The role of sociopolitical workplace networks in involuntary employee turnover

While poor performance is one reason employees are fired, previous research suggests it plays a limited role in explaining terminations. We argue that sociopolitical concerns play a role in determining who is terminated. Using field data from a U.S. health care company and experimental data using participants with supervisory experience, we show how the supervisor’s political concerns with the focal employee, which are contingent on the supervisor-employee political relationship and the way it is embedded within the workplace network, are related to dismissal decisions. Not only do we expect that a supervisor will be less likely to terminate an employee they see as a political ally and more likely to dismiss an adversary, but we also argue that a supervisor with fewer (more) alternative allies to the employee is less (more) likely to dismiss the employee. Additionally, a supervisor with numerous adversaries in their own network depends more heavily on the employee politically, making dismissal less likely, whereas if the employee has numerous adversaries, the supervisor has greater latitude to terminate the employee. Our findings contribute to research on involuntary turnover by showing that a social network approach to understanding organizational politics helps us understand why specific individuals are targeted for dismissal, above and beyond performance considerations

Position Paper of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology on Early Palliative Care in Oncology Practice (Simultaneous Care)

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Pleural mesothelioma risk in the construction industry: a case-control study in Italy, 2000-2018

Objectives Workers in the construction industry have been exposed to asbestos in various occupations. In Italy, a National Mesothelioma Registry has been implemented more than 20 years ago. Using cases selected from this registry and exploiting existing control data sets, we estimated relative risks for pleural mesothelioma (PM) among construction workers. DesignCase-control study. SettingCases from the National Mesothelioma Registry (2000-2018), controls from three previous case-control studies. MethodsWe selected male PM incident cases diagnosed in 2000-2018. Population controls were taken from three studies performed in six Italian regions within two periods (2002-2004 and 2012-2016). Age-adjusted and period-adjusted unconditional logistic regression models were fitted to estimate odds ratios (OR) for occupations in the construction industry. We followed two approaches, one (primary) excluding and the other (secondary) including subjects employed in other non-construction blue collar occupations for >5 years. For both approaches, we performed an overall analysis including all cases and, given the incomplete temporal and geographic overlap of cases and controls, three time or/and space restricted sensitivity analyses. ResultsThe whole data set included 15 592 cases and 2210 controls. With the primary approach (4797 cases and 1085 controls), OR was 3.64 (2181 cases) for subjects ever employed in construction. We found elevated risks for blue-collar occupations (1993 cases, OR 4.52), including bricklayers (988 cases, OR 7.05), general construction workers (320 cases, OR 4.66), plumbers and pipe fitters (305 cases, OR 9.13), painters (104 cases, OR 2.17) and several others. Sensitivity analyses yielded very similar findings. Using the secondary approach, we observed similar patterns, but ORs were remarkably lower. ConclusionsWe found markedly increased PM risks for most occupations in the construction industry. These findings are relevant for compensation of subjects affected with mesothelioma in the construction industry

Small worlds and board interlocking in Brazil: a longitudinal study of corporate networks, 1997-2007

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is an emerging research field in finance, above all in Brazil. This work is pioneering in that it is supported by reference to different areas of knowledge: social network analysis and corporate governance, for dealing with a similarly emerging topic in finance; interlocking boards, the purpose being to check the validity of the small-world model in the Brazilian capital market, and the existence of associations between the positioning of the firm in the network of corporate relationships and its worth. To do so official data relating to more than 400 companies listed in Brazil between 1997 and 2007 were used. The main results obtained suggest that the configuration of the networks of relationships between board members and companies reflects the small-world model. Furthermore, there seems to be a significant relationship between the firm’s centrality and its worth, described according to an “inverted U” curve, which suggests the existence of optimum values of social prominence in the corporate network