Union Density in Israel 1995–2010: The Hybridization of Industrial Relations

In the past the Israeli industrial relations system was corporatist, characterized by high levels of membership in trade unions and employers' associations, as well as broad coverage of collective agreements. The corporatist system gradually eroded from the mid‐1980s, but its major transformation came with the removal of the Ghent‐like system in 1995. The article observes data collected since the transformation, distinguishing between membership and coverage trends. These distinctions aid in revealing that a hybrid of two distinct industrial relations subsystems has developed. The notion of hybridization suggests that unlike past accounts, which described the substitution of the corporatist industrial relations system by a liberal‐pluralist system, what actually emerges is their coexistence. Despite the path‐determined nature of the Israeli hybrid, the interaction between coverage and membership is instructive for understanding strategic choices made in other European countries in which a similar gap emerged. The article notes the potential for synergy between the two subsystems and notes the actual development of rivalry and friction.     

Promoting Ethical Judgment in an Organisational Context

The essay argues that individual ethical judgment is a necessary ingredient in an organisation’s ethical performance. Attempts to systematise judgment, removing it from individual responsibility are not successful, and sometimes can even be counterproductive. Focus on systems of accountability can actually detract from the production of ethical behaviour. A number of examples are provided. Although it is much more difficult to produce, individual responsible decision-making and individual judgment should be the features that an organisation focuses on in its interest to promote ethical performance. Accountability systems are important; but they have very limited application toward production of an ethically excellent environment. The essay argues that there has been too much attention paid to accountability systems within organisations, and much too little paid toward the development and cultivation of individual ethical decision making and responsible behaviour.     

Risk society and ecological modernisation alternative visions for post-industrial nations

Two prominent social theories have been shaping the discourse of environmental politics during recent years. Ulrich Beck's risk society theory contends that conventional definitions of social class are losing their significance in advanced nations due to the success of the welfare state in reducing economic scarcity. As societies transition toward late modernity new social cleavages based on the distribution of environmental and technological risks are gaining salience. Standing in contrast is the theory of ecological modernisation originally advanced by Joseph Huber outlining a hyper-rational strategy for correcting the ecological flaws of contemporary production and consumption practices. This paper introduces a typology that joins the two theories into a unified framework and suggests that the direction toward which a particular society progresses will be conditioned by its predisposition to scientific rationality. Due to increasing public endorsement of alternative epistemologies, most countries will likely encounter great difficulty achieving ecological modernisation.     

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.     

Financing New Farm Entrants: The Long-term Leasing Option

The financing of agriculture has received much attention in recent years, with particular emphases on the financing of new farm entrants. This has been brought about by the underlying economic conditions of the agricultural production system and the policy responses to these conditions. Canadian agriculture has experienced an almost complete boom-and-bust cycle in commodity prices since 1971. This led to a cycle in real estate values, causing financial stress on farms that resulted in an increase in farm failures. In response to this situation, various financial instruments have been proposed to alleviate this financial stress. Unfortunately, these have had no appreciable effect on the financial well-being of Canadian farms. Most of these responses take as a given that Canadian farms should be owned and operated by the same economic unit. This paper suggests that long-term leasing of real estate would reduce the financial stress for these farms by removing the cost-of-ownership component of a farm purchase and thus reduce the cash flow required to enter farming. A cash flow analysis is used to support these arguments, using a Saskatchewan grain farm case example. Le financement agricole a reçu beaucoup d'attention depuis ces derniéres années, tout particuliérement en ce qui attrait au financement de la reléve agricole. Ceci faisait suite aux conditions économiques actuelles du systéme de production agricole et des réformes politiques qui en découlent. L'agriculture canadienne a vu son prix des denrées soumis à un cycle presque complet de «boom and bust» depuis 1971. Le cycle des valeurs immobiliéres qui s'en est suivit a crée un stress financier qui entraîna une augmentation des faillites agricoles. Pour remédier au probléme, plusieurs outils financiers ont été proposés. Malheureusement, leur impact sur le bien-être financier des fermes canadiennes n'a pas eu l'effet escompté. La plupart de ces réponses prennent pour acquis que les fermes canadiennes devraient être possédées et opérées par la même unité économique. Ce papier suggére que la location à long terme des propriétés agricoles devrait réduire le stress financier, en éliminant le coût à la propriété lors de l'achat d'une ferme permettant ainsi de réduire le fond de roulement requis pour débuter en agriculture. L'analyse du fond de roulement est utilisé pour supporter ces arguments en employant comme example le cas d'une ferme cére Aaliére en Saskatchewan.     

Police Pay and Bargaining in the UK, 1978–2000

Police pay and conditions in the UK are governed by a unique mechanism, the Police Negotiating Board. This paper reviews the circumstances in which it was set up and examines the outcomes, relative to other public service workers, over the first twenty years of its operation. Recent developments highlight the role of ministerial intervention and raise questions about the relationship between the PNB negotiating system and working practice at police force level.     

Sustainable Consumption Research as Democratic Expertise

Academic proponents of sustainable consumption have marshaled considerable evidence over the past decade to support calls for more efficacious lifeways among residents of the world’s developed countries. Policymakers continue, however, to resist these recommendations because sustainable consumption runs counter to dominant tenets of neo-liberal economics and conventional political objectives. Unless investigators in the field can identify a cadre of clients that is interested in forming tacit partnerships, the concept of sustainable consumption is likely to remain little more than a prospective pursuit. This article suggests that there are some nascent indications that these kinds of alliances are developing. For sustainable consumption to take root in the policy sphere, it will be necessary to more actively foster these relationships and to cast this form of knowledge as a form of democratic counterexpertise that challenges elite economic and political institutions that regularly appropriate and deploy consumer science to advance their own interests.