Strong or weak ties? British and Indian expatriate scientists finding jobs in Boston

In this article I analyse the different social networks that British and Indian scientists use to obtain job information in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector around Boston, Massachusetts. I argue that individuals' social networks are critical in helping highly skilled migrants find jobs. The research finds that British and Indian scientists use both strong and weak ties to obtain jobs and there is no significant difference between senior and junior workers in terms of whether they relied on strong or weak ties. I argue, nonetheless, that the terms strong ties and weak ties are problematic because they are not clearly understood or mutually exclusive.     

THE IMPACT OF SIMPLE PRIORITY RULE COMBINATIONS ON DELIVERY SPEED AND DELIVERY RELIABILITY IN A HYBRID SHOP

This study examines the effects of using different priority rules at different stages of a multistage, flow-dominant shop. A simulation model is constructed of a manufacturing system comprised of three stages: gateway, intcrmcdiatc, and finishing. As is typical of a flow-dominant shop, the overall flow of the simulated system (gateway to intermediate to finishing) is consistent with a flow shop, but processing in the intermediate stage involves multiple work centers and resembles a job shop. Shop performance is observed when four well-known priority heuristics are applied in different combinations in the gateway, intermediate, and finishing stages of the process. Multiple performance measures addressing the strategic objectives of delivery speed and delivery reliability are recorded under two different shop load conditions. Results show that the measures of both delivery speed and delivery reliability are affected by the priority rule combinations, and that a tradeoff exists between average performance and consistency of performance. Certain priority rule combinations affect performance in predictable ways, allowing the user to assess tradeoffs between delivery speed and delivery reliability.     

Comparing Group and Individual Level Assessments of Job Characteristics in Testing the Job Demand-Control Model: A Multilevel Approach

This article describes a test of Karasek's JobDemand-Control (JD-C) Model using both group andindividual level assessments of job characteristics. Bygroup assessments, we mean aggregated individual data. A random sample from general hospitals andnursing homes included 16 institutions, 64 units, and1489 health care workers (82% response). Because of thehierarchically nested data structure (i.e.,institutions, units, and individuals) the research questionsand hypothesis were tested in multilevel regressionanalyses (VARCL). The results revealed both group leveland individual level effects with regard topsychological outcomes, and stressed the usefulness ofmultilevel techniques. Karasek's JD-C Model was partlyconfirmed by finding two interaction effects at grouplevel and at individual level with regard to jobsatisfaction and work motivation, respectively. Thediscussion focuses on theoretical, methodological, andpractical implications of multilevel modeling withrespect to the JD-C Model.     

EVALUATING ORDER RELEASE MECHANISMS IN A JOB SHOP WITH SEQUENCE-DEPENDENT SETUP TIMES

Job-release mechanisms in job-shop control are receiving increased recognition in recent research. However, there is considerable disagreement over the benefits of sophisticated job-release mechanisms, and they remain to be tested in various operating environments. In our study, we extend previous job-releasing research by examining several job-release mechanisms in a different operating environment-a sequence-dependent setup job shop. We tested these release mechanisms, originally developed for a machine-constrained job shop, in conjunction with two groups of sequencing rules-ordinary and setup-oriented sequencing rules. We measured shop performance in terms of total cost, the sum of inventory-holding and late-penalty costs. We developed a simulation model of a nine-machine job shop for our experiment.     

TECHNICAL NOTE: A SIMPLE MODEL FOR OPTIMIZING THE SINGLE MACHINE EARLY/TARDY PROBLEM WITH SEQUENCE-DEPENDENT SETUPS

A simple mixed integer programming model for the N job/single machine scheduling problem with possibly sequence-dependent setup times, differing earliness/tardiness cost penalties, and variable due dates is proposed and evaluated for computational efficiency. Results indicated that the computational effort required to reach optimality rose with the number of jobs to be scheduled and with decreased variance in due dates. Though computational effort was significant for the largest problems solved, the model remained viable for optimizing research scale problems.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL MODEL FOR INVESTIGATING THE SENSITIVITY OF JOB SHOP PERFORMANCE TO JOB RELEASE TIME DISTRIBUTION PARAMETERS

Work flows in a job shop are influenced by the load per release and time interval between release factors. We focus on the latter factor, job release times. Building on Elvers' work, this study evaluates the impact of different job release time distributions on shop performance. Using a computer simulation of a random job shop and a full factorial experimental design, we demonstrate that the type of distribution does affect performance–a finding consistent with results from job shops characterized by good shop floor control practices. These findings are explained by examining the shape and variance traits of the underlying job release time distributions.     

Socialization and Newcomer Adjustment: The Role of Organizational Context

Research on how the context of work affects HRMpractices in general, and socialization practices inparticular, is relatively scarce. The present studyassesses a model linking context, socialization, and newcomer adjustment. Self-report data frombusiness school graduates after 4 months (N = 295) and10 months (N = 223) on the job revealed that mechanistic(vs. organic) structure, organization size, and jobs of high motivating potential were eachpositively associated with organizations' use of whatJones (1986) refers to as institutionalizedsocialization, and this form of socialization waspositively associated with newcomer adjustment. Contraryto expectations, neither a newcomer's bureaucraticorientation nor growth need strength moderated therelationship between socialization andadjustment.     

Competition in online job marketplaces: towards a global labour market for outsourcing services?

A new form of service outsourcing has emerged, namely the global online job marketplace for freelance contractors. Such platforms are currently the closest proxy to the idea of a global labour market where everyone competes for jobs regardless of location. In this article, we examine how competition manifests itself on one such global online platform, namely oDesk. We present a comparative analysis of the relative wages and the rewarding of skills and expertise of contractors from selected countries and investigate whether, via labour arbitrage, wage convergence takes place between Western and developing countries. We find that wage convergence is noticeable but experience and skills hardly translate into better remuneration. While service outsourcing (or microwork) via global online marketplaces provides new employment opportunities for freelancers around the world, the intense competition and the inherent restrictions of this type of marketplace limit the financial gains for most contractors.     

A DECISION THEORY APPROACH TO PRIORITY DISPATCHING FOR JOB SHOP SCHEDULING

Recent developments in the design of job shop scheduling systems have inspired a new approach to priority dispatching. The basis for the approach is in elementary decision theory: at each decision juncture define the alternative courses of action, evaluate the consequences of each alternative according to a given criterion, and choose the best alternative. The experimental results of a simulated single machine queueing system reinforce earlier findings that a decision theory approach represents a significant advance over conventional priority dispatching.     

A COMPARISON OF ORDER-RELEASE AND DISPATCH RULES FOR THE DYNAMIC WEIGHTED EARLY/TARDY PROBLEM

The early/tardy problem is one of the most vexing pieces of the complex production scheduling decision process. So far most of the research has been on single-machine environments. Hence, we considered the weighted early/tardy scheduling problem in a simulated dynamic multimachine job shop. We analyzed controlled job-release and dispatch rules using time and cost information at a variety of stationary and nonstationary utilization rates, due-date allowances, and early/tardy cost levels. We found a newly developed method for controlling the release for all job operations using early/tardy cost information, superior to other release mechanisms overall in both our stationary and nonstationary analyses. We found immediate release useful at many high utilization conditions and a gateway-only release method best in many low utilization conditions. A modified version of a single-machine early/tardy dispatch method was clearly superior to the dispatch rules for almost all the simulated shop conditions.