Patricia A. Simpson

Gender differences: Emotional expression and feelings of personal inauthenticity

This survey study examined the emotional expression content of human resources jobs and how the content varies by gender. On the basis of findings, it appeared that women more often conform to feminine display rules, which require the suppression of negative emotions and the simulation of positive emotions. In contrast, men more often adopted masculine display rules, which require the suppression of positive emotions and the simulation of negative ones. For both men and women, emotional dissonance generated by a feminine display-rule pattern was positively correlated with feelings of personal inauthenticity at work. Gender modified the relationship between emotional dissonance and gender only in that women who adopted the masculine display-rule pattern reported feeling the least personally inauthentic of all.

Is There a Technology Age Gap? Associations Among Age, Skills, and Employment Outcomes

The current study used survey data collected by a top job search web site to explore the extent to which older (50-64 years), middle-aged (40-49 years), and younger (18-39 years) computer programmers reported different levels of human capital (e.g., job tenure) and specialized computer skills (e.g., number of programming languages). In addition, we explored the effect of age on annual salary and job benefits controlling for both traditional human capital factors and specialized computer skills. Although older computer programmers reported higher levels of most human capital factors, there were no differences in the ten specialized computer skills as a function of age. Results also indicated that age was negatively associated with both annual salary and job benefits levels even when human capital factors and specialized computer skills were statistically controlled. However, the variance accounted for by age was quite small.

Aging and Social Security: Women as the Problem and the Solution

Do not expect predictable answers in our piece on what to do to answer the social security crunch. Marianne Ferber, Patricia Simpson, and Vanessa Rouillon think spousal benefits should be eliminated so that wives do not become dependent on husbands. But they also believe that earnings of the couple should be credited to both husband wife equally. Why would this help? Read on.

Whither Systemic Reform? A Critical Review of the Literature on the Distributional and Income Adequacy Effects of Systemic Pension Reforms **

What is the relationship between the introduction of defined-contribution accounts into public pension systems and changes in elderly poverty and income inequality? The present study examines the current state of knowledge with regard to these relationships. The study is divided into four parts: 1) an overview of data indicating that elderly poverty began to rise at least in developed economies in recent years; 2) a discussion of a body of conceptual and empirical studies that suggests defined-contribution accounts will adversely impact elderly poverty and income inequality; 3) a review of confounding factors that make it difficult to project the direction of such relationships; 4) suggestions for future research.

HR and the Bottom-Line: The Impact of High Performance Work Systems

In recent times, several researchers have concerned themselves with the impact of human resource activities on an organizations bottom-line. In this connection, it has been argued that implementing high performance work systems (HPWSs) in the organization would help organizations achieve significantly improved levels of operational and financial performance through optimal utilization of human resources. This empirical study tests these assertions, and results confirm that, indeed, HR practices can have a significant impact on the bottom-line.