Labor Relations Commons^™

Better Work And Global Governance, Paul Alois

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a case study of Better Work, a program run by the International Labor Organization and the International Finance Corporation. It aims to improve working conditions and productivity in the apparel industry. The purpose of this case study is to examine the role that international organizations can play in global governance. The research presented here comes from interviews, document analysis, and an examination of quantitative data on factories’ working conditions. In-person interviews were conducted in the United States, Switzerland, Vietnam, and Indonesia; many phone interviews took place with individuals in other countries. Both publicly available documents and internal …

Cross-Cultural Understanding, Sajjad Haider

Student Research Symposium

This case-study is about the cross-cultural management and how it affects the employee relations and ultimately impacts their performance, if not handled properly. The case delves into different situations where understanding of the other cultural values, norms, work practices and human behavior is critical for foreign managers to succeed.

The case entails how a foreign FMCG company faced with the difficult and challenging situation in China. In order to fix the problems, the corporate headquarter sent three of their bright personnel; Janet, Peter and William to China. They were tasked to improve the HR, marketing & sales and distributions channels. …

Annapurna’S Porters: Labor Conditions And The Factors That Shape Them, Ari Grant-Sasson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project sought to determine what the labor conditions of porters working in Annapurna are and the factors both immutable and human-influenced that shape them. To do so, I interviewed government bodies, national and regional trekking organizations, unions, agencies, guides and porters to ascertain what issues a broad term such as “labor conditions” encompasses. Participants highlighted the importance of insurance, wages, weight carried, equipment, access to employment, job training and topography as important factors. I will argue that large advocacy organizations shape these issues, and therefore the porter market, at a national level. Discrepancies in employment experiences between porters are …

Aec: Mind The Skilled Labour Gap, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Mobility of qualified professionals between ASEAN countries was meant to lift the region. Despite the signing of MRAs, things are not moving as fast as they could be

Labor Market Integration Of New Immigrants In Spain, Núria Rodríguez-Planas, Natalia Nollenberger

Publications and Research

Immigrants’ employment status has worsened during the Great Recession in Spain.How much of this worsening is due to the recession, and how much to a composition effect? Using Spanish Labor Force Survey data from 2000 through 2011,we compare the employment trajectories of different cohorts of immigrants and natives and find that those who arrived before the 2008 recession had little trouble finding work immediately. In contrast, those who arrived after 2008 struggled to find work as Spanish unemployment rates skyrocketed. In addition, although many immigrants who arrived in Spain between 2000 and 2007 were able to find work and eventually …

Expat Assignments: How To Help Executives Prosper, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

A candidate’s desire to mix with the locals, and good job design is crucial

Can The Aec Address Asean’S Skilled Labour Shortage?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

The answer is “yes” if training and immigration issues are tackled head on

Fair Trade Or Fake Trade? Specialty Coffee Certifications And Development In Uganda, Eliza Cummings

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project examined the relationship between specialty coffee certifications and development. The focus was exploring the local and national implications Fairtrade coffee certifications have in Uganda. Coffee is a critical commodity, accounting for 15 percent of Uganda’s foreign exchange and engaging over one million households in production. Currently, specialty certified coffees including Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, and 4C make up only four percent of total production. However, under Uganda’s 2013 National Coffee Policy, there is a target to expand specialty production to 24 percent. It is therefore imperative to understand how these specialty certifications affect primary producers participating as well as …

Diamonds In The Rough : Corporate Paternalism And African Professionalism On The Mines Of Colonial Angola, 1917–1975, Todd Cleveland

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Diamonds in the Rough explores the lives of African laborers on Angola’s diamond mines from the commencement of operations in 1917 to the colony’s independence from Portugal in 1975. The mines were owned and operated by the Diamond Company of Angola, or Diamang, which enjoyed exclusive mining and labor concessions granted by the colonial government. Through these monopolies, the company became the most profitable enterprise in Portugal’s African empire. After a tumultuous initial period, the company’s mines and mining encampments experienced a remarkable degree of stability, in striking contrast to the labor unrest and ethnic conflicts that flared in other …

Health Facility Guidelines And Management Benchmarks: Improving Workplace Health Services And Health Management In Factories, Farms And Other Workplaces In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, David Wofford, Marat Yu, Lauren Shields, Maria Pontes

Reproductive Health

This document contains a set of voluntary health and management guidelines for corporations and their supply chains to promote continual improvement and application of good practices, better access to men’s and women’s health services, and more effective use of health resources at workplaces in the developing world. It is focused on both quality of health services provided at the workplace and adequacy of company policies and management systems to ensure that workers have access to health services. The main goals of the guidelines are to: 1) help enterprises—multinational companies and their supplier or subsidiary companies in developing countries—improve the management …

National Culture And Leadership Style In A Multicultural Environment: The Luxembourg Case, Petra Garnjost, Stephen M. Brown, Jeanine K. Andreassi

WCBT Faculty Publications

Hofstede’s research on cultural differences and its implication for management style has been reviewed and acknowledged for decades. His findings suggest cultural dimensions have strong impact on expected behavior of supervisors and subordinates. The GLOBE survey identified leadership styles that work in any cultural environment. There is a strong indicator that in addi-tion to cultural specific leadership styles there is also a universal one. The leadership categories identified by GLOBE as universally effective, were very similar to the dimensions of transforma-tional leadership. This paper analyzes nationality as a predictor of Transformational Leadership style with a sample of 250 managers from …

Globalization And Development In Latin America And The Caribbean: A Review, Diego José Romero

e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work

Globalization and Development: A Latin American and Caribbean Perspective (2003) is a study of the process of globalization in the economic, political and cultural spheres, focusing mainly on the economic developments. Understanding the process as being multidimensional in nature, the authors, José Antonio Ocampo and Juan Martin, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Special Advisor to the Executive Secretary respectively[i], analyze globalization as a historic event realized in three well-differentiated phases, which prove, that it is not an irreversible process. The authors define globalization as "the growing influence exerted at …

A Review Of Inhuman Conditions: On Cosmopolitanism And Human Rights, Jessica Browne

e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work

Pheng Cheah's book Inhuman Conditions: On Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights connects globalization and cosmopolitanism to the humanities in an effort to understand the nature of humanity itself. At its core, Cheah's arguments seem to relate to the quote from his book, "Humanity . . . is, after all, an interminable work of collaboration and comparison."[1] He makes his way through various stages of discourse. First, he presents theconcept of new cosmopolitanism as a departure from the cosmopolitanism of Immanuel Kant and Karl Marx. He positions new cosmopolitanism within an intellectual and philosophical paradigm relative to nationalism and cosmopolitanism as "vehicles …

Allowing For Low-Cost Labor In Underdeveloped And Developing Countries As A Method For Initiating Economic Industrialization, Jordon A. Wolfram

Selected Honors Theses

The topic presented here closely examines the link between low-cost labor and the affect that it has on initiating industrialization in underdeveloped and developed countries. It can ultimately create a better standard of living for a country’s general population in the future, but the initial conditions for the laborers can be harsh. The low wage labor force achieves this goal by creating a competitive labor market which has the ability to stimulate economic growth. Once the initial steps of creating manufacturing and industry are achieved, then the general standard of living has robust potential to increase in the country as …

Narrative Identity Within A Workers' Rights Organization, Emily Ann Hallgren

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research includes in-depth interviews and participant observation to examine the construction of narrative identity by the staff members and worker-members of a workers' rights organization in Northwest Arkansas. I seek to understand how the organization negotiates the broader cultural and institutional narrative identities with the personal narrative identities of the worker-members in a cultural context hostile toward undocumented immigrants. Further, I examine how the worker-members themselves both internalize and challenge the organizational, institutional, and cultural narratives about undocumented immigrant workers. Findings reveal that the staff members and the worker-members create different narratives for different purposes, though both are concerned …

Informality And Labor Market Dynamics During Economic Downturns: Evidence From Egypt, Rania Roushdy, May Gadallah

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This working paper investigates the evolution of the Egyptian labor market during the world financial crisis period. There has been a mild decline in unemployment, combined with a slight increase in both labor force participation and employment to population ratio. Some subgroups of workers have been more vulnerable than others during the crisis period. The results of this paper concur with the historical experience, which suggests that young, old, unskilled and female workers are more likely to bear the brunt of an economic downturn.

Italian Militants And Migrants And The Language Of Solidarity In The Early- Twentieth-Century Western Coalfields, Stephen Brier, Ferdinando Fasce

Publications and Research

This article uses the life and experiences of an Italian immigrant and labor militant, Carlo Demolli, to examine a range of issues, including: the intersection of ethnic and national identity and labor militancy and solidarity in the organizing efforts of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) among the ethnically diverse workforce of coal miners in the American West at the turn of the 20th century; the role of a "language of solidarity" as expressed in an Italian language version of the UMW Journal, Il Lavoratore Italiano, in sustaining a militant Italian immigrant workforce in the coal mines; and the …

China And Brazil: Potential Allies Or Just Brics In The Wall?, Anthony Petros Spanakos

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Brazil is an increasingly important actor in global governance and for China specifically. Sino-Brazilian relations have deepened considerably but they remain concentrated in areas of trade and investment. There is also considerable overlap in interests between the two countries in other areas, such as diplomatic and political relations. At the same time, China must manage carefully important differences that exist over the enlargement of the UN and the potential challenge to the Brazilian industry.

Transformational Leadership, Perceived Union Support, And Union Citizenship Behaviors: A Social Exchange And Social Identity Perspective, Nicholas William Twigg Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to empirically assess the relationship between transformational leadership and union citizenship behaviors from a social exchange and social identity perspective. The relationship was studied through a covenantal relationship perspective. Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, and Bachrach (2000) suggested that there were conceptual similarities and differences in the relationships between transformational leadership, perceived organizational support, trust, intrinsic satisfaction, and commitment in an organizational citizenship behavior framework. This dissertation has developed and tested a model that provides a framework to describe the mechanism by which transformational leadership behaviors effect union citizenship behaviors through perceived union support, felt obligation, …

Organizing In The Garment Industry In Mexico: Implications For New Social Movement Theory, Victoria Carty

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

This paper examines attempts to improve workers' rights in the Maquila Industry in Mexico by using two case studies. It analyzes the struggles that recently occurred at the Kukdong and Duro plants. The underlying question of the research is how to balance the co-existence of market economies with effective means to ensure adequate conditions for workers, and most importantly, ensuring their right to freedom of association. Under recent forms of global economic restructuring, the state is often unwilling or unable to uphold workers' rights. To combat the present form of corporate-driven global capitalism, workers in the South, in solidarity with …

Transnational Labor Mobilizing In Two Mexican Maquiladoras: The Struggle For Democratic Globalization, Victoria Carty

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

The struggle to improve workers' rights in Mexican maquiladoras and export processing zones elsewhere in the world is central to the politics of global economic integration. State-centered development is increasingly compromised by supranational institutions and trade agreements. Meanwhile, multinational corporations are relocating at an unprecedented rate to overseas locations. Export processing zones are notorious for poor working conditions and result in a "race to the bottom." The maquila sector in Mexico is a prime example of this phenomenon. This article uses two case studies to examine ways in which grassroots organizing has successfully resisted low wages and poor working conditions …

Enforcing Internationally Recognized Human Rights Violations Under The Alien Tort Claims Act: An Analysis Of The Ninth Circuit’S Decision In Doe V. Unocal Corp., Joshua E. Kastenberg

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "On September 18, 2002, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a United States based corporation can be held civilly liable for “aiding and abetting” the internationally recognized human rights violation of forced labor. This case, Doe v. Unocal Corp.1 (Doe II), is significant for its ramifications to human rights litigation in United States courts as well as to future liability for multinational corporations conducting commerce in foreign states. The uniqueness of this case is found in its precedent. No prior federal court has held a corporation liable for human rights violations under the Alien Tort Claims Act. …

New Social Movements And The Struggle For Worker’S Rights In The Maquila Industry, Victoria Carty

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

"Campaigns to improve worker’s rights in export processing zones (EPZs), also referred to the maquila industry in Latin America, is an important topic analytically and politically. On theoretical and practical levels, the co-existence of market economies with effective means to ensure adequate working conditions for workers is a critical question. Underlying the issue is a vigorous debate regarding how the global economy should be governed; who or what should govern it, and whose interest is should serve (Faux, 2002)."

General Agreement On Tariffs And Trade (Gaff) And The World Trade Organisation (Wto): The Major Provisions And The Implication For Nigeria, O. A. Ogunlana

CBN Occasional Papers

This paper shall review the major provisions of the GATT with respect to the Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods only and the likely implications for Nigeria. The review of the General Agreement on Trade in Services and the Agreement on Trade - Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights shall be covered in another exercise. The rest of the paper is, therefore, organised into five parts. Part I discusses the GATT’s basic principles and the major agreements of the latest multilateral trade negotiations otherwise known as the Uruguay Round. The World Trade Organization, its major functions, structure and the decision-making …

Are Salaries In The National Hockey League Related To Nationality?, William (Bill) H. Williams, David A. Williams

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Employee Representation In Economies In Transition: Discussion, Christopher J. O'Leary

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Cbn Joint Consultative Council: An Experiment That Need Not Fail, R. O. Basorun

Bullion

The article discuses the Central Bank of Nigeria's Joint Consultative Council. The Management of the Central Bank of Nigeria constituted the JCC for purposes of deliberation, consultation and communication with the CBN workers. The article further discusses selected clauses of the senior staff Joint Consultative Council. The article further identified the problems the JCC confronted since it was established three years before then.