Management Jobs in the Insurance Industry: Organizational Deskilling and Rising Pay Inequality

The attention of both the research community and the popular press has begun to shift from a traditional focus on production jobs and toward management positions in part because of a perception that a fundamental change is underway in the management ranks. Unlike the temporary layoffs of production workers that were historically driven by business cycles, the changes in management job security seem to be permanent and, in large measure, driven by development inside the firm. The most important of these forces appear to be changes in the structure of management and in the organization of work processes. The authors use a unique set of data to examine the structure of management jobs among a sample of companies and observe how those jobs have changed over time. They examine changes in the skill requirements of jobs by functional area and by level in the organization, changes in the "shape" of the organization chart - the distribution of employees across management job titles - and changes in compensation for these jobs. The data were obtained from Hay Associates, and it included the internal organization of management jobs for 11 life insurance companies. The authors see a sharp expansion in the proportion of line workers, absolute declines in the number of top management positions, and only modest growth in the number of middle managers and supervisors. As a result the organization chart has changed dramatically in these companies, becoming considerably flatter. The "span of control" has increased for every level of the organization and especially for first level management. If the widening of the supervisory span of control resulted from taking decision making and responsibility from supervisors and pushing it down to line workers, it does not seem to have increased the average skill requirements of the exempt line workers. Skill requirements for the other levels rose over the period, especially for top management positions. Overall, the average level of skill in the sample fell substantially between 1986 and 1992 (even though skills rose in two of the four levels) because of a sharp shift in the distribution of employment away from management and toward line positions. The authors suggest that the best description of these patterns is that they represent upskilling of individual jobs and deskilling of organizations. Regarding compensation, none of the levels experienced increases in skill that were statically significant, but top managers received a large (28 percent) increase in pay, middle managers received a modest (10 percent) increase, and the lower two levels received virtually no increases. One conclusion is that earnings inequality is increasing substantially inside these firms in a manner that is not attributable to any increase in skill, and the dividing line for that growth in inequality is no longer exempt/nonexempt but supervisor/manager. A possible explanation for the rising inequality in compensation is that it helps offset change in the probability of promotion. The fact that the span of control is increasing and organizational chart flattening means that the probability of the average worker being promoted is declining. The decline in the probability of promotion might reduce the incentives to work hard. Increases in the compensation of top jobs increase the return to securing a promotion and may offset some of the effect produced by the decline in the probability of promotion. Another explanation is that top mangers are in "better positions to legislate their own pay increases." If true, this sample may actually underrepresent the true extent of income inequality because it consists of companies using an external consultant to help set compensation where internal consistency is an important characteristic of the pay system. These results suggest that "management" as a career will remain attractive, albeit less certain in terms of promotion prospects. Shifts to team-based approaches and the elimination of functional designations would suggest a greater need for generalists than specialists. As technology such as expert systems reduces the need for large units of "experts," the manger's skill will be in recognizing when an expert needs to be called. Leadership skills and the ability to adapt to a changing environment are two qualities that will be sought in the future. Fortunately, these skills will also be useful to team members who are not selected for promotion to mangers. Increasing income inequality may lead to distrust within the organization, though this may be offset by the technical tracks that allow highly skilled non-managers to earn equivalent levels of pay. The fact that insurance companies are relatively unique in facing no major industry-specific shocks from the outside environment suggests that these results should translate well to organizations in other industries.

Symmetry Aspects and Finite-Size Scaling of Quantum Hall Fluids

The exactness and universality observed in the quantum Hall effect suggests the existence of a symmetry principle underlying Laughlin's theory. We review the role played by the infinite $W_{\infty }$ and conformal algebras as dynamical symmetries of incompressible quantum fluids and show how they predict universal finite-size effects in the excitation spectrum.Comment: 15 pages, CERN-TH-6784/93, LateX fil

Evidence of lower-hybrid rotating spoke oscillations in a direct current magnetron microdischarge

High frequency current-carrying spokes are observed propagating in the E$\times$B direction in a neon direct current magnetron discharge. Two modes are found with distinct frequencies and behaviors. At low discharge currents, we see highly coherent 60 MHz fluctuations. Above a distinct current threshold, secondary 5 - 10 MHz fluctuations emerge in addition to turbulent fluctuations spanning the 60 - 100 MHz range. The presence of lower-hybrid waves is invoked to explain the high frequency oscillations. We attribute the appearance of the low frequency axial modes concomittant with the onset of the high frequency turbulence to an inverse cascade process, as suggested by recent simulations

Study of Apollo water impact. Volume 10 - User's manual for modification of shell of revolution analysis Final report

Analysis of linear elastic thin shells of revolution subjected to arbitrary temperatures and loads - computer program users manua

Algae-based biorefinery concept. An LCI analysis for a theoretical plant

Both micro and macro algae have a potential to be a valuable feedstock for biorefineries. The theoretical impact assessment of this kind of plant can be carried out through an LCA, which is a key tool in order to evaluate the potential environmental impact of a process throughout its entire life cycle. Hence, it is a priority to perform an LCI with the aim of gathering all the data and simulating all the unit process of a theoretical biorefinery. The Inventory ensures to obtain a simple and immediate way to represent several aspects of a biorefinery, e.g. productivity, environmental pressures, required resources in terms of raw materials and energy. One of the main aspects clearly shown in this study is the significant environmental pressures due to the cultivation and harvesting steps, for which it is desirable to consider a biomass collection from the environment, especially from areas where eutrophication phenomena are particularly recurrent. Another conclusion drawn from the study is that the total plant production per year appears very limited, if compared to any conventional refinery. The following approach can also provide a starting data set to perform a first approximate economic analysis of the costs/gains of the outlined project, and it could be used as a first concept design for the project development of a real plant

Study of Apollo water impact. Volume 7 - Modification of shell of revolution analysis Final report

Numerical solution of combined hydrodynamic and shell equations for hydroelastic response of flexible shell