Outcomes of Self-Directed Work Groups in Telecommunications Services

[Excerpt] The purpose of my presentation is to consider whether the use of self-directed teams enhances competitiveness in services. In the context of heightened competition brought about by deregulation and the internationalization of service markets, do team-based work systems produce higher quality service and customer satisfaction? Do workers benefit as well? Should unions as well as management support this innovation? If so, under what conditions and why? This presentation complements that of the other panelists in this session in important ways. First, while Verma provides an overview of the array of workplace innovations being introduced in telecommunications firms (from joint labor-management consultation to total quality and self-management), I focus on a more detailed quantitative assessment of use of one of those innovations—self-directed work groups. Second, I consider the ways in which the introduction of self-managed teams differentially affects the job characteristics of two of the groups identified in Herzenbergs typology of work systems in services: the semiautonomous groups (represented by customer service representatives in telecommunications) and the autonomous groups (exemplified by network field technicians)

Managing Customer Services: Human Resource Practices, Turnover, and Sales Growth

This study examines the relationship between human resource practices, employee quit rates, and organizational performance by drawing on a unique nationally representative sample of 354 customer service and sales establishments in the telecommunications industry. Multivariate analyses show that quit rates are lower and sales growth is higher in establishments that emphasize high skills, employee participation in decision-making and in teams, and HR incentives such as high relative pay and employment security. Quit rates partially mediate the relationship between human resource practices and sales growth. These relationships also are moderated by the customer segment that frontline employees serve

Welcoming and Managing Neurodiversity in the Writing Center

University Writing Cente

The Economic Costs and Benefits of Self-Managed Teams Among Skilled Technicians

This paper estimates the economic costs and benefits of implementing teams among highly-skilled technicians in a large regional telecommunications company. It matches individual survey and objective performance data for 230 employees in matched pairs of traditionally-supervised and self-managed groups. Multivariate regressions with appropriate controls show that teams do the work of supervisors in 60-70% less time, reducing indirect labor costs by 75 percent per team. Objective measures of quality and labor productivity are unaffected. Team members receive additional overtime pay that represents a 4-5 percent annual wage premium, which may be viewed alternatively as a share in the productivity gains associated with innovation or as a premium for learning skills

Changing Internal Labor Markets in Service and Sales Occupations

[Excerpt] In this paper, I address the question of how deregulation in the telecommunications industry has altered the internal labor market structure of clerical and sales jobs—that is, the traditionally female-dominated operator, service, and sales jobs in the industry. This question is important for several reasons. First, from the perspective of the internal labor market literature, the Bell System represented a classic example of a highly developed and stable system. Given growing conventional wisdom that internal labor markets are disintegrating, the telecommunications industry provides a useful case for examining the extent to which corporate responses to deregulation have led to an erosion of the prior system. Second, from the perspective of women and the labor market, the highly unionized telecommunications industry was one of the few service industries in which women found high-skilled, high-pay jobs, with long career ladders. Do these jobs continue to be high-skilled and to provide women with opportunities for career development and income growth? Compared to other service industries, for example, wage levels and union density among women in telecommunications were over twice as high as the average in all other service industries (Batt and Strausser 1998). Third, from a management perspective, the importance of these jobs has increased dramatically since deregulation. Customer service and sales occupations represent the face of the corporation to the customer, and with dramatic increases in competition, companies have come to view these operations much more strategically than in the past (Batt and Keefe 1999). They have also shifted the workforce from service into sales to compete in deregulated markets. Between 1983 and 1996, for example, employment in low-skilled clerical positions fell by 38%, due largely to the increased use of information technology and process reengineering; employment in sales, however, increased by 105% (CPS merged annual earnings files)

From Bureaucracy to Enterprise? The Changing Jobs and Careers of Managers in Telecommunications Service

This paper analyzes how organizational restructuring is affecting managerial labor markets. Drawing on field research from several Bell operating companies plus a detailed survey of managers in one company, this paper considers how organizational restructuring affects the employment levels, the nature of work, and the career trajectories of lower and middle level line managers. Does restructuring lead to a loss or managerial power and a convergence in the working conditions of managerial and nonmanagerial workers? Or, conversely, do managers stand to gain from the flattening of hierarchies and devolution of decision-making to lower organizational levels? The paper\u27s central argument is that a new vision of organization has taken hold – one that replaces bureaucracy with enterprise. This vision, however, entails sharp contradictions because it relies on two competing approaches to organizational reform: one that relies on decentralizing management to lower levels to enhance customer responsiveness; the other that relies on reengineering and downsizing to realize scale economies. While the first approach views lower and middle managers as central to competitiveness, the second views them as indirect costs to be minimized. The central question is whether or how the two approaches can be reconciled. The evidence from this case study shows that restructuring has had the unintended consequence of creating new organizational cleavages: between lower and middle level managers on the one hand, and top managers on the other

[Review of the books \u3ci\u3eManaging the Human Factor: The Early Years of Human Resource Management in American Industry and \u3ci\u3eHired Hands or Human Resources? Case Studies of HRM Programs and Practices in Early American Industry\u3c/i\u3e]

[Excerpt] Bruce Kaufman has produced two volumes on the early development of human resource (HR) management that should become mainstays in undergraduate and graduate courses in the fields of HR studies and industrial relations. Not since Sandy Jacoby\u27s pathbreaking book on the development of personnel management has such careful attention been paid to the inner workings of American corporations\u27 personnel policies a century ago (Employing Bureaucracy: Managers, Unions and the Transforming of Work in American Industry, 1900-1945, 1985). Unlike Jacoby, who specifically analyzed how and why companies developed these policies in response to union movements and external pressures, Kaufman\u27s purpose is to show that the roots of modern HR management can be traced to the late nineteenth and that “strategic” HR is not new

Mycotoxin Production on Water Damaged Building Materials

Due to the increased occurrence of flooding, biological by-products such as mycotoxins can cause serious health problems for homeowners. This study used two species of fungi, Aspergillus fumigatus and Stachybotrys chartarum, which have been found within homes after flooding events. Two distinct types of mycotoxins can be produced; gliotoxin by A. fumigatus and trichothecenes by S. chartarum. A preliminary study evaluated four wall materials separately, for mycotoxin production and validation of techniques. Based on these results, the experimental study built replicated interior walls of gypsum wallboard, fiberglass batt insulation, wood stud, and oriented strand board; placed the walls in mold chambers on concrete pavers; flooded and drained the walls; and exposed these walls to S. chartarum for 65 days. All four building materials showed some level of mycotoxin present on all collection days. Gypsum wallboard and fiberglass batt insulation had the highest levels of trichothecenes and levels increased over time. The wood stud and oriented strand board also contained mycotoxins, but levels did not change over time. DNA concentrations were significantly higher on the batt insulation compared to wood products. However, DNA concentrations did not directly correlate to mycotoxin levels. These results support the removal of the batt insulation and gypsum wallboard from a home if a flooding event should occur. The finding of the mycotoxin on the wood products requires further research to better understand the mycotoxin’s properties on wood in order to ensure the safety of homeowners

The Golden Banana And The Banana Festival Story

The Golden Banana And The Banana Festival Story Christine J. Batt

Hedda Gabler Playbill

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film Angell Blackfriars Theatre Hedda Gabler By Henrik Ibsen October 29-31 & November 5-7, 2010 Directed by Mary G. Farrell Scenic Design: Kathryn Kawecki Lighting Design: Tim Cryan Property Design: Mary Jo Hannigan Costume Design: Lisa Batt-Parente Sound Design: Paul Perry Vocal Coach: David Harper Cast: MISS TESMAN - Erin Fusco; BERTA - Grace Curley; GEORGE TESMAN - Brendan Hickey; HEDDA GABLER - Samantha Brilhante; THEA ELVSTED; Cat McDonnell; JUDGE BRACK - Ted Boyce-Smith; EILERT LOEVBORG - Kevin Lynchhttps://digitalcommons.providence.edu/hedda_gabler_pubs/1001/thumbnail.jp