Traditionally, employee turnover has been seen as dysfunctional to the organization. This paper presents turnover in a positive, hard dollar perspective. The savings and recovered funds that are a direct function of employee turnover are examined. It is concluded that turnover is not inexorably a negative phenomenon with respect to the organization. In fact, responsible levels of employee turnover may be very lucrative, a veritable windfall for the organization.
The research literature suggests that women may be committed to their jobs through the same process as men, but their reactions to certain variables differ. Previous models do not include those variables. In the model presented here three independent variables are major direct influences on job commitment. These are (I) sex role conflict, (2) satisfaction of needs, and (3) work commitment Two other variables—intrinsic need strength and job circumstances—exercise direct as well as indirect influences.
This paper describes three sets of strategies for the analysis of transactional networks, with an emphasis on their application to both intraorganizational and interorganizational research. Three strategies are contrasted. Their strengths and weaknesses are discussed, and suggestions are made as to how organizational research might benefit from an application of these network strategies.
Government appointed public directors may or may not make corporations behave in a socially acceptable manner, but they would be an appropriate response to three corporate governance problems: (1) the vagueness of the social responsibility doctrine; (2) the legitimacy of corporate social decision making; and (3) the compatibility of corporate governance with democratic principles.
In some areas, the ecosystem is enriched by industrial activities and byproducts, such as strip mining and heated water discharge. Management/labor relations may emphasize mutually beneficial combinations of individual differences among workers instead of majority rule or consensus. Causal loop leverage points to remedy the mutual amplification of goallessness among business, government, and the consumer are identified. New concepts are introduced: synchronized “morphogenetic incentives” to facilitate complex “morphogenetic joint ventures” involving heterogeneous industries.
Two fundamentally different ways of conceptualizing and measuring firm diversity—by business count and by strategy—are identified, their strengths and weaknesses discussed, and their suitability for investigating commonly asked questions evaluated. A business count measure is claimed to be suitable for research comparing diversified and nondiversified firms but not for investigating differences among diversified firms. For the latter task, a strategic measure of diversity is recommended.
The current state of motivation theory is reviewed. Emphasis is placed on the internal, unobservable aspects of motivation and the distinction between motivation and behavior and performance. Major theories of motivation concerned with the arousal and choice of behavior are examined, problems of implementation are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested. They include study of the circumstances under which any given motivational theory is most effective. The long-run objective should be a contingency type model of motivation.
Three mathematical models of psychological inequity can be deduced from the theoretical literature. Results available from four methodologically sound studies were utilized in a comparison of the relative superiority of the various equity models. The Anderson-Farkas mathematical representation of psychological inequity was found to be marginally superior to other models for predicting worker performance. An extension of the Anderson-Farkas model, which is sensitive to the dynamics of worker inequity, is proposed.
This paper focuses on the definitional problems surrounding the strategy concept, particularly the failure to define adequately the types of decisions that are strategic in character. A “strategic decision set” that can be applied across all firms and industries is developed, followed by a discussion of implications for teaching and research.