Individual-level rewards and appraisal: the influence of context

Individual performance rewards and individual performance appraisals are key elements of “calculative HRM.” As practices, they figure strongly in the most highly cited studies within strategic HRM research. However, these studies are generally located within a single, distinct context, the USA, a context in which there is an underlying assumption of firm latitude. Varieties of capitalism literature indicates that this assumption is inappropriate to the context of coordinated market economies of Europe. We review cross-national studies of the adoption of calculative HRM and observe a substantial influence of national context on its adoption by firms. In terms of how to conceive national context, we observe that recent research suggests that formal institutional influences are of more salience than informal influences. The relative importance of formal institutional influences has consequences for international management education that predominantly views context through a cultural lens. We further observe that recent research of the uptake of calculative HRM perceives context as a constraint rather than as a determinant. Regardless of context, managers have at least some latitude to implement calculative HRM practices. However, we suggest that their efforts need to be adapted to and sensitive to contextual constraints

Context and HRM: theory, evidence, and proposals

Human resource management (HRM) has paid insufficient attention to the impact of context. In this article, we outline the need for HRM to take full account of context, particularly national context, and to use both cultural theories and, particularly, institutional theories to do that. We use research publications that utilize the Cranet data to show how that can be done. From that evidence, we develop a series of proposals for further context-based research in HRM

A framework for comparative institutional research on HRM

This article argues that awareness of institutional context has been singularly lacking in the most influential areas of HRM. This lack of attention to external context has resulted in findings that fail to reflect reality. We offer a layered contextual framework embedded in economic institutional theory. We propose that it forms the basis of a comparative research agenda for HRM. We validate the framework using extant publications on institutionally based comparative HRM, drawing on findings from the Cranet research network published in the decade 2007–2017

Macroscopic Elastic Properties of Textured ZrN--AlN Polycrystalline Aggregates: From Ab initio Calculations to Grain-Scale Interactions

Despite the fast development of computational materials modelling, theoretical description of macroscopic elastic properties of textured polycrystalline aggregates starting from basic principles remains a challenging task. In this communication we use a supercell-based approach to obtain the elastic properties of random solid solution cubic ZrAlN system as a function of the metallic sublattice composition and texture descriptors. The employed special quasi-random structures are optimised not only with respect to short range order parameters, but also to make the three cubic directions $[1\,0\,0]$, $[0\,1\,0]$, and $[0\,0\,1]$ as similar as possible. In this way, only a small spread of elastic constants tensor components is achieved and an optimum trade-off between modelling of chemical disorder and computational limits regarding the supercell size is achieved. The single crystal elastic constants are shown to vary smoothly with composition, yielding $x\approx0.4$-0.5 an alloy constitution with an almost isotropic response. Consequently, polycrystals with this composition are suggested to have Young's modulus independent on the actual microstructure. This is indeed confirmed by explicit calculations of polycrystal elastic properties, both within the isotropic aggregate limit, as well as with fibre textures with various orientations and sharpness. It turns out, that for low AlN mole fractions, the spread of the possible Young's moduli data caused by the texture variation can be larger than 100 GPa. Consequently, our discussion of Young's modulus data of cubic ZrAlN contains also the evaluation of the texture typical for thin films.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 3 table

Could hair-lichens of high-elevation forests help detect the impact of global change in the Alps?

Climate change and the anthropic emission of pollutants are likely to have an accelerated impact in high-elevation mountain areas. This phenomenon could have negative consequences on alpine habitats and for species of conservation in relative proximity to dense human populations. This premise implies that the crucial task is in the early detection of warning signals of ecological changes. In alpine landscapes, high-elevation forests provide a unique environment for taking full advantage of epiphytic lichens as sensitive indicators of climate change and air pollution. This literature reviewis intended to provide a starting point for developing practical biomonitoring tools that elucidate the potential of hair-lichens, associated with high-elevation forests, as ecological indicators of global change in the European Alps. We found support for the practical use of hair-lichens to detect the impact of climate change and nitrogen pollution in high-elevation forest habitats. The use of these organisms as ecological indicators presents an opportunity to expand monitoring activities and develop predictive tools that support decisions on how to mitigate the effects of global change in the Alps

Solid solution hardening of vacancy stabilized TixW1−xB2

AbstractWe present a combined experimental and theoretical investigation of sputter deposited thin films in the ternary system Ti1−xWxB2. Solid solutions of Ti1−xWxB2−z were prepared by physical vapor deposition (PVD) and, over the whole composition range, found to crystallize in the AlB2 structure type. The obtained films exhibit good thermal stability and high hardness, evidencing a maximum value of almost 40GPa for Ti0.67W0.33B2−z. The effect of vacancies on stabilization and mechanical properties of the AlB2 structure type is discussed, using ab initio simulations. Based on our results, we can conclude that vacancies are crucial for the phase stability of PVD deposited Ti1−xWxB2−z coatings

Transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy on the worn surface of nano-structured TiAlN/VN multilayer coating

Nano-structured TiAIN/VN multilayer hard coatings grown by cathodic arc metal ion etching and unbalanced magnetron sputtering deposition have repeatedly shown low coefficients of friction and wear. In this paper, we employed the combined methods of cross-sectional ion beam milling sample preparation, conventional transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and quantitative spectrum analysis to give a comprehensive characterization of wear induced tribofilm, worn TiAIN/VN surface as well as wear debris. The major wear mechanism operating in the TiAIN/VN coating is the tribo-oxidation wear. A 20-50 nm thick tribofilm was observed on the TiAIN/VN worn surface, having inhomogeneous density, amorphous structure and multicomponent V-Al-Ti-O composition. Therefore the real sliding contact during the ball-on-disk test was a three-body sliding system including the tribofilm, in which the self-sintering and shearing deformation of the multicomponent oxide film played a significant role in determining the low friction coefficient. Owing to the low friction and high hardness, the TiAIN/VN worn surface retained good structural integrity without any crack, delamination or detectable deformation, resulting in minimized mechanical wear. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Surface Structure of Bi(111) from Helium Atom Scattering Measurements. Inelastic Close-Coupling Formalism

8 págs.; 4 figs.; 2 tabs.; Open Access funded by Creative Commons Atribution Licence 4.0© 2015 American Chemical Society. Elastic and inelastic close-coupling (CC) calculations have been used to extract information about the corrugation amplitude and the surface vibrational atomic displacement by fitting to several experimental diffraction patterns. To model the three-dimensional interaction between the He atom and the Bi(111) surface under investigation, a corrugated Morse potential has been assumed. Two different types of calculations are used to obtain theoretical diffraction intensities at three surface temperatures along the two symmetry directions. Type one consists of solving the elastic CC (eCC) and attenuating the corresponding diffraction intensities by a global Debye-Waller (DW) factor. The second one, within a unitary theory, is derived from merely solving the inelastic CC (iCC) equations, where no DW factor is necessary to include. While both methods arrive at similar predictions for the peak-to-peak corrugation value, the variance of the value obtained by the iCC method is much better. Furthermore, the more extensive calculation is better suited to model the temperature induced signal asymmetries and renders the inclusion for a second Debye temperature for the diffraction peaks futile.This research was supported by the European Commission and the Styrian Government within the ERDF program. S.M.A. acknowledges MICINN (Spain) through Grant No. FIS2011- 29596-C02-01. A.T. acknowledges financial support provided by the FWF (Austrian Science Fund) within the project J3479- N20.Peer Reviewe