE substitutes for the dimension of management support for safety, in the context of our dependent variable. As organizations work to implement new systems, this research can help decision‐makers understand how culture impacts such initiatives and account for culture when anticipating effects.     

The Impact of Organizational Change on Employee Turnover Intention: Does Stress Play a Mediating Role?

This study examined the relationship between change interventions and employee turnover intention to see if change interventions lead to increased employee turnover intention. Moreover, the mediating role of employee stress was tested. Data were collected from 162 respondents working at various administrative positions in a large public organization. The results indicate that employee turnover intention is positively correlated to human process, techno structural, human resources, and strategic interventions. Limitations and direction for future research are provided.     

Is It Always Worth Waiting? The Effect of Autonomy‐supportive Teaching on Short‐term and Long‐term Learning Outcomes

Autonomy is known for its positive effects and its use in management practice. Recently an urgent debate has emerged on its drawbacks on individual outcomes. In this study, we investigate and test a model on the effect on individual learning of an autonomy‐supportive teaching style and its interplay with the learner's previous experience and perceived management support. Specifically, while research has emphasized the positive effect of similar contexts, this study focuses on its differential effect on short‐term and long‐term learning outcomes, challenging the traditional view of autonomy. We also explore how job experience and management support can improve the effects of autonomy on individual learning. We test our model by collecting longitudinal data on a sample of 200 individuals participating in a training programme on managerial skills. Our results show that (1) the extent to which teachers were perceived as autonomy‐supportive presents a linear relationship with short‐term learning outcomes (utility reactions) and a positive curvilinear relationship with training transfer in the long term; (2) learner job experience and perceived management support for learning have a positive moderating effect on the linear relationship between autonomy and learning outcomes.     

Does NGOs’ Commercialization Affect Volunteer Work? The Crowding out or Crowding in Effect

Public Organization Review - The aim of this article is to identify whether the commercialization of NGOs has an influence on the crowding out or crowding in effect of volunteer work, and to...     

Do Tax–Benefit Systems Cause High Replacement Rates? A Decompositional Analysis Using EUROMOD

This paper considers using a cross‐country microsimulation tax–benefit model for Europe, EUROMOD, to simulate the distribution of replacement rates for six European countries, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. In particular we show the important role of household composition and the presence of other household members' incomes in preserving the standard of living while out of work compared with the impact of the tax–benefit system. Given this strong influence of primary incomes, replacement rates are not necessarily the best indicator of the impact of the tax–benefit system in this respect. We therefore consider in addition an alternative measure, the participation tax rate.     

Choice or Chance? A Duration Analysis of Unemployment Using Information from “Restart” Interviews

A dataset containing details of the personal characteristics and search behaviour of 1,094 long-term unemployed males is used to analyse the importance of individual choice in the determination of unemployment durations for this group. The role played by individuals' decisions (concerning factors such as the range of jobs which they are prepared to consider, or the minimum weekly wage which they would accept) is quantified relative to that played by chance (measured by factors which will affect the probability of receiving an offer, e.g. the local unemployment rate).     

Fast and Furious or Slow and Cautious? The Joint Impact of Age at Internationalization,Speed, and Risk Diversity on the Survival of Exporting Firms

This article examines the effect of age at internationalization and pace of internationalization on the survival of small and medium-sized enterprises. Two sets of hypotheses are developed on the basis of the sequential expansion and international new venture approaches. These hypotheses are tested using an event-history method and panel data on French SMEs that exported for the first time between 2003 and 2012 (547 firm-year observations). The results show that the failure rate for firms adopting the late, slow, and cautious sequential expansion approach is significantly lower than in small firms adopting other paths to internationalization.     

Complements or substitutes? The contingent role of corporate reputation on the interplay between internal R&D and external knowledge sourcing

Existing research does not provide a clear answer to the question of whether internal knowledge development and external knowledge sourcing are complementary or substitutive innovation activities. This paper adopts a contingent approach for addressing this issue by examining whether and how the interactive effect of internal R&D efforts and external knowledge sourcing on product innovation performance may be affected by the firm’s corporate reputation. In doing so, a three-way interaction model is applied to a sample of 251 Spanish high-technology manufacturing firms. Interestingly, initial results support the substitutive argument: the positive effect of internal R&D on product innovation performance diminishes as the exposure to external knowledge increases. However, in well reputed companies, interaction becomes positive, revealing a complementary effect. Thus, the study extends the traditional approach focused on determining whether internal and external knowledge sourcing are complements or substitutes by showing that their interplay depends on other firm-specific characteristics. Moreover, identifying corporate reputation as a source of complementarity between both activities provides an additional explanation of how corporate reputation contributes to a more effective management of knowledge assets.     

The Relational Antecedents of Interpersonal Helping: ‘Quantity’, ‘Quality’ or Both?

Having a large network of colleagues means having several opportunities to help those colleagues, as well as a higher chance of receiving requests for help from them. Employees with large networks are therefore expected to help more in the workplace than those with small networks. However, large networks are also associated with cognitive costs, which may reduce the focal employee's ability to both recognize the need for help and engage in helping behaviours. For these reasons, the authors assert an inverted U‐shaped relation between the size of an ego's social network and engagement in helping behaviour. However, high‐quality relationships imply higher mutual understanding between the actors, and hence lower cognitive costs. In turn, the position (and threshold) of the curve between network size and interpersonal helping should be influenced by the quality of the relationship between the provider and the beneficiaries of help. Analysis of employee‐level, single‐firm data supports these ideas, providing preliminary evidence that quality of relationship compensates for the difficulties that may arise from having large social networks.     

The effect of large controlling shareholders on equity prices in France: monitoring or entrenchment?

Journal of Management and Governance - The corporate governance literature has shown that firms with better governance exhibit higher abnormal returns. In this paper, we examine the effect of cash...     

Does Formal Education for Older Workers Increase Earnings? — Evidence Based on Rich Data and Long‐term Follow‐up

Governments in Europe, Canada and the USA have expressed an ambition to stimulate education of older. In this paper, we analyse if there are effects on annual earnings of formal education for participants aged 42–55 at the time of enrolment in 1994–95. The analysis explores longitudinal population register data stretching from 1982 to 2007. The method used is difference‐in‐differences propensity score matching based on a rich set of covariates, including indicators of health and labor market marginalization. Our findings underline the importance of long follow up periods and imply positive effects for women, especially so for women with children, and no significant average earnings effects for men. These results differ from earlier studies but are stable to several alternative assumptions regarding unobservable characteristics. Data further indicate that the gender gap in our estimates may stem from differences in underlying reasons for enrolment.