Refashioning Organizational Boundaries: Outsourcing Customer Service Work*

abstract In recent years there has been a discernible trend towards the outsourcing and subcontracting of work. However, there has been very little empirical research on employees' attitudes to work in outsourced firms. This study is conducted in the area of call centre services where there has been a substantial growth in the provision of external market suppliers. It examines employees' perceptions of their work and employment arrangements in both an in‐house producer and an external service provider and identifies and compares the factors that shape their organizational commitment and intentions to quit. The research found that the character of the internal labour market and the nature of the work regime were more important explanations of organizational commitment and intentions to quit in the external market supplier than in the in‐house producer. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for the quality of customer service provided under subcontracting arrangements.     

Multinational Management Strategy and Human Resource Decision Making In the Single European Market*

There has been considerable academic interest in the consequences of European integration for multinational companies and their subsidiaries, and the co-ordination and control of human resource decision making. Against the backdrop of this debate, this paper examines the impact of European integration on management organization and human resource decision making in 13 British multinational companies. Although there were partial moves towards the development of European managers, a European-wide approach to human resource matters was not yet a conspicuous feature of this sample of multinationals. the global preoccupations of the companies, as well as the persistence of national variations in consumer markets and modes of product regulation, were clearly major constraints on the emergence of European forms of corporate organization and underpinned the lack of enthusiasm for distinctively European approaches to employee management.     

Why trying to reorient a brand can burn your fingers

John W Walsh argues that the emotional appeal of a brand (its main value) is built up over years of consistent marketing and advertising. Trying to change that appeal overnight will confuse and alienate consumers – as Coca-Cola and Guinness found.     

Convergence or divergence? Corporatism and the dynamics of European wage bargaining

Against the backdrop of the debate on European pay bargaining, this article investigates the central claims of the literature on national pay policies and critically evaluates the macroeconomic studies of bargaining structure and economic performance. It is argued that structural changes in the world economy, including the slowdown in productivity growth, the process of internationalization and sectoral shifts in employment, threaten to destabilize industrial relations systems characterized by highly centralized mechanisms of pay-fixing, and that policy proposals that favour a concerted shift towards more corporatist arrangements are unlikely to be feasible.     

Project management for R & D equipment: a prescriptive attack

The authors review statements from industry on the problems of procuring physical equipment for research and development, and list the lessons of project management that can be applied     

CROSS-SUBSIDISATION OF RURAL AREAS VIA UTILITY PRICING POLICIES*

Public utilities which apply roughly uniform prices to all consumers often engage in cross-subsidisation — charging prices which are below cost for consumers in low population density areas but above cost for consumers in high density areas. The distributional and allocative implications of this practice are examined and it is concluded that some cross-subsidisation may be justifiable on welfare grounds even where no externalities exist. There is, however, little empirical evidence released by utilities to enable assessment of the efficiency of their practices. If nothing else, we highlight the need for greater public disclosure of pricing practices by public utilities.