Evaluating Strategies for Negotiating Workers’ Rights in Transnational Corporations: The Effects of Codes of Conduct and Global Agreements on Workplace Democracy

Following the offshoring of production to developing countries by transnational corporations (TNCs), unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have criticised working conditions at TNCs’ offshore factories. This has led to the emergence of two different approaches to operationalising TNC responsibilities for workers’ rights in developing countries: codes of conduct and global agreements. Despite the importance of this development, few studies have systematically compared the effects of these two different ways of dealing with workers’ rights. This article addresses this gap by analysing how codes of conduct and global agreements both independently and interactively affect workers’ rights. We do this based on a qualitative study of the Sri Lankan operations of a Swedish TNC in Sri?Lanka, and on interviews with union and NGO representatives actively involved in codes of conduct and global agreements. Our results indicate that global agreements independently address all the aspects included in codes of conduct, while also addressing additional, more process-oriented aspects of workers’ rights. Hence, on their own, global agreements seem to comprise the superior approach to promoting workers’ rights. Furthermore, our results indicate that promoting codes of conduct has negative interactive effects on global agreements. Based on these results, we argue that the current focus on codes of conduct is counterproductive for the promotion of workers’ rights.     

职场需求导向的人力资源管理教学改革研究--基于河西学院人力资源管理教学的视角

随着企事业单位对从事人力资源管理工作本科毕业生实践能力的重视,高校人力资源管理教学改革必须以提高实践能力为本位,从实践教学在培养应用型人才的重要作用上入手,针对性地提出人力资源管理教学改革的方法和途径,以培养适应职场需求的人力资源管理人才。     

Relief and Redress for Targets of Workplace Bullying

Workplace bullying is a particularly insidious form of counterproductive workplace behavior that results in significant costs to both targets and organizations. We explore existing and potential avenues of relief and redress available to targets. Relief refers to activities focused on eliminating the bullying as well as the mechanisms used to treat those who have been bullied. Redress refers to third-party remedies that involve the financial and/or non-financial compensation of targets. The optimal strategy for dealing with workplace bullying involves both effective organizational interventions to help prevent and address bullying incidents and strong legislative mechanisms to allow for restitution and compensation. This two-pronged strategy provides targets of bullying with multiple sources of relief and redress.

The Fort McMurray demonstration project in social marketing: Health- and safety-related behaviour in a prosperous industrial community

Abstract

This is the first in a series of surveys conducted in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, as part of the Fort McMurray Demonstration Project in Social Marketing. The Project is a community-based, cooperative program designed to demonstrate and to evaluate the application of social marketing and community animation to health- and safety-promoting interventions. This baseline survey was for the purpose of planning specific interventions and to support evaluation of the impact of these interventions. In 1992, a survey of Fort McMurray residents was conducted by telephone. Respondents to the survey tended to be disproportionately women (60%) and aged 30 to 44 (men 55%, women 54%). Most of the findings reported describe a generally affluent community with good self-reported health status and satisfaction in the quality of life. Occupational and personal health-and safety-related behaviours showed some contradictions. Both hearing protection and eye protection are much more frequently practiced at work than at home by both men and women. Protection from ultraviolet radiation, in the form of sunscreens or clothes cover, is practiced with about the same frequency at home or at work, suggesting that this behaviour is conditioned by lifestyle attitudes. Warm-up exercises are much more commonly practiced by both men and women before exertion at home than at work. We conclude that safety-related practices at home and at work are often at variance. The strategy of encouraging generalization of safety-related behaviours, to be practiced consistently both at home and at work, seems to hold promise for achieving greater compliance and promoting both community and workplace safety.     

探索高职英语教学评价新模式——引入美国TOEIC（Bridge）（托业桥）测试问题探讨

TOEIC Bridge（托业桥）是美国教育服务考试中心专门为初、中级英语学习者设计的可以用来测试和提高职业英语交流能力的测试。托业桥考试2007年已经被劳动和社会保障部职业技能鉴定中心引进并正式列入我国国家职业技能考试项目。引入托业桥考试对于高职高专英语教学改革具有导向与推动作用,能够更好地培养学生用英语处理与未来职业相关业务的能力,提高学生职场竞争力。     

Interpretations of management and modernisation at the UK Royal Mail: shifting boundaries and patterns of resistance?

This article develops a critical analysis of Royal Mail modernisation, exploring interpretations and reactions among managers, workers and union representatives. By contrast with much of the published research on views and experiences of change at work, it concentrates on the interplay of employee and managerial identities, sensitivities and responses. The findings highlight tensions between and within management and labour, yet also point to shared meanings, cross‐boundary affinities and shifting patterns of allegiance that stimulated joint questioning, criticising and resisting behaviour. This was directed at the modernising agenda set by Royal Mail executives and partnership ties between the company and the Communication Workers Union.     

Trust me,I'm your boss: Trust and power in supervisor–supervisee communication

This study examined employees' perceptions of trust, power and mentoring in manager–employee relationships in a variety of sectors, including health care, education, hospitality and retail. The main theoretical frameworks used were communication accommodation theory and social identity theory, in examining the manager–employee relationships from an in-group/out-group perspective. Computer-aided content analyses revealed a number of emergent communication and relationship themes that impact upon the level of ‘in-groupness’ and therefore trust in supervisor–supervisee relationships. While it may be illusory to believe that any organization can enjoy complete trust among its workforce, it is clear that certain communication characteristics can result in greater trust in manager–employee relationships, even within the context of organizational constraints. It is argued that the results of the study could be used to inform human resource management academics of key aspects of managerial communication that should be further researched, and also provide insights into the main communication skills that managers should focus upon to improve trust in the workplace.     

Faith at Work Scale (FWS): Justification,Development, and Validation of a Measure of Judaeo-Christian Religion in the Workplace

Workplace spirituality research has sidestepped religion by focusing on the function of belief rather than its substance. Although establishing a unified foundation for research, the functional approach cannot shed light on issues of workplace pluralism, individual or institutional faith-work integration, or the institutional roles of religion in economic activity. To remedy this, we revisit definitions of spirituality and argue for the place of a belief-based approach to workplace religion. Additionally, we describe the construction of a 15-item measure of workplace religion informed by Judaism and Christianity – the Faith at Work Scale (FWS). A stratified random sample (n = 234) of managers and professionals assisted in refining the FWS which exhibits a single factor structure (Eigenvalue = 8.88; variance accounted for = 59.22%) that is internally consistent (Cronbach’s α = 0.77) and demonstrates convergent validity with the Faith Maturity Scale (r = 0.81, p > 0.0001). The scale shows lower skew and kurtosis with Mainline and Catholic adherents than with Mormons and Evangelicals. Validation of the scale among Jewish and diverse Christian adherants would extend research in workplace religion.     

The effects of technical and social conditions on workplace trust

This paper investigates the extent to which the technical and social contexts of organizations independently affect levels of workplace trust. We argue that, in an organizational context, trust is not just a relationship between an individual subject (the truster) and an object (the trustee) but is subject to effects from the conditions of the work relationship itself. We describe the organizational context as comprising both a technical system of production (where work gets done through the specification of tasks) and a social system of work (where problems of effort, compliance, conformity and motivation are managed). We analyse the relationship between trust and these two aspects of workplace context (technical and social systems). We also operationalize this in terms of differences between industries, occupational composition and human resource management practices. The model is tested using data drawn from the 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. The results confirm that differences in industry, occupational composition and HRM practices all impact on levels of workplace trust. We review these results in terms of their implications for future research into the problem of analysing variation in trust at both the workplace and individual levels.     

管理者亲社会行为对越轨创新的影响机制研究—调节焦点与工作自主性的作用

越轨创新是一种基于员工主动工作行为的创新方式,受组织制度和管理风格的约束。管理者亲社会行为能够营造出宽泛自主的工作氛围,有利于知识员工突破时间、资源等桎梏,最终取得突破性组织绩效。以高技术企业为例,构建以管理者亲社会行为为自变量、越轨创新为因变量、调节焦点为中介变量和工作自主性为调节变量的分析框架,应用Amos结构方程模型探究作用路径。实验结果表明,管理者亲社会行为对越轨创新产生正向影响,调节焦点在管理者亲社会行为与越轨创新之间起正向中介中用,工作自主性对管理者亲社会行为与越轨创新的关系具有调节作用。