Non-routine Tasks Research Articles

The returns to voucher-financed training on wages, employment and job tasks

This paper analyzes the returns to training that was co-financed by a German training voucher program. The estimation strategy compares outcomes of participants in voucher training with voucher recipients who intended to participate in training, but did not do so because of a random event like course cancellation by the provider of training. While there is no impact of voucher training on wages and employment, there is evidence that after training participation individuals are more often engaged in nonroutine analytic tasks.

Delving into the Demand Side: Changes in Workplace Specialization and Job Polarization

This paper offers the first study of job polarization in Great Britain using workplace level data. We document widespread and increasing occupational specialization within establishments, along with substantial heterogeneity in specialization within industries. Changes in the specialization profiles of workplaces account for most of the changes in the aggregate occupational shares between 1998 and 2011. The sharp rise in the fraction of workplaces specializing in non-routine tasks is associated with a large increase in the concentration of non-routine workers in workplaces that specialize in such occupations. We find no evidence of a decline in routine employment among establishments that report the adoption of new technologies, as would be expected from the standard routine-biased technological change hypothesis. Instead, we uncover new evidence that suggests that the increase in non-routine cognitive workplaces is linked to the growth in outsourcing of cognitive tasks.

A Functional Cartography of Cognitive Systems.

One of the most remarkable features of the human brain is its ability to adapt rapidly and efficiently to external task demands. Novel and non-routine tasks, for example, are implemented faster than structural connections can be formed. The neural underpinnings of these dynamics are far from understood. Here we develop and apply novel methods in network science to quantify how patterns of functional connectivity between brain regions reconfigure as human subjects perform 64 different tasks. By applying dynamic community detection algorithms, we identify groups of brain regions that form putative functional communities, and we uncover changes in these groups across the 64-task battery. We summarize these reconfiguration patterns by quantifying the probability that two brain regions engage in the same network community (or putative functional module) across tasks. These tools enable us to demonstrate that classically defined cognitive systems—including visual, sensorimotor, auditory, default mode, fronto-parietal, cingulo-opercular and salience systems—engage dynamically in cohesive network communities across tasks. We define the network role that a cognitive system plays in these dynamics along the following two dimensions: (i) stability vs. flexibility and (ii) connected vs. isolated. The role of each system is therefore summarized by how stably that system is recruited over the 64 tasks, and how consistently that system interacts with other systems. Using this cartography, classically defined cognitive systems can be categorized as ephemeral integrators, stable loners, and anything in between. Our results provide a new conceptual framework for understanding the dynamic integration and recruitment of cognitive systems in enabling behavioral adaptability across both task and rest conditions. This work has important implications for understanding cognitive network reconfiguration during different task sets and its relationship to cognitive effort, individual variation in cognitive performance, and fatigue.

Zadania tekstowe niestandardowe w matematycznej edukacji wczesnoszkolnej

Celem artykułu jest zwrócenie uwagi nauczycieli na zadania tekstowe niestandardowe w początkowej edukacji matematycznej. Zadania tekstowe niestandardowe to zadania, które celowo zostały źle sformułowane. Stawiają one uczniów w sytuacjach problemowych, uświadamiają im, że aby rozwiązać zadanie tekstowe, należy uważnie przeanalizować je w aspekcie wszystkich elementów struktury i dokonać właściwej jego korekty. Rozwijają więc logiczne myślenie uczniów. Nie wszystkie współczesne podręczniki do nauczania matematyki sygnalizują zadania niestandardowe. Jeżeli nauczyciel wykorzystuje w pracy z uczniami jedynie zadania tekstowe z podręcznika, tylko niewielka grupa uczniów ma kontakt z tego typu zadaniami.

Corvettes, Curve Fitting, and Calculus'

A nonroutine task with three hallmarks of a good problem offers the flexibility to model real-life, messy data.

The Skill Complementarity of Broadband Internet *

AbstractDoes adoption of broadband internet in firms enhance labor productivity and increase wages? Is this technological change skill biased or factor neutral? We combine several Norwegian data sets to answer these questions. A public program with limited funding rolled out broadband access points and provides plausibly exogenous variation in the availability and adoption of broadband internet in firms. Our results suggest that broadband internet improves (worsens) the labor market outcomes and productivity of skilled (unskilled) workers. We explore several possible explanations for the skill complementarity of broadband internet. We find suggestive evidence that broadband adoption in firms complements skilled workers in executing nonroutine abstract tasks, and substitutes for unskilled workers in performing routine tasks. Taken together, our findings have important implications for the ongoing policy debate over government investment in broadband infrastructure to encourage productivity and wage growth.

Assessing 21st Century Skills: Competency Modeling to the Rescue

Neubert, Mainert, Kretzschmar, and Greiff (2015) rightly argue that today's business world requires employees to frequently engage in nonroutine, creative, and interactive tasks. The authors go further to describe two potentially important skills—complex problem solving and collaborative problem solving—which they believe can address gaps in our current understanding of employee skill assessment. I contend however that the authors might be reinventing the wheel with this framework, given that the already popular practice of competency modeling satisfies the very deficiencies that the authors argue exist. To expand on this argument, I will first provide a brief history and discussion of what competency modeling is, followed by an explanation of several key benefits of this approach in terms of addressing the authors’ concerns. Then, on the basis of my applied experience as an external consultant, I will discuss how I might use competency modeling to address one of the authors’ own example scenarios, which should help identify ways in which competency modeling subsumes Neubert and colleagues’ approach.

Employability in the 21st Century: Complex (Interactive) Problem Solving and Other Essential Skills

Neubert, Mainert, Kretzschmar, and Greiff (2015) plea to integrate the 21st century skills of complex problem solving (CPS) and collaborative problem solving (ColPS) in the assessment and development suite of industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologists, given the expected increase in nonroutine and interactive tasks in the new workplace. At the same time, they promote new ways of assessing these skills using computer-based microworlds, enabling the systematic variation of problem features in assessment. Neubert and colleagues’ (2015) suggestions are a valuable step in connecting differential psychologists’ models of human differences and functioning with human resources professionals’ interest in understanding and predicting behavior at work. We concur that CPS and ColPS are important transversal skills, useful for I-O psychologists, but these are only two babies of a single family, and the domain of 21st century skills includes other families of a different kind that are also with utility for I-O psychologists. The current contribution is meant to broaden this interesting discussion in two important ways. We clarify that CPS and ColPS need to be considered in the context of a wider set of 21st century skills with an origin in the education domain, and we highlight a number of crucial steps that still need to be taken before “getting started” (Neubert et al., 2015, p. last page of the discussion) with this taxonomic framework. But first, we feel the need to slightly reframe the relevance of considering 21st century skills in I-O psychology by shifting the attention from narrow task-related skills to the broader domain of career management competencies.

The jobs at risk from globalization: the French case

This article analyzes the effect of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) on the workforce composition in French firms. We use a detailed employer-employee database constructed with four comprehensive datasets of French manufacturing firms over the period 2002–2007, in order to analyze changes in the workforce composition in terms of skills and tasks. To deal with endogeneity issues, we propose an IV strategy where the level of infrastructure and GDP per capita in the host countries are used as instruments. The fixed effect results show that FDI to low-income countries raises significantly the share of executives and reduces the share of blue-collar workers in company workforces in France. Outward FDI to high-income countries affects negatively the share of workers performing non-routine manual tasks. When controlling for endogeneity, the IV results further show an overall positive effect of offshoring for employees performing interactive and analytical tasks, such as engineers and managers.

What’s in IT for employees? Understanding the relationship between use and performance in enterprise social software

Despite enterprise social software platforms’ (ESSPs) widespread diffusion in recent years, the impact of such systems on employee performance is not clear. This study explores the link between ESSP use and its potential performance impacts. Our findings show that ESSP use influences employee performance in two ways: through improved task performance and employee innovation. We also show that task equivocality moderates the relationship between ESSP use and employee performance outcomes, with ESSP use having a stronger impact on the performance of non-routine tasks. Finally, we show that using ESSPs for connecting within teams has a stronger effect on task performance, while using ESSP for connecting across teams has a stronger effect on employee innovation. These results can help researchers and practitioners better understand how ESSP use affects employee performance and the conditions best suited to achieve these performance outcomes in an enterprise setting.

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE (O&M) AND THE PERCEIVED UNRELIABILITY OF DOMESTIC GROUNDWATER SUPPLIES IN SOUTH AFRICA

Research Article| March 01, 2015 OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE (O&M) AND THE PERCEIVED UNRELIABILITY OF DOMESTIC GROUNDWATER SUPPLIES IN SOUTH AFRICA J.E. COBBING; J.E. COBBING Corresponding author: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (PhD student) PO Box 7700, Port Elizabeth, 6031, South Africa, e-mail: jcobbing@gmail.com Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar K. EALES; K. EALES Counterpoint Development CC, 3 Pronkheuwel, 280 Rotsvygie St, La Montagne, Pretoria, 0184, South Africa, e-mail: kea@iafrica.com Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar J. GIBSON; J. GIBSON Maluti GSM (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 8125, Nahoon, East London, 5210, South Africa, e-mail: jim@malutiwater.co.za Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar K. LENKOE; K. LENKOE ERM (Pty) Ltd, Building 32, 1st Floor, The Woodlands Office Park, Woodlands Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2148, South Africa, e-mail: dithapo@gmail.com Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar B.L. COBBING B.L. COBBING CSS GIS (Pty) Ltd, 61 New Street, Grahamstown, 6139, South Africa, e-mail: bcobbing@cssgis.co.za Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information J.E. COBBING Corresponding author: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (PhD student) PO Box 7700, Port Elizabeth, 6031, South Africa, e-mail: jcobbing@gmail.com K. EALES Counterpoint Development CC, 3 Pronkheuwel, 280 Rotsvygie St, La Montagne, Pretoria, 0184, South Africa, e-mail: kea@iafrica.com J. GIBSON Maluti GSM (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 8125, Nahoon, East London, 5210, South Africa, e-mail: jim@malutiwater.co.za K. LENKOE ERM (Pty) Ltd, Building 32, 1st Floor, The Woodlands Office Park, Woodlands Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2148, South Africa, e-mail: dithapo@gmail.com B.L. COBBING CSS GIS (Pty) Ltd, 61 New Street, Grahamstown, 6139, South Africa, e-mail: bcobbing@cssgis.co.za Publisher: Geological Society of South Africa First Online: 09 Mar 2017 Online ISSN: 1996-8590 Print ISSN: 1012-0750 © 2015 Geological Society of South Africa South African Journal of Geology (2015) 118 (1): 17–32. https://doi.org/10.2113/gssajg.118.1.17 Article history First Online: 09 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation J.E. COBBING, K. EALES, J. GIBSON, K. LENKOE, B.L. COBBING; OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE (O&M) AND THE PERCEIVED UNRELIABILITY OF DOMESTIC GROUNDWATER SUPPLIES IN SOUTH AFRICA. South African Journal of Geology 2015;; 118 (1): 17–32. doi: https://doi.org/10.2113/gssajg.118.1.17 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietySouth African Journal of Geology Search Advanced Search Abstract Great progress has been made in the past 20 years in providing South Africans with access to domestic water supplies. Although groundwater is a valuable water resource with much potential, particularly in the rural and semi-rural areas with the biggest water supply backlogs, there is evidence that local authorities in South Africa increasingly consider it to be unreliable and difficult to exploit. A research project carried out on behalf of the Water Research Commission investigated groundwater supplies at local government level by carrying out interviews and studying national hydrogeological and demographic datasets. A more detailed case study of the groundwater supply to the town of Mahikeng was also made. More than 90% groundwater dependent, Mahikeng derives its water supplies from aquifers in the Vaalian-age Malmani Subgroup of the Chuniespoort Group to the east of the town, but declining groundwater levels threaten one of the two major sources. The study has found that operation and maintenance (O&M) of groundwater supplies is more important than primary or “physical” groundwater availability. Despite this, unreliable groundwater supplies are often seen as a deficiency of the primary resource and much effort is put into developing physical hydrogeological tools such as maps, guidelines and software. O&M includes repetitive tasks such as servicing, repairs, monitoring, ensuring pump duty cycles, testing, and so on, but O&M programmes also need to handle non-routine tasks such as breakdowns. Good O&M rests on adequate planning, staffing, budgeting, monitoring and other functions, as well as sufficient intra- and inter-organisational collaboration. Compared with resources for determining primary groundwater availability such as hydrogeological maps, there are few resources for institutionalising O&M procedures, and few guidelines for the O&M tasks themselves. As the case study of Mahikeng shows there is a consequent risk of greater expense and uncertainty unless efficient management (including O&M) of groundwater schemes is realised. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.

Revisiting the complementarity between education and training – the role of job tasks and firm effects

This paper addresses the question to what extent the strong positive correlation between education and training can be attributed to differences in individual-, job- and firm-specific characteristics. The novelty of this paper is to analyze previously unconsidered characteristics, in particular, job tasks and firm-fixed effects. The results show that once job tasks are controlled for, the difference in training participation between educational groups drops considerably. In contrast, firm-fixed effects only play a minor role. Moreover, we show that workers performing nonroutine tasks are considerably more likely to participate in training than workers with routine tasks.

Dealing with Wicked Problems: Government Priority System as a Tool for Engaging Leadership and Focusing on Changes

Due to the complex environment and a growing number of wicked policy problems, governments around the globe are poorly equipped to handle the demands of ambiguity, complexity and uncertainty to solve these non-routine tasks and issues. Therefore the challenging task the Governments are currently facing is the need to develop specific capacities and find tools to transform systems of governance in such a way that they would be able to effectively react and adequately respond to the demands of a complex and quickly changing environment. This article aims at discussing important preconditions which are necessary to solve wicked problems, as well as defining specific instruments to deal with those challenges. The study presents the experience of the Lithuanian Government in implementing government-wide performance management reforms, emphasizing strategic leadership and collaboration while dealing with complex or wicked problems. It focuses on a specific instrument – the annual Government Priority System. The article is based on the results of two consecutive surveys conducted by the Office of the Government of Lithuania in 2012 and 2014 to assess the quality and relevance of the Government Priority System. The research findings have revealed that the Government Priority System can be considered as an important and relevant instrument for the Lithuanian Government to deal with wicked problems by establishing a platform to enable collaboration and strategic leadership. At the same time, several important shortcomings of the system have been identified, such us the lack of understanding of the importance of cross-governmental collaboration and joint priorities, lack of trust as well as insufficient political leadership. It is suggested that the next important step to be made by the Lithuanian Government is to develop relevant management and leadership competencies that will foster cultural change within the Government and will lead towards the New Public Governance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.86.4.9263

Gradual Retirement, Financial Incentives, and Labour Supply of Older Workers: Evidence from a Stated Preference Analysis

Using data from a stated preferences experiment in the Netherlands, we find that replacing full-time pension schemes with schemes that offer gradual retirement opportunities induce workers to retire one year later on average. Total life-time labour supply, however, decreases with 3.4 months because the positive effect of delayed retirement on labour supply is cancelled out by the reduction in working hours before full retirement. The impact of gradual retirement schemes is, however, heterogeneous across groups of workers. Workers with non-routine job tasks retire at a later age when they can gradually retire. Financial incentives, either in terms of changing pension income or the price of leisure, also affect the expected retirement age, but the impact of these financial incentives does not differ with the possibility of gradual retirement. Finally, we find that gradual retirement is not a preferred option among workers as the large majority still prefers full retirement. This especially holds for workers with a lower wage and those with higher life expectancy.

Gradual Retirement, Financial Incentives, and Labour Supply of Older Workers: Evidence from a Stated Preference Analysis

Using data from a stated preferences experiment in the Netherlands, we find that replacing full-time pension schemes with schemes that offer gradual retirement opportunities induce workers to retire one year later on average. Total life-time labour supply, however, decreases with 3.4 months because the positive effect of delayed retirement on labour supply is cancelled out by the reduction in working hours before full retirement. The impact of gradual retirement schemes is, however, heterogeneous across groups of workers. Workers with non-routine job tasks retire at a later age when they can gradually retire. Financial incentives, either in terms of changing pension income or the price of leisure, also affect the expected retirement age, but the impact of these financial incentives does not differ with the possibility of gradual retirement. Finally, we find that gradual retirement is not a preferred option among workers as the large majority still prefers full retirement. This especially holds for workers with a lower wage and those with higher life expectancy.

The Causes of Severe Accidents in the Andalusian Manufacturing Sector: The Role of Human Factors in Official Accident Investigations

This study examines the associations between worker characteristics and accident causation. It is based on the causes identified in the accidents investigated in the manufacturing sector of Andalusia Spain from 2004 to 2011 by the Labour Authority. The method used to assess the association between the categorical variables related to worker characteristics and types of causes is the phi coefficient test for each specific combination of categories of the variables. The main results are as follows. For young workers, the most likely causes include being assigned a task without the proper qualifications, using inappropriate work methods, and misunderstanding instructions. For low-experience workers, the most likely cause is a lack of experience. For nonmanual qualified workers, the most likely causes include performing tasks without proper experience or personal protective equipment and performing nonroutine tasks. This differential causation found, depending on worker characteristics, can be used to design more effective preventive programs.

Non-mathematics Students’ Reasoning in Calculus Tasks

This paper investigates the reasoning of first year non-mathematics students in non-routine calculus tasks. The students in this study were accustomed to imitative reasoning from their primary and secondary education. In order to move from imitative reasoning toward more creative reasoning, non-routine tasks were implemented as an explicit part of the students’ calculus course. We examined the reasoning of six students in the middle of the calculus course and at the end of the course. The analyzed data showed that the students’ reasoning differed in the middle of the course and after having passed the course, in terms of having more characteristics of creative reasoning. In addition, we found several negative met-befores and met-afters affecting the students’ knowledge and interfering with their reasoning.

Task-driven learning: The antecedents and outcomes of internal and external knowledge sourcing

The degree to which individuals leverage knowledge resources influences their effectiveness and may shape their organizations’ competitive advantage. We examine the ways in which tasks with different characteristics affect individuals’ use of internal and external knowledge and the outcomes of such behaviors. Our analysis reveals that interdependent and non-routine tasks drive internal knowledge sourcing, while complex tasks motivate external knowledge sourcing. Internal and external knowledge sourcing activities contribute to individuals’ cognitive adaptation and innovation, with a negative interaction between them, while cognitive replication benefits only from internal knowledge sourcing. These findings can help managers better satisfy individuals’ knowledge needs and achieve intended organizational outcomes.

Effective workgroups: The role of diversity and culture

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the clarification of the conditions under which teams can be successful. To attain this goal, the direct and interactive effects of diversity and of the team's cultural orientation towards learning on team outcomes (team performance, team members’ satisfaction) were analyzed. Data were obtained from a survey among 73 teams from different industrial and service companies, which perform complex and non-routine tasks. In order to test the hypotheses, multilevel analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted. The results show a significant (although marginal) effect of diversity on members’ satisfaction with the team. The team orientation towards learning presented positive effects on both team performance and members’ satisfaction with the team. No interactive effects were identified. Although the positive impact of a learning culture on organizational effectiveness has already been studied and is well established in the literature, this is one of the first studies that provides empirical evidence of the impact of this kind of culture at the team level. At an intervention level, this study points to managers who want to create successful teams that they may be advised to enhance the levels of the team orientation towards learning, creating conditions in the team to promote and support the acquisition of knowledge.

Is Trust Always Better than Distrust? The Potential Value of Distrust in Newer Virtual Teams Engaged in Short-Term Decision-Making

The debate on the benefits of trust or distrust in groups has generated a substantial amount of research that points to the positive aspects of trust in groups, and generally characterizes distrust as a negative group phenomenon. Therefore, many researchers and practitioners assume that trust is inherently good and distrust is inherently bad. However, recent counterintuitive evidence obtained from face-to-face (FtF) groups indicates that the opposite might be true; trust can prove detrimental, and distrust instrumental, to decision-making in groups. By extending this argument to virtual teams (VTs), we examined the value of distrust for VTs completing routine and non-routine decision tasks, and showed that the benefits of distrust can extend to short-term VTs. Specifically, VTs seeded with distrust significantly outperformed all control groups in a non-routine decision-making task. In addition, we present quantitative evidence to show that the decision task itself can significantly affect the overall levels of trust/distrust within VTs. In addition to its practical and research implications, the theoretical contribution of our study is that it extends to a group level, and then to a VT setting, a theory of distrust previously tested in the psychology literature in the context of completing non-routine and routine decision tasks at an individual level.