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Full-Text Articles in Business Administration, Management, and Operations
Building Momentum For Collectivity In The Digital Games Community, Johanna Weststar, Marie-Josee Legault
Building Momentum For Collectivity In The Digital Games Community, Johanna Weststar, Marie-Josee Legault
Management and Organizational Studies Publications
Studies of digital game labor have tended to document problems in the working lives of developers while devoting relatively limited attention to solutions, or to collective representation as a step toward solutions. An increasing number of game developers are dissatisfied with their working conditions, and dissatisfaction is a necessary condition for workers to engage in collective action to gain the representational power needed to achieve change in the workplace. Noting that the landscape of collective mobilization in the game industry has not yet been systematically mapped, this article documents collective actions over the past five decades, and asks, “Are the …
Negotiating In Silence: Experiences With Parental Leave In Academia, Johanna Weststar
Negotiating In Silence: Experiences With Parental Leave In Academia, Johanna Weststar
Management and Organizational Studies Publications
This paper presents a case study of pregnancy/parental leave arrangements among faculty members at a mid-sized Canadian University from 2000-2010. The data show that leave arrangements were very inconsistent across faculties, across and within departments, and even for individual faculty members who had taken more than one leave. The majority of problematic cases were instances where a faculty member began or ended a leave in the middle of an academic term. Without specific language in their collective agreement, these faculty members often negotiated circumstances that carried individual penalties for duties that were unassigned in light of the leave. This research …
Is The Very Notion Of "Representation" Relevant For The Regulation Game Of Video Game Developers?, Marie-Josee Legault, Johanna Weststar
Is The Very Notion Of "Representation" Relevant For The Regulation Game Of Video Game Developers?, Marie-Josee Legault, Johanna Weststar
Management and Organizational Studies Publications
In this paper we question whether videogame developers face a representation gap due to the lack of unionization or whether their current means of action are appropriate and sufficient protections against employment risk. To answer this question we will first sketch the working conditions of videogame developers and then describe their individual and collective means of action to face employment challenges. We will then discuss the strengths and failings of these approaches vis a vis unionization and propose potential alternatives that would be a better fit than the traditional Wagnerian model of union representation.
What Makes For Effective Labor Representation On Pension Boards?, Johanna Weststar, Anil Verma
What Makes For Effective Labor Representation On Pension Boards?, Johanna Weststar, Anil Verma
Management and Organizational Studies Publications
This article examines the efficacy of labor representation on pension boards. Using existing literature and interviews with labor trustees, this article develops a model where a more formal approach to recruitment and selection, skill acquisition, and accountability is hypothesized to aid labor trustees in achieving effective integration and representation on pension boards. Data indicate that labor trustees are placed in a challenging environment with insufficient support from their union, other trustees, or the board. These findings have important implications for the selection, training, and integration of labor trustees and the success of a labor agenda on pension issues.