HRM in professional service firms : engendering commitment to what or whom?

Professional service firms (PSFs) present HR professionals with a number of unique challenges, as they share characteristics of both service and knowledge intensive organizations. While many of these firms are relying on High Commitment Work Practices (HCWPs) to enhance critical employee behaviors such as service quality and turnover, the analysis presented in this paper raises questions about traditional understandings of commitment in professional service environments. In particular, data from three Danish financial investment PSFs suggest that employees are more committed to developing and promoting their own professions than to the organization itself, which has important implications for the way in which HCWPs are designed and utilized. In addition, the focus of HCWP research has favored the use of social exchange theory as an underpinning framework for considering the impact of HR practices on employee commitment. In the context of PSFs, we question the applicability of social exchange theory and instead draw upon the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) framework (1982) to analyze how specific HRM practices contribute to the development of commitment, and to successful organizational outcomes in PSFs.

Business planning in emerging firms : do nascent and young firms use business planning differently

Previous research suggested that due to the uncertainties surrounding the venture creation process, planning activities may be more valuable for already operating firms than for emerging ventures (McGrath and MacMillan, 1995). Business planning may serve different purposes during the early stages of the venture development process. Early planning during the nascent stage may be used to marshal the resources toward the achievement of preliminary goals (Locke and Latham, 2000), to gain external legitimization and funding (Karlssson & Honig, 2009; Stinchcombe, 1965). Planning may reduce the risk of future failure by facilitating the decision making process of launching -or not- the venture (Chwolka & Raith, 2011) by analysing the opportunity and its market potential (Boyd, 1991; Delmar & Shane, 2003). In later stages, planning may have a more internal role and may act as a strategic implementation tool (Brews & Hunt, 1999). However, if the reasons why ventures should engage (Frese, 2009) –or not- (Honig, 2004) in business planning have been investigated quite extensively (Brinckmann et al., 2010), how business plans are actually used over time by new ventures at different stages of their development and how these uses impact the performance of the firms are still unclear.

Family law issues and schools : guidance for Australian educators

A substantial number of Australian children are now living in separated families, with many moving between their parents’ homes. This has led to educators being confronted with an increasing number of family law issues. This article discusses the key aspects of family law that involve children. It highlights the need for schools to be aware of all family law orders that relate to children in their care, including family court, domestic violence and child protection orders. It also provides guidance in relation to how schools can adopt child focused approaches in some common scenarios, where parents are in dispute. In particular, we will recommend that educators take a child-focused approach, consistent with the principal provision of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) that ‘the best interests of the child’ be the paramount consideration. We will highlight how this contrasts starkly with what can be described as a ‘parental rights’ interpretation, which has unfortunately been taken by some since the 2006 amendments to the Family Law Act, and is, in our view, directly at odds with the intention of the legislation.

Development of self-efficacy questionnaire for Chinese family caregivers

The purpose of this study was to develop a Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Chinese Family Caregivers. Semi-structured interviews with 10 family caregivers of people with dementia were conducted to explore how Chinese caregivers manage caregiving and what difficulties they face. The findings of the study assisted in the development of the instrument. Five categories of caregiver behaviours were identified from the qualitative data: gathering information about treatment, symptoms, and health care; obtaining support; responding to behaviour disturbances; managing household, personal, and medical care; and managing distress associated with caregiving. The challenges of caregiving were also identified, including deterioration of care recipients, particularly their behaviour disturbances, a shortage of supportive resources, stigmatization of dementia among the general population, as well as increased distress and decreased social activities due to increased care demand. The findings were used to develop the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Chinese Family Caregivers, and 35 items comprising five subscales (representing the above five categories of caregiver behaviour) were generated.

Multiple founders and firm value

In this paper, we highlight the existence of multi-founder firms, which were founded by multiple individuals (with no family connections) who are still actively involved in the firm as directors and/or managers. These firms provide a unique setting to shed further light on the net valuation effects of founder involvement. In particular, multi-founder firms provide us with the opportunity to examine the benefits and costs to shareholders of multiple founders involved as directors, CEOs and managers in the same firm. Our analysis indicates that multi-founder firms are more valuable than all other types of firms, including single-founder firms and family firms, with the valuation premium positively related to the number of founders involved in the firm. Further analysis confirms that this valuation premium is linked to the direct involvement of the multiple founders as directors and CEOs. However, further founder involvement in vice president positions has a negative relationship with firm value.

Educational stress among Chinese adolescents : individual, family, school and peer influences

Educational stress is common among school children and adolescents, especially in Asian countries. This study aims to identify factors associated with perceived educational stress among students in China. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted with 1627 students (Grades 7–12) from six secondary schools in rural and urban areas of Shandong Province. A wide range of individual, family, school and peer factors were associated with stress measured using the Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA). Rural school location, low school connectedness, perceived poor academic grades, female gender, older age and frequent emotional conflicts with teachers and peers were among the strongest correlates, and most of them are school- or study-related. Unexpectedly, family and parental factors were found to have little or no association with children’s perceived educational stress. These findings may offer directions for interventions in secondary school settings.

Child, Adolescent and Family Development [3rd ed.]

"This book explores the foundations of modern developmental thought, incorporating the latest in international research set within a cultural and historical context. Richly illustrated and enhanced by a range of practical teaching resources, this clear and engaging text is intended to reach students across a range of teaching, psychology, social science and health science disciplines. By employing a thematic approach within the chronologically ordered chapters, this text offers a systematic and intuitive structure for both learning and teaching. This new edition features a set of fully updated case studies that consider current trends and issues in developmental theory and practice, as well as end-of-chapter sections that address important stages in the family life cycle."--publisher website

The underlying rationale for planning: do nascent and young firms do what they say they do?

Previous studies investigating the relationships between business planning and performance have led to inconclusive results (Brinckmann et al., 2010; Delmar & Shane, 2003; Frese, 2009; Gruber, 2007; Honig & Karlsson, 2004). Institutional theory argues that firms develop business plans as an answer to external and internal pressures to gain legitimization (Delmar & Shane, 2004) and funding from different stakeholders (Karlsson & Honig, 2009). Action theory suggests that planning will pave the new venture creation journey by providing milestones and a program to implement (Frese, 2009). However, studies with an institutional perspective imply that nascent firms are either conforming to or looking for the benefits of these external or internal pressures (Karlsson & Honig, 2009) while action theory assumes that the plans will be implemented (Frese, 2009). This paper attempts to (i) investigate if the intended uses of the business plans provided by nascent and young firms match their actual uses during their venture creation process and (ii) to examine how the types of uses of business plans impact the firms’ outcomes over three years.

Challenging the female underperformance hypothesis

In their recent review of prior studies examining firm performance, Klapper and Parker (2010, p.7) conclude that “women entrepreneurs tend to underperform relative to their male counterparts.” However, Robb and Watson (2011) argue that much of this prior research is based on inappropriate performance measures and/or does not adequately control (due to data limitations) for important demographic differences. Given the conflicting findings reported in the literature, the aim of this study is to replicate the study by Robb and Watson (2011) to see if their findings can be generalized to another geographical location. Our results, based on an analysis of 209 female-owned and 263 male-owned young Australian firms, confirm those of Robb and Watson (2011). We believe that this outcome should help dispel the female underperformance myth; which if left unchallenged could result in inappropriate policy decisions and, more importantly, could discourage women from establishing new ventures.

The moderating role of learning on competitive advantage : longitudinal evidence from young firms

The question of how young firms reconcile the absence of well-established learning routines arising from the “liabilities of newness” with the “learning advantages of newness” has received scant attention in entrepreneurship. While older firms follow established learning routines and sometimes face problems in overcoming inertia, young firms with lower levels of inertia are better poised to explore, search and test unique avenues for their products and services. The process of learning and capability development as well as establishing uniqueness in their product offerings is an important part not only in the early stages of firm growth, but also in firm survival. Given their inexperience, for young firms, these learning processes are iterative and include contrasting learning loops that sometimes progress and at other times digress from initially perceived unique ideas. Such processes are embedded within capabilities that the firm develops and nurtures. Based on this premise and adopting a capabilities-based view, we examine how strategic networks and environmental knowledge affects uniqueness- mediated performance in young firms. We identify firms with digressive learning strategies based on their self-assessment of learning and compare them with other firms to demonstrate a differential effect on performance.

Client adaptiveness in entrepreneurship and its effect on sustained competitive advantage in project-orientated service firms

Important differences exist in how service firms operate in comparison with manufacturing firms (c.f. Johne & Storey, 1998; Tether, 2002). Despite these significant differences, not much is known whether these differences extrapolate to entrepreneurship in the services industry. This study seeks to address this gap by investigating how value creation occurs when project-oriented firms1 adopt client adaptiveness as part of their entrepreneurial posture. Specifically, we examine the effect of client adaptiveness on sustained competitive advantage. Client adaptiveness is conceptualized as the extent to which an organization engages in identifying and responding to perceived client needs and wants which reflects the service firm’s propensity to dynamically synchronize with the project/client requirements.

A framework for life cycle cost estimation of a product family at the early stage of product development

A cost estimation method is required to estimate the life cycle cost of a product family at the early stage of product development in order to evaluate the product family design. There are difficulties with existing cost estimation techniques in estimating the life cycle cost for a product family at the early stage of product development. This paper proposes a framework that combines a knowledge based system and an activity based costing techniques in estimating the life cycle cost of a product family at the early stage of product development. The inputs of the framework are the product family structure and its sub function. The output of the framework is the life cycle cost of a product family that consists of all costs at each product family level and the costs of each product life cycle stage. The proposed framework provides a life cycle cost estimation tool for a product family at the early stage of product development using high level information as its input. The framework makes it possible to estimate the life cycle cost of various product family that use any types of product structure. It provides detailed information related to the activity and resource costs of both parts and products that can assist the designer in analyzing the cost of the product family design. In addition, it can reduce the required amount of information and time to construct the cost estimation system.

Family violence or woman abuse? Putting gender back into the Canadian research equation

Research on violence against women has been among the most scrutinized areas in social science. From the beginning, efforts to empirically document the prevalence, incidence, and characteristics of violence against women have been hotly debated (DeKeseredy, 2011; Dragiewicz & DeKeseredy, forthcoming; Minaker & Snider, 2006). Objections that violence against women was rare have given way to acknowledgement that it is more common than once thought. Research on the outcomes of woman abuse has documented the serious ramifications of this type of violence for individual victims and the broader community. However, violence against women was not simply “discovered” by scholars in the 1960s, leading to a progressive growth of the literature. Knowledge production around violence against women has been fiercely contested, and feminist insights in particular have always been met with backlash(Gotell, 2007; Minkaer & Snider, 2006; Randall, 1989; Sinclair, 2003)...

The family participation in child care project

Working with families has long been a fundamental tenet of quality child care services. While there is broad agreement that family participation in child care offers multiple benefits to all concerned, many educators continue to identify this as one of the more challenging aspects of their work. There are a number of perceived barriers to participation, including time constraints, different needs and expectations and the lack of confidence and capacity to support genuine participation. What is interesting, and often overlooked, is that these are shared issues and relate to both educators and parents. Recognising the importance and challenge of family participation in child care, the Brisbane South Professional Support Network PSN), a network facilitated by the Health and Community Services Workforce Council is leading a collaborative research project to build educator knowledge and capacity to promote and support relationship building, meaningful dialogue and genuine partnerships in child care. This article reports on findings from the first phase of this study, identifying parent views and experiences of partnership and articipation in child care services. Findings highlight preferred methods of information sharing and seeking, identify barriers to communication and participation and provide insight into parent expectations of partnerships with educators.

A highly divergent South African geminivirus species illuminates the ancient evolutionary history of this family

Background. We have characterised a new highly divergent geminivirus species, Eragrostis curvula streak virus (ECSV), found infecting a hardy perennial South African wild grass. ECSV represents a new genus-level geminivirus lineage, and has a mixture of features normally associated with other specific geminivirus genera. Results. Whereas the ECSV genome is predicted to express a replication associated protein (Rep) from an unspliced complementary strand transcript that is most similar to those of begomoviruses, curtoviruses and topocuviruses, its Rep also contains what is apparently a canonical retinoblastoma related protein interaction motif such as that found in mastreviruses. Similarly, while ECSV has the same unusual TAAGATTCC virion strand replication origin nonanucleotide found in another recently described divergent geminivirus, Beet curly top Iran virus (BCTIV), the rest of the transcription and replication origin is structurally more similar to those found in begomoviruses and curtoviruses than it is to those found in BCTIV and mastreviruses. ECSV also has what might be a homologue of the begomovirus transcription activator protein gene found in begomoviruses, a mastrevirus-like coat protein gene and two intergenic regions. Conclusion. Although it superficially resembles a chimaera of geminiviruses from different genera, the ECSV genome is not obviously recombinant, implying that the features it shares with other geminiviruses are those that were probably present within the last common ancestor of these viruses. In addition to inferring how the ancestral geminivirus genome may have looked, we use the discovery of ECSV to refine various hypotheses regarding the recombinant origins of the major geminivirus lineages. © 2009 Varsani et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.