HR: More Than a Glorified Party Planner

[Excerpt] Human Resources as a function is not broadly recognized for the significant role that it plays in the development and execution of corporate business strategy because, in many cases, it plays more of a facilitator role than a director role. In order to increase the credence given to HR on the macro level, practitioners need to play a more active role in the promotion of HR as a career. The approach to increase brand equity on a micro level should include HR practitioners on a more local level having a strong presence in the local community. Giving people a clearer idea of what HR is and what it can actually do, not only to add value to the company but also to make employees outside of HR more effective, will lead to an across-the-board increase in the respect given to HR practitioners

Industry Structure Similarities, Trade Agreements, and Business Cycle Synchronization

This paper analyzes the effects of industry structure similarities, free trade agreements, and geographic borders on regional business cycle correlation, using fifty US states, 10 Canadian provinces, and 1 Canadian territory as a case study. Using two cross-sectional OLS regressions and one panel data OLS regression, this study finds that pair-wise gross territorial product growth correlation decreased significantly after NAFTA ratification for state-state, province-province, and state-province territorial pairs, contrary to previous literature’s results. NAFTA effectively decoupled intra-national business cycles in the US and Canada while also desynchronizing cross-border pair-wise GSP growth correlation, but cross-border pair-wise GSP growth correlation was much less desynchronized post-NAFTA relative to intra-national pairs. These results indicate that NAFTA and the US-Canada border may produce two opposing forces that dampen each other’s desynchronizing effects

What Can Be Done About A Disruptive Physician? A Legal Analysis

House, a medical drama about an infectious disease specialist, entertained television audiences for years as the irascible and pill-popping physician solved medical mysteries with the zeal of a modern-day Sherlock Holmes while playing mind games with his coworkers. Uncanny intuition and eccentric thinking earned the physician great respect but his bullish behavior and antisocial tendencies were a distraction at the hospital. Not only did Dr. House clash with his fellow physicians but he also insulted patients, flouted hospital rules and caused great conflict with the hospital administrators. In fact, his actions often crossed the line into obnoxiousness and rage causing the hospital staff to tiptoe around his dysfunctional behavior. In the real world, Dr. House would be labeled a “disruptive physician” and would be subjected to disciplinary action including the loss of his hospital privileges. This article will explore the problems caused by being labeled a disruptive physician in a legal context with a focus on the peer review process and the relevant court cases

Confronting Wartime Sexual Violence: Public Support for Survivors in Bosnia

Existing research on conflict-related sexual violence focuses on the motivations of perpetrators and effects on survivors. What remains less clear is how postconflict societies respond to the hardships survivors face. In survey experiments in Bosnia, we examine public support for financial aid, legal aid, and public recognition for survivors. First, we find a persistent ethnocentric view of sexual violence, where respondents are less supportive when the perpetrator is identified as co-ethnic and survivors are perceived as out-groups. Second, respondents are less supportive of male survivors than female survivors, which we attribute to social stigmas surrounding same-gender sexual activity. Consistent with our argument, those who are intolerant of homosexuality are especially averse to providing aid to male survivors. This study points to the long-term challenges survivors face due to ethnic divisions and social stigmatization from sexual violence

Non-additivity of pair interactions in charged colloids

It is general wisdom that the pair potential of charged colloids in a liquid may be closely approximated by a Yukawa interaction, as predicted by the classical Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory. We experimentally determine the effective forces in a binary mixture of like-charged particles, of species 1 and 2, with blinking optical tweezers. The measured forces are consistent with a Yukawa pair potential but the (12) cross-interaction is not equal to the geometric mean of the (11) and (22) like-interactions, as expected from DLVO. The deviation is a function of the electrostatic screening length and the size ratio, with the cross-interaction measured being consistently weaker than DLVO predictions. The corresponding non-additivity parameter is negative and grows in magnitude with increased size asymmetry.Comment: Final versio