The Impact of Job Characteristics on Social and Human Service Workers

The work environment characteristics of job stress, job variety, job autonomy, and supervision are theorized to affect the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of social and human service workers. Most research to date has focused upon the impact of these variables on job satisfaction, with little attention being paid to organizational commitment. To determine the effects these characteristics have on both job satisfaction and organizational commitment, data from a survey of social and human service employees across Northwest Ohio were examined. In Ordinary Least Squares regression, all four job characteristics had a significant impact on job satisfaction, while only job variety and supervision had statistically significant effects on organizational commitment.

Faking or Convincing: Why Do Some Advertising Campaigns Win Creativity Awards?

Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in 2002, it has become commonplace in the advertising industry to use creativity-award-show prizes instead of gross income figures to attract new customers. Therefore, achieving a top creativity ranking and winning creativity awards have become high priorities in the advertising industry. Agencies and marketers have always wondered what elements in the advertising creation process would lead to the winning of creativity awards. Although this debate has been dominated by pure speculation about the success of different routines, approaches and strategies in winning creativity awards, for the first time our study delivers an empirical insight into the key drivers of creativity award success. We investigate what strategies and which elements of an advertising campaign are truly likely to lead to winning the maximum number of creativity awards. Using a sample of 108 campaigns, we identify factors that influence campaign success at international advertising award shows. We identify innovativeness and the integration of multiple channels as the key drivers of creativity award success. In contrast to industry beliefs, meaningful or personally connecting approaches do not seem to generate a significant benefit in terms of winning creativity awards. Finally, our data suggest that the use of so-called “fake campaigns” to win more creativity awards does not prove to be effective.

Perceived Influence and Friendship as Antecedents of Cooperation in Top Management Teams: A Network Approach

Using the relational dyad as unit of analysis this study examines the effects of perceived influence and friendship ties on the formation and maintenance of cooperative relationships between corporate top executives. Specifically, it is argued that perceived influence as well as friendship ties between any two managers will enhance the likelihood that these managers collaborate with each other. Additionally, a negative interaction effect between perceived influence and friendship on cooperation is proposed. The empirical analyses draw on network data that have been collected among all members of the top two organizational levels for the strategy-making process in two multinational firms headquartered in Germany. Applying logistic regression based on QAP the empirical results support our hypotheses on the direct effects between perceived influence, friendship ties, and cooperative relationships in both companies. In addition, we find at least partial support for our assumption that perceived influence and friendship interact negatively with respect to their effect on cooperation. Seemingly, perceived influence is partially substituted by managerial friendship ties.