The CAHRS Top Ten

1. Complexity-Based Agile Enterprises: Putting Self-Organizing Emergence to Work [January 2008], by Jeff Erickson and Lee Dyer.

Summary: Organizations competing in hypercompetitive marketplaces have two possible paths to potential success. They can attempt to transform traditional bureaucracies into more nimble, adaptable, and resilient entities, which clearly is the path most traveled. Or they can try pathbreaking, which involves adopting a completely different organizational paradigm: the complexity-based agile enterprise (C- bAE). C-bAEs have no a priori hierarchies, no a priori organizational structures, and no a priori business strategies. They rely instead on ongoing interactions among self-organizing participants operating at the edge of chaos to form and reform, strategize and re- strategize on the fly. Does this work? We don't know for sure, although there is some solid theory and a little bit of evidence to suggest that it might - that under the proper conditions, these progressive dynamics may well engender a stream of novel and yet coherent products, services, and solutions capable of delivering a series of temporary competitive advantages and, thus, the possibility of long-term survival. This paper explores the promise, with particular emphasis on the process of mobilizing or creating the conditions that foster the constant co-creation of emergent organizational forms and innovative outputs.

2. Mass Layoffs in Feburary 2008 [March 2008], By Bureau of Labor Statistics

Summary: In February, employers took 1,672 mass layoff actions, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single employer; the number of workers involved totaled 177,374, on a seasonally adjusted basis. February layoff events and associated initial claimants were the highest since September 2005 and were the highest for the month of February since 2003.

3. The Changing Relationship Between Job Loss Announcements and Stock Prices: 1970-1999 [January 2008], By Henry S. Farber and Kevin F. Hallock

Summary: The authors study the reaction of stock prices to announcements of reductions in force (RIFs) using a sample of 4273 such announcements in 1160 large firms during the 1970-99 period collected from the Wall Street Journal. We note that the total number of actual announcements for the firms in our sample follows the business cycle quite closely. We then examine changes over time in standard summary statistics (means, medians, fraction positive) of the distribution of stock market reactions, measured by the cumulative excess returns (CER) of firms' stock prices over a 3-day event window centered on the announcement date, as well as changes over time in kernel density estimates of this distribution. We find clear evidence that the distribution of stock market reactions shifted to the right (became less negative) over time. One possible explanation for this change is that, over the last three decades, RIFs designed to improve efficiency have become more common relative to RIFs designed to cope with reductions in product demand. We estimate multivariate regression models of the CER controlling for the stated reason for the announced layoff, industry, and other characteristics of the announced layoff. We find that almost none of the decline in the negative average stock price reaction between the 1970s and 1990s can be explained by these factors.

4. Enrollment in Consumer-Driven Plans Remains Low, Survey Shows [March 2008], By Employee Benefit Research Institute
Li nk to the press release

Summary: Enrollment in consumer-driven and high-deductible health plans increased in 2007, but still makes up a small segment of the overall insurance market, according to the third EBRI/Commonwealth Fund Consumerism in Health Care Survey. Enrollment in consumer-driven plans with a tax-advantaged account was 2 percent of the privately insured adults in 2007. One in 10 insured adults had high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) without accounts. The survey also found the percentage of consumer-driven plan enrollees with high incomes (above $100,000) swelled in 2007. Consumer-driven plans were introduced in 2001 with the goal of decreasing the number of uninsured, encouraging cost-consciousness among consumers, and increasing the amount of information on the cost and quality of providers. The plans have been controversial because of criticism they favor wealthy and healthy participants at the expense of those with lower incomes and poorer health status.

5.Fatigued by Diversity Initiatives [March 2008], by Michael Felton-O'Brien, Human Resource Executive Online

Summary: The steady growth in diversity training programs at American corporations is creating "diversity fatigue" among employees, mostly because of ineffective methods, according to a recent study. Diversity fatigue occurs in organizations that have attempted to launch diversity/inclusion initiatives or have been engaged in these initiatives for a number of years but have yet to see a tangible result from the effort. The fatigue is felt more by the senior leadership and the middle management than the rank-and-file employees. In order to avoid diversity fatigue, diversity and inclusion programs must in some form drive business results and be able to show a definitive return on the dollars that are invested. If they don't, then there's no point in doing them.

6. Preparing for Their Future: A Look at the Financial State of Gen X and Gen Y [March 2008], by American Savings Education Council and Divided We Fail
Press Release Link
Slide Set Link

Summary:Members of Generations X and Y, acknowledging that they need to pick up the slack when it comes to planning for their futures, are thinking about retirement and have defined financial goals according to a report by the Divided We Fail group (AARP, Business Roundtable, National Federation of Independent Business and the Service Employees International Union) and the American Savings Education Council (ASEC). According to "Preparing for Their Future: A Look at the Financial State of Gen X and Gen Y," three out of four Gen Xers and Gen Yers said saving for retirement is a personal financial goal, and an overwhelming majority (92 percent) feel that they can achieve their most important financial goals in the next ten years. However, many younger Americans grade themselves poorly when it comes to saving money and investing their money outside the workplace.

7. Departing CEOs Not Receiving Increased Termination Payments At Most Companies [March 2008], by Watson Wyatt Worldwide

Summary: The vast majority of U.S. companies paid CEOs who departed in 2007 the same compensation disclosed in their 2007 proxy disclosures and provided no additional ad hoc termination payments, according to a survey by Watson Wyatt Worldwide. The analysis was conducted by comparing 2007 proxy disclosures with 8-K filings for CEOs departing between April and December 2007. Meanwhile, in its first look at 2007 executive pay levels, a separate Watson Wyatt analysis of proxy statements and change-in-beneficial-ownership disclosures found the median in-the-money value of unexercised stock options for CEOs declined 13 percent last year, from $19.9 million in 2006 to $17.2 million.

8.Around the World in Eight Charts [March 2008], by Bureau of Labor Statistics

Summary: Jules Verne isn't the only one who can take you on a worldwide adventure; travel the globe in eight charts with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This report includes international comparative data on topics such as teenage and adult unemployment rates, average annual growth rates in real GDP per capita, compensation costs for production workers, average annual growth rates in employment and share of total employment in manufacturing and services sector.

Job Bias Charges Rise 9% in 2007 [March 2008], by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Summary:The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received a total of 82,792 private sector discrimination charge filings last fiscal year, the highest volume of incoming charges since 2002 and the largest annual increase (9%) since the early 1990s. According to the EEOC's FY 2007 data, allegations of discrimination based on race, retaliation, and sex were the most frequently filed

10. Common Workforce Myths Debunked [February 2008], by Towers Perrin
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