A Common Denominator? Swedish Employers,Trade Unions and Vocational Training

The big organisations of the Swedish labour market have taken a con-siderable role in the making of vocational education policy in the post-war period. Here it is argued that the ‘Swedish model’ of co-operation between the Social Democratic government and the strong central organisations of employers and trade unions respectively has had a substantial impact on the debate over the reform of vocational education.     

En/Activist Drag: Kings Reflect on Queerness,Queens, and Questionable Masculinities

ABSTRACT

In recent years, media attention to drag performers has increased transforming the once-hidden leisure activity of gay men and lesbians into a publicly recognized phenomenon. Many of these representations of drag have fallen short in offering reflective illustrations of the connections among gender identity, performance, misogyny, patriarchy, and activism. In response, we find ourselves studying the gendered life experiences of drag kings to illuminate the variety of experiences that shape their gendered lives. We specifically look to our re-storied, visual, composite narratives of eight kings' experiences to show how drag functions as a context where social-political-capitalist transformation can be enacted.     

Materialistic cues make us miserable: A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence for the effects of materialism on individual and societal well-being

Consumer-oriented societies are awash with materialistic messages that link happiness and success to wealth and consumption. However, despite extensive research evidence that dispositional materialistic orientations are correlated with lower well-being, the effects of materialistic cues on the well-being of individuals and social groups have not been examined. The present research meta-analytically reviews the experimental evidence for the causal effects of materialism on two dimensions of well-being: (a) individual and (b) societal. We included 27 independent studies that met the inclusion criteria of priming materialism and measuring well-being (N = 3,649), containing a total of 62 effect sizes. Multilevel modeling revealed that materialism has an effect on both individual (δ = −0.39) and societal well-being (δ = −0.41), suggesting that materialistic cues cause lower well-being. Moderation effects suggested that materialistic cues might have a higher effect on interpersonal well-being than on self-evaluation indicators. We discuss the limitations of the current evidence, highlight the research gaps and underdeveloped areas, and provide recommendations such as minimum sample size for future experimental work, since the advancement of this area will help us to gain a better understanding of the impact of consumer-oriented societies on the well-being of individuals and social groups.     

Social capital and cultural adjustment of international assignees in NGOs: do support networks really matter?

International assignees face cultural adjustment challenges in their host countries in work and nonwork situations. At the same time, social capital theory suggests that individuals can access and mobilize resources from their social networks. We explore the use of social networks by international assignees from a non-governmental organization in their cross-cultural adjustment to the host country. Specifically, we are interested in the individuals who directly provided support to the expatriate, a network that we term the ‘current assignment support network’. We focus on the size, type and frequency of contact of the international assignee's support network, and investigate to what extent these variables can predict overall cultural adjustment to the host country, or separate dimensions of cultural adjustment such as interaction adjustment, general adjustment and work adjustment. Our findings indicate that certain characteristics of the international assignee's current assignment support network do impact their cultural adjustment to the host country, but that the effects are moderated by whether the assignee has prior international experience.     

Factor proportions in East-West trade: The case of Finland and Sweden

Conclusions In this study, the role of factor intensities and factor proportions in Swedish and Finnish trade with Eastern Europe have been examined. In the two-factor model, the Swedish results conform with the predictions of the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem. Finland, on the other hand, shows a paradoxical trade pattern, i.e. the results are contrary to the predictions of the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem.     

Similarities and differences in human resource management in the European Union

This study explores similarities and differences in human resource management (HRM) in the European Union (EU). Common factors in the development of European HRM are the importance of consultation, the emergence of flexible work patterns, the role of work and the employer in the life of employees, and the introduction of the Euro. National, company, and regional factors create divergence in European HRM. National factors include societal hierarchy, different cultures and mental models, societal structure, and language. Company factors include size of companies, public versus private, and multinational or local. Regional factors differentiate along north‐south and east‐west axes. The EU had relatively little impact on HRM in terms of harmonization of labor and tax laws but had major impact on the opening up of markets to foreign competition and privatization of public sector companies. While cultural diversity remains strong, the influence of large multinational companies may lead to more regional integration in the practice of HRM. European HRM is much more comfortable operating in a polycentric mode than U.S. HRM, which seeks universality and standardization. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Complex New Product Development Projects: How the Project Manager's Information Sharing With Core Actors Changes Over Time

A heavily burdened project manager must ensure effective information sharing with actors inside and outside the organization because this is a necessary condition for a new product development (NPD) project to achieve its objectives. Knowledge, however, on who actually assists a project manager with the information sharing during NPD projects is limited; therefore, this study of longitudinal objective email data (4658 emails) during a NPD project contributes to theory and practice by advancing our understanding of when and how the project manager establishes relationships with different core actors inside and outside the organization to promote the information sharing.     

Trade policy and distortions in intra-Asian trade

This paper analysis wheather the level of tariffs and non-tariff barriers affect the pattern of inter-industry trade within Asia. The Heckscher–Ohlin theorem is based on the assumption of efficient resource allocation. However, markets in many developing countries protect the domestic production by trade barriers. We would therefore expect the pattern of production and trade not to reflect comparative advantages perfectly. It is found that import charges and non-tariff barriers have a significant positive impact on capital intensities in net export.