Read at least one article from Article Set $1.$ Tell us what article you read and your reaction to the article. Your 'audience' is your peers, so write your reaction to be of the most value to them. It can include things like:

What was new or surprised you?

What you agree or disagree?

What in your own experience corresponds to what you read?

What was the main 'takeaway'?

Should your peers read it or not? Why or why not?

After posting your own article comments, respond to at least two of your peers posts. Your response can include:

Do you plan to $($or already have$)$ read the article? Why or why not?

What in your experiences corresponds to what was described in your peer's post?

Do you agree with what your peer posted.

Please post your initial article reactions by $23$:$59$ EST Wednesday of Week $1,$ and comment on the posts of two classmates by $23$:$59$ CST Sunday.

Late Posting

If your initial post or first two response postings are late, they will be penalized $1$ point

Additional Posting

You are welcomed and encouraged to add posts beyond the minimal requirements, however they will not be included in the grading.

Grading Rubric

Your assignment will be graded according to the grading rubric.Uschi Backes$-$Gellner$*$

Personnel Economics:

An Economic Approach to Human Resource Management ${?}^{****}$

The theoretical idea of personnel economics is to apply simple economic principles to

the field of human resources management. Personnel economics as a research field

has grown rapidly since the first text book on "Personnel Economics" was published

in $1998.$ The development is driven by new theoretical insights based on institutional

and behavioural economics and new empirical methods and data sets. Those new

theoretical insights arc very fruitful to analyzc reasons and consequences of various

human resource management practices, to understand what actually drives and moti$-$

vates employees, and what causes organisations to be successful or to fail. With the

new data sets and cconometric methods the theories that have been laid out in per$-$

sonnel cconomics cither many years ago or very recently can now be tested thor$-$

oughly. And the evidence produced by the new data and methods is strongly suppor$-$

tive, which is not only reassuring for rescarchers, but it also suggests that practitioners

can actually rely on the ideas because they are born out in the data. So$,$ personnel cco$-$

nomics is not only a vivid research field, but also of great value for human rcsource

managers, particularly for those taking stratcgic HR decisions. The fruitfulness of per$-$

sonnel economics is demonstrated with four examples: training strategies of compa$-$

nies, recruiting in tight labour markets, carecr incentives, team size and effort, and en$-$

trepreneurial signalling towards employces and creditors.

Key words: Personnel Economics, Strategic Human Resource Management,

Training Strategies, Hiring, Career Incentives, Effort in Teams,

Entrepreneurial Signalling

Prof. Dr$.$ Uschi Backes$-$Gellner, Zurich University, Institute of Business and Personnel

Economics, Plattenstrasse $14,$ CH $-8032$ Zurich, Switzerland, Phone: $++4116344$

$281,$ Fax: $++4116344370.$ E$-$Mail:

backes$-$gellner@isu.unizh.ch$.$

$**$ Article received: February $24,2004$

Revised version accepted after double blind review: April $23,2004.$