Search results

Since the early 1970s work‐based interventions to deal with the emotional problems of workers arising from the workplace have emerged from the practitioner community. “Employee Assistance Programmes” (EAPs) have developed principally in the US and other English‐speaking cultures. A descriptive analysis of the emergence of EAPs in the US and the attempt by Australians to transfer this technology to Australia, the structure of that effort and apparent reasons for its eventual stagnation is presented. It points to the relative importance of government agencies, programme development specialists and treatment delivery agencies in programme adoption and implementation. It is evident that employers are working to demonstrate interest in employee health in terms of its impact on productivity and performance and its effects on the costs of health care. These developments are not limited to the USA. As a multinational phenomenon, employer involvement has an open‐ended potential for subtle forms of social control.

Volume 18 Number 2 of the Journal of Organizational Behavior includes an article by Dail L. Fields and Terry C. Blum entitled “Employee satisfaction in work groups with different gender composition”. This study investigates the relationship between the gender composition of an employee's work group and the employee's job satisfaction, using a random sample over 1600 U.S. workers. After controlling possible confounding variables, the analysis shows that the level of an employee's job satisfaction is related to the gender composition of the employee's work group, and that the relationship of these variables does not differ between male and female employees. Both men and women working in gender‐balanced groups have higher levels of job satisfaction than those who work in homogeneous groups. Employees working in groups containing mostly men have the lowest levels of job satisfaction, with those working in groups containing mostly women falling in the middle. These results are consistent with predictions based on Blau's theory of social structure, that satisfaction would be highest for employees in more heterogeneous groups.

Private alcohol problem treatment in the United States arose from a social movement that began after Prohibition and culminated in the founding of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 1970. Using a treatment model that incorporated much of the ideology of Alcoholics Anonymous, an isomorphic set of private treatment centers grew rapidly across the country with support and assistance from NIAAA. As this support diminished and cost containment emerged, a crisis struck the population of treatment centers, leading to many closures. Nonetheless, most of the centers have survived. This chapter uses data from a national longitudinal study of privately funded alcohol problem treatment centers to illustrate the transformation of the treatment industry during the 1990s. We argue that this transformation results from an increased difficulty in obtaining treatment funding due to the health care cost-containment practices of managed care.

To compare the tendency of US and Hong Kong Chinese companies to utilize three alternative human resource management (HRM) strategies to offset uncertainties in the supply of labor.

Data were collected from 158 US and 66 Hong Kong Chinese companies concerning the extent to which these companies engaged in training and development, monitoring and assessment of employee performance, and staffing through an internal labor market. Data were also obtained concerning the uncertainty in the supply of qualified employees.

After controlling differences in industries and company size, the results show that, when faced with labor uncertainty, use of the three (HRM) strategies was increased by Hong Kong Chinese companies, but decreased by US companies.

This study provides new information about how cultural differences may play out in business organizations. The results may provide some insight into how competitors in a global marketplace may react to environmental uncertainties and greater resource dependence.

This study fills a need to understand how organizations operating different cultural contexts differ in their reactions to uncertainties in the business environment.

The idea that worker co‐operatives offer the possibility of increasing productivity without sacrificing workers' safety and health is investigated. Ten worker co‐operatives and four conventional capitalist firms in the Pacific Northwest plywood industry are studied. Co‐operatives have worse productivity and safety records than conventional firms. Lower productivity is due to the unexpected behaviour that emerges in co‐operatives relying heavily on hired labour. Higher levels of accidents are due to different reporting practices arising from different social relations in production. Co‐operatives tend to over‐report their accidents whereas conventional firms under‐report accidents.

A growing body of research outlines how to best facilitate and ensure methodological rigor when using dictionary-based computerized text analyses (DBCTA) in organizational research. However, these best practices are currently scattered across several methodological and empirical manuscripts, making it difficult for scholars new to the technique to implement DBCTA in their own research. To better equip researchers looking to leverage this technique, this methodological report consolidates current best practices for applying DBCTA into a single, practical guide. In doing so, we provide direction regarding how to make key design decisions and identify valuable resources to help researchers from the beginning of the research process through final publication. Consequently, we advance DBCTA methods research by providing a one-stop reference for novices and experts alike concerning current best practices and available resources.

To explain how reading, rewinding a story in reverse order, and then rereading allows a reader to contextualize information, acquiring not only major themes and events but also details and other literacy characteristics of the literature selection.

A representation of sequencing structures is discussed including world-related, concept-related, inquiry-related, learning-related, and utilization-related. In addition, the instructional design aspects of backwards sequencing are discussed.

Just as a level or stud finder uses a back-and-forth approach for finding the most suitable position, so does the backwards sequential approach to reading comprehension. By slowing down and focusing on parts before the whole, students are more likely comprehend content.

The importance of prediction towards comprehension has been recognized for decades. However, using a learning design that features reading a story once, then revisiting the story structure components in backwards order, and finally reading it again, allows for precise and complete learning. This theory has research and pedagogical implications for students of all ages.