Unions,organisation change and alcohol policy

There is little doubt that company policies which successfully attempt to change employee behaviour patterns require a high level of trade union involvement. Workplace alcoholism policies are an example of this kind of initiative. This article presents some preliminary, survey evidence on the extent to which alcohol policies have been introduced in Scotland.     

Some economic aspects of industrial democracy*

Laurence Hunter argues that although there has been some reference to economic questions in the debate on industrial democracy, they have not received the attention that they deserve. Rather than to provide answers, the purpose of his article is to highlight the importance of the questions, in the hope that others might be encouraged to accept the presented challenge.     

The imperatives for organizational governance in a large charity: a strategic choice perspective

This paper explains the factors that shaped governance practices in a large charity. The author uses strategic choice theory in an analysis of case study data to bring into calculation the internal and external factors that impacted the roles of board members and executives. The paper finds overall support for a powersharing model and contributes to our understanding of governance in nonprofit organizations.     

Consequential egalitarianism vs. accountability principle: an experimental investigation

We conducted a laboratory experiment to investigate how people’s fairness views and redistribution depend on different rooted risks, specifically whether the risk is exogenously assigned in a ‘pure-luck’ control assignment or endogenously chosen by subjects in an ‘option-luck’ treatment. This experiment examines two contradictory views about distributive justice, namely consequential egalitarianism and the accountability principle (AP). The results show widespread support for the view of AP when participants have the opportunity to alleviate the risks.     

Key research themes on travel behavior,lifestyle, and sustainable urban mobility

abstract

The concept of lifestyle adds a behavioral component to travel models that used to be dominated by engineering and econometric traditions. This article presents an overview of how lifestyle is defined and measured in transport studies, and how travel behavior is influenced by lifestyles. Lifestyles are often used pragmatically rather than theoretically in the behavior studies. Nevertheless, some important theoretical contributions have been made, especially in sociology by scholars such as Weber, Bourdieu, Ganzeboom, and Schulze who agree on the communicative character of lifestyles: individuals express their social position through specific patterns of behavior, consumption, and leisure. These behavioral patterns are shaped by underlying opinions and orientations, including beliefs, interests, and attitudes. Thus, travel behavior is not simply determined by price, speed, and comfort but is also related to attitudes, status, and preferences. Because lifestyle has many different dimensions, a variety of measurement approaches exists. Nevertheless, most studies suggest that travel behavior is conditioned by specific lifestyles. How lifestyles themselves can be modified to promote more sustainable patterns of transport has not received much attention to date. This article argues that lifestyles need to be considered as dynamic rather than as static and given, and that future research could delve more deeply into this area.     

The relevance of information and trading costs in explaining momentum profits: Evidence from optioned and non-optioned stocks

Considerable evidence from many countries suggests momentum strategies generate profits. These have been difficult to rationalise and evidence on the sources of such profitability is inconclusive. We utilise a sample of optioned stocks, characterised by high liquidity, high market capitalisation and fewer short sales constraints and compare results with control samples of non optioned stocks chosen on the basis of market value, turnover and bid–ask spread. The sample characteristics, and the fact that derivatives improve the impounding of information into prices, enable us to draw conclusions about the causes of momentum profits. While we find that short sales constraints are not the major driver of profitability and that most momentum profits disappear using two transactions costs measures of the bid–ask spread, one not previously used, the persistence of some momentum profits indicates that the market underreacts even to the most publicly available information.     

Strategic application of events

This paper explores the area of strategy and events through a qualitative study. Organisations are increasingly seeking to achieve strategic objectives through the delivery of events. Particularly, as regards the role of events in the communication of brand strategy. This paper seeks to illuminate the underpinning reasoning for this trend, and examine prevalent issues relating to event management and event experience. There is a critical evaluation of the factors that facilitate and constrain events in supporting organisational strategy, with a number of themes identified that impede events from realising their strategic potential.     

‘From boom to where?’: the impact of crisis on work and employment in Indian BPO

This article locates Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) within the global supply chains of business services delivery and an international division of service labour. It acknowledges the BPO market's essential dependence on demand from lead firms in the United States and United Kingdom. Drawing on a conceptual synthesis of the Global Commodity Chain, Global Value Chain and Global Production Network frameworks, the article examines the impact of 2008's financial crisis on employment, work organisation and the experience of work in Indian BPO. Employer/industry sources and employee interviews reveal reconfigured local labour market dynamics, tightened work discipline, an extensification of working time, work intensification and unprecedented growth in job insecurity. Such changed characteristics suggest a watershed that raises questions concerning the sustainability of models of BPO work constructed in pre‐crisis years.