Human capital practices of Russian enterprises

Abstract

The goal of this study was to explore current human capital (HC) management practices (including training and development, recruitment and selection, compensation, empowerment, diversity, and work/family balance) of Russian enterprises. The data were collected at 270 large, medium and small enterprises in Moscow and four representative regional centers. The study results suggest that Russian firms tended to emphasize current HC needs, not long-term HC development strategies. The firm size had an effect on differences in training, selection and compensation practices, with large firms being more long-term oriented. Correlation between elements of the HC management model provided some preliminary evidence that Russian firms tried to coordinate selection, compensation and training procedures. In addition, firms that empowered their employees were also putting more emphasis on long-term oriented training, selection and compensation practices. Finally, there were signs that diversity was gradually becoming an important issue for Russian enterprises of all sizes. However, compared to diversity, companies' emphasis on helping their employees to deal with the work/family balance issues was much stronger.     

Dimensions of ethical business cultures: comparing data from 13 countries of Europe,Asia, and the Americas

This paper reports the results of a survey-based study of perceptions of ethical business practices in 13 countries of Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Responses from more than 23,000 managers and employees were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance and post-hoc comparisons, aimed at identifying homogenous sets of countries. Anglo countries (US, UK, Australia, and Canada) clustered together, and were joined by India in most cases. Japan and Italy formed a homogenous subset significantly different from all other countries. Countries of continental Europe, China, Mexico, and Brazil formed various mid-range groupings. The paper discusses some salient differences between groups of countries and presents implications for human resource management (HRD) practice and research.     

A Case Study Evaluating the Risk of Infection from Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS‐CoV) in a Hospital Setting Through Bioaerosols

Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, an emerging viral infection with a global case fatality rate of 35.5%, caused major outbreaks first in 2012 and 2015, though new cases are continuously reported around the world. Transmission is believed to mainly occur in healthcare settings through aerosolized particles. This study uses Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment to develop a generalizable model that can assist with interpreting reported outbreak data or predict risk of infection with or without the recommended strategies. The exposure scenario includes a single index patient emitting virus‐containing aerosols into the air by coughing, leading to short‐ and long‐range airborne exposures for other patients in the same room, nurses, healthcare workers, and family visitors. Aerosol transport modeling was coupled with Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the risk of MERS illness for the exposed population. Results from a typical scenario show the daily mean risk of infection to be the highest for the nurses and healthcare workers (8.49 × 10^?4 and 7.91 × 10^?4, respectively), and the lowest for family visitors and patients staying in the same room (3.12 × 10^?4 and 1.29 × 10^?4, respectively). Sensitivity analysis indicates that more than 90% of the uncertainty in the risk characterization is due to the viral concentration in saliva. Assessment of risk interventions showed that respiratory masks were found to have a greater effect in reducing the risks for all the groups evaluated (>90% risk reduction), while increasing the air exchange was effective for the other patients in the same room only (up to 58% risk reduction).     

Being and Landscape: An Ontological Inquiry into a Japanese Rural Community

This essay aims to reflect on the idea of landscape and our relationship with it by taking the Japanese notion of furusato (native place) in its ontological dimension. Grounded in Heidegger’s ‘phenomenology of Being’ and ‘ontology’, a phenomenological understanding of fieldwork experience in a Japanese rural community will be developed in order to rethink both the furusato and the ‘Being-landscape’ relation. As a consequence, we will be concerned not with how people speak about landscape, but with how the landscape speaks through people. What will be brought to light are the landscape’s moral and relational dimensions: namely, (i) the responsibility towards both our communities and future generations and (ii) a more-than-physical understanding of landscape that alerts us to our belonging to a common world comprised of relationships and tasks.     

The Impacts of Cash Transfers on Subjective Wellbeing and Poverty: The Case of Colombia

Cash transfer programs have been the main social policy in the fight against poverty and inequality in Latin-American countries. This paper analyzes the impacts of the program Más Familias en Acción on the perception of poverty and subjective wellbeing in Colombia. The analyses are based on data from the Encuesta Nacional de Calidad de Vida between 2008 and 2016. Two empirical strategies were compared to account for the lack of randomness in groups of beneficiary and non-beneficiary families: (i) non-experimental designs (linear and nonlinear models with cross-sectional and pooled data); (ii) quasi-experimental designs (Propensity Score Matching and Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment). The results were robust to the different empirical strategies and emphasized that: (i) transfers increase the perception of food insecurity and subjective poverty; (ii) conditionalities involve positive impacts on different indicators of subjective wellbeing, especially health and education; (iii) general impacts on the perceptions of life are nonsignificant, as a result of divergent impacts on the dimensions of the subjective wellbeing of families.     

Responses of the ichthyofauna to urbanization in two urban areas in Southeast Brazil

In this study, we evaluated the trophic structure and composition of the ichthyofauna in streams from non-urbanized and urbanized areas in two municipalities with approximately 30,000 inhabitants. We sampled fish fauna in nine pool-run stretches, four located in urban and five in non-urban areas. We adapted a physical habitat index (PHI) that summarized the physical attributes of the habitat, and a fish-based biotic integrity index (IBI) for the trophic structure of fish assemblage. Higher median scores of habitat parameters characterized non-urban stretches owing to better riparian vegetation and shading, bank stability and larger substrates. Diversity, richness and evenness indexes, as well as the abundance and biomass comparison (ABC), did not differ between urban and non-urban areas. The PHI was significantly correlated with the IBI and a non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis showed differences in the composition of the ichthyofauna. These results illustrated a common process in fish assemblages subjected to environmental impact, in which the generalist species replaced more specialist species, altering the species composition but maintaining a similar community structure. In general, the species responses were dependent on their trophic plasticity and foraging habitats. We showed that in a gradient of habitat alteration, species composition and thophic structure are better indicators of degradation than simple diversity indexes. We also discuss the implications of the urbanization in small towns toward changes in the species composition of freshwater fish, and the utilization of biotic and abiotic characteristics to document these changes.     

Organizational Alternatives for Companies' Management of Occupational Risks: The Examples of Spain and Argentina

This study discusses the various options available to companies for the management of occupational risks. In this context, occupational accident insurance schemes in Spain and Argentina are analysed, with reference to the theory of organizational economics. Spain has 75 years' experience of such schemes, while in Argentina they have only recently been introduced. Although the two models have similar goals, their differences, in terms of competition, regulation and ownership, lead to different incentives for those concerned: workers, companies, insurers and regulatory bodies.     

Mental health care for youth: Predictors of use are not always the same as predictors of volume

This study identifies determinants of adolescents’ propensity to use outpatient mental care as well as factors predicting number of visits after contact with a provider was made. We examined three types of treatment outlets: day treatment program (DTP), mental health clinic (MHC), and private specialty services (PSS). Among youth, 1.6% visited DTP, 2.3% visited MHC, and 11.1% had PSS, with overlaps in services utilization. Results from multivariable logistic regressions indicate that most of the individual characteristics differentiated youth on odds of using MHC and PSS, but not DTP. Health status, alcohol dependence, drug dependence, and problematic conduct behaviors and having Medicaid increased the odds of using all three services. Censored regressions used to model number of visits among service users found that girls consistently used more visits than boys. The results suggest that policies that encourage seeking help to a mental care provider may be in instances different from those aimed at motivating retention in treatment.