Enhancing Employee Voice: Are Voluntary Employer–Employee Partnerships Enough?

One of the essential ethical issues in the employment relationship is the loss of employee voice. Many of the ways employees have previously exercised voice in the employment relationship have been rendered less effective by (1) the changing nature of work, (2) employer preferences for flexibility that often work to the disadvantage of employees, and (3) changes in public policy and institutional systems that have failed to protect workers. We will begin with a discussion of how work has changed in the last 20 years in countries like Australia and the United States, and then take up the issue of employees as organizational stakeholders and the ethical duties that are owed them, with special attention given to issues of power. We will then consider whether voluntary action by employers such as social auditing is sufficient to ensure equity for employees, and conclude with a discussion of how changes in public policy might ensure greater fairness in the employment relationship by bringing employers and employees together in partnership.     

Cost- versus convenience-oriented consumers: Demographic,lifestyle, and value perspectives

The demographic, lifestyle, and product value perspectives of convenience-oriented consumers were compared with those of cost-oriented consumers. Findings significant at least at the 0.05 level suggest that convenience-oriented consumers do differ from cost-oriented consumers on demographic, lifestyle, and product value perspectives. Implications for market segmentation and promotional strategies are presented.     

Measuring the Benefits of Homeowning: Effects on Children

In this paper we examine whether homeowning benefits children by testing whether children of homeowners stay in school longer than children of renters and whether daughters of homeowners are less likely to have children as teenagers than daughters of renters. We use both probit models and a bivariate probit technique which takes account of possible selection bias due to differences between parents who choose to own versus rent. We find in several data sets that both effects are statistically significant and quantitatively important—particularly for low-income households. We also estimate that the dollar benefit per low- income household of parents being homeowners rather than renters is at least $31,000.     

Rising Income Inequality in a Time of Plenty: The Influence of Micro-Justice Standards and Group Membership on Macro-Justice Perceptions

Rising income inequality in the 1990s was used to examine the links between micro- and macro-justice. Data from a sample of 119 managers and 334 union members supported our hypothesis that those who more strongly endorsed equality norms at the micro-justice level perceived macro-level income inequality as more unjust. Looking at two key subgroups, our hypothesis that union members were more likely than managers to endorse an equality norm was not supported. Yet managers were significantly more likely than union members to endorse an equity norm at the micro level, as predicted. Finally, our fourth hypothesis that the equality norm mediates the relationship between union membership and perceived injustice was not supported.     

Public sector audit history in Britain and Australia

The introduction of an independent public sector audit function was a critical element in the nineteenth century constitutional reforms of parliamentary and government accountability and created an essential precedent for current practice. By examining the extent of scholarly research on public sector audit history, findings reveal considerable research examined the teleological development of public sector audit and the modern history in a New Public Management context. However, there has been very little published regarding the complex rationales around the origins, development and importance of independent public sector audit notwithstanding that without an appreciation of these precedents it becomes very difficult to protect the Westminster‐based system of democratic government.     

Systems-thinking social marketing: conceptual extensions and empirical investigations

ABSTRACT

Systems thinking dominated the 2015 World Social Marketing conference with the premise that a more holistic approach takes into account all the issues at play for effective change. Augmenting the broadening social marketing literature, we contend that systems-thinking social marketing enhances the field’s conventional behavioural change with concepts of scale, causation, and iterative co-creating change processes for complex health and environmental problems. The results of our empirical Sea for Society study, a sustainable European marine ecosystem examination of what the barriers to change are and how they are interrelated, find systems-thinking social marketing offers the potential to strategically and critically reinforce, not replace, behavioural change campaigns. With systems-thinking social marketing, a coherent theory of change becomes a possibility. Orchestrating social change may become a reality.     

Intra-school competition and student achievement

Within the economics of education literature, numerous studies have investigated the relationship between educational market competition and educational achievement. Educational market competition has been defined as either the availability of vouchers within a community or the number of schools or school districts within the relevant market structure. While these studies have shown that increases in inter-district competition result in increased student achievement, no studies, to our knowledge, have yet investigated the effect of intra-school competition on student achievement. Within this study, a measure of intra-school competition is developed and the findings indicate that increased intra-school competition leads to increased student achievement.     

Developing Co-operative Buyer–Supplier Relationships: A Case Study of Toyota

Over recent years many businesses have recognized that there are strong competitive advantages in developing co-operative partnerships with suppliers. An important challenge for many companies is to identify the factors to enable them to move from relationships characterized by strong buyer power and bargaining position, to partnerships based on trust and co-operation. The purpose of this paper is to consider factors that may influence the development of co-operative buyer–supplier relationships. A case study is presented which illustrates the developing relationship between an automotive manufacturer, Toyota Australia, and its suppliers, as part of a new supplier strategy. Several factors are proposed which provide areas for further research. These include the consideration of similarities between the industry and technologies of buyer and suppliers, prior experiences of change among suppliers, effective communications between buyer and suppliers, and the importance of experiential learning in the acceptance of change.     

Merger Activity and Employment: Evidence from the UK Mutual Sector

This paper approaches the performance consequences of mergers from a new direction; namely by analysing their impact on the acquiring firm's demand for labour. It employs a dynamic labour demand model, with an unbalanced panel of UK financial mutuals over the period 1981–1993. The data relate strictly to core financial intermediation activity and are thus particularly appropriate for the paper's purposes. The results are strongly supportive of an efficiency-enhancing interpretation of merger activity. A significant positive initial impact on the acquirer's demand for labour is followed by three years of significant negative effects, a result consistent with the acquisition and subsequent digestion of less efficient targets.