Business Ethics: The State of the Art

This review examines the literature on workaholism in organizations. Although the topic of workaholism has received considerable attention in the popular press, relatively little research has been devoted to increasing our understanding of it. Workaholism is acknowledged to be a stable individual characteristic, though how it is distinguished from other characteristics is often unclear. The review addresses the following areas: types of workaholics, definitions of workaholism, measures of workaholism, the prevalence of workaholism, validating job behaviors, antecedents of workaholism, work outcome consequences, health consequences, extra-work satisfactions and family functioning, evaluating workaholism components, possible gender differences, reducing workaholism and future research directions. Research programs begun by Robinson and his colleagues and by Spence and Robbins, though having different emphases, serve as useful starting points for future research efforts.     

Church, place, and crime: Latinos and homicide in new destinations

Latinos are moving beyond traditional areas and settling in new, potentially disorganized destinations. Without an established immigrant community, new destinations appear to rely more on the local religious ecology to regulate community life and to keep crime low. We examine the link between religious ecology and Latino homicide victimization for traditional and new destination counties. We observe four findings. (1) A Catholic presence has no effect on Latino violence in the old and well-organized traditional settlement areas. But in new Latino settlement areas, a Catholic presence substantially lowers violence against Latinos. In contrast, mainline Protestantism is linked to high levels of violence against Latinos in new destinations. (2) Previous claims that Latino communities are safe do not apply to new destinations, where Latinos are murdered at a high rate. (3) Previous claims that areas with high Latino immigration are safe for Latinos are not true for new destinations. (4) New Latino destinations offer little insulation from the effects of economic deprivation on violence. We discuss the implications of the findings.     

Reevaluating the Global Digital Divide: Socio‐Demographic and Conflict Barriers to the Internet Revolution*

The Global Digital Divide (GDD) in Internet and related forms of information technologies has gained some press and scholarly attention in recent years. Although the contours and causes of Internet diffusion around the globe are now better understood, a number of questions and avenues remain unanswered or unexplored, particularly concerning the role of socio‐demographic structures and even conflict processes on Internet diffusion. This study addresses the current state of the digital divide and sheds new light on the barriers that continue to inhibit developing nations’ lag with the West in Internet connectivity. Focusing on a large sample of the world’s developing nations, this project finds that although the GDD is narrowing, the gap is still large and that specific demographic properties (high fertility) and conflict processes threaten to keep many societies in the periphery of cyberspace. The authors also find that urban agglomerations work to amplify Internet demand over time and that maturing economies may no longer require democratization as a pathway to Internet development. Implications of these findings and future directions of research are briefly discussed.     

A Simulation Metamodel for Response-Time Planning*

Field service management continues to be a major challenge for many service organizations as companies are required to provide more service with less resources. Especially in information intense environments, short response times for service calls are essential to avoid disruptions to a business office or production facility. Managers must regularly assess their manpower needs, and ensure that their allocation and operational decisions lead to the best service at the lowest cost. Xerox Corporation provides copiers, duplicators, and printing systems to an international market. Xerox operates a service network consisting of over 30,000 trained service personnel, each allocated to service regions by the service planning staff. Response-time planning involves many challenging problems: requirements planning at the national level, allocation planning at the district level, and operational planning at the team level. Customer service is critical and is commonly measured by response time—the time that elapses from when a service call is placed to when a service engineer begins service. This paper discusses how Xerox Corporation has used simulation models and metamodels to improve response-time planning and field service operations.     

A Comprehensive Model for Managing Credit Risk on Home Mortgage Portfolios*

Managing credit risk in financial institutions requires the ability to forecast aggregate losses on existing loans, predict the length of time that loans will be on the books before prepayment or default, analyze the expected performance of particular segments in the existing portfolio, and project payment patterns of new loans. Described in this paper are tools created for these functions in a large California financial institution. A forecasting model with Markovian structure and nonstationary transition probabilities is used to model the life of a mortgage. Logistic and regression models are used to estimate severity of losses. These models are integrated into a system that allows analysts and managers to depict the expected performance of individual loans and portfolio segments under different economic scenarios. With this information, analysts and managers can establish appropriate loss reserves, suggest pricing differentials to compensate for risk, and make strategic lending decisions.