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1 – 10 of 142Vincenzo Fasone, Giulio Pedrini and Raffaele Scuderi
The paper aims at assessing the role of the different stages of the employment process in gauging workers' willingness to upskill themselves at the end of a seasonal employment…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims at assessing the role of the different stages of the employment process in gauging workers' willingness to upskill themselves at the end of a seasonal employment contract by investing in further training.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyses data from a dedicated survey administered to a sample of seasonal employees. Through a regression analysis it explores the different stages of the employment process (job search, selection on the job activities), making a distinction between monetary and nonmonetary components of the investment in training.
Findings
Results show that all stages matter, but they do not have the same importance. Ex-ante motivations and work experience, notably the level of perceived workload and organizational commitment, are the main factors affecting workers' willingness to acquire industry-specific skills through training.
Originality/value
So far, the literature has extensively dealt with the poor levels of training in seasonal employers, but it did not analyse worker’s willingness to invest in training over the different stages of the worker experience. This paper fills this gap by separately testing the relative importance of such stages and identifying the most important phases of the employment process.
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Lisa Bellmann, Lutz Bellmann and Olaf Hübler
We enquire whether short-time work (STW) avoids firings as intended by policymakers and is associated with unintended side effects by subsidising some establishments and locking…
Abstract
Purpose
We enquire whether short-time work (STW) avoids firings as intended by policymakers and is associated with unintended side effects by subsidising some establishments and locking in some employees. Additionally, where it was feasible, establishments used working from home (WFH) to continue working without risking an increase in COVID-19 infections and allowing employed parents to care for children attending closed schools.
Design/methodology/approach
Using 21 waves of German high-frequency establishment panel data collected during the COVID-19 crisis, we investigate how STW and WFH are associated with hirings, firings, resignations and excess labour turnover (or churning).
Findings
Our results show the important influences of STW and working from home on employment dynamics during the pandemic. By means of STW, establishments are able to avoid an increase in involuntary layoffs and hiring decreases significantly. In contrast, WFH is associated with a rise in resignations, as can be expected from a theoretical perspective.
Originality/value
While most of the literature on STW and WFH is unrelated and remains descriptive, we consider them in conjunction and conduct panel data analyses. We apply data and methods that allow for the dynamic pattern of STW and working from home during the pandemic. Furthermore, our data include relevant establishment-level variables, such as the existence of a works council, employee qualifications, establishment size, the degree to which the establishment was affected by the COVID-19 crisis, industry affiliation and a wave indicator for the period the survey was conducted.
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Zhongwei Sun, Xuchuang Zhang and Xiaofang Wu
This study investigates the mediating role of wage and workforce adjustments, along with the moderating influence of collective bargaining system and employees’ localization, in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the mediating role of wage and workforce adjustments, along with the moderating influence of collective bargaining system and employees’ localization, in elucidating the relationship between the COVID-19 shock and workplace employee relations (ER) tension.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data from 1,483 enterprises across 21 prefectural cities in China’s Guangdong Province are collected. The hypotheses are tested by logistic regression.
Findings
The study reveals a positive correlation between the COVID-19 shock and workplace ER tension across crisis-hit enterprises, irrespective of their size or industrial sector. Wage reduction and mass layoffs emerge as significant mediators, while the collective bargaining system (CBS) and employees’ localization act as moderators.
Research limitations/implications
The measurement of ER is limited in a single-item scale. Representation of China is also limited since the study exclusively focuses on Guangdong province. The study offers some contributions that firm-level data reveal the pathway through which COVID-19 creates ER tension.
Practical implications
On the one hand, the authors recommend the establishment of an effective communication system between employers and employees. On the other hand, managers should consider the role of informal institutions. Furthermore, the authors suggest implementing tailored strategies at the enterprise level.
Social implications
Intense external shocks result in widespread layoffs and increased wage reductions within workplaces, and under such circumstances, formal or informal institutions may be insufficient to alleviate ER tension. In this case, the state authorities – including governments and other public agencies or bodies – are necessary to intervene in to organize tripartite dialogue.
Originality/value
While numerous emerging studies on COVID-19 explore how different countries manage industrial relations tension at the national level, few focus on ER at workplace level, particularly in developing countries. Understanding how workplace ER evolve during external shocks and identifying institutional measures to mitigate their negative impact is crucial for future crisis management.
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Employment recovered far faster from the pandemic global recession than past crises, and remains historically strong
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DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-GA284020
ISSN: 2633-304X
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Geographic
Topical
This study examines the relationship between oil price uncertainty (OPU) and corporate inventory investments using a sample of 6,072 USA manufacturing firms from 1992 to 2019.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the relationship between oil price uncertainty (OPU) and corporate inventory investments using a sample of 6,072 USA manufacturing firms from 1992 to 2019.
Design/methodology/approach
The author's study employs a panel dataset to examine the relationship between OPU and corporate inventory investments. The author uses several alternative specifications such as fixed effects models, an instrumental variable analysis, an impact threshold for confounding variable (ITCV) analysis, alternative measures, additional control variables and the percent bias analysis to account for endogeneity issues.
Findings
Corporate inventory investments decrease in response to high OPU. This decrease in inventory investments happens regardless of firms' expected stockout costs, information environment and reliance on external financing. As a potential mechanism, an uncertainty-induced increase in cash holdings contributes to this reduction in inventory investments. Also, the effect of OPU is non-linear and asymmetric. In response to the volatility of positive (negative) oil price changes, inventory investments decrease (increase) up to a certain point and increase (decrease) after that. Further, uncertainty-induced adjustments in inventory investments positively influence the operating performance of firms.
Originality/value
The author's study adds to the growing literature that examines the impact of OPU on corporate outcomes. Inventory investments directly affect business operations and could better reflect firms' responses to an uncertain environment.
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Shahida Suleman, Hassanudin Mohd Thas Thaker, Mohamed Ariff and Calvin W.H. Cheong
The purpose of this research is to systematically scrutinize the influence of macroeconomic determinants on trade openness, through the lens of various trade theories, with a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to systematically scrutinize the influence of macroeconomic determinants on trade openness, through the lens of various trade theories, with a particular focus on the economies of the GIPSI countries – Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy.
Design/methodology/approach
This study investigates the macroeconomic factors influencing trade openness in the GIPSI economies from 1995 to 2020. Methods include stepwise regression (SR) for model selection, Pedroni panel cointegration test and panel regression results. The analysis uses advanced panel regressions, including FMOLS, Panel OLS and FEM. The long-term dynamics were tested using Pedroni cointegration, while Granger causality testing was used to examine the causal direction between the trade openness ratio and trade determinant.
Findings
The results show both long-term and short-term relationships between trade openness and (1) foreign direct investment, (2) labor force participation rate, (3) trade reserves and (4) trade balance. The researchers also detected unidirectional and bidirectional causality relationships between trade openness and these four factors. The study also revealed that trade reserves (TR) emerge as the most influential determinant of trade openness, and per capita income does not exhibit economic significance concerning the trade openness of GIPSI economies.
Research limitations/implications
This research is conducted within the context of the GIPSI nations (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy). As such, the outcomes may not be universally applicable to other economic systems due to the distinct institutional settings and governance structures across different economic groups. Future investigations may explore the relationship between trade openness and its determinants by incorporating different variables.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study investigating the theory that suggested trade drivers drive the trade openness of GIPSI countries context. By focusing on GIPSI countries, the study offers a unique perspective on the dynamics of trade openness in economies that have experienced financial crises and stringent austerity measures.
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High-performance work system (HPWS) has been verified as a promoter of both organizational and individual outcomes. However, this research takes the conflicting view of HPWS to…
Abstract
Purpose
High-performance work system (HPWS) has been verified as a promoter of both organizational and individual outcomes. However, this research takes the conflicting view of HPWS to examine the impact of HPWS perception on knowledge hoarding. In addition, competitive climate is proposed to mediate the relationship while HPWS psychological contract breach is hypothesized to moderate the HPWS-knowledge hoarding linkage.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative research design is adopted with data collected from 367 MBA and PhD students in Vietnam. Partial least square structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The perception of HPWS increase knowledge hoarding with competitive climate acting as a partial mediator. HPWS psychological contract breach intensifies the relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The research provides additional evidences to support the dark-side view of HPWS on employees' outcomes. The adoption and implementation of HPWS should be clearly announced to reduce perceptions of mismatch between expectation and reality.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to investigate the association between HPWS and knowledge hoarding. In addition, the mediating role of competitive climate represents a novelty in HPWS research. Finally, the concept of HPWS psychological contract breach has been introduced to the literature.
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This study investigates the role of personality disorders in the context of counterproductive knowledge behavior.
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the role of personality disorders in the context of counterproductive knowledge behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through a survey administered to 120 full-time employees recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Personality disorders were measured by means of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-IV.
Findings
Personality disorders play an important role in the context of counterproductive knowledge behavior: employees suffering from various personality disorders are likely to hide knowledge from their fellow coworkers and engage in knowledge sabotage. Of particular importance are dependent, narcissistic and sadistic personality disorders as well as schizophrenic and delusional severe clinical syndromes. There is a need for a paradigm shift in terms of how the research community should portray those who engage in counterproductive knowledge behavior, reconsidering the underlying assumption that all of them act deliberately, consciously and rationally. Unexpectedly, most personality disorders do not facilitate knowledge hoarding.
Practical implications
Organizations should provide insurance coverage for the treatment of personality disorders, assist those seeking treatment, inform employees about the existence of personality disorders in the workplace and their impact on interemployee relationships, facilitate a stress-free work environment, remove social stigma that may be associated with personality disorders and, as a last resort, reassign workers suffering from extreme forms of personality disorders to tasks that require less interemployee interaction (instead of terminating them).
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work represents one of the first attempts to empirically investigate the notion of personality disorders in the context of knowledge management.
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The purpose of this Real Impact Research Article is to empirically explore one of the most controversial and elusive concepts in knowledge management research – practical wisdom…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this Real Impact Research Article is to empirically explore one of the most controversial and elusive concepts in knowledge management research – practical wisdom. It develops a 10-dimensional practical wisdom construct and tests it within the nomological network of counterproductive and productive knowledge behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey instrument was created based on the extant literature. A model was developed and tested by means of Partial Least Squares with data obtained from 200 experienced employees recruited from CloudResearch Connect crowdsourcing platform.
Findings
Practical wisdom is a multidimensional construct that may be operationalized and measured like other well-established knowledge management concepts. Practical wisdom guides employee counterproductive and productive knowledge behavior: it suppresses knowledge sabotage and knowledge hiding (whether general, evasive, playing dumb, rationalized or bullying) and promotes knowledge sharing. While all proposed dimensions contribute to employee practical wisdom, particularly salient are subject matter expertise, moral purpose in decision-making, self-reflection in the workplace and external reflection in the workplace. Unexpectedly, practical wisdom facilitates knowledge hoarding instead of reducing it.
Practical implications
Managers should realize that possessing practical wisdom is not limited to a group of select, high-level executives. Organizations may administer the practical wisdom questionnaire presented in this study to their workers to identify those who score the lowest, and invest in employee training programs that focus on the development of those attributes pertaining to the practical wisdom dimensions.
Originality/value
The concept of practical wisdom is a controversial topic that has both detractors and supporters. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first large-scale empirical study of practical wisdom in the knowledge management domain.
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Hoàng Long Phan and Ralf Zurbruegg
This paper examines how a firm's hierarchical complexity, which is determined by the way it organizes its subsidiaries across the hierarchical levels, can impact its stock price…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines how a firm's hierarchical complexity, which is determined by the way it organizes its subsidiaries across the hierarchical levels, can impact its stock price crash risk.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employ a measure of hierarchical complexity that captures the depth and breadth of how subsidiaries are organized within a firm. This measure is calculated using information about firms' subsidiaries extracted from the Bureau van Dijk (BvD) database that allows the authors to construct each firm's hierarchical structure. The data sample includes 2,461 USA firms for the period from 2012 to 2017 (11,006 firm-year observations). Univariate tests and panel regression are used for the main analysis. Two-stage-least-squares (2SLS) instrumental variable regression and various other tests are employed for robustness check.
Findings
The results show a positive relationship between hierarchical complexity and stock price crash risk. This relationship is amplified in firms with a greater number of subsidiaries that are hierarchically distanced from the parent company as well as in firms with a greater number of foreign subsidiaries in countries with weaker rule of law.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to investigate the impact hierarchical complexity has on crash risk. The results highlight the role that a firm's organizational structure can have on asset pricing behavior.
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