Explanations of the demand for labour in the United Kingdom engineering sector

This paper presents a set of employment functions for nine individual engineering industries using annual data for the period 1954–1987 for the United Kingdom. A brief review alternative theoretical specifications is undertaken. A set of co-integrating regressions is computed to establish the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between employment and inter aliaoutput and real wages. Based on the results of the co-integration exercise, full unrestricted dynamic equations are obtained and these are then reduced to a more parsimonious representation. The finally preferred restricted models are then tested against a number of diagnostic statistical criteria to establish their robust and efficient properties. The value of these equations for explaining past and predicting future employment and training in the engineering sector is assessed.     

Collective and individual voice: convergence in Europe?

This paper uses longitudinal survey data from Britain, Germany and Sweden to examine whether, as some researchers have suggested, there has been a convergence internationally towards individual forms of employee voice mechanism and, if so, to measure the extent and trajectory of change. The paper begins by examining the importance of the employee voice issue. It then reviews competing accounts of the utility of different forms of employee voice and their manifestations within different varieties of capitalism. It is hypothesized that there has been a general trend away from collective and towards individual voice mechanisms; this reflects the predominant trajectory of managerial practices towards convergence with the liberal market model. This hypothesis is largely rejected. The data showed only very limited evidence of directional convergence towards individual voice models in the three countries. Collective voice remains significant in larger organizations, and although it takes a wide range of forms that include but go beyond unions and works councils, this is a positive finding for proponents of those institutions.     

Social capital: reaching out,reaching in

This paper offers a critique of the much-vaunted claims of sports ability to integrate new migrants by generating social capital. By examining a growing literature base alongside new empirical evidence, we explore whether the experiences of new migrants actually reflect the hypothetical claims made by some policy-makers and scholars about the role of sport in tackling exclusion, promoting inclusion and constructing interculturalism. We demonstrate that the claims made about the value of sport are not found in the experiences of most of our respondents from new migrant communities living in Leeds, UK. We question whether sport truly is communicative in the Habermasian sense, contributing to identity projects, and so counsel caution in using it as a panacea to promote belonging and cohesion. This was a purpose for which leisure opportunities seemed more suited (at least for participants) in our research.     

Service Quality of Advertising and Promotions Agencies in South Africa

Service quality is important to firms that use advertising and communication agencies and these agencies in turn need to make sure that their service quality is what clients expect. The purpose of this research is to assess perceptions of the service quality offered by agencies in South Africa and to identify the most important service attributes of the agency offerings. Agencies were also divided into three types: mass communication agencies, or above the line agencies (ATL), sales promotion agencies, or below the line agencies (BTL), and integrated marketing communication agencies, or full service agencies (FS). A total of 105 responses were received and results were reported for each agency type and in total. The results show some serious differences between what clients are looking for and agency strategies. These are discussed in detail. Recommendations are made which will help agencies in the development of strategic partnerships with clients.     

Survival strategies of HIV/AIDS – affected households in Soweto

This article reports the survival strategies used by households in Soweto with at least one HIV/AIDS-affected member. Data were collected on four occasions between September 2002 and August 2003 from each household, based on diary records and supplemented by interviews with the financial head of the household. In terms of frequency of use and the contribution made to the finances of affected households, the most important survival strategies were: the sick member continuing at work for as long as possible, borrowing from friends and relatives, receiving transfers from relatives, and taking up social grants. These results are broadly similar to those reported by Booysen and associates in their Free State studies.     

Hives and horseshoes,Mintzberg or MacIntyre: what future for corporate social responsibility?

A horseshoe is regarded as a lucky, perhaps even romantic, symbol of our industrial heritage. Why is it, then, that much of English literature, from Mandeville's ‘Grumbling Hive’ on, portrays business in a murky light? The paper begins with an analysis of this phenomenon and concludes that it is the institutionalisation and legitimisation of avarice and its consequential effects that gives rise to such a portrayal. A horseshoe has also been used as a convenient means of conceptualising an answer to the questions this conclusion raises: ‘Who should control the corporation and for what ends?’ (Mintzberg 1985) and discussing recent developments in corporate social responsibility. Drawing on research evidence the paper demonstrates how corporations are simultaneously under pressure from society and responding to its concerns. The paper concludes that these current developments can at best ameliorate the situation, and that what is necessary is to rediscover the notion of corporate virtue, instead of putting virtue at the service of vice.