Extending the Foundations and Reach of Design Science: Further Reflections on the Role of Critical Realism

In his commentary on our proposal to reframe the relevance of business and management research by combining design science with critical realism (Hodgkinson and Starkey, British Journal of Management, 22 (2011), pp. 355–369), Willmott (British Journal of Management, 23 (2012), pp. 598–604) commends us for our advocacy of a social science as opposed to professional school agenda, while admonishing us for seeking to underpin the commended design science ethos with critical realism, on the grounds of ontological inconsistency and the risk of diminishing the emancipatory elements of our social usefulness agenda. In reply, we demonstrate how, in highlighting the interplay of multiple generative mechanisms within and between levels of analysis, critical realism is entirely commensurate with the design science approach advocated, and enriches rather than diminishes our overarching agenda to humanize the workplace.     

On‐Call Overtime for Service Workforce Scheduling when Demand Is Uncertain

This article builds on prior research to develop shift scheduling models that include on‐call overtime for service environments where demand is uncertain. The research is motivated by recent developments in nurse scheduling, such as laws prohibiting mandatory overtime and the popularity of self‐scheduling systems. For single‐period scenarios, models are developed, solution methods are described, and results are explored for a variety of environments. Results show that the use of on‐call overtime can reduce costs slightly, with the amount of savings dependent on characteristics of the scheduling environment. The factor that most significantly affects cost savings is the cost of outside agency workers relative to overtime workers. In addition to lowering costs, on‐call overtime greatly reduces reliance on outside agency workers, which can have important practical implications in terms of quality of service and workforce morale. Results based on single‐period models motivate multiperiod formulations for single‐ and multidepartment scenarios, and solution methods are outlined for those cases. The possibility of using multiperiod models within a rolling horizon framework with forecast updating is discussed. This goes along with an extension of the traditional workforce management hierarchy that separates overtime and regular‐time scheduling, as seen in practice with self‐scheduling and shift‐bidding systems.     

Pooling in Dynamic Panel-Data Models: An Application to Forecasting GDP Growth Rates

In this article, we analyze issues of pooling models for a given set of N individual units observed over T periods of time. When the parameters of the models are different but exhibit some similarity, pooling may lead to a reduction of the mean squared error of the estimates and forecasts. We investigate theoretically and through simulations the conditions that lead to improved performance of forecasts based on pooled estimates. We show that the superiority of pooled forecasts in small samples can deteriorate as the sample size grows. Empirical results for postwar international real gross domestic product growth rates of 18 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries using a model put forward by Garcia-Ferrer, Highfield, Palm, and Zellner and Hong, among others illustrate these findings. When allowing for contemporaneous residual correlation across countries, pooling restrictions and criteria have to be rejected when formally tested, but generalized least squares (GLS)-based pooled forecasts are found to outperform GLS-based individual and ordinary least squares-based pooled and individual forecasts.     

新闻框架的倾向性研究

美国媒介的自由主义神话使人们常常认为美国新闻记者是监督政府、捍卫民权的领袖,然而,这种媒介自由主义偏见却受到越来越多的质疑。美国主流媒体对儿童医疗保险计划报道的个案显示,新闻框架存在显著的倾向性。这种倾向性不仅表现为新闻偏见的简单正负二分,更彰显于谁是政策受益者、推理基础何在以及争论复杂性如何等三个不同的信息维度。美国政治文化中的个人主义,相对单纯、政治冷漠的受众,媒介对官方信息来源的依赖,以及媒介对于那些有权操纵结果的政府官员的偏向,使得新闻报道并没有像人们想象的那样站在公众一方。新闻倾向性成为新闻决策偏见和官方新闻管理技巧之间互动的产物。     

The making of European society: contesting methodological nationalism

The paper is concerned with the problem of “society” and in particular with the notion of “European society”. Rather than reject the possibility of society, it draws on theories of the social as networks. The thesis proposed is that the concept of society should rather be understood as a relational field of interconnections. It is argued that this is highly relevant to the analysis of Europe conceived of in terms of a society. This approach can be seen as an alternative to methodological nationalism. The paper applies a network conception of society to Europe with the emphasis on the nineteenth century. In this account, European society is not something that was produced by European integration. Rather than see European society as a recent development, it is argued that the field of tensions between capitalism and democracy constituted the major elements that shaped a European model of society.     

Brazilian Musical Values of the 1960s and 1970s: Popular Urban Music from Bossa Nova to Tropicalia

Brazilian rhythms have enjoyed wide popularity in this country for many years, but Americans who delight in the samba and other sounds are generally unfamiliar with the development and special characteristics of this national music. In his paper, Gerard Béhague studies the main trends of Brazilian popular music associated with the bossa nova. In particular, he examines the music's socio-cultural meaning for producers and consumers, its relationship to or influence from foreign models, and the various cultural values that it expresses. He traces the original bossa nova phenomenon of the late 1950s, emphasizing that its cultivators, who were from upper-middle-class families, developed a somewhat elitist urban popular musical trend. Contrary to many critics' opinions, bossa nova did not result from jazz or imitations of other imported styles. Thematically, early bossa nova differed little from the samba, a trulypopular music. However, bossa nova's poFtic substance and treatment did reveal significant innovations. Béhague asserts that after 1964, a new social awareness developed among bossa nova musicians. He discusses the musical compositions of the musician-poet Chico Buarque who, more than earlier bossa nova musicans, established a clear link with the traditional samba of the 1930s and 1940s, thus giving bossa nova an euen more popular character. The author also reviews the work of the group of musician-poet-performers of the mid-1960s known as the Tropicdia. Their music adhered to the basic concepts of modernismo, a Brazilian literary movement of the 1920s.     

Rationalization in garages in the Netherlands and its effects on occupational health

In this study, various hypotheses were tested in relation to car mechanics working in a sample of domestic car garages in South Limburg, The Netherlands. These concerned the negative relationships between the degree of control over the work process, and occupational strain, blood pressure, skin disorders and problems in the locomotor system. The relevant intermediate variables used were task latitude, social support from supervisor and colleagues, and positive appreciation (which were expected to weaken the major hypothesized relationships), and time pressure, mental load, and involuntary task interruption (which were expected to strengthen the major hypothesized relationships). The analysis also included the possible effects of age and seniority. Controls based on craft methods, blood pressure and skin disorders were measured through observation. The effect of controls based on craft methods, and occupational strain were demonstrated. Effects were also shown of occupational strain on diastolic blood pressure and on problems in the locomotor system, and of positive appreciation on non-contact skin disorder.     

Comparing Group and Individual Level Assessments of Job Characteristics in Testing the Job Demand-Control Model: A Multilevel Approach

This article describes a test of Karasek's JobDemand-Control (JD-C) Model using both group andindividual level assessments of job characteristics. Bygroup assessments, we mean aggregated individual data. A random sample from general hospitals andnursing homes included 16 institutions, 64 units, and1489 health care workers (82% response). Because of thehierarchically nested data structure (i.e.,institutions, units, and individuals) the research questionsand hypothesis were tested in multilevel regressionanalyses (VARCL). The results revealed both group leveland individual level effects with regard topsychological outcomes, and stressed the usefulness ofmultilevel techniques. Karasek's JD-C Model was partlyconfirmed by finding two interaction effects at grouplevel and at individual level with regard to jobsatisfaction and work motivation, respectively. Thediscussion focuses on theoretical, methodological, andpractical implications of multilevel modeling withrespect to the JD-C Model.