MEASUREMENT ERROR IN RESEARCH ON HUMAN RESOURCES and FIRM PERFORMANCE: HOW MUCH ERROR IS THERE AND HOW DOES IT INFLUENCE EFFECT SIZE ESTIMATES?

Studies of the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and firm performance typically use a single respondent to assess firm level HR practices or HR effectiveness. However, previous research in other substantive areas suggests that rater differences are a potentially important source of measurement error. We demonstrate analytically the potential consequences of both random and systematic measurement error in research on HR and firm performance. However, our main focus is on random error and we show how generalizability theory can be applied to obtain better estimates of reliability by simultaneously recognizing multiple sources (e.g., items, raters) of random measurement error. These more inclusive reliability estimates, in turn, offer the possibility of more precisely quantifying substantive relationships in the HR and firm performance literature. In our sample, reliabilities (as estimated by generalizability coefficients) for single-rater assessments of HR variables were generally below .50. This degree of measurement error, if present in substantive studies on HR and firm performance, could lead to considerable bias, given that an unstandardized regression coefficient is corrected for measurement error in the independent variable by dividing by its reliability coefficient (not its square root). We also found only limited convergent validity between HR and line managers ratings of a second type of HR measure, HR effectiveness. In general, our findings suggest that future researchers need to devote greater attention to measurement error and construct validity issues. Our study provides an example of how generalizability theory can be useful in this pursuit.     

Computer-Assisted Career Guidance and Single-Subject Research: A Scientist-Practitioner Approach to Accountability

In this article the author discusses how computer-assisted career counselors can become more accountable for their services by using intensive research designs. An overview of computer-assisted career guidance (CACG) is presented, and the relevance of the scientist-practitioner model is discussed. Applicable single-subject research, including simple and complex phase changes, alternating treatment designs, and replication are presented with examples for accountable CACG counseling. If your client has changed, how do you know it? —Jerry Schmidt To understand individuals, it is necessary to study individuals. —Leo Goldman     

IS THERE METHOD TO THE MADNESS? EXAMINING HOW RACIOETHNIC MATCHING INFLUENCES RETAIL STORE PRODUCTIVITY

This article considers the efficacy of matching the racioethnicity of employees and the customer base as a human resource strategy within service organizations. Despite being advocated widely, the literature on its effectiveness is scant and riddled with conflicting findings. We revisit the theoretical rationale underlying this strategy, formulate new theory, and introduce the demographic representativeness construct (i.e., the congruence between employee and customer base profiles) to the organizational literature to test our hypotheses. Using multisource data pertaining to 739 stores of a U.S. retailer, the results indicate a positive effect of racioethnic representativeness on productivity, which is accounted for by improved customer satisfaction. Moreover, additional analyses showed this indirect relationship to be more pronounced in stores with larger minority customer bases.     

THE WILD AND CROOKED TREE: BARTH, FISH, AND INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITIES

God the Spirit by Michael Welker
Karl Barth's Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology: Its Genesis and Development 1909-1936 by Bruce L. McCormack
God Owes Us Nothing: A Brief Remark on Pascal's Religion and on the Spirit of Jansenism by Leszek Kolakowski
The Gift of Death by Jacques Derrida, trans. David Wills
Desiring Theology by Charles E. Winquist
Postmodern Theologies. The Challenge of Religious Diversity by Terrence W. Tilley, with others