Smoking harms the health of smokers and those around them. Smokers are at far higher risks of strokes, heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases; cancers of the lungs, mouth, larynx, bladder, pancreas, kidneys and stomach; emphysema, bronchitis, and tuberculosis. These diseases cause...

We show that task juggling, i.e., the spreading of effort across too many active projects, decreases the performance of workers, raising the chances of low throughput, long duration of projects and exploding backlogs. Individual speed of job completion cannot be explained only in terms of...

We characterize the optimal job design in a multitasking environment when the firms rely on implicit incentive contracts (i.e., bonus payments). Two natural forms of job design are compared: (i) individual accountability, where each agent is assigned to a particular job and assumes full...

We show that task juggling, i.e., the spreading of effort across too many active projects, decreases the performance of workers, raising the chances of low throughput, long duration of projects and exploding backlogs. Individual speed of job completion cannot be explained only in terms of...

High Performance Work Systems are generally considered to have a positive impact on workers' well-being. But is this actually the case? This article will discuss this question from the point of view of "End of Fun", a controversial and widely-discussed book by Judith Mair (2003), claiming that...

We show that task juggling, i.e., the spreading of effort across too many active projects, decreases the performance of workers, raising the chances of low throughput, long duration of projects and exploding backlogs. Individual speed of job completion cannot be explained only in terms of...

Sustaining operational productivity in the completion of repetitive tasks is critical to many organizations' success. Yet research points to two different work-design related strategies for accomplishing this goal: specialization to capture the benefits of repetition or variety to keep workers...

Imagine you are running a marathon. You started at a nice, steady pace, but the speed just kept increasing. You must compete with the others in the race but they keep sprinting forward. And more and more people keep joining the race. Not only that, but things are now being thrown at you from all...

Past empirical research related to call centres' has had a preoccupation with panoptic extrapolations and suggestions of stereotyping of call centres using ‘sacrificial HR' strategies that encourage, high staff turnover, absenteeism and stress as the norm. The aim of this research is to...