Laziness or liberation? Labor market policies and workers' attitudes toward employment flexibility

This study examined the relationship between labor market policies and employees' willingness to make concessions in order to avoid unemployment. In contrast to previous work that analyzed the behavior of employers and the unemployed, we examined how labor market policies influence employees' flexibility. Multilevel modeling techniques were applied to a data set that was created by combining individual‐level data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) with country‐level information from the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development. The main findings of our analyses were that dismissal protection and unemployment benefits do make a difference to employees' willingness to make concessions, and that the relationships between the willingness to make concessions and labor market policies are nonlinear. Substantively, these nonlinear relationships suggest that employees' willingness to be flexible is negatively associated with both “too much” and “too little” social protection.     

创业型领导、组织学习与战略柔性关系

基于高阶理论、战略创业理论,探究影响新创企业的战略柔性的两个重要因素:创业型领导和组织学习,并将利用式学习、探索式学习作为中介变量引入创业型领导与战略柔性的关系中。通过对197家中国新创企业的调查分析,结果表明:创业型领导对新创企业的利用式学习与探索式学习均有显著的正向影响,同时创业型领导、利用式学习与探索式学习都对新创企业的战略柔性有显著的正向影响;利用式学习、探索式学习在创业型领导与战略柔性的关系中有部分中介作用。     

The effect of supplier development on outsourcing performance: the mediating roles of opportunism and flexibility

Abstract

In this increasingly competitive business environment, firms utilise outsourcing as a strategic tool to leverage globally dispersed resources so that they may focus on their core competencies and improve efficiency. The more firms rely on outsourcing, the more they depend on their suppliers, and the more important it is to manage and develop suppliers in order to achieve and maximise the benefits of outsourcing. This paper explores the impact of supplier development on outsourcing performance. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse data collected from 213 manufacturing firms in China. The results indicate that supplier development has a strong direct positive impact on outsourcing performance, and that supplier development also leads to enhanced outsourcing performance through reducing outsourcing opportunism risk and improving outsourcing flexibility. In addition to making a contribution to current theories of outsourcing, our findings also provide outsourcing managers with practical understanding and insights about the role of supplier development in enhancing outsourcing performance.     

Cross‐Training with Imperfect Training Schemes

Cross‐training workers is one of the most efficient ways of achieving flexibility in manufacturing and service systems for increasing responsiveness to demand variability. However, it is generally the case that cross‐trained employees are not as productive on a specific task as employees who were originally trained for that task. Also, the productivity of the cross‐trained workers depends on when they are cross‐trained. In this work, we consider a two‐stage model to analyze the effects of variations in productivity levels on cross‐training policies. We define a new metric called achievable capacity and show that it plays a key role in determining the structure of the problem. If cross‐training can be done in a consistent manner, the achievable capacity is not affected when the training is done, which implies that the cross‐training decisions are independent of the opportunity cost of lost demand and are based on a trade‐off between cross‐training costs at different times. When the productivities of workers trained at different times differ, there is a three‐way trade‐off between cross‐training costs at different times and the opportunity cost of lost demand due to lost achievable capacity. We analyze the effects of variability and show that if the productivity levels of workers trained at different times are consistent, the decision maker is inclined to defer the cross‐training decisions as the variability of demand or productivity levels increases. However, when the productivities of workers trained at different times differ, an increase in the variability may make investing more in cross‐training earlier more preferable.     

Workplace flexibility and new product development performance: The role of telework and flexible work schedules

This paper investigates the effects of telework and flexible work schedules on the performance of teams in new product development projects. Organizations increasingly introduce workplace flexibility practices that provide flexibility with regard to where or when the employee works. The findings of NPD teams in five cases, situated in two telecommunication firms, show that telework has a positive effect on NPD performance through enabling knowledge sharing, cross-functional cooperation and inter-organizational involvement. This improves the speed and quality of product development, provided that face-to-face contact is not completely replaced by virtual contact. A basic level of face-to face contact is necessary to offset the negative effects of telework on the quality of the shared knowledge, which are larger when the knowledge is sticky. Flexible work schedules and unexpectedly hot-desking were found to increase telework usage. This implies for managers that workplace flexibility needs enablers and cannot do without a sufficient level of face-to-face contact.     

家庭友好计划的效应与机制研究:现状与展望

认为国内外关于家庭友好计划的研究主要从该计划的内容、效应、调节变量、作用机制等方面进行探讨。因而通过论述弹性工时制、远程办公、育儿服务等效应,考察个体、家庭和组织层面变量对家庭友好计划效应的调节作用,基于社会交换、组织支持和工作特征等理论视角探讨了家庭友好计划效应发生的内部机制,最后提出了家庭友好计划研究的方向。     

并列结构内部构造的粘合性

有些并列结构内部构造松散,可以只保留其中任何一个并列项而不影响句子自足,有些并列结构内部构造紧凑使各并列项出现粘合现象,只保留其中任何一个并列项都会导致句子不自足。并列结构内部构造的粘合性体现在多个方面:有的在语义特征、完句功能等因素的制约下,并列结构的并列项与并列项之间具有了粘合性、变得不可分;有的并列结构已经熟语化,其并列项之间结合得相当紧密,具备凝固性,因而也不可分。     

浅析需求的价格弹性和厂商的销售收入之间的关系

需求价格弹性和销售总收入密切相关:富有弹性的商品的销售收入与价格成反向变动,缺乏弹性的商品的销售收入与价格成正向变动,单一弹性的商品的销售收入与价格变动无关。     

孟子“做人”观念的日常伦理分析

“做人”是我国一个古老而常新的重要日常伦理观念。孟子的“做人”观念是其“人道”思想在社会生活的伦理实践中提升出来的,大体上具有“以仁为本、以诚处世、积极有为、通达权变、躬身自省”五个方面的特点,充分体现出儒家在则天事人、积极进取中对于情与理的和谐的一贯追求以及仁爱和中庸精神。     

扁平化组织结构抗风险的分析

以垂直化组织结构作对照,主要从组织结构分岔化解组织结构风险损失的能力,柔性与化解组织结构风险的能力的相关性,扁平化组织结构柔性的水平三方面来研究扁平化组织在化解组织结构风险方面的优势。