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Collective bargaining between employers and trade unions has profoundly changed working conditions in companies around the globe. But why do we start work at the age of 10, 16, 18 or 24? Why do we work 6, 8, 10 or more hours a day? These questions are becoming increasingly pertinent as working norms are fractured and fragmented by country. This book brings an entirely new perspective to our understanding of changes in working time. In both the UK and the US, effective legal or collectively-bargained regulation of working time has been limited over the last 20 years, to the extent that its disappearance is seen as almost unproblematic. Here author Jens Thoemmes sheds light on this transition ...
Drawing on case studies from France, Germany, and China, this book argues that the dynamic interactions between time and autonomy have fundamentally reshaped the evolution of work. Jens Thoemmes details how time autonomy transitioned from early efforts to reduce working hours to today’s complex debates about managing work time. Initially focused on reclaiming time from employers during the nineteenth century, time autonomy has broadened to encompass how work integrates into overall social time. Beginning in the late 1960s, new tools like flexitime, time-savings accounts, and telecommuting began aligning employee aspirations with production demands, marking a shift towards more flexible work arrangements. Placing work environments from France, Germany, and China in comparative perspective, this book explores the way time autonomy varies in different workplaces and socioeconomic contexts as well as the conditions, opportunities, and risks involved.
This book makes a unique and invaluable contribution to our understanding of the changing nature of employment and its consequences for industrialized societies. It combines industry case studies, company case studies, and specific country case studies to paint a multi-dimensional picture of the spread of precarious employment and the responses by trade unions and other worker mobilizations. In addition, the astute theoretical chapters demonstrate how the trend toward precarization is reshaping power relationships in ways that have significant implications for individual security and wellbeing, collective agency and empowerment, societal equality and stability, and the vitality of democracy itself. Together these essays provide an exceptionally rich picture and insightful analysis of these important trends in contemporary industrialized societies.
How has the recession affected the conduct of human resource management? How have HR departments and managers fared? Have leading firms taken measures to sustain and revive their businesses through innovative HR measures? How have union representation and influence been affected? Is the recession reshaping work and employment practices? These are among the questions answered in Recession at Work, the first systematic study in Europe to deal with the effects of the economic crisis on people at work. Drawing on survey data for Ireland provided by nearly 500 managers responsible for human resources, on focus groups of HR managers and trade union officials, and on detailed case studies of six major firms, the book provides an unrivalled picture of the effects of the current recession on how people are managed and how they are represented by trade unions. Examining the effects of the Irish recession on work and employment in the context of international experience and commentary, this book provides detailed information and analysis on the ways in which firms have sought to handle the challenges that have arisen since the severe reverse in Ireland’s economic fortunes in 2008.
Informal economic activity, defined as exchanges made by individuals and organizations in extra-legal or non-bureaucratic contexts, represents a significant and growing share of global economic activity. The informal economy brings to mind images of street vendors in markets and bazaars throughout the developing world; indeed, informal economic activity ranges from 25-75% of economic activity, depending on the country under study. Informal activity also includes "under the table," or "off the books" business in the developed world, such as informal labor arrangements in child care, construction, or home cleaning in the United States or Western Europe. What many fail to realize, however, is t...
When globalization affects jobs and economies, policy makers strive to plan, design and implement actions to support their communities and businesses (Ansell and Gash 2007). Furthermore, local development policies are at the core of international cooperation programs or more in general represent a challenge for emerging countries. They could refer to infrastructure, entrepreneurship innovation or urban renewal. However, more frequently than not, development policies, which involve different institutional levels and public and private players, fail due to poor implementation management. This research book presents a managerial approach (the so called Managerial Flow) that could help the closu...
The idea of using models to inform business practice seems appealing, as it suggests the abstraction and control of a large, complex subject by means of a smaller, easily manipulated mechanism. In reality, however, many models prove inadequate when translated into business methods. Monitoring Business Performance – Models, Methods and Tools elucidates how the assumptions and perceptions that guide performance assessment are often based on models that are poor interpretations and descriptions of reality. In this book, the author scrutinizes the models underlying a number of well-known business methods and tools, and sheds light on the assumptions and subjective perceptions that undermine their effectiveness. In doing so, he offers a unique criticism of accepting business models without questioning their relevance and applicability, and highlights the need to treat models as hypotheses, rather than as certainties.
Cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBM&As) activity has become an important vehicle for firms’ internationalization and corporate restructuring over the past three decades. Despite the huge volume of global CBM&A activity, however, there are few books which carefully explore the strategies, motives, and consequences of global mergers and acquisitions. This book discusses and synthesizes the theoretical literature on the motivation and performance of international merger activities. Focusing on the UK as a top acquiring country in the European Union, the authors explore the recent trends in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, motives for cross-border mergers and acquisitions, the mergers integration process, home and host countries’ macroeconomic consequences on mergers and acquisitions, and shareholder’s wealth effects on CBM&A. This book explores and sheds much-needed light on the UK CBM&A market, what drives it, and what lessons can be learned for other regions around the globe.
In recent years, there has been increasing implementation of group and team decision-making within organizations, much of it managed electronically, between members of what are "virtual" groups or teams. Recent research into effective team implementation emphasizes "trust" as an intermediary process, and trust must be a part of any account of team decision-making. This book provides an integrated framework that represents process in decision-making by interactive groups and teams. This framework furthers both our understanding of process and our capabilities in implementation, based on an account of group decision-making that differentiates the information types contributing to decision quality and relates them to process in interactive groups and teams. Author Steve Silver emphasizes the social structure that is inherent in the interaction of decision-makers as group or team members and effects on the information they exchange.
Innovative Business School Teaching showcases the latest pedagogic innovations that actively engage the millennial generation in learning within the business domain. In the context of the contemporary macro issues facing higher education, this book presents the latest teaching practices and tools used in higher education business teaching, clearly illustrating the practical ways in which business teachers can confront current pedagogic challenges. All of the contributors to this edited book have outstanding track records in teaching, having won national and international awards for teaching excellence, as well as publishing widely on pedagogy. Best practice teaching from multiple jurisdictions across a broad spectrum of business schools is represented. Each contributor shares their innovative teaching tools and techniques in a manner that emphasises how these tools can be adapted to other contexts, thus providing readers with an invaluable teaching resource.