Search results

Little research has explored how best to reduce labor costs when the economy turns down. A recent phone survey of CEOs and senior executives at 20 “Fortune 100” companies suggests that CEOs are now concerned and confused about how best to shrink their workforce. It also indicates that they would rather use layoffs than pay cuts to reduce labor cost. But these senior executives realize they cannot “shrink to greatness.” Eventually these successful companies must again begin to add staff. So planning strategically now for both the growth and shrinkage of the workforce is essential to providing a high‐performance workforce and workplace.

What's the secret sauce of top business performance? Clearly, it's not just having a brilliant business strategy. It's also the successful execution of the strategy that counts. And execution requires that people understand the strategy, know how they fit in, commit to what they must do to add value to the strategy, and have the capability of making the strategy a reality.

Asks whether performance‐related pay can be compatible with TQM and examines the opinions of leading “gurus” on the subject. Looks at examples of good practice in performance management in the United Kingdom and at the practical issues involved for an organization using TQM. Indicates how remuneration can be linked to several aspects of performance, both individual and in groups. Contends that if an organization is willing to invest money in a quality programme then it seems sensible to “link pay to the practices and process associated with organizational success”.

This special issue of Personnel Review on “Quality and the Individual” is very different in style from the editor‐generated issues of this journal, but it has been designed for a very particular purpose. In the rush towards the achievement of high levels of “quality” among organizations, however this is manifested, the effects on the individual have largely gone unnoticed. We are all aware of the high rates of failure among quality management initiatives, and what is becoming clear is that successful organizations are harnessing the talents of individuals, whatever their status, to the quality cause from its very early stages.

Motivated by research linking job autonomy and job creativity with psychological well-being, this study examines how these work characteristics influence well-being among people with and without physical disabilities, utilizing both a categorical and continuous measure of disability.

Data were drawn from two waves of a community study in Miami-Dade County, Florida, of 1,473 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to assess whether job autonomy and job creativity mediate the associations between the indicators of physical disability considered and depressive symptoms and whether these associations varied by gender.

Controlling for the effects of the sociodemographic control variables, both job autonomy and job creativity significantly influence the association between physical disability and depressive symptoms regardless of the measure of disability used. The effects of job autonomy were significantly greater for women than men in the context of greater functional limitation.

The findings highlight the need to further consider the work characteristics of employed people with disabilities. They also demonstrate that the conceptualization and measurement of physical disability has important research implications.