High Tech and High Touch: Headhunting, Technology, and Economic Transformation

[Excerpt] In High Tech and High Touch, James E. Coverdill and William Finlay invite readers into the dynamic world of headhunters, personnel professionals who acquire talent for businesses and other organizations on a contingent-fee basis. In a high-tech world where social media platforms have simplified direct contact between employers and job seekers, Coverdill and Finlay acknowledge, it is relatively easy to find large numbers of apparently qualified candidates. However, the authors demonstrate that headhunters serve a valuable purpose in bringing high-touch search into the labor market: they help parties on both sides of the transaction to define their needs and articulate what they have to offer. As well as providing valuable information for sociologists and economists, High Tech and High Touch demonstrates how headhunters approach practical issues such as identifying and attracting candidates; how they solicit, secure, and evaluate search assignments from client companies; and how they strive to broker interactions between candidates and clients to maximize the likelihood that the right people land in the right jobs

Accidental activists: Headhunters as marginal diversity actors in institutional change towards more women on boards

We present a qualitative study that examines the role of headhunters as actors in a broader institutional change process aiming to increase gender diversity on corporate boards. We draw on institutional and diversity management theories to conceptualize their change agency in the broader field of women on boards. We describe their role as ‘accidental activists’ and theorize two micro-processes that define their change agency in this field: voluntaristic framing of intentionality and role redefinition by drawing on competing logics. This conceptualization does not match the heroic image of the institutional entrepreneur driving institutional change, or that of the tempered radical championing diversity, but rather casts light into a marginal and previously neglected change role. We demonstrate the opportunistic and precarious nature of this role with regards to both institutional change and diversity management, and discuss its possibilities and perils

The impact of the implementation of work hour requirements on residents' career satisfaction, attitudes and emotions

BACKGROUND: To assess the impact of work hours' limitations required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) on residents' career satisfaction, emotions and attitudes. METHODS: A validated survey instrument was used to assess residents' levels of career satisfaction, emotions and attitudes before and after the ACGME duty hour requirements were implemented. The "pre" implementation survey was distributed in December 2002 and the "post" implementation one in December 2004. Only the latter included work-hour related questions. RESULTS: The response rates were 56% for the 2002 and 72% for the 2004 surveys respectively. Although career satisfaction remained unchanged, numerous changes occurred in both emotions and attitudes. Compared to those residents who did not violate work-hour requirements, those who did were significantly more negative in attitudes and emotions. CONCLUSION: With the implementation of the ACGME work hour limitations, the training experience became more negative for those residents who violated the work hour limits and had a small positive impact on those who did not violate them. Graduate medical education leaders must innovate to make the experiences for selected residents improved and still maintain compliance with the work hour requirements

A mid year comparison study of career satisfaction and emotional states between residents and faculty at one academic medical center

BACKGROUND: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's (ACGME) new requirements raise multiple challenges for academic medical centers. We sought to evaluate career satisfaction, emotional states, positive and negative experiences, work hours and sleep among residents and faculty simultaneously in one academic medical center after implementation of the ACGME duty hour requirements. METHODS: Residents and faculty (1330) in the academic health center were asked to participate in a confidential survey; 72% of the residents and 66% of the faculty completed the survey. RESULTS: Compared to residents, faculty had higher levels of satisfaction with career choice, competence, importance and usefulness; lower levels of anxiousness and depression. The most positive experiences for both groups corresponded to strong interpersonal relationships and educational value; most negative experiences to poor interpersonal relationships and issues perceived outside of the physician's control. Approximately 13% of the residents and 14% of the faculty were out of compliance with duty hour requirements. Nearly 5% of faculty reported working more than 100 hours per week. For faculty who worked 24 hour shifts, nearly 60% were out of compliance with the duty-hour requirements. CONCLUSION: Reasons for increased satisfaction with career choice, positive emotional states and experiences for faculty compared to residents are unexplained. Earlier studies from this institution identified similar positive findings among advanced residents compared to more junior residents. Faculty are more frequently at risk for duty-hour violations. If patient safety is of prime importance, faculty, in particular, should be compliant with the duty hour requirements. Perhaps the ACGME should contain faculty work hours as part of its regulatory function

Is it pleasure or health from leisure that we benefit from most?:An analysis of well-being alternatives and implications for policy

International policy now constantly advocates a need for populations to engage in more physical activity to promote health and to reduce society’s health care costs. Such policy has developed guidelines on recommended levels and intensity of physical activity and implicitly equates health with well-being. It is assumed that individual, and hence social welfare will be enhanced if the activity guidelines are met. This paper challenges that claim and raises questions for public policy priorities. Using an instrumental variable analysis to value the well-being from active leisure, it is shown that the well-being experienced from active leisure that is not of a recommended intensity to generate health benefits, perhaps due to its social, recreational or fun purpose, has a higher value of well-being than active leisure that does meet the guidelines. This suggests rethinking the motivation and foundation of existing policy and perhaps a realignment of priorities towards activity that has a greater contribution to social welfare through its intrinsic fun and possibly social interaction

Employers’ recruitment of disadvantaged groups: exploring the effect of active labour market programme agencies as labour market intermediaries

This article draws on an original comparative survey of employers in the UK and Denmark to analyse the role of active labour market programmes (ALMPs) in employers' recruitment of disadvantaged groups. Using the framework of Bonet et al. to conceptualise agencies delivering ALMPs as labour market intermediaries (LMIs), the effect of ALMPs on employers' recruitment was tested against organisational factors involving firm size and selection criteria. Although ALMPs marginally increased employers' probability of recruiting the long-term unemployed in both countries and lone parents in Denmark, their effect was negligible compared with firm size and employers' selection criteria. While ALMP agencies have the potential to increase employers' recruitment of disadvantaged groups, this is constrained when they act as basic ‘information provider’ LMIs. ALMP agencies' inability to act effectively as ‘matchmaker’ LMIs leads to a failure to overcome rigid intra-organisational barriers to such recruitment

Transgenerational Social Stress, Immune Factors, Hormones, and Social Behavior

A social signal transduction theory of depression has been proposed that states that exposure to social adversity alters the immune response and these changes mediate symptoms of depression such as anhedonia and impairments in social behavior. The exposure of maternal rats to the chronic social stress (CSS) of a male intruder depresses maternal care and impairs social behavior in the F1 and F2 offspring of these dams. The objective of the present study was to characterize basal peripheral levels of several immune factors and related hormone levels in the adult F2 offspring of CSS exposed dams and assess whether changes in these factors are associated with previously reported deficits in allogrooming behavior. CSS decreased acid glycoprotein (α1AGP) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) in F2 females, and increased granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in F2 males. There were also sex dependent changes in IL-18, tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases 1 (TIMP-1), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Progesterone was decreased and alpha melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH) was increased in F2 males, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) was decreased in F2 females. Changes in α1AGP, GM-CSF, progesterone, and α-MSH were correlated with decreased allogrooming in the F2 offspring of stressed dams. These results support the hypothesis that transgenerational social stress affects both the immune system and social behavior, and also support previous studies on the adverse effects of early life stress on immune functioning and stress associated immunological disorders, including the increasing prevalence of asthma. The immune system may represent an important transgenerational etiological factor in disorders which involve social and/or early life stress associated changes in social behavior, such as depression, anxiety, and autism, as well as comorbid immune disorders. Future studies involving immune and/or endocrine assessments and manipulations will address specific questions of function and causation, and may identify novel preventative measures and treatments for the growing number of immune mediated disorders