Market Characteristics, Intra-Firm Coordination, and the Choice of Human Resource Management Systems: Evidence from New Japanese Data

This paper explores theoretically and empirically potentially important yet often-neglected linkage between task coordination within the organization and the structure of organization and bundling of HRMPs (Human Resource Management Practices). In so doing, we also provide fresh insights on the interplay between the firm’s technological and output market characteristics and its choice of HRMP system. We begin with constructing a team-theoretic model and derive three task coordination modes: vertical control, horizontal coordination, and hybrid coordination. The model provides rich implications about complementarity involving task coordination modes, HRMPs, training and hiring, and management strategies, and illustrates how such complementarity is affected by the firm’s technological and output market conditions. Guided by the theoretical exploration, we analyze unique data from a new survey of Japanese firms which provide for the first time data on newer forms of HRMPs adopted by Japanese firms (such as cross-functional offline teams and self-managed online teams). One novel finding (which is consistent with the theory) is that the adoption of both self-managed online teams and cross-functional offline teams usually arises in firms with shop-floor committees while the introduction of cross-functional offline teams alone often takes place in firms with joint labor-management committees. We also confirm implications from our theory that firms in more competitive markets are more likely to adopt both types of teams while firms facing more erratic price movement tend not to adopt self-managed online teams.

The Impact of Group Diversity on Performance and Knowledge Spillover -- An Experiment in a College Classroom

An important yet under-explored question in the teamwork literature concerns how group characteristics affect productivity. Within a given teamwork setting, it is not obvious how group member diversity affects the performance of the individual and the group. The group may gain from knowledge transfer and sharing while it may be crippled by communication and coordination problems that are prevalent in heterogeneous groups. In this study, we combine class performance data from an undergraduate management class with students%u2019 personal records to explore diversity and knowledge spillover effects. A major advantage of our dataset is the exogenous assignment of groups, which rules out the troublesome yet common self-selection issue in team literature. Our results indicate that male-dominant groups performed worse both in group work and in individually taken exams than female-dominant and equally-mixed gender groups after controlling for other group characteristics. Individual members from a group with more diversity in age and gender scored higher in exams. However, we did not find any significance of a group%u2019s racial composition over group and individual performances. Another novel aspect of this natural experiment is that each group chooses their own group contract form %u2013 members of %u201Cautonomous%u201D groups receive equal grade for their group work while those in "democratic" groups can adopt differentiated point allocation, thus, providing a proper mechanism to punish free riders. Our estimation results show a significant correlation between the choice of a democratic contract and the group and individual performance. To address the endogeneity problem in groups%u2019 contract choices, we use a maximum likelihood treatment effect model and found that the democratic group contract has a positive and significant effect on group performance.

Complexity, Uncertainty, and Organizational Congruency

Many scholars in the fields of organization theory and management strategy have argued that there is a tension between the two types of organizational learning activities, exploration and exploitation. They appear to be substitutes: the greater the skill at one, the harder it is to do the other well. It is often argued that the two activities compete for scarce resources when firms need different capabilities and management policies to promote one over the other. We present another explanation that attributes the phenomenon to the dynamic interactions among the activities, search, knowledge sharing, evaluation, and alignment within organizations relying on the NK Landscape framework (Kauffman 1993). Our results show that successful organizations tend to bifurcate into two types: those that always promote individual initiatives and build organizational strengths on individual learning and those good at aligning the individual knowledge base and exploiting shared knowledge. Straddling between the two types often fails. The intuition is that an equal mixture of individual search and organizational alignment slows down individual learning compared to the first orga nization type while making it difficult to update institutionalized knowledge because individuals' knowledge base is not so sufficiently aligned as in the second type. In such gstraddlingh organizations, once individuals get stuck with locally-best solutions in an uncoordinated manner, they cannot agree on how to improve the organizational knowledge. Straddling is especially inefficient when the operation is sufficiently complex (in other words, the interdependency is high) or when the business environment is sufficiently uncertain.

How should teams be formed and managed?

The keys to effective teamwork in firms are (1) carefully designed team-formation policies that take into account what level of diversity of skills, knowledge, and demographics is desirable and (2) balanced team-based incentives. Employers need to choose policies that maximize the gains from teamwork through task coordination, problem solving, peer monitoring, and peer learning. Unions and labor market regulations may facilitate or hinder firmsâ attempts at introducing teams and team-based incentives

Working Hours, Promotion and the Gender Gap in the Workplace

This paper presents a novel model of promotion within the firm which sheds new light on the interplay between working hours and the odds of subsequent promotion. The model's key feature is the coexistence of two different sources of asymmetric information: (i) the worker's cost of long working hours: and (ii) the worker's OJT ability (the worker's ability to accumulate valuable human capital on the job through learning by doing). The worker's cost of working long hours is known only to the worker, while the worker's OJT ability is accurately assessed only by the firm observing him/her on the job. Long working hours signal the worker's commitment to the firm, which determines the surplus produced when the worker is promoted. Thus, the firm provides the worker with managerial training only after observing the employee's hours worked, a signal of his/her commitment to the firm or lack thereof. The firm's decision to provide training also depends on its private information about the worker's OJT ability, which affects his/her future productivity if and when the worker gets promoted. Upon completion of training, the firm then promotes the worker. The model illuminates under what conditions, it is efficient for the firm to adopt the information revelation strategy – reveal its private information on the worker's OJT ability to him/her before the worker decides on whether to work long hours and signal his/her commitment. Using the model, we show that under a reasonable set of conditions, the firm may find it optimal to adopt the information revelation strategy for women but not for men, and derive an empirical testable hypothesis that the correlation between working hours and subsequent promotion will be stronger for women than for men. We analyze longitudinal personnel data from a large Japanese manufacturing firm and provide rigorous econometric evidence in support of the hypothesis

Conflict management strategies and secondary school teachers’ job effectiveness in Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria

The study investigated conflict management strategies and secondary school teachers’ job effectiveness in Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State. Six null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted correlational and factorial research designs. Purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of 222 teachers from a population of 352 secondary school teachers. Conflict Management Strategies Questionnaire (CMSQ) and Secondary School Teachers’ Job Effectiveness Questionnaire (SSTJEQ) were used respectively, as instruments for data collection. The hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance using Population t-test, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression analyses. Findings revealed that, teachers’ job effectiveness level in Obubra Local Government Area is significantly high. Findings also revealed that arbitration, dialogue, and effective communication strategies respectively, had a significant relationship with secondary school teachers’ job effectiveness. Smoothing strategy had no significant relationship to secondary school teachers’ job effectiveness. The findings also revealed among others that; the four conflict management strategies (arbitration, dialogue, effective communication and smoothing) had a joint significant influence on secondary school teachers’ job effectiveness. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that; secondary school principals should not rely totally on one conflict management strategy as the best for all situations, instead they should learn how to use various conflict management strategies, and apply them in any given conflict situation in their schools

Management of educational support services and attainment of universal basic education goals in primary schools in Cross River State

The main objective of this paper was to examine the relationship between management of educational support services and the attainment of Universal Basic Education goals in Cross River State. Three null hypotheses were formulated in this study. The study adopted correlational research design. Census technique was employed in selecting the entire population of 2,078 primary school administrators in the state. The instruments used for data collection were “Management of Educational Support Services Questionnaire (MESSQ); and Attainment of Universal Basic Education Goals Questionnaire (AUBEGQ)” respectively. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while the null hypotheses were all tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis at .05 alpha levels. The results from the study revealed that; management of guidance/counselling services, staff development services, and ICT services are significantly related to the attainment of Universal Basic Education goals respectively. Based on these results, it was recommended among others that; the ministry of education should ensure that there is adequate provision of professional guidance counsellors to every primary school in Cross River State in order to help address the psychological and persona-social needs of the pupils. Contribution/Originality

Some causes of poor performance of pupils in primary school mathematics. A case study in Akamkpa Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria.

The aim of this research was to x-ray some causes of poor performance of pupils in primary school mathematics. Specifically, the study examined the use of instructional materials and pupils’ academic performance in mathematics; parents’ socio-economic background and pupils’ academic performance in mathematics; compared the performance of private and public primary school pupils in mathematics; examined ways in which teachers contribute to pupils’ poor performance in mathematics. The study employed a correlational and quasi- experimental research designs. A simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 270 pupils and 45 teachers drawn from nine primary schools in Akamkpa local government area of Cross River State. A questionnaire and a mathematics achievement test (MAT) were instruments used for data collection. The collected data was analysed using a simple percentage (%) and arithmetic mean (X). The findings of the study revealed that the use of instructional materials adequately led to pupils’ poor performance in mathematics; parents’ socio-economic status contributed to the pupils’ performance in mathematics; pupils in private primary school perform better than their colleagues in public schools in mathematics; and teachers contribute to the poor performance of pupils in mathematics. Based on this results, conclusions and recommendations were made

US BETWEEN STUDENTS’, TEACHERS’ AND SCHOOL SYSTEM EFFECTIVENESS: CONSTRUCTION AND FACTORIAL VALIDITY OFA MEASURING INSTRUMENT

This study explored the nexus between teachers’, students’, and school system model fit for accepting the proposed model. The null hypothesis was tested at .05 level ofsignificance v15, SPSS v23, and Amos v23. Findings from the study revealed,among others that,there is a rotation and eigenvalues greater than one. Cronbach Alpha yieldedreliabilitycoefficients of .982, model fit determined byRMSEA(.068), CFI(.935), TLI(.931), and SRMR(.029) all indicated a good using Path analysis. All the computations and analyses were aided using MS-EXCEL v2016, Stata formulated to guide the study. Convenient sampling technique aided in selecting a sample of 271 principals and 329 teachers from a population of 271 principals and 4,336 teachersrespectively. .983, .930, and.941 obtained for teachers’, students’, school system effectiveness, and the overall effectiveness in Cross River State, following a factorial research design. One null hypothesis was validity of the instrument was established through Factor analyses (EFA and CFA) with Promax effectiveness, and school system effectiveness. It was recommended that the government at all levels should provide funds and supply public schools with good school plants such as buildings, significant direct and indirect parsimonious nexus between teachers’ effectiveness, students’ “Teachers’, Students’ and School System Effectiveness Scale (TSSSES)”was constructed. The instrument. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was employed and revealed a coefficient of .960providing sufficient evidence to conduct factor analysis. The confirmatory factor laboratories, libraries and teaching aids towards promoting effectiveness