The Employment At-Will Doctrine: Second Level Ethical Issues and Analysis

There is an ongoing debate over the ethical status of policies that give an employer the right to discharge an employee without a good reason or notice (i.e., employment at-will policies). This article moves beyond the question of whether the adoption of such a policy is unethical per se under all circumstances, focusing instead on the following question: Assuming that an at-will policy is not unethical per se in all circumstances, what are the ethical issues associated with an employer's implementation and maintenance of an employment at-will policy, and how can these issues be addressed? Three primary ethical concerns are identified and discussed, and specific propositions regarding employers' obligations are presented. The article concludes by offering practical guidance intended to assist at-will employers in meeting the identified ethical obligations.     

Analyzing the Link Between Real GDP and Employment: An Industry Sector Approach

This paper offers insight into the “jobless recovery” phenomenon recently experienced in the U.S. economy by examining industry-sector employment responsiveness to the long-term real GDP expansion occurring during 1991- 2001. Two employment models are specified—one using real GDP as the only explanatory variable and the other using real GDP, five additional macroeconomic performance variables, and a time trend as explanatory variables. Monthly data for April 1991–March 2001, and OLSQ regressions are used to derive industry-sector elasticities of employment with respect to real GDP. Empirical results highlight the importance of controlling for non-real GDP macro variables when determining relationships between employment and real GDP. The results identify five industries exhibiting “jobless recovery” characteristics (having negative employment elasticities) and a broad range of employment elasticities across industry categories. The findings may be helpful to business economists modeling their own industry employment and suggest that even during extended periods of real GDP expansion, there may be a case for using industry-specific labor market transition initiatives to assist employment growth. JEL Classification C82,R31     

Ethics and Values in Nonunion Employment Arbitration:A Historical Study of Organizational Due Processin the Private Sector

This paper provides a historical overview of the interrelationship between the use of nonunion employment arbitration and the ethics of employee organizational due process. Key research questions to be explored include the following, among others: Why are expectations about due process in organizations increasing? How are these expectations being exhibited? What is the nature of fair treatment of employees in relation to nonunion employment arbitration? Should arbitration in the nonunion employment relationship be nurtured? A final objective of this paper is to study some of the current initiatives that neutral agencies have adopted to ensure that nonunion arbitration is fair, just, and equitable for a firm's employees.     

How Large are the Direct Employment Effects of New Businesses? An Empirical Investigation for West Germany

We analyze the development of employment in start-up cohorts, which is the direct gross employment effect of the new businesses. The data is for West Germany and covers the 1984–2002 period. While total employment in the cohorts remains above the initial level in manufacturing, we find a pronounced decline of employment below this level in the service sector. Only a small fraction of the firms create a considerable amount of jobs. The contribution that the start-up cohorts of the 1984–2002 period made to total employment in 2002 is nearly three times as high in services as in manufacturing.      

Ethical Leadership in Modern Employment Relationships: Lessons from St. Benedict

Business ethics and leadership play an increasingly important role for contemporary organizations as employers and employees search for new ways to cope with ongoing changes in organizational environments. Research attention to date has focused upon how to improve process and structural configurations, while there has been scant attention devoted to an examination of the ethical and leadership perspective. This article breaks new ground by exploring the applicability of the Rule of St. Benedict (RSB) to modern employment relationships. A significant proportion of the RSB is directly relevant for today’s leaders, as it contains crucial lessons dealing with leadership issues such as ethics, cultivating a consultative climate, encouraging the virtues of humility, obedience (“servant” leadership), justice, discretion, prudence, discernment, and personnel-related issues such as discipline and termination.     

全球化进程中世界就业若干特征分析

随着经济全球化的深度推进,世界就业呈现出一系列规律性特征。主要表现在就业方式、就业结构以及劳资关系的变革上。正确认识全球化进程中劳动就业的规律性特征,对于制定正确的对外开放以及就业战略具有重要的意义。     

Nine to Five: Skepticism of Women’s Employment and Ethical Reasoning

Previous work suggests that gender attitudes are associated with different individual and organizational factors. At the same time, ethics research suggests that many of these same variables can influence ethical reasoning in companies. In this study, we sought to combine these streams of research to investigate whether individual skepticism of women’s employment is related to ethical reasoning in a gender-based ethical situation. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis indicated that skepticism of women’s employment was negatively related to the recognition that the gender-based dilemma involved an ethical problem, and that skepticism was also negatively related to judgments that the situation was unethical. These findings imply that companies should advance policies that increase tolerance for women’s employment, such as diversity training codes of conduct, and ethics training.     

雇佣关系的演变和管理

内部控制雇佣关系是传统工商企业的一个显著特征。技术进步、企业战略调整和工作重组推动了传统雇佣关系向创新型雇佣关系的转变。新型雇佣关系追求员工自觉地、合作地运用和开发知识,不断提高产品质量和改进生产效率,因此员工被赋予更多的自主权和决策权。企业需要建立新的激励结构抑制员工由自主权和决策权增加引发的机会主义行为,更为重要的是,企业需要重新构建雇佣关系的管理思想。     

Socratic Questions and Aristotelian Answers: A Virtue-Based Approach to Business Ethics

To teach that being ethical requires knowing foundational ethical principles – or, as Socrates claimed, airtight definitions of ethical terms – is to invite cynicism among students, for students discover that no such principles can be found. Aristotle differs from Socrates in claiming that ethics is about virtues primarily, and that one can be virtuous without having the sort of knowledge that characterizes mathematics or natural science. Aristotle is able to demonstrate that ethics and self-interest may overlap, that ethics is largely compatible with common sense, and that Aristotle’s virtuous person can make ethical decisions rationally. Case studies can help students improve their ethical perception and keep their values from being overwhelmed by corporate culture. Edwin M. Hartman is the Peter Schoernfeld Visiting Faculty Fellow at the Stern School of New York University. He has degrees from Haverford, Oxford, and Wharton, and a PhD from Princeton. Hartman’s most recent book is Organizational Ethics and the Good Life (Oxford).     

区域产业结构调整与人口就业率关系的计量分析——以山东省为例

人口就业与产业发展之间存在一定的关系,劳动力就业结构随着产业结构的不断调整而调整,产业结构调整与人口就业协调发展不仅是经济发展规律的必然要求,也是社会进步的体现。借助结构偏离度和第三产业就业弹性两个定量指标对山东产业发展与人口就业的联系效应进行实证分析。研究表明,山东产业发展与人口就业之间的协调程度较差。为此,提出山东产业发展与人口就业协调发展的产业对策。     

外国直接投资与我国二元就业结构转型

外国直接投资(FDI)对我国经济发展的积极作用之一是促进我国二元就业结构的转型。作用的发挥依赖于FDI与进出口贸易一体化的格局。本文以长江三角洲地区为案例实证检验了FDI促进我国二元就业结构转型的力度。农业劳动力跨区域转移是我国二元就业结构转型的特有轨迹,本文揭示了FDI区域集中与这一特有轨迹的关系。     

Are Men Always Picked Over Women? The Effects of Employment Equity Directives on Selection Decisions

This study replicates and extends previous work by Oppenheimer and Wiesner [1990, Sex discrimination: Who is hired and do employment equity statements make a difference? Proceedings of the 11th Annual Conference of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada, Personnel and Human Resources Division], and examined the effects of minority qualifications on hiring decisions, the effects of employment equity directives when minority candidates are less qualified and the effects of different types and strengths of employment equity directives on hiring decisions. The results indicate that when employment equity is in place, people are increasingly more likely to hire underrepresented group members, to the extent that they are more qualified. Men appear to be treated in a positively biased manner, and are more likely to be hired when they are less qualified. Women are less likely to be hired when they are under-qualified, and in the absence of employment equity directives or when there is a suggestion that women are underrepresented. Moreover, when␣employment equity directives are strengthened, there appears to be a subtle backlash for women but not for men. Eddy S. Ng is an assistant professor at Trent University. He was on faculty at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in 2006–2007. Willi H. Wiesner is an associate professor at the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University.     

对我国就业增长与经济增长关系的思索

目前,我国的就业增长与经济增长并没有呈现一致性。这并不完全是经济增长的带动作用减弱,而是影响就业增长其他因素的负效应抵消了经济增长对就业增长的部分贡献,也有经济体制改革、技术进步、宏观政策等因素。应采取增加劳务输出和扩大劳动密集型产品在对外贸易中的比重、大力发展第三产业、调整宏观经济政策的单纯GDP取向、完善劳动力市场等措施,实现经济与就业一致性增长。     

Reexaminating Perceived Ethics Issues and Ethics Roles among Employment Managers

This paper reexamines the perceived ethical issues and roles of employment managers based on their responses to a recent "Ethical Issues in Human Resource Management Survey." This research addresses five major questions including: 1) Whether employment managers' perceptions of the factors influencing unethical behavior vary according to gender, job position, and company size, 2) What are the perceived frequency and seriousness of misconduct among HR functional areas, 3) Whether groups of employment managers (i.e., males and females) vary significantly in their perceptions of the seriousness of unethical events, 4) Whether gender and organizational level influence how often particular ethics roles are played, and 5) What particular roles are being played by employment managers as they respond to ethical dilemmas. The findings show that regardless of gender, position, or company size, employment managers' ethical behavior is influenced most by the behavior of senior managers and their immediate supervisors. In addition, the respondents believe that ethical misconduct occurs more often and is most serious in specialties such as employment, health, safety, and security, and compensation. Gender, industrial category, and company size have a significant impact on how serious unethical practices were perceived to be. Finally, seven of the eight ethics roles were matched with the ethical dilemmas submitted by the survey respondents.     

第三产业推动合肥市经济和就业协调发展的研究

近几年合肥市第三产业发展迅速,对经济增长的推动力逐渐增强,并成为吸纳劳动力、增加就业的主导产业。在对合肥市产业结构及就业结构现状分析的基础上,着重对第三产业促进就业的具体情况进行了剖析,并针对目前存在的一些问题提出了相关的对策建议,以促使“十一五”时期合肥市经济和人口就业的协调发展。     

资本、技术、工资投入要素对就业效应的实证分析

近年来,我国经济在飞速增长的同时面临着失业量上升的巨大压力,尤其在国际金融危机的影响下,我国的就业形势日益严峻。影响就业量的因素很多,既有宏观因素和微观因素,也有可量化的因素和不可量化的因素。资本、技术、工资、劳动力均是决定产出的投入要素,充分就业是宏观经济目标之一,研究相关投入要素对于就业量的影响具有现实意义。本文运用1995~2010年的数据,分析资本、技术、工资三个投入要素对就业量的影响,并建立长短期模型,寻求影响我国就业效应的深层次原因。     

外商直接投资、收入差距与就业转移--基于联立方程模型的分析

基于CES生产函数,推导出就业的决定方程,构建FDI、收入差距与就业转移的联立方程模型,测算了FDI流入对就业转移的直接效应及其通过收入分配因素对就业转移的间接效应,建立FDI流动→收入差距→就业转移的分析框架。结合1995～2012年统计数据,测算FDI差异对我国三大区域内和区域间就业转移的直接效应及其间接效应。结果表明：FDI因素对三大地区内部就业转移的总效应分别为0.0728、-0.006和0.24;对区域间就业转移的总效应为0.3276。 FDI促进了就业在东部地区内和三大区域间的流动,收入差距是FDI差异导致就业转移的重要传导渠道。     

外包与生产率和就业:基于中国的实证

文章使用1997、2002和2007年的42部门投入产出表数据,计算了我国22个工业行业的外包比率,并以面板数据模型检验了外包对工业行业劳动力就业及外包对工业行业产出的影响。检验结果表明,材料品外包、服务外包的发展均有效地提升了我国工业行业生产率水平,但服务外包对工业行业生产率的促进效应要远远大于材料品外包,而外包对工业行业就业影响的分析结果是,服务外包对工业行业就业的影响为正效应并且影响显著,材料品外包对于工业行业就业的效应则效果不明显。     

贸易结构调整与劳动力就业:中国工业部门的研究

本文利用2000-2010年中国工业部门的数据,并将其划分为资本密集型、技术密集型和劳动密集型等3类,使用投入产出分析方法检验了贸易结构变化对中国国内就业的影响。研究结果表明,劳动密集型产业的进出口结构变化为贸易就业影响的主要部分,资本和技术密集型产业贸易结构的变化对就业的影响逐年增强,贸易结构的变化整体而言对就业产生了负面影响。同时需注意的是,单位劳动投入系数的减少是国内就业变化的重要原因。     

The Genesis of Employment Ethics

Given the growing interest in religion and spirituality in the community and workplace, we consider what light one of the oldest sources of human ethics, the Torah, can throw on the vexing issues of contemporary employment ethics and social sustainability. We specifically consider the Torah because it is the primary document of Judaism, the source of all the basic Biblical commandments, and a framework of ethics. A distinctive feature of Jewish ethics is its interpretive approach to moral philosophy: that is, immersion and sense making in a dense, lived-in, complicated moral world, which is particularly useful with regard to ethical analyses of the workplace. Rather than discover or create a new ethic for the employer–employee relationship, we seek to harness general principles and norms from the Torah to contemporary business conditions. In the spirit of sustainability, rather than plunder the new, we recreate from existing resources. Interpretations from the Torah provide a rich source of moral and practical guidance for contemporary business ethics while also responding to academic and popular interest in spirituality and business. These tenets, however, have not to date been specifically directed at current predicaments in employment. We redress this by deriving principles from the Torah and applying them to ethical issues in contemporary employment practices. Practical guidance for both research in and practice of employment ethics is also provided.