Cyclical and structural influences on Irish unemployment

In the course of the 1990s the Irish unemployment rate movedfrom near the top to close to the bottom of the EU league table.This paper identifies the cyclical and structural factors thathave contributed to the transformation of the Irish labour market.A steady gain in competitiveness facilitated rapid growth inoutput and employment. The links between Irish and British unemploymentrates have weakened as rapid economic growth has reduced Irishunemployment to historically low levels. The role of structuralchanges, including the relative generosity of the social welfaresystem and the wage bargaining process, are discussed.     

Can Banks Self‐Regulate? Voluntary Agreements,Intrinsic Motivation and Games

This article argues that lessons on how to achieve a sustainable financial system can be learnt from the work done on sustainable commons (on common‐pool resources – CPRs – where there is no ‘tragedy of the commons’). Existing approaches to financial regulation may not give proper attention to available solutions. The article proposes that innovative solutions could be tested using experimental methods commonly used in CPRs: repeat run, feedback driven games.     

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