Prospects for union growth in the UK voluntary sector: the impact of the Employment Relations Act 1999

The article argues that despite the imminent introduction of the Employment Relations Act 1999, unions face a difficult environment in which to achieve recognition deals in the voluntary sector. However, it also highlights how some large charities are re‐evaluating their position on employee representation in response to government legislation and that unions can use these developments to encourage further growth.     

Union recognition and non-unionism: shifting fortunes in the electronics industry in Scotland

Here the author analyses trade union prospects in Scottish electronics firms, and suggests that despite having a positive reputation amongst managers in existing unionised firms, the dynamics of new firm startup and employment change in the industry have augured badly for trade unionism, as have the rise of individualist approaches amongst managers.     

Governance of complex procurements in the oil and gas industry

This study focuses on the use of contracts and governance mechanisms for handling complex procurements involving several actors. We develop a contractual framework arguing that different combinations of incentives, authority and trust should be used to govern such procurements. The framework is applied to two complex procurement cases in the Norwegian oil and gas industry. The empirical findings show that incentives, authority and trust complement each other, and furthermore, that there is a complex interplay between the specific uses of the different mechanisms. We denote this interplay a multiplier effect. Multiplier effects have not previously been addressed in the literature, and this study contributes to our knowledge about inter-firm governance by showing that governance mechanisms affect each other. Proper use of one mechanism improves the use of other mechanisms, while inadequate use of one mechanism hampers the use of other mechanisms.     

Valuation effects of rollout publicly traded partnerships in the oil and gas industry

In trying to explain the often painful process of corporate restructuring, fingers are frequently pointed at inefficient management. This gives short shrift, however, to an important result of breaking up large, integrated corporations and selling them in smaller pieces: it makes the capital market more nearly complete, and there are strong theoretical arguments that this enhances value. We report the results of a natural experiment that occurred in the oil and gas industry, in which eleven integrated corporations formed publicly traded partnerships to hold their domestic production properties, yet (with few exceptions) retained most of the partnership units under corporate ownership. This behavior avoids any significant change in corporate governance, and is inconsistent with the tax motive popularly attributed as the reason for forming these partnerships; yet we find that significant positive abnormal returns accrued to stockholders when the formations were announced. The results we observe, therefore, support the theory that additional value can be realized by expanding the set of opportunities available to the investment community.     

Regional resource depletion and industry activity: The case of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico

Stable and declining oil and gas prices have changed the industry's price expectations and, along with depletion of promising exploration prospects, has resulted in reduced exploration. Even with intensive additional exploration, production in most U.S. areas is expected to decline. What does this imply for the drilling and petroleum industry suppliers in particular regions? How should planners in government and the private sector project and incorporate the consequences of these changes in their strategies? This paper answers these questions for the industry operating in the offshore Gulf of Mexico. Future oil and gas production, as well as demand for offshore drilling and production facilities, are shown to depend on the size distribution of undiscovered fields, their associated production costs, and oil and gas prices. Declining well productivity is a consequence of development of progressively smaller fields so that long-run drilling demand should not decline in proportion to the expected production decline. Calculations show a substantial payoff to the drilling industry, in terms of potential demand increases, if it can develop and implement cost reducing technologies. Implications of these results for other offshore producing areas such as the North Sea are also discussed.     

Different strokes: regulatory styles and environmental strategy in the North‐American oil and gas industry

The environmental management and policy literature presents competing arguments for and against different styles of environmental regulations – command‐and‐control versus flexible regulations that enable voluntary actions. On the one hand, it is argued that firms will not adopt minimum environmental standards without command‐and‐control regulations and that such regulations may actually result in competitive benefits for first movers. On the other hand, the literature argues that command‐and‐control regulations stifle innovation and that flexible regulations encourage proactive environmental strategies that lead to competitive benefits for organizations. This study compared the environmental strategies and competitiveness of oil and gas firms in two different regulatory contexts – the command‐and‐control based US environmental regulations and the flexible collaborative Canadian context. The study found no significant differences in the degree to which firms within the two contexts were more or less proactive in their environmental strategies or in the extent of competitiveness associated with corporate environmental strategies. Follow‐up interviews with 12 Canadian and US companies indicated that regulations appeared to be more important drivers of corporate environmental practices at initial stages and eventually other external and internal drivers became more important influences on corporate environmental strategies. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Effects of personal characteristics on organizational commitment: evidence from Brazil's oil and gas industry

In 1997, Brazil's major energy company faced a loss of its monopoly as part of the country's structural reform. Many of its employees were recruited by new entrants to the oil and gas industry. In order to retain employees, the company initiated a multiyear planning process which included a redesigned human resource management model oriented to organizational commitment. This study examines the long-term influence of five employee personal characteristics (type of employment, job level, gender, education level and service time) on the affective, normative and continuance components of organizational commitment. The research was conducted in one of the company refinery and involved a questionnaire survey of all employees and interviews with senior managers. It was found that type of employment (company staff or contractor) had the greatest impact on affective and normative commitment, while service time and education level are the most significant contributors to continuance commitment. Gender and job level were found to have limited implication for commitment. The results demonstrate that the company response to structural reform had the long-term positive effect of binding employees to the organization.     

Equality and diversity in British workplaces: the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey

Drawing on key findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004), this article examines developments in the incidence, scope and substance of equal opportunities policy provision and practice in Britain. The discussion then considers the extent to which workplaces might be adopting diversity management practices, the potential for further research on equality and diversity using WERS 2004, and the issues that might be considered in future workplace employment relations surveys.     

正确协调就业政策的五大关系

当前,就业政策受到各级政府和社会各界的高度关注.就业政策效果的有效发挥,有赖于正确处理就业政策的五大关系.包括:兼顾效率与公平,协调政府、企业和劳动者及其细分群体的利益关系,平衡和选择各种政策目标,协调宏观政策体系及就业政策手段以形成政策合力,根据国情制定与经济社会环境相适应的就业政策.     

The Changing Relations of Production: Union Derecognition in the UK Magazine Industry

This article examines the motives and strategies of employers in implementing derecognition, the union response to this, and effect on wages and conditions, union-management relations and union membership and organisation. In particular the author analyses the circumstances in which a large number of employers have chosen such a ‘radical’ method to re-order the employment relationship.     

Putting a Big Chill on a “Big Hurt:” Genuine Interest in Employment of Salts in Assessing Protection Under the National Labor Relations Act

As union membership has continued to decline steadily in the US, union organizers have become more creative and vigilant with their organizing strategies. Chief among these strategies has been “salting,” a process by which unions attempt to organize employees from the inside rather than the outside. The Supreme Court has ruled that, under the National Labor Relations Act, “salts” cannot be discriminated against solely on the basis of their status as salts. This paper examines employer responses to resist salting efforts, including a recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board, which redefines the landscape under which salting activities can be conducted and considered protected activity.     

The Saliency of Synecdoche: The Part and the Whole of Employment Relations

ABSTRACT Literary and rhetorical tropes invoke a transference of meaning from the common usage of a word or phrase. Organizational analysis research and writing in this area has concentrated upon the trope of metaphor. In this article it is argued that we should extend our attention to other tropes. To that end, the article identifies and illustrates the saliency of the trope of synecdoche through a discussion of employment relations. Following a brief identification of metaphor within writings on employment relations, the article goes onto discuss synecdoche as one of the ‘four master tropes’. We then argue that the trope is important in relation to how we write about and understand employment relations. Use of the trope is then illustrated through analysis of interview comments on local pay in the National Health Service. Finally, the saliency or prominence of synecdoche is argued through two related arguments, the nature of the rhetorical setting and the rhetorical nature of the employment relations setting.     

Law commentary: Three faces of democracy and three missing persons: the Trade Union Act 1984

The Conservative government described the 1984 Trade Union Act as a piece of legislation to ‘give the unions back to their members'. This article examines the concept of democracy present in the Act and analyses its implications for trade unions and industrial relations.