Is It Worth It To Win The Talent War? Evaluating the Utility of Performance-Based Pay

While the business press suggests that “winning the talent war,” the attraction and retention of key talent, is increasingly pivotal to organization success, executives often report that their organizations do not fare well on this dimension. We demonstrate how, through integrating turnover and compensation research, the Boudreau and Berger (1985) staffing utility framework can be used by industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists and other human resource (HR) professionals to address this issue. Employing a step-by-step process that combines organization-specific information about pay and performance with research on the pay-turnover linkage, we estimate the effects of incentive pay on employee separation patterns at various performance levels. We then use the utility framework to evaluate the financial consequences of incentive pay as an employee retention vehicle. The demonstration illustrates the limitations of standard accounting and behavioral cost-based approaches and the importance of considering both the costs and benefits associated with pay-for-performance plans. Our results suggest that traditional accounting or behavioral cost-based approaches, used alone, would have supported rejecting a potentially lucrative pay-for-performance investment. Additionally, our approach should enable HR professionals to use research findings and their own data to estimate the retention patterns and subsequent financial consequences of their existing, and potential, company-specific performance-based pay policies

Investigation of nonlinear absorption processes with femtosecond light pulses in lithium niobate crystals

The propagation of high-power femtosecond light pulses in lithium niobate crystals (LiNbO3) is investigated experimentally and theoretically in collinear pump-probe transmission experiments. It is found within a wide intensity range that a strong decrease of the pump transmission coefficient at wavelength 388 nm fully complies with the model of two-photon absorption; the corresponding nonlinear absorption coefficient is betap~=3.5 cm/GW. Furthermore, strong pump pulses induce a considerable absorption for the probe at 776 nm. The dependence of the probe transmission coefficient on the time delay Deltat between probe and pump pulses is characterized by a narrow dip (at Deltat~=0) and a long (on the picosecond time scale) lasting plateau. The dip is due to direct two-photon transitions involving pump and probe photons; the corresponding nonlinear absorption coefficient is betar~=0.9 cm/GW. The plateau absorption is caused by the presence of pump-excited charge carriers; the effective absorption cross section at 776 nm is sigmar~=8×10^–18 cm^2. The above nonlinear absorption parameters are not strongly polarization sensitive. No specific manifestations of the relaxation of hot carriers are found for a pulse duration of ~=0.24 ps

Femtosecond time-resolved absorption processes in lithium niobate crystals

emtosecond pump pulses are strongly attenuated in lithium niobate owing to two-photon absorption; the relevant nonlinear coefficient beta_p ranges from ~3.5 cm/GW for lambda_p = 388 nm to ~0.1 cm/GW for 514 nm. In collinear pump-probe experiments the probe transmission at the double pump wavelength 2lambda_p=776 nm is controlled by two different processes: A direct absorption process involving pump and probe photons (beta_r ~ or = 0.9 cm/GW) leads to a pronounced short-duration transmission dip, whereas the probe absorption by pump-excited charge carriers results in a long-duration plateau. Coherent pump-probe interactions are of no importance. Hot-carrier relaxation occurs on the time scale of < or ~0.1 ps

Direct current driven by ac electric field in quantum wells

It is shown that the excitation of charge carriers by ac electric field with zero average driving leads to a direct electric current in quantum well structures. The current emerges for both linear and circular polarization of the ac electric field and depends on the field polarization and frequency. We present a micoscopic model and an analytical theory of such a nonlinear electron transport in quantum wells with structure inversion asymmetry. In such systems, dc current is induced by ac electric field which has both the in-plane and out-of-plane components. The ac field polarized in the interface plane gives rise to a direct current if the quantum well is subjected to an in-plane static magnetic field.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Stochastic Energetics of Quantum Transport

We examine the stochastic energetics of directed quantum transport due to rectification of non-equilibrium thermal fluctuations. We calculate the quantum efficiency of a ratchet device both in presence and absence of an external load to characterize two quantifiers of efficiency. It has been shown that the quantum current as well as efficiency in absence of load (Stokes efficiency) is higher as compared to classical current and efficiency, respectively, at low temperature. The conventional efficiency of the device in presence of load on the other hand is higher for a classical system in contrast to its classical counterpart. The maximum conventional efficiency being independent of the nature of the bath and the potential remains the same for classical and quantum systems.Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev.

Quantum kinetic theory of shift current electron pumping in semiconductors

We develop a theory of laser beam generation of shift currents in non-centrosymmetric semiconductors. The currents originate when the excited electrons transfer between different bands or scatter inside these bands, and asymmetrically shift their centers of mass in elementary cells. Quantum kinetic equations for hot-carrier distributions and expressions for the induced currents are derived by nonequilibrium Green functions. In applications, we simplify the approach to the Boltzmann limit and use it to model laser-excited GaAs in the presence of LO phonon scattering. The shift currents are calculated in a steady-state regime.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures (Latex

Investigation of nonlinear absorption processes with femtosecond light pulses in lithium niobate crystals

The propagation of high-power femtosecond light pulses in lithium niobate crystals (LiNbO3) is investigated experimentally and theoretically in collinear pump-probe transmission experiments. It is found within a wide intensity range that a strong decrease of the pump transmission coefficient at wavelength 388nm fully complies with the model of two-photon absorption; the corresponding nonlinear absorption coefficient is Ipa3.5cmaGW. Furthermore, strong pump pulses induce a considerable absorption for the probe at 776nm. The dependence of the probe transmission coefficient on the time delay It between probe and pump pulses is characterized by a narrow dip (at Ita0) and a long (on the picosecond time scale) lasting plateau. The dip is due to direct two-photon transitions involving pump and probe photons; the corresponding nonlinear absorption coefficient is Ira0.9cmaGW. The plateau absorption is caused by the presence of pump-excited charge carriers; the effective absorption cross section at 776nm is Ïra8 -10a18cm2. The above nonlinear absorption parameters are not strongly polarization sensitive. No specific manifestations of the relaxation of hot carriers are found for a pulse duration of 0.24ps. © 2005 The American Physical Society

Femtosecond time-resolved absorption processes in lithium niobate crystals

Femtosecond pump pulses are strongly attenuated in lithium niobate owing to two-photon absorption; the relevant nonlinear coefficient beta(p) ranges from similar to 3.5 cm/GW for lambda(p) = 388 nm to similar to 0.1 cm/GW for 514 nm. In collinear pump-probe experiments the probe transmission at the double pump wavelength 2 lambda(p) = 776 nm is controlled by two different processes: A direct absorption process involving pump and probe photons (,8, similar or equal to 0.9 cm/GW) leads to a pronounced short-duration transmission dip, whereas the probe absorption by pump-excited charge carriers results in a long-duration plateau. Coherent pump-probe interactions are of no importance. Hot-carrier relaxation occurs on the time scale of less than or similar to 0.1 ps. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America