Introducción. Trabajo,empleo y sociedad: ¿Qué esperar del futuro?

En la presente introducción se destacan los principales aspectos extraídos de los artículos de este número especial que cabría considerar en las investigaciones sobre el futuro del trabajo. Se presentan los cambios acelerados que afectan al mundo del trabajo como una oportunidad de orientarse hacia un crecimiento proclive a la igualdad, pero también se advierte de los peligros que plantea una mala gestión del cambio tecnológico, de las desigualdades –haciendo hincapié en el carácter persistente y transversal de la desigualdad de género–, de las cadenas mundiales de suministro y de las oportunidades de diálogo social. En vista de ello, se proponen también recomendaciones de política en las que se presta especial atención al fortalecimiento de la protección de los trabajadores y de las instituciones representativas, el replanteamiento de los marcos normativos y de los sistemas fiscales, y el logro de transiciones justas.     

Enriching the Organizational Context of Chronic Illness Experience Through an Ethics of Care Perspective

The standard economic and ethical case in defense of sweatshops employs the standard of the “welfare of their workers and potential workers” to argue that sweatshop regulations harm the very people they intend to help. Scholars have recently contended that once the benefits and costs are balanced, regulations do, in fact, raise worker welfare. This paper describes the short and long-run tradeoffs associated with sweatshop regulation and then examines how reasonable constructions of measures of “worker welfare” would evaluate these tradeoffs finding that the standard economic and ethical case against sweatshop regulations is well supported.     

Determinants of integrated product development diffusion

Integrated product development (IPD) is an approach for developing new products focused on the early and active involvement of design, manufacturing, marketing and other key new product development (NPD) stakeholders in order to achieve cross-functional integration and concurrent execution of various NPD activities. The benefits of IPD are well known in both the academic literature and popular press, including significant reductions in NPD cycle time and costs. However, in spite of these benefits, for the majority of manufacturing organizations, IPD is not used on 100% of NPD projects. This research develops a model of the organizational contextual factors influencing the diffusion of IPD in organizations. Results of surveying 269 NPD managers indicate that the complexity of certain IPD practices and support for IPD directly influence IPD diffusion, while an innovative organizational climate and the complexity of the organization's NPD activities indirectly influence IPD diffusion through IPD support.     

Co-operatives and the poor: A comparative perspective

Co-operatives have a universal appeal as an instrument of poverty alleviation and yet their record has been less than exemplary. This paper highlights dilemmas faced in co-operative development between the objectives of growth and distribution, and those between decentralization and equity. The paper identifies the various internal and external prerequisites for a successful co-operative movement. By examining the evidence with regard to marketing, credit and production co-operatives it argues that in the absence of such prerequisites, alternative forms of institutional arrangements may be as, or more effective than co-operative institutions. In any case a healthy movement which reaches the poor calls for institutional competition.     

Rewriting the Bases of Capitalism: Reflexive Modernity and Ecological Sustainability as the Foundations of a New Normative Framework

The debate on sustainable globalized development rests on two clearly stated economic assumptions: that "development" proceeds, solely and inevitably, through industrialization and the proliferation of capital intensive high-technology, towards the creation of service sector economies; and that globalization, based on a neoliberal, capitalist, free market ideology, provides the only vehicle for such development. Sustainability, according to the proponents of globalized development, is merely a function of market forces, which will generate the solutions for all problems including the environmental dilemmas that loom over the globe today. The social focus of globalized development is clearly the "individual" and the much-touted goal of development in the context of these debates, is the emancipation of the individual from want. This glorification of the individual, so characteristic of the Enlightenment, has defined all aspects of modernity, leading to approaches that are self-focused and that give little thought to the needs of society or even the social context. The increasing impoverishment of human life and the growing environmental degradation, however, provide a poignant counterpoint to this onrush of capital interests, demanding a reassessment of sustainability separate from the logic of industrialization and globalized development. This paper examines the unfolding of the logic of capitalism, which underlies the structure of the Rostowian model of development and the problems in the assumptions underlying today's globalized development process. The evident impossibility of sustainability in the current growth-based market system leads to the examination of alternatives including a reflexive understanding of the choices and the inclusion of opportunity costs, related to the social, environmental and economic aspects of decision making. The integration of all factors of production into the logic of development provides a sustainable alternative to the current system.     

Supply management practices and performance in the Canadian hospitality industry

As the competition to gain customers becomes more intense, the hospitality industry has faced increasing pressure to find new approaches to create and deliver value to customers through supply chain management (SCM) practices. Over the past decade there has been a growing realization of the important contribution that purchasing and supply management can have on an organization's performance. This paper addresses SCM practices, with an emphasis on strategic purchasing (SP), in one sector of the Canadian hospitality industry. Using data collected from 105 Canadian hotels, this study tested seven hypotheses of the impact of SP on SCM practices and verified the impact on the hotel's performance. All of the hypothesized relationships were supported. The results indicate that SP is positively related to the relationship with the supplier (SR), communication (COM), service quality (SQ), financial performance (FINP), and customer satisfaction performance (CUSP). The managerial and research implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.     

Development of technological capability by Cuban hospitality organizations

This study investigates the key elements that affect the ability of hospitality organizations to cultivate technological capability through innovation. The focus of analysis is not on the institutional context, but on the hotel and tourist companies. A theoretical framework that links the type of innovation undertaken by the firm, the firm's managerial capabilities, learning culture, organizational structure, systems and procedures, technological absorptive capacity and level of government support with the level of technological capability is presented and tested empirically based on the data on innovation projects from 62 Cuban hospitality companies. Analysis of the data confirmed hypotheses that group management skills, project management skills, learning culture, and government support are significantly related to the development of technological capability in these companies.     

Toward an integrated model of consumer reactance: a literature analysis

Management Review Quarterly - Psychological reactance gained scholarly attention and is continued to be explored across various disciplines ever since Brehm proposed reactance theory in 1966....     

Child Schooling and Work Decisions in India: The Role of Household and Regional Gender Equity

Abstract

This paper tests three hypotheses about how mothers' autonomy in India affects their children's participation in school and the labor market. To do so it extends the concept of mothers' autonomy beyond the household to include the constraints imposed by the extent of gender equity in the regions in which these women live. This study began with the expectation that increased autonomy for Indian mothers living in heterosexual households would increase child schooling and decrease child work. However, the results are mixed, indicating that mother's autonomy can be reinforced or constrained by the environment. The paper concludes that mothers and fathers in India make different decisions for girls vis-à-vis boys and that the variables reflecting mothers' autonomy vary in their impact, so that mothers' level of education relative to fathers' is not often statistically significant, while mothers' increased contributions to household expenditure decrease the probability of schooling and girls' work.