Violations of Human Rights—How Many?

A bstract . Statisticians can help to improve human rights reporting. The statisticians' approach to measurement, summary and interpretation is needed to understand and help reduce human rights violations. Statistical problems in the measurement and analysis of human rights violations include: lack of agreement on the definition, great difficulties in collecting basic data, lack of knowledge of the subject among statisticians, lack of knowledge of statistics among other human rights practitioners, and the need for appropriate methodology. The statistical problems are analogous to other measurement problems , and can be similarly resolved, but a continuing need for interdisciplinary teams is seen.     

Lifting wages and conditions of atypical employees in Denmark—the role of social partners and sectoral social dialogue

The article focuses on IR‐institutions and atypical employment in three sectors in Denmark. It demonstrates that industrial cleaning with precariousness being widespread shows most social partner responses followed by construction and then hospitals with fewest responses and problems. Despite these social dialogue initiatives, cross‐sectoral variations of precariousness continue to exist.     

Concentration change and the structure—performance debate: An interpretive essay

It is demonstrated that the hypotheses and tests found in the concentration change literature fail to discriminate adequately among the competing theories. This failure is characteristic of the larger structure-performance debate, raising the question of whether there is something in the nature of the debate which permits it to persist but never really progress. It is argued that the debate is derived in large part from differences which on one level are purely semantic but which on a deeper level concern the normative bases up on which market outcomes are interpreted. If a meaningful resolution is to be hoped for, it must be sought at much deeper levels of inquiry.     

The Europeanisation—or the Erosion—of Industrial Relations?

This article considers the impact of European integration on industrial relations. An industrial relations regime can be understood as a tension between employment structured by market dynamics and broader social regulation, between the principles of contract and status. Economic Europeanisation threatens this relationship. Its survival may depend on new forms of supranational regulation, but not necessarily as the ‘social dimension’ of Europeanisation is customarily conceived.     

International pharmaceutical supply prices: Definitions — problems — policy implications

In cases where the buyer and the seller of goods and services are companies belonging to the same group the prices charged for goods and services are called ‘international delivery prices’ or ‘international transfer prices’. The peculiarities of research-based companies are such that attempts to ascertain in practice what constitutes an ‘appropriate’ international delivery price are beset by a number of problems. Any scheme that is devised to solve the problems of international transfer prices should feature general ‘rules’ on how the various countries ought to share in central costs. As international transfer prices are a prerequisite for an efficient world economy based on the division of labour an agreement should be reached on the design and content of suitable delivery price systems for a research-intensive industry.     

Union exclusion—next steps

The Conservative Government has intensified its commitment to union exclusion policies: new legislation has been implemented and the state is being restructured. Parallel policies have been implemented by private employers. In consequence, collective bargaining has been devolved to subordinate unit level, and union recognition and membership has further declined.     

Choosing the partners in the licensing alliance

I consider a situation in which the incumbent strategically adopts the licensing alliance, facing potential entrants. The queue of entrants consists of two firms, the ‘strong’ entrant and the ‘weak’ entrant, who differ in their productivities. The incumbent sets a licensing fee and offers it to the entrants. Each entrant decides whether or not to buy the licensing alliance. After the set of the licensing alliance is determined, they engage in the Cournot competition. I examine the optimal licensing fee, and show that the optimal licensing fee is to charge a discriminatory royalty to each licensee. I also examine the licensing policy on the partner(s): To whom should the licensor license its technology? By comparing the equilibrium expected payoffs for the licensor, I show that licensing to both entrants would be preferred to licensing to a single entrant. But, if the licensor faces the problem on choosing the partner, he prefers the licensing of the weak entrant to the strong entrant. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Internet use for corporate environmental reporting: current challenges—technical benefits—practical guidance

The huge opportunities of using the internet for corporate reporting are arranged in a comprehensive system of technical benefits. In order to give a tangible example and describe practical use thoroughly, the benefits are focused on environmental reporting but they can be transferred in major parts also to financial, social or sustainability reporting—seen as a currently emerging trend towards integrated financial, environmental and social reporting. In more detail, the system of internet‐specific benefits is illustrated by four main categories: benefits concerning the underlying purposes of publishing reports, benefits concerning the entire reporting process, benefits concerning the report contents and benefits concerning the report design. In terms of corporate reporting, professional internet use will enhance the way in which companies give information, communicate and manage their business internally and externally, benefiting all members involved that are reporting companies, addressed key target groups and other stakeholders such as standard setting institutions and benchmarking organizations. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment     

Modelling leadership—Implicit leadership theories in Sweden

This paper investigates Swedish data on implicit leadership theories in comparison with data from 61 other nationalities, testing the identification of a Swedish leadership style in light of globalization and possible converging value-formation processes. Global questionnaire data from 17,310 (900 Swedish) middle-managers constitute the basis for our analyses, using both a within-country perspective and a between-country perspective. While acknowledging the presence of almost universally endorsed leadership attributes, such as being inspirational and visionary, “typical” Swedish leadership attributes are possible to identify. Thus we challenge the simplified version of global convergence regarding leadership ideals and management ideology. On a basis of this study, we conclude that the notion of a Swedish leadership style is still meaningful and valid as a device for a better understanding of leadership efforts and cross-cultural interaction.     

Managing change in pharmaceutical industry R&D

Pharmaceutical R&D is a substantially multi-disciplinary activity matrix in organizational form and generally a high risk activity, both on account of the high uncertainty of its outcome and the considerable lead times involved. The author identifies several points about the background to research in this industry which underline the high requirement for adaptability and capacity to generate and manage change.Key aspects about modes of responding to these pressures for change are reviewed, particularly from a staff and organizational development point of view, at three levels of R&D: the individual, management/teams and the organization. A number of significant themes at each level are commented on in Fisons Pharmaceuticals R&D, and their relevance to recently published ideas.Dominant themes at all levels include the need for effective communication, the need for flexibility on the part of individual staff, managers and senior managers, and the overall need for the awareness of large systems and the limitation they impose.The author expresses concern that with the burgeoning number of publications on the subject of R&D management, effort must be made to counter a prevailing tendency to overgeneralise ideas and conclusions too widely across industries. More effort should be given to observing individual influences and themes within an industry since the resultant effect of different factors may be specific to an individual company.     

Human resource business partner lifecycle model: exploring how the relationship between HRBPs and their line manager partners evolves

The human resources business partner (HRBP) role is advocated as a way for human resource (HR) professionals and the HR profession to become more strategic and less transactional, necessitating the development of different competencies. Few researchers have examined how the HRBP Model plays out in practice, over time, from the perspective of HR professionals and their line manager partners (LMPs). We collected data through interviews and focus groups with both these stakeholders at three UK organisations to understand the dynamics of the individual HRBP–LMP relationship. After analysing the data, we propose an HRBP Lifecycle Model. The model suggests the relationship between the parties is dynamic, complex and dependent upon the organisational culture as well as the skills and competencies of the main stakeholders in the partnership.     

Police pay—contested and contestable

This article provides an analysis of developments in the determination of police pay since 1919. It reveals the contested nature of public sector pay setting where the government of the day pursues short‐term economic goals rather than taking a long‐term approach to staffing issues in essential public services. In the case of the police, the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) has traditionally used both industrial and political methods to put pressure on key government decision makers. Developments reveal increasingly fraught relations between the police and the government, with the 2008 pay dispute in particular marking a new low point. Once it became clear after the 2010 general election that the government would ignore industrial pressure, then the Police Federation of England and Wales felt driven to increase the activities of its political arm. This ultimately backfired with the Plebgate scandal leaving them naked in the negotiating chamber.     

Discounting inflation — a note

The aim of this paper is to clarify the confused issue of the effect of inflation on the discounting procedure for investment appraisal. The standard approach is considered, together with the impact of inflation, and the problem of how to adjust the standard approach to take account of inflation. The point is made that it is usually easiest to estimate expected returns in current prices, in which case the discount rate should reflect the real opportunity cost of capital, to avoid mixing real returns and nominal interest in a manner which leads to the rejection of worthwhile projects. An example is given of how the real rate of interest can be computed from the nominal rate of interest and the rate of inflation, and the difference this makes to discounting a sample project. The paper then illustrates how real rates of interest have frequently been negative over the past decade and how this implies that projects may be acceptable even if the sum of future undiscounted returns is less than the initial outlay. The conclusion drawn is that investors should maximize economic profit defined as the surplus over opportunity cost, which reduces the deterrent of nominally high interest rates, for the maximization of surplus over opportunity cost has the corollary of minimization of opportunity loss.     

Learning curves—an axiomatic approach

A systematic mathematical analysis of learning curves is presented. It is shown that while a learning curve with learning factor k does necessarily satisfy the functional equation f(2x) = kf(x), this equation admits numerous other analytic, convex solutions as well so that it cannot be used to uniquely characterize learning curves. Rather, it is shown that a pair of functional equations f(rx) = kf(x) and f(sx) = jf(x) where rⁿ ≠ s^m for any positive integers n and m suffice to uniquely determine the learning curve; compatibility of the two equations requires that log_rk = log_sj or there will be no learning curve satisfying the pair of equations. Two classes of almost learning curves are generated and studied by means of suitable perturbation terms in the differential equation y = by/x of the true or standard learning curve and these curves are applied to describe data not exhibiting exact learning-curve behavior. Finally the concept of average marginal hours or cost is introduced and its behavior is found to also exhibit the learning-curve phenomenon except for an initial deviation.