nep-hrm New Economics Papers
on Human Capital and Human Resource Management
Issue of 2017‒12‒03
eleven papers chosen by
Patrick Kampkötter
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

  1. Is distance dead? Face-to-face communication and productivity in teams By Battiston, Diego; Blanes i Vidal, Jordi; Kirchmaier, Thomas
  2. Agency, firm growth, and managerial turnover By Anderson, Ronald W.; Bustamante, Maria Cecilia; Guibaud, Stéphane; Zervos, Mihail
  3. Firm-Level Early Intervention Incentives: Which Recent Employers of Disability Program Entrants Would Pay More? (Journal Article) By David C. Stapleton; David R. Mann; Pragya Singh; Jae Song
  4. The Influence of Team Efficacy and Intra-group Relationship on Performance and Attribution By Eyal Eckhaus; jeffrey kantor; Galit Klein
  5. Innovative Work Behaviour in High Involvement Work System Ó View through AMO Model By Kosheleva, Sofia V.
  6. Current Situation and Challenges of Human Resources Management of Financial Institutions: Based on the 2017 Attitude Survey of Young and Mid-Level Staff of Japanese Financial Institutions By Nobuyoshi Yamori; Koji Yoneda
  7. More effort with less pay: On information avoidance, optimistic beliefs, and performance By Huck, Steffen; Szech, Nora; Wenner, Lukas M.
  8. Does ethnic conflict impede or enable employee innovation behavior? The alchemic role of collaborative conflict management By Reade, Carol; Lee, Hyun-Jung
  9. What drives differences in management? By Bloom, Nicholas; Brynjolfsson, Erik; Foster, Lucia; Jarmin, Ron; Patnaik, Megha; Saporta-Eksten, Itay; Van Reenen, John
  10. Top Executives on Social Media and Information in the Capital Market: Evidence from China By Feng, Xunan; Johansson, Anders C.
  11. Career Risk and Market Discipline in Asset Management By Andrew Ellul; Marco Pagano; Annalisa Scognamiglio

  1. By: Battiston, Diego; Blanes i Vidal, Jordi; Kirchmaier, Thomas
    Abstract: Has technology made face-to-face communication redundant? We investigate using a natural experiment in an organisation where a worker must communicate complex electronic information to a colleague. Productivity is higher when the teammates are (exogenously) in the same room and, inside the room, when their desks are closer together. We establish face-to-face communication as the main mechanism, and rule out alternative channels such as higher effort by co-located workers. The effect is stronger for urgent and complex tasks, for homogeneous workers, and for high pressure conditions.We highlight the opportunity costs of face-to-face communication and their dependence on organisational slack.
    Keywords: teamwork; face-to-face communication; distance; organisations
    JEL: R14 J01
    Date: 2017–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:83603&r=hrm
  2. By: Anderson, Ronald W.; Bustamante, Maria Cecilia; Guibaud, Stéphane; Zervos, Mihail
    Abstract: We study the relation between firm growth and managerial incentive provision under moral hazard when a long-lived firm is operated by a sequence of managers. In our model, firms replace their managers not only upon poor performance to provide incentives, but also when outside managers are at a comparative advantage to lead the firm through a new growth phase. We show how the optimal contract can be implemented with a system of deferred compensation credit and bonuses, along with dismissal and severance policies. Firms with better investment prospects have higher managerial turnover and rely on more front-loaded compensation schemes. Growth-induced turnover can result in positive severance if the principal needs to incentivize the manager to truthfully report the arrival of a growth opportunity. Realized firm growth depends jointly on the exogenous arrival of growth opportunities and the severity of the moral hazard problem. We also find a new component of agency costs due to the spillover effect of the tenure of the incumbent manager onto the present value of future managers’ compensation.
    Keywords: Dynamic contracting; managerial turnover; growth; moral hazard
    JEL: D82 D86 D92 G30
    Date: 2017–09–25
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:68784&r=hrm
  3. By: David C. Stapleton; David R. Mann; Pragya Singh; Jae Song
    Abstract: We simulate the effects of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) reform proposals that make firms partially responsible for SSDI benefits paid to their former workers. The simulations suggest the proposals (if implemented) would greatly affect firms and the workforces that the firms employ.
    Keywords: economics/social security, employment, labor, policy, system(s) change
    JEL: I J
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:cae81342c4354db58a613c3ae11ca907&r=hrm
  4. By: Eyal Eckhaus (Ariel University); jeffrey kantor (Ariel University); Galit Klein (Ariel University)
    Abstract: The current study examines the influence of team efficacy and intra-group relationship on team performance and team attribution in cases of success and failure. One hundred and twenty nine accountancy students (43 teams) participated in a board game in which one out of three teams won. Findings show that intra-group relationship influences team performance via the mediation of team-efficacy. We also found that positive intra-group relationship was connected to internal locus of causality while negative relationship was linked to external factors, suggesting on group-serving bias. This pattern was differentiated between the two groups in relation to performance. The winning team attributed higher earning capital to internal causes and a lower amount to external factors. This pattern was reversed in the losing team; higher amount of capital was attributed to external reasons, while lower amount was attributed to internal causes. We explained this pattern by differences in team-efficacy and intra-group relationship.
    Keywords: team-efficacy, performance, intra-group relationship, attribution, locus of causality
    Date: 2017–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:5808266&r=hrm
  5. By: Kosheleva, Sofia V.
    Abstract: The research aims to explore individual experience of employees' engagement into Innovative Work Behaviour (IWB), along with personal and contextual characteristics as possible antecedents of it, focusing on the corresponding Strategic Human Capital Management approach Ó High Involvement Work System (HIWS). This is a cross-sectional research; however it relies on introspection of employeesÙ performance during the preceding year. The research revealed positive relationship between ܈IWSÝ and Ü©ntrinsic motivationݬ Ü©ntrinsic motivationÝ and Ü£reativityݬ Ü£reativityÝ and ܉WB. HIWS is still new for CIS countries: it increases employees' motivation, however does not lead to the increased IWB.
    Keywords: human resource management, personnel management, creativity, organizational behavior, innovation, Russia, High Involvement Work System, HIWS,
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sps:cpaper:8677&r=hrm
  6. By: Nobuyoshi Yamori (Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University, Japan); Koji Yoneda (Faculty of Economics, Kumamoto Gakuen University, Japan)
    Abstract: In January 2017, we conducted an attitude survey of young and mid-level financial institution staff. This survey was administered as a follow-up to the “2014 financial institution staff questionnaire” administered in December 2014 (see Yamori and Yoneda (2015), Yamori (2016), etc.), and surveyed respondents’ attitudes towards their current workplaces and work experience, academic history and reasons for choosing employment by their institutions, sense of accomplishment in work and satisfaction with compensation/benefits, the strengths of the financial institutions in which they work, advice for companies and status of support measures, personnel systems and evaluation systems, issues they face in their workplace and workplace conditions, and more. The survey was administered to early- and mid-career financial institution staff in their 20s to 50s (excluding staff with positions of branch chief or higher). Responses were collected from 509 major commercial bank and trust bank staff, 294 regional bank staff, 66 second-tier regional bank staff, 143 credit association staff and 22 credit cooperative staff, for a total of 1034 respondents. In this paper we report the results of the survey related, in particular, to financial institution personnel management.
    Keywords: Regional revitalization, Region-based relationship banking, Regional finance, Personnel evaluation, Questionnaire
    Date: 2017–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2017-33&r=hrm
  7. By: Huck, Steffen; Szech, Nora; Wenner, Lukas M.
    Abstract: Recent behavioral models argue in favor of avoidance of instrumental information. We explore the role of information avoidance in a real-effort setting. Our experiment offers three main results. First, we confirm that preferences for avoidance of instrumental information exist, studying information structures on performance pay. Second, information avoiders outperform information receivers. This result holds independently of effects of self-selection. Third, the findings support theories on information avoidance that favor an optimistic belief design rather than theories that rationalize such behavior as a way to mitigate selfcontrol problems. This suggests that coarse information structures lead agents to distort their beliefs away from the objective prior.
    Keywords: optimal expectations,belief design,performance,real effort task,coarse incentive structures,workplace incentives
    JEL: D83 D84 J31 M52
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbeoc:spii2015304r2&r=hrm
  8. By: Reade, Carol; Lee, Hyun-Jung
    Abstract: Purpose The main objective of the study is to investigate whether a societal context of ethnic conflict influences employee innovation behavior in the work domain, and whether a collaborative conflict management style adopted by supervisors plays a moderating role. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the conflict, organizational behavior and innovation literature, the study examines the main and interaction effects of employee sensitivity to ethnic conflict, organizational frustration, and collaborative conflict management style of supervisors on employee engagement with colleagues to innovate products, services, and job processes. Hypotheses are tested using hierarchical regression analysis, controlling for ethnic diversity in workgroups. Findings Employee innovation behavior is greatest when employee sensitivity to ethnic conflict is high, organizational frustration is low, and when supervisors are perceived to be highly collaborative in managing conflict, regardless of whether the workgroup is ethnically homogenous or diverse. Research limitations/implications The research findings expand our knowledge of the effects of sociopolitical conflict on employee behavior and the role of collaborative conflict management. Future research can address limitations including self-reports, cross-sectional design, and single country setting. Practical implications The findings suggest that employee innovation behavior can be enhanced through developing collaborative conflict management skills of those in leadership positions. Originality/value This is the first study to empirically examine the influence of ethnic conflict on employee innovation behavior, and is of value to businesses operating in conflict settings.
    Keywords: ethnic conflict; employee innovation behaviour; organizational frustration; collaborative conflict management; Sri Lanka
    JEL: J50
    Date: 2016–04–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:65613&r=hrm
  9. By: Bloom, Nicholas; Brynjolfsson, Erik; Foster, Lucia; Jarmin, Ron; Patnaik, Megha; Saporta-Eksten, Itay; Van Reenen, John
    Abstract: Partnering with the Census we implement a new survey of “structured” management practices in 32,000 US manufacturing plants. We find an enormous dispersion of management practices across plants, with 40% of this variation across plants within the same firm. This management variation accounts for about a fifth of the spread of productivity, a similar fraction as that accounted for by R&D, and twice as much as explained by IT. We find evidence for four “drivers” of management: competition, business environment, learning spillovers and human capital. Collectively, these drivers account for about a third of the dispersion of structured management practices.
    Keywords: management; productivity; competition; learning
    JEL: J50
    Date: 2017–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:83600&r=hrm
  10. By: Feng, Xunan (Southwestern University of Finance and Economics); Johansson, Anders C. (Stockholm China Economic Research Institute)
    Abstract: Social media platforms are becoming increasingly important channels for information dissemination. This study examines how microblogging by top executives affects the information environment for listed firms in an emerging market. Using manually collected set from Sina Weibo, one of China’s most popular and largest social media platforms, we find that a board chair having a Weibo account is associated with the dissemination of more firm-specific information to the capital market. This result holds up to a battery of robustness tests. We also show that the relationship between board chairs’ Weibo usage and information dissemination is stronger for smaller firms, firms that went public more recently, and firms characterized by less analyst coverage. Findings in this study have important implications for the understanding of the role of social media in the dissemination process of corporate information.
    Keywords: Social Media; Information dissemination; Capital market; Investors; China
    JEL: G12 G14 M41 N20
    Date: 2017–11–17
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:hascer:2017-047&r=hrm
  11. By: Andrew Ellul (Indiana University and CSEF); Marco Pagano (Università di Napoli Federico II, CSEF, EEIF, CEPR and ECGI); Annalisa Scognamiglio (Università di Napoli Federico II and CSEF)
    Abstract: Using hand-collected data on 1,627 hedge fund employees, we investigate the role of talent and luck in their careers. Upon entry in the hedge fund industry, careers accelerate, especially for employees with high-quality education and asset management experience. However, those who achieve high-ranking positions tend to face significant and permanent career setbacks if their fund is liquidated after persistently under-performing its benchmark. Hence, the “scarring effects” of fund liquidation appear to reflect a loss of reputation rather than the materialization of career risk. Our results reveal a new facet of market discipline in asset management, operating via the labor market.
    Keywords: careers, hedge funds, asset managers, market discipline, scarring effects.
    JEL: G20 G23 J24 J62 J63
    Date: 2017–11–21
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:489&r=hrm

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