Robert McNabb

Gender Differences in Educational Attainment: The Case of University Students in England and Wales

This paper examines the determinants of gender differences in educational attainment using data for all university graduates. We find that, although women students perform better on average than their male counterparts, they are significantly less likely to obtain a first class degree. There is no evidence that this is because of differences in the types of subject male and female students study or in the institutions they attend, nor does it reflect differences in personal attributes, such as academic ability. Rather, it is differences in the way these factors affect academic achievement that give rise to gender differences in performance.

The Impact of Financial Participation and Employee Involvement on Financial Performance

In recent years, considerable attention has been given to the impact of various forms of financial participation on financial performance. However, financial participation is only one of a number of different schemes attempting to elicit better performance and is itself heterogeneous. Moreover, financial participation schemes are typically introduced in conjunction with employee involvement schemes and their combined effect can be very different from their individual contributions. Indeed, concentrating on only one type of participation can seriously distort its relationship with financial performance. In this paper, a range of different employee participation schemes is examined, including two types of financial participation. The results indicate that financial participation has important interaction effects with particular types of employee involvement scheme and that the two main types of financial participation scheme have negative interactions. Furthermore, some employee involvement schemes are found to have a lower or even negative relationship with financial performance when introduced in isolation.

Workplace performance: a comparison of subjective and objective measures in the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey

Understanding what determines workplace performance is important for a variety of reasons. In the first place, it can inform the debate about the UKs low productivity growth. It also enables researchers to determine the efficacy of different organisational practices, policies and payment systems. In this article, we examine not the determinants of performance but how it is measured. Specifically, we assess the alternative measures of productivity and profitability that are available in the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS). Previous WERS have been an important source of data in research into workplace performance. However, the subjective nature of the performance measures available in WERS prior to 2004 has attracted criticism. In the 2004 WERS, data were again collected on the subjective measure but, in addition, objective data on profitability and productivity were also collected. This allows a comparison to be made between the two types of measures. A number of validity tests are undertaken and the main conclusion is that subjective and objective measures of performance are weakly equivalent but that differences are also evident. Our findings suggest that it would be prudent to give most weight to results supported by both types of measure.

Workplace Performance, Worker Commitment, and Loyalty

Using matched employer-employee level data drawn from the 2004 UK Workplace and Employee Relations Survey, we explore the determinants of a measure of worker commitment and loyalty (CLI) and whether CLI influences workplace performance. Factors influencing employee commitment and loyalty include age and gender, whilst workplace level characteristics of importance include human resource practices. With respect to the effects of employee commitment and loyalty upon the workplace, higher CLI is associated with enhanced workplace performance. Our findings that workplace human resources influence CLI suggest that employers may be able to exert some influence over the commitment and loyalty of its workforce, which, in turn, may affect workplace performance.

Unions, Flexibility, Team Working and Financial Performance

The relationship between unions, new work practices and organizational performance has been the subject of much debate. Some commentators view unions as inimical to new work practices, whereas others see them as offering channels to facilitate their introduction. It has also been suggested that unions might prevent such practices from attaining their full potential and thereby their enhanced organizational performance. Using data from the third Workplace Industrial Relations Survey and the Employer Manpower Skills Practices Survey, a multinominal logit analysis is undertaken involving proxies for the adoption of flexibility and team working as the dependent variable and a vector of variables (including proxies for unionism) as independent variables. The results indicate that the presence of a closed shop at the workplace inhibits the adoption of flexibility and team working but that the presence of a recognized union is beneficial to their introduction. A binomial logit analysis of financial performance also indicates that the joint effect of union presence and both flexibility and team working on financial performance is positive, even though the single effect of union presence is negative.

Pay, Promotion and Parenthood amongst Women Solicitors

The article examines the workplace sources of sex-based and gendered pay differentials in professional labour markets. Solicitors are among the highest paying professionals, yet women solicitors receive on average only 58 percent of the earnings received by men solicitors, well below an 82 percent average for all British employees in 1999. From survey data we find that women solicitors have fewer prospects of promotion, and receive lower rewards than men for both promotion and experience. From interview data we find that sex-differences in access to reputation-building activities generate qualitative differences in participation (specifically, in carrying out legal work not chargeable to a client) which are consistent with differential outcomes found in the survey data.

The distribution of employee participation schemes at the workplace

Recent years have witnessed a burgeoning literature on the type of work organization which is most conducive to high performance. A common theme running through this literature is the need for firms to introduce schemes for enhanced employee participation. In this paper the distribution of such schemes is considered and the factors associated with their adoption examined. The willingness of establishments to embrace different forms of employee participation is found to be particularly strong in larger establishments that are part of big organizations. More recently established workplaces and those using advanced technology are also highly likely to have introduced a number of different employee participation schemes. The presence of unions at the establishment is not found to constrain their introduction. Employee participation is, however, a wideranging phenomenon and individual schemes differ markedly. It is therefore important to distinguish between unlike schemes. Their distribution is seen to conform...

'Worth So Appallingly Little': A Workplace-Level Analysis of Low Pay

Using Britain’s 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey, this paper investigates the characteristics of establishments paying low wages immediately prior to the introduction of the UK’s National Minimum Wage in April 1999. It demonstrates that a range of personal, oragnizational and environmental factors are related to the incidence of low pay. These relationships are more complex than previously suggested. In particular, that between establishment size and low pay is moderated by whether the establishment is part of a larger organization; the incidence of low pay is high in single establishments and low in small establishments that are part of large organizations.

Court Awards of Damages for Loss of Future Earnings: An Empirical Study and an Alternative Method of Calculation

This article examines the effect upon damages for personal injury of methods used in the United States of America to calculate loss of future earnings. The work of lawyers is examined from the perspective of labour economists. The damages calculated by using these alternative methods are compared with those actually awarded in over a hundred cases determined by courts in England and Wales. This interdisciplinary and comparative study reveals that the tort system fails to satisfy one of its main objectives in that it does not provide recipients of damages with ‘full’ compensation.

Trade Openness and Wage Inequality: Evidence for Malaysia

This article examines the impact of trade openness on wage inequality in Malaysia during the period 1984–1997. Malaysia has operated a very open trade regime since the 1960s and has pursued aggressive import substitution and export supporting policies. This development strategy is very different to that adopted in many other emerging economies where trade liberalisation has been associated with greater wage inequality. The aim of the present study is to examine whether Malaysias more open approach to international trade has had a similar effect on wage inequality. The results suggest, in fact, that this is not the case.