National Industrialisation Strategies and Their Influence On Patterns of Hr Practices

This article uses a framework developed by Kuruvilla (1995a) that hypothesised a very close link between industrialisation strategies of Southeast Asian nations and industrial relations systems. That framework is used here to argue that the industrialisation strategy adopted by nations also influences the development of firm level IR/HR practices. Using case studies of firms in the ‘import substitution industrialisation’(ISI) and ‘export oriented industrialisation’(EOI) sectors in Malaysia and the Philippines, the author finds that in both countries, the ISI sector is characterised by firm level IR/HR practices that are passive, pluralistic and paternalistic in nature, while the EOI sectors in both economies are characterised by IR/HR practices that can be termed aggressive, flexible, and dynamic in nature. In addition, given that Malaysia and the Philippines are currently at different stages of export oriented industrialisation, the cases demonstrate that workplace practices in the EOI sector in Malaysia are more dynamic and advanced than those of the Philippines. Thus, the article shows that the industrialisation strategies of nations create distinct patterns of industrial relations and human resource practices within the economy, controlling for other factors such as business strategies and the technological processes of firms that also cause such variation in IR/HR patterns.     

Business divestment in South Africa: In who's best interest?

In recent years, there has been considerable pressure on corporations doing business in South Africa to divest and withdraw from that country. While this moral view espouses withdrawal, this article seeks to provide insight into the practical consequences of divestment. One of the questions addressed is how does foreign divestment affect Black South Africans, those who are supposed to benefit from a divestment policy. Paul Lansing is Associate Professor of Business Law. Previous articles have appeared in the New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, Harvard International Law Journal, The International Lawyer, The Journal of Corporation Law and others Sarosh Kuruvilla is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Iowa.     

Constructing Transnational Solidarity: The Role of Campaign Governance

Our inductive study of two transnational labour solidarity efforts focuses on the role of campaign governance. Specifically, we study contrasting campaign strategies, tactics and coalition structures in campaigns by two global union federations, UNI Global Union and the IUF, contextualized in terms of how these campaigns unfolded in India. Our contribution consists of two arguments. The first is that a degree of internal consistency amongst different campaign elements is important for success, and the second is that a mode of articulation that allows for local concerns in affiliate countries to find voice in global campaigns is more likely to result in concrete gains at the local level.     

Union–Member Relations and Satisfaction with Unions in South Korea

This paper uses a large sample of South Korean union members working in different industries and occupations to test a model of union satisfaction. The results suggest that union–member relations — member representation and union leader effectiveness — are more important than the economic results that unions provide to members. These findings are in line with our general argument that, where unions rely on decentralized collective bargaining as the prime method of employment regulation, they depend heavily on internal union relations for their effectiveness. We contend that, if unions are to limit the decline in their influence, assessing and changing internal union relations should be a priority.     

Influence of demographics,psychographics, shopping orientation,mall shopping attitude and purchase patterns on mall patronage in India

Retail boom in India is generating considerable interest from within the country as well as abroad. This growth in retail has been fueled by the mushrooming of shopping malls across the country. Despite this very little is known about the characteristics of the Indian mall shoppers. Also of special interest is the behavior of heavy shoppers because regardless of the footfalls at the mall, if the money spent is low, the mall does not benefit. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to profile Indian mall consumers, identify characteristics differentiating the high rupee volume purchasers at the mall and to evolve a model that can help predict heavy rupee volume purchasers in a catchment.The results of this study, spanning eight cities of India and 3026 mall consumers, indicate that the heavy shoppers are significantly different from the other groups along multiple demographic and socio-economic variables, behavioral variables, attitude and shopping orientation. Additionally, the study contributes to literature by evolving a typology of shoppers. The model evolved using Discriminant Analysis was used to predict potential heavy and low rupee volume purchasers for a city of interest, where currently there are no malls.     

Economic development and industrial relations: the case of South and Southeast Asia

This article outlines the close relationship between economic development and industrial relations in South and Southeast Asia. After an examination of key industrial relations features, the authors discuss emergent global trends and current Asian realities, and highlight lessons from the Asian experience, and the implications for the future.     

From Core to Periphery? Recent Developments in Employment Relations in the Philippines

We seek to describe recent developments in employment relations in the Philippines, placing these developments in the contexts of the distinctive elements of the Philippine social/political/industrial relations systems as well as the ongoing trade-based and functional integration of international markets and the recent regional economic crisis. We find that while some firms are pursuing functional flexibility and more cooperative employment relations, the logic of competition primarily has induced firms to adopt practices that promote numerical flexibility such that a core-periphery workforce is created. We argue that the labor movement in the Philippines has been hampered in its efforts to effectively counter employer strategies by its low density and fragmentation and an unfavorable public-policy environment; Philippine labor unions have, however, made some recent gains in organizing and interunion coordination. We also argue that the government has not done enough to counteract the negative effects of market integration on workers nor to evolve th e Philippines into a higher-value-added exporter.     

Change and Transformation in Asian Industrial Relations

We argue that industrial relations (IR) systems change due to shifts in the constraints facing those systems and that the most salient constraints facing IR systems in Asia have shifted from those of maintaining labor peace and stability in the early stages of industrialization to those of increasing both numerical and functional flexibility in the 1980s and 1990s. The evidence to sustain this argument is drawn from seven "representative" Asian IR systems: Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, and China. We also distinguish between systems that have smoothly adapted (Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines) and systems that have fundamentally transformed (China and South Korea) and hypothesize about the reasons for this difference.     

Corporate codes of conduct and labour turnover in global apparel supply chains

Research on private regulation of labour issues in global supply chains has focused extensively on whether supplier factories comply with the codes of conduct of global companies. Less is known about how such compliance relates to the preferences and behaviours of workers at export factories. This study analyses a unique dataset of factory audits matched with a survey of worker turnover rates from 622 factories in 28 countries supplying a large global apparel retailer. The results show that violations of the retailer's codes of conduct for suppliers are generally related to turnover, but that workers ‘vote with their feet’ primarily for violations of wages and benefits, relative to violations of other code provisions such as environment protection and safety standards. This ‘means-ends’ decoupling between factory practices and worker preferences implies that global firms need to incorporate the livelihood logic that underlies workers' turnover decisions while implementing their private regulation programmes.