THE IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCE AND OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON COMPANY PRODUCTIVITY: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Within the strategic human resource management (SHRM) perspective, psychology‐based practices, especially empowerment, extensive training, and teamwork, are seen as vital to sustained competitive advantage. Other approaches, such as those of integrated manufacturing and lean production, place greater emphasis on operational initiatives such as total quality management, just‐in‐time, advanced manufacturing technology, and supply‐chain partnering as determinants of organizational performance. We investigated the relative merits of these practices through a study of the productivity of 308 companies over 22 years, during which time they implemented some or all of these 7 practices. Consistent with SHRM theory we found performance benefits from empowerment and extensive training, with the adoption of teamwork serving to enhance both. In contrast, none of the operational practices were directly related to productivity nor did they interact with other practices in ways fully consistent with the notions of integrated manufacturing or lean production.     

Reading and spelling skills in the first school years predicted from phonemic awareness skills in kindergarten

A series of metalinguistic tasks, including segmentation and synthesis of words, were given to 143 children in kindergarten. The children were followed up in school where reading and writing achievement was assessed with several tests and ratings. A causal model was postulated concering the relationships between general abilities, metalinguistic competence, and reading and spelling skills. The quantitative implications of the model were worked out by path analysis, which revealed an orderly and interpretable picture. The most invariant and important determinant of basic reading and spelling skills was the analysis of simple words. Failure and success in school could be predicted with high accuracy on the basis of preschool data. Over 70% of the children were classified correctly in the extreme quartiles as to their future school achievement. The methodological advantage of applying path analysis instead of conventional multiple regression analysis on the present problem was discussed.     

DOING GOOD,FEELING GOOD: EXAMINING THE ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIORS IN CHANGING MOOD

This study investigates whether the altruism and courtesy dimensions of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) regulate mood at work. Social psychological theories of mood regulation suggest helping behaviors can improve individuals’ moods because helping others provides gratification and directs attention away from one's negative mood. We capture mood states prior to and following the enactment of OCBs using experience sampling methodology in a sample of managerial and professional employees over a 3‐week period. Results suggest altruism shows a pattern consistent with mood regulation; negative moods during the prior time period are associated with altruism and positive moods in the subsequent time period. The pattern of results for courtesy behaviors is only partially consistent with a mood regulation explanation. Consistent with theories of behavioral concordance, interaction results suggest individuals higher on Extroversion have more intense positive mood reactions after engaging in altruistic behaviors. Interactions with courtesy were not significant.     

ON THE VALIDITY OF SUBJECTIVE MEASURES OF COMPANY PERFORMANCE

Subjective measures of company performance are widely used in research and typically are interpreted as equivalent to objective measures. Yet, the assumption of equivalence is open to challenge. We compared the use of both types of measure in 3 separate samples. Findings were consistent in showing that: (a) subjective and objective measures of company performance were positively associated (convergent validity); (b) those relationships were stronger than those between measures of differing aspects of performance using the same method (discriminant validity); and (c) the relationships of subjective and objective company performance measures with a range of independent variables were equivalent (construct validity).     

RIVER RIDGE III: THE CAMPAIGN THAT FAILED

Further tests of modernity and the attributes of an innovation were conducted to assess their usefulness in determining why the River Ridge campaign failed. It was found that failure was in part due to the differential perceptions of the issues which existed between members of the community and those conducting the campaign. Also, it was found that there was much greater contact between the change agents and members of modern precincts than there was with members of traditional precincts.