Conceptualising the dynamics of employee information and consultation: evidence from the Republic of Ireland

The debate concerning the emerging regulatory environment for employee voice continues apace, in particular the requirements to inform and consult employees as a result of the European Employee Information and Consultation Directive. This article examines the processes used to inform and consult employees across 15 case studies in the Republic of Ireland. It evaluates different voice arrangements using a conceptual framework that seeks to capture the dynamics of different employee voice schemes across union and non‐union companies. The findings suggest that participation is more robust when the channels for information and consultation accommodate both conflictual and cooperative processes. It is shown that robust forms of participation are more likely through processes that facilitate independent representation. The evidence also shows that some employers may devise their own counterbalancing forms of (pseudo) consultation, in an attempt to minimise the impact of regulatory rights for employee voice.     

From vision into action

Utopian thinking, problematic as it can be, is used for imagining alternative visions of the future as a design process. Visioning adds foresight to an active-learning process in which participants share critical reflection, decision and change, as Anticipatory Action Learning. Guidelines, including ethics, are suggested. Once its limitations are recognised, it can be a used for integrating learning in a social system.     

Strategy versus tactics in the not-for-profit sector: A role for relationship marketing?

There is evidence that a good deal of the marketing within the not-for-profit sector tends to be of a short-term tactical nature. More particularly, there would seem to be disproportionate emphasis on the communication element aimed in many cases at donors/funding organisations. This paper proposes a need for a more long-term strategic role for marketing within not-for-profit organisations and due to their particular characteristics, the application of relationship marketing is considered to be necessary to produce such a role.     

The key factors for success in corporate fundraising

From the author's basic model on how charities should approach companies, ‘The Company as a Resource’, this paper offers a further and more detailed framework to encompass the major factors that must be identified, considered and developed to ensure success towards the year 2000 in the field of corporate fundraising. By breaking down the general environment and relating key success factors to different elements he offers practical advice and guidance for developing this area.     

Interventionism, Microeconomic Reform and the External Deficit

This article argues that interventionist policies aimed at encouraging export or import-competing industries would not, of themselves, eliminate external deficits under the existing floating exchange rate regime. Similarly, improved productivity and changes in competitiveness are also likely to render microeconomic reform ineffective as an instrument for influencing the external account.     

The motor manufacturing industry in Britain: prospects for the 1980s*

In the 1960s and 1970s motor manufacturing was seen as a microcosm of British industrial deterioration, now it is hailed as an example of success. Despite scepticism from abroad, the author argues that it is not in terminal decline.