Rita Mano‐Negrin

Underlying Labor Market Dimensions of "Opportunities": The Case of Employee Turnover

The underlying labor market and organizational source of alternative job opportunities is re-examined here and applied to investigate employee turnover behavior. We contend that by refining this concept in terms of perceived and objective opportunities and market reference points, a clearer appreciation of this concept and more powerful model of turnover will emerge. To this end, a cross-sectional and multistage longitudinal survey of 700 employees was conducted in eight medical centers at seven distinct labor market locations. Measures of perceived and objective opportunities in internal and external markets were introduced into logistic regressions which clearly showed that objective opportunities are a far better set of explanations of actual turnover behavior than either perceived internal or external market opportunities. This relationship is further explored and its complexity woven into a labor market-oriented turnover model.

Are women “cooler” than men during crises? Exploring gender differences in perceiving organisational crisis preparedness proneness

The paper examines how male and female executives’ leadership orientations are reflected in crisis awareness. Drawing on management‐related gender and crisis theories, it is argued that women’s proclivity to employ participative decision making is mirrored advantageously in coping with crisis‐related scenarios. Predicated on a sample of 112 Israeli executives it is shown that perceptions of crisis preparedness/proneness are gender‐based and that women are more likely to employ a holistic approach that facilitates crisis preparedness.

Downsizing and the Impact of Job Counseling and Retraining on Effective Employee Responses.

Purpose – Downsizing is a very pervasive organizational process. At these critical junctures many organizations do little to prepare their employees for a mass layoff. The main purpose of this study is to examine how the incorporation of job counseling and professional retraining programs during a period of downsizing affected the responses of both the employees who were dismissed and those who remained in the organization.Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted in a large metalwork factory in Isreal that underwent significant downsizing as a result of a major crisis. Interview data were collected from a sample comprising employees selected randomly from a list which the human resource department prepared. The analysis is based on a data set that included 229 employees.Findings – Results indicate that that guidance and training programs have a two‐fold effect: first, dismissed employees who participated in these training programs had a more positive reaction to their dismissal than dismissed...

Theorising the social within physician decision making

Explores the underlying behavioral processes influencing the clinical behavior of physicians toward their patients. Utilizing educational and social influence explanatory models as a baseline, we sought how each, through peer group settings, would affect clinical specific practice decisions. Focusing on family physicians in Israel who were engaged in ongoing professional peer group meetings, it is suggested that health decisions affecting clinical practice are not universal but particularistic and depend a great deal on the transfer of clinical knowledge through selective social networks. Health managers, utilizing these findings, can therefore intervene in the formation of clinical practice decisions. This can be done primarily through management policy to induce the formation of specific types of peer group social networks.

Gender Inequality and Employment Policy in the Public Sector A Cross-National Comparison of Women Managers’ Wages in Five Industrialized Countries

The present study draws on the Esping-Andersen approach to the classification of welfare capitalist regimes to test whether the determination of managerial wages among women varies by type of welfare regime. Using a representative sample of public- and private-sector employees from five industrialized countries, the study shows that the joint effect of gender and employment sector on wages depends on the type of welfare regime and employment sector. Public-sector positions affect female managers’ wages in conservative countries, whereas private-sector placement has a significant effect on female managers’wages in liberal and conservative countries. The joint gender/employment-sector effect has no impact on the determination of wages in social-democratic regimes. These findings suggest that the elaboration of models explaining gender-based differences in wages in a cross-national perspective need readjustment to control for country-level and policy-level effects with respect to women’s employment and wage attainments.

Spousal interdependence in turnover decisions : The case of Israel's medical sector employees

Gender-related labor behavior traditionally has been sensitive to and symptomatic of changes in the labor force and the social structure. Two developments in family life call into question the traditional gender model of work behavior, which posits the family versus job dichotomy: (a) the greater share of economic responsibilities assumed by female spouses, and (b) the greater male involvement in family life within married couple families. A multivariate model that encompasses demographics, work conditions, and family constraints was regressed on the actual turnover behavior of male and female spouses. The analysis reveals that male and female respondents differ in the importance they assign to employment conditions and work attitudes, but they do not differ in the importance they assign to the other spouses employment and family responsibilities when a turnover decision is considered. These findings support the notion of spousal interdependence in turnover decisions. This interdependence nevertheless is asymmetrical, since the turnover antecedents are caused by the impact of different predictors for men and women.

Spanning the Boundaries

Abstract Theories of formal organizations have recently argued that environmental influences affect behavior in all organizations, including human service organizations. The study tests how environmental influences are manifested in the differences in effectiveness gaps and empowerment between private and public carriers of services. On the basis of hypotheses drawn from the institutional and resource-dependency approach, and employing a managerial sample from 127 human service organizations, it is shown that effectiveness gaps are affected directly by environmental influences (stakeholders) in the public HSOs. It is, however, organizational structure and managerial competence that generate effectiveness gaps in the independent HSOs. No differences in managerial empowerment between public and independent HSOs are revealed. The results imply that because of their different degree of dependence on public resources, and despite their common institutional character in the provision of services, public and independent HSOs differ in their organizational behavior and outcomes.

Past work experience, present opportunities and turnover decisions

This paper explores the combined impact of past job histories and present job opportunities on turnover decisions. We predict turnover decisions on the basis of the structural approach, emphasizing previous work experiences (time spent in past job positions) and the organizational approach (focusing on objective and perceived internal and external employment positions opportunities). A cross‐sectional analysis of employees from four occupational groups in eight medical institutions and a follow‐up sample of 81 “quitters” formed the database for the study. The results suggest that past work history and present employment opportunities produce occupation‐dependent differences in turnover behavior. It is shown that differences in employees’ perception of opportunities, modified by the occupation’s “market viability”, influence turnover. These results demonstrate that integrating the structural and organizational approach, involving both past job histories and present opportunities, improve the prediction of turnover decisions.

Performance and Equality in Public Sector Wages

Abstract The present paper describes how democratic values—reflected by work equality values—paired with the organizational performance characteristics—defined by the height of organizational inputs and outputs—affect gender differences in wages. It is suggested here that despite the democratic conception of the public sectors equal employment opportunities, variations in the organizational performance of 83 local authorities account for gender differences in wages. The study assumes that organizational inputs (type and level of resources) and outputs (type and level of provided services) generate gender differences in individual earnings, when controlling for human capital factors. The results show that variations in organizational performance affect womens but not mens wages. However, the effect of individual level (demographic, human capital and employment) characteristics, reflecting the meritocracy‐based and democratic nature of public sector employment rather than the level of organizational performance explains most of the variance in gender differences in wages. These results point to the slow shift from the principle of administrative values of democracy and equality to the adoption of performance‐related mechanisms in the determination of public sector wages.

Men and women’s job histories and job changes :The case of Israel’s medical‐sector employees

The use of internal (intra‐organizational) or external (inter‐organizational) labor markets in men and women’s past employment is examined here as an explanation for differences in turnover behavior. A sample of 700 employees from eight medical organizations in seven labor markets was used to assess the importance of previous internal and external shifts and organizational level opportunities on men’s and women’s present job change choices. Women’s job changes were more affected by previous intra‐organizational moves, whereas men’s job changes were increased by previous inter‐organizational moves. These results suggest that gender differences in job shifts are due to women’s greater reliance on internal labor markets.