Technological change and participation in work organization: recent results from a European Community survey

In 1987–8 a large attitudinal survey covering all twelve Member States of the European Community was carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in Dublin which focused on various aspects of participation by employee representatives in new information technology. This paper presents evidence on one of the central trade union concerns about technological change – that of work organization.

The paper first sets out an explanatory framework which is based on much of the literature, surveys and case-study evidence on the impact of new technology on work and employment. Second, the explanatory factors are used to explain the wide diversity in the levels of participation in work organization across the Community. The paper concludes that there is a significant North/South divide, with the northern EC Member States, particularly Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium having much higher levels of participation in work organization than their Mediterranean partners.     

Direct and representative participation in Europe: recent survey evidence

Despite the wealth of literature on HRM and employee involvement, now there has been a remarkable lack of large-scale survey evidence on the diffusion employee involvement in work organizations in Europe. This gap in large-scale survey evidence on the diffusion of direct employee participation has now been filled representative sample of workplaces in ten major European Union countries which commissioned by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in Dublin (the EPOC project). It is by far the most comprehensive overview of the implementation and effects of direct employee participation of its kind. The paper shows that, on the basis of the EPOC survey results, there appears to considerable gap between the rhetoric and reality of direct participation. The paper shows that while the incidence of different forms of direct participation was widespread ten countries, the scope, in terms of number of issues involved and the number of given to employees, was relatively limited for most direct participation forms. The survey also showed that the introduction of direct participation posed little threat to trade representatives. Indeed, works councils and union representatives were in most 'agents of change' rather than barriers to the development of the more intensive practice of direct participation.     

Women, Power and Trade Union Government in the UK

This paper addresses the under-explored relationship between women's structures and union democracy and argues that women's structural progress is mediated by an enduring gendered oligarchy and an associated struggle to access power resources. It provides, first, an analysis over time of women's structures in UK unions, and second, a case-study analysis of the Manufacturing, Science and Finance (MSF) trade union. The analysis over time demonstrates women's progress in achieving positional power, but conceals the complexity of the way different resources are used to constrain and enable women trade unionists.     

Relative price variability: Evidence from supply and demand events

Previous studies of relative price variability assume that all supply changes are unanticipated or that supply elasticities are equal across markets. In this paper, we extend these models by relaxing these restrictive assumptions. Our resulting theoretical expression for relative price dispersion reveals an independent role for unanticipated and anticipated supply events. Subjecting our model to empirical testing, we find that this dichotomy of supply shocks is not rejected by the data for the period 1970–1981.     

FIML estimation of models with multiple regimes and covariance restrictions

This paper examines the FIML estimator for a system of simultaneous equations in which a structural change, at a known time, has taken place in one or two of the equations, while the rest are unaffected.     

THE ANNOUNCEMENT EFFECTS OF PREFERRED STOCK RE-RATINGS

This paper examines the equity return behavior of firms whose preferred stock ratings have been changed by Standard and Poor's. The evidence indicates that the market anticipates the re-ratings by approximately 40 days for the complete sample. However, the downgrades for the utility subsample do not experience any downward drift before or after the re-rating. In general, these results support the previous findings of Pinches and Singleton (1978) and Weinstein (1977).     

EXAMINATION OF A PATH MODEL RELATING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE WITH FIRM PERFORMANCE

This article draws on the resource‐based view of the firm to investigate the mechanisms through which information technology (IT) impacts firm performance. Research suggests that the relationship between IT and firm performance may be both direct and indirect. In this study, a path model is tested that proposes a firm's IT infrastructure resources as having both a direct impact on organizational performance, as well as an indirect effect that is propagated through its impact on an intermediate organizational resource, a firm's logistics information system (LIS). The results suggest that positive firm performance may be derived directly from an organization's superior IT infrastructure, as well as indirectly, through its enabling impact on LIS's. These findings contribute to our understanding of the nature of the relationship between IT and firm performance by exploring the value of IT at both the process and organizational levels.