Unraveling Work Reactions in a Sales Occupation: A Test of Three Models

The American economy has moved into a post-industrial society, where the main focus is now on the provision of services and the creation of knowledge rather than the manufacturing of material goods. In this context, the current project examines the job experiences of sales workers in this new economy. Based on a survey of a large Midwest sales firm, we examine the influence of various individual and work-related characteristics on four negative reactions: work dissatisfaction, lack of organizational commitment, work stress, and life stress. The study also assesses the impact on these outcomes from three theoretical perspectives: the Importation Model, the Work Role-Occupational Socialization Model, and the Work-Family Spillover Model. Using OLS regression, the analyses revealed three major conclusions. First, individual characteristics, including being a woman, had little impact on work reactions, lending little support for the Importation Model. Second, work-role experiences, particularly supervisory support and role overload, shaped job-related reactions consistent with the Work Role-Occupational Socialization Model. And third, when the intersection of work and family was examined, spillover effects were mainly confined to feelings of work and life stress, giving partial support for the Work-Family Spillover Model. This indicates that although they generally do not reduce employees' commitment to or satisfaction with their careers, family-related factors do impact levels of stress that workers endure.     

Social Housing Policy Challenges in Tasmania

This paper considers the social policy discourses that senior public housing and Non‐Government Organisation (NGO) housing managers employ to articulate and explain changes in social housing provision in Tasmania. We suggest that the Tasmanian social housing reform agenda is reflective of reforms in other Australian states. The period 2003–10 marked a time of policy change affecting social housing supply and policy discourse, which were influenced by neo‐liberal practices favouring multi‐actor governance models and financing. Interviews reveal that contradictory values and discourses were commonplace. Divergent views centred on the social goals and the efficiency elements of the new social policy focus, the Affordable Housing Strategy (AHS) and its eventual key delivery organisation, Tasmanian Affordable Housing Limited (TAHL). Despite constrained application, neo‐liberal processes remained strong within accounts of new social housing governance practices. We suggest that neo‐liberal practices have extended economic considerations into areas of social housing provision that were previously sheltered from market concerns.     

Design and implementation of a Drum-Buffer-Rope pull-system

Purpose: This paper investigates the selection, design and implementation of a Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR) type of production pull-system in a panel fabrication plant characterised by extensive shared, batch resource resources within a low volume UK manufacturer of large vehicles. This was the second of a series of two related research projects conducted under the aegis of a Lean initiative at this case firm.

Design/methodology/approach: A purposively selected longitudinal case study conducted over 24?months and organised around a two phase research design. The initial body of evidence included a detailed map constructed by a project team of eight managers and accountants during a two day structured workshop; numerous unstructured interviews and observation of shop floor practices; document and archival analysis, and 140 photographs of the focal operation. Supplemented by extensive financial and operational data extracted from the firm’s accounting and MRP systems, including all data necessary to construct and implement bespoke capacity planning, work in progress (WIP) monitoring and simulation modelling tools. The case firm is anonymised.

Findings: The Lean manufacturing literature ignores the real-world issue of shared resources, and this gap is attributable to the concept of ‘rightsizing’ tools and equipment that is widely promoted within the Lean community. The case panel plant is characterised by extensive shared resources; many of which are also batch processes. The most appropriate pull-system method for this production environment is DBR. The detailed design of the DBR mechanism required a controlled transfer buffer of overhead conveyance capacity after the Drum because the extent of downstream process variability risked it being unable to offload panels, hence compromising throughput.

Research limitations/implications: The study is based upon a single case. This consequently has implications for the ability to generalise from the results.

Practical Implications: When the DBR pull-system design was implemented it reduced the number of panels in WIP by 60%. This equated to a 56% (18?days worth) reduction of manufacturing lead time and more than doubled the plant’s inventory turns (from 9.1 to 21.2). It also significantly improved delivery schedule adherence, with downstream jig stoppages in the Final Assembly falling from an average of six to less than one per week. The financial benefit was independently audited to equate to an annualised value of $850?K. Consequently, this project was awarded the first prize at its parent enterprise’s annual worldwide process improvement competition.

Originality/value: This paper details a novel technique that permits the routings of multiple value streams to be mapped and is useful for highlighting the identity and location of shared resources. It also contributes significantly to the literature that is available on the relationship between the Lean paradigm and the management of shared production resources, and adds to the literature on the detailed design and implementation of a DBR pull-system in a jobbing-type of environment.     

An Anatomy of International Trade: Evidence From French Firms

We examine the sales of French manufacturing firms in 113 destinations, including France itself. Several regularities stand out: (i) the number of French firms selling to a market, relative to French market share, increases systematically with market size; (ii) sales distributions are similar across markets of very different size and extent of French participation; (iii) average sales in France rise systematically with selling to less popular markets and to more markets. We adopt a model of firm heterogeneity and export participation which we estimate to match moments of the French data using the method of simulated moments. The results imply that over half the variation across firms in market entry can be attributed to a single dimension of underlying firm heterogeneity: efficiency. Conditional on entry, underlying efficiency accounts for much less of the variation in sales in any given market. We use our results to simulate the effects of a 10 percent counterfactual decline in bilateral trade barriers on French firms. While total French sales rise by around $16 billion (U.S.), sales by the top decile of firms rise by nearly $23 billion (U.S.). Every lower decile experiences a drop in sales, due to selling less at home or exiting altogether.     

Article quality and publication impact via levels of analysis incorporation: An illustration with transformational/charismatic leadership

Calls for the inclusion of levels of analysis in theory building and testing have increased over the last 25 years. Through analysis of 539 published articles we assess the prevalence of incorporation of levels of analysis in theory/hypothesis formulation, measurement, data analysis, and subsequent theory–data alignment (i.e., article quality) within charismatic and transformational leadership research. Additionally, we examine the relationship between incorporation of levels of analysis into research and publication source quality, as reflected by journal impact factors or when not available, estimated journal impact factors. When controlling for the level of analysis within all articles, results revealed that increasing the complexity of the level of analysis (i.e., higher than individual level), increased the likelihood that measurement, analysis and alignment of theory and data would be presented at the appropriate levels of analysis. In contrast, for articles with published impact factors, when controlling for the level of analysis, results revealed that increasing the complexity of the level of analysis (i.e., higher than individual level) decreased the likelihood that measurement, analysis and alignment of theory and data would be presented at the appropriate levels of analysis.     

Lexicographically minimizing axial motions for the Euclidean TSP

A variant of the Euclidean traveling salesman problem (TSP) is defined and studied. In the three-dimensional space, the objective function is to lexicographically minimize the x-moves, then the y-moves and finally the z-moves. The 2D and 3D cases are first studied and solved as a shortest path problem. Then the approach is generalized to the d-dimensional case.     

Predictive Genetic Testing for Alzheimer''s Disease: Impact upon Risk Perception

The aim of this study was to determine the impact on risk perceptions of disclosing genetic test results used to estimate the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Adult children (n = 149) of people with AD were randomized to one of two groups--Intervention group: lifetime risk estimates of AD based on age, gender, family history, and Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype; Control group: lifetime risk estimates of AD based on the same risk factors excluding APOE genotype. Perceptions of personal risk (PPR) for AD were assessed six weeks after risk assessments. PPR were correlated with actual lifetime risk estimates (r = 0.501; p < 0.0001). After controlling for lifetime risks communicated to participants, age, and number of affected relatives, PPR scores among those with an epsilon4-positive test result (the test result associated with increased AD susceptibility) (adjusted mean: 3.4 (SD: 0.7)) were not different from the PPR scores in the Control group (adjusted mean: 3.4 (SD: 0.7) (F1,91= 1.98; p = 0.162). Again, controlling for lifetime risk estimates, age, and number of affected relatives, the PPR score of those receiving an epsilon4-negative test result was significantly lower (adjusted mean: 3.1 (SD: 0.8)) than those in the Control group (adjusted mean: 3.4 (SD: 0.7) (F1,95 = 6.23; p = 0.014). Perceptions of risk of developing AD are influenced by genetic test disclosure in those receiving epsilon4-negative, but not those receiving epsilon4-positive test results. Despite the reduced perceptions of risk in the former group, there was no evidence of false reassurance (i.e., perceiving risks as equal to or lower than population risks of AD), although this possibility should be assessed in other testing contexts.     

Grassroots Mobilization and Voter Turnout in 2004

Voter turnout increased sharply in 2004. At the same time, 2004marked a change in campaign strategy, as both presidential campaignsand allied organizations placed unprecedented emphasis on votermobilization. This article attempts to assess the degree towhich grassroots mobilization efforts contributed to the surgein voter turnout. We conclude that although grassroots effortsgenerated millions of additional votes, they probably accountfor less than one-third of the observed increase in turnout.Increased turnout in 2004 primarily reflects the importancethat voters accorded the presidential contest.     

Negotiating the dichotomy of Boffin and Triad: British-Chinese pupils' constructions of 'laddism'

Little research has examined constructions of gender among young British‐Chinese. This paper seeks to further understanding in this area, particularly in relation to notions of ‘laddism’ currently deployed in educational policy discourse around gender and achievement. As a group British‐Chinese boys tend to very high achievement in the British Education system. The notion of ‘laddish behaviour’ as an explanation for boys’ apparent underachievement in comparison to girls at GCSE level was discussed with British‐Chinese pupils. An overwhelming majority of British‐Chinese pupils supported this explanation, and a majority of these pupils applied notions of ‘laddish behaviour’ to British‐Chinese boys, to some extent contesting stereotypes of the Chinese as uniformly ‘good pupils’. However, the discourses of ‘the good Chinese pupil’ and ‘Chinese value of education’ were frequently drawn on by pupil respondents, with the result that the pupils often presented British‐Chinese manifestations of ‘laddism’ as mild versions in comparison with pernicious ‘others’. The paper discusses different presentations of laddism among some of the male respondents. It concludes by analysing the impact of ‘raced’ and gendered discourses on British‐Chinese constructions of masculinity. British‐Chinese boys may be able to adopt versions of masculinity which do not impede their learning, but this tended to result in their masculinity being problematised in teacher discourse.