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1 – 10 of 20George Saridakis, Yannis Georgellis, Vladlena Benson, Stephen Garcia, Stewart Johnstone and Yanqing Lai
B.M. Razzak, George Saridakis and Yannis Georgellis
By aligning the “Small is beautiful” and “Bleak house” theories, this study aims to examine how robotic working patterns affect employees’ working life and job satisfaction (JS…
Abstract
Purpose
By aligning the “Small is beautiful” and “Bleak house” theories, this study aims to examine how robotic working patterns affect employees’ working life and job satisfaction (JS) in Bangladeshi-owned ethnic minority businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses information from 40 face-to-face interviews of employees from 20 Bangladeshi restaurants in Greater London.
Findings
The findings suggest that workers are treated as “robots”, consistent with the “Bleak house” view of small businesses in this segment of the restaurant and hospitality industry. Owners expect employees to perform multiple tasks, to assume many responsibilities, to work long shifts, without any holiday allowances. Consistent with the “Small is beautiful model”, the findings underscore the lack of written employment contracts and the emergence of acute staff shortages.
Practical implications
The findings can inform owner-managers’ decisions to refine their HR strategies and improve the work conditions of employees in ethnic minority-owned restaurants. The “Small is beautiful” model highlights five key interventions for improving ethnic minority business work quality: recruit employees with first preferences for restaurant jobs, introduce flexible work arrangements, formalise work, improve market research and tackle acute staff shortages.
Originality/value
The study contributes novel insights into the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and job quality literature by offering new qualitative-based findings on the negative impact of robotic work patterns on work quality and JS in ethnic minority SMEs.
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Bochra Idris, George Saridakis, Yannis Georgellis, Yanqing Lai and Stewart Johnstone
This paper examines how soft skills training for owner-managers affects the financial performance of exporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore, the authors…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines how soft skills training for owner-managers affects the financial performance of exporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore, the authors examine the differential influence of specific owner-manager skills, such as “team working skills”, “technical skills” and “leadership skills”, on performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper utilises the Longitudinal Small Business Survey, which is a nationally representative employer dataset of UK SMEs with up to 249 employees, including those with no employees. The dataset contains information on firms' turnover, export status of goods or services and training provision for employees or owner-managers.
Findings
The results suggest that owner-manager's training has a positive effect on turnover in non-exporting firms. Moreover, a combination of soft and hard skills is associated with higher turnover in exporting firms. Amongst the specific skills of owner-managers, training on “team working” has the most significant impact on exporting SMEs' performance.
Practical implications
The authors' findings imply that managerial training to develop soft skills such as leadership, decision-making and communication is a worthwhile investment. The knowledge that owner-managers acquire through soft and hard skills training enables them to develop essential internationalisation competencies. Moreover, the authors demonstrate that teamwork is a significant predictor of performance.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to the literature by examining the role of owner-managers' training in shaping internal systems, structure, processes and internationalisation strategies, thus affecting SMEs performance. The authors' also provide a nuanced analysis of how various types of soft and hard skills underpin the successful implementation of internationalisation initiatives.
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Yannis Georgellis, Hamid Roodbari, Godbless Onoriode Akaighe and Atrina Oraee
This article examines the relationships between objective overqualification, volunteering as an extra-work activity and job satisfaction.
Abstract
Purpose
This article examines the relationships between objective overqualification, volunteering as an extra-work activity and job satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws on a vast secondary sample of 20,686 British employees across four waves covering the period 2009–2017. The bivariate ordered probit estimate was used to test the study hypotheses in the bioprobit procedure in STATA.
Findings
Our study unravels compelling insights. Overqualified employees experience lower job satisfaction and engage more in volunteering activities. The results emphasised that voluntary work allows the utilisation of skills and fulfils basic psychological needs, leading to enhanced general well-being and higher job satisfaction.
Practical implications
Overqualified employees, by actively engaging in volunteering, not only make valuable contributions to society but also experience positive spillover effects that significantly influence their workplace attitudes and behaviours. This underscores the potential for promoting volunteering as an effective means to mitigate the private and social overqualification.
Originality/value
This study provides valuable insights into the role of overqualification as well as resulting job dissatisfaction, in shaping volunteering decisions. This insight contributes to the overqualification literature and strengthens our understanding of volunteering as an important mechanism in the relationship between overqualification and job satisfaction.
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Yannis Georgellis and Thomas Lange
The aim of the paper is to assess the determinants and impact of employer sponsored further training on wage growth in West Germany over the period 1992 to 2002.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the paper is to assess the determinants and impact of employer sponsored further training on wage growth in West Germany over the period 1992 to 2002.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a descriptive narrative on further training and wages in Germany, data derived from the West German sub‐sample of the German Socio‐Economic Panel is being utilised, which has the main advantage of providing detailed information about the respondents' labour market histories prior to and after 1992. The information provides powerful predictors, controlling for the endogeneity of the training participation decision when estimating a wage growth equation. To assess the impact of training on wages, Heckman selectivity corrected wage equations are used, with the selection being based on a probit model for the probability that an individual receives firm‐sponsored training.
Findings
The analysis provides details of significant gender differences in both, the incidence and earnings impact of further training. The results show that further training has a strong positive effect on wages. However, gender inequality issues remain a salient feature of the German training system, which further training only reinforces. The analysis also suggests that the economic conditions during Germany's post‐unification period may have mitigated some of the potential benefits of further training on wage growth.
Originality/value
Despite its growing importance, the determinants and earnings impact of employer‐sponsored, further training have attracted little attention in the empirical literature. Even less is known about the impact of further training during Germany's post‐unification period. This paper adds value by contributing to this fledgling field of investigation.
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Thomas Lange and Yannis Georgellis
To introduce the papers which make up a special issue of IJM on labour market intervention.
Abstract
Purpose
To introduce the papers which make up a special issue of IJM on labour market intervention.
Design/methodology/approach
Briefly describes each of the five papers which comprise this issue of IJM.
Findings
Notes that the study contexts of the papers are New Zealand, the UK, Sweden, West Germany, and 14 member countries of the EU.
Originality/value
The papers provide an international overview of contemporary, empirical findings on the effectiveness of various types of labour market intervention.
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Yannis Georgellis, Paul Joyce and Adrian Woods
Using a sample of some 300 small independent businesses, drawn from Central London, the paper examines how entrepreneurial behaviour affects business performance. It is argued…
Abstract
Using a sample of some 300 small independent businesses, drawn from Central London, the paper examines how entrepreneurial behaviour affects business performance. It is argued that small businesses motivated by a desire to grow in terms of sales and/or employees and to survive in a dynamic and competitive environment need to be innovative. However, to what extent they will innovate successfully depends on their capacity to plan ahead, their capacity to innovate and their willingness to take risk. It is shown that entrepreneurial businesses are characterised by these competencies that allow them to innovate and thus develop and grow successfully. Not surprisingly, not all small businesses are equipped with these three competencies owing to their diverse array of strengths and weaknesses arising from the diversity in the managerial motives and aspirations of entrepreneurship. These results highlight the importance of the capacity to innovate and the capacity to plan ahead as strong predictors of small businesses’ performance.
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Yannis Georgellis, Andros Gregoriou, Jerome Healy and Nikolaos Tsitsianis
The aim of this paper is to model the dynamic path of adjustment towards pre‐unemployment levels of wellbeing for a group of full‐time workers who experienced job loss.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to model the dynamic path of adjustment towards pre‐unemployment levels of wellbeing for a group of full‐time workers who experienced job loss.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on data from the German Socio‐economic Panel, a large‐scale panel survey, the paper captures the non‐linear nature of the adaptation process by using an Exponential Smooth Transition Autoregressive (ESTAR) model.
Findings
The study finds that adaptation takes place in a non‐linear fashion, with the speed of adjustment being higher for high earners, those with high pre‐unemployment levels of life satisfaction and those who were most satisfied with their jobs before becoming unemployed. It also finds that most of the adaptation takes place during the first year of unemployment, with adaptation speeds decreasing with unemployment duration, suggestive of possible habituation effects being present.
Originality/value
This is the first study to model the dynamic path of adjustment towards pre‐unemployment wellbeing levels as a non‐linear process. Despite the challenge posed by adaptation theory and the recent interest in the wellbeing effects of job loss, there is only sparse empirical evidence on the dynamics of the adaptation to unemployment process.
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