Reducing Absenteeism and Rescheduling Among Grocery Store Employees With Point-Contingent Rewards

The purpose of this research was to evaluate a reward program designed to reduce absenteeism among staff (N = 38) at a grocery store. The intervention included public feedback and a credit reward system whereby participants got store dollars for attendance and authorized rescheduling of work assignments. Results showed that absenteeism decreased from a group mean of 8 shifts missed per week during baseline to 4.25 shifts missed per week during the intervention before increasing to 6.75 shifts missed per week during the reversal phase. The mean total rescheduling occurrences were reduced from a baseline average of 19.83 per week to 9.25 per week during the intervention and returned to 22.25 per week during the reversal. Employees were also less likely to leave early during the intervention period.     

Employee Absenteeism

No abstract available for this article.     

A Case Study Examining the Effectiveness and Cost of Incentive Programs to Reduce Staff Absenteeism in a Preschool

Most employers provide some number of paid sick leave days for their employees. If employees use their sick leave days by calling in sick on days they are feeling well, productivity (in terms of either goods or services) may be reduced. In this study, conducted at a preschool, productivity was defined as the number of children enrolled each month. In baseline, the 13 full-time employees were absent 4% of the time and 75 children were enrolled. The effectiveness and cost of two voluntary incentive programs designed to reduce employee absenteeism were examined for 4-½ years in a single case experimental design. The absenteeism of employees who volunteered to participate in the incentive program was .7% and overall absenteeism during the incentive programs was 2-½% while costs remained constant. Twenty-six percent more children were served. Employees preferred monetary to non-monetary incentives.     

Quality Cutting: Perceived Faculty and Staff Effects of State Budget Cuts on Institutional Quality

Product degradation is the deterioration of a commodity over time. Since the beginning of the 21st century, higher education in South Carolina has engaged in a process of cutting state funding to higher education. During this process questions emerged on the effects of the cuts on the many education programs that depend on state funding. The purpose of this study was to measure the perceptions of university faculty and administrators’ concerning the recent budget cuts in South Carolina and determine if the term product degradation can be appropriately applied to the educational product at state-supported four-year institutions in South Carolina.     

Field Testing of a Self-Instructional Time Management Manual with Managerial Staff in an Institutional Setting

Despite the extensive literature advocating the virtues of time management, research demonstrating its effectiveness is almost nonexistent. In this study, a step-by-step self-instructional time management manual was prepared and field tested with managerial staff of a large residential institution for retarded individuals. Experiment 1 used a multiple baseline design across groups to assess the effectiveness of the manual with instructor contact. Questionnaire and corroboration data clearly showed an increase in time management practices of participants as a function of training. These improvements were largely maintained at a four-week follow-up. Social validation measures revealed that participants found the manual to be easily readable and relevant to work and/or personal situations. In addition, improvements in participants' time management behaviors were readily discriminable by colleagues. Experiment 2 assessed the effectiveness of the manual versus a best-selling time management paperback book, under no-instructor contact conditions. Using a two-group pretest-posttest experimental design, results showed substantially greater increases in time management practices in the manual group, especially with respect to the corroboration data. These improvements were sustained at follow-up for the manual group but not for the book group.     

A Simple Punishment Procedure for Controlling Employee Absenteeism

The present study examined the effectiveness of a punishment procedure for controlling staff absenteeism in a facility for mentally retarded persons. Subjects were required to report sick leave absences and related information directly to their supervisor. The supervisor then provided subjects with information concerning the effects of the absence on facility operations. Results indicated a reduction in sick leave absenteeism following the implementation of the punishment procedure. Results also showed that vacation leave absenteeism increased systematically with reductions in sick leave absenteeism. Results were discussed in terms of employee-controlled (sick leave) vs. employer-controlled (vacation leave) absenteeism, and the ease and economy of the punishment procedure.     

Impact of Absenteeism on Assembly Line Quality and Throughput

Assembly lines function best when every worker is present. When a worker is absent, management must scramble to quickly find a replacement. Usually, the replacement will not be as proficient as the absent worker. This can reduce quality and throughput. We present two assembly line work‐systems models (one for lines with Andon and one for lines without Andon) that show one mechanism whereby absenteeism could impact quality and throughput. We exercise these models to provide insights into absenteeism's impact on quality and throughput. While the paper is written in the concrete terms of automotive assembly, the concepts and results apply to manual assembly lines in general.     

Absenteeism, turnover intention and inequity in the employment relationship

In this field study a preliminary social exchange model was proposed that related perceived inequity in the employment relationship to subsequent absenteeism and turnover intention. From an equity perspective, it was hypothesized that absenteeism and turnover intention are indirectly related to perceived inequity in the exchange relationship with the organization, mediated by feelings of resentment and poor organizational commitment. By employing covariance structure modelling, the model was tested among mental health care professionals (N = 90). The results demonstrated that the relationship between perceived inequity and turnover intention was fully mediated by poor organizational commitment, which was, in turn, partially triggered by feelings of resentment that were associated with perceived inequity. In contrast, there was a strong direct link between inequity in the employment relationship and absenteeism, not mediated by resentment and poor organizational commitment. It was concluded that absenteeism and turnover intention can both be considered to be withdrawal reactions to perceived inequity, but that the two reactions differ in their underlying dynamics. The implications of these findings were discussed.     

Decreasing Delivery Drivers' Departure Times

Abstract

A performance feedback and goal setting procedure was used to improve the morning departure times for delivery drivers in a social services agency that provided meals to elderly clients. Daily group feedback with changing-criterion goal setting was delivered using charts in a publicly accessible area. Upon the onset of the intervention, performance improved significantly and accordingly reversed during the first withdrawal phase. These improvements were replicated in a second feedback phase but did not reverse in a second withdrawal phase. Individuals who were relatively low performers during the baseline phase saw their performance improve to equal that of relatively high performers during the intervention phases. This demonstration project replicates and extends a well-established OBM intervention to a transitional work environment.     

The Challenges of Socially Responsible Investment Among Institutional Investors: Exploring the Links Between Corporate Pension Funds and Corporate Governance

During the last few decades, globalization of finance markets has come under increasing pressure to manage the many risks that companies face due to the negative impact that certain financial crises have had on securities quoted on the stock exchange. Simultaneously, there is a growing tendency among different institutional investors to take into account nonfinancial aspects—social, environmental, and ethical values—of company management. In this respect, increasing numbers of asset managers are aware of the importance of nonfinancial aspects of company management for finance markets. Asset managers integrate corporate social responsibility, sustainability policies and corporate governance strategies as indicators in risk management and the search for long‐term investments. The largest segment of socially responsible investment (SRI) screened and mutual funds are portfolios that are privately managed on behalf of institutions. Socially responsible investors include private and public pension funds, mutual funds, and private accounts that are managed on behalf of institutional investors such as corporations, universities, hospitals, religious institutions, and nonprofit organizations, among others. The aim of this paper is to analyze the development of SRI‐screened management corporate pension plans in the Spanish finance market. Spain is one of the European countries with a less developed SRI institutional market. Since SRI is still at the fledgling stage in the Spanish institutional market, this analysis is restricted to the awareness of SRI among a sample of the total number of corporate pension funds or schemes in Spain. The paper concludes with some proposals to encourage wider SRI acceptance and practice in Spain.     

Decreasing Intrinsic Motivation with Extrinsic Rewards

This paper describes cognitive and behavior analytic approaches to the study of intrinsic and extrinsic reward effects and considers the implications of differences in these approaches for future study and application. A critique of the research design and data analysis techniques used in the Deci-type paradigm is presented. The paper also describes a behavioral model of intrinsic reinforcement for use by Organizational Behavior Managers, and concludes with a proposal for research in this area.     

Institutional and Stakeholder Mapping: Frameworks for Policy Analysis and Institutional Change

Despite its importance and its widespread employment in policymaking practice, the theoretical and epistemic foundations of institutional mapping have not been elaborated and its legitimacy is yet to be fully granted by the academic community. This paper is a contribution to this overdue effort. The paper has two parts. First it introduces mapping as a cognitive process and explore in this context the structural similarities between maps and theories. While doing that it identifies the basic elements of mapping as a cognitive procedure and based on that it outlines the optimal features of the possible meta-theories framing policy-oriented institutional mapping. The second part goes a step further and discusses two concrete examples that may come close to illustrate the meta-theoretical ideal-type outlined at the end of the first part: the theoretical system implied in the Chicago School of sociology and the Institutional Analysis and Development framework inspired by the new institutional economics.     

A Comparison of Pyramidal Staff Training and Direct Staff Training in Community-Based Day Programs

This study evaluated two methods of training staff who were working with individuals with developmental disabilities: pyramidal training and consultant-led training. In the pyramidal training, supervisors were trained in the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) and in delivering feedback. The supervisors then trained their direct-care staff and, subsequently, provided ongoing performance feedback. In the consultant-led training, the direct-care staff was trained in the principles of ABA. Both groups learned similar amounts of knowledge of ABA principles, but pyramidal training was more effective in teaching staff to use correct teaching procedures with consumers. In addition, the pyramidal training group maintained the improvement in their teaching procedures at a 3-month follow up, while the consultant-led training group's performance declined.     

论国有股减持的现实意义及途径

国有经济在我国经济结构与经济生活中占有重要地位,如何进一步发挥国有经济的作用？在控制主要关系国计民生的重点行业的前提下,国有股份应逐渐从某些竞争性的领域与行业减持。国有经济淡出与退出就成为经济改革开放和进一步强势发展的一个具有重大意义和影响的关键课题,在此一并探讨国有股减持的方式与途径。     

Increasing Revenue by Decreasing Information in Procurement Auctions

We report on results of several laboratory experiments that investigate on‐line procurement auctions in which suppliers bid on price, but exogenous bidder quality affects winner determination. In procurement auctions, bidder quality may or may not be publicly known to all bidders, and the effect of this quality transparency on the auction outcome is one aspect of auction design that we examine. The second aspect of auction design that we examine is the effect of price visibility on the auction outcome, and the interaction between price visibility and quality transparency. In terms of price visibility, we consider two extreme cases: the sealed bid request for proposals (RFPs), and the open‐bid dynamic auction event. In terms of bidder quality transparency, we also consider two extreme cases: a setting in which bidder qualities are publicly known and the case in which they are private. We find that in our laboratory experiments, the RFP format is consistent in generating higher buyer surplus levels than does the open‐bid dynamic format. This advantage is independent of the quality transparency. In contrast, the open‐bid format is highly sensitive to quality transparency, generating significantly lower buyer surplus levels when the information about bidder quality is public.     

职工薪酬准则解析

目前在我国,有关职工薪酬的会计处理散见于各相关规定.新会计准则对这些规定进行了梳理和归纳,全面涵盖了我国现行实务中的各种职工薪酬,包括构成工资总额组成部分的工资、奖金、津贴和补贴,职工福利费,社会保险费,住房公积金,工会经费和职工教育经费,未参加社会统筹的退休人员退休金和医疗费用,因解除与职工的劳动关系给予的补偿等内容,并且对各种类型的职工薪酬的会计处理进行了明确规定,使准则更具针对性和可操作性.本文从职工薪酬的定义、职工薪酬的确认和计量、职工薪酬的披露及与以往规范的比较4个方面展开讨论.     

Absenteeism in Health Care: Using Interlocking Behavioral Contingency Feedback to Increase Attendance With Certified Nursing Assistants

This research used an ABA multiple baseline design across hospitals to evaluate a behavioral intervention designed to reduce absenteeism among 64 certified nursing assistants (CNA) in a rural health care organization. Pre-baseline assessments suggested that when CNAs were absent from work, other employees had to work unscheduled shifts. Because of this metacontingency, employees reported that they skipped work themselves to make up for the extra shifts they had to cover. This cycle created more unscheduled shifts and potentially caused the high absenteeism prevalent at the organization. An intervention with normative and metacontingency feedback significantly decreased the total number of days CNAs were absent per week across the three hospitals from a baseline mean of 0.24 (SD?=?0.19) days per week (7.74% of their scheduled hours) to a mean of 0.13 (SD?=?0.17) days per week (3.81% of their scheduled hours) during the intervention. In a return to baseline the total number of days CNAs were absent per week across the three hospitals increased to a mean of 0.24 (SD?=?0.20) days per week (7.47% of their scheduled hours).     

Institutional Strategies in Emerging Markets

Abstract

We review and integrate a wide range of literature that has examined the strategies by which organizations navigate institutionally diverse settings and capture rents outside of the marketplace. We synthesize this body of research under the umbrella term institutional strategies, which we define as the comprehensive set of plans and actions directed at leveraging and shaping socio-political and cultural institutions to obtain or retain competitive advantage. Our review of institutional strategies is focused on emerging market contexts, settings that are characterized by weak capital market and regulatory infrastructures and fast-paced turbulent change. Under such challenging conditions, strategies aimed at shaping the institutional environment may be especially critical to an organization's performance and long-term survival. Our review reveals that organizations engage in three specific and identifiable sets of institutional strategies, which we term relational, infrastructure-building, and socio-cultural bridging. We conclude by highlighting fruitful avenues for cross-disciplinary dialogue in the hope of promoting future research on emerging markets and defining the next frontier of institutional theory in organizational analysis.     

Institutional work through empathic engagement

A growing body of literature examines how actors engage with institutions and how they prompt institutional change and evolution. This article takes stock of this knowledge and contributes an affective dimension to the study of how institutional entrepreneurs achieve momentum and field-level impact. The article views institutional work as relational agency and conceptualises empathic engagement as a way for institutional entrepreneurs to relate affectively to other actors and induce cooperation. We demonstrate how empathic engagement by institutional entrepreneurs can nurture communities of practice that co-create change in institutional fields. Our argument hinges on the actors’ affective investment and advances the less developed non-cognitive dimension of institutional work. By integrating empathic engagement into institutional entrepreneurship, we demonstrate how institutional entrepreneurs nurture their ability to engage and cooperate with others to diffuse particular values through institutional work. This integration focuses on the way of knowing generated through empathic engagement: the ability to bring about a consensus by creating frames of reference and identities that others are enchanted by and subscribe to, as opposed to using coercive mechanisms.