Among leaders and territories: the political networks of the district councillors in Naples

This work describes the role of the district councillors of Naples, through an analysis of their relational networks. District councils are the result of the administrative decentralization of the major Italian municipalities. During a 2 year field research study, I gathered 387 semi-structured interviews with the councillors and 35 unstructured interviews with a set of key informants. In order to increase the understanding of the political networks, I have also collected information through direct observation of the councillors meetings and activities. The analysis combines qualitative and quantitative data. At a formal level, district councillors don’t have any actual power, but, in practice, they gain important social capital resources by playing a brokerage role between political patrons and their potential clients. I provide evidence that, on one side, they hold strong ties with the higher level politicians; and, on the other side, they play a fundamental role in taking care of the voters and collecting the electoral consensus. In conclusion, I argue that the district councillors of Naples perform the tasks which were previously carried out by the traditional party organizations, assuming the role of the “new” professionals of grass roots politics.     

The changing job skills of female part‐time workers in Britain 1992–2006

The work situation of female part‐time workers has been a central focus of diverse interpretations of labour market disadvantage. While providing rather different accounts of why this should be the case, these share a view that part‐timers are largely confined to jobs with lower levels of skill than full‐timers. This article, drawing on nationally representative surveys, shows that the skill requirements of female part‐time jobs have improved significantly since the early 1990s relative to male full‐timers. While some sectors of part‐time work have benefited more than others, there is evidence of polarisation only with respect to part‐timers with different working hours. The overall rise in the relative skills of part‐timers poses significant issues about employer practice with respect to the wider involvement of part‐timers in the organisations for which they work.     

To merge or not to merge? The impact of union merger decisions on workers' representation in Germany

Union mergers have been widely studied in a variety of countries; however, little is known about their impact on union effectiveness. This article draws on in‐depth interviews with officials and works councillors from four German unions, as well as on a representative survey of German works councils, to analyse how a union's merger status shapes its effectiveness in three spheres of activity: political lobbying, collective bargaining and establishment‐level interest representation. We compare two cases of merger with two cases of continued organisational independence, finding that merger outcomes for individual unions vary considerably across our three union functions.     

Appreciating Stockbroking: Constructing Conceptions to Make Sense of Performance

ABSTRACT The performance of individual stockbrokers differs. This paper aims to make sense of these differences. In a study of 14 stockbrokers, the high performing brokers described their working life in a systematically different way, compared to the low performing brokers. The brokers gave different and conflicting accounts of what, from an outsider's viewpoint, seemed to be very similar work and working conditions. The brokers’ different accounts are interpreted and reconstructed into two opposing conceptions of stockbrokers’ world of working. In an ideal typical sense these two conceptions make sense of, and maybe even explain the stockbrokers’ different levels of performance.     

Precautionary and Entrepreneurial Savings: New Evidence from German Households*

Various studies interpret the positive correlation between income risk and wealth as evidence of significant precautionary savings. However, these high estimates emerge from pooling non‐entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, without controlling for heterogeneity. This article provides evidence for Germany based on representative panel data that includes private wealth balance sheets. Entrepreneurs, who face high income risk, hold more wealth than employees, but this tendency is not because of precautionary motives. Instead, they appear to save more for their old age, because they are usually not covered by statutory pension insurance. The analysis accounts for endogeneity in entrepreneurial choice and heterogeneous risk attitudes.     

The ‘expat factor’: the influence of working time on women's decisions to undertake international assignments in the oil and gas industry

This article examines the effect of working time on women's willingness to go on expatriate assignments in the oil and gas exploration and production sector. The research draws upon an analysis of two case study firms' international assignment and working time policies, semi-structured interviews with 14 human resource staff responsible for policy design and implementation, and a survey of the views of 71 women expatriates, supported by in-depth interviews with 26 of the survey respondents. The research identifies an ‘expat factor’: assignees state that long hours are inherent in expatriation and necessary to further their careers. However, in practice, working time is not excessive and flexible working practices are utilised. Hours of work have little effect on women's decisions to undertake long-term assignments but alternatives such as short-term and commuter assignments are unpopular as their working patterns are disruptive to family life. This article contributes to theory development by linking two discrete frameworks that explain women's career choices when they strive to balance their career goals with their families and by identifying a career compromise threshold when expatriation is rejected in favour of family considerations. A model is proposed to link working time/patterns to women's international assignment participation.     

基于员工生产率非对称信息模型的超时工作原因探析

现实中,实际工作时间超过制度工作时间的现象普遍存在,而且这部分超额的工作时间通常是无效率的。本文建立了一个劳动合同的非对称信息模型来解释这种现象的存在,因为企业不能观察到劳动者真实的生产率,他们就用较长的工作时间作为筛选机制来区分不同生产率类型的劳动者。拥有较高生产率的劳动者倾向于选择无效率的较长工作时间,而非雇主强制的结果。此外,过度雇佣发生的概率和程度与劳动生产率正相关,与劳动的负效用负相关。     

民营企业会计信息失真的问卷调查分析

针对会计信息失真问题,我们对民营企业进行了实地调研和问卷统计分析。我们发现民营企业的会计人员在做假的博弈中处于两难选择。民营企业应进一步优化内部治理结构,完善内部控制体系。民营企业的外部监督体系在监督民营企业信息的问题上没有发挥应有的作用。产权不清可能会影响会计信息的质量,但不应视为     

Labor Market Duality and Leisure Industries in Spain: Quality of Life Versus Standard of Living

Abstract . We discuss the effects that the emergence of the new postindustrial form of flexible capitalist organization has on the Spanish labor market and, by extension, on the working life of two representative groups of employees characterized by their casual and stable working conditions. This brings a growing duality in the labor market, where individuals who cannot escape casual employment coexist with those enjoying long‐term contracts. This concern includes how these changes affect the nature and the ways in which these particular groups understand quality of life and standard of living, which in turn serves to call into question the “end of work” and the expected “leisure society.” In addition, we highlight several circumstances that illustrate a decay in job quality and working conditions, particularly the increase in working hours. Parallel to this process we identify a work‐and‐spend behavior, resulting in overspent families that exhibit financial fragility and give up quality of life, associated with more free time, for higher living standards, which demand an increasing job commitment. Free time from work has become a scarce resource in Spain, and for those individuals belonging to what is known as the “new leisure class,” it is associated with high‐spending leisure activities, which has increased the economic importance of leisure industries.     

企业财务诊断视角下的企业应收账款管理分析——以KN公司为例

财务是企业发展的命脉.随着企业竞争环境的日益复杂,财务链完整、有序地运营已经成为企业竞争中的重要环节.其中,应收账款管理正被越来越多的企业所重视.企业的应收账款能够直接反映企业的资金周转情况,直接决定了企业是否能够顺利开展日常业务.文章选取KN公司为研究对象,通过走访调查以及搜集相关二手资料,分析KN公司应收账款的管理现状,并结合KN公司的经营特点,发现KN公司应收账款管理中存在应收账款增长速度快、占总周转资金收入高等问题;同时,还明确了KN公司的经营风险和财务风险,分析了应收账款对KN公司经营发展存在的影响,并针对性地提出了一些建议,以期能够帮助KN公司实施更好的应收账款管理.     

An approach to researching managerial labour markets

Recently there has been a revival of interest in the nature of the employment relationship. The employment relationship in a market economy has been traditionally understood as a dynamic equilibrium between the contending forces of conflict and cooperation. However, some contemporary accounts purport to detect a fundamental change in the nature of the employment relationship. These arguments are flawed because they appear to mistake changes in employment arrangements for changes in the core features of the employment relationship. As the contemporary employment relationship remains rooted in market economies, where labour is bought and sold, its core characteristics persist. In testing this claim, we examine whether new working arrangements are associated with changes in attitudes and behaviour. This is based on a survey of white-collar union members in Ireland. We find little support for the assumption that new working arrangements such as increased job autonomy and involvement in decision-making are eradicating the old conflictual attitudes associated with the traditional employment relationship and psychological contract.     

Industrial Relations in Local Government

David Green, for six years a Labour Councillor in the North East and a university economist, analyses the self-interested obstruction to reform that some Labour and other councillors urged in the interest of the local public. If his analysis applies elsewhere in local government, the urgency of reform by Patricklenkin becomes apparent and insistent.     

现代企业利用应收账款融资的作用探讨

应收账款作为企业营运资金管理的一项重要内容,直接影响企业营运资金的周转和经济效益,而以应收账款作为担保品来筹措资金的融资行为对于受让企业和银行或者应收款托收售贷公司都有重要意义。     

The effects of flexible work practices on employee attitudes: evidence from a large-scale panel study in Germany

We explore the effects of flexible work practices (FWPs) on the work attitudes (job satisfaction and turnover intention) and non-work attitudes (leisure satisfaction and perceived health) of employees based on representative large-scale German panel data. Because unobserved individual characteristics can easily act as confounders, we estimate both pooled ordinary least squares models and individual fixed-effects models. Controlling for time-constant individual heterogeneity, we find that the three considered FWPs – flexitime, sabbaticals, and working from home – significantly increase job satisfaction and that sabbaticals and working from home (but not flexitime) significantly decrease turnover intention. In addition, sabbaticals but not flexitime or working from home significantly increase leisure satisfaction. The effects of FWPs on health are mostly weak and statistically insignificant. Models that do not control for such individual heterogeneity either underestimate the positive effects of FWPs or find detrimental effects. Our findings indicate that organizations in Germany can increase job satisfaction and decrease employee turnover intention by offering FWPs.     

农业产业化下供应链金融服务模式与风险

通过对基于“公司+农户”的供应链金融服务模式及风险进行研究,分析了基于应收账款的供应链金融融资和基于预付账款的供应链金融融资服务模式,并对农产品供应链金融中的农户风险和公司风险进行了讨论。     

Women's and Men's Contributions to Satisfying Consumers' Needs: A Combined Time Use and Input–Output Analysis

The traditional input–output table (IOT) identifies the intermediate flows between industries, the branches' contributions to satisfy final demand and the primary inputs needed for production. While industries play a key role in the field of input–output analysis, the structure of employees remains more or less unconsidered. The present study aims to combine particular information regarding employees' working time with traditional instruments of input–output analysis. In so doing, employees (and the corresponding paid working hours) are separated by industries, educational achievements and gender. This, in turn, allows for the identification of women's and men's contributions to satisfying different categories of final demand. In total, men's paid working hours significantly exceed women's labour input. However, societies rely likewise on paid and unpaid work. Therefore, the study finally accounts for the field of unpaid work, which – in Germany – is still dominated by women.     

White Flight or Flight from Poverty?

The phenomenon of White flight is often illustrated by the case of Detroit whose population dropped from 1.80 to 0.95 million between 1950 and 2000 while at the same time its Black and Hispanic component grew from 30 to 85%. But is this case really representative? The present paper shows that the phenomenon of White flight is in fact essentially a flight from poverty. As a confirmation, we show that the changes in White or Black populations are highly correlated which means that White flight is always paralleled by Black flight (and Hispanic flight as well). This broader interpretation of White flight accounts not only for the case of northern cities such as Cincinnati, Cleveland or Detroit, but for all population changes at county level, provided the population density is higher than a threshold of about 50 km² which corresponds to moderately urbanized areas (as can be found in states like Indiana or Virginia for instance).     

论如何提高工程预结算的准确性

当前,基本建设管理工作中概算超预算、预算超决算的问题十分严重。工程预结算的准确性对合理确定工程造价、控制工程成本、提高企业经济效益起着重要的作用。文章通过分析工程连设项目各个阶段预结算的管理控制,提出一套较为合理、科学的提高工程预结算准确性的方案。一个工程项目从基础施工、主体封顶到装修竣工,循序渐进没有重复,这要求项目成本管理工作要同步前进、不能反复,特别是周期长、耗资大的工程项目,如果疏于成本管理则代价将是巨大的。     

Bridging the GAAP: the Changing Attitude of German Managers towards Anglo-American Accounting and Accounting Harmonization

This paper presents and compares results from two empirical studies into the attitudes of financial executives of large German corporations towards a global harmonization of accounting principles and towards the adaptation of German accounting to Anglo-American Standards. The first of the studies was conducted in 1994, the second in late 1997, early 1998. A comparison of the results reveals that German managers' attitudes have changed profoundly over the course of only three years. In 1994, they objected to the view that German accounting is inferior to Anglo-American accounting; they had a negative attitude towards US accounting; and they were highly sceptical about adapting German accounting to Anglo-American accounting rules. Today, German managers openly concede that German financial accounts have a lower information value for investors and that the use of German accounting rules reduces the demand for German shares abroad. They are also more willing to accept far-reaching changes in the German accounting system. The survey shows that numerous large corporations have already adopted international standards, or are planning to do so in the near future. A further finding is that opinion among German managers and firms has shifted significantly towards accepting IAS rather than US-GAAP as the basis for the internationalization of German accounting. In fact, more than 80%of managers believe that five years from now the great majority of German firms will publish their consolidated financial accounts according to either IAS or US-GAAP.     

The Familiar Face of the State: Affect,Emotion and Citizen Entitlements in Dehradun,India

Municipal Councillors (MCs) are the ‘familiar face of the state’ in Dehradun, India: the first port of call for citizens seeking to claim entitlements from the state. The way MCs respond to the requests of their constituents is a major factor in the uneven distribution of government welfare and services. This article seeks to contribute to understandings of citizen entitlements by drawing attention to the role of affect and emotion in shaping the interactions between MCs and voters. I examine the ways citizens consciously or unconsciously engender emotions and affective responses, and the effect these have in mobilizing MCs. Attention to the, at times, involuntary nature of these responses suggests a need to go beyond the instrumental and calculating motivations of municipal councillors, to consider the way they are compelled and animated to meet the demands of some citizens, but not of others. The capacity to affect, and the ways one is affected, are tied to the social identities and self-making projects of both the MC and the voter, resulting in an uneven (mal)distribution of state resources. A focus on affective configurations in urban governance thereby reveals heretofore overlooked determinants of unequal access to urban resources and services.