Learning by Helping: A Bounded Rationality Model of Mentoring

Within an organization, a bounded rational principal organizes a promotion test based on a sequence of test regarding candidates' relative performances. We assume the principal to suffer from limited ability to rank the performances, only identifying the best in each test. Furthermore, he satisfies the expected gains do not decreases whit the information generated by additional tests. Then, mentoring is shown to improve the information about candidates' ability when the principal offers help to the current best candidate provided by a manager promoted after a similar contest.Mentoring; Selection; Contests; Bounded Rationality

Do women choose to work in the public and nonprofit sectors? Empirical evidence from a French national survey

Women are over-represented in public and nonprofit sector jobs. This article aims to bring to light the reasons behind that phenomenon. In particular, do women choose these sectors because they offer female employees specific advantages that are absent from the private sector? The feminization of the public sector can be explained by the fact that women obtain a higher wage gain from choosing this sector than men do. However, this is not true for the nonprofit sector. Working hours - in the form of part-time work in the nonprofit sector and total hours worked in the public sector - appear to play an important role in the over-representation of women in these two sectors. On the other hand, the idea that women are more attracted to the social objectives pursued by public and nonprofit organizations does not appear to play any part. “Family-friendly” measures - aiming to reconcile the demands of family life and professional life - appear to attract women to the public sector, but it is difficult to interpret their influence, because it is impossible to distinguish between the attractiveness of these measures and the result of professional segregation in the public sector.women’ employment choices; nonprofit sector; public sector; firms family-friendly policies

Would you accept this job? An evaluation of the decision utility of workers in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors.

In this paper, we intend to evaluate the determinants of the decision utility of workers from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. In our setting, decision utility is the weight assigned by workers to the expected benefits from job offers. For that purpose, we use the methodology of conjoint analysis that collects experimental data on workers’ stated preferences towards hypothetical job offers characterized by ten attributes. Intrinsic motivation of nonprofit workers is investigated by specifically analyzing the influence on decision utility of three of these attributes, namely wages, working time and loyalty from the employer. The results show evidence of motivational differences between the two groups. First, nonprofit workers attain their maximum decision utility at a longer working time, showing superior intrinsic motivation for work. Furthermore, they are ready to abandon a higher percentage of their wage in order to work for another extra hour than for-profit workers as long as the working week is inferior to 33 hours. Finally, our findings show that for-profit workers evaluate more highly job offers with labour contract including explicit clause where higher effort is exchanged for employer’s loyalty. In contrast, nonprofit workers do not obtain higher utility from such a deal. We interpret this result as evidence of their intrinsic motivation. As the nature of the implicit goals pursued in the nonprofit sector provides them with high work morale, they do not obtain any gain in utility from an explicit clause of employer’s loyalty.nonprofit workers, intrinsic motivation, conjoint analysis

Y-a-t-il convergence de l'engagement des salariés du secteur privé et des agents de la fonction publique d'Etat face aux changements organisationnels ?

International audienceUsing a linked employer-employee survey on computerisation and organisational change (COI), we compare the effects of organisational changes on the evolution of employee commitment in public and private sector organisations. Our main finding is that of a non-convergence between the two sectors. Confronted with organisational changes, civil servants express a declining involvement whereas in the private sector these changes are associated with the development or at least the maintenance of work involvement. Furthermore, private sector employees report that their feeling of fair work recognition decreases with the intensity of computer changes and deteriorates when changes in management tools reach a high level, but these effects are weakened by the joint presence of changes in both areas. It is almost the opposite that is observed in the public sector, with a negative effect of managerial changes that is lessened when their intensity grows and a combination of changes in both areas that strengthens most of the time the perception of an effort-reward imbalance. These results hold if we take into account both the voluntary selection of employees in each sector and the labour force turnover observed in the private sector. We finally show that the implementation of performance pay during the period of changes is not the source of the observed differences between the two sectors.Nous comparons, au moyen du dispositif d'enquêtes couplées sur les Changements Organisationnels et l'Informatisation (COI), les effets des changements sur l'évolution de l'engagement au travail des salariés des secteurs public et privé. Le constat que nous établissons est celui d'une non convergence entre les secteurs. Les agents de l'État font part d'une baisse de leur implication face aux changements organisationnels, alors que dans le secteur privé ces changements s'accompagnent du développement ou au moins du maintien de l'implication au travail. Par ailleurs, les salariés du secteur privé déclarent un sentiment de reconnaissance équitable au travail qui décroît à mesure qu'augmentent les changements informatiques et qui se détériore lorsque les changements des outils de gestion atteignent un niveau élevé, mais ces effets sont amortis par la présence conjointe de changements dans les deux domaines. C'est quasiment l'inverse que l'on observe dans le secteur public avec un effet négatif des changements gestionnaires qui s'atténue avec leur intensité et une combinaison des deux domaines de changements qui conduit la plupart du temps à un renforcement de la perception d'un déséquilibre de la balance investissements-bénéfices. Ces résultats persistent lorsque l'on prend en considération la sélection volontaire des salariés dans les deux secteurs, ainsi que le turnover de la main d’œuvre observé dans le secteur privé. Nous montrons enfin que la mise en place dans la période de changements d'un salaire variable avec la performance n'est pas à la source des écarts constatés entre les deux secteurs

Would you accept this job? An evaluation of the decision utility of workers in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors.

In this paper, we intend to evaluate the determinants of the decision utility of workers from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. In our setting, decision utility is the weight assigned by workers to the expected benefits from job offers. For that purpose, we use the methodology of conjoint analysis that collects experimental data on workers’ stated preferences towards hypothetical job offers characterized by ten attributes. Intrinsic motivation of nonprofit workers is investigated by specifically analyzing the influence on decision utility of three of these attributes, namely wages, working time and loyalty from the employer. The results show evidence of motivational differences between the two groups. First, nonprofit workers attain their maximum decision utility at a longer working time, showing superior intrinsic motivation for work. Furthermore, they are ready to abandon a higher percentage of their wage in order to work for another extra hour than for-profit workers as long as the working week is inferior to 33 hours. Finally, our findings show that for-profit workers evaluate more highly job offers with labour contract including explicit clause where higher effort is exchanged for employer’s loyalty. In contrast, nonprofit workers do not obtain higher utility from such a deal. We interpret this result as evidence of their intrinsic motivation. As the nature of the implicit goals pursued in the nonprofit sector provides them with high work morale, they do not obtain any gain in utility from an explicit clause of employer’s loyalty

Would you accept this job? An evaluation of the decision utility of workers in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors.

In this paper, we intend to evaluate the determinants of the decision utility of workers from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. In our setting, decision utility is the weight assigned by workers to the expected benefits from job offers. For that purpose, we use the methodology of conjoint analysis that collects experimental data on workers’ stated preferences towards hypothetical job offers characterized by ten attributes. Intrinsic motivation of nonprofit workers is investigated by specifically analyzing the influence on decision utility of three of these attributes, namely wages, working time and loyalty from the employer. The results show evidence of motivational differences between the two groups. First, nonprofit workers attain their maximum decision utility at a longer working time, showing superior intrinsic motivation for work. Furthermore, they are ready to abandon a higher percentage of their wage in order to work for another extra hour than for-profit workers as long as the working week is inferior to 33 hours. Finally, our findings show that for-profit workers evaluate more highly job offers with labour contract including explicit clause where higher effort is exchanged for employer’s loyalty. In contrast, nonprofit workers do not obtain higher utility from such a deal. We interpret this result as evidence of their intrinsic motivation. As the nature of the implicit goals pursued in the nonprofit sector provides them with high work morale, they do not obtain any gain in utility from an explicit clause of employer’s loyalty

Do women choose to work in the public and nonprofit sectors? Empirical evidence from a French national survey

Women are over-represented in public and nonprofit sector jobs. This article aims to bring to light the reasons behind that phenomenon. In particular, do women choose these sectors because they offer female employees specific advantages that are absent from the private sector? The feminization of the public sector can be explained by the fact that women obtain a higher wage gain from choosing this sector than men do. However, this is not true for the nonprofit sector. Working hours - in the form of part-time work in the nonprofit sector and total hours worked in the public sector - appear to play an important role in the over-representation of women in these two sectors. On the other hand, the idea that women are more attracted to the social objectives pursued by public and nonprofit organizations does not appear to play any part. “Family-friendly” measures - aiming to reconcile the demands of family life and professional life - appear to attract women to the public sector, but it is difficult to interpret their influence, because it is impossible to distinguish between the attractiveness of these measures and the result of professional segregation in the public sector

Do women choose to work in the public and nonprofit sectors? Empirical evidence from a French national survey

Women are over-represented in public and nonprofit sector jobs. This article aims to bring to light the reasons behind that phenomenon. In particular, do women choose these sectors because they offer female employees specific advantages that are absent from the private sector? The feminization of the public sector can be explained by the fact that women obtain a higher wage gain from choosing this sector than men do. However, this is not true for the nonprofit sector. Working hours - in the form of part-time work in the nonprofit sector and total hours worked in the public sector - appear to play an important role in the over-representation of women in these two sectors. On the other hand, the idea that women are more attracted to the social objectives pursued by public and nonprofit organizations does not appear to play any part. “Family-friendly” measures - aiming to reconcile the demands of family life and professional life - appear to attract women to the public sector, but it is difficult to interpret their influence, because it is impossible to distinguish between the attractiveness of these measures and the result of professional segregation in the public sector

Glutathione reductase-catalyzed cascade of redox reactions to bioactivate potent antimalarial 1,4-naphthoquinones--a new strategy to combat malarial parasites.

Our work on targeting redox equilibria of malarial parasites propagating in red blood cells has led to the selection of six 1,4-naphthoquinones, which are active at nanomolar concentrations against the human pathogen Plasmodium falciparum in culture and against Plasmodium berghei in infected mice. With respect to safety, the compounds do not trigger hemolysis or other signs of toxicity in mice. Concerning the antimalarial mode of action, we propose that the lead benzyl naphthoquinones are initially oxidized at the benzylic chain to benzoyl naphthoquinones in a heme-catalyzed reaction within the digestive acidic vesicles of the parasite. The major putative benzoyl metabolites were then found to function as redox cyclers: (i) in their oxidized form, the benzoyl metabolites are reduced by NADPH in glutathione reductase-catalyzed reactions within the cytosols of infected red blood cells; (ii) in their reduced forms, these benzoyl metabolites can convert methemoglobin, the major nutrient of the parasite, to indigestible hemoglobin. Studies on a fluorinated suicide-substrate indicate as well that the glutathione reductase-catalyzed bioactivation of naphthoquinones is essential for the observed antimalarial activity. In conclusion, the antimalarial naphthoquinones are suggested to perturb the major redox equilibria of the targeted infected red blood cells, which might be removed by macrophages. This results in development arrest and death of the malaria parasite at the trophozoite stage

Conséquences de la survenue du cancer sur les parcours professionnels : une analyse sur données médico-administratives

Ce rapport étudie les effets à court et moyen termes de la survenue d’un cancer sur l’emploi et l’activité. Il utilise la base de données Hygie, produite par l’Irdes à partir des données administra-tives de la Caisse nationale de l’Assurance maladie et de la Caisse nationale d’assurance vieillesse. Hygie permet de reconstituer la carrière de l’individu ainsi que les événements de santé. Une première partie exploite la dimension rétrospective liée à la carrière et confirme l’effet pénali-sant du cancer sur l’activité et l’augmentation des arrêts maladie. Les résultats d’un modèle de double différence avec appariement exact montrent la persistance des effets de la maladie sur l’éloignement du marché du travail, la probabilité d’être employé au moins un trimestre dans l’année diminuant jusqu’à un horizon de cinq ans. Nous mesurons également l’effet des douze cancers les plus prévalents dans la base Hygie et de maladies chroniques ayant un impact potentiel sur le marché du travail. Les effets les plus marqués sont relatifs au cancer du poumon et des bronches, à la schizophrénie et au VIH. Les maladies chroniques autres que le cancer ont des effets nettement plus atténués probablement parce que leurs traitements au long cours améliorent la qualité de vie. Une seconde partie exploite la dimension panel de l’échantillon pour étudier les transitions profes-sionnelles consécutives au diagnostic de cancer. Elle montre que la population touchée rencontre de grandes difficultés pour rester dans l’emploi, ou y retourner. Ces difficultés sont accentuées pour les salariés débutants ou ayant connu une carrière peu stable, ou marquée par des arrêts maladie signifi-catifs. De plus, les séquelles des soins induisent un passage plus fréquent vers le chômage et l’inactivité au détriment de l’emploi. Développer les modes d’accompagnement professionnel pour des personnes dont les carrières ont été plus heurtées, et dont le statut socioprofessionnel est moins protecteur, serait donc une des pistes d’amélioration de leurs conditions de vie