HRM Role in EEO: Sheep in Shepherd’s Clothing?

Despite a plethora of laws prohibiting discrimination in employment, supporting and enforcing equal employment opportunity (EEO) principles has proven to be an enormous challenge for those charged with this responsibility. The question often asked is who should exercise this role in organizations. Not surprisingly, there has been a call for HRM to become the guardian of EEO in organizations but should human resource managers be male or female, and/or would line managers be better positioned to assume this responsibility? This paper overviews the literature and then summarizes an empirical study that attempted to address the possible impact of these options as they exist in organizations. One hundred and eighty respondents who met the criterion of having interviewed one or more job applicants in the previous 6 months were systematically selected from business telephone listings. Based on self-reported behaviors, no significant difference was found between the expected and actual distributions of HR and line managers in respect to whether decisions were made on unlawful grounds. The percentage of each respondent category that asked unlawful questions varied from 1% to 36% depending upon the attribute (unlawful ground of discrimination) under consideration. This begs the question as to what value HR managers contribute to EEO in the selection process. The second finding was that significantly less female managers admit to making decisions on the basis of unlawful questions than male managers. Thus, support was found for female line managers as guardians of EEO but no clear justification for HRM in this role.     

The canada-U.S. free trade agreement

This article examines the forces that caused Canada and the United States to negotiate the free trade agreement, its principal provisions, the projected welfare gains, and estimated labor adjustments. Focusing on the latter, the impact on manufacturing employment is expected to be positive but small in the United States and negative but small in Canada; with the agriculture and resource sectors losing employment shares in both countries. The impact on services will be negligible in the United States and positive in Canada. Focusing on specific industries, nonferrous metals sector appears vulnerable in the United States, while textiles, clothing, furniture and fixtures, electrical and nonelectrical equipment and machinery, nonmetallic mineral products, and fabricated metal products appear vulnerable in Canada. However, actual job losses could be significantly circumscribed by moderate growth and employee turnover, and within vulnerable Canadian industries, there are pockets of significant strength such as in office furniture and telecommunications equipment.     

The state of North American free trade

In 1989, a Free Trade Agreement was signed between the United States and Canada. This past June, at a meeting between the presidents of the United States and Mexico, agreement was reached to begin negotiations toward a similar agreement between their countries. Could this be the impetus for a trilateral agreement among the three countries and, perhaps, even creation of a North American Common Market?     

Legislative protection from discrimination in access to employer‐provided training

This article provides an analysis of laws across all 193 United Nations countries that protect workers from discrimination in access to employer‐provided training. We assessed the overall level of protection and the characteristics most commonly protected, as well as the extent of variation across geographic regions and country income. Overall, 60% of countries were found to offer specific protections from discrimination in access to training for at least one of the seven protected characteristics, which was significantly less than the percentage of countries offering protections from discriminatory hiring or terminations. Gender was the most commonly protected characteristic, whereas sexual orientation was least commonly protected. These findings suggest that employer‐provided training is less well‐protected from discrimination when compared with other aspects of employment and that there is variation in protection across socio‐demographic characteristics and geographic regions. Additional legislation may be needed to ensure equitable access to training for all workers.     

Human capital,migration strategy,and brain drain

Abstract

This research was motivated by the increasing number of foreign students and scientists who are in the United States on temporary visas and who are able to change their status to permanent immigrant. Origin countries, among them industrialized western European nations, are concerned about losing many of their best-educated and most talented citizens. This article modifies and extends a theoretical model of optimal human capital investment before and after migration to shed new light on the emigration/immigration of the highly skilled, and explores some possible implications for the study of the so-called ‘brain drain’ phenomenon.     

Employment and Labor Laws

Abstract

This article reviews and compares the employment and labor laws of three countries-US, South Africa, and Ghana. The methodology employed is a qualitative review of each countries employment and labor laws that are centered on collective bargaining, employment discrimination and other workplace standards, unemployment compensation, pensions, workplace safety, and workers compensation. Even though, the three countries have laws covering various areas of employer/employee relationships, perusal of the various countries' laws reveals there are considerable differences between the three countries with respect to the importance of labor market institutions and the role they play in determining the terms of employment.     

Explaining National Differences in the Size and Industry Distribution Employment

What forces determine national differences in the size and industry distribution of employment? We stress the role of the economic policy environment as determined by business taxes, employment security laws, credit market regulations, the national pension system, wage-setting institutions and the size of the public sector. We characterize these aspects of the economic environment in Sweden prior to 1990–91 and compare them to the situation in other European countries and the United States. Our characterization and international comparisons show that Swedish policies and institutions strongly disfavored less capital-intensive firms, smaller firms, entry by new firms, and individual and family ownership of business.

We also compile evidence that these forces affect outcomes. Taking the U.S. industry distribution as a benchmark that reflects a comparatively neutral set of policies and institutions, Sweden's employment distribution in the mid-1980s is sharply tilted away from low-wage industries and industries with greater employment shares for smaller firms and establishments. Compared to other European countries, Sweden has an unusually high share of employment in large firms. Furthermore, the Swedish rate of self- employment in the 1970s and 1980s is the lowest among all OECD countries.

The institutional and policy factors emphasized by our study differ greatly across countries. This fact suggests that our approach can be fruitfully applied to other studies of national differences in industry and size structures and their evolution over time. As an example, the tax reform wave of the 1980s – which largely evened out cross-country differences in corporate taxation among OECD countries – offers some basis for projecting a movement towards greater similarity among wealthy countries in the size and industry distribution of employment.

     

The New Zealand Fair Trading Act of 1986: Deceptive Advertising

In 1986, New Zealand introduced the Fair Trading Act, legislation aimed at consumer protection. This act was modeled after similar Australian legislation, while taking into account the legislation and precedents of other countries including the United States, England, and Canada. Although wording of different nations' legislation is often similar, unique national conditions may give rise to different interpretations. The emergence of the Act may indicate a movement toward minimal international standards in consumer protection legislation among common law countries and to a lesser extent, a large number of Western nations. This paper examines the content and performance of the Act concerning deceptive advertising. Available evidence suggests that the frequency and severity of deceptive advertising has declined. Knowledge of the New Zealand experience provides insight into the evolution of consumer protection legislation and insight for American firms planning commerce there.     

Multinationals and the investment provisions of the nafta

The foreign direct investment (FDI) provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are examined in light of a worldwide trend toward liberalization of the policy environment for multinational firms. We first examine the rationale for entering into international investment negotiations from the perspective of the three signatories—Canada, Mexico, and the United States—and then analyze the accomplishments embodied in the resulting investment provisions. We also briefly address areas where these provisions could be strengthened and that may be on the agenda of future international trade and investment negotiations, whether in other fora or during negotiations involving accession of new member states to the NAFTA.     

Social franchising: A systematic review

Abstract

Social franchising is starting to garner more interest among researchers and practitioners as a replication approach used to help address a growing array of societal issues in both developed countries and emerging economies. While there has been a proliferation of experimentation with social franchising that is occurring on the global stage, the knowledge base remains fragmented. A comprehensive review of the empirical and practitioner literature has not been done. This article fills the void by reviewing the past decade of literature and will be of interest to governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), philanthropists, social impact investors, corporations devoted to social goals, and other key players who support the scaling up or replication of ventures that strive to address societal ills by creating pathways to health and prosperity.     

Adequacy versus equivalency: Financial data protection and the U.S.–EU divide

In 1995, the European Union passed Directive 95/46/EC, which set the legal framework for European Union citizens to own the rights to their personal data. However, American law bestows ownership to the holder of the data, not the individual, and officials feared the European Union initiative might disrupt data sharing among United States and European Union affiliates. Thus, they negotiated the 2000 Safe Harbor Agreement to allow companies to voluntarily submit to yearly certifications that fulfilled European Union demands, but kept U.S. businesses in control of their data; nevertheless, the Agreement does not include financial and banking services. Instead, the United States argued that the privacy protections within the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act adequately fulfilled European Union guidelines. The European Union disagreed and financial data sharing has operated under a moratorium for the past decade. However, the 2008 financial crisis has governments and clients clamouring for more data transparency to determine risk in the financial system. These global efforts, the European Union's recent push to strengthen the Directive, and the Dodd-Frank Act have pushed data sharing to the policy forefront. This article asserts that transatlantic data sharing will ultimately have to accommodate the privacy cultures in both the United States and the European Union, but firms must be prepared to cope with demands on their data by establishing government relations offices, standardizing information systems, enhancing education for compliance officers, and improving business school curricula.     

New patterns of consumer protection under warranty law: Lessons from the U.S. magnuson-moss warranty act

Warranty law appears to be a relevant instrument for granting protection to consumers against product disappointment. However, empirical studies concerning some warranty markets both in the United States and in West-European countries show that there continues to be no bargaining on warranties between sellers and buyers, that the most serious risks are all allocated to the user of the product, and that consumers are generally not granted an actual opportunity of challenging a breach of warranty and getting adequate compensation for losses sustained. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty-Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act which was enacted in the United States in 1975 constitutes a first comprehensive and consumer-oriented reform of traditional warranty law. It foresees new patterns of consumer protection under warranty statutes, combining warranty substance regulation with warranty information, administration, and litigation procedures. This paper first describes the Act's major provisions; it also points out some of its deficiencies. Although criticisms are formulated against the Act's ideology or basic assumptions, it is the author's opinion that it represents a decisive step towards legislative and administrative participation in the formulation of warranties. The Act undoubtedly suggests some, though not identical, avenues of reform that legislators and authorities of European countries and confederations should now propose in order to increase consumer protection against defective or unsatisfying products.     

Multilateral,Regional and Bilateral Trade‐Policy Options for the United States and Japan

We have used the Michigan Model of World Production and Trade to simulate the economic effects on the United States, Japan, and other major trading countries/regions of the Doha Round of WTO multilateral trade negotiations and a variety of regional/bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) involving the United States and Japan. We estimate that an assumed reduction of post‐Uruguay Round tariffs and other barriers on agricultural and industrial products and services by 33 per cent in the Doha Round would increase world welfare by $686.4 billion, with gains of $164.0 billion for the United States, $132.6 billion for Japan, and significant gains for all other industrialised and developing countries/regions. If there were global free trade with all post‐Uruguay Round trade barriers completely removed, world welfare would increase by $2.1 trillion, with gains of $497.0 billion (5.5 per cent of GNP) for the United States and $401.9 billion (6.2 per cent of GNP) for Japan. Regional agreements such as an APEC FTA, an ASEAN Plus 3 FTA, and a Western Hemisphere FTA would increase global and member country welfare but much less so than the Doha multilateral trade round would. Separate bilateral FTAs involving Japan with Singapore, Mexico, Chile and Korea, and the United States with Chile, Singapore and Korea would have positive, though generally small, welfare effects on the partner countries, but potentially disruptive sectoral employment shifts in some countries. There would be trade diversion and detrimental welfare effects on some non‐member countries for both the regional and bilateral FTAs analysed. The welfare gains from multilateral trade liberalisation are therefore considerably greater than the gains from preferential trading arrangements and more uniformly positive for all countries.     

Fanning the flames of learning

Hugh Coble has worked for Fluor Daniel since 1966. Fluor Daniel provides a broader range of engineering, construction, maintenance, and diversified services to more clients in more industries and geographic locations than any global competitor. With over 50 electronically networked offices supporting 2,000 projects in 82 countries, Fluor Daniel is a truly global company in every sense of the word. Coble has spent more than half his professional life outside the United States, moving a total of 22 times. Even when stationed in the United States, his responsibilities have often focused on the world at large. Throughout the past 30 years, he has seen a multitude of exciting changes in the global work place. This wealth of international experience is the basis for his Commencement Address at Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management, in August of 1997. The following is an adaptation of this address. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Identifying uniform employment-termination practices for multinational employers

After a review of the diverse laws governing termination of employment in 11 countries, the authors note patterns across the different legal systems. For example, all but two of the eleven countries required some form of just cause for dismissing an employee. Several mandated various forms and schedules of notice, and a few required some form of remuneration or severance payment—sometimes in lieu of notice. Additionally, some countries gave the workers the chance to appeal their dismissal, often with the assistance of third parties. Although the authors consider it unlikely that the severance-pay idea will become a blanket policy (since some countries don't require severance pay), they adduce a set of standards that could provide a uniform termination process across all 11 nations. The strategy underlying such a uniform policy is to make its provisions fit the laws of the most restrictive nation, by using a just-cause standard in all dismissals. While that adds some personnel cost, on balance, the authors argue that establishing cause for dismissal protects the employer from future claims and could save money in the long run. It also forces managers to make a specific effort to remediate employment issues and to try to help struggling employees.     

The Consumer Politics of Trade Restrictions: The Case of Domestic Content Requirements

Blue-collar employment in the United States is declining due to a number of factors including the increasing competitiveness of foreign businesses, overseas plant relocation by American firms, and a new wave of automation (e.g., robotics) in “smokestack” industries [2, 13, 20, 27, 33]. From the viewpoint of American consumers, these developments could mean lower prices, improved product quality, and enhanced choice for American consumers. This paper argues, in contrast, that the declining power of organized labor in the United States poses serious issues of identity and strategy for the American consumer movement. These issues are first examined in detail with respect to domestic content legislation and the American auto industry and then considered more broadly in the paper's final section.     

A cross‐cultural exploration of attitudes toward product expiration dates

This is an exploratory study examining consumer attitudes toward product expiration dates in three different countries, the United States, Canada, and Turkey. In addition, the study investigates the differences in the importance of product expiration dates for three products, yogurt, over‐the‐counter medicine, and camera film, in the three cultures. A total of 687 surveys were gathered in the three countries. The results show that there are, indeed, differences among the consumers in three countries. American and Canadian consumers check product expiration dates before purchasing and before using products more often than Turkish consumers. Although most of the differences observed are between the respondents in Turkey versus the respondents in the United States and Canada, some differences between the U.S. and Canadian respondents are also found, indicating that culture plays an important role in consumer uncertainty avoidance. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Franchising in the Balkans: History,status, and challenges

Abstract

Since the Balkans have not been covered with regards to franchising in any comprehensive fashion in the past, this study represents a first look at the topic in this part of the world and contributes to the literature on franchising in emerging economies. This research contrasts the development of franchising in the ten Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia. A comprehensive overview of the franchise industry and its history is created for each country, integrating economic and franchise infrastructure development. The study reveals severe deficiencies in the region with regards to the availability of official data and a lack of specific legislation with regards to franchising and disclosure mandates, as well as education about franchising and a reliable legal environment. Implications for researchers and policy makers conclude the study.     

全球价值链重构的经济效应--兼论中美经贸摩擦的影响

2017年,中美关系发生了实质性变化,美国对华战略从合作走向竞争。新冠肺炎疫情下,中美关系更是面临新的不确定性,中美经贸摩擦将影响中美两国的经济,进而产生连锁反应,造成全球价值链的重构。利用2014年世界投入产出数据库(WIOD)和假设提取法,测算中美经贸摩擦和全球价值链重构对世界43个国家或地区的经济影响,并重点模拟中美之间贸易由国内供给替代对增加值和劳动力就业的最大影响。结果表明:第一,基准模型设定下,经济效应存在地区异质性,中国周边地区、美国周边北美自由贸易区受到的影响最大,反映了区域性生产网络的存在。第二,相对美国,中国受影响更大,增加值下降2.5%以上;其余受影响较大的国家有爱尔兰、卢森堡、荷兰;印度和欧洲大部分地区受影响较小。第三,中美经贸摩擦对每个行业的影响不同,受影响最大的行业为中国的家具制造业和其他制造业,计算机、电子和光学产品制造业,以及美国的航空运输业。第四,假设其余国家或地区卷入中美经贸摩擦,存在替代效应和全球价值链重构,部分国家或地区增加值和劳动力就业均上升,上升最多的为22.42%。建议深化实施"一带一路"倡议,主动与周边国家或地区开展经济合作,强化区域价值链的影响,同时积极培育和发展国内产业链。     

Environmental determinants of U.S. foreign direct investment in developed and developing countries: A structural analysis

This study attempts to explain theoretically and empirically the influence of developed and developing countries’ environments on foreign direct investment from the United States. It is postulated that foreign direct investment into these economies can be explained by examining interactions among three environmental constructs: technological development, quality of life, and political instability. A structural equation model is developed to test the concurrent and longitudinal influence of the three environmental constructs on foreign direct investment into these economies from the United States.