Workforce churning,human capital disruption,and organisational performance in different technological contexts

We assess the influence of workforce churning on the relationship between organisational human capital and labour productivity. Building on collective turnover research and human capital theory, we examine how the components of workforce churning (i.e., voluntary turnover, involuntary turnover, and new hires) influence the relationship between existing human capital and labour productivity. Further, we examine how this influence varies according to a firm's technological intensity. Our data come from 1,911 Italian manufacturing firms and reveals that collective voluntary turnover negatively affects the relationship between organisational human capital and labour productivity regardless of an organisation's level of technological intensity. In contrast, collective involuntary turnover enhances the relationship between human capital and labour productivity, and its effect is even stronger for organisations with more technologically intensive operations. Finally, our results suggest that the integration of new hires disrupts the relationship between human capital and productivity, particularly for firms with technologically intensive operations.     

Comparative industrial relations theory: the role of national culture

This paper explores the use of national culture in comparative industrial relations theory to explain the cross-national pattern of industrial relations institutions. A critical review of the existing body of theory argues that it has not adequately explained cross-national differences in the main industrial relations variables. The review also establishes that, with few exceptions, national culture is currently given negligible weight as an explanatory variable. It is argued that a cultural theory of cross-national difference is required. Following a critical assessment of the work of Hofstede, a cultural model is developed based on his definition and specification of culture. Some hypotheses linking Hofstede's dimensions of culture with our industrial relations variables are derived. As an empirical test of the model, industrial relations variables are regressed on Hofstede's cultural indices. National culture is found to be significantly associated with all the major characteristics of industrial relations systems investigated. The paper concludes that national culture is the primary determinant of cross-national variations in industrial relations institutions and that culture is likely to be a force for ongoing diversity in labour market systems.     

Internal labour flexibility from a resource-based view approach: definition and proposal of a measurement scale

The dynamic nature of current competitive environments has motivated managers to identify sources of flexibility based on the organisation's human resources. In this regard, internal labour flexibility emerges as a valid strategy to counteract environmental changes, based on the adaptability of the organisation's current workforce to face non-routine circumstances and events that require creativity and initiative. However, despite recent interest in the notion of internal labour flexibility, there is no commonly accepted definition of this term. Currently, there are several competing definitions of the construct, along with a variety of operationalisations. Some integration of these approaches is needed to ensure that our knowledge of internal labour flexibility grows cumulatively. In this study, we have sought to address some of these limitations by theoretically conceptualising and empirically validating a scale to measure internal labour flexibility from the resource-based view (RBV). The application of structural equation modelling to a sample of 226 Spanish firms confirmed the suggested dimensionality of the internal labour flexibility scale, which distinguishes between employees' intrinsic flexibility, skill malleability, behavioural malleability and relational flexibility. Tests of reliability and validity confirmed the appropriateness of this measurement scale.     

Determinants of work organization in the modern firm: change and continuity in the Spanish labour relations

The host of statistical data on labour organization from the 2004 Encuesta de Calidad de Vida en el Trabajo (2005) will be used as a basis for using factorial analysis to identify the factors that determine how ‘modern’ companies organize their work according to business management literature. Workers' identification with their company seems to be the essence of a good part of business managers' objectives. The results of the research point to a continuity in a worker profile that largely corresponds to the Fordist model, with a few significant changes: the domain of some non-conflictive industrial relations which is settled on the value that is given to the good relationships with mates and managers and the flexible work-class positive assessment that allows to harmonize other life aspects.     

Young people living as couples: How women's labour supply is adapting to the crisis. Spain as a case study

In this paper, we focus on the effects of the Great Recession on the decisions of young women regarding their labour supply. Considering the profound effect of the economic recession on the Spanish labour market, and in particular on the labour supply of young people, the focus of the empirical part of this paper is on Spain. Using EU-SILC 2007 and 2012 micro data for Spain, the labour supply models of women are estimated by age group, with a particular focus on the 20 to 29 and 30 to 39 age bands, in order to establish how young women living in couples exhibit different labour supply propensities according to their partner's labour market status. Correction is made for the non-random selection of women living in couples in the younger age groups. This first analytical step reveals a negative effect on the likelihood of forming a new household in the context of precarious employment conditions. Analytical results regarding the labour supply of women by age group confirmed a discouraging effect of young children on the labour supply of the youngest mothers, as well as a positive effect from being the owner of a house purchased under mortgage.The literature shows that different effects can be at work within the crisis: an added worker effect (AWE), which is countercyclical labour supply behaviour involving an increase in individual labour supply in response to transitory shocks in the partner's earnings, and a procyclical discouraged worker effect. The resulting estimations of the present study suggest an AWE in 2012 for young women living in couples. While in 2012 the discouragement effect was only prevalent for women over 40, in 2007 it was also prevalent among younger women. Women's higher propensity to enter the labour market when their partner becomes unemployed or is persistently unemployed, coupled with their likelihood to be inactive in the presence of young children, would suggest a need for labour market policies targeted towards young women. Childcare facilities could mitigate the latter effect and produce a more continuous work profile, avoiding the negative effects of work experience interruptions on labour supply during the female lifecycle.     

ECONOMIC TRANSITION AND LABOUR MARKET DYNAMICS IN CHINA: AN INTERPRETATIVE SURVEY OF THE ‘TURNING POINT’ DEBATE

Has the Chinese economy approached the ‘Lewisian turning point’ that marks the ending of the initial phase of industrial transformation fuelled by surplus labour? In this paper we undertake an interpretative survey of the literature on this issue, in the context of China's labour market conditions prior to the reforms and structural change of the past three decades. The available evidence is mixed, and our assessment makes a strong case for probing institutional constraints to labour mobility from an economy‐wide perspective, going beyond the confines of the rural economy.     

Labour Values,Prices of Production and the Effects of Income Distribution: Evidence from the Greek Economy

This paper explores the relationship between labour values, prices of production and changes in income distribution in an actual economy. For this purpose we use a linear model of production with circulating capital and homogeneous labour, assuming that wages are paid ex ante. On the basis of this model and data from input–output tables of the Greek economy for the period 1988–1997 we estimate the labour values and prices of production, which are normalized with the use of the Sraffian standard commodity and the actual output vector. Furthermore, we extend Steedman's polynomial approximation of prices of production to include the case where wages are paid ex ante and the accuracy of this approximation is tested with actual input–output data. Finally, we find that prices of production change as a result of hypothetical changes in income distribution more often than not in a monotonic way and in a few cases display curvatures that reverse the order between prices of production and values.     

Maastricht: a fundamental change in European labour law

The Maastricht Treaty's Protocol on Social Policy provides a new framework for participation of labour and management in the formulation and application of labour law at national and Community levels. Following the Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers, it marks a fundamental change of direction in European labour law     

The Theory of Optimal Law Enforcement

The economic literature on optimal law enforcement is very recent. Becker's seminal paper on crime and law enforcement dates from 1968 and most papers which are the focus of this survey have been published in the last ten years.The core result presented by Becker is the following: the probability and the severity of punishment deter crime. Therefore, the fine should be maximal since it is a costless transfer whereas the probability of detection and conviction is costly. Much of the recent work has attempted to show why Becker's result may not hold.     

The transition from individual to collective labour relations in China

The article discusses the current transformation of Chinese labour relations. The Labour Contract Law implemented in 2008 provided the legal framework for China's adjustment to individual labour relations; it also hastened the evolution of collective labour relations. The article discusses how two different aspects of the Chinese labour movement—top‐down and bottom‐up—have been interacting. Implications are drawn from the experience of the strike wave of the summer of 2010. It is argued that further legal intervention could facilitate the development of China's labour policy, but that the reform of collective labour law will require the strengthening of the collective rights of workers and the nurturing of institutions which can focus collective consciousness and organisation.     

Total Labour Requirements and Value Added Productivity of Labour in the Process of Economic Development

When the inverse of the value added productivity of labour is regressed on total labour requirements (which is equivalent to labour values), a significant relationship is obtained. This indicates that the value added productivity of labour can be explained by total labour requirements (labour values). The mean value of the regression coefficients is about 1.7. The regression coefficients have a tendency to increase during the process of rapid economic development and to decrease afterwards. Such movements are explained by value added linkages. This study is based on input–output analysis, where total labour requirements per monetary unit of output and the value added productivity of labour are calculated for each of 24 industries in Japan, Korea and USA, every 5 years between 1960 to 1985.     

我国私营企业劳资关系初探

目前我国私营企业工会职能弱化,集体谈判和集体合同制度没有得到普及,劳资冲突日益严重的现状所造成的负面影响已引起了各方面的关注。文章认为应从组建工会、强化工会职能、健全劳资关系立法、推行集体谈判和集体合同制度、运用现代激励理论建立员工激励机制等方面入手构建健康稳定和谐的劳资关系。     

Emiratisation: determining the factors that influence the recruitment decisions of employers in the UAE

The Arab Gulf's labour market is being overhauled. The private sector is increasingly being ‘obliged’ to more actively support nationalisation programmes. This study seeks to quantitatively determine the recruitment decisions of the employers. We collated the views of just under 250 UAE-based HRM personnel, in order to identify which factors (social, cultural, economic, regulatory, educational and motivational) are most significant as cited in the relevant literature. Not having the necessary educational qualifications and high reservation wage demands were found to have less of a bearing than does the perceived lack of vocationally orientated motivation and the ambiguities over the differing rights afforded to employees.     

‘A life on the ocean wave’: the ‘post-socialist’ careers of Chinese,Russian and Eastern European seafarers

The emergence of the global labour market (GLM) provides a novel platform for young professional workers to design and develop their careers. This is particularly true for those from China, the former Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries, where economic liberation has made it easier for professionals to move both internally and internationally. Taking into account national variations in economic transition and political constraints, several questions are raised. How does the GLM, for example, influence its choice of employers and career development? What are the similarities and differences between Chinese and Eastern European seafarers? What factors contribute to these differences? Those questions are addressed here, through a study of the case of seafarers for whom a global labour market has been established since the 1980s. By collecting crew information worldwide, a global seafarer database has been built in the Seafarers' International Research Centre (SIRC) at Cardiff University. Accordingly, this paper develops a methodological framework for analysing and comparing seafarers' careers, and revealing the features of career development amongst four major seafarer supplier countries: China, Russia, the Ukraine and Poland.     

Work–family conflict and the commodification of women's employment in three Chinese airlines

In the East, where gender is mediated by different family structures, societal institutions and economic development, the work–family conflict (WFC) metaphor remains appropriate. This paper investigates Chinese women's experiences of WFC in the fastest growing commercial airline sector in the world. It finds that, in contrast to the West, work-to-family, rather than family-to-work, conflict dominates. Liberalization, competition and commercialization have also had a significant gendered impact on jobs. The latter resulting in the commodification of women's aesthetic and emotional labour, job segregation, employment insecurity, poor career opportunities and increased WFC. We explore reasons why HR policies and practices in airlines fail to address women's workplace concerns and find that occupational status and lack of organizational power, together with the prevalence of traditional gendered norms and attitudes, play important roles     

Transport Infrastructure and Logistics in the Making of Dubai Inc.

This article interrogates the political economy of Dubai's Jebel Ali Port, ranked among the top ten container ports internationally by traffic, and its operating conglomerate, Dubai Ports World (DP World). The article aims to situate trade infrastructure in the production of Dubai's economic geography as a sea–air multimodal trading hub. Three interrelated arguments are put forward: that port infrastructure plays an essential role in linking diverse moments of capital accumulation in Dubai; that Dubai's state‐owned conglomerates have overseen a substantial internationalization of Dubai's capital through maritime port public–private partnership arrangements; and that the particularities of Dubai's repressive labour regime underpin its role in the logistics industry internationally.     

解读斯密分工理论,构建社会和谐分工

劳动分工不是一个新的论题,我们的前人早已看到了分工的重要性,分工是社会发展的需要。政治经济学之父亚当·斯密在《国富论》中阐述了分工理论,现在读来其思想的闪光点依然为我们所见。本文引入斯密分工理论,结合现实,提出新时代的分工思想,对建立社会劳动和谐分工作一探讨。     

THE BENEFITS OF MIGRATION

This article focuses on the potential benefits of migration. Using the author's previous research on remittances and return migration, some of the welfare gains that can stem from the migratory process are highlighted. In the first part of the article, the impact of remittances on child well‐being in Vietnam is investigated. Both the incidence of child labour and school attendance rates in remittance recipient households are assessed. In the second part of the article, the contribution made by Tunisian return migrants to the development of their country of origin is examined. Both analyses suggest that, if certain conditions are met, migration can produce beneficial outcomes for the people and the countries involved in the process.     

Labour reform in a neo-liberal ‘protected’ democracy: Chile 1990–2001

This paper analyses the direction and degree of labour reform in Chile since the restoration of democracy in 1990 after seventeen years of military dictatorship. The regime of General Augusto Pinochet (1973–90) adopted a highly repressive political character and implemented neo-liberal economic policies, which, together with the institutional restructuring that accompanied them, transformed vast sectors of Chilean society. The 1979 Labour Plan significantly changed the character of industrial relations legislation and the roles and balance of power among social actors, transforming the way in which industrial relations had been conducted since the 1920s. We argue that, despite more than a decade since the restoration of democracy, and after several rounds of reform, the current legislation presents remarkable continuity with the one enacted under authoritarianism, contradicting claims that profound change has been achieved. In attempting to explain the direction and degree of the so-called Transition's Labour Reforms, we emphasize the importance of political-economy approaches. We explore the conservative nature of the Chilean transition to democracy, the continuity of the neo-liberal economic model and the increasing imbalance of power between capital and labour, in an effort to account for the persistence of the authoritarian legacy in today's Chilean industrial relations.     

Conflict,militancy and crisis in Italian industrial relations: a response to Terry

Terry's explanation of the role of the law in the flexibility of Italian industrial relations is disputed. Instead the political and social nature of the labour movement is used to explain what amounts to a ‘crisis’ for Italian unions