141 research outputs found
Panel 7 Paradoxes in Alternative Work Arrangements
This panel will present and debate various paradoxes surrounding the implementation of Alternative Work Arrangements (AWA). AWA includes such topics as telecommuting, remote work, telecenters, and other conceptions of the virtual office. This is an especially relevant topic to the ICIS theme, Networking and Electronic Communities, because the nature of alternative work arrangements requires organizations to rethink the fundamental ways individuals in their communities work, both alone and in groups. The AWA perspective assumes that technologies will not eliminate jobs, but will facilitate the transformation of traditional work arrangements by allowing flexibility in “when” and “where” work is done. The impact on the nature of work, workers, work groups, businesses and home life are all relevant to a debate about AWA
Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? An Analysis of Pension Structure and Retirement Timing
Over the last two decades, twenty-two states have moved away from traditional defined benefit (DB) pension systems and toward pension plan structures like the defined contribution (DC) plans now prevalent in the private sector. Others are considering such a reform as it is seen as a means of limiting future pension funding risk. It is important to understand the implications of such reforms for end-of-career exit patterns and workforce composition. Empirical evidence on the relationship between pension plan structure and retirement timing is currently limited, primarily because, most state pension reforms are so new that few employees enrolled in those alternative plans have reached retirement age. An exception, and the subject of our analysis, is the teacher retirement system in Washington State, which introduced a hybrid DB-DC plan in 1996 and allowed employees in its traditional DB plan to transfer into the new plan. Our analysis focuses on a years-of-service threshold, the crossing of which grants employees early retirement eligibility and, in many cases, a large upward shift in retirement wealth. The financial implications of crossing this threshold are far greater under the state’s traditional DB plan than under the hybrid plan. We find that employees are responsive to crossing the years-of-service threshold, but we fail to find significant evidence that the propensity to exit the workforce varies according to plan enrollment
The Phase Space and Stellar Populations of Cluster Galaxies at z ~ 1: Simultaneous Constraints on the Location and Timescale of Satellite Quenching
We investigate the velocity vs. position phase space of z ~ 1 cluster
galaxies using a set of 424 spectroscopic redshifts in 9 clusters drawn from
the GCLASS survey. Dividing the galaxy population into three categories:
quiescent, star-forming, and poststarburst, we find that these populations have
distinct distributions in phase space. Most striking are the poststarburst
galaxies, which are commonly found at small clustercentric radii with high
clustercentric velocities, and appear to trace a coherent ``ring" in phase
space. Using several zoom simulations of clusters we show that the coherent
distribution of the poststarbursts can be reasonably well-reproduced using a
simple quenching scenario. Specifically, the phase space is best reproduced if
satellite quenching occurs on a rapid timescale (0.1 < tau_{Q} < 0.5 Gyr) after
galaxies make their first passage of R ~ 0.5R_{200}, a process that takes a
total time of ~ 1 Gyr after first infall. We compare this quenching timescale
to the timescale implied by the stellar populations of the poststarburst
galaxies and find that the poststarburst spectra are well-fit by a rapid
quenching (tau_{Q} = 0.4^{+0.3}_{-0.4} Gyr) of a typical star-forming galaxy.
The similarity between the quenching timescales derived from these independent
indicators is a strong consistency check of the quenching model. Given that the
model implies satellite quenching is rapid, and occurs well within R_{200},
this would suggest that ram-pressure stripping of either the hot or cold gas
component of galaxies are the most plausible candidates for the physical
mechanism. The high cold gas consumption rates at z ~ 1 make it difficult to
determine if hot or cold gas stripping is dominant; however, measurements of
the redshift evolution of the satellite quenching timescale and location may be
capable of distinguishing between the two.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the Ap
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