Union partnership as a facilitator to HRM: improving implementation through oppositional engagement

Abstract

This paper provides a nuanced insight into the workplace level interactions between a union and HRM systems within a union-management partnership arrangement. Soft outcomes of HRM systems typically suffer from compromised implementation by managers struggling to balance competing operational priorities, but we show how a union limits this poor implementation. Qualitative and documentary data were retrieved from a major UK retailer and a trade union to examine how union activity interacts with HRM delivery. Firstly, union communication systems enhanced or replaced company systems of employee voice. Secondly, union activity policed management implementation of HRM practices to limit their subjugation to short-term productivity increases, improving outcomes for employees and the HRM system for the company. These outcomes were achieved through oppositional engagement within the context of partnership, which points towards a persisting and productive pluralism within the cooperative rhetoric.     

What Determines Sectoral Trade in the Enlarged EU?

In this paper, we estimate a sectoral gravity model for trade within a heterogeneous trade bloc, the enlarged EU, comprised of a high‐income group (wealthiest EU), a middle‐income group (Greece, Portugal and Spain), and a low‐income group (new Central and Eastern European member countries). The estimation was conducted on sectors with different degrees of scale economies and skill‐intensities in the presence of transport costs. The results offer support for the call to incorporate trade theories based on both endowments and scale economies. In addition, whilst integrating poorer countries is beneficial for all of the participants in the bloc, there is still a role for a redistribution policy, such as the EU's Regional Policy, which should comprise a mix of policies, focusing on both income and education/skills, together with infrastructure development.     

Organising the profession: A theoretical and historical examination of the development of the major accountancy bodies in the U.K.

The paper is concerned with the organisation of the accountancy profession in the U.K. In the first part a theoretical framework for understanding the emergence, development and role of accountancy bodies is advanced. By including a consideration of professionalisation as well as an examination of the institutions of the market and the state, this framework provides a perspective for understanding professional associations as political bodies developed to defend the interests and preserve the scarcity of their members' labour. In the second part of the paper the history of the professional bodies is traced, focusing upon competition between the major associations as well as the economic and political contexts of their emergence, merger and failed integration. In conclusion, some speculations upon the future prospects of these bodies are entertained.     

Modeling Exchange Rate Volatility

This paper investigates the impact of the volatility of the underlying macroeconomic fundamentals on exchange rate volatility utilizing the bounds testing approach to cointegration. The results show that, in the long run the volatility of the money supply is the sole determinant, whereas in the short run overshooting is found.     

ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION FLOWS IN CUSTOMER MARKETS

In customer markets an information asymmetry exists between a firm's current customers and prospective customers. When a firm changes its price, current customers are instantly aware of the price change, while potential customers are informed slowly of the change. The paper explicitly models this information imperfection and the associated asymmetry in firms' customer flows. The main result of the paper is that, because of the information asymmetry, there will be a range of marginal cost and demand over which the firm has no incentive to change price. It is also shown that prices will be more upwardly flexible than downwardly flexible. The size of the range, and the extent of downward price inflexibility, depends on the rate at which information is transmitted to customers.     

Corporate taxation and the efficiency gains of the 1986 Tax Reform Act

Summary The 1986 Tax Reform Act (TRA) had little effect on the overall U. S. effective capital income tax rate. However, TRA significantly reduced differences in effective taxation of corporate and noncorporate capital for a number of U. S. industries. The Mutual Production Model developed in Gravelle and Kotlikoff (1989) can be used to study the efficiency gains from the reduction in corporate tax wedges within industries. Unlike the Harberger Model, the Mutual Production Model permits both corporate and noncorporate firms to produce the same goods and, therefore, to coexist within a given industry.This paper develops an 11-industry-55-year dynamic life cycle version of the Mutual Production Model. We use this model to study the steady-state efficiency gains associated with the new law. While we do not simulate the economy's transition path, our steady-state welfare changes are those that arise from compensating transitional generations for the first-order redistribution of income associated with the Tax Reform.We find that the 1986 Tax Reform law reduces excess burden by 85 percent of our model's economy's present value of consumption. This efficiency gain reflects the Tax Reform's reduction in corporate-noncorporate tax wedges, particularly in those industries with significant noncorporate production. Measured as a flow the 1988 estimated efficiency gain from the Tax Reform Act is $31 billion.The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, Boston University, or The National Bureau of Economic Research. We are particularly grateful to Alan Auerbach, Oldrich Kyn, and an anonymous referee for very extensive and critical comments. We also thank Don Fullerton, Yolanda Henderson, Tom Woodward, and a referee for their very helpful suggestions.     

The odd couple?: re-engineering business processes; managing human relations

Here the author examines continuities and tensions between the discourses of Business Process Re-engineering and Human Resource Management. Addressing their respective assumptions and claims, especially with regard to the organization of 'human resources', critical attention is focused upon their shared advocacy of employee empowerment and strong leadership from senior managers.     

Bridging the distance: Managing cross-border knowledge holders

This article examines the micro-level operational difficulties for multinational corporations (MNCs) to generate value from its highly geographically dispersed cross-border knowledge and studies the strategies for overcoming them. Using China as the research context, we identify key geographical, institutional and cultural features of cross-border knowledge holders and examine the dimensions of distance that separates them. We then link these dimensions to the conditions that facilitate cross-border knowledge building processes. In doing so, we propose a conceptual model for overcoming these context-specific knowledge management barriers.