Subject: Human Resource Management

Compiled by Susan LaCette.HumanResourceManagement.pdf: 5527 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Media Selection and the Imposter Phenomenon: A Multinational Investigation

Imposterism, where individuals seek to create a false impression that they are more qualified than they actually are, is an emerging area of study, while media selection has been a subject of interest to IS researchers for over 25 years. This study seeks to determine if individuals who score highly on imposterism dif er in their media preference, and if there is a cultural dimension to this relationship. Using a scenario-based experiment administered to 439 subjects in the U.S. and China, we demonstrate relationships between media choice and both imposterism and two dimensions of espoused national culture

Sex trafficking of girls and women : Evidence from Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh

A crucial gap in the trafficking literature from India is the dearth of primary data and micro studies that could be used for vulnerability mapping of the source areas and addressing the identified risk factors. The present paper is a small attempt to contribute to plugging the gap in the context of Andhra Pradesh, identified as a hot spot in the trafficking literature. This paper is based on case studies of 78 women who had been trafficked from their places of origin in Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh to metropolitan cities across India and who have since returned to their homes. The paper attempted to identify the individual and family circumstances that contribute to the causes of trafficking, to highlight in particular the gendered vulnerabilities that set these women up for trafficking, and to capture the process of the trafficking experience. The findings of the study are located in the dynamic interplay of the social structural context and specificities of the district that contribute to causes of trafficking and the individual circumstances and agency of the women. The case studies reported in this paper are a pointer to the compelling urgency of interventions that will go beyond the forced / voluntary divide in trafficking and sex work.Andhra Pradesh, India, trafficking

Stop smoking the Easyway:addiction, self-help and tobacco cessation

This article examines Easyway, a popular clinical and self-help method for the treatment of smoking addiction established by the late Allen Carr in 1984. It begins by addressing how smoking has come to be constituted as a neuropharmacological addiction and some of the issues and concerns raised against this in the social sciences. After situating its theoretical and empirical focus, the article then proceeds with an interpretative thematic analysis of a selection of Easyway self-help texts. The aims here are as follows: firstly, to show how Easyway, as a discourse, constitutes the problem of nicotine addiction in novel and distinctive ways; secondly, to elaborate how the Easyway texts seek to govern readers – paradoxically, through their free capacity for reflection, introspection and action – to overcome their situated addiction to smoking; and thirdly, to identify and locate the significance of the author’s implicit claims to charisma in underpinning his authority to know and treat nicotine addiction

Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist

In The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, Adam Smith famously argued that economic behavior was motivated by self-interest. But 17 years earlier in 1759, Smith had proposed a theory of human behavior that looks anything but self-interested. In his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith argued that behavior was determined by the struggle between what Smith termed the “passions” and the “impartial spectator.” The passions included drives such as hunger and sex, emotions such as fear and anger, and motivational feeling states such as pain. Smith viewed behavior as under the direct control of the passions, but believed that people could override passion-driven behavior by viewing their own behavior from the perspective of an outsider—the impartial spectator—a “moral hector who, looking over the shoulder of the economic man, scrutinizes every move he makes” (Grampp, 1948, p. 317)

Differences in composition of seemingly identical branded food products: Impact on consumer purchasing decisions and welfare

The issue of Differences in Composition of Seemingly Identical branded Products (DC-SIP) refers to cases where a good in one Member State is marketed as identical to a good marketed in other Member States, while in reality that good has significantly different composition or characteristics (European Commission, 2019a). The main concern is that “in some parts of Europe, people are sold food of lower quality than in other countries, despite the packaging and branding being identical”, as stated by President Juncker (European Commission, 2017b). This report provides a conceptual analysis of whether and how consumer purchasing decisions and welfare are affected by the fact that the same brand owner offers seemingly identical branded food products with different composition in different countries’ markets. Based on the conceptual and empirical knowledge developed in the fields of demand theory, behavioural economics, marketing and consumer psychology, this report develops a framework to analyse the formation of consumer quality perceptions, purchasing decisions and welfare. We start from a basic neoclassical utility approach to assess the different possible effects of DC-SIP on consumer purchases and welfare. Given the crucial role of quality perception in determining consumers' valuation of a product, we then perform a more detailed analysis of the factors shaping quality perception, based on the Total Food Quality Model. This sheds light on how food quality perception may differ across countries and individual consumers, and how this relates to the issue of DC-SIP. Finally, the report addresses how information asymmetry regarding DC-SIP may lead to the disconfirmation of consumers' expectations once consumers realise or are informed about differences in composition between product versions. The role of deception and unfairness perception on consumer decision-making and welfare is analyzed in order to understand consumers' reactions to DC-SIP. Drawing on the conceptual and empirical literature across fields, this report shows that the impact of DC-SIP on consumer choices and welfare is not straightforward. While consumers care about food quality, differences between product versions are likely to go unnoticed if consumers are not explicitly informed of them. Moreover, even when differences are noticed, different consumers may not have the same preference rankings for different versions. Finally, the price at which different product versions are offered also matters. This heterogeneity means that average purchasing and welfare implications may differ between countries’ markets, and that individual consumers are likely to be differentially affected. In addition to the question of whether consumers would or would not prefer and purchase a different version than the one offered on their market, the existence of different product versions with potentially different quality valuations may in itself be a source of consumer dissatisfaction. The report explains how DC-SIP may lead to consumer perception of deception and unfairness which may negatively affect brand trust and affect consumer reactions, purchasing behaviour and welfare in the short- or longer term. Consumers may voice their concerns, decide not to buy specific products, products from a certain brand, or even lose trust in global brands and turn to local goods instead. Depending on how strong the feelings of deception and unfair treatment are, these reactions may be very weak or strong, and may be short-term, with consumers quickly reverting to habitual purchasing patterns, or may be long-lasting

Belief in a Just World and Redistributive Politics

International surveys reveal wide differences between the views held in different countries concerning the causes of wealth or poverty and the extent to which people are responsible for their own fate. At the same time, social ethnographies and experiments by psychologists demonstrate individuals' recurrent struggle with cognitive dissonance as they seek to maintain, and pass on to their children, a view of the world where effort ultimately pays off and everyone gets their just deserts. This paper offers a model that helps explain: i) why most people feel such a need to believe in a "just world"; ii) why this need, and therefore the prevalence of the belief, varies considerably across countries; iii) the implications of this phenomenon for international differences in political ideology, levels of redistribution, labor supply, aggregate income, and popular perceptions of the poor. The model shows in particular how complementarities arise endogenously between individuals' desired beliefs or ideological choices, resulting in two equilibria. A first, "American" equilibrium is characterized by a high prevalence of just-world beliefs among the population and relatively laissez-faire policies. The other, "European" equilibrium is characterized by more pessimism about the role of effort in economic outcomes and a more extensive welfare state. More generally, the paper develops a theory of collective beliefs and motivated cognitions, including those concerning "money" (consumption) and happiness, as well as religion.

Does sophistication affect long-term return expectations? : Evidence from financial advisers' exam scores

We use unique data from financial advisers’ professional exam scores and combine it with other variables to create an index of financial sophistication. Using this index to explain long-term stock return expectations, we find that more sophisticated financial advisers tend to have lower return expectations. A one standard deviation increase in the sophistication index reduces expected returns by 1.1 percentage points. The effect is stronger for emerging market stocks (2.3 percentage points). The sophistication effect contributes 60% to the model fit, while employer fixed effects combined contribute less than 30%. These results help understand the formation of potentially excessively optimistic expectations

What Were They Thinking? Insider Trading and the Scienter Requirement

On its face, the connection between insider trading regulation and the state of mind of the trader or tipper seems intuitive. Insider trading is a form of market abuse: taking advantage of a secret to which one is not entitled, generally in breach of some kind of fiduciary-like duty. This chapter examines both the legal doctrine and the psychology associated with this pursuit. There is much conceptual confusion in how we define unlawful insider trading—the quixotic effort to build a coherent theory of insider trading by reference to the law of fraud, rather than a more expansive market abuse standard—which leads to interesting psychological questions as to the required state of mind. Is it always simple greed? What if there is an element of unconscious misperception—or rationalization—at work? My sense is that the causal explanations for what is charged as insider trading are sometimes quite murky and not easily explained as pure greed. The chapter thus tries to connect the law of insider trading to a more sophisticated approach to state of mind, motivation and causation

Deceiving Others After Being Deceived: Lying as a Function of Descriptive Norms

Previous research has found that being lied to makes a person more likely to respond with deception in a reciprocal manner. I hypothesize that lying instead creates a descriptive norm. Thus, a person being lied to will lie not only to the person who lied to them, but in new conversations with new people. Within a mock job interview, participants were lied to by one confederate, and then given the chance to lie to a second confederate. Being lied to did not produce significantly more lies, favoring existing theory that lying is reciprocal and not transitive