THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: LABOR MARKET INFLUENCES ON CEO COMPENSATION

Although the "war for talent" at the executive level should theoretically have implications for executive pay, labor market competition and CEO career considerations have not been the focus of much executive compensation research to date. In this study, I utilize a multitheoretical perspective to examine the determinants of CEO annual compensation, with particular attention to external labor market factors and also to executive characteristics (e.g., experience and performance trajectory) that are conventionally believed to increase the labor market attractiveness (and alternative employment opportunities) of CEOs. In a sample of publicly traded firms, I find that these labor market-related factors and characteristics explain additional variance in annual pay beyond that predicted by firm size, annual performance, board composition, risk, and measures of CEO power, and that the variance explained by labor market variables is of a magnitude comparable to that explained by many of these more commonly studied variables. Results are consistent with the idea that corporate boards design CEO pay with retention concerns in mind: Total pay and stock option grant levels are strongly influenced by competitors' pay levels, and CEOs who are especially likely to be "raided" receive higher pay in some cases and, in other cases, have less risky (weaker) annual firm performance–pay relationships.     

EFFECTS OF CONSCIENTIOUSNESS AND EXTRAVERSION ON NEW LABOR MARKET ENTRANTS' JOB SEARCH: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF METACOGNITIVE ACTIVITIES AND POSITIVE EMOTIONS

Job seekers' Conscientiousness and Extraversion show consistent relationships with their job search activities and success, although the explanatory mechanisms for these relationships are unclear ( Kanfer, Wanberg, & Kantrowitz, 2001 ). To explore these mechanisms, we developed and tested a model in which both Conscientiousness and Extraversion influenced metacognitive activities whereas Extraversion alone influenced positive emotions; these mediating variables in turn were predicted to influence resumé submissions, first interviews, second interviews, and job offers. Using longitudinal data collected from 232 job applicants, we found support for these predictions. Interestingly, meta-cognitive activities appeared to be more important in predicting resumé submissions and first interviews, whereas positive emotions predicted success in obtaining second interviews and job offers. We discuss the implications of our results and suggest future directions for research.     

THE ENCHANTMENTS OF MAMMON: NOTES TOWARD A THEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF CAPITALISM

Tales of “disenchantment” dominate modern intellectual life, and especially accounts of the cultural history of capitalism. Yet Weberian sociology, and especially Marxist notions of “commodity fetishism”, point to the persistence of “enchantment” in the capitalist imagination. If we reformulate these notions of “enchantment” and “disenchantment” in theological terms of sacrament, then we can write new histories of capitalism, as well as articulate new forms of political and cultural criticism. Borrowing from “radical orthodoxy”, the author takes a Cook's Tour of “disenchantment”, explores the possibilities afforded by “sacramental” conceptions of materialism, and gestures toward an account of American cultural history shaped by a sacramental materialism.     

THE IMPACT OF THE FEMINIST CRITIQUE ON TESTS, ASSESSMENT, AND ETHODOLOGY

In this article we discuss the implications of the feminist critique for methodologies related to tests and assessment. Several specific examples of the impact (or lack of impact) of feminist thinking on psychological, vocational, and educational tests are provided. From the point of view of a feminist critique, while the revision of the Strong–Campbell Interest Inventory appears to be a success, the 1990 revision of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI–2) is not. Feminists have inspired methodological improvements such as the use of meta–analysis to evaluate sex difference data and the ability to estimate sampling error to challenge the research on free-response and multiple-choice tests. Recognition of the need to involve women in the development of normative data, introduction of sensitivity reviews, and implementation of differential item functioning analyses have improved tests. However, although testing has improved from the feminist perspective, additional changes can be expected as feminists (female and male) become more involved as scholars and scientists.     

CONCERNING THE MORAL DIMENSION OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM IN A COMMUNIST-FREE WORLD*

The socio-economic “pro-democracy” revolutions which are currently sweeping the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the name of glasnost and perestroika have virtually stunned all but the best informed in the Western World. The demand for reform throughout the so-called “Soviet block,” and the concomitant impatience with the progress of these changes in the economic and basic social fabric of these societies, have come to exhibit an urgency which few observers, if any, had been able to forecast a few short years ago. The declarations by some members of the U.S. Congress that these changes are indicative of the fact that the cold war has been won by the West, and that we are now witnessing the precipitous collapse of Marxist ideology, together with the widespread sentiment that there is “no going back” to the repressive Leninist-inspired regimes of Stalin, Khruschev, and Brezhniev are all synergistic to the creation of a sentiment of optimism that indeed we have turned the corner in East-West relations. To a world which has lived under the long night of thermonuclear extinction for over four decades, the feeling accompanying the prospect of a possible end to the nightmare of Armageddon further enhances the euphoric sentiment.     

ERNAN MCMULLIN ON CONTINGENCY,COSMIC PURPOSE,AND THE ATEMPORALITY OF THE CREATOR

This article reviews, and offers supportive reflections on, the main points of Ernan McMullin's provocative 1998 article, “Cosmic Purpose and the Contingency of Human Evolution,’’ reprinted in this issue of Zygon. In it he addresses the important science‐theology issue of how the Creator's purpose and intention to assure the emergence of human beings is consonant with the radical contingency of the evolutionary process. After discussing cosmic and biological evolution and critically summarizing recent solutions to this question by Keith Ward, John Polkinghorne, Arthur Peacocke, Alvin Plantinga, and others, who presuppose in different ways that God is subject to time, McMullin compellingly argues for the traditional position, that God is unconditioned by time, and this enables God to work purposefully through contingency, randomness, and chance just as easily as through law‐like regularity.     

ACTION,AGENCY, AND EMPATHY: SCHAFER ON THE ANALYST'S DILEMMA

Throughout his career, a central feature of Roy Schafer's theorizing has been to highlight the role of activity and personal agency in every facet of human experience. This theme has remained at the forefront of Schafer's work, despite being embedded within different frames of reference. In this paper, the author highlights Schafer's focus on activity, notes some clinical problems to which it can give rise, and suggests the way that Schafer has attempted to deal with these difficulties.