The HR-Firm Performance Relationship: Can it be in the Mind of the Beholder?

This study examined whether respondents’ implicit theories of performance could impact their responses to surveys regarding HR practices and effectiveness. Senior Human Resource and Line Executives and MBA, graduate Engineering, and graduate HR students read scenarios of high and low performing firms and were asked to report on the prevalence of various HR practices and effectiveness of the HR function in each firm. Results indicated that all four groups of respondents held implicit theories that high performing firms were characterized by extensive HR practices and had highly effective HR functions relative to low performing firms. Subjects with substantial work experience reported greater differences between and high and low performing firms than did subjects with relatively little work experience. The implications of these results for research on the HR Practices – Firm Performance relationship are discussed

Finite element analysis of inviscid subsonic boattail flow

A finite element code for analysis of inviscid subsonic flows over arbitrary nonlifting planar or axisymmetric bodies is described. The code solves a novel primitive variable formulation of the coupled irrotationality and compressible continuity equations. Results for flow over a cylinder, a sphere, and a NACA 0012 airfoil verify the code. Computed subcritical flows over an axisymmetric boattailed afterbody compare well with finite difference results and experimental data. Interative coupling with an integral turbulent boundary layer code shows strong viscous effects on the inviscid flow. Improvements in code efficiency and extensions to transonic flows are discussed

Comparison of several methods for predicting separation in a compressible turbulent boundary layer

Several methods for predicting the separation point for a compressible turbulent boundary layer were applied to the flow over a bump on a wind-tunnel wall. Measured pressure distributions were used as input. Two integral boundary-layer methods, three finite-difference boundary-layer methods, and three simple methods were applied at five free-stream Mach numbers ranging from 0.354 to 0.7325. Each of the boundary-layer methods failed to explicitly predict separation. However, by relaxing the theoretical separation criteria, several boundary-layer methods were made to yield reasonable separation predictions, but none of the methods accurately predicted the important boundary-layer parameters at separation. Only one of the simple methods consistently predicted separation with reasonable accuracy in a manner consistent with the theory. The other methods either indicated several possible separation locations or only sometimes predicted separation

The Effects of Research and Development Intensity on Managerial Compensation in Large Organizations

Agency theory, leading edge, and administrative life cycle perspectives all predict that organizations having high levels of Research and Development (R&D) intensity will follow different compensation strategies than organizations that are less R&D intensive. Using data from 110 organizations over a 5 year period, and controlling for organization differences in employee and job characteristics, we found support for this general prediction. Specifically, high R&D intensity organizations tended to have higher relative base pay, higher relative bonus pay, and greater relative eligibility for long-term incentive payments. We discuss the importance of further research into compensation decisions in R&D intensive firms, particularly the effects of such decisions on firms\u27 competitiveness

The 1976 Soweto uprising

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 2 May, 199

The Tragedy of TRIPS

This Article argues that sound intellectual property policy requires not only that the policymaker establish an appropriate incentive for invention but also that the policymaker determine how the cost of that incentive should be distributed across various classes of consumers. It is the distributive dimension of intellectual property policy that makes existing international institutions such an unsound mechanism for determining global rules for intellectual policy--the policymakers are simply not able to make the appropriate kinds of decisions. I suggest some ways in which institutional structures can be modified to achieve a better balance

Wilbur Leatherberry: Our Center of Gravity

Some lead with words; some with actions. Some lead with anger; some with authority. Some lead with attitude. Those who lead with attitude are precious few, made more precious because they are so few. Bill Leatherberry leads with attitude. He projects a quiet and reasoned confidence. He is unflappable and imperturbable. He projects calm and control, evidence of a sure faith that things will work out