Search results

In this paper, we review the literature on pay variation (e.g., pay dispersion, pay compression, pay range) in organizations. Pay variation research has increased markedly in the past two decades and much progress has been made in terms of understanding its consequences for individual, team, and organizational outcomes. Our review of this research exposes several levels-related assumptions that have limited theoretical and empirical progress. We isolate the issues that deserve attention, develop an illustrative multilevel model, and offer a number of testable propositions to guide future research on pay structures.

The purpose of this paper is to make a comparative assessment of the relationship between types of pay plans and several workforce‐level outcomes in 214 organizations. The plans include pay that is skill‐based, job‐based, and market‐based. The types of workforce‐level outcomes include workforce flexibility, attitudes, membership behaviors, and productivity. The paper also assesses the relationship between the success of pay plans and workforce productivity/membership behaviors.

Survey data from 214 organizations are used to test the hypothesized relationships using hierarchical regression analysis and partial least square techniques.

Results support a significant and positive relationship between skill‐based pay plans, workforce flexibility, and workforce attitudes. Skill‐based pay plans, when compared with market‐based pay plans, are found to positively relate to workforce membership behaviors, and workforce attitudes mediate this relationship. Similarly, workforce flexibility mediates the positive relationship between skill‐based plans and workforce productivity. The success of skill‐based plans depends on significant improvements in workforce productivity and membership behaviors. The fit between the pay plan and the facility's climate/culture moderates the relationship between workforce productivity and the pay plan's success.

The results indicate that skill‐based pay plans are superior for achieving several organizational and employee outcomes. The authors discuss the implications of these results for research and practice.

Limited comparative empirical evidence exists on the effects of different types of pay systems on organizational outcomes. The paper seeks to address this gap.

This paper aims to describe an exploratory study aiming to identify the mechanisms adopted by social enterprises for effective operations based on volunteer work.

An inductive multiple case study method was used addressing three social enterprises whose operations rely on a volunteer workforce.

Volunteer-based operations benefit from the establishment of a formal structure, involving different levels of volunteering complemented with other mechanisms, namely, educate and train, empower and connect. Special attention must be given to first-level volunteers, reinforcing the range of practices to motivate and engage them, as they serve as intermediaries between the paid employees and lower-level volunteers.

The study provides valuable insights for managers for the implementation of effective operations, building on volunteer work, aiming at the generation of social and economic value.

Due to their innovative character, social enterprises are well-positioned to mobilize more and more qualified volunteers for a significant change in their communities. Adopting a more strategic and structured approach to volunteer management can enable these organizations to take advantage of it.

This study contributes to the literature on social enterprise by identifying a set of mechanisms adopted for effective volunteer-based operations. It also contributes to the literature on volunteer management by addressing an underexplored context.

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.

Civil society-based institutions have had a significant historical impact in Europe on the one hand in formation of modern notions of the nation and on the creation of national identity and on the other hand in definition of citizenship rights and understanding of the democratic culture. If support for citizenship rights through civil society organizations – at the workplace and in public institutions – is weakly articulated, it creates a fragile democratic culture and, consequently, less comprehensive social protection. The possibility of civil society becoming a locus for democratic learning, political reflexivity and governance depends, firstly, on its specific institutional mechanisms and, secondly, on the broader institutional configuration, which civil society forms part of.

The strategic human resource management (HRM) literature emphasises the importance of employee involvement and participation for outcomes such as job satisfaction, employee retention and organisational performance. Situational factors identified as conducive to employee participation in decision-making include small size, via less hierarchical, proximate and informal workplace relations. Ownership and mission are also important, with not-for-profit (NFP) organisations generally having more collectivist, commitment-based cultures that support open decision-making. However, such organisations often have weak HRM policies and practices. This paper examines the process and outcomes of employee participation in a small NFP through in-depth case study research.

Single case study utilising longitudinal participant observation, interviews, reflective diary, documentary analysis.

Operating as a collective, the organisation was bound by time and capacity limitations in its ability to plan strategically or even to make routine decisions. Basic HR policies and practices in areas such as staff recruitment and performance management were sub-standard or unobserved. Consequences included poor management, inconsistent training, staff burnout, high labour turnover and sub-optimal performance. The results suggest that weak managerial coordination and the absence of a dedicated HR function subvert effective people management. In such circumstances, strong forms of employee participation fail to deliver anticipated equity and efficiency outcomes.

Single case study.

Small organisations need HR policies and dedicated support to ensure that employee involvement and participation are effective.

The findings demonstrate how employee involvement and participation can be subverted by inadequate HR processes, adding qualitative evidence to support theories of HR “bundling” in high-involvement work practices. The research also contributes to the neglected area of HRM in small NFPs.

Issues associated with retirement in general, and phased transitions into retirement in particular, are taking on increased importance for a variety of reasons. Outlines those reasons, paying particular attention to the practice of mandatory retirement. Presents age dependency ratios for the OECD to highlight the importance of these issues in the context of an ageing and longer‐lived workforce relative to a smaller working age population. Then discusses the prevalence of mandatory retirement in Canada and the USA, and presents empirical evidence from Canada on variables associated with retiring because of mandatory retirement. The Canadian case is of particular interest, because mandatory retirement in Canada has generally not been banned, which is in marked contrast with the situation in the USA, where it has been banned as constituting age discrimination. The public and legal debate over the issue of mandatory retirement has also been extensive in Canada, and this debate may provide information for other countries dealing with the issue. Ends with an assessment of the extent to which mandatory retirement exerts a constraining influence on transitions into retirement. The essential argument is that its constraining impact is not as simple as it may initially appear. To the extent that mandatory retirement is an intricate part of the compensation and human resource function of firms, banning it can have important implications for those functions and, in turn, for transitions into retirement. The complexities of these issues and dramatically increasing old‐age dependency ratios will ensure that this is an area of growing importance for public policy and human resource management.

This paper documents the EU integration process using the uneven and combined development framework. Because capitalist social relations are territorially defined and politically built, unevenness between countries is not unconnected with that within countries and both involve antagonism between capital and labor. This is manifest in the ‘state form’ of the EU and its anti-democratic tendencies: public institutions at the community level play a major role in reinforcing unevenness in favour of leading countries, in both the productive and financial spheres.

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.

This paper poses the question of whether the mainstream feminist movement in the United States, in concentrating its efforts on achieving gender parity in the existing workplace, is selling women short. In it, I argue that contemporary U.S. feminism has not adequately theorized the problems with the relatively unregulated market system in the United States. That failure has contributed to a situation in which women’s participation in the labor market is mistakenly equated with liberation, and in which other far-ranging effects of the market system on women’s lives inside and outside of work – many of them negative – are overlooked. To theorize the effects of the market system on women’s lives in a more nuanced manner, I borrow from the insights of earlier Marxist and socialist feminists. I then use this more nuanced perspective to outline an agenda for feminism, which I call “market-cautious feminism,” that seeks to regulate the market to serve women’s interests.