The consequences of dual and unilateral commitment to the organisation and union

This article examines the pattern and consequences of commitment to organisation and union amongst union members in a UK National Health Service Trust. Those who perceived the industrial relations climate as positive were more likely to be dually committed to both organisation and union. As anticipated, union commitment predicted union citizenship behaviours and intent to quit the union. However, organisational commitment predicted intent to quit the organisation but not organisational citizenship behaviour, which was predicted by union commitment. Findings suggest that those with a unilateral commitment to the union are more likely than the dually committed to engage in citizenship behaviours aimed at helping fellow members and colleagues, perhaps because they feel unconstrained by any strong loyalty to the organisation.     

Involving purchasing in new product development

Purchasing is evolving into a strategic business activity and thus also a potential contributor to the successful development of new products. However, the literature on the involvement of purchasing in new product development (NPD) is sorely lacking. We conducted an exploratory study to investigate purchasing's involvement in NPD, the drivers of this involvement and the influence on new product success. We conducted telephone interviews with purchasing and NPD managers from 43 firms. The results show that firms differ in the extent to which they involve purchasing in NPD and that higher involvement has a positive effect on NPD performance. R&D managers can use the results to design a more effective purchasing–R&D interface and increase the success of NPD.     

Whither Hong Kong's Unions: Autonomous Trade Unionism or Classic Dualism?

This paper presents an evaluation of the ideologies and behaviour of the main union groupings in Hong Kong. The CTU's 'adversarial' line and 'inclusive' approach has threatened to break with the traditional industrial pacifism of Hong Kong's unions, while the FTU's recognition of its 'dual functioning' role has been balanced by the need to maintain credibility as an effective representative of workers' interests. The TUC has been passive in recent years, and the independent unions tend to be rather inward-looking. Unions remain weak, particularly at the workplace, and it is uncertain to what extent union autonomy can be sustained.     

Shifting sands? trade unions and productivity at Rover Cars

This article examines the impact of trade unions on productivity at Rover Cars. Intra-organisational variables which influence productivity levels at Rover are also considered. It concludes that the positive approach by both management and unions to collective bargaining in the late 1980s yielded significant gains in performance. This endorses the view of the Harvard School of economists who argue that unionism can be a force for greater economic efficiency.     

Financial Distress and Underemployment

A reasonable model of the labour market over the business cycle should predict, among other things, that (a) in very low states of product demand there may be too little employment from an efficiency perspective, but as the state improves employment will increase until ultimately it is efficiently deployed, and (b) in low states of demand, a worker's welfare level will be "low" and as the state of the world improves so will the worker's welfare, except, possibly, at high levels of demand where the worker's utility may start to fall. Surprisingly, there does not exist a labour contract based model that is consistent with predictions (a) and (b). In fact, the standard results in the literature are if leisure is a normal good then there will be too much employment in essentially all states of the world and the welfare of the worker declines as the state of the world improves. In this paper a labour contracting model is constructed that is consistent with the above mentioned predictions. Two necessary ingredients in the model are the possibility of financial distress in low demand states and "partial provability" in contracting. Financial distress can be viewed as frustrating renegotiation and, thus, inefficient outcomes are possible in equilibrium. Partial provability_the ability of an informed player to make verifiable claims or statements to an uninformed player_eliminates certain kinds of inefficient outcomes. In particular, it eliminates the possibility that, in equilibrium, there is too much employment. This last result is interesting in itself because it is commonly believed that normality of leisure necessarily implies that labour contracting models will generate employment levels that are too high from an efficiency perspective.     

Does Ageing Call for a Reform of the Health Care Sector?

A popular view is that ageing populations increase health expenditureto GDP ratios because health expenditure correlates positivelywith age and because the concomitant shrinking of the labourforce depresses GDP. The resulting increase in transfers fromthe young to the old then calls for a reform of health carepolicies. This article critically examines the arguments underlyingthis view. It gives credit to factors that counteract the expenditureeffect, the effects upon health care market and labour marketdistortions and the effects upon intergenerational solidarity.Although important, these factors are found to have insufficientweight to invalidate the popular view. (JEL: H21, I10, J10)     

The influence of domain knowledge and task complexity on tax professionals'' compliance recommendations

This study examined how procedural knowledge and outcome expectations interact with task complexity when tax professionals develop recommendations for clients. Practicing tax professionals participated in two experiments. Results suggest that outcome expectations about whether a position can be defended are positively associated with aggressive recommendations. As complexity increases, professionals with more procedural knowledge (a) favor less aggressive recommendations and (b) rely more heavily on their outcome expectations. These findings illustrate the importance of accounting for knowledge as a two-dimensional construct.     

Juridisch Germanisme

Hilversum, 1 Maart 1902Door omstandigheden is de opname van dit artikel onwillekeurig vertraagd.Red.