 |
10/17/04
EDUCATION Graduates of some of the country's best business schools don't have much confidence in the honesty of big American firms - even as some set off to join them. Those findings were released last week by The Committee of 200, a national organization of female business owners and executives. The survey of 933 graduate students and 807 MBA graduates of top business schools found that 66.9 percent of the female students and 56.9 percent of the males feel US companies are not run honestly or ethically. In addition, 69.9 percent of the female graduates with MBAs and 60.1 percent of the males felt lack of ethics continues to be a serious issue for US companies. The Committee of 200 also found that MBA graduates who have landed jobs are more skeptical than those who are still in business school. Of those polled, 63.7 percent of the graduates with jobs said they felt that, overall, business is not done ethically or honestly. By contrast, 61.2 percent of the graduate students felt that way. Conducted by the Center for Women's Business Research, a policy and research organization in Washington, D.C., the survey polled students and graduates of such leading business schools as The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University and the Darden School of Business at the University of Michigan. Students and graduates from 11 schools were polled. The survey also revealed that graduates trust small and midsized employers more than they trust big ones. S. Diane Graham, the chairwoman of The Committee of 200, said she hopes new graduates will channel their concerns into improving the ethics and priorities of the companies that employ them. ''On the one hand it is troubling that most MBA's are concerned about the ethical stature of the corporate world,'' she said. ''But perhaps early career business people and MBA candidates will channel their awareness and concerns in positive ways.'' --DIANE E. LEWIS
WORKPLACE Employees who come to work suffering from allergies, arthritis, depression, the flu and other ailments are costing US companies billions in lost productivity. The current issue of Harvard Business Review reports that millions of US workers come to work ill, resulting in what could be $150 billion in lost productivity to employers. Called ''presenteeism,'' the problem could worsen this winter as flu season approaches and the flu vaccine grows scarce, said Illinois-based CCH Inc., a company that researches, reports on and develops software about employment laws. Released last week, the company's 2004 survey on absenteeism reveals that 39 percent of 305 US employers report that presenteeism is a problem in their workplaces because of reduced productivity and the spread of contagious ailments like influenza or the common cold. The survey, which covered the prior 12 months, involved companies from across the country and a variety of sectors. ''With a serious flu season looming, the idea of the hero worker who manages to punch in for a full-day's work, despite illness, needs to be discouraged,'' said Lori Rosen, a workplace analyst at CCH. Rosen recommends that companies advise their employees to stay home when they are sick. She said companies that rely on disciplinary action to control absenteeism and abuse of sick time are, unknowingly, encouraging presenteeism. Even so, disciplinary action is used by 91 percent of the companies polled. ''In an organization that allots each employee five sick days a year, and takes disciplinary action on the sixth absence, an employee who has been wiped out with the flu for several days may choose to come to work ill rather than risk the discipline,'' said Rosen. Even workers with less severe conditions can suffer impaired productivity on the job,'' said Paul Hemp, a senior editor at the Harvard Business Review. For example, researchers at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston conducted a study in 2002 of more than two dozens ailments that were impacting employees at Lockheed Martin Corp., reported HBR. The pilot study revealed that migraine headaches led to average productivity losses of 4.9 percent, resulting in total annual losses of $434,385 to Lockheed. By contrast, acid reflux disease led to productivity losses of 5.2 percent, with total annual losses reaching $582,660. The ailment that led to the highest losses of $1.8 million: allergies or sinus trouble. ''This often manifests itself in illnesses that might not appear to hurt an individual's productivity that much, but when it adds up and you look at it across an entire organization, researchers say it might have a terrific impact,'' said Hemp. ''Everybody knows we get less done at work when we don't feel well, but can you quantify that lost productivity and are there things you can do to reduce it?'' Hemp said one obvious way to prevent presenteeism is for companies to pay for medications that would help alleviate workers' symptoms, and to educate employees so that they can manage their health better. For many companies, absenteeism also is a critical problem. In its report, CCH discovered many of the companies it polled are battling higher absenteeism rates this year. The overall rate of absenteeism for the companies was 2.4 percent in 2004, up from 1.9 percent last year. Why the increase? ''One factor, we believe, is that many companies in an effort to control costs no longer allow people to carry over their sick time,'' said Theresa Houck, an analyst and writer at CCH. ''So, people are using it and not carrying it over because it is a use it or lose it situation. Even when they are not sick, they are calling in sick. They might need to take care of other family issues, or meet doctor's appointments or they may need to run errands. This is why flexible scheduling is beneficial to the employee.'' --DIANE E. LEWIS
EXECUTIVE SUITE Executives appear to be more optimistic heading into 2004's fourth quarter than they were in prior months. A survey of 181 executives by ExecuNet, the Connecticut executive job network, reveals that 30 percent are confident or very confident that employment for those in top corporate jobs will improve within the next six months. Last month, only 24 percent felt that top executives would benefit from an improved employment market. In all, 13 percent said they were not confident that there will be improvements in the job market, and 57 percent said they were somewhat confident. Mark Anderson, the president of the firm, said many corporate leaders are hoping that strong third-quarter earnings will stimulate growth and result in more employment. He said many executives have reported a noticeable increase in hiring activity over the last month, making them much more confident about the future. For example, executives who said employment conditions were improving rose to 32 percent in October, up from 25 percent in September. Jobless executives said they expect to spend 11.4 months searching for new work, down from the 12.9 month job search they were expecting in September. In the past 30 days, those executives had an average of 2.5 interviews, up somewhat from the 2.3 interviews executives reported four weeks earlier. --DIANE E. LEWIS
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
E-Mail This Article
