When Pay is Kept Secret, the Implications on Performance are Revealing

Key Findings Pay secrecy (in contrast to pay transparency) negatively affects the performance of individuals who are less tolerant to inequity; Pay secrecy negatively affects the perception of the link between performance and pay in individuals intolerant to equity, which in turn, decreases their performance; In contrast, pay secrecy is associated with significantly better task performance than pay transparency for individuals who are more tolerant to inequity

ILR Impact Brief – Supervisor Support, Employee Control Help NYC Firefighters Cope with 9/11

Although individuals often work in groups and groups function within a larger environment, researchers have rarely examined the effect of context on employees’ emotions, attitudes, or behaviors. This study uses the World Trade Center attack to generate and test a context theory concerning the impact on first responders of their involvement in a catastrophic event. The model details the way in which the climate (support from supervisors and employee control over the work environment) within discrete engine and ladder companies (work units) moderates the relationship between emergency response to the attack (the stressor) and the resulting emotional strain on the firefighters. Prior studies have shown that people’s exposure to critical incidents is associated with depression, anxiety, and stress that may begin immediately or surface months later. The severity of individual reactions varies and researchers have proposed several explanatory theories, including biological and psychological factors, the way people mentally process their experiences, and the array of physical and social/emotional resources at their disposal. The authors here draw on the latter two theoretical frameworks to formulate and test several hypotheses that help explain why New York City firefighters involved in 9/11 felt more or less emotionally wrought 18 months after the attack

\u3ci\u3eChevron\u3c/i\u3e\u27s Two Steps

The framework for judicial review of administrative interpretations of regulatory statutes set forth in the landmark Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council decision prescribes two analytic inquiries, and for good reason. The familiar two-step analysis is best understood as a framework for allocating interpretive authority in the administrative state; it separates questions of statutory implementation assigned to independent judicial judgment (Step One) from questions regarding which the courts role is limited to oversight of agency decisionmaking (Step Two). The boundary between a reviewing court\u27s decision and oversight roles rests squarely on the question of statutory ambiguity. For while courts, using traditional tools of statutory interpretation, should decide directly whether statutory language permits or clearly excludes the possibility of a given agency interpretation, judges must withdraw to a supervisory role when agency choices fall within a zone of ambiguity left by congressional instructions. In that oversight role, courts may ask whether an agency employed appropriate processes or reasoning in making an interpretive choice. But if the choice was reached in a reasonable manner, judges must let the administrative interpretation stand. Thus defining the areas of ambiguity within which agencies possess primary interpretive authority constitutes a – if not the – central component of judges\u27 independent Step One task

Crowd Research at School: Crossing Flows

It has become widely known that when two flows of pedestrians cross stripes emerge spontaneously by which the pedestrians of the two walking directions manage to pass each other in an orderly manner. In this work, we report about the results of an experiment on crossing flows which has been carried out at a German school. These results include that previously reported high flow volumes on the crossing area can be confirmed. The empirical results are furthermore compared to the results of a simulation model which succesfully could be calibrated to catch the specific properties of the population of participants.Comment: contribution to proceedings of Traffic and Granular Flow 2013 held in J\"ulich, German

Памяти Александра Евгеньевича Будникова

In photodynamic therapy (PDT), photosensitizers and light are used to cause photochemically induced cell death. The selectivity and the effectiveness of the phototoxicity in cancer can be increased by a specific uptake of the photosensitizer into tumor cells. A promising target for this goal is the folic acid receptor α (FRα), which is overexpressed on the surface of many tumor cells and mediates an endocytotic uptake. Here, we describe a polysaccharide-based nanoparticle system suitable for targeted uptake and its photochemical and photobiological characterization. The photosensitizer 5, 10, 15, 20-tetraphenyl-21H, 23H-porphyrine (TPP) was encapsulated in spermine- and acetal-modified dextran (SpAcDex) nanoparticles and conjugated with folic acid (FA) on the surface [SpAcDex(TPP)-FA]. The particles are successfully taken up by human HeLa-KB cells, and a light-induced cytotoxicity is observable. An excess of free folate as the competitor for the FRα-mediated uptake inhibits the phototoxicity. In conclusion, folate-modified SpAcDex particles are a promising drug delivery system for a tumor cell targeted photodynamic therapy

Globalization and Job Insecurity in Danish Firms: A Multilevel Study

Globalization is on the agenda as a cause of job insecurity, but knowledge regarding the relationship between globalization, management practices, and employee job insecurity is in fact limited. This study aims to investigate this multilevel association, defining globalization by the interrelated aspects of competition, liberalization, and technological innovation, and management by offensive practices such as external collaboration, organizational change, numerical flexibility, and work intensification. Questionnaire data were collected in 2010 from 3392 employees of 569 Danish companies and analyzed with multilevel modeling. The results show that international collaboration and numerical flexibility are associated with higher job insecurity. The level of job insecurity varies with occupational position, age group, and company size. Because globalization and the management of globalization are associated with employee job insecurity, companies should react in a timely way to globalization pressures: for example, by involving employees, communicating clearly, and supporting employees with lower education

Capabilities for Innovation: The Nordic Model and Employee Participation

Technological developments combined with increasing levels of competition related to the ongoing globalization imply that firms find themselves in dynamic, changing environments that call for dynamic capabilities. This challenges the internal human and organizational resources of firms in general and in particular their ability to develop firm-specific innovative capabilities through employee participation and creation of innovative workplaces. In this article, we argue that national institutional conditions can play an enhancing or hampering role in this. Especially the norms and values governing relations between employers and employees are expected to be of vital importance. This article will follow a resource-based perspective on developing dynamic capabilities in order to test the importance of enhancing human and organizational capabilities for innovation in firms. In particular, the article will focus on some of the important institutional conditions in Danish firms derived from the Nordic model, such as the formal and informal relations of cooperation between employers and employees in firms and their function in building capabilities for innovation. The foundation of the empirical analysis is a survey that collected information from 601 firms belonging to the private urban sector in Denmark. The survey was carried out in late 2010

Capabilities for Innovation: The Nordic Model and Employee Participation

Technological developments combined with increasing levels of competition related to the ongoing globalization imply that firms find themselves in dynamic, changing environments that call for dynamic capabilities. This challenges the internal human and organizational resources of firms in general and in particular their ability to develop firm-specific innovative capabilities through employee participation and creation of innovative workplaces. In this article, we argue that national institutional conditions can play an enhancing or hampering role in this. Especially the norms and values governing relations between employers and employees are expected to be of vital importance. This article will follow a resource-based perspective on developing dynamic capabilities in order to test the importance of enhancing human and organizational capabilities for innovation in firms. In particular, the article will focus on some of the important institutional conditions in Danish firms derived from the Nordic model, such as the formal and informal relations of cooperation between employers and employees in firms and their function in building capabilities for innovation. The foundation of the empirical analysis is a survey that collected information from 601 firms belonging to the private urban sector in Denmark. The survey was carried out in late 2010