Challenges to employment at will: A survey of the natural gas transmission industry

The natural gas transmission industry, once paternalistic towards its employees, is feeling the effects of challenges to the doctrine of employment at will, and is responding with policies that will increase managerial prerogatives. This article approaches the issue from the points of view both of law and of economics, and includes a survey of pipeline managers who must develop viable work rules in an environment of increasing expectations of employee rights and tightening market competition.     

Employee Moral Rights: Recognizing Their Implicit Financial Investments in the Firm

The literature on employee (moral) rights has been limited to workplace human rights. This essay focuses on Employee Moral Rights defined as the moral claims individuals are entitled to due to their role as employees. Noting they make significant (although implicit) financial investments in the firm they work for, this essay argues dedicated employees should be treated as financial investors, which implies dedicated employees have the moral right to (1) be treated as every other financial investor; (2) share in the firm’s profits; (3) timely, accurate, and sufficient disclosure of significant information; (4) protection from senior managers’ abusive self-dealing; and (5) mechanisms to protect their financial investment including fair severance payments and effective pension protection.

On-duty and Off-duty: Employee Right to Privacy and Employer’s Right to Control in the Private Sector

The changing legal landscape of the right of the employer to control and monitor employee behavior is examined. Two distinct areas are defined: behavioral monitoring and behavioral restrictions. Relevant statutory laws and the developing common law are discussed. We also examine potential employee reactions to such policies by evaluating the reactions of graduate students to six employer policies including weight restrictions, grooming requirements, use of GPS locators, drug testing, ban on off-duty smoking, and email and internet monitoring. Students responded to these policies by determining the reasonable interest of the employer in the behaviors being monitored or controlled and the manner in which policies were implemented. Their comments suggest that employees may accept some level of monitoring or behavioral restrictions if the employer can make a convincing social account of the need for a policy. Additionally, the policy must be clearly communicated and properly implemented. However, restrictions on off-duty behavior were typically poorly received with the exception of illegal drug use.     

The impact of corporate governance on employment relations in South Korea: the shareholder versus stakeholder perspectives

This study empirically examined the impact of corporate governance on employment relations outcomes utilizing a comprehensive data set drawn from 214 Korean firms. The study contrasted the stakeholder and shareholder perspectives of corporate governance in investigating the impact of corporate governance on employment relations outcomes. The results showed that the stakeholder corporate governance orientation (as compared to the shareholder orientation) had positive relationships with education/training expense, the level of average employee tenure and industrial relations climate, and had a negative association with number of strikes. Overall, the results implied that the stakeholder orientation of firms led to more beneficial effects for employees and more consensual relations with labor unions than the shareholder orientation did.     

The impact of corporate governance on employment relations in South Korea: the shareholder versus stakeholder perspectives

This study empirically examined the impact of corporate governance on employment relations outcomes utilizing a comprehensive data set drawn from 214 Korean firms. The study contrasted the stakeholder and shareholder perspectives of corporate governance in investigating the impact of corporate governance on employment relations outcomes. The results showed that the stakeholder corporate governance orientation (as compared to the shareholder orientation) had positive relationships with education/training expense, average employee tenure and industrial relations (IR) climate, as well as a negative association with number of strikes. Overall, the results implied that the stakeholder orientation of firms led to more beneficial effects for employees and more consensual relations with labour unions than the shareholder orientation did.     

The fusion of privilege and power: ESOPs in theory and practice

The heart of this paper is an examination of the rights of employees, owners, and the corporation. The modern corporation is characterized by the conflict that ensues when ownership and control are independent. Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), in theory, serve to realign these disparate interests between the owners and managers of the firm. This article will explore the mechanisms by which ESOPs serve to empower those who possess ownership rights in the corporation. The application of trusteeship theory serves to explain the agency problem that may arise when managers serve as both trustee and beneficiary. Workplace, ownership, and corporate rights are integrated into a stakeholder perspective of rights conflicts.     

Institutions and preferences in settings of causal complexity: foreign institutional investors and corporate restructuring practices in France

In this article, we illustrate how the interaction between institutional arrangements and the presence of different categories of firm stakeholders with specific preferences provides important insights to understand the conditions under which corporate restructuring practices are introduced. Institutions shape the range of actors' strategic options and mediate the translation of the preferences of firm stakeholders into corporate policies. Nonetheless, strategic choice remains possible since firm stakeholders constitute subgroups with different interests and incentives that influence how they operate in an institutional framework. In particular, we examine under what conditions UK/US-based institutional investors and equity-based compensation incentives are associated with the implementation of asset divestitures and employee layoffs in France. We uncover three key findings. First, the presence of hedge funds and equity-based pay influence the likelihood of French companies undertaking asset divestitures. Second, the impact of hedge funds on employee layoffs is contingent on the ownership structure of firms. Third, layoffs in France are driven by inferior performance – a result that contrasts with the American experience whereby employee layoffs are also used as a strategic mechanism to deal with institutional investors in good times. Our findings demonstrate the importance of the institutional constraints of (national level) employment protection and the moderating effects of ownership structure (firm level) on the strategic and employment policies of French companies.     

The how and why of integrated reporting in a public health care organization: The stakeholders' perspective

Despite the widespread calls for in‐depth case studies on adoption of the International Integrated Reporting Council Framework, in practice, it appears to be underexplored, above all in the public sector. Our aim is to explore how and why a public health care organization (PHO) has chosen to adopt the practice of integrated reporting, and we then delve into whether the PHO's perception of the document's value coincides with that of the stakeholders, who are its recipients. Often, society's perception of value can differ considerably from an organization's. Thus, for our research purposes, a case study was examined, adopting a qualitative approach and action research methodology. Our findings demonstrate the centrality of the value created for patients and of the “normative” scenario that takes place during the implementation of an integrated report in a PHO. Moreover, the concept of legitimacy was found to be virtually synonymous with institutionalization.     

Employee share ownership,training, and early promotion policy as a bundle in enhancing labor productivity: A test of the three‐way interaction effect

The three‐way interaction effect of (broad‐based) employee share ownership (ESO), training, and early promotion policy on labor productivity was examined in a longitudinal sample of 614 organizations (1,605 organization‐year data points) in Korea. The ESO–productivity relationship was positive only when the investment in training was high and the opportunity for early promotion was present. However, we found no evidence for the two‐way interaction effects of ESO and training and ESO and early promotion policy on labor productivity. The results are in alignment with the emergent view that the productivity benefits of ESO can be better realized when ESO coexists with a bundle of complementary human resource management (HRM) practices. Thus, this study meaningfully extends the contingency perspective and related studies in the ESO literature, which tend to examine the productivity effect of ESO in isolation or in conjunction with a single HRM practice.