Aligning Employees Through \u3ci\u3eLine of Sight\u3c/i\u3e

Aligning employees with the firm’s larger strategic goals is critical if organizations hope to manage their human capital effectively and ultimately attain strategic success. An important component of attaining and sustaining this alignment is whether employees have “line of sight” to the organization’s strategic objectives. We illustrate how the translation of strategic goals into tangible results requires that employees not only understand the organization’s strategy, they must accurately understand what actions are aligned with realizing that strategy. Using recent empirical evidence, theoretical insights, and tangible examples of exemplary firm practices, we provide thought-leaders with a comprehensive view of LOS, how it is created, how it can be enhanced or stifled, and how it can be effectively managed. We integrate LOS with current thinking on employee alignment to help managers more effectively benefit from understanding human capital potential

When Stock Options Fail to Motivate: Attribution and Context Effects on Stock Price Expectancy

This study draws on attribution theory and literature from compensation and strategy to investigate executives’ perceptions about their influence over the firm’s stock price. We define stock price expectancy as the extent to which executives feel that they can influence the firm’s stock price. Results from of a survey of 435 U.S. executives suggest that stock price expectancy is related to both attributional and contextual antecedents. Based on these findings we discuss implications for the extension of expectancy theory and the design and administration of incentive systems

“You’re Nobody ‘til Somebody Loves You”: The Use of Job Search for Bargaining Leverage

The purpose of this research is to investigate a previously overlooked yet important objective for an employee engaging in job search – seeking alternative employment to obtain leverage against the current employer. We focus specifically on how employees conduct job search to obtain leverage, and then turn to the question of what motivates employees to adopt this objective. Using a sample of high-level managers, our results indicate the leverage-seeking job search predicts both preparatory and active search beyond the more traditional reason for engaging in job search (i.e., to change jobs). However, as expected, leverage-seeking search was a weaker predictor of the job search processes compared to searching to leave and was not significantly related to job satisfaction. Hierarchical level, perceived alternatives, financial independence, and the meaning attached to money significantly predicted leverage-seeking search, while compensation level, equity, and career plateau showed little effect. Implications for practice and future research on job search and employee retention more generally are discussed

The Relationship Between Job Search Objectives and Job Search Behavior

This research expands the notion of “job search” beyond traditional models of searching for an alternative yet similar job, arguing that motivations for search are varied. Specifically, we investigate whether search objectives associate with use of different search processes. A study of high-level managers found mixed support for the hypotheses

Generalization Characteristics of Form Diversity and Novel Form Production Among Preschool Children

The block building, Lego construction, pen drawing, and painting of four preschool children were analyzed in terms of the construction of form diversity and new form production. Social descriptive reinforcement, contingent on the production of any form not previously constructed within the current session and overt modeling of forms never seen produced during the study, increased form diversity scores per session and new form production (forms never seen before in the child\u27s total prior sequence of blockbuilding sessions). The results indicated that after training, form diversity scores generalized to topographically similar and dissimilar media of expression. New form production generalized to topographically similar and dissimilar media in the majority of the children

A Study to Determine why Cache County, Utah, High School Students do or do not Enroll in Second-Year Shorthand

According to Wanous, the number of students enrolled in shorthand has increased steadily since 1926. However, Wanous states that the number of students enrolling in third and fourth semesters of shorthand is considerably smaller than the number of students enrolled in the first-year shorthand courses. Anderson\u27s study in which the transcription of first-year shorthand students has been analyzed shows that students can learn shorthand outlines during- the first year of shorthand, However, there is not enough time to acquire adequate skill in the taking of dictation or transcribing dictation to enable the students to obtain a stenographic position. In general, at the end of the one year of shorthand, research shows that not more than 11 to 20 percent of the students can transcribe mail-able copy at 60 words per minute. Also from this research, Anderson indicates that students need to take more than one year of shorthand to obtain a stenographic position. Why then do some students not enroll in the second year of shorthand ? Haggblade reports that most experienced shorthand teachers would have little difficulty compiling a list of factors they believe have an important influence upon the shorthand achievement and success of their students. They might mention such possibilities as their own enthusiasm, the speed at which the students can take dictation, the time of the day the class meets, the type of shorthand system taught, ad infinitum. Rogers suggests that one reason for a high mortality rate of second-year shorthand students is that the students obtain a sense of failure during first-year shorthand. Some teachers use the rationale that, Teachers should weed out the slower students who cannot keep up the pace. They will never be secretaries anyway. The problem facing business educators and especially shorthand teachers is to determine by research the reasons that such a high percentage of first-year shorthand students do not choose to enroll in the second-year course, and to determine why some students do choose to enroll in the second-year course

Hydrogen contamination in Ge-doped SiO[sub 2] thin films prepared by helicon activated reactive evaporation

Germanium-doped silicon oxidethin films were deposited at low temperature by using an improved helicon plasma assisted reactive evaporation technique. The origins of hydrogen contamination in the film were investigated, and were found to be H incorporation during deposition and postdeposition water absorption. The H incorporation during deposition was avoided by using an effective method to eliminate the residual hydrogen present in the depositionsystem. The microstructure, chemical bonds, chemical etch rate, and optical index of the films were studied as a function of the deposition conditions. Granular microstructures were observed in low-density films, and were found to be the cause of postdeposition water absorption. The granular microstructure was eliminated and the film was densified by increasing the helicon plasma power and substrate bias during deposition. A high-density film was shown to have no postdeposition water absorption and no OH detected by using a Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer

Availability of elemental S fertiliser to crops grown in New Zealand

Non-Peer Reviewe