How Responsive Is Investment in Schooling to Changes in Redistributive Policies and in Returns?

This paper uses an unusual pay reform to test the responsiveness of investment in schooling to changes in redistribution schemes that increase the rate of return to education. We exploit an episode where different Israeli kibbutzim shifted from equal sharing to productivity‐based wages in different years and find that students in kibbutzim that reformed earlier invested more in high school education and, in the long run, also in post‐secondary schooling. We further show that the effect is mainly driven by students in kibbutzim that reformed to a larger degree. Our findings support the prediction that education is highly responsive to changes in the redistribution policy.     

7 Emotion in Organizations

Abstract

Emotion has become one of the most popular—and popularized—areas within organizational scholarship. This chapter attempts to review and bring together within a single framework the wide and often disjointed literature on emotion in organizations. The integrated framework includes processes detailed by previous theorists who have defined emotion as a sequence that unfolds chronologically. The emotion process begins with a focal individual who is exposed to an eliciting stimulus, registers the stimulus for its meaning, and experiences a feeling state and physiological changes, with downstream consequences for attitudes, behaviors, and cognitions, as well as facial expressions and other emotionally expressive cues. These downstream consequences can result in externally visible behaviors and cues that become, in turn, eliciting stimuli for interaction partners. For each stage of the emotion process, there are distinct emotion regulation processes that incorporate individual differences and group norms and that can become automatic with practice. Although research often examines these stages in relative isolation from each other, I argue that each matters largely due to its interconnectedness with the other stages. Incorporating intraindividual, individual, interpersonal, and organizational levels of analysis, this framework can be a starting point to situate, theorize, and test explicit mechanisms for the influence of emotion on organizational life.

We keep coming back to feelings, I'll have time for feelings after I'm dead. Right now we're busy. (NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, speaking about the historic Independence Day 2006 launch of the space shuttle Discovery, after discussing the horror and sadness at losing the Columbia space shuttle in 2003, the worry leading up to the launch of Discovery, and the relief and pleasure at watching Discovery succeed; Boyce, 2006)     

9 Creativity in Organizations

Abstract

In this chapter, I review contemporary theories and research on creativity in organizations. After discussing key definitional issues in this domain, I review the contemporary scholarly literature proceeding from the most molecular of perspectives focusing on within-individual processes to the more molar perspective of the collective creativity that can take place in work groups. While the within-individual process featured most prominently in the extant literature is intrinsic motivation, after a treatment of some fundamental issues surrounding the intrinsic motivation construct, I review research on conscious and unconscious thinking and positive and negative affect as key internal processes relevant to understanding creativity. Next, I focus on contextual influences on creativity including safety signals, creativity prompts, supervisors, leadership, and networks. Lastly, I focus on creativity in groups (from both an input and a process perspective). In closing, I reiterate a recurrent theme throughout the review. This is an exciting era for research on creativity in organizations with many intriguing questions awaiting future scholarly inquiry.     

2 Untapped Potential in the Study of Negotiation and Gender Inequality in Organizations

Abstract

Negotiation is a process that creates, reinforces, and reduces gender inequality in organizations, yet the study of gender in negotiation has little connection to the study of gender in organizations. We review the literature on gender in job negotiations from psychology and organizational behavior, and propose ways in which this literature could speak more directly to gender inequality in organizations by incorporating insights from research on gender in intra‐household and collective bargaining. Taken together, these literatures illuminate how negotiations at the individual, household, and collective levels may contribute to the construction and deconstruction of gender inequality in organizations.     

Vacant Shops in a Crisis Period – A Morphological Analysis in Portuguese Medium-Sized Cities

Vacant shops are an important problem affecting urban areas today, particularly in the wake of the economic crisis. Most strategies to analyse and deal with this issue are related to economic and financial variables. However, the amount of research associating store geography and performance with urban morphology has increased over the past decade. Thus, this research tests the hypothesis that specific morphological features characterize vacant retail sites. Using four Portuguese cities as test-beds and Kernel density analysis to plot spatial patterns, vacant shops were for example positively correlated with low segment betweenness and negatively correlated with block area.     

Up in the Skies? The Relationship between Body Height and Earnings in Germany

Abstract. This paper analyses whether taller workers earn more than their shorter counterparts. Using GSOEP data from 1991 to 2002, earnings functions are estimated for male and female workers for both West and East Germany. The Hausman–Taylor IV estimator is applied to account for unobservable heterogeneity including also time‐invariant indicators. The results do not imply wage differentials based on height for female workers and male East German workers. For the height range up to 195 cm there is, however, a wage premium associated with stature for male workers from West Germany of about 4 per cent for each additional standard deviation increment in height.     

Formalisation and flexibilisation in organisations – Dynamic and selective approaches in corporate innovation processes

A classic problem in organising corporate innovation projects is the tension between formalisation and flexibilisation. Connecting this discussion to the younger debate on ambidexterity, this paper asks how organisations balance informal and formal, flexible and inflexible ways of working in their innovation projects. It derives a way to break down formalisation and flexibilisation into the dimensions of power, communication and trust and connects them to learning. By unhinging formalisation and flexibilisation from the organisational level and looking at them at the small-scale level of specific projects and functional arenas instead, the paper sheds new light onto the various fashions in which formalisation and flexibilisation do not contradict, but complement each other. An empirical account based on 100 qualitative expert interviews illustrates this.     

A Contradiction in Terms? Making Sense of Emotional Intelligence in a Construction Management Environment

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been hailed as being critical to individual performance within organizations. However, recent theoretical debates indicate that scholars need to apply a more differentiated lens when examining the utility of EI in a particular organizational context. In this study, we seek to contribute preliminary empirical evidence to this debate. Drawing upon an interpretivist approach and a narrative analysis, we examine how UK construction project managers make sense of EI, and how this shapes their receptiveness to the construct. Our data analysis suggests that there are enduring, albeit changing, characteristics of the industry and the sensemaking processes of project managers that renders the construct, at least for the time being, of limited utility. Thus, our analysis is a cautionary tale for those management scholars and practitioners who argue for the ‘trainability’ of EI.     

Hand in Hand zum Erfolg?!

This contribution deals with the relevance of the employee??s personality for brand relationship quality in the service sector. The necessity for employees of being conform to a brand to strengthen its image makes the fit between the employee and the brand personality of special interest regarding this study. The so developed causal model is evaluated by conducting an empirical study whereby one of the leading financial institutes in Germany serves as study object. Results show a high relevance of Love/Passion, Intimacy and Partner Quality for brand loyalty. Further, these dimensions of the relationship quality are determined by the fit between brand personality and employee personality with regard to the aspect competence and sincerity. The relations between the personality fit constructs and the influenced dimensions of brand relationship quality are intensified by a positive consumer evaluation of the employees with regard to the relevant personality traits.     

Coaches — Gurus in Nadelstreifen?

Coaches — gurus in pinstripes suits? Since coaching adopts many methods and theories of psychotherapy and scientific results should be generalized, an overview is given on the large development and research of psychotherapy. The author dlienates a distinction between coaching and psychotherapy. The modern and postmodern results of psychotherapy research are transformed into the field of coaching. So a set of variables is developed of the context and of a generic model of coaching, with process and effective variables. That enables coaches to structure the practical work, to act on empirical grounds and to research scientifically.     

Supervision in der Gesundheitsförderung

Supervision in mental-health A brief outline of supervision as such is followed by a specification of supervision in the pretherapeutic field of mental-health. Here, supervision has an identity promoting function as well as a didactic one for the leaders of workshops and seminars. Using short sequences of group supervision, the psychoanalytic method is demonstrated. In the course of the supervisory process mirror phenomena of the participants’ psychodynamics can be observed as well as the dynamic of the employing institution (open questions and conflicts) and their interference become visible. Supervision in mental-health is useful for securing the quality of the standards of the work, serves the mental hygiene of the leaders, and promotes the development of the organisation.     

Output-Flexibilität in der Dienstleistungsproduktion

Zusammenfassung  Den Ausgangspunkt der überlegungen bildet die Interpretation von Dienstleistungen als Probleml?sungen, die eine M?glichkeit zur formalen Analyse der Output-Flexibilit?t er?ffnet. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden in einer eigenschaftsorientierten Betrachtung zun?chst die Komponenten der Output-Flexibilit?t identifiziert, um dann darauf aufbauend ein Kalkül zur Gestaltung der Output-Flexibilit?t von Dienstleistungsunternehmungen abzuleiten.

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Summary  Output flexibility enables the service provider to cope with both uncertainties in demand and the external production factor. This paper aims at formulating a calculus for the design of output flexibility based on production theory. The interpretation of services as specific problem solutions serves as a basis for a feature-oriented modelling of service production.

Die Autoren danken zwei anonymen Gutachtern für wertvolle Verbesserungsvorschl?ge.     

Gesellschafterausstieg in großen Familienunternehmen

Zusammenfassung  Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit dem Ausstieg von Gesellschaftern aus Familienunternehmen als bedeutendes Corporate Governance-Problem. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Untersuchung der Wirkung von Ausstiegsmotiven, Rahmenbedingungen sowie Ausstiegsbarrieren auf die Belastung von Unternehmen und Familie durch den Gesellschafterausstieg. Eine explorative empirische Untersuchung von 55 gro?en deutschen Familienunternehmen liefert Ans?tze für eine Organisationstheorie des Familienunternehmens und für praktische Empfehlungen bei der Gestaltung von Satzung und Ausstiegsverhandlung.

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Summary  This article deals with the exit of shareholders in family owned businesses as an important corporate governance problem. We mainly analyse the effect of exit motivations, exit conditions, and barriers to exit on the exit’s burden for the company and the family. An explorative empirical study of 55 large German family owned businesses comes up with ideas for an organization theory of family owned businesses as well as some practical recommendations for statutes and exit negotiations.

     

How Does Centrality in Coopetition Networks Matter? An Empirical Investigation in the Mobile Telephone Industry

This research examines how a firm's position in a coopetitive network (formed through cooperation among firms within an industry) influences the extent of the firm's competitive aggressiveness and market performance. The authors collected data on the competitive and cooperative actions of firms in the mobile telephone industry from 2000 to 2006, using structured content analysis of news reports. The results show that the centrality of a firm in a coopetitive network contributes to the firm's competitive aggressiveness through increased volume and variety of competitive actions. Further, the more central a firm is in the network, the greater is its market performance. Firms that undertake more volume and variety of competitive actions improve their market performance. Overall, these results show that being in a central position in a coopetition network is quite advantageous for the firm.     

To fit in or stand out? How optimal distinctiveness in technological diversification affects firm performance

Previous research has observed technological diversification from a strategic viewpoint and regarded it as a strategy used by firms to differentiate themselves from competitors. This perspective, however, overlooks the fact that firms' strategies can also be understood as conformity to institutional pressure to gain legitimacy. In order to study the technological diversification–firm performance relationship from a more comprehensive viewpoint, this paper starts from a strategic balance perspective and investigates how technological diversification conformity enhances firm performance. Using a unique dataset of Chinese listed firms' patenting activities from 2003 to 2014 and adopting ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, we produce empirical findings that reveal a curvilinear (inverted U-shaped) relationship between firms’ conformity in technological diversification and their performance. Our results further delineate the boundary conditions that influence this relationship. We find that firm age positively moderates the relationship, that is the conformity-performance relationship is steeper with the older firms. Moreover, the result suggests that state ownership negatively moderates the relationship, that is, the relationship is flatter when firms are controlled by the state.