Leadership propensity and sales performance among sales personnel and managers in a speciality retail store setting

We propose that specialty store managers, as well as outside sales personnel attached to the store, have selling responsibilities. In addition, we propose that sales personnel, as well as store managers, should have a propensity for leadership, which reflects an individual's enduring disposition to exhibit leadership within the context of his or her organizational roles. In two studies, we develop a new individual difference measure of propensity to lead and investigate its nomological validity within a specialty retail store environment. As predicted, leadership propensity was predictive of self-rated sales performance and a proclivity to identify prospects through cold calls to close sales, to reveal customer orientation, and to exhibit organizational citizenship behavior. We found that propensity to lead did not differ between salespeople and retail store managers, but we found that the respondent's role moderated the relationship between propensity to lead and supervisor performance ratings. Study limitations and managerial implications of this heretofore unidentified trait of salespeople are discussed.

The impact of buddying on psychological capital, work engagement and turnover intentions:an empirical study of socialization in the professional services sector

This article reports on a study investigating the impact of new employees' satisfaction with buddying on work engagement and explores the role of psychological capital in mediating this relationship. The study took place within a professional services organization wherein data were collected from 78 graduate newcomers in receipt of buddying. Satisfaction with buddying was found to have a positive relationship to both work engagement and psychological capital. The satisfaction with the buddy/work engagement relationship was fully mediated by psychological capital, providing support for Saks & Gruman's (2011) socialization resources theory. The results underscore the valuable role buddying can play as part of organizational socialization from a positive organizational behavior perspective. The research contributes to the growing evidence that positively oriented human resource practices can develop personal resources of newcomers within organizations. Recommendations are made for how the organization can improve and build upon this resource, thus developing the psychological capital of newcomers. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Tissue protein turnover and its modulation by biochemical, nutritional and physiological factors

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The impact of lean practices on inventory turnover

Lean manufacturing (LM) is currently enjoying its second heyday. Companies in several industries are implementing leanpractices to keep pace with the competition and achieve better results. In this article, we will concentrate on how companies can improve their inventoryturnover performance through the use ofleanpractices. According to our main proposition, firms that widely apply leanpractices have higher inventoryturnover than those that do not rely on LM. However, there may be significant differences in inventoryturnover even among lean manufacturers depending on their contingencies. Therefore, we also investigate how various contingency factors (production systems, order types, product types) influence theinventoryturnoveroflean manufacturers. We use cluster and correlation analysis to separate manufacturers based onthe extent of their leanness and to examine the effect of contingencies. We acquired the data from the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) in ISIC sectors 28–35.

Civil service reform trends in public personnel management: Experiences from the Commonwealth of the Bahamas

This study has explored the potential for implementing a merit-based public personnel system in The Bahamas, a former British colony in The Commonwealth Caribbean. Specifically, the study evaluated the use of merit-based public personnel management practices in areas of recruitment, selection, promotion, training and employee development and performance evaluation. Driving forces and barriers which impact merit system successes and failures as well as strategies for institutionalizing merit system practices are identified. Finally the study attempted to apply the developmental model created by Klingner (1996) to describe the stage of public personnel management in The Bahamas. The data for the study was collected through in-depth interviews with expert observers. ^

A comparison of the impact of trained media specialists and untrained media personnel in junior colleges in the Republic of China

From educational, communications, psychological, and technical points of view, the renovation of pedagogy in media education is based upon the promotion of "educational technology." The promotion of educational technology relies upon the appropriate availability and knowledge of different educational media made available by the trained media personnel.^ In the past three decades most of the junior colleges in Taiwan set up educational media centers to help students learn through the use of media which enables them to obtain optimum benefits in a short time. What are the roles the media personnel play in the media center? What responsibilities have they to bear in the center? What differences are there when a trained and untrained media personnel are presented in junior colleges media center in Taiwan? What do the trained and untrained media personnel feel toward the importance of each media service in the area of media center's administration, media production, specialized media duties, and the training of staff in media use? These are the questions addressed in this study.^ Through the study of the related literature and a survey conducted in the junior colleges in Taiwan, recommendations are offered to provide improvement of the services and training of media specialists in Taiwan that are appropriate for a changing work and environment. These recommendations are for media specialists to be formally trained to effectively serve the changing needs of school library media so as to make optimal use of media in the junior colleges. ^

Sexual harassment of Miami-Dade County Public School students by school personnel

The purpose of this research was to assess the type and extent of sexual harassment of Miami-Dade County Public School (M-DCPS) students by school employees. In addition, the school system's existing procedures for handling such harassment were investigated, including students' awareness of and willingness to follow such procedures.^ Over 500 seniors from fourteen high schools around the county completed surveys which asked them to indicate whether or not they had received training on the topic of sexual harassment, whether or not they were aware of their school's policy on sexual harassment, whether or not they would feel comfortable reporting an incident of sexual harassment, whether or not they had experienced various forms of sexual harassment, and if they had been harassed, whether or not they reported the incident to a school official.^ Results indicated that sexual harassment of M-DCPS students by school employees is widespread, and the procedures that are currently in place to deal with this harassment are ineffective. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of the sample population indicated that a school employee had sexually harassed them; however, only four percent (4%) reported the incident to a school official. Responses indicated that this discrepancy exists because few students have received any training, few are aware of their schools' policies, and few are comfortable with the existing reporting procedures. ^

The Ghana National Service Scheme: Perceptions of former educational personnel, students and guardians

The purpose of this inquiry was to investigate the perceptions of former service personnel, students and their parents about the organizational effectiveness of the Ghana National Service Scheme (GNSS). The inquiry addressed the following questions: How do the participants perceive the effectiveness of the national service program on the Ghanaian society? What are the perceptions of school administrators who worked with service personnel, parents and students vis-à-vis the over all impact of the GNSS on the educational system? What are the perceptions of former service personnel, students and their parents in regard to the impact of the GNSS on them? ^ The GNSS is a part within the ministry of education, which is also part in the Ghanaian social structure. Hence, a systems theory approach which asks, “How and why a system as a whole functions as it does” (Patton, 1990), was utilized in the study. Methodologies included purposive sampling; interviews; participant observation, and follow-up interviews. The study was conducted over a six-moth period. ^ A cross-sectional survey design was used to generate data. The survey was followed up with an ethnographic study where in-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted together with observations. The results were described and interpreted. ^ The summary of findings concludes that perceptional determinants of the effectiveness of the GNSS were biased by the age and zone of origin but not gender. This partially agrees with Marenin's (1990) except for gender. A significant difference was detected between the responses of those who were officials of the National service Secretariat and of former service personnel. The administrators defended the status quo and demonstrated their deeper knowledge about the scheme. The former personnel and parents freely criticized the program when necessary and did not seem to know much about the GNSS. Respondents mostly stressed the need for the secretariat to focus on the following areas: (1) involvement in the agricultural sector of the economy, (2) involvement in rural mass, civic and health education, (3) adequacy of remuneration and personnel welfare, and (4) ensuring posting of personnel to areas of their expertise. Recommendation for further research concluded the study. ^

Three essays on entrepreneurial entry, serial entrepreneurship, and labor turnover

This study explores two important aspects of entrepreneurship — liquidity constraints and serial entrepreneurs, with an additional analysis of occupational choice among wage workers. In the first essay, I revisit the question of whether entrepreneurs face liquidity constraints in business formation. The principle challenge is that wealth is correlated with unobserved ability, and adequate instruments are often difficult to identify. This paper uses the son's birth order as an instrument for household wealth. I exploit the data available in the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study, and find evidence of liquidity constraints associated with self-employment in South Korea. The second essay develops and tests a model that explains entry into serial entrepreneurship and the performance of serial entrepreneurs as the result of selection on innate ability. The model supposes that agents establish businesses with imperfect information about their entrepreneurial ability and the profitability of business ideas. Agents continually observe signals with which they update their beliefs, and this process eventually determines their next business choice. Selection on ability induces a positive correlation between entrepreneurial experience (measured by previous business earnings and founding experience) and serial business formation, as well as its subsequent performance. The predictions in the model are tested using panel data from the NLSY79. The analysis permits a distinction to be made between selection on innate ability and learning by doing. Motivated by previous empirical findings that white-collar workers had higher turnover rates than blue-collar workers during firm expansion, the third essay further examines job turnover among workers with or without specific skills. I present a search-matching model, which predicts that when firm growth is driven by technological advance, workers whose skills are specific to the obsolete technology show a higher tendency to separate from their jobs. This hypothesis is tested with data from the PSID. I find supportive evidence that in the context of technological change, having an occupation requiring specific skills, such as computer specialists or engineers, increases the odds of job separation by nearly eight percent. ^

Audit committee director turnover

Actions by both private sector organizations and legislators in recent years have highlighted the importance of the audit committee of the board of directors of corporations in the financial reporting process. For example, the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 has multiple sections that deal with the composition and functioning of audit committees. My dissertation examines multiple issues related to the composition of audit committees. In the first two parts of my dissertation, I examine the stock market reactions to disclosures of audit committee appointments and departures in the 8-Ks filed with the SEC during 2008 and 2009. I find that there is a positive stock market reaction to the appointment of audit committee directors who are financial experts. The second essay investigates the cumulative abnormal return to departure of audit committee directors. I find that when an accounting expert leaves the audit committee, the market reaction is significantly negative. These results are consistent with regulators’ concerns related to having directors with audit, accounting and other financial expertise on corporate audit committees. The third essay of my dissertation examines the changes in audit committee composition in the last decade. I find that while the increase in audit committee size is relatively modest, there has been a significant increase in the number of audit committee experts and the frequency of audit committee meetings over the past decade; interestingly, such increase in the number of meetings has persisted even after the media focus on the auditing profession, in the immediate aftermath of the Enron and Andersen failures, have waned. My results show that audit committee composition and its role continues to evolve with regulatory and other corporate governance related changes.

Regional processes in mangrove ecosystems: spatial scaling relationships, biomass, and turnover rates following catastrophic disturbance

Physiological processes and local-scale structural dynamics of mangroves are relatively well studied. Regional-scale processes, however, are not as well understood. Here we provide long-term data on trends in structure and forest turnover at a large scale, following hurricane damage in mangrove ecosystems of South Florida, U.S.A. Twelve mangrove vegetation plots were monitored at periodic intervals, between October 1992 and March 2005. Mangrove forests of this region are defined by a −1.5 scaling relationship between mean stem diameter and stem density, mirroring self-thinning theory for mono-specific stands. This relationship is reflected in tree size frequency scaling exponents which, through time, have exhibited trends toward a community average that is indicative of full spatial resource utilization. These trends, together with an asymptotic standing biomass accumulation, indicate that coastal mangrove ecosystems do adhere to size-structured organizing principles as described for upland tree communities. Regenerative dynamics are different between areas inside and outside of the primary wind-path of Hurricane Andrew which occurred in 1992. Forest dynamic turnover rates, however, are steady through time. This suggests that ecological, more-so than structural factors, control forest productivity. In agreement, the relative mean rate of biomass growth exhibits an inverse relationship with the seasonal range of porewater salinities. The ecosystem average in forest scaling relationships may provide a useful investigative tool of mangrove community biomass relationships, as well as offer a robust indicator of general ecosystem health for use in mangrove forest ecosystem management and restoration.

The Effects of Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, Organizational Citizenship Behavior on Turnover Intentions

The current study investigated the effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intentions. The study also examined the effect of organizational citizenship behavior on turnover intentions. Frontline employees working in five-star hotels in North Cyprus were selected as a sample. The result of multiple regression analyses revealed that job satisfaction is positively related to organizational citizenship behavior and negatively related to turnover intentions. Affective organizational commitment was found to be positively related to organizational citizenship behavior. However, the study found no significant relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Furthermore, organizational citizenship behavior was negatively associated with turnover intentions. The study provides discussion and avenues for future research.

Correlates of Non-Institutional Food Service Turnover

The high rate of restaurant employee turnover, particularly of the non-supervisory employee, is a continuing problem. The authors assess the possible correlates of this turnover and their relative strengths, ranking and comparing working hours, quality of supervision, chance for promotion, on-the-job training, pay, work of others, employees' attitudes, and management's interest in employees to present possible solutions for the high rate of turnover.

Turnover Intent Among Middle School Teachers

The purpose of the study was to examine the relations among mentoring, adaptation, satisfaction, commitment, and turnover intention. Two-hundred fifty two middle school teachers from ten Midwestern U.S. schools were surveyed. Hierarchical regression results demonstrated that positive mentoring experiences, successful adaptation, and greater commitment reduced the likelihood of turnover intent.