Performance-based management and quality of work: an empirical assessment

In France, in the private sector as in the public sector, performance-based management tends to become a norm. Performance-based management is supposed to improve service quality, productivity and efficiency, transparency of allotted means and achieved results, and to better focus the activity of employees and of the whole organization. This text reports a study conducted for the French Ministry of Budget by a team of researchers in ergonomics, sociology and management science, in order to assess the impact of performance-based management on employees, on teams and on work organization. About 100 interviews were conducted with employees of all categories and 6 working groups were set up in order to discuss and validate or amend our first analyses. Results concern several aspects: workload and work intensification, indicators and performance management and the transformation of jobs induced by performance management.     

Some contributions on the multivariate Poisson–Skellam probability distribution

In this article, we introduce a new form of distribution whose components have the Poisson or Skellam marginal distributions. This new specification allows the incorporation of relevant information on the nature of the correlations between every component. In addition, we present some properties of this distribution. Unlike the multivariate Poisson distribution, it can handle variables with positive and negative correlations. It should be noted that we are only interested in modeling covariances of order 2, which means between all pairs of variables. Some simulations are presented to illustrate the estimation methods. Finally, an application of soccer teams data will highlight the relationship between number of points per season and the goal differential by some covariates.     

Importance sampling with the generalized exponential power density

In this paper, the generalized exponential power (GEP) density is proposed as an importance function in Monte Carlo simulations in the context of estimation of posterior moments of a location parameter. This density is divided in five classes according to its tail behaviour which may be exponential, polynomial or logarithmic. The notion of p-credence is also defined to characterize and to order the tails of a large class of symmetric densities by comparing their tails to those of the GEP density.The choice of the GEP density as an importance function allows us to obtain reliable and effective results when p-credences of the prior and the likelihood are defined, even if there are conflicting sources of information. Characterization of the posterior tails using p-credence can be done. Hence, it is possible to choose parameters of the GEP density in order to have an importance function with slightly heavier tails than the posterior. Simulation of observations from the GEP density is also addressed.     

Guerre juste et guerre sainte au regard des droits de l'homme

The permanence of conflict, and the resurgence of holy war today, belie the condemnations of war by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of the United Nations. They provoke questions about derogations from these principles to prevent violations of human dignity and to consider a military intervention in reference to human rights. First of all, the ambiguity of humanitarian or military intervention needs clarification; then a priori objections against justifiable military intervention postpone its interpretation indefinitely. Only justice may legitimate armed interventions to protect the innocent by disarming their attacker. It requires a re-understanding of sovereignty as the responsibility to protect. From this, preventive military intervention remains unjustifiable. Nevertheless, in the case of an effective and imminent threat, the absolute and immediately necessity to protect oneself or another does legitimate first action as an ultimate defence under contradiction, as shown by the defence against the holy war of terrorism. But it requires systematic investigation concerning the specific situations and purposes implied. So, only human rights can legitimate military intervention, according to this rethinking of the criteria, and only to protect oneself and others; and the implementation of such an intervention, in complex situations, requires extreme prudence and considerable wisdom.     

Interpersonal comparisons of utility in bargaining: evidence from a transcontinental ultimatum game

This article presents the experimental results of a “Transcontinental Ultimatum Game” implemented between India and France. We use a standard ultimatum game, but in one treatment, Indian subjects made offers to French subjects (ItoF treatment) and, in another treatment, French subjects made offers to Indian subjects (FtoI treatment). We observed that FtoI treatment bargaining mostly ended up with unequal splits of money in favor of French, while nearly equal splits were the most frequent outcome in ItoF treatment interactions. The experimental results are organized through a standard social reference model, modified for taking into account the different marginal value of money for bargainers. In our model, bargaining is driven by relative standing comparisons between players, occurring in terms of real earnings (that is monetary earnings corrected for a purchasing power factor) obtained in the game. The norm of equity behind the equalization of real earnings is called local equity norm, and contrasted to a global equity norm which would encompass the wealth of players beyond the game. According to what we observed, no beyond-game concern seems to be relevantly endorsed by subjects.     

An Ex-Post View of Inequality of Opportunity in France and its Regions

This paper proposes an ex-post measure of inequality of opportunity in France and its regions by assessing the inequality between individuals exerting the same effort. To this end, we define a fair income that fulfils ex-post equality of opportunity requirements. Unfairness is measured by an unfair Gini based on the distance between the actual income and the fair income. Our findings reveal that the measures of ex-post inequality of opportunity largely vary across regions, and that this is due to differences in reward schemes and in the impact of the non responsibility factors of income. We find that most regions have actual incomes closer to fair incomes than to average income, excepted Ile de France where the actual income looks poorly related to effort variables. Finally, we find that income inequality and inequality of opportunity are positively correlated among regions.     

Lottery marketing in Québec and social deprivation: excessive exposure,insufficient protection?

In 2008, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) undertook a research programme on lotteries. The preliminary qualitative exploratory component enabled us to observe the diversity and ubiquity of lottery advertising to which the vast majority of the population is exposed, including minors and non-players. The aim of a second component was to better comprehend the relationships between exposure to lottery marketing, lottery purchasing habits, attitudes towards gambling, and socio-economic vulnerability indicators. The study's data was collected by a polling firm from a representative sample of adults in the Québec population (n = 2001). Our survey revealed significant links between exposure, gambling behaviour and certain socio-economic indicators: for example, individuals with lower levels of education more often play the lotteries and spend the most on them. In addition, a greater number of people who are less educated and from a low-income household considered that lottery advertising was very or excessively present in their daily lives and that the amount of advertising has increased in recent years. From the perspective of creating healthy environments and protecting vulnerable populations, legislative measures to control the quantity, location and contents of gambling marketing would be promising preventive measures.     

Aggregation of preferences with a variable set of alternatives

A social choice correspondence called the Essential set is studied with the help of an axiom called Cloning Consistency. Cloning consistency is the requirement that the formal choice rule be insensitive to the replication of alternatives. The Essential set is the support of the optimal mixed strategies in a symmetric two-party electoral competition game. Received: 24 March 1998/Accepted: 3 March 1999     

The Development of Parent–Child Relationship Perceptions in Boys from Childhood to Adolescence: A Comparison Between Disruptive and Non-Disruptive Boys

The absence or weakness of the father role is considered by many authors as one of the principal explaining factors of disruptive behavior and other psychopathologies among children. However, empirical studies on the specific role of the father are rare. Boys with stable disruptive behavior from age 5 until age 15 were compared to boys who have never been disruptive during the same time period. The perceptions that boys have regarding their relationships with their fathers from childhood to adolescence was compared to, perceptions concerning their relationships with their mothers. The results indicate that boys from both groups generally feel less loved and less appreciated by their fathers than by their mothers in adolescence but not in childhood. The boys perceived that their two parents love and appreciate them a lot less at age 15, than at age 9 and age 11. They felt less loved and appreciated by their fathers than their mothers. At age 15, disruptive boys considered they were less loved by their two parents than non-disruptive boys did. The differences in the perceptions by the boys concerning the quality of relationships with their parents appear during adolescence.