Factors affecting global integration of Chinese multinationals in Australia: A qualitative analysis

This study utilizes cross-level and in-depth interviews to extend empirical and conceptual studies that have identified the factors underlying the choices made by OECD based multinational enterprises (MNEs) when determining their approach to global integration. The study examines the applicability of these factors in the context of Chinese MNEs with operations in Australia. In so doing, it pioneers the use of qualitative methods to determine which factors affect emerging market MNEs’ global integration and how these elements function and interrelate. Furthermore, the study contributes to theory-building by classifying the factors affecting global integration into organizational, industrial, and environmental groupings. The implications of this study are drawn from the data analysis and directions for future studies are advanced.     

Evaluating change in European industrial relations: research evidence on trends at organizational level

This paper uses evidence from organizations with more than 200 employees in several countries across Europe to explore the proposition that industrial relations in Europe is becoming more convergent around a non-union HRM model. The evidence indicates that, although there are some similar moves taking place, national patterns remain distinctive, the IR/HRM distinction may not be sustainable in Europe and there are significant elements of continuity in industrial relations in Europe alongside the changes that are taking place.     

Reinforcing organizational defensive routines: An unintended human resources activity

Although human resources professionals are against the proliferation of defensive routines, they often design programs that reinforce them. This paper examines one organization in depth in order to illustrate how its human resources professionals acted in ways that unintentionally reinforced the very defensive routines that they were trying to reduce. Organizational defensive routines organized into self-reinforcing loops can result in lack of effective line leadership and increasing difficulty for management development, organizational development, education, organizational diagnosis, and compensation to achieve their objectives.     

A Long-run Analysis of Cooperative Housing Societies and Housing Construction in Victoria, Australia

Housing construction is an important component of economic development. The use of cooperative housing societies is one means of channelling scarce financial resources to housing construction. The aim of this paper is to explore the causes of the rapid growth and subsequent decline of the cooperative housing societies as a source of housing finance in the State of Victoria in Australia during the years 1947 to 1992. Significant evidence is established of a strong relationship between the availability of funding for the societies and the growth of their assets. Mixed results are presented for the impact on the general level of housing construction.     

The times they are not changin’: Days and hours of work in Old and New Worlds, 1870–2000

This paper brings a historical perspective to debates on worktime differences across OECD countries, exploiting new data sets on hours of work per week, and days and hours of work per year between 1870 and 2000. We contest the popular view that the divergence in worktimes between Europe and North America and Australia is a recent phenomenon. Since 1870 the decline in weekly and annual hours was consistently greater in the Old World; the New World has had fewer days off for the last 130 years. Labor power and inequality, held to be important determinants of worktime after 1970, had comparable effects in the period before 1913. We find that given their levels of income in 1870 New World workers supplied relatively too many hours of work.     

Power, Development, and Institutional Change: Participatory Governance in the Lower Mekong Basin

One of the central challenges for the multitude of actors concerned with the governance of transboundary river basins is how to produce meaningful mechanisms for promoting the participation of a broad cross-section of actors in resource planning and management decisions. This paper elucidates recent efforts to enhance policies of public participation within the context of governance in the Lower Mekong basin. The paper concludes that while the obstacles to institutionalizing public participation are substantial, some modicum of genuine participation, that may in time contribute to a broader project of transformation, can emerge within intergovernmental development institutions, albeit through surprising means.