Silence as a survival strategy: will the silent be worse off? A study of Chinese migrant workers in Guangdong

Abstract

Based on a comprehensive survey of 766 migrant workers in Guangdong province in 2014, this study empirically examines the factors determining why some Chinese migrant workers remain silent when their rights are violated and the consequences of them doing so. The results of the survey show that the migrant workers who are more vulnerable in demographic factors, family dependency, job insecurity and social networks are more likely to stay silent in such circumstances. The results further indicate that silence leads them to be worse off in relation to social security benefits and labour rights. These results challenge the traditional organisational behaviour perspective on silence. The results imply that silence can be a survival strategy for second-class workers and may be evident whereby the disadvantaged have no say and remain silent in exchange for work opportunity, but by doing so are more likely to suffer unfair treatment.     

Training Agreements: Resolving Under-Investment in Training?

Here the authors examine UK employers’ use of training agreements and their impact on training and development practice. In particular, they review the literature on training agreements and find this to be underdeveloped and based upon little empirical data. Drawing on postal survey and focus group evidence from management trainees and an interview survey of employers, they show that training agreements are relatively widespread, and that employers mainly use agreements as a filter mechanism to assess an employee’s commitment to the training requested. The evidence suggests that training agreements do little to improve, and may negatively effect, a trainee’s commitment to the employer.     

Disclosure Strategies for Pollution Control

Disclosure strategies, which involve public and/or private attempts to increase the availability of information on pollution, form the basis for what some have called the third wave in pollution control policy (after legal regulation – the first wave – and market-based instruments – the second wave). While these strategies have become common in natural resource settings (forest certification and organic farming, for example), they are less familiar in a pollution control context. Yet the number of applications in that context is now growing in both OECD and developing countries. This survey will review what we know and don’t know about the use of disclosure strategies to control pollution and conclude with the author's sense of where further research would be particularly helpful.     

Less is More,or Not? On the Interplay between Bundles of Slack Resources,Firm Performance and Firm Survival

Although a significant body of research has investigated the independent effects of distinct types of slack resources, current theoretical and empirical work does not sufficiently clarify how bundles of slack resources affect firm outcomes. Drawing on the resource constraints literature and the slack literature, we investigate how distinct bundles of financial and human resource slack influence firm performance and survival. Using a sample of 4715 European information and communication technology firms, we show that neither parallel resource abundance (having slack in financial and human resources) nor parallel resource constraints (lacking slack in financial and human resources) are optimal for firm performance and survival. However, firms with selective constraints that combine slack in financial resources with constraints in human resources exhibit superior performance without decreased survival prospects. Taken together, this study extends current research by providing a more nuanced view of the relationships between slack resources, firm performance, and firm survival.     

A test for randomness in behaviour

In biological analysis of behaviour, transition matrices occur of which the diagonal entries are essentially zero. For such transition matrices, a model of randomness is constructed, with a test for the hypothesis that this model holds.     

The dynamics of preference formation

A model is developed and estimated which explains the formation of individual preferences on consumption under the influence of contacts with others (preference interdependence) and own consumption over time habit formation). The model employs a cardinal utility function which can be measured independently of behavioral assumptions. Since preference interdependence has been analyzed earlier, the paper concentrates on habit formation, the preference interdependence component being imputed from an earlier study. Due to data restrictions and measurement error, special econometric provisions must be made. Preference interdependence appears to explain two thirds of individual preferences and habit formation one third.     

Improving Human Wellbeing and Ecosystem Health on BC’s Coast: The Challenge Posed by Historic Resource Extraction

Synopsis Haida Gwaii and the Great Bear Rainforest (GBR) comprise the world’s largest intact coastal temperate rainforest. British Columbia has encouraged industrial logging of this region. As a result, ecological values have been eroded and natural capital has been drawn down. The logging industry has provided few local economic benefits. Colonization and industrial resource extraction have contributed to high levels of social distress in First Nations communities. Since 2001, logging companies, environmental organizations, and the provincial and First Nations governments have collaborated in developing an Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) approach. EBM is intended to maintain ecosystem integrity and improve human wellbeing. In 2006, the province began implementing EBM by setting aside one third of the GBR’s land base from logging and by proposing transitional EBM requirements. This paper draws on stumpage and forest cover data to analyze natural capital depletion. The analysis indicates that much of the GBR’s natural capital, as represented by timber, has been depleted. Industrial logging was already on the decline before the decision was taken to implement an EBM approach. Expectations for improved socio-economic outcomes under EBM may not be realistic given the constraints implied by past logging. If EBM performance is measured using conventional economic indicators without accounting for past depletion, it risks being found to have failed the goal of improving human wellbeing. This would create pressure to relax EBM provisions to allow more logging, an outcome that would fail both ecosystems and human communities in the long term. If much reduced extraction levels are to support local human wellbeing, a greater share of economic benefits must be retained locally.