Employee Involvement and Pay at U.S. and Canadian Auto Suppliers

We use survey data and field research to investigate the effects of employee involvement practices on outcomes for blue-collar workers in the auto supply industry. We find these practices raise wages by 3-5%. The causal mechanism linking involvement and wages appears to be most consistent with efficiency wage theories, and least consistent with compensating differences. We find no evidence that employee involvement affects plants? survival or employment growth.MIT International Motor Vehicle Program and the Case Western Reserve University Center for Regional Economic Issue

Tie Me Up!: An Empirical Investigation of Perceived Tie Characteristics on Prospective Connections

How do social networks motivate people to connect not only to their previously existing friends but also to novel or blind new contacts? We report the results of an experiment to identify the value that participants give to alternative network characteristics when deciding to connect to a social network. We focus on network tie characteristics because they represent information that potentially can be automated and provided without compromising privacy policies. Our experiment employed q-methodology to capture participants’ subjective values as they evaluated potential connections described by their tie strength, variety, and quantity, three important tie characteristics. We identify four distinct groups of individuals in terms of value. Our findings suggest social networks should include network characteristics to encourage joining and blind ties. They also suggest that current social network interfaces and research need to be augmented to address network tie characteristics

Understanding Behavioral Sources of Process Variation Following Enterprise System Deployment

This paper extends the current understanding of the time-sensitivity of intent and usage following large-scale IT implementation. Our study focuses on perceived system misfit with organizational processes in tandem with the availability of system circumvention opportunities. Case study comparisons and controlled experiments are used to support the theoretical unpacking of organizational and technical contingencies and their relationship to shifts in user intentions and variation in work-processing tactics over time. Findings suggest that managers and users may retain strong intentions to circumvent systems in the presence of perceived task-technology misfit. The perceived ease with which this circumvention is attainable factors significantly into the timeframe within which it is attempted, and subsequently impacts the onset of deviation from prescribed practice and anticipated dynamics

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Over the past three decades substantial research has been dedicated to the task of providing theoretical models for group decision processes. Unfortunately, many models remain grounded in single-period decision contexts. The current work investigates an extremely basic process approach to multi-criteria multi-period group decision-making. The time-series model considered incorporates factors relating to member influence over aggregated group decisions, the effect of past priorities on subsequent priorities and the cognizance / acceptance of performance optimizing task-criteria priorities over otherwise non-ideal ones. Quantitative values relating to criteria priorities are elicited for each period through paired comparisons. Empirical analysis of collected group task data is done through a three-stage evaluation of the model’s performance. Results suggest that the time-series approach is consistent in evaluating changes in criteria priorities over-time. The model can provide a strong auxiliary tool for multi-period extensions of existing approaches to decision support analysis

Resource Enablement Modeling: Implications for Studying the Diffusion of Technology

Organizations contemplating standardized technology adoption are confronted both by the potential for internal capability gains and by inter-organizational forces. Although such technologies may appear imitable and non-strategic, they can enable idiosyncrasies and strategic gains through their interaction with other resources possessed by firms. Based on Barney’s original 1991 thesis on the resource-based view, Abrahamson and Rosenkopf’s 1997 analytical framework is reconceptualized and extended to capture both internal and external elements of assessment and IT value generation. An analytical experiment is conducted on the extended model to illustrate how technology diffusion is simply one artifact of a general cycle of resource enablement that can be viewed as driving idiosyncratic strategic gains and facilitating interorganizational dynamics