Union recognition and employment change in Scottish electronics

This empirical research on the Scottish electronics industry examines the characteristics of unionised plants, including those with single union agreements. The work is part of a wider project which has been published in article form in other journals.     

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.     

Renewal or rigor mortis? Union responses to contracting in local government

Contracting, or competitive tendering, is now common throughout local government and may provide the basis for a ‘renewal’ of workplace trade unionism. Without significant investment and support, however, local structures may be too fragile to withstand the managerial and competitive pressures that contracting brings in its wake.     

The Trade Union Role in Career Development: a Membership Perspective

This article explores how a highly unionised and professional occupational group, school teachers, want their trade union to be involved in their career development. By taking an apparently individualistic concept and considering it from a collective perspective, the article provides insights into a neglected aspect of career development.     

The State in employment: the case of Malaysian electronics

In some discourse concerning the employment system it is often implied that there has been a shift within the power relations between the main actors - State, capital and labour. Capital is now taken as omni-powerful and proactive, while the State and labour have declined and are reactive. Yet this picture is too universalistic, deterministic, static and simplistic. It ignores the shifting positions and divisions within and between these actors and the crucial role of factors such as ethnicity. This paper redresses the balance in this area by detailing an example - Malaysian electronics - where these interactions, at both macro- and micro-levels, can be seen in action.     

当前经济环境下物流服务创新与政策对策

文中首先提及当前经济发展环境对物流业产生的影响,提出只有创新求变才能转危机为机遇。     

EOQ application in a pharmaceutical environment: A case study

This paper describes a successful application of classical inventory theory at a drug manufacturing plant located in Montreal that has resulted in annual savings in the order of $110,800 and assisted management in its decision to invest in larger production equipment. The basic assumptions underlying EOQ models are reviewed and dealt with. For instance, an algorithm was devised to handle the peaks in the demand of many A class items. Following the implementation of this algorithm, buffer stocks were reduced signifi cantly while maintaining the same high levels of service.     

MNC responses to the legal environment of international human resource management

Comparative management studies have not examined the complex regulatory forces that govern transnational employment relationships nor assessed their potential impact on multinational companies (MNCs). A model is presented to assess the effects that indigenous law, transnational law and organizational policies will have on the human resource management (HRM) function in MNCs. Several propositions are developed as well to guide future research in this area.     

Union Revitalization: How Women and Men Officers See the Relationship Between Union Size and Union Tolerance for Sexual Harassment

Larger memberships resulting from union mergers and consolidations have heightened the issue of union responsiveness to economic and noneconomic needs of members. In this study, we focused on a gender-moderated relationship between union size and perceived union tolerance for sexual harassment, in which low perceived tolerance (a desirable outcome) was anticipated as a noneconomic need relevant to union women. Data were collected from women and men officers (N?=?120) in various unions. Officers were viewed as well-positioned informants on tolerance in relation to union policies and practices. As hypothesized, the data confirmed that women in larger unions rated tolerance significantly higher (an undesirable outcome) than women in smaller unions. No such tolerance variation was found for men in relation to smaller and larger unions. Implications for union revitalization and future research on union size are discussed.     

Continuous Dependent Variables and Organizational Ecology: Toward a more Perfect Union

In this paper, I review all previously published organizational ecology research which utilizes continuous dependent variables. I unearth twenty-one such studies, half of which were published within the past four years. The broadening array of dependent variables in this field is a most welcome development. However, each of these papers has at least one methodological limitation, in specification of cross-unit effects and/or controls for autocorrelation. Perhaps the most serious problem is the assertion that the fixed effects research design solves the problem of autocorrelation. I demonstrate that this assertion is untrue. I conclude with advice on the proper way to model continuous dependent variables in organizational ecology research, as follows: (1) Consider omitting all organizations which do not exist for more time periods than the number of independent variables. (2) Test for autocorrelation, report the results, and correct for autocorrelation if the test indicates that it is a problem. (3) Use a fixed effects model, and justify it based on the nonrandomness of the data.     

Evolution of Hong Kong's electronics industry under a passive industrial policy

A different version of industrial policy from those of other Asian newly industrialized economies, limited public participation in R&D activities within the business sector in promoting specific industries in particular, has directed the evolution of Hong Kong's electronics industry along a distinct path. Being predominated by smaller manufacturers, the electronics industry showed great differences in technology attainment, product development, production strategies, and export structure and composition under the influence of a passive industrial policy. The timely opening of the Chinese economy in the late 1970s and the absence of a national identity had provided justification for such a policy.     

Supply chain configurations in a global environment: A longitudinal perspective

In the last few years, companies have paid growing attention to the management of their supply chain at a global level. The need for better suppliers, international competition and research of specific competences have forced companies to improve their ability to cope with suppliers and customers located in different countries around the world. This paper aims to provide an overview of how manufacturing companies use global supply chains and how their behaviour changes over time. Longitudinal data from a sample of companies from the last two editions of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) are used. A contingent analysis of manufacturing localization and globalization is also considered in order to identify factors influencing supply chain globalization strategies. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Purchasing in a supply chain environment

Why the interest in purchasing? In the typical company, material costs are 40% to 75% of the cost of goods sold, labor is 5% to 15%, and the balance is burden. The typical company has $4-$5 in purchased cost to $1 in labor. Most companies are implementing material requirements planning (MRP II) and enterprise resource planning systems to control the $1 in labor and have little expectation in the area of purchasing savings. Yet a dollar saved in purchasing goes directly to the bottom line. I ran a survey of 100 Class A users of MRP II; in all 100 of the companies, the biggest payback was in the area of purchasing.     

Profit efficiency in the European Union banking industry: a directional technology distance function approach

We employ the directional technology distance function approach and present estimates of profit efficiency in the 25 European Union (EU) member states over the period 1998–2008. This method decomposes profit efficiency into its technical and allocative components. We investigate potential efficiency differences across the old EU region and the new EU member states, across countries and across banks of different size. Our results indicate a significant level of profit inefficiency for the EU region, which is predominantly attributed to allocative inefficiency. Our findings also suggest that banks operating in the old EU region are, on average, more profit efficient than credit institutions in the new EU member states. Overall, we observe considerable variation of efficiency scores across countries and different patterns in efficiency change over time, as well as a negative relationship between bank size and efficiency.     

Trade Unions and Work-Life Rights: The Challenge of Work-Life Interface in a Union Environment

The issue of work-life rights is increasingly present in trade unions, who advocate for improved working conditions and living standards of workers. Indeed, unions have adopted numerous resolutions on the subject of work-family balance over the years and they have been negotiating with companies and public organizations in this field, and started to look at the situation within their own organization. However, while unions have negotiated work-life rights for their members, this appears to apply more to the workplaces unions represent than to unions themselves, as employers, and the situation of their own employees. Our research shows that a culture of long hours and strong commitment to the cause sometimes makes it difficult to balance work and family for union employees. Also, the younger generation appears to question the culture of long hours as a signal for performance.     

Trade Union Reform: Tebbit's Next Step

The unique privileges and immunities that have misled British trade unions are at last being ended by reforms that bring them within the legal framework applying to other corporations. But is the process going far or fast enough? Dr Charles Hanson approves of some of Norman Tebbit's current proposals bit dismisses others as too weak.     

Applications integration in a hybrid cloud computing environment: modelling and platform

With the development of application services providers and cloud computing, more and more small- and medium-sized business enterprises use software services and even infrastructure services provided by professional information service companies to replace all or part of their information systems (ISs). These information service companies provide applications, such as data storage, computing processes, document sharing and even management information system services as public resources to support the business process management of their customers. However, no cloud computing service vendor can satisfy the full functional IS requirements of an enterprise. As a result, enterprises often have to simultaneously use systems distributed in different clouds and their intra enterprise ISs. Thus, this article presents a framework to integrate applications deployed in public clouds and intra ISs. A run-time platform is developed and a cross-computing environment process modelling technique is also developed to improve the feasibility of ISs under hybrid cloud computing environments.