Perceptions of the effectiveness of training and development of ‘grey-collar’ workers in the People's Republic of China

An important human resource development (HRD) implication of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) rapidly expanding economy has been the emergence of a critical shortage of grey-collar workers (GCW). Although ‘grey-collar’ has been commonly used in the West to describe an aging population within the workforce, in China it refers to people who are neither white nor blue collar workers but technicians. The shortage of GCW constrains the PRC's economic and developmental sustainability, and has been recognized in central and provincial government initiatives to increase training and development of employees within these fields. While acknowledged as a policy and organizational problem, there has been no research investigating what organizations are doing to develop these employees. Drawing upon a survey of 310 semi-skilled and skilled employees in Beijing, our findings suggest that while the surveyed organizations are investing heavily in both on- and off-the-job training, employees' perceived value of such differs markedly according to age and position. The research has important implications for China's HRD strategy in suggesting links between training and other human resource management (HRM) functions are yet to be evidenced.     

Procurement strategies in the presence of the spot market—an analytical framework

This paper investigates a problem in which a buyer can procure from a regular supplier as well as from a supplier in a spot market, possibly formed over the Internet. The contract with the regular supplier specifies a predetermined order volume and price, while the spot market has unlimited supply but a varying spot price. We analyse this problem from a buyer/supplier perspective, and an analytical model is developed to analyse two distinctive procurement strategies: the pure procurement system (PS) and the mixed procurement system of regular supplier with a supplier in spot markets (MS). Without loss of generality, we obtained a closed-forms solution that enabled us to provide numerical analysis on the procurement strategies, and allowed us to compare further the different characteristics between PS and MS. The results of our analysis demonstrate that the use of spot market could effectively mitigate the risk associated with demand uncertainty facing the buyer. The results also show that adopting MS can generate a higher buyer's profit than the PS, and significant supply-chain profit improvements can indeed be achieved through buyer/supplier coordination. Furthermore, spot price volatility leads to the facilitation of the use of spot markets, improving the buyer and the supply-chain profitability.     

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.     

Following the Herd or Not?: Patterns of Renewal in the Netherlands and the UK

How do large firms conduct their strategic renewal journeys in an increasingly turbulent environment? Are there generic industry patterns, or are these renewal journeys country- or firm-specific? To answer these questions, we examine the relative incidence of external versus internal and explorative versus exploitative renewal actions, and their speed, in leading Dutch and UK financial service companies using longitudinal data. The context, content and process dimensions of strategic renewal are distinguished, and research questions about these attributes are formulated and investigated using new metrics. Findings show that while exploration/exploitation ratios are fairly similar for firms across the entire industry, systematic differences are evident between the external/internal renewal ratios of Dutch and UK firms, and that speed of renewal is largely determined at the firm level. Thus we find that industry-, country- and firm-specific factors all influence journeys of strategic renewal in distinctive and complementary ways.     

European cooperations in transition — the metamorphosis of homo cooperativus

It is suggested that the signs of the specificity of cooperative organizations are to be found in the mentality, ideality and morality of homo cooperativus. This specificity is undergoing a fundamental metamorphosis due to new environmental challenges emerging from the currently prevailing technological form of capitalism. In this new situation the homo cooperativus has to redefine his logic of action in order to cope with the necessity of accumulating financial, intellectual and political capital. Empirical findings in the U.K. and France suggest that this process of accumulation appears to be showing signs of an emergence of a new generation of homo cooperativus. The theoretical implications of the findings and the future of cooperatives as specific forms of economic organizations are presented and discussed.     

Is the Pendulum Swinging Back? Patterns of Skill Change in the Machine-Tool Industry

In this paper, we focus on the results of the Belgian Trend Study. The intention of this study was to examine the prevalence of new production concepts within the widest possible range of Belgian companies in the automobile, machine tool, chemical and clothing industries. The Trend-study aimed to answer the following questions: is the Taylorist division of labour a thing of the past ? What are the alternatives? Are shifts in the division of labour accompanied by another type of personnel policy, and do traditional industrial relations have to make way for this new approach? The methodological concept used had to guarantee that the findings at the level of each industry could be generalized. In this paper, we examine the penetration of new production concepts in the main processing fields of the machine tool industry.     

An Effectual–Causal View of Managerial Decisions in the Internationalization of Indian MNEs

We use effectuation theory to understand the internationalization of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs), specifically answering the questions of: (a) how managerial decision logic differs across EMNEs that face disadvantages vs. those that do not, and (b) what managerial decision logic helps EMNEs to mitigate disadvantages. We employ a case research approach to analyze decision events across eight firms that internationalized from India between 1990 and 2015. We find that EMNEs are attuned to welcoming and leveraging surprises in order to transform challenging markets into opportunities; form cautious partnerships with self-selecting stakeholders, and; balance all-or-nothing opportunities with losses they can afford. Furthermore, while EMNEs adopt relatively balanced effectual-causal actions to mitigate the liability of multinationality (LoM), they are more effectual than causal in mitigating the liabilities of foreignness (LoF) and liabilities of origin (LoR).     

Whose company is it? The concept of the corporation in Japan and the west

This article examines the differences in the concept of the corporation and their possible implications for corporate performance, between Japan on the one hand and the United States and Europe (Germany, UK and France) on the other. The Japanese concept is used as the standard against which the other models are compared. The concept of the corporation is defined here as the answer to the question: ‘In whose interest should the firm be managed?’¹ This is the foundation on which corporate governance and the monitoring system for the CEO is built. The analysis is focused on large publicly-held corporations with widely diffused ownership.     

The façade of consultancy in the Fiji public service

In any common definition consultancy entails the provision of advice to improve the status quo. This paper examines the notion of consultancy in the Fiji public service and highlights the consultancy qualities and their contextual application in Fiji's case. The examination of the role of internal consultancy necessitates a discussion of the general framework of Fiji's political system, in particular the decision-making process, and the cultural values and practices dominant in the public service. The contemporary notion of political neutrality of the public service requires that civil servants are endowed with the qualities of ‘disinterestedness’. The character of the public service is, therefore, emphasised as ‘precise, soulless and machine-like’. This, however, is difficult to achieve in a society divided in two along ethnic lines. The paper argues that while civil servants carry out consultancy functions they are not recognised as such and the boundary between consultancy and project management is blurred by the job and work environment in the public service.     

‘Slipping through the Net’: The Impact of Incremental Development on the Built Environment of the Historic Coastal Town of Queenscliff in Victoria,Australia

Studies of the impact of development on the built environment often concentrate on areas of sudden change, where new constructions of a radically different scale, purpose or style are clearly seen to dramatically alter existing places. However, change is often more gradual. The cumulative effects of a large number of individual small changes are both extensive and often unrecognized until after they have taken effect, each individual development having ‘slipped through the net’ cast by planning authorities. The problem with this incremental process is that the result is often the erosion of the spatial and experiential qualities previously valued in that locality. As an example, this paper investigates four residential planning case studies in Queenscliff, a small historic coastal town in Victoria, Australia. Through analysis of their individual and cumulative impact on the neighbourhood character of this town, the paper explores the broader implications for the built environment of other Australian coastal towns and highlights the difficulties faced by all planners and residents trying to protect the character of their towns.     

Factors affecting the change of top executive nationality in MNCs’ foreign affiliates in Japan

Using archival data published in 2003 and 2007, we investigated factors that influence the change of nationality of the most senior executives in foreign affiliates of MNCs operating in Japan. Our results show that as the length of operation in Japan increased, the likelihood of a non-Japanese top executive in the affiliate being replaced by a Japanese one, was higher than that of a Japanese top executive being replaced by a non-Japanese one. We also found that when an affiliate had a Japanese top executive at time one, it was more likely that a non-Japanese executive replaced the Japanese one if the affiliate’s foreign ownership ratio increased at time two. In addition, there were notable differences between affiliates of Asian, North American and European MNCs in top executive staffing patterns of Japanese affiliates. Implications from this study and future research directions are discussed herein.     

Socioemotional wealth’s implications in the calculus of the minimum rate of return required by family businesses’ owners

This paper demonstrates that the minimum rate of return (k _e ) required by family business shareholders is inversely related to the emotional endowment presented in these firms. After reviewing the socioemotional wealth (SEW) literature, we find empirical support to justify that different SEW dimensions influence k _e . Findings from a population of 207 family firms show that the identification of family members with the firm and the renewal of family bonds with the firm through dynastic succession have consistently negative impacts on k _e , while family control and influence have significantly positive impacts on k _e .     

An Analysis of the Commonality and Type of Preintervention Assessment Procedures in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (2000–2015)

We reviewed all issues of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM) from 2000 through 2015 to identify the percentage of empirical articles, which utilized some form of preintervention assessment. In addition, we categorized five types of assessment used and compared the number of assessments conducted in each category. Finally, because assessment is considered to be particularly important in the subdiscipline of behavioral safety (McSween, 2003), and prior research has not examined the commonality of assessment in this area, we also analyzed the frequency and type of assessment procedures used in behavioral safety and compared this to the use of assessment in OBM in general. Results indicated that 28% of the empirical articles in JOBM used some form of preintervention assessment. Indirect methods were the most often used type of assessment. In addition, 48% percent of the articles in JOBM, which employed a safety-related dependent variable, included some form of assessment. The most frequently used type of assessment in behavioral safety was historical assessment. Based on these data, the use of some form of preintervention assessment in OBM appears to be occurring with some regularity, and assessment in behavioral safety is more common relative to assessment in OBM in general.     

Trust in Risk Regulation: Cause or Consequence of the Acceptability of GM Food?

Although there is ample empirical evidence that trust in risk regulation is strongly related to the perception and acceptability of risk, it is less clear what the direction of this relationship is. This article explores the nature of the relationship, using three separate data sets on perceptions of genetically modified (GM) food among the British public. The article has two discrete but closely interrelated objectives. First, it compares two models of trust. More specifically, it investigates whether trust is the cause (causal chain account) or the consequence (associationist view) of the acceptability of GM food. Second, this study explores whether the affect heuristic can be applied to a wider number of risk-relevant concepts than just perceived risk and benefit. The results suggest that, rather than a determinant, trust is an expression or indicator of the acceptability of GM food. In addition, and as predicted, "affect" accounts for a large portion of the variance between perceived risk, perceived benefit, trust in risk regulation, and acceptability. Overall, the results support the associationist view that specific risk judgments are driven by more general evaluative judgments The implications of these results for risk communication and policy are discussed.     

Cui bono? Depicting the benefits of the new municipal budgeting and accounting regime in Germany

The new budgeting and accounting regime for the public sector (Doppik), which is based on private sector accounting standards, has been the subject of numerous discussions in research and practice in Germany for the last 20 years. However, those discussions were mostly characterized by assertions, unproven statements and logical arguments. The objective of this paper is to empirically analyze the perceived benefits of a reformed municipal accrual budgeting and accounting system by using a structural equation model. Our results show that improved management capabilities are an important indirect factor, whereas efficiency, intergenerational equity, and transparency are direct determinants of benefit. The consistent implementation of the new output-/outcome-oriented management rationality and the necessity of harmonizing budget laws are revealed as prerequisites for further development.     

The impact of family CEO’s ownership and the moderating effect of the second largest owner in private family firms

This study explores two ownership issues in private family firms. First, we investigate the relationship between the ownership of family CEOs and firm performance, and postulate that this relationship in private family firms is more complex than the inverted “U” relationship found in public family firms. Second, we predict a potential moderating effect of the second largest owner, who may exert a monitoring role on family CEOs. We focus on private family firms as recent studies show that private family firms have distinct features compared to public family firms, and that findings documented in public family firms may not apply to the ubiquitous, but much less studied, private family firms. We have applied agency theory to develop the two hypotheses, used secondary data on a large sample of private family firms, utilized an adjusted conventional quadratic technique to test the hypotheses, and validated the findings using a second method of piecewise linear specification. The results show that the non-linear relationship between the ownership of family CEOs and firm performance is more complicated than the often-documented inverted “U” shape from public firms. Meanwhile, the second largest owner with a high enough ownership stake can impose a positive moderating effect by mitigating potential agency problems caused by family CEOs.     

Supplier code of conduct–state-of-the-art and customisation in the electronics industry

In the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR), one efficient way to improve the ethical behaviour of a company is the implementation of a code of conduct. When focused on suppliers, this code is referred to as the supplier code of conduct (SCoC). Specific, application-oriented research on SCoCs is rare. The main goals of the present article are to define the state-of-the-art in SCoCs and to show how this review can be used in industrial practice when defining a company-specific SCoC. This article uses the electronics industry as an example. The state-of-the-art review of the content of the SCoCs is structured in five main categories of issues: labour standards, health and safety, environment, ethics and compliance. The practical relevance of this review is demonstrated by applying it in the development of a customised SCoC for a company as a part of the company's corporate risk management activities. This review uses the content analysis of SCoCs based on the website disclosures of the Forbes Fortune 2000 (Technology Hardware & Equipment) companies; which yielded 24 SCoCs. The application was done in an action research framework with a partner company, and the results were verified with the help of a focus group consisting of 10 companies.     

In the eye of the beholder? An eye-tracking experiment on emergent leadership in team interactions

Integrating evolutionary signaling theory with a social attention approach, we argue that individuals possess a fast, automated mechanism for detecting leadership signals in fellow humans that is reflected in higher visual attention toward emergent leaders compared to non-leaders. To test this notion, we first videotaped meetings of project teams and collected leadership ratings for the team members from three rating sources. Second, we provided 18 naïve observers with 42 brief, muted video clips of the team meetings and analyzed their eye gazing patterns. Observers gazed at emergent leaders more often, and for an average longer duration, than at non-leaders. Gender effects occurred such that male emergent leaders received a higher number of fixations than female emergent leaders. Non-verbal behavior analysis indicated that emergent leaders showed a higher amount of active gestures and less passive facial expressions than non-leaders. We discuss theoretical and methodological directions for emergent leadership research in teams.