The Costs and Benefits of Duty-Free, Quota-Free Market Access for Poor Countries: Who and What Matters

This paper examines the potential benefits and costs of providing duty-free, quota-free market access to the least developed countries (LDCs), and the effects of extending eligibility to other small and poor countries. Using the MIRAGE computable general equilibrium model, it assesses the impact of scenarios involving different levels of coverage for products, recipient countries, and preference-giving countries on participating countries, as well as competing developing countries that are excluded. The main goal of this paper is to highlight the role that rich and emerging countries could play in helping poor countries to improve their trade performance and to assess the distribution of costs and benefits for developing countries and whether the potential costs for domestic producers are in line with political feasibility in preference-giving countries.CGE modeling, trade policy, duty-free market access, technical barriers to trade,preference erosion

Carmen Cubana - a Latin pop opera

Carmen Cubana ist eine Latin Pop Opera, die im Juli 2006 im Rahmen des 'Musical Sommers Amstetten' ihre Uraufführung erlebte. Die Geschichte basiert auf der Novelle Carmen von Prosper Mérimée und der Oper Carmen von Georges Bizet, beides Werke, die im 19. Jahrhundert in Paris entstanden. Die Ort der Handlung wurde allerdings weg von Spanien nach Kuba verlegt. Auch die Zeit, in der das Musical spielt, ist eine andere. Zum Schauplatz wurde die Flucht zahlreicher Kubaner 1994. Die wichtigsten Handlungsstränge blieben jedoch erhalten, genau wie die wichtigsten Charaktereigenschaften der Hauptpersonen. Die Musik ist eine bunte Mischung aus verschiedenen Stilen. Man findet Originalversionen aus Bizets Oper, zum Teil unverändert genauso wie moderne Latin-Pop Bearbeitungen, R'n'B-Nummern oder Lieder im klassischen Kubanischen Stil. Die einzelnen Stile werden jeweils einer Person zugeordnet um dem Zuhörer eine gewisse Kontinuität zu vermitteln. Das Stück wurde aber nicht nur im Rahmen der Musik in die heutige Zeit transportiert, auch in der Handlung gibt es zahlreiche Punkte, die dem Zuschauer zeigen, dass die Geschichte im 20. Jahrhundert angesiedelt ist. Für mich war es besonders spannend, mich so tief in diese Materie einzuarbeiten, da ich fast vom Beginn der Entstehung dieses Musicals dabei sein durfte. Die intensiven Probenarbeiten vor der Premiere, von Mai bis Juli 2006, erlebte ich hautnah mit und so konnte ich dabei bereits erste Einblicke in die Struktur und den Aufbau erhaschen. Durch das erneute Studium der Musik und der Geschichte der Vorläufer des Musicals wurde das Bild, das ich bereits hatte immer größer und die Interessen immer vielseitiger. Obwohl ich die Musik bereits unzählige Male gehört und viel mit ihr gearbeitet habe, gab es noch nie einen Moment, an dem sie mir zu viel wurde. An dieser Stelle sei ein Kompliment an die Komponisten auszusprechen, dass es ihnen gelungen ist, so interessante und immer wieder abwechslungsreiche Musik zu schreiben. Alles in allem ist das Stück eine gelungene Mischung aus alten und neuen Melodien, die ein sehr breites Publikum ansprechen

Managing to lead in private enterprise in China: Work values, demography and the development of trust

Previous work on trust has focused on employee trust in management. However, issues of how leaders develop trust in their followers in leader-member exchange (LMX) are under-explored. Based on theories of leader-member exchange, attribution and industrial convergence, this study investigates how the work values of leaders influence the development of their trust in followers and how this is moderated by demographic factors. A survey of 219 leaders was conducted in privately owned enterprises in China. The findings suggest that the work value of centralization is negatively related to leader trust in follower predictability. Group orientation and formalization are positively related to the development of trust in follower good faith. Moreover, age and level of formal education are found to moderate significantly the relationships between leader work values and development of their trust in followers within the context of China. Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications

Exploring the Influence of Ethical Leadership on Voice Behavior: How Leader-Member Exchange, Psychological Safety and Psychological Empowerment Influence Employees’ Willingness to Speak Out

The study of voice behavior examines the inclination of staff and team members to speak up and contribute ideas to the team. In this article, we investigate how factors such as leader-member exchange (LMX), psychological safety and psychological empowerment influence such behavior. Our findings, which are based on a sample of 308 employees working for a state-owned telecommunications company in China, indicate that ethical leadership promotes employees’ voice behavior through enhanced LMX, which also leads to greater feelings of psychological safety and psychological empowerment. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed

A multi-level analysis of team climate and interpersonal exchange relationships at work

This paper seeks to advance research on interpersonal exchange relationships between supervisors, subordinates, and coworkers at work by integrating social exchange, workplace friendship, and climate research to develop a multi-level model. We tested the model using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) with data obtained from a sample of 215 manager–employee dyads working in 36 teams. At the individual level, leader–member exchange (LMX) was found to be related to workplace friendship. Further, workplace friendship was positively related to team–member exchange (TMX) and mediated the LMX–TMX relationship. At the team level, HLM results indicated that the relationship between LMX and workplace friendship was moderated by affective climate. These findings suggest that high-quality LMX relationships are associated with enhanced workplace friendship between employees, especially when the affective climate is strong

A Literature Review of Social and Economic Leader-Member Exchange

Leader–member exchange (LMX) research has increasingly relied upon the social exchange theory (SET) as a theoretical foundation, but the dominating way of measuring LMX has not followed this theoretical development (Gottfredson et al., 2020). With the aim of developing a measure that more coherently reflects SET, Kuvaas et al. (2012) conceptualized LMX as two qualitatively different relationships, labeled economic LMX and social LMX. Since the most applied LMX measures are under scrutiny for not being sufficiently grounded in theory (Gottfredson et al., 2020), it may be especially important to expose alternative measures. Therefore, we provide a comprehensive review of the research to date applying a two-dimensional approach to LMX, while also adding to interpretation and suggestions for how we can progress the field even further.publishedVersio

The influence of leader-follower cognitive style similarity on followers’ organizational citizenship behaviours

While cognitive style congruence has been highlighted as a potentially important variable influencing performance outcomes in work-related contexts, studies of its influence are scarce. This paper examines the influence of leader-follower cognitive style similarity on followers’ organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Data from 430 leader-follower dyads were analyzed using polynomial regression and response surface analysis. Results demonstrate that congruence of leader/follower cognitive style is a predictor of follower OCBs. Organizations may therefore benefit from considering issues of similarity of cognitive styles in their attempts to develop effective leader-follower partnerships leading to increased OCBs and concomitant improvements in both individual and organizational level success

Conceptualizing leadership perceptions as attitudes:using attitude theory to further the understanding of the relation between leadership and outcomes

Leadership is one of the most examined factors in relation to understanding employee wellbeing and performance. While there are disparate approaches to studying leadership, they share a common assumption that perceptions of a leader's behavior determine reactions to the leader. The concept of leadership perception is poorly understood in most theoretical approaches. To address this, we propose that there are many benefits from examining leadership perceptions as an attitude towards the leader. In this review, we show how research examining a number of aspects of attitudes (content, structure and function) can advance understanding of leadership perceptions and how these affect work-related outcomes. Such a perspective provides a more multi-faceted understanding of leadership perceptions than previously envisaged and this can provide a more detailed understanding of how such perceptions affect outcomes. In addition, we examine some of the main theoretical and methodological implications of viewing leadership perceptions as attitudes to the wider leadership area. The cross-fertilization of research from the attitudes literature to understanding leadership perceptions provides new insights into leadership processes and potential avenues for further research. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserve

Caught in the Middle: How and When Psychological Contract Breach by Subordinates Relates to Weekly Emotional Exhaustion of Supervisors

In psychological contract research, the side of the supervisor is strongly underexposed. However, supervisors are responsible for maintaining relationships with both their subordinates and senior management and are likely to be influenced by events unfolding in these relationships. In this study, we state that supervisor well-being may be affected by subordinates who fail to meet their obligations. This study adds to psychological contract research by developing an understanding of how and when subordinate psychological contract break (PCB) is associated with supervisor emotional exhaustion. Through a weekly diary survey among 56 Dutch supervisors, we test hypotheses about the relationships between subordinate PCB and the emotional exhaustion of the supervisor, the mediating role of perceptions of performance pressure by the supervisor in this relationship, and the moderating role of i-deals between the supervisor and senior management. Multilevel analyses support the first two hypotheses, but contradictory to our expectations show that the positive association between subordinate PCB and the emotional exhaustion of the supervisor is strengthened when the supervisor has high levels of i-deals with senior management. We discuss the findings in relation to their contribution to psychological contract theory