This article presents a study that aimed to test, over an extended period, the hypothesis that there has been a convergence in industrial relations in developed countries. Taking into account the ...enduring debate on this point, in particular in relation to the current crisis and the diversity of underlying conceptions, it aimed to start with an object of comparison that was not predetermined by any prior orientation, namely, "social dialogue." However, this concept, used in particular within the International Labour Office (ILO), remains quite vague and needs to be developed further. In addition to information, consultation and collective bargaining practices, practices that are less often considered were also explored, relating to joint management, codetermination, and state intervention, with the latter potentially strengthening or, on the contrary, constraining social dialogue. Empirically dealing only with collective bargaining, codetermination and state intervention practices, this study examined the development in 19 OECD countries of six indicators from 1985 to 2011. The importance of each indicator was not weighted beforehand and the data were analyzed based on the main components, followed by a classification by dynamic groups. The result yielded five fairly stable groups of countries, in which the transformations over time were studied. Lastly, the social and economic performance of the groups of countries was examined based on their GDP growth and evolving unemployment rates. Unconstrained by any a priori orientation, the following groups--traditionally brought out by comparative analyses--were found: "Anglo-Saxon," "Continental," "Nordic" and "Mediterranean" groups, as well as a last group formed by Switzerland and Japan. Our study concluded that diversity regarding "social dialogue" has been persistent, including for the recent period marked by the crisis.
Whilst many teleworkers are increasingly working beyond home and office, these mobile teleworkers are neglected in the telework literature. This neglect is addressed through reviewing relevant ...literature, developing a conceptual locational framework that accounts for mobile teleworkers and the presentation of an illustrative example which links to the theme of work–life balance in the telework literature.
Firms with a reputation as socially responsible may have an important cost advantage: If workers prefer their employer to be socially responsible, equilibrium wages may be lower in such firms. We ...explore this hypothesis, combining Norwegian register data with data on firm reputation collected by an employer branding firm. Adjusting for a large set of background variables, we find that the firm’s social responsibility reputation is significantly associated with lower wages.
We study manager-employee interactions in experiments set in a corporate environment where payoffs depend on employees coordinating at high effort levels; the underlying game being played repeatedly ...by employees is a weak-link game. In the absence of managerial intervention subjects invariably slip into coordination failure. To overcome a history of coordination failure, managers have two instruments at their disposal: increasing employees' financial incentives to coordinate and communication with employees. Synthesizing methods drawn from psychology and economics, we quantify the impact of specific types of communication on workers' effort levels and manager's profits. This methodology allows us to rigorously compare the efficacy of communication and direct incentives in an environment where both are available. We find that communication is a more effective tool than incentive changes for leading organizations out of performance traps. Examining the content of managers' communication, the most effective communication strategy is quite simple: specifically request a high effort, point out the mutual benefits of high effort, and imply that employees are being paid well.
Two studies are reported that investigate the relationships among commitment and motivation mindsets and their contribution to work outcomes. Study 1 involved 487 nurses from a hospital in the center ...of Italy. Results showed that commitment's facets were related to parallel dimensions of work motivation. Study 2 involved 593 nurses from a hospital in the north of Italy. Analyses indicated that commitment and motivation were important antecedents of working attitudes and behaviors. Moreover, self-determined motivation played a critical mediating role in positive behaviors. Findings are discussed in terms of their practical implications for organizations and employees.
•We estimate product and labor market imperfections in France, Japan and the Netherlands.•We consider two product and three labor market settings, thus distinguishing 6 regimes.•We classify 30 ...comparable manufacturing industries in these regimes.•We find important regime differences across the three countries.•We also observe differences in the levels of product market imperfections within regimes.
Allowing for three labor market settings (perfect competition or right-to-manage bargaining, efficient bargaining and monopsony), this paper relies on two extensions of Hall’s econometric framework for estimating simultaneously price–cost margins and scale economies. Using an unbalanced panel of 17653 firms over the period 1986–2001 in France, 8728 firms over the period 1994–2006 in Japan and 7828 firms over the period 1993–2008 in the Netherlands, we first apply two procedures to classify 30 comparable manufacturing industries in 6 distinct regimes that differ in terms of the type of competition prevailing in product and labor markets. For each of the predominant regimes in each country, we then investigate industry differences in the estimated product and labor market imperfections and scale economies. Consistent with differences in institutions and in the industrial relations system in the three countries, we find important regime differences across the three countries and also observe differences in the levels of product market imperfections and scale economies within regimes.
With this article, the authors are the first to analyze and explain the relationship between part-time employment and firm productivity. Using a unique data set on the Dutch pharmacy sector that ...includes the working hours of all employees and a "hard" physical measure of firm productivity, the authors estimate a production function including heterogeneous employment shares based on working hours. The authors find that firms with a large part-time employment share are more productive than firms with a large share of full-time workers: a 10% increase in the part-time share is associated with 4.8% higher productivity. Additional data on the timing of labor demand show that this can be explained by a different allocation of parttimers compared with full-timers. This enables firms with large parttime employment shares to allocate their labor force more efficiently across working days.
In China, rural migrant workers are now the biggest labor force in urban and industrial areas. However, these workers lack effective and legitimate ways to organize themselves to counterbalance the ...power of capital or negotiate for better rights. Since official trade unions are unable to represent or protect migrant workers, and independent unions are prohibited in China, labor non-governmental organizations emerge as an informal way to mobilize and protect workers. This article explores how labor non-governmental organizations mobilize migrant workers in China, and the dilemmas they face. Labor non-governmental organizations use three strategies to organize workers: legal mobilizing, cultural mobilizing and a campaign intervention approach. However, because they face daily surveillance, repression and co-option by the state, these non-governmental organizations have limited political opportunities to organize workers on a large scale or develop a labor movement. While some struggle to resist these attempts to restrict their activity, other non-governmental organizations become domesticated by the state. Overcoming these limitations will require new tactics by non-governmental organizations to carve an independent space to organize migrant workers.
In 2004, the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union signed a new collective bargaining agreement that gave principals the flexibility to dismiss probationary teachers (those with fewer ...than 5 years of experience) for any reason and without the hearing process typical in many urban districts. Results suggest that the policy reduced annual teacher absences by roughly 10% and reduced the incidence of frequent absences by 25%. The majority of the effect was due to changes in the composition of teachers in the district, although there is evidence of modest incentive effects for young untenured teachers.
Employability is believed to be a crucial concept concerning employees’ job
security. This study investigates whether factors associated with human capital and
the dual labour market predict ...perceived employability. Two national representative
Swedish samples are used, representing economic recession (1993, N ¼
4952) and prosperity (1999, N ¼ 6696). Employability was perceived as
higher during prosperity, but human capital factors as well as dual labour market
factors predicted perceived employability, irrespective of the time period. These
findings indicate that the understanding of employability is enhanced by considering
both structural and individual dimensions.
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