Showing papers on "Industrial relations published in 2008"
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors deal with the new policy concept of flexicurity in view of the emerging flexibility-security nexus that the European Union, national governments, sectors of industry, individual companies and workers are currently facing.
Abstract: This paper deals with the new policy concept of flexicurity in view of the emerging flexibility-security nexus that the European Union, national governments, sectors of industry, individual companies and workers are currently facing. On the one hand there is a strong demand for further flexibilisation of labour markets, employment and the work organisation. At same time, an equally strong demand exists for providing security to employees - especially vulnerable groups - and for preserving social cohesion in our societies. This paper discusses the origins, conditions en potential of flexicurity as policy or strategy at various levels of industrial relations that explicitly addresses this nexus. Besides the paper outlines a research agenda with respect to the flexicurity phenomenon.
535 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the relation between firms' corporate philanthropic giving and their performance in three other social domains (employee relations, environmental issues, and product safety) and found that worse performers in the other social areas are both more likely to make charitable contributions and that the extent of their giving is larger than for better performers.
Abstract: This study examines the relation between firms’ corporate philanthropic giving and their performance in three other social domains – employee relations, environmental issues, and product safety. Based on a sample of 384 U.S. companies and using data pooled from 1998 through 2000, we find that worse performers in the other social areas are both more likely to make charitable contributions and that the extent of their giving is larger than for better performers. Analyses of each separate area of social performance, however, indicate that the relation between giving and negative social performance (cited concerns) only holds for the environmental issues and product safety areas. We find no significant association between corporate philanthropy and employee relations concerns. In general, these findings suggest that corporate philanthropy may be more a tool of legitimization than a measure of corporate social responsibility.
322 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied the interaction between financial and social performance in a sample of 289 firms from the US covering the period 1991-2004 and employing two different test methods, namely lagged OLS and Granger causation, there appears to be preliminary evidence that the direction of the "causation" predominantly runs from financial to social performance.
298 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the impact of human resource management practices on firm performance and the employee relations climate in the People's Republic of China and found that the levels of adoption of SHRM and HR practices were lower in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) than in foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs).
Abstract: We examined strategic human resource management (SHRM) and human resource practices in the People's Republic of China to assess the impact of these practices on firm performance and the employee relations climate. We also tested whether firm ownership moderates the above relationships. Empirical results from a sample of Chinese firms from various industries and regions showed that the levels of adoption of SHRM and HR practices were lower in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) than in foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs). Both SHRM and HR practices were found to have direct and positive effects on financial performance, operational performance, and the employee relations climate. However, the moderating effect of ownership type was significant for financial performance only. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
191 citations
Book•
02 Oct 2008
TL;DR: This paper integrated the history of wage labor, of slavery, and of indentured labor, and contributed to a Global Labor History free from Eurocentrism and methodological nationalism. But their work focused on the history in the US.
Abstract: The studies offered in this volume integrate the history of wage labor, of slavery, and of indentured labor. They contribute to a Global Labor History freed from Eurocentrism and methodological nationalism.
176 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine recent developments in general and vocational training and its links to the labour and product market in five contrasting countries, namely, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Korea and the USA.
Abstract: In recent decades, the differences between the education and training systems in the liberal and coordinated market economies have increased. It is not possible to understand such different developments by focusing exclusively on the internal dynamics of vocational and general education systems. Vocational education and training (VET), and particularly apprenticeship systems rather than school-based VET, are deeply embedded in the different national production, labour market, industrial relations and status systems. In order to contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of VET, we examine recent developments in general and vocational training and its links to the labour and product market in five contrasting countries, namely, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Korea and the USA. In particular, differences in industrial relations, welfare states, income distribution and product markets are the main reason for the persistent high level of diversity in vocational training systems. The difference can perhaps be summarized as follows: in the coordinated market economies, the modernisation of vocational training is seen as a contribution to innovation in the economy, while in liberal market economies, it is seen as a siding into which weaker pupils can conveniently be shunted.
161 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the relationship between the European Employment Strategy and the quality of work in the European Union. The empirical enquiry is based on hypotheses derived from both the literature on job quality, and from usual results from comparative labour market research.
Abstract: The study of job quality has known major developments in the academic field over the last ten years, especially in economics and industrial relations studies. The growing interest for job satisfaction data among labour economists has generated a debate about the preeminent factors explaining workers' judgements on the quality of their jobs. Besides, many studies question the trend to the decline of job satisfaction observed in national and European surveys, despite rising real wages, which could be explained, among other factors, by some kind of work intensification and its impact on work-life balance. Job quality has also become an economic policy issue, both at international level through the definition of "decent work" by the ILO, and at European level through the inclusion of so-called "quality in work" indicators in the European Employment Strategy in 2001. These definitions involve a range of dimensions, like wage level, social security and representation rights, type of contracts, training opportunities...which can be influenced by labour market and social policies. Nevertheless, these international indicators are rarely used in the literature, and apart from few empirical studies, very little is known about job quality from a comparative perspective. This article tries to fill this gap by implementing, discussing and completing European indicators. The empirical enquiry is based on hypotheses derived from both the literature on job quality, and from usual results from comparative labour market research. We draw policy oriented conclusions, concerning both the European Employment Strategy, in particular the relevant indicators to monitor quality in work, and the relationships between national institutions and the quality of employment.
145 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss how issues of people management are addressed in Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and highlight the indigenous approaches to human resource management (HRM) that have surfaced in the Indian SME context.
128 citations
TL;DR: Fifer et al. as discussed by the authors examined the effect of the migration of Katrina evacuees on the Houston metropolitan area labor market using Current Population Survey (CPS) data from September 2000 to August 2006.
Abstract: Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the US Gulf Coast as a category-three storm on the morning of August 29, 2005. With winds reach? ing speeds of 130 miles per hour and storm surges as high as 27 feet, Katrina caused unprec? edented damage along the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Unofficial estimates suggest that 100,000 to 150,000 evacuees moved to the Houston, Texas, metropolitan area, repre? senting a 3 to 4 percent increase in the population (Adrian Campo-Flores 2005). ' Some anecdotal evidence suggests that many evacuees expect to stay in the Houston metro area indefinitely.2 Katrina disproportionately affected minorities and the disadvantaged. Thomas Gabe et al. (2005) find that the evacuees who were most acutely affected by the storm were significantly more likely to be black, poor, and unemployed and were significantly less educated compared to other evacuees and compared to the nation on average. In this paper, I examine the effect of the migration of Katrina evacuees on the Houston metropolitan area labor market using Current Population Survey (CPS) data from September 2000 to August 2006. To quantify the effect of Hurricane Katrina migration, I compare wages and employment before and after the storm among nonevacuees residing in Houston (or, "native Houstonians") and in other metro areas that were not directly or indirectly affected by the storm. In addition, I allow the effects to vary by gender, education, and race and ethnicity. The existing studies of the effect of immigra? tion on the labor market outcomes among native born workers provide a good point of comparison for this analysis. (See Rachel M. Friedberg and Jennifer Hunt (1995) and David Card (2005) for reviews of this literature.) In a study similar to this one, Adriana Kugler and Mutlu Yuksel (2006) find negative employment effects among low-educated native workers and positive wage effects among highly educated workers in the US border states after Hurricane Mitch struck Central America in October 1998. More gener? ally, there are numerous studies that examine the impact of an unexpected increase in the local labor supply due to immigration, including papers by Card (1990), Hunt (1995), William Carrington and Pedro de Lima (1996), and Friedberg (2001). Collectively, these studies find small and insig? nificant effects of immigration on local labor market outcomes for native workers. Other studies estimate the effect of immi? gration on local labor markets using varia? tion across receiving areas and across time in the immigrant share of the labor force, and these studies produce conflicting results. Card (2001, 2005) finds that local labor market out? comes for unskilled natives are only marginally affected by immigration, while George J. Borjas (2006) shows that the wage effect of immigra? tion increases when the labor market is defined at the national level instead of at the local level, since workers are more likely to migrate between localities than between countries in response to increased labor market competition due to immigration. However, Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano and Giovanni Perri (2006) argue that by ignoring capital mobility and by assuming that immigrant and native workers are perfect substitutes in the labor market, Borjas overstates the size of the effect. * Industrial Relations Section, Firestone Library, Prince? ton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (e-mail: mfifer@ princeton.edu). I am grateful to Henry F?rber, Elizabeth Fussell, Alan Krueger, Michael Rothschild, Jesse Rothstein, and Cecilia Rouse for their guidance, and Leandro Carvalho, Jason DeParle, Matthew Ericson, Jane Fortson, and participants at the Princeton University Graduate Labor Lunch and Public Finance Working Group and at the Tulane University Disaster and Migration Conference for helpful comments and suggestions. I am responsible for the contents and for all remaining errors. 1 Jason De Parle, "Katrina's Tide Carries Many to Hope? ful Shores," New York Times, April 23, 2006. 2 Susan Saulny, "Putting Down New Roots on More Solid Ground," New York Times, September 7, 2005; Simon Romero, "Shelters Grow Empty as Apartments Open Up," New York Times, September 8, 2005.
110 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors look at the evolution of self-regulatory standards in the global labor governance debate and argue that despite the lacking legal framework of global regulation and enforceability, patterns of local self-regulation, norm-setting, and international codes lead not only to higher expectations of the behavior of transnationally operating firms but also to an indirect pattern of regulation.
Abstract: During the last decade, the approach by businesses and governments toward labor and social issues at the global level has fundamentally changed. Industrial relations are rapidly internationalizing by developing new actors and forms of governance to deal with the regulation of labor. This article looks at the evolution of self-regulatory standards in the global labor governance debate. Key is that notwithstanding problems with the lacking legal framework of global regulation and enforceability, patterns of local self-regulation, norm-setting, and international codes lead not only to higher expectations of the behavior of transnationally operating firms but also to an indirect pattern of regulation. The article argues that particularly the adoption of the core labor standards by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the setup of the Global Compact by the UN serve as points of convergence. A plethora of voluntarist initiatives that converge over time toward a shared understanding of labor standards is part of the transformation of global labor governance institutions.
108 citations
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: Work Choices as discussed by the authors was the last round of legislative change, the 2005 laws badged as Work Choices, the government overreached itself and in 2007 was defeated in a general election.
Abstract: For nearly 12 years from 1996, the Australian government pursued a neoliberal industrial relations agenda, seeking to break with structures based on collective bargaining and trade unions. In the name of choice and deregulation, this agenda involved unique levels of state intervention and prescription — and anti-unionism. In the last round of legislative change, the 2005 laws badged as Work Choices, the government overreached itself and in 2007 was defeated in a general election. As in the UK after Thatcher, the extent to which collective bargaining can be restored and trade unions regain a voice is problematical.
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: Work Choices as discussed by the authors was the last round of legislative change, the 2005 laws badged as Work Choices, the government overreached itself and in 2007 was defeated in a general election.
Abstract: For nearly 12 years from 1996, the Australian government pursued a neoliberal industrial relations agenda, seeking to break with structures based on collective bargaining and trade unions. In the name of choice and deregulation, this agenda involved unique levels of state intervention and prescription — and anti‐unionism. In the last round of legislative change, the 2005 laws badged as Work Choices, the government overreached itself and in 2007 was defeated in a general election. As in the UK after Thatcher, the extent to which collective bargaining can be restored and trade unions regain a voice is problematical.
TL;DR: This paper examined labour transnationalism within four multinational automakers and concluded that intensified worker-side cross-border co-operation has not prevented wage-based competition in general (due to the lack of between-firm co-ordination), it has reshaped employment relations within these multinational corporations.
Abstract: This article examines labour transnationalism within four multinational automakers. In our sample, we find different forms of labour transnationalism, including transnational collective bargaining, mobilization, information exchange and social codes of conduct. We explain the differences through the interaction between management and labour in the context of the company structure; of particular importance are transnational coercive comparisons by management and the orientations of worker representatives as political entrepreneurs or co-managers. We conclude that, although intensified worker-side cross-border co-operation has not prevented wage-based competition in general (due to the lack of between-firm co-ordination), it has reshaped employment relations within these multinational corporations.
TL;DR: The Mega-sporting events today are central stages that not only feature professional athletes representing their country in competing for excellence, but also provide host nations with a universally le....
Abstract: Mega-sporting events today are central stages that not only feature professional athletes representing their country in competing for excellence, but also provide host nations with a universally le ...
Book•
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine various facets of international framework agreements and look at other efforts to introduce a global "social floor." They also address relevant issues such as the possibility of cross-border solidarity action as a complement to crossborder dialogue.
Abstract: Globalization has widened the scope of multinational enterprises, or MNEs, making them increasingly transnational. At the same time, social actors such as trade unions, social movements, nongovernmental organizations, and consumers' organizations, have remained mostly at the national level. This great mismatch in range of operations has made negotiating between the two extremely difficult if not impossible. In response, private initiatives have appeared, including international framework agreements (IFAs). IFAs are the outcome of negotiations between individual MNEs and global union federations. They are intended to promote principles of labor relations and conditions of work and to organize a common labor relations framework at the cross-border level. This volume examines various facets of IFAs and looks at other efforts to introduce a global "social floor." It also addresses relevant issues such as the possibility of cross-border solidarity action as a complement to cross-border dialogue.
TL;DR: This article examined whether processes of globalization have produced increasing convergence of employment-related aspects of national-level welfare regimes, industrial relation systems and mid-career employment paths among a set of industrialized nations.
Abstract: Profound social and economic transformations have taken place over the last two decades in modern societies. These changes are often referred to as globalization. The aim of this article is to examine whether processes of globalization have produced increasing convergence of employment-related aspects of national-level welfare regimes, industrial relation systems and mid-career employment paths among a set of industrialized nations. A theory of convergence is developed to explain the coercive-isomorphic and mimetic-imitation effects of globalization, followed by potential reasons for growing divergence. The study concludes that globalization has produced ' converging divergences' and not resulted in a simple convergence based on neoliberal and market employment-related policies that leads to a rise of patchwork careers for all employees. Rather, it has served to intensify existent differences between industrial relations in the welfare regime clusters of countries and accentuated within-country occupational class, educational and gender inequalities.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the industrial relations field has had two distinct paradigms: an original paradigm centred on the employment relationship and a modern paradigm centered on unions and labour management relations, and they argue that to survive and prosper in the years ahead, the field needs to return to an updated version of the original "employment relationship" paradigm.
Abstract: This article argues that the industrial relations (IR) field has had two distinct paradigms — an original paradigm centred on the employment relationship, and a modern paradigm centred on unions and labour‐management relations. In practice, IR scholars in the decades after the Second World War frequently adopted the former as a broad principle but followed the latter in research and teaching. The narrower labour‐management paradigm has created a significant survival challenge for the IR field, given the marked long-term decline in union density in most countries. I join with others in arguing that to survive and prosper in the years ahead, the field needs to return to an updated version of the original ‘employment relationship’ paradigm. To promote this end, I describe the major features of the original paradigm, including its core positive and normative principle. I also outline how this core principle provides the foundation for an integrative IR theory of the employment relationship, which the field greatly needs to move ahead.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the relationship between financial performance and stakeholder relations with respect to different theoretical notions about the firm and find that the different components of stakeholder relation appear to be associated in a complex manner with shareholder performance.
Abstract: We analyze how shareholder performance can be associated with stakeholder relations. As such, we try to find out whether there is an association between financial performance and stakeholder relations with respect to different theoretical notions about the firm. Financial performance is operationalized as the financial return of a firm's shares. For stakeholder relations, we look into community involvement, corporate governance, employee relations, environmental conduct, diversity of the workforce, human rights policies and product attributes. We find that the different components of stakeholder relations appear to be associated in a complex manner with shareholder performance. Therefore, it adds value to look closely into the details of stakeholder relations in connection with financial performance. Copyright (C)3 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the implementation of network forms of genetics healthcare delivery that cross organizational and professional boundaries and highlight that less powerful professional groups may find difficulty in enacting boundary-spanning roles associated with new organizational forms.
Abstract: Our study responds to a call for research to integrate institutional, organizational and individual levels of analysis in examining the implications for work and employment relations of new organizational forms. We empirically examine the implementation of network forms of genetics healthcare delivery that cross organizational and professional boundaries. We highlight that less powerful professional groups may find difficulty in enacting boundary-spanning roles associated with new organizational forms. This is due, first, to inconsistency of government policy, which fragments organizations. Second, professional institutions sustain professional hierarchy and power differentials.
TL;DR: This paper developed a framework for analysis of global service work by comparing ethnographic cases of labor in two global, luxury hotels in China, each hotel is linked to the same U.S.-based global corporation, and both employ the same organizational template and recruit same aged female workers.
Abstract: Despite the international growth of the service sector, an industrial paradigm defines the study of global labor. This is because analyses of service work typically focus on firms in the United States, while studies of global labor concentrate on manufacturing. I develop a framework for analysis of global service work by comparing ethnographic cases of labor in two global, luxury hotels in China. Each hotel is linked to the same U.S.-based global corporation, and both employ the same organizational template and recruit sameaged female workers. At the first hotel, workers silently cater to the preferences of guests, using recorded customer preference data and enacting imported feminized practices, a labor regime I call virtual personalism. At the second hotel, workers promote hotel products, displaying expertise to distinguish themselves from sex workers who frequent the hotel, a labor regime I call virtuous professionalism. Why do distinctly gendered labor practices emerge in the two settings? To explain ...
Book•
31 Oct 2008
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an overview of the HRM and its role in organizational change and development, including human resource planning, reward management, and training and development of employees.
Abstract: 1. Introduction and Overview 2. Corporate Strategy and Strategic HRM 3. Organization Structure 4. Organizational Change and Development 5. Organizational Culture 6. Employee Resourcing : Human Resource Planning 7. Employee Resourcing : Recruitment and Selection 8. Employee Development : Performance Management 9. Employee Development : Reward Management 10. Employee Development : Training and Development 11. Employee Relations 12 : HRM : Critique and Developments
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the question as to whether and to what degree and areas the quality of jobs in the temporary work industry is different from regular positions and analyse what options are available for Human Resource Management to enhance job quality and make agency work a more attractive choice for employees.
Abstract: One of the most notable trends in the past decade has been the growth of temporary agency work. With growth rates significantly higher than standard employment, temporary agency work has attracted both public and academic attention, much of it contradictory. While some authors have argued that the flexibility of triangular employment relations allows employers to reduce labour and hiring and training costs, other researchers see agency jobs associated with low wages, minimal benefits, negligible job security, little training and no job prospects. This article intends to advance the debate on this topic by exploring the question as to whether and to what degree and areas the quality of jobs in the temporary work industry is different from regular positions. The focus is on the situation in Germany. Second, it will analyse what options are available for Human Resource Management to enhance job quality and make agency work a more attractive choice for employees. In the final step propositions for further res...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a non-exclusivity of intellectual property rights on the results of the research performed under contract is necessary for the academic labor relationship to work effectively.
Abstract: University is becoming a cornerstone of the new emerging mode of governance of the generation and dissemination of knowledge as it reveals remarkable institutional advantages both in providing a solution to the knowledge trade-off and in reducing agency costs. The typical academic labor relationship emerges as an appropriate institutional device to handle the principal-agent problems when creative talents are required. The unique quasi-hierarchical setup of the academic system creates a supply of certified skills that are ready to operate on a professional basis. Such academic consultants can be paid on an ex-post per job basis matching only their variable costs. This supply leads to the creation of a specific market for research services where the demand is provided by the knowledge outsourcing of corporations. For this system to work effectively the non-exclusivity of intellectual property rights on the results of the research performed under contract is necessary. Non-exclusivity in academic employment relations should parallel non-exclusivity in knowledge ownership.
TL;DR: Worker participation in occupational health and safety (OHS) generally achieves better outcomes than unilateral management initiatives as discussed by the authors. But in a ''cold'' industrial relations climate, meaningful participation is increasingly difficult.
Abstract: Worker participation in occupational health and safety (OHS) generally achieves better outcomes than unilateral management initiatives. But in a `cold' industrial relations climate, meaningful participation is increasingly difficult. This article focuses on the Australian mining industry. It explores how the strength and reach of the unions have been undermined and why OHS law has only limited capacity to mitigate the resulting imbalance of power. It then draws on interview data to provide a profile of the consequences of worker vulnerability. Finally, it examines to what extent other mechanisms can redress the balance or whether, in a changing world of work, increasingly precarious employment and emasculated unions, the prospects for effective worker participation in OHS are bleak.
TL;DR: Despite a strengthening of collective labor rights in Latin America over the last 15 years, most labor movements in the region have lost power because neither the content nor the enforcement mechanisms associated with the labor reforms fully took into consideration the challenges presented by economic restructuring as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Despite a strengthening of collective labor rights in Latin America over the last 15 years, most labor movements in the region have lost power because neither the content nor the enforcement mechanisms associated with the labor reforms fully took into consideration the challenges presented by economic restructuring. Reforms facilitating union formation did not strengthen unions but instead increased union fragmentation. Collective bargaining structures did not respond to the exigencies of international outsourcing; and the initial round of reforms in the 1990s did not contemplate the need to strengthen labor law enforcement mechanisms at a time when heightened international competition created a need for greater state vigilance of labor standards. Recent reforms or proposed reforms hold more promise for labor, but truly union-friendly labor relations regimes require deeper changes. A review of several Latin American cases is followed by a closer examination of Brazil and El Salvador.
TL;DR: The authors examines the changes to and relations between labor policy and labor legislation in the context of China's market transition with a focus on the 1994 Labor Law and the 2007 Labor Contract Law.
Abstract: This article examines the changes to and relations between labor policy and labor legislation in the context of China’s market transition with a focus on the 1994 Labor Law and the 2007 Labor Contract Law. The initial impetus to labor policy change came from the unemployment crisis at the end of the 1970s and the early 1980s. Since then, the state has relaxed its control over labor mobility and job allocation. The last two decades of the last century witnessed the most important changes in China’s labor policy, that is, the replacement of lifelong employment with contract-based employment and the replacement of government job assignment with the labor market. Such changes indicate the paradigmatic shifts of China’s labor policy in the reform era. Under the new labor policy paradigm, the role of law has been strengthened in governing labor relations and other labor-related affairs. Within the policy context of promoting economic growth while maintaining social stability, both policy and law are coordinated and complementary in stabilizing labor relations and protecting labor rights. Given the socioeconomic circumstances and the underdevelopment of the rule of law in China, policy is still important during the period of market transition.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how the eclipsing role of the state in labor protection has affected state-labor relations and find that informal workers have had to alter their organizing strategies in ways that are reshaping the social contract between state and labor.
Abstract: As states grapple with the forces of liberalization and globalization, they are increasingly pulling back on earlier levels of welfare provision and rhetoric. This article examines how the eclipsing role of the state in labor protection has affected state-labor relations. In particular, it analyzes collective action strategies among India's growing mass of informally employed workers, who do not receive secure wages or benefits from either the state or their employer. In response to the recent changes in state policies, I find that informal workers have had to alter their organizing strategies in ways that are reshaping the social contract between state and labor. Rather than demanding employers for workers' benefits, they are making direct demands on the state for welfare benefits. To attain state attention, informal workers are using the rhetoric of citizenship rights to offer their unregulated labor and political support in return for state recognition of their work. Such recognition bestows informal workers with a degree of social legitimacy, thereby dignifying their discontent and bolstering their status as claim makers in their society. These findings offer a reformulated model of state-labor relations that focuses attention on the qualitative, rather than quantitative, nature of the nexus; encompasses a dynamic and inter-dependent conceptualization of state and labor; and accommodates the creative and diverse strategies of industrial relations being forged in the contemporary era. Since the late 1990s, a literature designed to examine the variable effects of "globalization" has grown exponentially in the social sciences. 1 Within this literature, several scholars have bolstered the significance of globalization by arguing that the economic policies and the social forces that integrate national economies are
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a model showing that firms with interdependent worker productivity (team production) have a higher cost of absence and as a consequence will spend additional resources on monitoring absence.
Abstract: We present a model showing that firms with interdependent worker productivity (team production) have a higher cost of absence and as a consequence will spend additional resources on monitoring absence. As a result, firms with team production should have lower absence rates, all else equal. Using the Workplace Employment Relations Survey (UK), we are the first to estimate each of these related associations showing that absence has a greater cost in the face of team production, that firms with team production engage in greater monitoring and that firms with team production have reduced absence.
TL;DR: In this paper, the most important dimensions and antecedents of the employee's commitment to the firm using a multidisciplinary perspective were analyzed using a national sample of 285 employees working in different firms.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the most important dimensions and antecedents of the employee's commitment to the firm using a multidisciplinary perspective.Design/methodology/approach – Using a national sample of 285 employees working in different firms, the research reported here portrays the paths which link the economic and relational antecedents of commitment with the dimensions of organizational commitment. A structural equations analysis is performed.Findings – It was found that the most effective way to get normative commitment and thus make the employee continue working in the same firm is to engender affective commitment. And affective commitment is determined mainly by interaction between the firm and its employees (participation, flexibility and information exchange). Employee gender, level of studies, offspring and firm size and belonging to a group show a moderating effect on the global model.Research limitations/implications – Information has only been collected from the e...