Self-Solicited Feedback: Effects of Hourly Pay and Individual Monetary Incentive Pay

The frequency of feedback solicitation under hourly pay and individual monetary incentive pay conditions was examined. A between-subjects design was used with 30 college students in the two groups. Participants attended three experimental sessions and entered the cash value of simulated bank checks presented on a computer screen. Performance was higher for individuals who were paid incentives; however, participants who were paid incentives did not self-solicit feedback more than those who were paid hourly. Rather, participants in both groups solicited feedback quite frequently. Additionally, performance was not related to feedback solicitation. These results suggest that the incentives did not make feedback more reinforcing even though the incentives were functional rewards and the feedback was correlated with the amount of pay earned: the better the feedback, the more pay participants earned. The results also support the position that it may be necessary to pair objective feedback with an evaluative component to enhance performance.     

The Effects of Safety Discrimination Training and Frequent Safety Observations on Safety-Related Behavior

The intent of the present study was to assess the effects of discrimination training only and in combination with frequent safety observations on five participants' safety-related behavior in a simulated office setting. The study used a multiple-baseline design across safety-related behaviors. Across all participants and behavior, safety improved from 53% during the baseline phase to 74% during the training phase, and improved further to 89% during the training plus observation phase. The results show that both discrimination training only and in combination with frequent observations improves safety-related behavior with a medium effect size. The study also measured participants' accuracy of observation, which was the extent of their correct classification of safe and at-risk behavior. Participants' accuracy of observation was above 80% and had little correlation with safety-related behavior. Based on the various measures, conducting observations appears to serve more than a skill acquisition function for the safety-related behavior.     

How business associations use interorganizational networks to achieve workforce development goals: Implications for Human Resource Development

Abstract

This study uses data from a series of comparative case studies to analyse the interorganizational networks of business associations providing workforce development services in the United States. Three aspects of the networks were of particular interest, including (a) the form the partnerships took, (b) the trade-off to involving educational or community vs. business partners in providing workforce development services and (c) the strengths of associations in brokering services to adults or youth. The findings demonstrate that business associations work in intermediary networks or provide their services directly. The conclusions suggest that human resource development professionals should work more actively with local business associations to recruit, train and provide supports for workers in US firms.     

Going global: professional mobility and concerns for LGBT workers

The world of work has regularized the practice of people moving from one country to another to accept job assignments. Travel and relocation are stress-laden endeavours. For LGBT people, the risks can be more complicated than they are for heterosexuals. This article explores particular challenges that LGBT people face when they travel and relocate for business, both domestically and internationally. The article is contextualized with a literature review on sexual minorities and workplace issues, and uses auto-ethnographic stories of three of the authors’ lived experiences as sexual minorities relocating for professional reasons in order to examine issues related to LGBT relocation. These issues include legal, social, cultural and familial considerations. Implications and suggestions for human resource developers are presented, which include acquiring awareness around the psychological and physiological reactions to new and diverse ecologies, or ‘eco-shocks’.     

Nurse safety: How is safety climate related to affect and attitude?

Occupational accidents and injuries continue to be a critical concern for nurses, given the hazardous healthcare environment. This study advances the research on workplace safety by studying the process variables (i.e. job-related negative affect (JRNA) and job satisfaction) in explaining the relationship between safety climate and various safety criteria in nurses. Based on survey data from 326 nurses, our findings suggest that psychological safety climate is negatively related to JRNA, turnover intentions, safety workarounds, and workplace hazards. In addition, structural equation modelling indicated general support for a model in which psychological safety climate influences employee strain through job attitudes, including JRNA and job satisfaction. More specifically, job attitudes were found to mediate the relationship between psychological safety climate and turnover intentions, experience of hazards, and injuries. Safety workarounds did not significantly relate to injuries. The present study contributes to the ongoing improvement of interventions aimed at mitigating nurses’ injuries by integrating job attitudes into the safety climate–safety outcome framework.     

D-optimal minimax regression designs on discrete design space

One classical design criterion is to minimize the determinant of the covariance matrix of the regression estimates, and the designs are called D-optimal designs. To reflect the nature that the proposed models are only approximately true, we propose a robust design criterion to study response surface designs. Both the variance and bias are considered in the criterion. In particular, D-optimal minimax designs are investigated and constructed. Examples are given to compare D-optimal minimax designs with classical D-optimal designs.     

Household debt and financial assets: evidence from Germany, Great Britain and the USA

Summary.  We explore the determinants of debt, financial assets and net worth at the household level by using survey data for Germany, Great Britain and the USA. To identify which households are potentially vulnerable to adverse changes in the economic environment, we also explore the determinants of a range of measures of financial pressure: the probability that a household has negative net worth; the debt-to-income ratio; mortgage income gearing; the saving-to-income ratio. Our empirical findings suggest that the poorest and the youngest households are the most vulnerable to adverse changes in their financial circumstances.     

Strategic planning for social and political change

Formalized planning is currently applied to planning for operations and capital investment, planning for products and markets, and occasionally for manpower. However, there is little evidence that companies are producing formal plans and programmes to deal with social and political change. Unfortunately, public opinion is moving against business, action groups inside and outside companies are challenging the authority of management, and public officials and politicians are already framing new laws and regulations. Unless managers begin to get more involved in the framing of these controls they are likely to find laws enacted and enforced by people who have little knowledge or sympathy with business. In this article the author points up the necessity to assess the social and political challenge to their business, and formulate and implement social and political strategies and plans aimed at ensuring the survival and prosperity of their organisations.     

Workshop to Orient Students to Career Planning Services

This article describes a 1-hour workshop designed to orient students to a career resource center and assist them with career decision making.