Report of the Industrial Relations Program for 2002-03

Submitted by Peter F. Orazem, Director

A. Recruiting

Our Spring application pool had several excellent prospects. Although we did not want to raise our numbers much, we admitted 8 and five accepted admission. We missed out on two excellent prospects who opted for funded positions in PhD programs at other universities and a third asked to defer admission until next fall because she just had a baby. A sixth student started in the Spring term.

Our new students were:

William Strunk, Linda Bernholtz, Elizabeth Dornbush, Jill Rutz, Luo Congcong, Bryan Lohstreter. All completed the first year in good academic standing.

B. Graduates, 2002-2003 Academic Year

We had a banner year for graduates. I am particularly pleased that several part-time students finished--I know how hard they and their faculty advisors have to work to complete the program from a remote site.

Summer 2002

Uche Nnadi (Peter Orazem) first employed at University of Missouri Extension, now moved to UPS in Des Moines IA.

Crystal Shanks (Cynthia Anderson) United Food and Commercial Workers, San Francisco, CA.

Brian Heinz (Terry Besser) employed at Pella Corporation, Roanoke, VA

Allison Mather (Paula Morrow) employed at ADP in Des Moines, IA

Ana Arboleda (Paula Morrow), employed as an instructor in the MBA program at Universidad ICESI, Cali Colombia

Fall 2002

Susan Ellsbury (Paula Morrow), employed at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, West Des Moines, IA.

Laura Friesenborg (Kathy Hanisch), employed at Waldorf College, Forest City, IA.

Spring 2003

Andrea Macy (Brad Shrader), employed at the National Labor Relations Board, Des Moines IA.

Li Luo (Max Wortman), employed by the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA.

C. Students on Financial Assistance, Fall 2002- Spring 2003

Ten students were on assistantships during the 2002-2003 academic year. Several were able to get assistantships in other programs. In addition, money from the nonrecurrring money from the LAS College was used to pay for the equivalent of 1 assistantship. Students on financial assistance paid through the Graduate College are listed in bold

Linda Bernholtz ¼ time, Fall 2002-Spring 2003

Luo Congcong ¼ time, Spring 2003

Harpreet Kaur ¼ time, Spring 2003

Li Luo ¼ time, Fall 2002

Andrea Macy 1/4 time, Fall 2002-Spring 2003

Robin Pecsi 1/4 time, Fall 2002 - Spring 2003, paid by Facilities Management

Jill Rutz ½ time, Fall 2002- Spring 2003, paid by Placement Office

William Strunk, ¼ time, Spring 2003, paid by LAS

Lu Wang (Tiffany) 1/4 time, Fall 2002-Spring 2003

Yan Wu 1/4 time, Fall 2002-Spring 2003

D. Research Reports on Studies Using Industrial Relations Research Assistance

William Strunk worked on two projects with Anthony Townsend. Project 1 was a field study of the relationship between dispositional variables and individual uses of technology in an application of organizational behavior. Project 2 involved updating citations on a manuscript co-authored with James Bennett (George Mason University) on public sector unions.

Andrea Macy and Linda Bernholtz helped Sue Ravenscroft, Brad Shrader and Tim West (St. Louis University) on a project examining incentives to cheat. Responses from sixty-four students in two accounting sections at St. Louis University (over forty of the students were caught cheating on a midterm exam) are being used to examine the effects of ethical climate and moral reasoning on cheating behavior. A second study will focus on the language of cheating. Andrea and Linda helped helped code and organize the responses into a data set. They also interpreted responses to open-ended questions and helped with the literature review.  One paper will be targeted to the Journal of Business Ethics and the other to an upper-tier pedagogical publication in business.

Yan Wu and Luo (Carol) Congcong helped Terry Besser expand an earlier Iowa prison impact study to the nation.  They identified all the new state prisons built in the U.S. between 1990 and 2000 and included vital information about each prison, such as security level, number of prisoners housed, year built, contact person, address, and phone number.  Community data from the 1990 and 2000 censuses were located for each new prison town/city including population size, industry and occupational distribution, sales revenue, unemployment levels, poverty levels, average household wage, and housing value and new construction, and other data. All this information was entered into a data base. They also helped with the literature review on local economic and social impacts of prisons. This information will be used to assess the economic impact of new prisons on communities, especially small rural communities where the great majority of new prisons have been opened.

Yan Wu also worked with Gloria Jones-Johnson on a study examining whether foreign and domestic students have different coping mechanisms for stress in graduate school. The study had a particular interest in examining the role of faculty advisers and peers in reducing stress.

Lu (Tiffany) Wang worked with Tom Chacko on two studies of executive compensation. The first involved library research for a comparative analysis on the topics of executive compensation, firm performance, and employee retirement/pension plans in the U.S. and China. The second explored the link between firm performance and executive compensation in the computer software industry in the United States during the boom and bust before and after Y2K. Tiffany examined the literature, collected and analyzed the data, and wrote a preliminary report.

Li Luo and Harpreet Kaur worked with Max Wortman on two studies. Ms. Luo worked on “The Impact of Strategic Management Upon Human Resources Management,” helping with the literature search and research outlines. The paper is an attempt to show that over the last decade, strategy has begun to show an important impact upon human resources management. Ms. Kaur is helping with "Comparative Structures of Human Resources Management in the U.S.A. and

the People's Republic of China." She has completed the literature search and is assisting with the writing.  The comparison focuses on how culture shapes human resource management practices in the two countries.

E. Faculty Research Output

We have added one faculty member to our group, Anthony Townsend of Management Information Systems. We lost Ellen Mullen who left the University. Peter Mattila is retiring after many years of service to the program. The names and short biographical summaries of all the faculty in the program can be found at http://www.econ.iastate.edu/industrialrelations/irfa.htm.

Output for the 2002 calendar year includes:

a. Publications 2001-2002

Aalberts, R.J. and A. M. Townsend (2002). Real Estate Transactions, the Internet, and Personal Jurisdiction. Journal of Real Estate Literature, 10 (1): 27-44

Besser, Terry. 2002. The Conscience of Capitalism: Business Social Responsibility to Communities. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Chen, Shih-Neng, Jason F. Shogren, Peter F. Orazem, and Thomas D. Crocker. “Prices and Health: Identifying the Effects of Nutrition, Exercise, and Medication Choices on Blood Pressure.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 84(November 2002):990-1002.

Coyle-Shapiro, J. A-M., P. C. Morrow, R. Richardson, and S. R. Dunn. 2002. Using profit sharing to enhance employee attitudes: A longitudinal examination of the effects on trust and commitment. Human Resource Management, 41: 423-439.

Crum, M.R. and Paula C. Morrow. 2002. The influence of carrier scheduling practices on truck driver fatigue. Transportation Journal, 42: 20-41

Crum, M. R., P. C. Morrow, and C. Daecher. 2002. Motor Carrier Scheduling Practices and Their Influence on Driver Fatigue, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Contract/grant DTFH61-96-X-00022, Report No. DOT-MC-01-074 (230 pages). http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safetyprogs/research/researchpubs.htm

DeLisi, Matthew J and Terry L. Besser. The Economic Implications of the Growth of Iowa Prisons. Iowa Policy Project, Mt. Vernon, IA.  December 2002.

Huang, Tzu-Ling, Peter F. Orazem and Darin Wohlgemuth. “Rural Population Growth, 1950-1990: The Roles of Human Capital, Industry, Structure, and Government Policy.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 84 (August 2002): 615-627.

Johnson, W. Roy, Paula C. Morrow, and Gloria Jones Johnson. 2002. "An Evaluation of a Perceived Overqualification Scale Across Work Settings." The Journal of Psychology 136(4): 425-441.

Leroux, N., Wortman, M.S., Jr. and Mathias, E. "Creating Value Independently of Integrated Hog Channels: The Case of SellPigs," in J. H. Trienckens and S. W. F. Omta, eds., Paradoxes in Food Chains and Networks (The Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2002): 840-855.

Liu, Qiaoming Amy and Terry L. Besser. 2002. "Social Capital and Participation in Community Improvement Activities by the Elderly in Small Towns and Rural Communities." Rural Sociology.

Miller, Nancy M. and Terry L. Besser. 2002. "Community and Managerial Predictors of Performance in Small Rural U.S. Retail and Service Firms." The Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.

Morrow, P. C. and Leedle, T. 2002. A comparison of job performance and disciplinary records of smokers and nonsmokers. The Journal of Psychology, 136: 339-349.

Orazem, Peter F. and J. Peter Mattila. “Minimum Wage Effects on Hours, Employment and Number of Firms: The Iowa Case.” Journal of Labor Research 23 (Winter 2002): 3-23.

Townsend, A.M. Hendrickson, A.R., and DeMarie, S.M. (2002) Meeting the Virtual Work Imperative. Communications of the ACM, 45, 1 (January): 23-26.

J. D. Werbel and M. H. Walter, Changing view of work and family roles: A

symbiotic Perspective.  Human Resource Management Review. 2002, 12,

293-298.

J. D. Werbel and S. Carter, Corporate Foundation Giving, Managerial Discretion, and the CEO: Enhancing Corporate Reputational Capital?  Journal of Business Ethics, 2002, 40,  47-67.

b. Grants, 2002.

Besser, Terry. "The Social and Economic Implications of the Growth in Iowa Prisons." Co-PI with Matthew DeLisi. Iowa Policy Project. $4,000. Jan. 2002 to Dec. 2002.

Besser, Terry. "Business Networks and Rural Community Economic Vitality." PI with Nancy Miller and Peter Korsching (Co-PIs). Fund for Rural America, USDA. $451,251, three year project awarded in September 2001.

Bird, Sharon. "Small business research in rural communities" ISU University Research Grant

Orazem, Peter F. "Child Labor in Latin America." World Bank, $31,000. 2001-2002.

Orazem, Peter F. "Do Market Pressures Induce Economic Efficiency: A Case Study of a Slovenian Retail Firm, 1989-2000." Davidson Institute, $10000. 2002-2003.

Shrader, C. Brad and Sue Ravenscroft ISU Miller Grant - Direct Student Involvement in Instructional Development, with G. Koppenhaver, V. Blackburn, and K. Palan.

F. Industrial Relations News

Cindy Anderson has been named Director of the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis

Yong Lee and Peter Orazem have been named co-directors of the Institute of Science and Society

Sue Ravenscroft was promoted to Full Professor

Sue Ravenscroft gave the keynote address at the Education Special Interest Group of the British Accounting Association in Bournemouth England.

Max Wortman became Chair of Faculty Senate

Max Wortman received the Iowa State University International Service Award, 2002

James McElroy is continuing to serve as Associate Dean, College of Business.

C. Brad Shrader received the Dr. Philip G. Hubbard Award for Outstanding Education, ISU

Recipient, 2002.

C. Brad Shrader was the ISU Nominee for the 2004 Robert Foster Cherry National Award for Great Teaching.

C. Brad Shrader received the College of Business Dean's Advisory Council Graduate Teaching

Award recipient, 2002.

Anthony Townsend was named Assistant Editor of the Journal of Labor Research www.journaloflaborresearch.org

Anthony Townsend was appointed to a three-year term as Newsletter Editor for the Academy of Management.

Terry Besser received the Emory Bogardus Award for Faculty Excellence from the Department of Sociology, 2002.

We have initiated a new alumni page on our website to make it easier for students to find alumni, for employers to find our experienced alumni, and for alumni to find each other. http://www.econ.iastate.edu/industrialrelations/alumni.html