Innovation and HRM : absences and politics

This article analyses the role of HRM practices in the implementation of an innovative cross-functional approach to new product development (concurrent engineering, CE) in Eurotech Industries. Contrary to CE methodology stipulations, and despite supportive conditions, HRM received scant attention in the implementation process. Organizational power and politics were clearly involved in this situation, and this article explores how their play created such HRM &lsquo;absences&rsquo;. The article builds on a four-dimensional view of power in order to provide a deeper understanding of the embedded, interdependent and political nature of HRM practice and innovation.<br /

Schedules of response-independent conditioned reinforcement

Rates and patterns of responding of pigeons under response-independent and response-dependent schedules of brief-stimulus presentation were compared by superimposing 3-min brief-stimulus schedules on a 15-min fixed-interval schedule of food presentation. The brief-stimulus schedules were fixed time, fixed interval, variable time, and variable interval. When the brief stimulus was paired with food presentation, its effects depended upon the schedule and ongoing rates. Fixed- and variable-interval brief-stimulus schedules enhanced the low rates normally occurring early in the 15-min interval, whereas fixed- and variable-time schedules suppressed these rates. Although the overall rates later in the interval were not affected to any great extent, the fixed brief-stimulus schedules generated patterns of positively accelerated responding between stimulus presentations. These patterns appeared less frequently under the variable brief-stimulus schedules. Initially, when not paired with food delivery, presentations of the brief stimulus produced relatively little effect on either response rate or patterning. However, once the stimulus had accompanied food presentation, the original performance under the nonpaired condition was not recovered. The effects were more like those occurring when the stimulus was paired with food

Relations between patterns of responding and the presentation of stimuli under second-order schedules

Key-pecking behavior in the pigeon was maintained under second-order schedules in which food was presented after a variable number of 2-min fixed-interval components were completed. When either the same stimulus (Exp. I) or different stimuli (Exp. II) appeared on the key during consecutive components, and a stimulus that was occasionally paired with food was presented briefly at completion of each component, (1) patterns of positively accelerated responding were maintained during the components, and, (2) mean response rates were generally as high during the initial components of a sequence as during the later components. In both experiments, when the food-paired stimulus was omitted and either no stimulus or a stimulus never paired with food was presented at completion of each component, mean rates of responding increased, but patterns of positively accelerated responding were not maintained during individual components. When a food-paired stimulus was not presented at completion of the components, mean response rates in Exp. I were low during the initial components of a sequence and gradually increased during subsequent components; in Exp. II mean response rates were variable, and pauses and abrupt changes in response rates were typical