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We outline the standards for “good” performance measures and propose the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a method for performance measurement on individual level.

Using the example of a German cooperative bank with a cohort of 40 employees, we apply a multi-stage DEA approach to measure employee performance and report on the results. Based on those results a DEA-based approach for a strategic performance appraisal process is introduced.

We illustrate that DEA provides clear feedback information on an individual level, which enables management to accurately identify fields of specific improvement.

The proposed approach for a strategic performance appraisal process is yet of theoretical nature. Consequently, the practical implementation of this approach is a purpose of further research.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest Homans’ social exchange theory (SET), a management theory, as an explanation for some of the findings of some of the Hawthorne experiments (1924-1933), which demonstrated how social situations play an important role in task performance and productivity and how social exchanges can facilitate it. The authors also use SET to investigate Elton Mayo’s inquiry as to what caused spontaneous cooperation in Hawthorne.

The authors used a combination of published work by Homans, Roethlisberger and Dickson, Mayo and others, as well as oral histories conducted by Greenwood and Bolton in 1982-1984, to argue that some of the Hawthorne studies illustrate the principles of SET. Homans’ SET brought together concepts from multiple disciplines and offered a framework to explain social behaviors.

The relay assembly room and the bank wiring tests of Hawthorne studies can illustrate SET as developed by Homans. With the development of SET, Homans not only provided explanations for the creation of strong feelings of affiliation and trust through interactions and mutual dependence between group members but also provided evidence to Mayo’s concept of spontaneous collaboration.

The limitations of the paper are that the studies themselves can lend themselves to multiple perspectives due to design flaws. Therefore, our argument is only one interpretation – even if it is something that the researchers would have supported.

The paper augments the ongoing discussion about the Hawthorne studies in the literature and in the development of management theories such as SET. The authors provide support that it is through the attempts to explain the Hawthorne studies and the post-Second World War controversies over the studies that Homans developed social exchange. Building on previous work, the methods show perspectives beyond the motivations and sentiments of Homans by demonstrating observable behaviors from the Hawthorne studies.

Presents an exploratory study on travel agents’ attitudes towards automation. Surveys 167 travel agents from both Canada and New Zealand. Shows that there are four distinct groups of agents whose attitudes towards automation differ quite substantially and that these attitudes are related not so much to current use of technology but more to perceived future usage.