Weight-Based Discrimination in the Workplace: Is Legal Protection Necessary?

Legal protection against weight-based discrimination in the workplace exists in the U.S. However, it is quite limited and its application across jurisdictions is inconsistent. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether such protection is needed—in other words, whether significant weight-based discrimination exists in the workplace, and, if it does, to what extent the legal system should intervene to prevent such discrimination.     

Appearance-based Sex Discrimination and Stereotyping in the Workplace: Whose Conduct Should We Regulate?

Court treatment of sex discrimination and harassment claims based on appearance and gender stereotyping has been inconsistent, particularly where the facts involve reference to sexual orientation. Ironically, court willingness to allow such claims may turn on the choice of verbal or physical conduct by, or the sex or sexual orientation of, the alleged offenders. Because plaintiffs in such situations may assert retaliation claims to increase their chances of prevailing, employers should focus less on regulating aspects of personal appearance unrelated to job performance and more on problematic reactions by co-workers. Workplace civility policies may hold promise for limiting both legal liability and practical consequences in the absence of a legislative response.

Uber Drivers and Employment Status in the Gig Economy: Should Corporate Social Responsibility Tip the Scales?

As the gig economy continues to grow, the legal status of its workers remains a source of confusion and controversy. Uber and other transportation network companies (TNCs) typically disclaim employee status, depriving drivers of social insurance among other benefits. Further, such companies typically deny liability to third party victims for damages due to auto accidents, sexual assaults, and other negative outcomes arising out of their business. Legal and regulatory systems in the U.S. and elsewhere continue to struggle with how to determine and apply a consistent standard as to employee classification. We argue that corporate social responsibility should figure prominently in the equation. Private companies already are required to cover social costs of doing business in a variety of contexts (e.g., workers compensation, family leave, public and workplace accommodations for disabled individuals), and it makes sense that they also should be required to underwrite other important implications associated with employee status as part of their responsibilities to society. This is especially so where, as with Uber and other TNCs, a company’s core profit-making operations include activities that carry the direct potential for causing substantial harm both to individual clients and to the public at large.     

Explaining the Normality of Informal Employment in Ukraine: A Product of Exit or Exclusion?

This article evaluates critically the competing explanations for the persistence and growth of informal employment in contemporary societies. These interpret the normality of informality either through a structuralist lens as arising out of “exclusion” from state benefits and the circuits of the modern economy or through a neo‐liberal and/or post‐structuralist lens as driven by the voluntary “exit” of workers out of formal institutions and into this alternative realm. To evaluate critically the validity of these competing explanations, this article reports a 2005/6 survey of informal employment in post‐socialist Ukraine. Analyzing the results of 600 face‐to‐face interviews, the finding is that either/or explanations need to be transcended. Informal employment is neither universally driven by exclusion nor exit. Instead, some participate mostly due to exclusion, others mostly for exit rationales, and some for a combination of the two, with different mixtures across different populations and types of informal employment. The outcome is a call to move towards more context‐bound understandings of the pervasiveness of informality through greater appreciation of the heterogeneity of this sphere and how both exit and exclusion are variously entwined in different settings.     

Visibility in the workplace: still an essential ingredient for career success?

This article explores the extent to which a variety of different absences from the workplace affect perceptions of employee commitment and loyalty, and ultimately, how this ‘temporary invisibility’ might affect career success. Data were derived from 40 interviews (12 women and 28 men) in a public sector agency in Australia. Findings reveal that absences attract substantial career penalties for many employees, not only in relation to gendered flexible work options such as part-time employment and parental leave, but also traditionally uncontested entitlements such as annual and long service leave.     

Tailings facility failures in the global mining industry: Will a ‘transparency turn’ drive change?

In this article, we critically analyse emerging regulatory controls around the design and management of tailings facilities in the global mining industry. Following several high profile, catastrophic tailings facility failures, a Global Tailings Review (GTR) was established to develop a new industry Standard. We describe the precursors to the GTR and review the public disclosure requirements of 19 separate industry-endorsed standards and certification schemes. On several criteria, the GTR Standard requires unprecedented levels of public disclosure by mining companies. Does this amount to a ‘transparency turn’ in tailings management? We argue that while improved disclosure provisions may provide visibility for investors, regulators and other stakeholders, the socialisation of transparency norms is a highly complex, contingent and ultimately fragile endeavour. Using indicators relevant to achieving transparency, we demonstrate the contextual variability into which mining companies will be disclosing information. Our analysis highlights the sheer number of tailings facilities in locations with multi-dimensional complexity, including low levels of literacy and governance, with correspondingly high levels of inequality and corruption. We discuss these conditionalities in relation to the GTR Standard, and conclude by outlining future research priorities.     

Developing the e-commerce sector for the fishery industry: What business are we really in?

In this study, we use the theory of the marketing firm to explain marketing relationships between consumers and firms selling fish in the context of developing the e-commerce sector for the fishery industry. We use a unique dataset composed of quantitative and qualitative data to provide a behavioral economic analysis and interpretation. The results reveal interdependent managerial and consumer behavioral relationships, indicating the presence of bilateral contingencies. The results also provide some indication of the theory of transaction cost, where cost-intensive activities are likely to be internalized within marketing firms selling fish.     

Industry trade between Canada and Mexico: Will a weakening peso help Mexican manufacturing in the long run?

Mexico has longed served as one of Canada's major trade partner, but the plunging peso has had drastic effects across North America. This study investigates the bilateral trade relationship between Canada and Mexico for 27 individual industries, from 1973 to 2006. Cointegration analysis shows that overall sensitivity to the real exchange rate is weak, but that the trade balances of certain manufacturing industries do indeed improve after a currency depreciation. The “J-curve” effect is present for certain electrical and mechanical industries, suggesting that the recent decline of the peso may currently be having a negative impact on Mexican trade—but that it might eventually be beneficial, particularly for the Machinery and Transport Equipment sector.     

Developing measures for performance excellence: is the Baldrige criteria sufficient for performance excellence in higher education?

The implementation of the education criteria for performance excellence (ECPE)—the education version of the Baldrige criteria—is driven by the growing need for performance excellence in higher education. Ironically the criteria meant for performance excellence have no theoretical underpinning and are based on normative performance improvement requirements. The lack of content and internal validity is reflected in some critical weaknesses in the criteria. Based on a critical review, this paper highlights potential improvements in the areas of aligning processes with the organisational mission, operations focus, customer focus, workforce focus, and performance measurement. To help enhance the ECPE, the paper develops performance measures for systematic implementation of the criteria. This is discussed in terms of defining desired outcomes, developing key measures, identifying specific indicators to track performance, and choosing methods to assess performance. The discussions provide a basis for future revisions to the ECPE.     

A qualitative approach to the challenges for women in management: are they really starting in the 21st century?

Traditionally, the role of women in business responsibility jobs has provided extensive and much discussed issues. Almost 20?years ago research on WIB was very rich. Some discussions surrounding women in business included, for instance: learning about their situation at work, their strong and weak management capabilities and possible setbacks to their promotion and consolidation in positions of responsibility. In any case, it did seem that conciliation between family and work lives, in general, was a setback for most women. By the beginning of 21st century the work of Leonard (Women??s Stud Int Forum 24:67?C78, 2001) analyzed the state-of-the-art, concluding that not much had changed in terms of the challenges faced by women. Therefore, it may seem appropriate, to readdress the situation for women in management as this new century reaches its first decade. This paper takes as a reference the context of an occidental and developed country such as Spain. We develop a multi-case study which allows us to (i) analyze the opinion of a group of women and men who work in high and intermediate management positions, (ii) defend the suitability to overcome the differences between men and women and (iii) admit the consideration of different female profiles. In such cases, firms may take several advantages stemming from both gender and personal characteristics.     

What's in it for us? Or: the impact of environmental legislation on competitiveness

The dispute on the impact of environmental legislation on international trade, national competitiveness, technological innovativeness and companies' profitability is as yet undecided. The predominant positions will be illustrated in the following meso/micro‐study detailing the impact (European) environmental legislation has on the competitiveness of a large chemical company. This study draws important conclusions and outlines remarkable implications by employing an instrumental distinction between short‐term costs/benefits and longer‐term innovativeness. It can be argued persuasively that environmental legislation has created a rat race among the major players at the (longer‐term) cost of smaller companies. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Co-Production and the Co-Creation of Value in Public Services: A suitable case for treatment?

Co-production is currently one of cornerstones of public policy reform across the globe. Inter alia, it is articulated as a valuable route to public service reform and to the planning and delivery of effective public services, a response to the democratic deficit and a route to active citizenship and active communities, and as a means by which to lever in additional resources to public service delivery. Despite these varied roles, co-production is actually poorly formulated and has become one of a series of ‘woolly-words’ in public policy. This paper presents a conceptualization of co-production that is theoretically rooted in both public management and service management theory. It argues that this is a robust starting point for the evolution of new research and knowledge about co-production and for the development of evidence-based public policymaking and implementation.     

Co-operation and conflict in industrial relations: what are the implications for employees and trade unions?

This article explores the effects on employees of co-operation and conflict the workplace, outlining six workplace types. A survey of union representatives UK steel industry reveals evidence of co-operative industrial relations linked to superior terms and conditions, employee involvement and health and safety outcomes. However, it fails to find evidence that co-operative industrial relations are associated a broader HRM package of workplace restructuring, high performance work teams security provisions. Nor is any association revealed between co-operation and a greater role for trade unions. These findings suggest workplace co-operation in this industry remains part of a traditional gainsharing package and an 'alliance of insiders' than an HRM partnership or union incorporation. This raises broader questions the ability of co-operation to deliver important aspects of organizational competitive advantage.     

Stakeholder pressure for sustainability: Can ‘innovative capabilities’ explain the idiosyncratic response in the manufacturing firms?

This study explores role of innovative capabilities in determining a manufacturing firm's response to stakeholder pressure for adopting sustainable practices. Drawing on the theory of conservatism, we delineate that the firm's response is idiosyncratic and undergirded in the nature of its innovative capabilities. Our empirical investigation reveals that the response to the stakeholder pressure is mediated by the nature of the firm's innovative capabilities. Indian manufacturing firms are identified as unit of analysis for this study. The individual manufacturing facilities implement the environmental practices. The findings suggest that the manufacturing firm's exposure to exploitative/exploratory innovative capabilities triggers sustainable behaviours with ephemeral focus and enduring focus. Further, the exploratory/exploitative innovation is capable of explaining idiosyncratic behaviour for the firms' sustainability practices adoption. The findings delineate, with analysis, that unlike China, regulatory stakeholder pressures in India inhibit the adoption of sustainable practices with enduring focus in manufacturing firms.     

The classical myth of Ulysses versus Palamedes: an early metaphor for the qualitative/quantitative debate?

This essay examines the classical myth of the confrontation between Palamedes (pro-quantitative) and Ulysses (pro-qualitative). This para-mythical transposition is used as an interpretative metaphor for the methodological debate regarding the use of qualitative or quantitative paradigms of research in the fields of social sciences and education. Although the debate about paradigms has come to a halt over recent years, it may be appropriate to rekindle it now, with less rancour than before, in order to move towards a fertile dialogue without striving to reach any kind of consensus.     

Management for Sustainable Development and Its Impact on Firm Value in the SME Context: Does Size Matter?

With the increasing demands from society towards sustainable and social responsible business practices, management for sustainable development has become a cornerstone to understand the success of many firms in the current competitive context. This article investigates corporate social responsibility (CSR) and examines the links between CSR practices and business outcomes – both financial and non‐financial (i.e. image and corporate reputation) – for small‐to‐medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition, we also attempt to determine whether the impact of such relationships is moderated by firm size. To this end, we carry out a quantitative study using PLS techniques to analyze a sample of SME owners and managers, with a view to test the proposed model in the light of social capital theory. In this sense, our study is pioneering in that it aims to determine – from a quantitative viewpoint – the degree to which firm size has a moderating impact on a series of relevant CSR‐driven outcomes. The data suggest that, in SME contexts, CSR impacts corporate reputation, brand image and financial value of the company. Importantly, we find that the larger the firm, the greater the intensity of the relationships linking CSR and business outcomes. Hence, our findings have important implications for CSR implementation in SME contexts. Finally, we provide a series of guidelines aimed at maximizing the effectiveness of CSR‐based business practices. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Industry 4.0 technologies in the manufacturing sector: Are we sure they are all relevant for environmental performance?

This research contributes to the debate about the relevance of Industry 4.0 technologies in improving environmental performance in the manufacturing industry. We employed a qualitative–quantitative approach in which 19 Italian operations managers were interviewed and 260 managers responded to an online questionnaire. The effects of various technologies were ranked using ordinal regression. Comments and suggestions gave context to the quantitative results. Sensors, radio-frequency identification, artificial intelligence and analytics were found to be most relevant in improving environmental performance, whereas simulation software contributed moderately. Additive manufacturing, cobots, robots, automated mobile robots and automated guided vehicles had a negative effect, augmented reality had no effect and other technologies indirectly affected environmental performance. We also found a lack of knowledge and application as well as scepticism about technologies such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality. Finally, there was concern about the disposal of electrical and electronic waste produced by these technologies.     

The Significance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the 21st Century: Will Such Institutions of Higher Learning Survive?

The United States is still dealing with institutional racism in higher education. For most of the past two centuries, African Americans were forced to attend segregated colleges and universities. Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) played a particularly important role during that long period. In many states, there would have been no institutions of higher education at all, were it not for federal legislation (the Morrill Act of 1890), the actions of religious institutions, and the persistent efforts of black Americans to gain an education, despite the obstacles. Even the seemingly race‐neutral G.I. Bill of 1944 had the pernicious effect of reinforcing racial segregation in both higher education and housing. Given this history, it comes as no surprise that some predominantly white institutions of higher education (PWIs) do not show a sustained commitment to educate African‐American students in this country, although they are often eager to recruit black student athletes for their various sport programs without much regard to the education received by those same athletes. Our inability as a nation to even talk intelligently about these intractable educational problems is disturbing. Indeed, diversity is not paramount for some PWIs, particularly in regards to hiring minority faculty. Perhaps more significantly, HBCUs are still necessary in our society today because they have been the mainstay of educating African Americans at the college and university levels. Black communities throughout our nation are still being devastated by economic polarization and by racial discrimination endemic to higher education at white institutions. The need to address the problem of racial discrimination in higher education remains as strong as ever.