Using the CDC Worksite Health ScoreCard to Promote Organizational Change

Purpose: To measure the impact of tying adoption of evidence-based worksite health promotion (WHP) interventions to annual organizational strategic objectives, as measured by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Worksite Health ScoreCard (ScoreCard). Design: A prospective cohort study following Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) affiliates against industry-specific and large employer benchmarks from 2016-2020. Settings: JHM, the largest private employer in Maryland with facilities in Florida and the District of Columbia. Subjects: Twelve JHM affiliates representing over 40,000 employees. Intervention: A strategic objective was established annually based on the ScoreCard and organizational priorities. Measures: JHM affiliates measured their WHP efforts annually using the ScoreCard. CDC industry-specific and large employer benchmarks were collected for comparison. Analysis: ScoreCard data was assessed annually to measure deviations from CDC benchmarks, determine whether strategic objectives were met, and inform additional annual objectives. Results: JHM demonstrated improvement from 8.9 percentage points above industry-specific and 3.4 percentage points below large employer benchmarks in 2016, to 26.4 percentage points above industry-specific and 21.8 percentage points above large employer benchmarks in 2020. Conclusion: Large employers face unique challenges in implementing WHP programs. Our study suggests embedding health promotion in annual strategic objectives may alleviate these challenges by prioritizing the goal and ensuring adequate resources to be successful. There are however, some limitations on using benchmarking data for comparison.

Gender Gap in Upward Mobility: What is the Role of Non-cognitive Traits?

Do non-cognitive traits contribute to the gender gap in supervisory status and promotion? We use a large employer-employee matched dataset collected from six former socialist countries to assess the link between non-cognitive traits and upward mobility. Controlling for workplace heterogeneity, we find that gender differences in locus of control, the preference for challenge versus affiliation, and adherence to work ethic together can explain about 7–18% of the gender gap in supervisory status and promotion. Overall, non-cognitive traits provide an important, though modest, explanation for the gender gap in upward mobility. The version of record is available at https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-12-2015-0220. The full citation is as follows: Chu, Y.-W.L., and Linz, S. (2017). Gender gap in upward mobility: what is the role of non-cognitive traits? International Journal of Manpower 38, 835–853.

Gender Gap in Upward Mobility: What is the Role of Non-cognitive Traits?

Do non-cognitive traits contribute to the gender gap in supervisory status and promotion? We use a large employer-employee matched dataset collected from six former socialist countries to assess the link between non-cognitive traits and upward mobility. Controlling for workplace heterogeneity, we find that gender differences in locus of control, the preference for challenge versus affiliation, and adherence to work ethic together can explain about 7–18% of the gender gap in supervisory status and promotion. Overall, non-cognitive traits provide an important, though modest, explanation for the gender gap in upward mobility. The version of record is available at https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-12-2015-0220. The full citation is as follows: Chu, Y.-W.L., and Linz, S. (2017). Gender gap in upward mobility: what is the role of non-cognitive traits? International Journal of Manpower 38, 835–853.

Does the Implementation of Reference Pricing Result in Reduced Utilization? Evidence From Inpatient and Outpatient Procedures

Reference pricing (RP) is an insurance design that can be used to incentivize patients to use low-price settings. While RP is not intended to affect overall utilization, it could unintentionally reduce utilization. We examined whether utilization was reduced when a large employer adopted RP for selected elective surgeries, including inpatient joint replacement surgery and outpatient cataract surgery, colonoscopy, and arthroscopic surgery. Data included a treatment group subject to RP implementation and a comparison group that was not. We applied autoregressive integrated moving average analysis as comparison-population interrupted time-series analysis to determine whether there were procedure reductions following RP implementation. We find no evidence of short-term decreases (within 3 months of RP implementation). However, we find very modest declines of approximately 14 (20%) fewer arthroscopic knee surgeries 6 months after RP implementation and 129 (17.2%) fewer colonoscopies 8 months after RP implementation. There were no declines in the other procedures examined.

Individual Identity and Organizational Identification: Evidence from a Field Experiment

This paper explores the relationship between individual identity and organizational attachment. Using individual data from employees at a large employer in the services sector, we show that making individual values salient (through a value affirmation) on average reduces organizational attachment. However, this effect is heterogenous across individuals: those initially attached to the organization increase their attachment, while those who started off less identified with the organization reduce their attachment. Overall, the results illustrate the importance of heterogeneity and how individual identity/values and organizational attachment can conflict.