bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Union Presence and Corporate Productivity Practices: Evidence from Singapore
Authors: Check‐Teck Foo 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper explores the influences that unionisation may have on managerial processes to improve productivity. Unionisation is cast as a contextual variable, along with sector, size and culture. A recently established Singapore data base of employees' perceptions of corporate productivity practices is used to detect such possible influences. Regression analysis, with productivity practice as a dependent variable, suggests that unionisation explains some of the variations in such practices.
The Determinants of Participatory Management
Authors: Drago Robert , Wooden Mark 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper analyses self‐reported participatory management data from a survey of over 900 private‐sector employees in Australia and New Zealand. We test for causal linkages between employee desires for participation, while distinguishing between participation at the shop‐floor and at higher managerial levels. At higher levels, where there is a significant excess demand for participation, firms often respond to employee desires with formal programmes which in turn create de facto participation at this level. At the shop‐floor level, employee desires are more often met through the informal provision of de facto participation. Participation also changes employee desires, with participation at higher levels increasing employee demands for it and participation at lower levels reducing demands for high‐level participation. We conclude that shop‐floor programmes may favour managerial interests while higher‐level co‐operative programmes may favour employee interests.
YTS and the Labour Market
Authors: Begg I. G. , Blake A. P. , Deakin B. M. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis article contains results from a survey of the influence of the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) in the labour market. Tighter conditions in this market in 1989 led to changes in the role of the YTS towards recruitment and training rather than job creation. The effectiveness of YTS in meeting skill shortages is examined, as are the motives of employers who participate in the scheme and the extent to which trainees aim for qualifications. Youth training for the labour markets of the 1990s is considered in relation to expected future trends in the demand for skilled labour in that period.
Why Did Devlin Fail? Casualism and Conflict on the Docks
Authors: Turnbull Peter , Sapsford David 
Published: January 2009

AbstractFollowing the decasualisation of dock labour in 1967 at the behest of the Devlin Committee it was widely anticipated that Britain's ports would enter a period of industrial peace and prosperity. In fact, the docks entered a phase of unprecedented militancy which persisted throughout the early 1970s. This paper examines why Devlin failed and demonstrates how continued insecurity on the waterfront, largely as a result of technological change, continued to be a source of conflict and dissension. More fundamentally, decasualisation was a necessary but not a sufficient condition for industrial peace on the docks, as institutional reform alone did not address many of the real troubles of the industry.
Institutional Aspects of Youth Employment and Training Policy: A Comment on Marsden and Ryan
Authors: Sako Mari 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis Comment questions the reasons why Marsden and Ryan (1990) have come to favour prescribing apprenticeship and occupational markets for reviving training in Britain. Their assessment failed to take account of (a) other advantages of internal labour markets over occupational markets, (b) institutions other than those in labour markets, and (c) training features common in well functioning occupational and internal markets as revealed by a comparison of Germany and Japan. The examination of these factors casts a doubt on the feasibility and desirability of Marsden and Ryan's policy recommendation.
Workers Are Working Harder: Effort and Shop‐floor Relations in the 1980s
Authors: Edwards P. K. , Whitston Colin 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThere has been considerable debate as to whether levels of worker effort rose in Britain during the 1980s. Case‐study evidence from four organizations suggests that effort levels did indeed increase. The extent to which workers were aware of this was, however, moderated by the limited extent of the change, by the fact that it was sometimes accompanied by other changes, and by the recruitment of new workers. Future research should investigate in more detail the components of effort, workers' view on why effort levels have changed, and managerial interpretations.
The Swedish Model: Relevant for Other European Countries?
Authors: Delsen Lei , van Veen Tom 
Published: January 2009

AbstractBy the late 1970s, supply‐side theory had become something of a new economic orthodoxy. From the supply‐side perspective, labour market inflexibility explains mass unemployment. In this context the presumably greater flexibility of the labour market in the USA was seen as an explanation of its superior employment record relative to European economies. Unlike most European countries, Sweden, which is highly regulated, does reasonably well in employment terms. The authors conclude that the Swedish model has proved its value with regard to labour market policy, especially with regard to the duration of unemployment, and that the Swedish model still contains relevant characteristics for other European countries. Active labour market policy is a way out of the unemployment trap. The active labour market policy may serve as an alternative for deregulation in order to augment the flexibility of the labour market.
European Integration and Transnational Management‐Union Relations in the Enterprise
Authors: Marginson Paul 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe Single European Market has generated considerable interest in the prospects for European‐level management‐union arrangements in transnational companies. European works councils have emerged in a small but growing number of transnationals. The circumstances in which companies might promote such arrangements are analysed. Attention is paid to whether companies are organized along international product or territorial lines and to their product diversification strategies. Transnationals will also be influenced by trade union pressure at European level and by aspects of the industrial relations system in their home country.
Pay, Gender and the Social Dimension to Europe
Authors: Rubery Jill 
Published: January 2009

AbstractEqual pay for men and women was a principle enshrined in the Treaty of Rome and was the subject of a European Directive in 1975. This investigation of progress towards equal pay in three member‐states, Germany, Italy and the UK, reveals the importance of differences in employment structures and reward systems in determining relative pay for women. Differences in the structure and size of pay differentials among countries suggest that more attention needs to be paid to the general system of labour market regulation than to explicit equal‐pay policies. Women would be more likely to benefit from a strategy of establishing labour standards and regulation than from equal‐pay Directives which have little effect on the general practices and principles of pay determination.
Patterns of Continuity and Change in Managerial Attitudes and Behaviour in Industrial Relations, 1980‐1990
Authors: Poole Michael , Mansfield Roger 
Published: January 2009

AbstractIn this paper, data are reported from a longitudinal study of managers' attitudes and behaviour in industrial relations based on a sample of fellows and members of the British Institute of Management. An account of two surveys, carried out in 1980 and 1990, follows an examination of theories of the managerial role in industrial relations and the presentation of a research model. Managerial attitudes and behaviour are then analysed with respect to views on trade unions, personal commitments to collective representation, collective bargaining, employee participation and involvement and views on the role of government. The findings have an added significance because survey dates roughly correspond with the so‐called ‘Thatcher years’. The conclusion is that some major changes in industrial relations have occurred during the decade in question, but there are also substantial continuities which cannot be ‘read off’ directly from the dramatic alterations in the political, economic and legal environment.
Annual Review Article 1992
Authors: Rothwell Sheila 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe article presents an overview of some of the significant developments in British industrial relations in 1992 from a managerial perspective. Against a background of deepening recession and redundancy, and some attempts to reorganize more flexibly, company approaches to equal opportunities, to training and development and to employee involvement (both individual and collective) are outlined. Interpretation reveals contradictory trends and a contrast between the rhetoric and the reality of innovation. Unless greater future emphasis is given to meeting employee as well as organizational needs, further problems seem likely to emerge.
Cohort Size Effects on the Wages of Young Men in Britain, 1961‐1989
Authors: Nickell Stephen 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper investigates the relationship between the pay of young men relative to adult men and the size of the youth cohort. The evidence presented indicates that during the post‐war period, relative hourly earnings and relative union negotiated wage rates were both negatively influenced by the size of the youth cohort. This fact indicates that the relative availability of young workers influences their rates of pay even if these are the outcome of union negotiations.
Trade Union Membership in Europe, 1960–1990: Rediscovering Local Unions
Authors: Hancké Bob 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis article compares union density rates in seven Western European countries between 1960 and 1990. In contrast to conventional analyses, the paper argues that, in countries where workplace union organization is well developed, and where unions have managed to turn the official institutions for workers' participation such as works councils into extensions of their operations, they fared better during the 1960s and 1970s than in countries where this was not the case. This difference in the fate of unions was even more pronounced during the 1980s. Unions with strong locals lost few members or actually gained some, while unions without strong local structures saw union density drop by between one‐quarter and one‐third.
Performing for Pay? The Effects of ‘Merit Pay’ on Motivation in a Public Service
Authors: Marsden David , Richardson Ray 
Published: January 2009

Abstract: Despite the growing use made of performance‐related pay schemes, their true impact remains sadly under‐researched. This article, a case study of the scheme introduced into the Inland Revenue in 1988, and typical of recent UK public‐sector schemes, is an attempt to reduce the area of mystery.We assess the scheme by its likely impact on employee motivation, which we gauge through a variety of employee and management opinions and attitudes, as expressed in more than 2000 responses to a questionnaire. Our conclusion is that, although the scheme was thought by staff to have a number of virtues, it was very unlikely to have raised employee motivation appreciably; it may indeed have been demotivating on balance. We also consider the likely reasons for this result.If the scheme did not improve employee motivation, it is hard to see how it could have enhanced employee performance. The study has potentially important implications for the government policy of seeking to improve the functioning of the public sector through performance‐related pay.
Gender Discrimination in Training: An Australian Perspective
Authors: Miller Paul W. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractAnalysis of the Australian How Workers Get Their Training survey indicates considerable male‐female differentials in the incidence and duration of training. For external training, which women can undertake without the sanction of the firm, the gender effect is that women undertake more training than men, other things being the same. However, for in‐house training, which requires the sanction of the firm, the gender effect is that women undertake less training than men, other things being the same. One interpretation of this is that the gender effect reflects both the discriminatory attitudes held by firms and the greater propensity to train among women, with the relative weights varying across types of training according to the discretion that women have in determining the training outcome.
Did the Retreat of UK Trade Unionism Accelerate during the 1990–1993 Recession?
Authors: Geroski Paul , Gregg Paul , Desjonqueres Thibaut 
Published: January 2009

AbstractIt is widely believed that recessions are periods of accelerated structural change, with major reorganizations or adjustments being made under intense pressure. These changes are made to ensure the survival of firms, exploit opportunities created by difficulties facing other firms, or take advantage of temporary falls in the opportunity cost of initiating and carrying out changes. This line of argument suggests that we should expect to see firms making major changes in their investments in human capital, and in their industrial relations practices. Our results are only partially consistent with this view. What seems to be clear from the data generated by our surveys is that firms are not reluctant to make changes in their bargaining strategies and industrial relations systems. This should be no surprise. Unlike investments in plant and equipment, these changes do not require much cash, and the opportunity cost of making them is much lower in recessions than in booms. However, the observed changes in union recognition have not occurred primarily in firms that were severely affected by the recession. Increases in pay decentralization and reorganization of work‐force arrangements were no more likely to be initiated by distressed firms than by firms only moderately affected by the recession. It follows, then, that the retreat of UK unionism observed during the 1990–3 recession was, in the main, a continuation of existing secular trends. The mild acceleration in the pace of change revealed by our survey may be cyclical, but the trend is unlikely to be reversed as recovery gathers pace.
The Importance of Sex for the Propensity to Unionize
Authors: Sinclair Diane M. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe paper aims to determine whether or not ceteris paribus women workers are less interested in joining trade unions than male employees by an analysis of the importance of sex for the individuaľs union membership decision. Cross‐tabulations and discriminant analyses are used to examine the Work Attitudes and Histories Survey of the Social Change and Economic Life Initiative of1986. An employee's sex is revealed to be related to propensity to unionize, a finding attributable mainly to women's concentration in low‐paid occupations and to the significantly lower favourability to trade unions expressed by female workers, compared with male employees.
Generating Equality? Equal Pay, Decentralization and the Electricity Supply Industry
Authors: Gilbert Kay , Seeker Judith 
Published: January 2009

AbstractDespite the existence of effective equal pay legislation in the UK since 1975 aimed at eradicating pay discrimination, women are still in receipt of only 79.5 per cent of the hourly earnings received by men (EOR 1994b). Whitehouse (1992) claims that a centralized collective bargaining model is more likely to lead to equality for women in the labour market than a liberalized individualistic model. The model was tested at an aggregated level for 13 OECD countries. This article provides a case study which charts a trade union claim for equal pay over a period often years (1984–94), which may be seen as an examination of the Whitehouse proposition at a disaggregated level. The paper highlights the barriers to equality bargaining and analyses the case study to identify the criteria necessary for achieving equality.
Financial Management and Financial Performance in British Trade Unions
Authors: Willman Paul , Morris Timothy 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis article examines changes in the financial performance of British trade unions in the early 1990s. Using survey data, it looks for a relationship between changes in financial management and changes in financial performance. Unions have continued to increase the concentration of financial decision‐making and the sophistication of financial systems. However, financial concerns have become no more central to union decision‐making and as a result financial management improvements do not lead to improvements in financial performance. We argue that new financial management techniques lead to increases in the cost base as union organizations become more centralized and bureaucratic. The implications for representative effectiveness are discussed.
Among the Ashes: Trade Union Strategies in the UK and German Steel Industries
Authors: Bacon Nicolas , Blyton Paul , Morris Jonathan 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe trade unions in the steel industry have faced two waves of restructuring, the first centring on closures, capacity reductions and mass redundancies, the second involving fundamental changes to patterns of work organization, labour utilization and industrial relations. Overall, the trade unions involved have failed to develop an adequate response to management‐led change, relying instead on traditional methods and lines of interest representation. The challenges embodied in such developments as teamworking and craft restructuring are considered, together with union responses and the structural and ideological constraints on those responses. Contrasts are drawn with more successful union involvement in comparable changes in the German steel industry. In the conclusion, the authors review the dilemmas facing the UK unions in the steel industry and the main areas for a new agenda.
Annual Review Article 1995
Authors: Goodman John 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper follows the pattern of most of its predecessors, first in serving as a record of events and developments in some areas germane to the employment relationship in Britain between October 1994 and October 1995, and second in offering some interpretative comment on elements of continuity and change. The decelerating economic recovery brought continuing but modest reductions in unemployment and some increase in price inflation. However, tax increases, perceived job insecurity, generally low earnings increases and other factors inhibited any widespread sense of economic well‐being and restrained consumer demand. Among the key events were the TUC's strategic initiative on employee representation and union recognition, and the debates surrounding the Greenbury Report on executive remuneration packages and a national minimum wage. Industrial disputes reached record lows. Employment prospects, job insecurity and work‐related stress were recurrent issues, with the different approaches of the main political parties to employment matters being clarified ahead of the coming general election.
Union Membership in Post‐Socialist East Germany: Who Participates in Collective Action?
Authors: Frege Carola M. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis study has two aims: first, to examine the hypothesis that East German union members are strongly individualistic, instrumental and passive with regard to participation in collective activities; second, to test a selection of social psychological theories of willingness to participate in collective action, in a post‐socialist context. A survey of members of the textile union provided some initial indication that union members in East Germany do not behave in a significantly different way from their Western counterparts with regard to their willingness to become active. Regression analysis revealed two major antecedents of participation: perceived instrumentality of collective action, and union identity.
The Collapse of Compulsory Unionism? Collective Organization in Highly Unionized British Companies, 1979–1991
Authors: Wright Martyn 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper examines compulsory union membership in 50 highly unionized companies between 1979 and 1991. One hundred per cent membership has collapsed among non‐manuals. Post‐entry 100% membership remains in the majority of manual units, as does the pre‐entry closed shop among craft workers. Fewer written union membership agreements, and more unwritten verbal agreements and unofficial understandings, were evident. This pattern is accounted for by the interplay of four factors: product market competition, managerial indulgency, workplace collective organization and labour turnover.
An Explanation of Top Executive Pay: A UK Study
Authors: McKnight Phillip J. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis study extends prior research by separating executive remuneration into salary and annual bonus for the purpose of empirically verifying their determinants. A model is introduced to estimate the extent to which pay and its determinants are related. Based on a net sample of 90 large UK firms, salary was found to be strongly related to firm size, as opposed to annual bonus, which was modestly associated with both firm performance and size. An important discovery was that salary showed no relationship to a firm's economic performance. The inability to find any association between salary and performance suggests that each component of pay has a different set of determining factors.
ENVY'S NARRATIVE SCRIPTS: CYPRIAN, BASIL, AND THE MONASTIC SAGES ON THE ANATOMY AND CURE OF THE INVIDIOUS EMOTIONS
Authors: BLOWERS PAUL M. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractIncorporating Martha Nussbaum's work on the “intelligence” of human emotions in Greco‐Roman moral philosophy, Robert Kaster's analysis of the “narrative scripts” of rivalrous emotions in antiquity, and René Girard's insights into the role of “mimetic desire” in human envy, this article explores the strategies of two major early Christian bishops, Cyprian and Basil of Caesarea, to “read” and to cure the variant scripts of envy and related invidious passions in concrete ecclesial contexts. The article also examines certain monastic theologians in late antiquity who aspired to preempt invidious passions by encouraging salutary scripts of competition in virtue that realized equality of honor in their respective communities.
POETRY AGAINST EVIL: A BULGAKOVIAN THEOLOGY OF POETRY1
Authors: McDERMOTT RYAN 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe essay introduces Sergei Bulgakov's theology of creation and evil in order to develop a theology of language, conceiving language as the path along which humans receive their own givenness, but also participate in the creation of the world. Poetry's attention to the difficulty of language, its acceptance of artificial disciplines, and its nonrational mode of knowledge uniquely attune it to language's creative—and destructive—potential. Like a monastery for language, poetry enacts a linguistic askesis, schooling its language and its readers in conversion. The essay includes a close reading of Gjertrud Schnackenberg's poem, “Supernatural Love.” A conclusion situates the essay's program for a theology of literature in relation to Henri de Lubac's work on spiritual exegesis and Hans Urs von Balthasar's use of literature in his theology.