The Trade Boards Act of 1909 and the Alleviation of Household Poverty

This article examines the effects of the 1909 Trade Boards Act on women's wage rates and income contributions to poor households. The Act established boards charged with setting minimum hourly wages in selected low-paid trades, and the majority of workers affected before the First World War were women. Many of the women whose wages were raised by the Act were the wives and daughters of low-skilled workers, while many others were sole earners who supported children or elderly parents. Our main finding is that the Trade Boards Act was effective in reducing household poverty rates among the women whose wages it would have increased.     

“How may I help you?” Politeness in computer-mediated and face-to-face library reference transactions

Drawing upon Wittgenstein’s theory of language games, we apply a pragmatic approach to organizational communication. The study extends current theories of computer-mediated communication, and explores how language actually gets used across media. We conduct a comparative study of face-to-face versus computer-mediated reference transactions in an academic library, and analyze people’s use of politeness strategies. The study observes that people use politeness strategies to play different language games across media, and that a dynamic interplay exists among the three constituents of language games: sense making, language use, and forms of life. In particular, we found that: First, people use significantly more negative politeness strategies and fewer positive politeness strategies online than face-to-face. Second, language use influences people’s understanding and precedes practical forms of life. Third, CMC is a different form of life than a face-to-face communication. The new online form of life shapes people’s sense making and the way they use language, resulting in emerging new grammars of CMC. Finally, our findings suggest the interplay among multiple forms of life. This study offers important theoretical and managerial implications for organizational communication and the production and delivery of services in the rapidly expanding digital economy.     

Trends in helmet use by motorcycle riders in the decades following the repeal of mandatory helmet laws

Several US states repealed universal motorcycle helmet laws in the 1990s and 2000s. The purpose of this study was to examine national trends in helmet use among adult trauma patients with motorcycle-related injuries. We hypothesized that motorcycle helmet use declined over time. We retrospectively analyzed the National Trauma Data Bank's National Sample Program for 2003–2010. We also obtained data on US motorcycle fatalities reported in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and population data from the U.S. Census Bureau to calculate motorcycle-related fatality rates over time. A total of 255,914 patients met inclusion criteria, of whom 148,524 (58%) were helmeted. During the study period, helmet use increased from 56% in 2003 to 60% in 2010 (p < 0.001). However, motorcycle-related fatality rates also increased in states with and without universal helmet laws. Nationally, rates of helmet use have increased. However, fatalities due to motorcycle crashes have also increased during the same period.     

Chinese macroeconomic management through the crisis and beyond

As in all the other major economies, China's macroeconomic policy framework was put to the test during the global financial crisis. China applied one of the world's largest stimulus packages. The package provided a very rapid boost to activity in the Chinese economy, with empirical evidence suggesting the package added around 2–3 per cent to the level of GDP in both 2009 and 2010. The stimulus package was clearly a success for China, but there are challenges in unwinding the effects of the stimulus and addressing structural imbalances. Pressures to rebalance Chinese growth and integrate China further into global capital markets will necessitate changes in China's macroeconomic policy framework.     

Applying asset-based community development as a strategy for CSR: a Canadian perspective on a win–win for stakeholders and SMEs

In the December 2006 edition of Harvard Business Review , Michael Porter and Mark Kramer argue that by approaching corporate social responsibility (CSR) based on corporate priorities, strengths and abilities, firms can develop socially and fiscally responsible solutions to current CSR issues, which will provide operational and competitive advantages. We agree that an effective approach to CSR includes a mapping of strategy, risk and opportunity. However, we also caution that the identification of these to the exclusion of societal input may not be to the corporation's advantage. Instead, an investment in both strategic analysis and social capital can pay off from a social and an organizational standpoint. Compared with their larger counterparts, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) frequently have stronger relationships with their internal and external stakeholders that foster the development of social capital. As such, we believe that the sector offers a unique opportunity to identify additional models and frameworks in order to approach a strategic CSR model as espoused by Porter and Kramer. This paper explores a case study of one Canadian SME that uses a community development framework called Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) for its CSR programming. Because ABCD relies heavily on the development and maintenance of social capital and can be utilized to attain set objectives, we propose that it provides a supplementary framework through which the arguments of Porter and Kramer can be expanded. In applying the ABCD framework for CSR, we can begin to establish a programme that supports strategy, integrates employees and stakeholders towards a common vision, and creates unique and sustainable alternatives towards the resolution of social and corporate goals.     

When Employees Engage in Workplace Incivility: The Interactive Effect of Psychological Contract Violation and Organizational Justice

The primary objective of this research was to examine both procedural and interactional justice perceptions as moderators of the relationship between psychological contract violation and workplace incivility. Affect Infusion Model (AIM) was used as a theoretical basis for predicting an interaction in which there was, in general, a positive relationship between violation and incivility. However, a stronger relationship between contract violation and incivility was predicted under high-justice conditions, compared to low-justice conditions, due to the deeper, more elaborate information processing needed to reconcile a psychological contract violation occurring in an otherwise just organization. An online survey was administered to 975 U.S. respondents. The hypotheses were confirmed. Results indicated that the positive relationship between violation and instigated incivility was stronger among employees reporting a just work environment. Implications for applying AIM to organizational settings are discussed.     

A tale of two unions: divergent platforms and their constituencies

ABSTRACT

The median voter theorem has regularly been used in economics to represent the behaviour of teachers unions. Little empirical work, however, tests whether this framework is a good fit for teachers unions. We examine voting behaviour in union representative elections between the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers and find evidence of divergent constituencies. We investigate whether the median voter explains the outcomes of elections in 1977–1979. If both teachers unions select the platform desired by the median voter, there should be no systematic differences in voter preferences for unions. We find that these unions were fundamentally different and attracted distinct voting coalitions. The main implication of this study is that researchers should consider these two unions, and their effect on districts, as distinct.